ABUSE TRACKER

Filipa Almeida was 17 when she was sexually abused by a priest. She stayed silent for years but eventually found the strength to speak out and hopes a visit by Pope Francis to her native Portugal this week will remind the world of thousands of similar crimes.

“I lived with this secret for 22 years,” the 43-year-old told Reuters of her ordeal, which she said occurred during a religious training course. “It’s not easy to live with these experiences.”

She is one of at least 4,815 people who were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – in Portugal over 70 years, according to an investigation published in February. The commission in charge said that was just the “tip of the iceberg” and that more than 100 priests suspected of child sexual abuse remained active in church roles.

Speaking ahead of the pope’s arrival, scheduled for Wednesday morning, Lisbon Patriarch Manuel Clemente…

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Pope Francis arrived in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday for World Youth Day. The event, which is expected to see around 1 million people attend, is a festive gathering for young Catholics held every three years to encourage deeper connection with the faith.

Approximately 85% of Portugal’s population identifies as Catholic and the church is generally held in high esteem in Portuguese society. But the Pope’s trip comes as the church in Portugal is under fire over a 500-page report published in February investigating decades of sexual abuse by clergy members involving at least 4,815 children.

The report’s publication has caused shock in the Catholic county. “There was indignation,” says António Costa Pinto, a professor of political science at the University of Lisbon. “Even the President, who comes from the center-right and is Catholic, had a reaction of indignation.”

In a sign of lingering anger over the report’s findings, a giant billboard was put…

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A huge billboard raising awareness of sexual abuse by clergymen was put up overnight in Lisbon, just hours before Pope Francis was due to arrive in the Portuguese capital for the world’s largest gathering of young Catholics.

The World Youth Day event was devised by the late Pope John Paul II for Catholics in their teens or early 20s and is held every two or three years in a different city.

The event comes less than six months after a report by a Portuguese commission said at least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – over seven decades. The commission in charge said that was just the “tip of the iceberg”.

Francis, who will be in Portugal until Aug. 6, is expected to meet privately with abuse victims.

The billboard was put up on the Almirante Reis avenue – one of Lisbon’s longest and busiest streets –…

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Maryland may have paved the way or at least lit a fire under law enforcement officials across the US. In 24 US states, the highest ranking law enforcement officials (usually the Attorney General) have conducted or are conducting investigations and reports within Dioceses nationwide regarding child sex crimes. 

Downside: These have produced very few criminal prosecutions, almost without exception (see Michigan).

Upside: Most of them (except Kansas) have resulted in reports that shed sorely-needed light on how Catholic officials have dealt with and still deal with clergy sex crimes and cover-ups.

Downside: Some (perhaps most) are primarily based on church records, meaning that much about the crimes and cover-ups remain covered. Does anyone really think that most abuse cases reported to church figures had properly written notes by church officials, who then made written reports, and for years or decades, most of those reports were objectively written, carefully preserved, thoroughly organized,…

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A priest whose parishioners rallied around him when he was convicted of spying on people in a men’s toilet has resigned nearly 20 years after the offence took place.

Fr Patrick McGarvey, aged in his 50s, has hung up his clerical collar, to the shock of his community in Fanad, Co Donegal, saying: ‘I have nothing more to give’.

At a service last week, Fr McGarvey told his parishioners: ‘I am finished in Fanad.

‘I’ve nothing more left to give. The spark has gone.

‘It’s been a tough few years; it’s been a lonesome time. I need a good rest. I’ve discussed it with the bishop and my own family.

‘Where the future goes, I do not know,’ he added.

Local media reported that the news has left his parishioners ‘reeling’ as the priest was highly regarded throughout the Donegal peninsula.

He was equally admired in his former parish of…

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Pope Francis arrived in Portugal on Wednesday to open the first edition of World Youth Day since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of large gatherings, as he hopes to inspire the next generation of Catholics while coping with the church’s ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal.

More than 1 million young people from around the world were expected to attend the gathering in Lisbon, which takes place over several days.

