ABUSE TRACKER

Bernard Sonney, the deputy bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, has temporarily vacated his office after two weeks in the job following allegations of abuse. An investigation is underway against him.

Sonney had decided to take this step “following a report”, journalists were told at a media conference in Fribourg on Friday. The report was taken from a letter sent to the bishop, Charles Morerod, by an alleged victim.

Morerod was not present at the media conference. He is currently recovering from an emergency operation in mid-September after reportedly having a bicycle accident. Morerod’s emergency hospitalisation came a day after the publication of a study by the University of Zurich into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland. This documented more than 1,000 cases of abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland since the middle of the 20th century.

Morerod had been accused in the Sonntagsblick newspaper of having failed to intervene…

View Cache

Deanna Hampton wants justice for her son.

She wants the priest accused of sexually abusing her little boy to be brought back to the United States. She wants him to stand trial. She wants her son’s bravery – exemplified when he testified openly before a grand jury in 2014 – to mean something. Trevor died in a tragic accident two years later.

But Deanna Hampton also wants something else. She wants those she believes have played a role in denying her son justice – most notably the Calaveras County District Attorney and the Catholic Church – to be held accountable. She also has questions for the FBI.

The church acknowledges that Father Michael Kelly sexually abused Hampton’s son, Trevor Martin, then an altar boy, and at least two other young boys during his time in the Diocese of Stockton. “The diocese accepts full responsibility for the abuse of…

View Cache

Multiple Assemblies of God (AG) pastors are calling for the resignation of denominational leaders for what the pastors say has been a “shameful” response to a sex abuse scandal within the AG’s college ministry.

The scandal involves Daniel Savala, a longtime volunteer teacher and mentor with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, the official college ministry of the AG. Savala is accused of raping or sexually assaulting at least 13 men connected to Chi Alpha over more than two decades.

He also was indicted this month, along with his former protégé Chris Hundl, for sexual abuse of two minors. Hundl, an ordained AG minister, had led Baylor University’s Chi Alpha chapter.

Several other leaders within the Chi Alpha ministry have been removed from leadership over their alleged involvement in sexual misconduct or cover-up. Will Robinson, former Chi Alpha chapter leader at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, was arrested last…

View Cache

The pastor charged in the 1975 murder of 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington today will be extradited to Delaware County, Pa. Arrested earlier this year, David Zandstra was charged with first-degree murder in the more than 40-year-old cold case.

The 83-year-old was still working as a pastor in Marietta, Georgia, when he was arrested by Cobb County Sheriff’s Office on July 17, The Roys Report (TRR) previously reported.

“The Office of the District Attorney has been working with the Pennsylvania State Police and authorities in Marietta, Georgia to arrange for the defendant’s successful extradition to Pennsylvania,” the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Wednesday.

Along with first-degree murder, Zandstra also faces charges of criminal homicide, second- and third-degree murder, kidnapping of a minor, and the possession of an instrument of crime. He confessed to his crime this summer.

His decades-old crime forever changed the community, officials said.  

“The murder of…

View Cache

Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals at a ritual-filled ceremony Saturday, including key figures at the Vatican and in the field who will help enact his reforms and cement his legacy as he enters a crucial new phase in running the Catholic Church.

On a crisp sunny day filled with cheers from St. Peter’s Square, Francis further expanded his influence on the College of Cardinals who will one day elect his successor: With Saturday’s additions, nearly three-quarters of the voting-age “princes of the church” owe their red hats to the Argentine Jesuit.

In his instructions to the new cardinals at the start of the service, Francis said their variety and geographic diversity would serve the church like musicians in an orchestra, where sometimes they play solos, sometimes as an ensemble.

“Diversity is necessary; it is indispensable. However, each sound must contribute to the common design,” Francis told…

View Cache

Lawyers for the Institute for Works of Religion asked judges Wednesday to fine defendants in the Vatican finance trial nearly one million euros, for damages to the bank’s reputation.

The IOR, Vatican City’s only commercial bank, is a civil party to the case, pressing a lawsuit alongside Vatican City criminal prosecutors in the trial in which 10 former officials and investment advisors to the Secretariat of State are charged with financial crimes including extortion, fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering.

Lawyers for the bank argued in court Sept. 27 that investments made and authorized by Cardinal Angelo Becciu, formerly sostituto at the Secretariat of State, were illegal, a misappropriation of Church funds, and had damaged both the IOR and Pope Francis.

Identifying hundreds of millions of euros in Church funds managed by the Secretariat of State on behalf of the Holy See and the pope personally, lawyers for the bank said…

View Cache

About six months after Canadian bishops wrote pastoral letters to indigenous communities outlining plans for reconciliation in the wake of revelations of historical abuse at church-run institutions, the bishops have set in motion a reorganization of their Catholic Canadian Indigenous Council to “help move things along.”

