ABUSE TRACKER

Bankruptcy proceedings by the Catholic Church on Long Island linked to clergy sexual abuse cases have gone on for nearly three years and piled up $70 million in legal fees.

Now, a federal judge says he may intervene to bring the process to an end — and effectively give clergy abuse survivors their day in court.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn said during a court hearing in Manhattan last week that he may take the highly unusual step of ending the bankruptcy proceedings because the survivors and the Diocese of Rockville Centre can’t reach an agreement.

That would send some 600 cases back to state court for civil trials.

WHAT TO KNOW

• A federal judge says he may end bankruptcy proceedings by the Diocese of Rockville Centre because the Catholic Church and hundreds of survivors of clergy sexual abuse cannot reach a settlement.
• The proceedings have gone on for nearly three years and cost…

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When I transferred from public school to a private Catholic school at the age of 11, I knew next to nothing about religion. I’d previously attended a public school in the Pacific Northwest — my academic experience up to that point had no relation to religion. In Catholic school, I had to learn very quickly what Christianity expected of me. The curriculum taught us that restraint and control were vital to a healthy relationship with God. You had to control yourself, your body and your mind. Otherwise, your soul was at stake. If you did not exercise restraint, you were using your bodily power to act in a way empowering the self, not the Divine.

I have since left the Catholic Church and abandoned everything it taught me. I quickly learned that abuse sees no consequences in religious organizations. Above all else, I saw a stark contrast between what I…

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Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State for the Holy See, refuted the idea that homosexuality is linked to sexual abuse, writing in a new book that blaming the abuse crisis in the church on gay priests is a “serious and scientifically untenable association.”

The Italian prelate, one of the highest ranking officials in the Vatican, also argued:

“‘Homosexual orientation cannot be considered as either cause or aspect typical of the abuser, even more so when it is decoupled from the general arrangement of the person.’”

Parolin defended gay priests in his preface to a new book on sexual abuse in the church, Il dolore della Chiesa di fronte agli abusi (“The Pain of the Church in the Face of Abuse”). The collection includes “contributions from a number of Catholic theologians, psychologists and other experts on clergy sexual abuse,” according to the National Catholic Reporter. 

Sadly, the false association between gay priests and sexual abuse…

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Catholic Bishops in MA Are Still Hiding Names of Accused Priests, Experts Say

AG’s Commitment to Child Safety and Transparency Is at Issue

The Healing of Survivors Depends on AG Holding Bishops Accountable

Treatment Center in the Worcester Diocese Was a Haven for Sex Offenders

WHAT
Holding signs and church abuse documents at a sidewalk news conference in front of the MA Attorney General’s office, experts and survivors of the Catholic abuse crisis will call on AG Andrea Campbell to release her office’s long-delayed report on the sexual abuse of children in the Worcester, Fall River, and Springfield dioceses.

WHEN
Monday, July 17, 2023 at 11:00 am

WHERE
One Ashburton Place, Boston, Massachusetts

WHO
The two leaders of BishopAccountability.org, the Waltham MA–based international archive and watchdog group that has been tracking the Catholic abuse crisis since 2003. They are:

– Terry McKiernan, Founder, President, and Co-Director of BishopAccountability.org

– Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director of BishopAccountability.org

…

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Inquiry ordered following Guardian investigation into retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestation

A high-ranking federal official has ordered an investigation after the Guardian exposed how New Orleans’s Roman Catholic archdiocese went to extreme lengths to conceal a retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestation, is still living and has never been prosecuted.

Yet the investigation recently ordered by federal judge Jane Triche Milazzo is not designed to aid efforts to criminally charge the cleric or hold the church administrators who hid his past accountable. Instead, the inquiry is aimed at determining whether anyone violated broad confidentiality rules governing the New Orleans archdiocese’s pending bankruptcy protection filing and related litigation before the Guardian’s report on 91-year-old Lawrence Hecker was published on 20 June.

Milazzo called for the investigation in question during a telephone conference on 30 June. The conference was alongside attorneys involved in an unresolved lawsuit…

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Historical abuse emerged as a significant social issue over recent decades. However, claimants seeking compensation struggle to hold abusers accountable and receive fair compensation. Courts are reluctant to hold an organisation liable for deliberate, wrongful or criminal acts by its employees. The term for this is vicarious liability.

This meant victims of abuse have had to seek compensation directly from their abuser. However, individual abusers come from a variety of circumstances. In historical abuse matters, there are several problems:

• abusers may be difficult to locate,
• they may die before the complainant reports the matter,
• or the abuser has negligible assets.

To overcome these hurdles, survivors attempt to hold institutions vicariously liable for abuse perpetrated by their staff. This allows plaintiffs to sue institutions for fair compensation, rather than relying on an individual to pay compensation.

What is vicarious liability?

Vicarious liability allows one person or party to be held legally responsible…

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Doe v. Roman Catholic Church of Diocese of Phoenix
Arizona Court of Appeals
June 29, 2023

In Doe v. Roman Catholic Church of Diocese of Phoenix, — Ariz. -, No. 1 CA-CV 22-0143 (June 29, 2023), the Arizona Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the Plaintiff’s direct and vicarious liability claims against St. Mark parish and the Diocese of Phoenix (“Diocese Defendants”), based on sexual abuse committed by a priest that served at the parish.

In dismissing the direct liability claims against the Diocese Defendants, the Court applied the traditional tort rules holding an employer can be independently liable for an employee/agent’s sexual misconduct but only if the employer did something negligent, knowing or having reason to know the employee/agent was a risk of harm to others.  The Court rejected the plaintiff’s claim that the perpetrator’s sexual relationship with another consenting adult, in violation of Roman Catholic Doctrine, put the Diocese Defendants…

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Advocates for survivors of clergy abuse and legal experts are questioning a five-year sentence handed down for a Northshore priest convicted of molesting juveniles.

They argue that individuals convicted of other sexual offenses often receive much harsher penalties.

In a courtroom filled with tension, a victim of former priest Patrick Wattigny’s sexual abuse recounted his decades-long ordeal, only for his attorneys to leave the courtroom feeling frustrated and angry.

“[My client] believes five years is not enough, which is consistent with the other victim, who gave one of the most amazing victim impact statements I’ve ever heard,” said the victim’s attorney, Rick Trahant.

Covington Judge John Keller recently sentenced Father Patrick Wattigny, a longtime Catholic priest, to five years in prison for two counts of molesting juveniles. However, many believe that this sentence falls short of addressing the gravity of the crimes committed.

“It goes on and on…

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Given the emotion and pain around the subject, I fully expected that my letter about excessive Sun coverage of Catholic Church sexual abuse (”Coverage of child abuse has hit overkill level,” July 8) would be interpreted as being not properly sympathetic to victims (”It’s not ‘media overkill’ for survivors to be heard,” July 12). Thus, now is the time to add a postscript that, like too many others, victims of sexual assault and abuse can be amply counted among my family and friends.

I believe them. I support them, and I stand with them. Victims of sexual assault should pursue criminal charges, and they should hold accountable those institutions that neglected them. However, the victim’s right to speak up and to pursue justice is wholly separable from the professional ethics that govern how news is written, specifically the grave responsibility of clearly delineating legally proven truth from assumed…

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The Archdiocese of Seattle announced final settlements for two separate claims related to allegations of sexual abuse by clergy members a few decades ago. 

The claims involved Brother D.P. Ryan who served at O’Dea High School in Seattle in 1986, and Father John Forrester, who was at St. Teresa Catholic School in the early to mid-1970s. 

The settlements totaled $200,000. Both clergymen allegedly involved have since died. 

Both Ryan and Forrester are identified on the archdiocese’s List of Clergy and Religious Brothers and Sisters for Whom Allegations of Sexual Abuse of a Minor Have Been Admitted, Established or Determined to be Credible when the list was originally published in January 2016.