Francis’ plane arrived on a dull, warm day in the Portuguese capital, though the skies were forecast to clear and temperatures were expected to hit 35 C (95 F) by the weekend’s final papal Mass. The pontiff, in a wheelchair, was met on the tarmac by Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa accompanied by two young children.

Busloads of pilgrims started arriving before Tuesday and braced for the high summer temperatures at the open-air events.

…

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They are soldiers fighting a war they did not choose. They are heroes.

Welcome

As August begins, it is good to be able to start the month with a new post for all my subscribers.

In particular, I wanted to start this month with a positive, affirming message. So this post is about why domestic violence and abuse victims and survivors deserve all our respect and support.

Societies and communities often make victims and survivors feel bad about what happened — as though it was somehow their fault, that they made the wrong choices, and that they did something to cause the abuse. This is exactly how the perpetrator made the victim-survivor feel too. Hearing the perpetrator’s narratives spoken by other people is particularly cruel and harmful.

This blog is going to show why the idea that victims and survivors are to blame is the furthest thing from the truth.

…

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A young Alabama Catholic priest placed under restriction by the Archdiocese of Mobile July 26 has been located in Italy, along with an 18-year-old woman with whom he had fled the country days earlier.

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office announced in a July 29 statement that 30-year-old Father Alex Crow and his companion had been tracked down by “a family member” of the young woman.

According to the sheriff’s office, “the young woman stated she went with him on her own free will.”

“It appeared that they were staying in separate bedrooms and the young woman insisted that there was no intimate relationship,” said Sheriff Paul Burch in the statement. “The investigation is still open and we are still checking into a few matters, however, there does not appear to be any criminal charges.”

The sheriff’s office also said that Father Crow, who had been a parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Parish in…

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The Mobile County District Attorney’s office is asking the public for information about a young Alabama Catholic priest who was publicly placed under restriction by the Mobile Archdiocese for walking away from his parish and reportedly leaving the country with a recent Catholic high school graduate for an exorcism.

The Archdiocese of Mobile issued a July 26 statement announcing that Fr. Alex Crow, 30, who had been parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Parish in Mobile, “abandoned his assignment in the diocese” and exhibited behavior “totally unbecoming of a priest.”

According to the statement, Mobile Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi told Crow that “he may no longer exercise ministry as a priest, nor to tell people he is a priest, nor to dress as a priest.”

The archdiocese also said that “due to the circumstances of his departure, we have reported this to the district attorney.”

Mobile County District Attorney communications director…

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A Baptist pastor at a small congregation in Madison has continued in active ministry around children as police investigated him for sexual abuse, a case that has led to law enforcement recommending charges to prosecutors of first-degree child sexual assault.

The investigation findings, concluded at the end of June, were enough for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to permanently revoke Bob Stine’s license to operate Midvale Baptist Church’s former Kid’s Best child care, citing child safety.

In their letter of revocation, the DCF cited the sexual assault police investigation findings, and substantiated allegations that threatened the health, safety, and welfare of the children at the facility. 

 Kid’s Best Child Care Notice of Revocation

State regulators and Madison police were tipped off in April that Stine was suspected of inappropriately touching children in his care while operating the church’s child care which was also…

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The Rev. Bob Stine, former president of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention, will be required to answer questions in court in September after police in Madison, Wisconsin, recommended he be charged with sexual assault.

The Dane County district attorney’s office said the case involving Stine, pastor of Midvale Baptist Church in Madison, is under review. No charges have been filed.

“The DA’s Office has received the referral from Madison Police Dept,” the DA’s office said in an email about Stine. “He is scheduled to appear for an Initial Appearance on 9/7/23 at 8:30 AM.”

Police have investigated allegations that Stine inappropriately touched children during a group visit to a state park in 2021, according to television station WISC in Madison. That investigation led the state’s Department of Children and Families to revoke the license for Kid’s Best Child Care, a day care run by Midvale Baptist, in…

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One woman is reflecting on a painful past. Now she hopes justice will be served for the Henning Pastor she says sexually abused her for years.