Among the changes are the addition of an “indigenous consultant” to help guide future plans, and a reconfiguration of the Indigenous Council to make the ratio of members three indigenous representatives to one bishop. To this point, council representation has been split 50/50.

The changes were discussed as part of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ 2023 plenary assembly taking place this week. Bishop Mark Hagemoen of Saskatoon, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on the CCCB’s Structure of Engagement with Indigenous Peoples, told Crux that while there’s no timeline on listening and healing, which are paramount to the bishop’s reconciliation efforts, there is a need…

View Cache

Father Hans Zollner, a German priest and an expert in the fight against sexual abuse in the Church, said in a Sept. 26 interview with Infovaticana that celibacy is not a direct cause of this evil.

Celibacy and homosexuality

The psychologist, who also holds a doctorate in theology, said that “celibacy is not a direct cause of abuse; what can become a risk factor is a ministry poorly lived and not fully accepted.” 

“All scientific reports, including those commissioned by non-Church institutions, conclude that celibacy in itself does not lead to abuse. Therefore, it is wrong to say that with the abolition of celibacy there would no longer be cases of abuse in the Catholic Church,” he emphasized.

The former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, from which he resigned in March, said that “sexual abuse arises above all from an abuse of power that someone…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Baltimore declared bankruptcy on Friday several weeks after warning it might do so in response to a looming wave of sex-abuse-related lawsuits.

Archbishop William Lori said in a statement on Friday that ”after consulting with numerous lay leaders and the clergy of the archdiocese,” he had made the decision for the archdiocese to file “for Chapter 11 reorganization.”

“With an approved plan under Chapter 11, the archdiocese will be reorganized, victim-survivors will be equitably compensated, and the Church will continue its mission and ministries,” the archbishop said.

The process will “involve several steps over the next two to three years,” Lori said, including “accept[ing] claims from victim-survivors for a specified period of time” and then “enter[ing] negotiations” with those individuals.

The filing, Lori said, is “the best path forward to compensate equitably all victim-survivors, given the archdiocese’s limited financial resources, which would have otherwise been…

View Cache

Less than a month after former cardinal Theodore McCarrick was ruled incompetent to stand trial on child sexual abuse charges in Massachusetts, he has again been ordered to undergo a mental health exam to determine whether he is competent to stand trial on similar charges in Wisconsin. 

The misdemeanor fourth-degree sexual assault charges in Wisconsin relate to an incident that allegedly occurred in April 1977, in which McCarrick is accused of “fondling of the victim’s genitals” at a “Geneva Lake residence,” an April press release from the Wisconsin Department of Justice said. 

Geneva Lake, which is located in Walworth County, is in southern Wisconsin, about an hour-and-20-minute drive south of Madison.

James Grein, 65, told CNA on Thursday that he brought the allegations in the Wisconsin case, saying that the abuse occurred when he was 18 years old. Grein, of Sterling, Virginia, was also the victim named in…

View Cache

The move blocks lawsuits allowed under a new state law that takes effect Sunday. Child sexual abuse survivors seeking damages will now have to file a claim through the bankruptcy case.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, less than two days before a new state law takes effect allowing victims of child sexual abuse to sue institutions, no matter how long ago the abuse took place.

Federal bankruptcy law halts all lawsuits against an entity that files for bankruptcy. Instead, the legal action will shift to a bankruptcy court, where the process — if successful — will set a permanent end date when alleged victims of abuse related to the church can file claims, rather than opening a permanent window as the law intended.

Each diocesan bankruptcy is distinct, experts say,and outcomes depend on the court, insurance arrangements and the legal setup of the diocese. Some…

View Cache

Vatican bans Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard from public ministry for five years, except in his diocese of residence, after civil court dismisses “aggravated sexual assault” charges due to statute of limitations

The Dicastery for Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has permanently banned retired Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard from all public ministry because of sex abuse for a renewable period of five years. But the sentence, which was handed down sometime in late spring allows the 79-year-old former archbishop of Bordeaux to minister in the French Diocese of Digne where he currently resides. 

Two sources confirmed to La Croix that Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline in Marseille, the archdiocese where Ricard was born and ordained to the priesthood, was the one who informed Ricard of the sanctions. The sources confirmed that the DDF initiated a canonical trial against Ricard after he confessed in November 2022 to inappropriate sexual behavior with a teenage girl decades ago. 

“Intelligent…

View Cache

Pope Francis has promised zero tolerance for abusers, whoever they are, whenever and wherever they committed their abuse, but has shown greater-than-zero tolerance for Ricard’s confessed malfeasance.