To report any suspicion of abuse by any Church personnel, contact local law enforcement. If anyone has knowledge of misconduct by a member of the clergy, an employee or a volunteer of the Archdiocese of Seattle, call…

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Bolivia’s attorney general’s office announced July 10 that it has now received a complete copy of the diary of deceased Jesuit Alfonso Pedrajas in which the priest discloses he sexually abused at least 85 minors in the course of his ministry.

A few weeks ago, the Bolivian attorney general’s office confirmed that on June 20 it had received a copy of the diary from the Society of Jesus in Bolivia but charged that it contained “gaps in the sequence of pages and sections crossed out and deleted.”

In response to the accusation, the religious order denied having tampered with the contents, arguing that the material it received had arrived in a sealed envelope that came from Rome via courier, sent by the general curia of the Society of Jesus, which in turn had received it from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). The Jesuits turned over…

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An Indianapolis megachurch is defending its pastor, after a local newspaper reported that the pastor’s “troubling patterns of abuse” and lack of financial accountability caused an exodus of members and staff from his former church.

The allegations concern CJ Johnson, pastor of Northview Church, a multi-site megachurch in Indianapolis with a weekly attendance over 8,800. According to The Current, several former staff at Johnson’s previous church, Southland City Church in Minneapolis, Minn., claim Johnson’s misconduct prompted most of Southland’s staff to quit in late 2020, and the church to close.   

Specifically, the former staff accused Johnson “of speaking dishonestly from the pulpit, lacking transparency about church finances and threatening or manipulating those who questioned his ideas or leadership,” Current reported.

The former staff also claimed that Northview Church failed to perform due diligence when hiring Johnson as their new lead pastor.

Northview hired Johnson…

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Grammy Award-winning worship leader Matt Redman has disclosed that he “experienced first-hand” the “harmful behaviours” of Soul Survivor co-founder Mike Pilavachi, who resigned Tuesday from a church near London amid allegations of decades-long abuse.

In a 500-word Facebook post, Redman, known for such worship songs as “Blessed Be Your Name” and “The Heart of Worship,” stated that “over a hundred people have reported being mistreated” by longtime Anglican youth pastor Pilavachi. He added that the allegations against Pilavachi “cover a whole spectrum of harm – physical, psychological, spiritual.” 

“I feel particularly strongly on this issue as I myself experienced first-hand the harmful behaviours that have been described,” wrote Redman. “I have spent years trying to fully heal from my time at Soul Survivor – and, painfully, I now know this to be the case for a lot of other people too.” 

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Father Sibi from Jabalpur diocese was arrested for allegedly trying to convert children in central Madhya Pradesh state

The top court in a central Indian state has granted anticipatory bail to a Catholic priest who was arrested by police for allegedly attempting to convert tribal children.

The Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court granted anticipatory bail to Father Sibi Sebastian, manager of a Jabalpur diocese-run school in the tribal district of Mandla, on July 13.

“It is a great relief for us,” said one of the priests who has been monitoring the case.

The priest, who did not want to be named, told UCA News on July 14 that the case was “fake and an attempt to target Christians and their institutions.”

Yogesh Parashar, a member of the state-run Child Welfare Committee, in a police complaint filed on March 8 alleged the priest was attempting to convert school…

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A former Catholic priest in Louisiana was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to two state criminal charges of juvenile molestation.

Patrick Wattigny, 55, entered the plea in Covington on Wednesday, New Orleans news outlets reported. He was sentenced after a statement was presented in court from a victim describing the lifelong harm the molestation caused.

Wattigny was a priest in St. Tammany Parish when the juveniles were molested. The victim told the court that after he started at a Catholic grade school in the parish in 1996, Wattigny was a father figure and friend. But Wattigny’s behavior grew increasingly inappropriate and he eventually molested the boy.

The victim, now 36, said the abuse affected him throughout his life.

“I struggled greatly with maintaining relationships as I wasn’t sure what was constituted as sin or not. I never knew who I could trust. I…

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California Democratic legislators on Thursday hastily voted an anti-child-trafficking bill through a key committee after significant backlash to their initial scuttling of the measure. 

Legislators on the state Assembly’s Public Safety Committee had earlier this week voted down Senate Bill 14, which would elevate child trafficking to a “serious felony” in the state. The committee is controlled by six Democrats, with two Republicans also sitting on the panel. 

Committee Chair Member Reginald Jones-Sawyer said in a statement earlier this week that the committee was unwilling to “build on a deeply flawed sentencing system that unfairly punishes disadvantaged communities.” 

But the decision to vote the measure down led to bipartisan backlash, with spectators openly criticizing the committee after the vote, Republican politicians slamming the Democratic members for the decision, and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vowing to help get the bill passed. 

On Thursday evening the Public…

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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection has released the 2022 Annual Report – Findings and Recommendations on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

The report is based on the audit findings of StoneBridge Business Partners, a specialty consulting firm headquartered in Rochester, New York, which provides forensic, internal, and compliance audit services to leading organizations nationwide. A survey conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University regarding allegations of abuse of minors is also included as a part of the report. 

This is the twentieth such report since 2002 when the U.S. bishops established and adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a comprehensive framework of procedures to address allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy and establish protocols to protect children and young people.

…

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Many dioceses and eparchies ‘have taken certain measures that go beyond the specific requirements,’ says report

Abuse allegations against Catholic clergy and religious in the U.S. declined last year, but challenges remain regarding protecting vulnerable adults and ensuring online safety, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

On July 14, the USCCB’s Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection released the “2022 Annual Report – Findings and Recommendations on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

USCCB President Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of Military Services said in his preface the report was “a milestone accounting of the continued efforts in the ministry of protection, healing, and accompaniment.”

The document — covering the period July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022 — consists of a progress report from the secretariat; an audit report conducted by the Rochester, New York-based consultants StoneBridge Business Partners; and a…

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The Sauvé report in 2021 estimated 330,000 cases of sexual abuse in the French Church since 1950.

Almost three-quarters of France’s active bishops have attended special Vatican sessions on recognising and reporting sexual abuse of minors, prompted by the shocking 2021 report on abuse in the French Church.

The bishops travelled to Rome in three groups – in February, May and July — for two days of discussions with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Bishops on their responsibility when confronted with clerical abuse of minors.

This apparently the first time that so large a proportion of a country’s hierarchy has received this instruction.

The Vatican has strict policies on abuse but has struggled to enforce them, with bishops in many countries unsure what to do when confronted with such cases.

The training was suggested by a working group led by retired judge Jean-Marc Sauvé,…

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A survivor of the Baltimore Catholic Church sex ring has spoken out about the similarities between her abuse and that of another alleged victim whose family is now suing the archdiocese.

Francis X Gallagher Jr. came forward as a sex abuse victim in his adulthood after he was allegedly molested by a clergy member when he was a boy.

When Gallagher pushed to have his alleged abuser’s name on its list of priests and seminarians credibly accused of abuse, he was threatened by the archdiocese, a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Baltimore in late June has claimed.

The wrongful death suit was filed by Gallagher’s children, Flannery and Liam.

It claims Gallagher’s alleged abuse and the mishandling of his allegations drove the 62-year-old to die from a fatal overdose in August 2022.

A cause of death was not available at the time his obituary was released, the  View Cache

The Diocese of Mallorca in Spain has sentenced Father Julià Cifre Vandrell to three years of not celebrating Mass “in any place other than at his home” and to leading “a secluded life of retirement, prayer, and penance.”

The priest was also ordered to “write a letter to the victim apologizing for all the pain he has caused” and refrain for life “from coming into contact with the victim or her relatives.”