Last week Gary Arivett was arrested and is facing three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a family member under the age of 18. He has since been released after posting a $100,000 dollar bail.

The survivor says Arivett has been a pastor at Shiloh Apostolic Church in Henning for nearly 30 years. For her privacy, she does not want to be named, but says she and her sisters were abused for years.Teenager arrested in weekend Danville shooting investigation

“I would like him to not have access to children anymore in any capacity,” said the survivor.

She says the abuse first started for her at age 11, her younger sister was 6 years old.

“I just tried to move forward with my…

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As part of their ongoing probe into a scandal-plagued lay group in Peru, the Vatican’s top investigating duo has met with a Peruvian archbishop accused of land trafficking, as well as a group of peasants his community is alleged to have harassed.

Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu are currently in Lima, Peru, conducting an investigation into the Sodalitium Christinae Vitae (SCV), a society of apostolic life founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari in the 1970s.

Though allegations were made several years prior, scandals involving the SCV exploded in 2015, when Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz published their book Half Monks, Half Soldiers detailing years of alleged sexual, physical and psychological abuse by members of the SCV.

Figari himself was accused of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse within the community, including against minors. He was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2017 and prohibited from having further contact with…

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A deeply tangled tale must be followed by systemic reform and effective oversight.

For Americans, making sense of the Vatican trial of 10 defendants charged with financial crimes is nearly impossible.

The charges are a tangle of alleged corruption and misconduct. At the heart of the trial is a London luxury property investment that lost the Vatican almost $200 million. Then there are payments to a woman who was supposed to help free some nuns from kidnappers but allegedly spent the money on luxury goods, holidays and other extravagancies.

Finally, there were loans and other payments made to a charity run by a cardinal’s brother. Investigators found forged invoices and receipts introducing doubt as to whether the money was used for charitable purposes.

RELATED:Vatican prosecutors request a total of 73 years in prison for defendants in corruption trial

Next, there is the legal process…

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The Colorado Supreme Court in June struck down a 2021 law that sought to get around a state constitutional prohibition on reviving civil claims for which the statute of limitations has run out

Victims of child sex abuse in Colorado for whom the statute of limitations to file a lawsuit has run out would get another chance to have their day in court under a proposed change to the state constitution.

Voters would have to approve the amendment, which comes in response to a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in June striking down a provision in a 2021 law that gave victims of child sex assault dating back to the 1960s a three-year window to sue their abusers and the institutions that allowed their abuse. 

The court ruled the law, Senate Bill 88, violated a provision in the constitution prohibiting the General Assembly from reviving a claim for which the statute of…

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Bishop Emeritus Howard Hubbard — who continues to defend himself against multiple abuse allegations from his time leading the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany from 1997 through 2014 — says he got married to a woman in July in a civil ceremony and continues to ask the Vatican to release him from the priesthood.

The 84-year-old Hubbard released a public letter Tuesday, reiterating his request to the Vatican to be relieved of clerical obligations, a request that was denied in March. Hubbard says he married a woman “who has helped and cared for me and who believes in me” and wants the marriage to be recognized by the church.

Hubbard says he is now a retired citizen and asks for privacy in his new phase of life, while acknowledging it could be years before the legal matters are concluded.

Hubbard faces lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse and protecting other…

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Albany’s bishop emeritus asks media outlets to “respect our privacy as a couple”

ALBANY — The Vatican has rejected the laicization request made last year by Albany Bishop Emeritus Howard J. Hubbard, who served as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany for 37 years and has seen his legacy tainted by the organization’s handling of child sexual abuse cases.

Hubbard, in an open letter provided to the Times Union on Tuesday, confirmed that he had “fallen in love with a wonderful woman who has helped and cared for me and who believes in me,” adding that they were married last month.

His personal relationship with the unidentified woman was apparently a factor in his decision last year to request to be laicized, a move that came eight years after 84-year-old Hubbard had retired as the longest-serving bishop for the 14-county diocese. He has also faced his own allegations of…

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The Buffalo Diocese faces more pressure to make a deal with child sex abuse survivors after Catholic dioceses in Rochester and Syracuse recently took major steps toward exiting their Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, according to legal experts.