Historians will not want for points from which to date the breakdown of Pope Francis’s reign. Whether it was the appalling rehabilitation of disgraced Cardinal Godfried Danneels – who was on the loggia when Francis first greeted the faithful and was a papal appointee to the synod on the family, of all things – or the 2017 resignation of Marie Collins from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, or the Barros crisis in Chile, or l’Affaire Zanchetta, or the pope’s disastrous intervention in behalf of then-Fr. Mauro Inzoli, or some other act or omission, there is no dearth of options.

They may well point to the week of September 24, 2023, as the one…

View Cache

A sexual abuse survivor “relentless in his quest for justice” has embarked on his second journey to Rome.

Dunedin man Darryl Smith was sexually abused as a child at institutions in both New Zealand and Australia, including Marylands School in Christchurch.

Marylands was run by the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of St John of God, one of the oldest orders of the Catholic Church.

Mr Smith first visited Rome in 2019, with the intention of meeting Pope Francis, but was denied entry to the Vatican.

Cardinal John Dew, of Wellington, also declined to meet him, despite Mr Smith being the only New Zealand survivor in Rome at the time.

Mr Smith was dismayed by the outcome of his first trip and hoped this time his concerns would be heard.

“By the time I went there the first time, I had high hopes that the Vatican would actually do something…

View Cache

(A new Maryland law reopening the chance to sue for damages over sexual abuse will take effect on Oct. 1. Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory wrote the following letter to people in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington on Sept. 29, 2023.)

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

With the passage of the Maryland Child Victims Act, I anticipate that our Archdiocese of Washington will receive claims involving past allegations of abuse by members of its clergy. Of course, I cannot speculate on how many cases may be filed. What I can and must do is express again how profoundly sorry I am for past acts of abuse that occurred within our cherished Church.

Our Archdiocese remains steadfastly committed to providing a safe environment for all young people entrusted to our care. The comprehensive child protection policy we first published in 1986 has been reviewed and updated regularly to reflect…

View Cache

Bishop Ronald Hicks might consolidate 16 Joliet-area congregations and eventually close other parishes and schools, with “budgetary issues” a factor. His aides won’t say how much has been spent on fallout from the sex abuse crisis.

In a report earlier this year by the Illinois attorney general, the Diocese of Joliet was criticized for continued secrecy over the extent of child sex abuse by priests and religious brothers who served in the ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

“The diocese has demonstrated slavish adherence to off-the-books, unwritten policies that derail justice for abuse survivors and much-needed institutional transparency,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in the May report, adding that the diocese’s “current approach to abuse allegations against a religious order priest who ministered in the diocese are particularly opaque and ill formed.”

That lack of transparency also extends to church finances, a Chicago Sun-Times examination has…

View Cache

Hierarchical power without hierarchical accountability won’t fly.

In court documents, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee responded that it was currently involved in fifteen different lawsuits “relating to allegations of sexual misconduct.” That’s in addition to the case involving Paul Pressler and the investigation by the Department of Justice.

Fifteen. Hallelujah. I wish it were 100. But fifteen is a good start.

Most clergy sex abuse cases never make it to a lawsuit at all—often for no reason other than that they’re barred by short time limitations—and the few that do make it to a lawsuit have typically sued the local church and not the Southern Baptist Convention. This is what’s changing.

These fifteen cases are suing the SBC itself and thereby challenging the SBC’s longstanding (but still mostly untested) argument that it has no control over local churches—the argument it…

View Cache

America’s oldest Catholic archdiocese filed for bankruptcy Friday, a move designed to limit its liability against potential damages and conserve its assets, ahead of a mountain of soon-to-be filed lawsuits connected to its history of child sex abuse.

The filing came two days before Maryland’s newly passed Child Victims Act is set to go into effect. The law, which the legislature passed in April over the objection of the church and other organizations, will remove a statute of limitations on when childhood sexual abuse victims may sue perpetrators.

The bankruptcy declaration, filed in Baltimore’s federal bankruptcy court, was not unexpected. Archbishop William E. Lori, the highest-ranking Catholic cleric in Maryland, sent a letter Sept. 5 to the more than 500,000 Archdiocese of Baltimore parishioners saying the church was considering such a step. In a new message to Catholics released Friday, Lori emphasized the decision was made to stanch…

View Cache

St. Rita’s parishioner Carling Dinkler grew up in a Catholic New Orleans family and regularly brings his daughter to the church’s standing-room-only, 5 p.m. Sunday Mass. He’s troubled by the recent request, from Archbishop Gregory Aymond, that parishes contribute to clergy abuse settlements. But he thinks individual Catholics have an obligation to help the local church put the scandal behind it.

For Jennifer Molina, it’s more complicated. She’s a lifelong Catholic who advocates for social justice causes, but has become frustrated in recent years with church teachings on women’s ordination and gay marriage. Her faith in God is steadfast, but the unfolding abuse crisis is pushing her faith in the church over the edge.