The penalty was imposed “once the criminal administrative canonical procedure against the priest was completed,” according to a statement from the diocese.

The decree stresses “the extraordinary gravity of the behavior that he has acknowledged having maintained for years.”

The victim, who was also reportedly abused by her father in childhood, suffers from a mental disorder. In 2021, she reported to the diocese that she had been abused by three priests over 36 years.

Cifre is a diocesan…

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Named as defendant in seven lawsuits filed since September 2021 with four of them in last three months

A Vancouver law firm has targeted the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George with four lawsuits over the past three months on behalf of clients alleging they were the victims of physical and sexual abuse while attending churches or schools under its jurisdiction.

Christopher McDougall of Preszler Injury Lawyers filed notices of claim in which the diocese is named as a defendant on April 19, June 27, July 7 and July 10, all at the B.C. Supreme Court’s Vancouver registry.

Details of the allegations claimed in the notices vary but all the allegations date back to the late 1960s and early 1970s when the plaintiffs were youths variously attending schools or churches in Prince George, Vanderhoof, Fort St. John and Kelly Lake, just east of Tumbler Ridge. Priests, nuns…

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Cardinal-designate Víctor Manuel Fernández, the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, “worked quickly” to “interfere in the judicial investigation” into abuse allegations against Father Eduardo Lorenzo, the attorney for Lorenzo’s alleged victims charged.

The Associated Press reported on attorney Juan Pablo Gallego’s remarks about the canonical investigation in a Spanish-language article. The attorney’s remarks did not appear in the AP’s companion English-language article.

Gallego asserted that “the Interdiocesan Ecclesiastical Tribunal of La Plata under the mandate of Fernández provided elements that sought to protect” Father Lorenzo, according to the AP’s paraphrase of his remarks.

Archbishop Fernández recently admitted mistakes in handling the allegations, telling the Associated Press on July 9 that he “did not act in the best way”—even as he offered excuses for his decisions.

In July 2019, Archbishop Fernández learned of two new abuse allegations against Father Lorenzo, a parish priest and prison chaplain who had…

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[Via Detroit Catholic]

Shortly after the announcement of new cardinals by Pope Francis July 9 during the Angelus prayer in the Vatican, the Polish internet was flooded by pictures of the lynx with a red cardinal’s hat. It’s because the last name of the newly named cardinal, Polish Archbishop Grzegorz Rys of Lódz, means precisely that — “lynx.”

“The new cardinal would be the last one offended by sending him such a meme,” Pauline Father Michal Legan told OSV News. Cardinal-designate Rys is known in his native Poland not only for the dozens of books he has written but also for a “human approach” in the church and a “keen sense of humor,” Father Legan said.

Asked about the moment he learned he was named a cardinal, the Polish prelate said that “it was quite a shocking experience,” like “lightning.”

In a YouTube video posted July 10 by the Archdiocese…

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[This is a significantly different version of an article blogged in Abuse Tracker yesterday.]

The Bishop of Victoria and the Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada have been named as defendants.

A B.C. man is alleging he was sexually abused in Victoria by an unnamed priest under the supervision of Canadian Catholic military officials and the Diocese of Victoria.

The allegations come in Kevin Shawn Palmer’s July 7 notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver. It names as defendants the Bishop of Victoria and the Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada.

The claim said the bishop was responsible for governance of Chapel Our Lady Star of the Sea premises and who had access to children there.

The claim said the ordinariate was responsible for governance of the chapel and who had access to children there.

The claim cites a John Doe as allegedly preying on Palmer…

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I am so glad to see the great job The Baltimore Sun is doing investigating the Catholic Church abuse scandal (”Coverage of child abuse has hit overkill level,” July 8). The Catholic Church still refuses to have full transparency and release the redacted parts of the investigation, instead constantly hiding behind false assertions that Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown won’t allow it (even as AG Brown has stated on many occasions that church leaders can come clean anytime the mood strikes them).

You are shining a light on the cases and abusers that the church hoped would go away. This is not “overkill,” as some letter writers claim. It is exposing the uncomfortable and horrible truth of abuse and cover up that continues to this day. Bravo for such fine journalism in righting a decades old wrong that the church refuses to do.

— Dave Henderson, Parkville

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Child abuse survivors say they’ve been led on for years by Pennsylvania’s top officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro. But advocates still hope stalled efforts will move forward.

In the nearly five years since a bombshell grand jury report found thousands of children were sexually abused at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania, more than 20 states have passed legislation making it easier for victims to pursue civil action against their abusers and the institutions that protected them.

In Pennsylvania, however, efforts to create a two-year window for victims to file civil lawsuits based on decades-old allegations have repeatedly failed.

“How embarrassing is this building,” said Rep. Mark Rozzi (D., Berks), a childhood clergy abuse survivor, from his Capitol office last month. “We can’t even pass a bill that would give victims their day in court and expose perpetrators who are out there raping children.”

…

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Patrick Wattigny, former high school chaplain who resigned in 2020, pleads guilty to molesting two minors at school

The former chaplain of a Roman Catholic high school in Louisiana has pleaded guilty to molesting two minors whom he met through his work and was ordered to spend five years in prison.

Patrick Wattigny’s plea and sentence on Wednesday came after both of his victims strongly advocated for a harsher punishment. One victim, who was present, described how Wattigny spent time grooming him in the mid-1990s. The victim said Wattigny told him he could help him gain entry to heaven, then took him to a rectory to fondle his genitals. Wattigny also used his fingers to rape the victim while masturbating.

“You sir are not God,” that victim said. “You never were. You never will be.”

In a written statement released to reporters after the guilty plea, the other victim called the sentence given…

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A 39-year-old Kenyan priest was arrested on Tuesday afternoon, July 11,  by Jamaican police officers who accused him of four criminal counts.

The priest, a parishioner at the Roman Catholic Church in Portmore, St Catherine, faced defilement charges in the report first published by Jamaica Gleaner. 

According to Jamaican authorities, the charges were filed against the priest after a complainant positively identified him during an identification parade. 

His identity was also confirmed during a question-and-answer interview with his attorney, the police added.

The police revealed that the alleged offences were committed on the afternoon of Sunday, March 19, 2023, but were reported to authorities on June 23, 2023.

Victims who spoke with the police further accused the deacons of kidnapping them. It was yet to be established whether the priest was arraigned or had taken plea in the case. 

While withholding the name of the priest to respect his privacy, the police…

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Vancouver archbishop responsible for the governance of Hope Catholic Church and priest, lawsuit says.

A B.C. man alleges a Roman Catholic priest gained his trust and that of his family to sexually assault him while growing up in Hope.

In a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court July 6, Harold Lock names the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver as the defendant, naming his alleged abuser only as Father Guymand.

The claim said the archbishop of Vancouver as a religious institution was at all material times responsible for the governance of Hope Catholic Church.

Court documents allege starting in or about 1954-1956, Guymand used his position of power granted by the defendant to prey upon and sexually assault the plaintiff.

“In order to facilitate abuses, the perpetrator engaged in a pattern of behaviour which was intended to make the plaintiff feel that it was unsafe to report the…

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No one is less deserving of a saintly title than the Rev. David Holley, who from the grave remains a terrifying figure.

Holley was one of the country’s most notorious Catholic priests, a pedophile who left a trail of shattered lives from Massachusetts to Texas to New Mexico.

A scene in the 2015 Academy Award-winning movie Spotlight centers on one of Holley’s countless crimes. Rape survivor Phil Saviano meets with investigative reporters of the Boston Globe and recounts Holley’s time in the Diocese of Worcester, Mass.

“I was 11, and I was preyed upon by Father David Holley,” says the actor who portrayed Saviano. “And I don’t mean prayed for. I mean preyed upon.”