The Syracuse Diocese announced Thursday it will pay abuse victims at least $100 million, and possibly more, through insurance funds, while Rochester last week negotiated a new deal with victims that now includes some insurance money, and would pay at least $126 million toward a settlement.

Five years later, despite promises to do right by abuse victims, the diocese has not paid a penny in damages to an estimated 900 people who filed claims alleging they were sexually abused by priests or other diocese employees.

The proposed deals in Rochester and Syracuse still must be approved by a vote of victim creditors and confirmed by a federal bankruptcy judge, but they provide the…

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In an in-depth interview, we look at the life and legacy of the groundbreaking musician Sinéad O’Connor, who converted to Islam and also started using the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat in 2018. O’Connor died last week at the age of 56 and was known for her music as much as for her outspoken activism. In 1992, she performed Bob Marley’s “War” on Saturday Night Live, then proceeded to rip up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live TV to protest systemic child abuse in the Catholic Church, of which she was a survivor. The move provoked widespread uproar. O’Connor was also an ally to LGBTQ communities, an opponent of police brutality on some of her earliest records, a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, and marched for abortion rights decades before it was legalized in Ireland. We are joined by Jamie Manson, president of advocacy group Catholics for Choice, and Allyson McCabe, music…

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Although at least 4,815 people were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – in Portugal over 70 years, no reparations are plannedPope Francis due in nation Wednesday, but while expected to meet some victims, over 100 suspect priests are said to still be active in church roles

Filipa Almeida was 17 when she was sexually abused by a priest. She stayed silent for years but eventually found the strength to speak out, and hopes a visit by Pope Francis to her native Portugal this week will remind the world of thousands of similar crimes.

“I lived with this secret for 22 years,” the 43-year-old said of her ordeal, which she said occurred during a religious training course. “It’s not easy to live with these experiences.”

She is one of at least 4,815 people who were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – in Portugal over 70 years, according…

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The world’s largest gathering of young Catholics kicked off on Tuesday in Lisbon, with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the globe flocking to the Portuguese capital for the event’s highlight, Pope Francis, who will arrive on Wednesday.

Pilgrims have been arriving to attend World Youth Day over the last few days and will stay in schools, gyms, fire stations and with families, with many planning to sleep in the open before the closing Mass on the riverside Parque Tejo on Aug 6.

The cross-cultural festival, which actually runs for nearly a week, is held every two to three years and was initiated by the late Pope John Paul.

The celebrations will take place against the backdrop of a sexual abuse scandal in the Portuguese Church, in which at least 4,815 were found to have been abused, largely by priests, over the past 70 years. Francis is expected to…

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Maryland may have paved the way or at least lit a fire under law enforcement officials across the US. In 24 US states, the highest ranking law enforcement officials (usually the Attorney General) have conducted or are conducting investigations and reports within Dioceses nationwide regarding child sex crimes. 

Downside: These have produced very few criminal prosecutions, almost without exception (see Michigan).

Upside: Most of them (except Kansas) have resulted in reports that shed sorely-needed light on how Catholic officials have dealt with and still deal with clergy sex crimes and cover-ups.

Downside: Some (perhaps most) are primarily based on church records, meaning that much about the crimes and cover-ups remain covered. Does anyone really think that most abuse cases reported to church figures had properly written notes by church officials, who then made written reports, and for years or decades, most of those reports were objectively written, carefully preserved, thoroughly organized,…

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The Syracuse Catholic Diocese will pay $100 million to hundreds of survivors of sexual abuse, as part of a bankruptcy case that began three years ago.

The announcement was released jointly last Thursday by the Roman Catholic Diocese and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, a group of seven survivors appointed by the federal government to act as fiduciaries for the 375 involved, about one-third of whom are in Syracuse and represented by several attorneys, including Cynthia LaFave of Albany.