What the movie didn’t mention was the Diocese of Worcester shipped Holley to Servants of the Paraclete, a Catholic order that provided “treatment” in New Mexico for pedophiles and addicts.

Holley arrived in 1971. Soon he was updating the church…

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I’ve noted before that theoretical physics and conspiracy theories have at least one thing in common, which is that in both arenas the ultimate prize goes to the so-called “Theory of Everything,” meaning the identification of a single framework that ties together all aspects of the universe.

In Italy this past week, a new twist emerged in the quest for a “Theory of Everything” behind two of the country’s most notorious sources of conspiracy theories: The “Vatican girl” case and the assassination of Prime Minister Aldo Moro, both of which remain open scars decades after the facts.

The purported new link between the two cases runs through a third: The 1984 strangulation of a teenage girl in Rome named Katy Skerl, whose fate has often been linked to that of the “Vatican girl,” Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a minor employee in the Prefecture of the Papal Household when…

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 In response to suggestions in the Italian media that sexual advances by an uncle might be at the root of the infamous “Vatican Girl” mystery, the family of Emanuela Orlandi shot back angrily in a Monday news conference, charging that the Vatican is trying to duck its own responsibility in the case.

“It’s a disgrace,” said Pietro Orlandi, the brother of Emanuela, who’s dedicated his life to the search for the truth about his sister. “The Vatican wants to offload responsibility on my family.”

The 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, who was 15 at the time and the daughter of a minor employee of the Prefecture of the Papal Household, has become a national obsession in Italy. Over the 40 years she’s been missing, her fate has generated speculation and conspiracy theories of every sort, much of it focusing on alleged Vatican involvement and cover-ups.

Momentum generated in part by…

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Payton (Frye) Jones remembers being in the dorm room of her friend, Zachary Jacquith, and Jacquith getting “touchy feely” with her on the night of February 22, 2019.

“That’s the last thing I remember,” Jones wrote in a statement included in a police report filed with the Kirkland Police Department in Kirkland, Wash. “The next morning, I woke up in my car with his comforter on top of me and my pants unbuttoned. I was so confused on how I got there. I also felt so ‘drunk’ and messed up.”

Over the next few days, Jones became convinced there was a drug in the drink Jacquith had given her the night before, her statement said. Jones added that she “only remembered drinking one small cup of whatever (Jacquith) made for me”—not enough alcohol to make her black out.

Jones also became convinced that Jacquith, a former intern at the West…

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A Pensacola man and his mother recently came forward with claims that longtime Pensacola priest, Monsignor James Flaherty, molested him when he was a boy, more than a decade ago. Even though the statute of limitations has passed for possible criminal charges, they reported it to law enforcement anyway.

“Considering the statutes have already passed, he’s not going to prison,” the Pensacola man explained. “I just hope that with my police report and hopefully this article some more people will come forward and maybe a kid who’s experiencing this now will be able to come forward to put the (expletive) behind bars.”

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is looking into the complaint, but deputies aren’t commenting yet on the newly opened investigation. However, they say it is important for victims to report crimes, no matter how much time has passed.

Priest accused of abuse:Mother, son allege prominent…

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Shapiro can get justice for Pa. survivors of child sex abuse. Here’s how.

Five years ago this month, a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a scathing report detailing decades of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and a cover-up by the church hierarchy. The grand jury included several recommendations for reform of the criminal and civil justice systems, including the creation of a two-year window allowing adults to sue for damages for abuse that occurred when they were minors and the statute of limitations has passed.

This year, on May 22, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a proposed constitutional amendment to establish the two-year window. The state Senate had already passed the constitutional change in January. Both chambers of the General Assembly also voted in favor of the civil justice window during the prior session of 2021-2022.

The next step in the amendment process…

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• Summary
• Law Firms

• Rockville Centre diocese seeks to resolve 600 sexual abuse claims in bankruptcy
• Talks broke down over how much parishes should pay in settlement

July 11 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge said Tuesday that he would consider dismissing the bankruptcy of a New York Roman Catholic diocese if the church cannot build more support among sexual abuse victims who have sued the church and its parishes.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn said during a court hearing in Manhattan that he was not eager to be the first judge to kick a Catholic diocese out of bankruptcy. But if the Diocese of Rockville Centre cannot make progress toward a comprehensive settlement of sexual abuse claims, it would be unfair to prevent abuse survivors from resuming their lawsuits in other courts, Glenn said.

“The survivors deserve an opportunity to be heard by a jury of their peers,” Glenn said. “They’ve been held…

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A former South Carolina youth pastor Daniel Kellan Mayfield, 35, has been charged with voyeurism after he set up secret cameras to spy on bridal parties getting dressed, according to a report. He has since been fired.

Mayfield is accused of setting up cameras at the Gowensville First Baptist Church and recording a bride and her party using changing rooms, Fox Carolina reported.

Mayfield was already facing other charges, including one that followed an arrest in May in which police were called to a woman’s home after she spotted someone outside her bathroom window. When she went outside, the woman said he saw Mayfield standing in her backyard.

The filing says Mayfield admitted to recording the woman. According to Fox Carolina, he handed over the video and allowed the woman to view it.

The woman also showed police security video of…

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An allegation of abuse has been levied against a retired priest in the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. According to a news report- Around 2011, the family of a Pensacola middle-school student, who was struggling with bullying, moved the boy to a new school hoping the change would help.

The boy’s mother enrolled him at St. John the Evangelist, a private Catholic school in Pensacola. She shared with the pastor there, then prominent Pensacola priest Monsignor James Flaherty, how much her son had suffered and how he needed support.

It can take survivors a long time to come forward and report abuse, and we believe this claim should be taken seriously and investigated fully. We stand in applause for the brave victim and his family for stepping forward. We want them to know we believe in them and support them in any way possible.

The details…

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There is one place – one and only one place – to consistently get accurate and detailed information and perspective on the continuing clergy abuse and cover up crisis both here and across the globe.

It’s BishopAccountability.org

And this month, it celebrates 20 years of outstanding work in this crucial arena.

It’s been my honor, privilege, and joy to know and work with this small but amazing handful of paid (poorly paid to be honest) staffers and dedicated volunteers. Their hard, accurate and thorough work over these two decades has been instrumental in helping all of us in SNAP, literally every day, as we protect kids, comfort victims, expose secrets and deter cover ups.

The BA.org team has also been extraordinarily helpful to journalists, police, prosecutors, legislators, Catholics, researchers, authors, attorneys general and of course survivors and their loved ones.

They often also disclose and denounce disturbing developments in…

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Ordenado en 1994. En 2019 los padres de una menor presentaron una denuncia penal en la que acusaban a Herrera de agredir sexualmente a su hija entre 2011 y abril de 2019.  Herrera fue detenido el 29 de junio de 2020 en Morelia, Michoacán, por orden de la Fiscalía General del estado de Michoacán (FGE) en colaboración con la Procuraduría de Guanajuato. Fue acusado de violación en agravio de una menor. No fue hasta después de conocerse la noticia de la detención de Herrera que el obispo de la diócesis de Irapuato, Enrique Díaz Díaz, admitió públicamente haber tenido conocimiento de las acusaciones. El obispo emitió un comunicado en el que expresó que había tenido conocimiento de las acusaciones desde febrero de 2020, momento en el que separó a Herrera de su cargo parroquial en San Felipe de Jesús, Morelia, y lo denunció ante…

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“One June day in 2021, priests of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville convened in a Gatlinburg, Tennessee, hotel conference room. One of them, perceiving tension in the room, raised his hand.

“I’ve been on vacation for two weeks,” the priest said.

“You’re a lucky man,” responded the bishop of Knoxville, Richard Stika.

“Can you explain to me,” the priest asked, “what in the world is going on here?”

The room erupted in laughter. Stika took a go.

An activist had created a story that got bounced around the diocese, Stika said. Somebody, unhappy with the bishop’s leadership, he said, had anonymously fed false information to a news website.

Friendships were questioned, Stika said, and reputations unjustly tarnished.

This was not exactly an objective account of the tumult of the previous weeks, a controversy that stemmed from the bishop’s intervention in the investigation of a favored seminarian who’d been accused…

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A study of adults who were mistreated in childhood found that those who did not recall it showed fewer psychological aftereffects.

For generations, our society has vacillated about how best to heal people who experienced terrible things in childhood.

Should these memories be unearthed, allowing their destructive power to dissipate? Should they be gently molded into something less painful? Or should they be left untouched?

Researchers from King’s College London and the City University of New York examined this conundrum by conducting an unusual experiment.

Researchers interviewed a group of 1,196 American adults repeatedly over 15 years about their levels of anxiety and depression. Unbeknown to the subjects, 665 of them had been selected because court records showed they had suffered mistreatment such as physical abuse, sexual abuse or neglect before age 12.

Not all of them told researchers that they had been abused, though — and that was linked…

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Cardinal-designate Víctor Manuel Fernández, the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the Associated Press on July 9 that he “did not act in the best way” in addressing abuse allegations against a diocesan priest in 2019—even as the prelate sought to offer excuses for his decisions.

In July 2019, Archbishop Fernández learned of two new abuse allegations against Father Eduardo Lorenzo, a parish priest and prison chaplain who had been previously investigated for an abuse allegation. Archbishop Fernández permitted Father Lorenzo to remain as pastor of his parish until November 2019, when the priest took a leave of absence, according to a timeline of the case published by BishopAccountability.org, which hosts the largest public collection of information on the clergy abuse crisis. In December 2019, Father Lorenzo committed suicide.

“With everything I say it is clear that I did not act in the best way,” Archbishop Fernández…

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The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston has confirmed that a priest was detained by the police on July 5 following an allegation of sexual abuse.

It says it will be cooperating fully with the relevant authorities on the matter.

“Acknowledging the implications and seriousness of this case, the Archbishop immediately removed the priest from all active pastoral ministry in the diocese,” it said in a media release on Monday evening.

The Archdiocese of Kingston also said it “wishes to express publicly its deep concern for all parties involved in this reported incident.”

It’s understood that the priest is accused of committing several sexual offences against a 12-year-old girl in Portmore, St Catherine.

The police are reportedly expected to charge him later this week.

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[In the Patheos blog Mudblood Catholic]

The Image of Gog

The Vatican reached a new low the other day. (Well, a new low to my knowledge.) I speak of a recent pronouncement made on the subject of Slovenian priest Fr. Marko Rupnik. You may have heard of him. In addition to being a Jesuit priest and author of several books, he is also a liturgical artist of considerable repute, whose mosaics grace the shrines of Our Lady at Fátima and Lourdes as well as the Apostolic Palace in Rome, and a psychological abuser and rapist. Wait, sorry, that was careless of me: Fr. Rupnik is a former Jesuit; he was expelled from the Society of Jesus for disobedience about a month ago.

If that seems like a weird way to arrange and emphasize that information, I’m going to guess that you’re not on the Dicastery for Communication; maybe check and see if they have…

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After months of doubt, it is now all but certain that the vast majority of Maine’s local news outlets will live to see another day.

The nonprofit National Trust for Local News has entered into a purchase agreement to take over the lion’s share of Maine’s media ecosystem in a sweeping deal covering five daily newspapers and 17 weeklies.

The deal is expected to close later this month, according to Reade Brower, the current owner of the Masthead Maine media group, and Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, the CEO of the National Trust for Local News.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The news was first reported by the Portland Press Herald, one of the daily newspapers that will be included in the sale. The deal also involves the Lewiston Sun Journal, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, the Morning Sentinel in Waterville, and the Times Record in…

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In Ryan’s freshman year at Creighton Preparatory School, an all-boys Jesuit high school in Omaha, Nebraska, he was called into private confession with Fr. Daniel Kenney, beloved throughout Omaha as “the Monkey Priest.” Kenney told him to lock the door and show him his penis, just so he could tell Ryan whether he was developing “adequately.” 

That is as much of the story as Ryan ever told his friends, but there was more. Kenney moved from grooming behaviors to stalking. Misusing his access to Ryan’s class schedule, Kenney would lurk in classrooms, club meetings and student social spaces, Ryan said. Although Ryan felt it was bizarre and inappropriate, it never occurred to him to classify this as abuse. 

On the last day of school, when Ryan refused to be harangued into confession again, Kenney snapped. He attempted to forcibly impose absolution on Ryan…

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An Argentine bishop tapped by Pope Francis this month to lead one of the Vatican‘s most powerful departments admitted to making mistakes in responding to accusations that a priest in his diocese had sexually abused children.

Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, the archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, told the Associated Press that he would have handled the case of Eduardo Lorenzo very differently today than he did in 2019. Lorenzo was accused of sexual abuse by several children and was found dead of an apparent suicide after an Argentine judge ordered his arrest in December 2019. Critics have accused Fernandez of not believing the allegations against Lorenzo.

“Today I would certainly act very differently and certainly my performance was insufficient,” Fernandez told the outlet about his handling of the accusations against Lorenzo.

Fernandez’s handling of the case has drawn renewed scrutiny since…

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In explaining the decision of the Archdiocese of Baltimore to add 42 names to the list of persons accused of sexual abuse, a spokesperson for the archdiocese stated that the decision builds on the commitment to “transparency, healing and to ridding the Church of the scourge of sexual abuse” (”Baltimore’s Catholic archdiocese adds 42 names to list of staff credibly accused of sexual abuse,” June 30).

Words alone will not rid the Catholic Church of the scourge of sexual abuse. Childhood sexual abuse often ruins lives well into adulthood. In response to this fact the Maryland General Assembly enacted and Gov. Wes Moore signed the Child Victims Act of 2023, waiving the statute of limitations which for many years had prevented abuse cases from being heard in court. The act passed the General Assembly with overwhelming votes (45-2 in the Senate and 132-2 in the House of…

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Former Catholic Diocese of Knoxville Staff members, Marcy Meldahl and Dave Wells, joined Hallerin to discuss Bishop Stika’s tenure and resignation.

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[A slightly more expansive version of the Associated Press article blogged yesterday in Abuse Tracker.]

El arzobispo argentino Víctor Manuel Fernández, elegido por el papa Francisco para dirigir una poderosa oficina del Vaticano, admitió el domingo que cometió errores en la forma en que manejó en 2019 el caso de un sacerdote denunciado por abusos sexuales a menores, lo que todavía le acarrea críticas por supuestamente haber protegido al clérigo.

“Hoy ciertamente yo actuaría muy distinto y ciertamente mi actuación fue insuficiente… Lo tengo absolutamente claro; hoy tengo más experiencia y tengo otros procedimientos”, dijo Fernández a The Associated Press durante una entrevista realizada luego de celebrar una misa en la ciudad de La Plata, a unos 70 kilómetros al sur de Buenos Aires.

El papa Francisco nombró el 1 de julio a Fernández para dirigir a partir de septiembre el Dicasterio de la Santa Sede para la Doctrina de…

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Around 2011, the family of a Pensacola middle-school student, who was struggling with bullying, moved the boy to a new school hoping the change would help.

The boy’s mother enrolled him at St. John the Evangelist, a private Catholic school in Pensacola. She shared with the pastor there, then prominent Pensacola priest Monsignor James Flaherty, how much her son had suffered and how he needed support.