LaFave called the settlement incredibly significant “for all of the survivors of sexual abuse all across the United States.” And particularly important here, where “not only has the Syracuse diocese admitted what has happened in that diocese,” it’s also paying out the second largest settlement in the nation by a bankrupt Roman Catholic institution.

Minnesota-based attorney Taylor Stippel called it “monumental” for her Syracuse clients, most though not all of…

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The world’s largest Catholic gathering, a week-long religious festival known as World Youth Day, kicks off in Lisbon on Tuesday, a day before Pope Francis arrives on his first foreign trip since recent surgery.

Around 300,000 people are expected to attend the opening mass at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) at the hillside Eduardo VII park, which offers sweeping views of the Portuguese capital and the Tagus river.

Pilgrims roamed around Lisbon ahead of the mass, waving national flags in the air and singing Catholic anthems from their home countries.

“It’s going to be extraordinary, all this Christian youth coming together,” said Gabriel Forestier, a 28-year-old engineer from Amiens in northern France.

Francis is set to arrive in Lisbon on Wednesday morning to celebrate World Youth Day, which is actually a week of religious, cultural and festive events held about every three years in a different city.

The 86-year-old pontiff is…

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In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI issued a pastoral letter apologizing for hundreds of years of sex abuse by clergy in Ireland, he also failed to offer any suggestion that the church’s policy toward abusive clergy would change. This did not sit well with Sinéad O’Connor, whose career had been permanently damaged 18 years earlier when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live.” 

In an opinion essay for The Washington Post in response to Benedict’s letter, she was blunt. Irish Catholics, she wrote, “are in a dysfunctional relationship with an abusive organization.”

Today, when many Catholics around the world feel the same way, we can more easily understand that in her willingness to sacrifice her career for the sake of the truth, she was prophetic. But like so many other women throughout history, she suffered greatly for…

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ROME – It was Oct. 27, 2007, when police in Lima gathered at the city’s famed Plaza San Martin after receiving a tip saying a fair-looking man was hanging around the area talking to minors and then taking them to a hotel.  According to the tip, the man would give the minors money to undress, be photographed, and then be groped and/or engage in sexual activity.

That man eventually was identified as Daniel Bernardo Murguía Ward, a member of the Sodalitium Christinae Vitae (SCV), a society of apostolic life founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari in the 1970s.

Murguía was detained that day after enticing a minor to join him at a nearby hotel, where police burst into the room he had rented and found the child half naked with their pants down while Murguía was holding a digital camera, which contained explicit photos of the minor as well as two…

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LISBON — After Portugal was picked to host Pope Francis and hundreds of thousands of young Catholics for a World Youth Day gathering that opens here this week, local bishops scrambled to demonstrate they were instep with what Francis has proclaimed as a new era of accountability for sexual abuse within the church.

“It was like cleaning the house before the visitor arrived,” said the Rev. António Pedro Monteiro, a Catholic chaplain.

The bishops financed an independent commission to examine a long-evaded question: How many people in Portugal had been victims of church predators? The result was a nearly 500-page report released in February — similar to audits elsewhere in Europe and the Americas — that determined at least 4,815 children had been abused since 1950. The bishops commended “this difficult and dramatic work” and expressed hope that it “marks a new beginning.”

Critics say that commitment was…

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SÃO PAULO (OSV News) — The visit of Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Spanish Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu to Peru to investigate the lay organization Sodalitium Christianae Vitae is being received with confidence by many of the group’s victims, who hope it will be finally dissolved. Some, however, say, they lost hope that the case will be resolved.

Once a powerful lay institution with massive membership not only in Peru, but in several other countries, the Sodalitium was accused of promoting systemic spiritual, physical and sexual abuse against dozens of members for decades, as well as financial corruption.

The Sodalitium was founded by lay Catholic Luis Fernando Figari in 1971 and was acknowledged as a society of apostolic life, approved by Pope John Paul II in 1997. With a reputation of being a conservative and elitist organization, it has male and female branches, besides lay movements.

Despite church interventions on…

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