“He grew up attending other Catholic schools and was just horrifically bullied,” the boy’s mother told the News Journal. “I brought him to St. John and thought I was ‘saving his life,’ only to find out I had shared the bullying he went through, and I think that put a target on him from the beginning.”

Twelve years later, the family is ready to talk, and to share their allegations against the man they thought was their protector with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

…

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• Exclusive: Father Reginald Dunkling, 63, was seen as an idol by 17-year-old
• But the Roman Catholic priest betrayed him and escape justice for over 30 years 

A priest who escaped justice for three decades is facing jail after being convicted of abusing a theatre star, 17, who idolised him during a sleepover in his presbytery.

Father Reginald Dunkling, 63, struck after inviting the teenager to stay overnight at Our Lady of Muswell in north London in the early nineties.

Dunkling – known as Father Reg – was so trusted he had already been allowed to take the boy to Tenerife with another male friend.

But Wood Green Crown Court was told this week that sometime between April 1992 and April 1993 he indecently assaulted him.

During a sleepover after taking him to a concert in Wembley, Dunkling lay on the bedroom floor in his home and forced his hand under his covers, molesting the…

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Dioceses faced with abuse allegations are declaring bankruptcy

When Joey Piscitelli was 14, he was sent to Silesian High School in Richmond, California. A self-described “runt”, he weighed 70 pounds and looked about 10. “I think that’s why I was picked,” he told me. He was befriended by the school’s vice principal, Father Stephen Wheelan, before being subjected to years of abuse. It began with priests masturbating in front of him and ended in violent rape. He is aware of at least four other victims of the paedophile ring at his school who have since committed suicide.

Piscitelli is now an advocate for other victims, having won $600,000 in compensation from a 2006 jury trial against the Diocese of Oakland — which last month declared bankruptcy, after receiving more than 330 legal claims of sexual abuse. It’s part of a growing trend in the Catholic Church of the United States, which…

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LA PLATA, Argentina (AP) — Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández, chosen by Pope Francis to head the Vatican office that ensures doctrinal orthodoxy, conceded Sunday he made mistakes in handling a 2019 case of a priest accused of sexual abuse of minors.

The case has drawn allegations by critics that Fernández tried to protect the priest, a charge that he has denied.

“Today I would certainly act very differently and certainly my performance was insufficient,” he told The Associated Press during an interview after celebrating Mass in La Plata, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) south of Buenos Aires.

Pope Francis appointed Fernández on July 1 to head the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which guarantees doctrinal orthodoxy and one of whose areas involves handling sexual abuse allegations brought against clergy. He was also named a cardinal Sunday…

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[Please note: Since published in early July 2023, this timeline has been updated and lightly revised. To see the updated version, click here.]

On July 1, 2023, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has chosen Archbishop Victor Fernández, the head of the Argentine archdiocese of La Plata since 2018, to lead the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). As DDF prefect, Fernández will have authority over the office that processes allegations of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy worldwide.

The archbishop’s own handling of clergy sex abuse allegations is therefore highly relevant. The best known case during his five-year tenure in La Plata was against an influential priest named Eduardo Lorenzo.

We present the following timeline as a resource for those seeking a factual understanding of the archbishop’s handling of those allegations. See also our statement of 7/1/2023: Pope chooses archbishop with troubling record on abuse…

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Dioceses faced with abuse allegations are declaring bankruptcy

When Joey Piscitelli was 14, he was sent to Silesian High School in Richmond, California. A self-described “runt”, he weighed 70 pounds and looked about 10. “I think that’s why I was picked,” he told me. He was befriended by the school’s vice principal, Father Stephen Wheelan, before being subjected to years of abuse. It began with priests masturbating in front of him and ended in violent rape. He is aware of at least four other victims of the paedophile ring at his school who have since committed suicide.

Piscitelli is now an advocate for other victims, having won $600,000 in compensation from a 2006 jury trial against the Diocese of Oakland — which last month declared bankruptcy, after receiving more than 330 legal claims of sexual abuse. It’s part of a growing trend in the Catholic Church of the United States,…

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• Establishment of the Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB) had ‘gone wrong’
• ISB was intended to hold the church to account following a series of scandals 

The Archbishop of York last night admitted the Church of England had failed in its attempt to set up a clergy abuse watchdog.

The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell said the establishment of the Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB), intended to hold the church to account following a series of scandals, had ‘gone wrong’.

And he revealed the church has had to refer the debacle to the Charity Commission. It came after the church sacked the three members of the ISB following claims it had tried to obstruct their work, including refusing to share data with them.

The archbishop told a meeting of its governing body, the General Synod, yesterday: ‘We can no longer think that we can deliver these things ourselves. 

‘Not only do we need independent oversight…

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The founder of Peru’s Pro-Family Pro-Life Movement has been accused of systematically abusing his daughter. She gave birth in 2003, when she was only 13-years-old

Since 1989 – when he founded the Pro-Family and Pro-Life Movement, at the young age of 22 – José Linares Cerón has claimed to lead an exemplary life. This evangelical pastor – a self-proclaimed defender of children – used to look forward to Peruvian Family Day, which is celebrated every second Sunday in September, to give advice on how to guide children with love and wisdom. “The child begins to understand who they are through the relationship with their parents,” he said.

Recently, one of his daughters – now 33-years-old – denounced what she had kept silent for years: that Linares Cerón systematically raped her and, as a result of that abuse, she gave birth at the age of 13, back in 2003.

“I…

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It was hard to breathe in southern New England this past weekend – again – after smoke from the ongoing wildfires in northern Quebec wended their way to us here. There are fires burning all across Canada this summer, in fact, making this already the worst season for them on record.

Early in June, when the smoke first blew down from the great north, it got so bad that one couldn’t see the waters of the Hudson from the George Washington Bridge, let alone New York or Fort Lee in New Jersey on either side of the span.

I heard on the radio as I waited with my family to get out of the municipal beach parking lot on Saturday night after the local fireworks display that the air quality in our neck of the woods was worse than in New York this time. There’s been lots of talk about…

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The one-hundred Catholic bishops forced to resign, a measure of how hard is for the victims to get justice from the Catholic Church. English Edition One hint of sexual abuse are the “early” resignations of Catholic bishops, since a Dutch serving in Zambia did it in 1958.

Religion and public life: Lack of official information regarding the resignation of Catholic bishops feeds a perverse “guessing game” eroding the trust in the Church.

Countries with better performing systems of justice and more independent media, such as Canada, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and France provide a better context for victims to achieve a measure of relief, a measure of justice.

It has been a long process. Major changes in key principles of civil law have happened in such countries. We have witnessed the reports coming from Grand Juries in Pennsylvania and reports from the General Attorney…

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Since April 4, The Baltimore Sun has continued its hyper-focus on Catholic Church abuses in the Archdiocese of Baltimore (”Gallagher family lawsuit against Baltimore archdiocese aims to shift burden from abuse onto Catholic Church,” July 5). The Sun clearly doesn’t know many active Roman Catholics. If it did, it would know that their own disgust with the abuses has driven many to the point of leaving the church entirely.

The Sun would know that the scandal has made Catholic youth retreats or children’s gospel readings ancient history virtually overnight. The Sun would know about priest shortages, shrinking congregations and church closures. Worst of all, The Sun would know about the gathering schism in the church — that arch-conservative Catholics (and certainly non-Catholic evangelical Christians) are using the child abuses to bolster their more generalized homophobia and taking it straight to the voting booth.

Let us not be…

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Pope Francis on July 9 named 21 new cardinals, including the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre; American-born Archbishop Robert Prevost, who oversees the appointments of Catholic bishops worldwide; and the new head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández. 

The pope made the announcement at the end of his weekly Sunday Angelus prayer from a window in the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square. Francis said he would install the new cardinals during a consistory at the Vatican on Sept. 30, saying these new cardinals represent the universality of the global church and the “inseparable link” between the pope and dioceses around the world. 

Of the 21 new cardinals, 18 are under the age of 80 and would be eligible to vote in a papal conclave. As of Sept. 30, with the new additions, the total number of eligible cardinal electors will be 137.

Among…

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El caso tiene dos denuncias en la Arquidiócesis de Medellín y una en Fiscalía, pero el sacerdote continuaría oficiando misas y confesando personas.

Después de casi 20 años y tras la poca gestión, que según denuncia ha recibido su caso por parte de las autoridades, Natalia Restrepo decidió hacer una denuncia pública de su caso de abuso sexual por parte de un sacerdote reconocido en Envigado, al que la mujer habría denunciado tanto en la Arquidiócesis de Medellín como en la Fiscalía.

Sin embargo, según su relato, el caso no ha avanzado, debido a la cantidad de años que han pasado desde que ocurrieron los hechos. Ella quiso hacer ahora una denuncia pública para contar su historia.

Los hechos sucedieron, según lo que ha narrado, en el 2004, cuando ella vivía en Envigado y asistía, junto a su abuela, a la iglesia Santa Gertrudis, la principal de este municipio de Antioquia.

Natalia contó su testimonio…

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Natalia Restrepo denunció haber sido víctima de abuso sexual por parte de un sacerdote, cuando ella era monaguilla y menor de edad en Envigado. BBC Mundo cuenta su historia

Me llamo Natalia, tengo 32 años y acabo de emprender el viaje más importante de mi vida.

Volví a Medellín con mi pequeña hija, dos maletas y el firme propósito de romper mi silencio, de denunciar, de nuevo y por todos los medios posibles, al sacerdote que me violó y me obligó a abortar en 2004, cuando yo tenía 14 años.

Este es un viaje a mi pasado, a la historia más dolorosa que he vivido y que ni siquiera mi familia conoce a profundidad.

_____________________________________________________________________________

El 25 de agosto de 2022 estalló el mayor escándalo de abuso sexual a menores de edad en la Iglesia católica que haya golpeado a Medellín, y uno de los más recientes que se ha…

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Child consultation centers identified 65 cases of child abuse related to religious faith from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2022, a recent survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun has discovered.

Problems regarding the children of religious followers, or shukyo nisei (second-generation followers), surfaced following the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July last year. The cases identified by child consultation centers may only be the tip of the iceberg — there has been at least one private-sector survey in which about 1,000 people said they were forced to engage in religious activities during childhood.

One expert stressed the need to build a framework to help people around such children be aware when something unusual is happening.

The Yomiuri Shimbun conducted the survey in May and June on 78 local governments that have child consultation centers, including those of prefectures, ordinance-designated cities and special areas. It tallied the reports and…

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The U.S. District Court for New Mexico has set a September trial date for a former Santa Fe priest facing federal charges of sex abuse of a minor. 

Daniel Balizan was a pastor at Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Community in Santa Fe for a decade before he was removed by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 2022. He is accused of enticement of a minor with the intent to engage in sexual activity during a relationship prosecutors say he had with a 15-year-old boy in 2012, according to a previous report in The New Mexican. 

The federal court in Albuquerque issued a notice Tuesday setting a Sept. 11 trial date in the case.

Balizan was arrested June 29 in Springer. He will be allowed to await trial at his home there on house arrest with electronic monitoring, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura Fashing ruled Monday.

Balizan, who has…

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Man claims he was abused over 10-year period by Rene Touchette, priest also named in May lawsuit

WARNING: The following story contains distressing details about sexual abuse of a child.

A man who says a Catholic priest in southern Manitoba sexually abused him over a 10-year period when he was a child is suing the Archdiocese of St. Boniface, becoming the second person to take the religious organization to court over abuse allegations in recent months.

The man, now 59, claims that the priest, Rene Touchette, sexually assaulted him multiple times while he was a member of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité parish in Somerset, the lawsuit says. The abuse began in 1972, when the plaintiff was eight years old, and continued until 1982, the suit alleges.

Touchette, who died in 2012 at the age of 71, is one of two priests named in a separate lawsuit filed in May of this year, which also…

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YouTube has banned channels belonging to Philippine megachurch pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who the United States sanctioned for alleged sex abuse and is an ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The online video sharing platform took down the channels of Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) and one of its programs as well as of Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), a television channel he also owns, YouTube’s parent company Google confirmed on Friday. 

“Google is committed to compliance with applicable U.S. sanctions and enforces related policies under its Terms of Service,” Google said in a statement to reporters. “After review and consistent with these policies, we terminated the Laban Kasama ang Bayan, KOJC and SMNI YouTube channels.” 

SMNI’s YouTube channel now shows a tag that says “This account has been terminated for a violation of YouTube’s Terms of Service.” 

The Laban Kasama ang Bayan (Fight with the people) program has accused…

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A member of what investigators have called a child pornography ring in Vandalia filed a jury trial waiver Friday morning and is now scheduled to change his plea in the case later this month.

Former Patoka pastor Ferrell Kissiar is the third person charged in Fayette County Court as playing a role in the pornography ring, while the other two members, Amber and Andrew Wehrle have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 13 years and 26 years in prison respectively.

Kissiar was arrested and charged in 2021 with two Class X felonies for possession of child pornography depicting a child under the age of 13.

The three cases were initially joined together and were slated to be tried together by a Fayette County jury in June, but the Wehrles pleaded guilty and Kissiar pushed forward toward a jury trial.

He was advised at a June court hearing that he had until July 5 to…

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Justice for victims of child sex abuse in Pennsylvania remains elusive. Budget agreements are being worked through in the state’s capital, but none mentions window legislation for survivors.  A constitutional amendment, as well as a stand-alone bill, remain in the senate chambers after both HB1 and HB2 passed overwhelmingly this spring in the State House of Representatives.

Sadly, it appears that victim-survivors will have to wait until the Senate returns in September to see if either of the bills makes it onto the voting calendar. As far as we can tell, the constitutional amendment will not make an administrative deadline for it to appear on the November ballot for voters.

We’re also disappointed in Governor Shapiro who made ‘justice for survivors’ part of his campaign platform and promised to ‘get this done.’ In our opinion, providing a pathway to justice for survivors of…

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Huge lawsuits and the inability to renew insurance policies are among the potential dangers for hundreds of California Southern Baptist churches that apparently have yet to comply with a state law aimed at preventing child sexual abuse.

“Your nightmare scenario is [that] you fail to comply,” said Kimberlee Norris, an attorney and co-founder of MinistrySafe, an organization that helps churches prevent sexual abuse. “This law has created a standard of care for child protection in your state. If a child is sexually abused in your program” and sues, “you’re kind of a sitting duck. These [types of cases] are the largest settlements and judgments that exist in the United States today.”

The result can be “mission-killing” for a church, she said.

The law at issue, California Assembly Bill 506, is set to take full effect Jan. 1. That deadline was pushed back by a companion bill, AB 2669, adopted last…

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Five years ago, charismatic teacher Jonathan Welton’s misconduct caught up to him, imploding his multinational ministry. Now, Welton is staging a ministry comeback, backed by prominent Christian author Danny Silk, who claims Welton is “completely transformed.”

But the women who say Welton groomed and abused them, and some of his former board members, say Welton hasn’t changed or apologized. And they fear he’ll continue his predatory ways.

Welton is best known for his books and his now-defunct online teaching ministry, Welton Academy. The ministry crashed in 2018 after several women alleged Welton had a pattern of unwanted physical advances, sexually explicit remarks in texts and social posts, and sexual misconduct.

Renee Bosco, former chief operations officer at Welton Academy, told The Roys Report (TRR) that Welton suggested via text that she repay a debt to him by “giving blowjobs.” Another former staff member, Dawn Weaver, claimed in an article posted…

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Catholics in Lithuania have urged their bishops to follow other countries’ example in setting up an inquiry on sexual abuse in the church in the wake of scandals that shocked the Catholic community.

“The faithful have numerous unanswered questions, and public trust in the institutional church is diminishing,” they said in an open letter. “Recent experience by local churches across Europe and the world shows the most productive way to reunite the Catholic community, reclaim society’s trust and heal wounds is through investigations by an independent commission of experts. Only with the revelation of past events, acknowledgement of guilt, compensation of victims and an examination of conscience is a new path forward made possible.”

The letter, signed by over 150 Catholic professors, school directors, media workers and public figures, as well as priests and nuns, said recent abuse cases from Vilnius and other dioceses had been confirmed by court hearings….

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The Vatican was concerned about his lack of theological orthodoxy but the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith says ‘everything was resolved serenely.’

Cardinal Gerhard Müller has confirmed the Vatican’s doctrinal office had a file containing theological concerns about Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández, whom Pope Francis last week appointed to head that office. 

The file, also confirmed by a second senior Church source, dates to when Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires appointed then-Father Fernández rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in 2009. 

In July 5 comments to the Register, Archbishop Fernández downplayed the file’s contents, saying the Vatican’s concerns related to “accusations” based on his writings “were not of great weight,” and that after an exchange of letters with Vatican officials in which he “clarified” his “true thinking, everything was resolved serenely.” 

On July 1, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Fernández, a close papal…

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A Pennsylvania grand jury investigating child sexual abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses community has charged five more people with raping or molesting children as young as 4, the latest developments in an ongoing probe that has identified 14 suspects.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, at a Friday news conference, said that while the misconduct dates back years or even decades, “the trauma endures for these victims.”

Henry did not address the church’s handling of complaints, but said the investigation would continue.

Critics say that Jehovah’s Witnesses elders have treated child sexual abuse as a sin rather than a crime, documenting complaints in internal files but not reporting them to authorities. And they say the church often required a second witness to substantiate a complaint, a standard that can be impossible to meet when perpetrators often isolate their victims.

Mark Haugh of York Haven, Pa., a former elder who…

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A Pennsylvania grand jury investigating child sexual abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses community has charged another five people with raping or molesting children as young as 4, the latest developments in an ongoing probe that has identified 14 suspects.

In the allegations that were made public on Friday, Attorney General Michelle Henry said that the men had groomed or obtained access to the kids using the church, sometimes by inviting them into the kid’s family’s house. One woman said that between the ages of 7 and 12, a church member who was 18 at the time of the assaults raped her at least 50 times. Related charges have appeared against other perpetrators.

We strongly suspect that the named defendants have other victims, some of whom the statute of limitations likely expired. Just think about how many victims could have been spared if the courtroom doors…

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A man who alleges he was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a child by a Catholic priest in rural Manitoba and Winnipeg is taking the Archdiocese of St. Boniface to court — the second such legal action over abuse claims in as many months.

The man, 59, claims the alleged abuse began in 1972, when he was eight years old.

In the court documents, the man says the violations lasted until 1982, while he was a member of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité in Somerset, a small community about 150 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

The man, who the Free Press is not naming due to the nature of the allegations, claims the sexual violations came at the hands of the church’s priest, Rene Touchette.

Touchette, who died in 2012 at 71, was charged with sexual assault and battery in Somerset in 1992, and convicted the next year. He was sentenced to 30 months, which was later…

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Land was owned by brother of sex offender who was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for sexually abusing underage girls

A tract of land in Minnesota with links to a polygamous religious sect once led by Warren Jeffs has been put up for sale by the convicted sex offender’s brother

Residents near the town of Grand Marais had feared the remote 40-acre plot of forest land, bought by Seth Jeffs in 2018, would be used to establish a new compound for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS).

Warren Jeffs led the Utah-based sect until he was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for sexually abusing underage girls among his dozens of child brides.

The land is for sale at $189,000, according to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, from a Montana-registered entity Emerald Industries LLC, linked to Seth Jeffs.

The Associated Press reported…

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Twenty years before he died, Francis “Frank” X. Gallagher Jr. wrote a letter to a Catholic bishop seeking information about Father Mark Haight, saying Haight abused him as a 14-year-old.

Had Haight had interactions with other children in Baltimore? Had the archdiocese made any effort to find other victims? What about assistance for other victims? Was there anything in Haight’s record to indicate a potential for abuse?

“One of my many regrets is that it took me 28 years to come forward,” Gallagher wrote in April 2002. “The thought that my silence on this matter could have contributed to others being abused is something that I will have to live with forever.”

What followed was largely silence and apathy on behalf of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, according to a wrongful death lawsuit Gallagher’s children filed June 27 against the archdiocese, the seminary where…

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The list of priests and brothers accused of child sexual abuse grew by dozens of names, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced on Friday.

The archdiocese voluntarily began publishing its online list in 2002. The addition of the names comes after Baltimore Archbishop William Lori made a recommendation to the Independent Review Board and is an acknowledgment of the Maryland attorney general’s recommendation that the archdiocese expand the list.

“Today’s transparency and culture of child protection in the church certainly does not erase the untold trauma, deep pain and lasting anguish of those who have been impacted by child sexual abuse,” Lori said in a statement.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office spent years on an investigation before it released a report in April that paints a damning picture of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which is the oldest Catholic diocese in the country and spans much of Maryland. The report…

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Vast wounds remain. This was the conclusion of a consultation on the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church held at the University of Notre Dame in 2021. A day’s conversation involved theologians, therapists, church leaders, and lawyers, including several survivors of abuse and many activists in church affairs.

I had not necessarily expected this conclusion. The idea for the consultation was that of Dr. Katharina Westerhorstmann, a German theologian who has written and spoken on sex abuse in the church and was on leave at Notre Dame in 2019 when our president, Fr. John Jenkins, announced a grant competition for faculty to develop ideas for addressing the crisis in the aftermath of the revelations surrounding former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Dr. Westerhorstmann approached me because of my work as a scholar and activist in the efforts of nations to address the wounds of dictatorship, civil war, and genocide: South Africa and Germany,…

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Fighting to prevent abuse, they successfully lobbied for a new policy requiring background checks and other safeguarding measures.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints repeatedly has proclaimed that it has zero tolerance for abuse of any kind. That’s all well and good, some British Latter-day Saints reasoned, but not enough.

They wanted their faith to do more, to undertake concrete reforms that could help prevent abuse from happening in the first place. So they launched a widespread public and private lobbying effort. They surveyed members. They wrote to their church leaders. They contacted national lawmakers.

All that praying, pleading and prodding finally paid off when, starting this month, the church adopted a new policy mandating, among other measures, background checks for any church volunteers in the United Kingdom who work with children, youths or vulnerable adults.

On this week’s show, Sara Delaney and Jane Christie, who…

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The Order of the Pious Schools, commonly known as the “Piarists”, admit that one of its Spanish priests abused “a significant number” of Senegalese youths between 1980-2005

The Holy See dismissed Manel Sales Castellà, a former member of the Order of the Pious Schools, from the clerical state in 2019.

But leaders of the 17th century Catholic teaching order known as the “Piarists” waited until this past June to acknowledge that, for the past 18 years, they have been covering up acts of sexual abuse that Sales committed against “a significant number” of youths in Senegal. The assaults took place while the Spaniard was working in the West African country between 1980 and 2005, when the first cases were reported to Piarist officials.

In a statement issued last June with the Commission for the Defense of Minors Sexually Abused in the Church in Senegal – made up, among others, Spaniards…

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