“There have been many things with the church that are painful,” she said. “This is different. I feel like it’s a tipping point.”

There are half a million Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese of New Orleans,…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Baltimore announced Friday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization days before a new state law goes into effect removing the statute of limitations on child sex abuse claims and allowing victims to sue their abusers decades after the fact.

The step will allow the oldest diocese in the United States “to equitably compensate victim-survivors of child sexual abuse” while the local Catholic church continues its mission and ministries, Archbishop William E. Lori said in a statement posted on the archdiocese website.

But attorneys and advocates said the church is simply trying to protect its assets and silence abuse victims by shifting the legal proceedings to bankruptcy court.

Jeff Anderson, an attorney specializing in child sex abuse cases whose firm has offices across the country, said the bankruptcy filing is “a calculated decision in hopes to silence and suppress survivors of abuse.”

“Little does the Archdiocese of…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Baltimore filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection on Friday, saying it intends to seek a settlement of sex abuse claims by people who allege they were abused as children by Catholic priests.

The bankruptcy filing was spurred by a Maryland state law set to take effect on Oct. 1, which would allow survivors of sexual abuse to file new lawsuits regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred, according to the Archdiocese’s court filings.

Maryland’s attorney general has said that there are more than six hundred known survivors of clergy abuse in the state, numbers that the Archdiocese said it could not verify.

The bankruptcy filing will help the Archdiocese compensate victims equitably while allowing to Church to continue operations and preserve its “limited resources,” Archbishop William Lori said in a statement.

“I acknowledge that no apology, compensation, or knowledge of our present-day accountability measures will necessarily lead…

View Cache

Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors Can Take Legal Action in Maryland Starting October 1

(St. Paul, MN) – Today, the Archdiocese of Baltimore filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. This decision by the bishop to conceal assets and hide the truth from the survivors who were sexually abused by clergy members assigned to the Archdiocese of Baltimore is unfortunate and predictable.

“The Archdiocese of Baltimore’s decision to declare bankruptcy is a calculated decision in hopes to silence and suppress survivors of abuse,” said attorney Jeff Anderson. “Little does the Archdiocese of Baltimore know the strength and resilience of the survivors who have come forward – we will continue to stand by them and vigorously advocate for them in the bankruptcy process.”

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is the first diocese to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in anticipation of the statute of limitations reform in Maryland. Starting on October 1, survivors of clergy abuse…

View Cache

BRAINTREE — The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office has dropped the charges of rape and sexual assault against Msgr. Francis Strahan, but the Archdiocese of Boston plans to continue its own investigation into Msgr. Strahan’s alleged misconduct with a minor.

The District Attorney’s Office’s filing, dated Sept. 20 and received by The Pilot on Sept. 27, states that the charges of forcible child rape and indecent assault and battery were dropped because the alleged victim declined to testify in court.

In 2019, a former altar boy at St. Bridget Parish in Framingham, where Msgr. Strahan was pastor, alleged that Msgr. Strahan assaulted him on two occasions between 2004 and 2008. Msgr. Strahan allegedly raped and sexually assaulted the boy while the two were alone in the church. On a separate occasion, also at the church, Msgr. Strahan allegedly pressed his body against the boy’s. At the time, the alleged victim was between…

View Cache

An Anglican bishop of the diocese of the Diocese of the Highveld, the Right Reverend May, has been accused of protecting a priest in his pastoral jurisdiction allegedly involved in child grooming and exposing minors who were his altar servers to pornographic material.

The alleged grooming took place several years ago, and since then the bishop had turned a deaf ear to calls for action by members of the parish in the East Rand, Ekurhuleni.

As a result of the allegation, several senior members of the diocese Sunday World interviewed said it would be better if the bishop were to be removed or resign as “he did not fit the bill to be the bishop of the church of God”.

The allegation comes a few weeks after the diocese was accused by some members of the diocese of the Highveld of protecting one of his priests who was accused of…

View Cache

Ohio victims of child sexual abuse while in the Boy Scouts of America could see more compensation for the crimes committed against them under legislation passed by the state Senate Wednesday in a unanimous vote and is expected to be approved in the House.

The bill’s passage comes amid the organization’s bankruptcy settlement, first filed in 2020 after tens of thousands of men nationwide brought forth claims they had been sexually abused by their Scout leaders. The organization filed bankruptcy in an attempt to continue operating while still partially compensating victims after an onslaught of lawsuits against them.

Nearly 2,000 abuse claims have been filed in Ohio.

Currently, the amount victims receive from the organization’s settlement depends on the length of the statute of limitations for civil claims in the state that they live in, as well as the length and severity of their abuse.

The…

View Cache

(For Immediate Release September 27, 2023) 

As survivors from across the world converge on Italy to push for widespread reform in how the Catholic hierarchy deals with abuse and cover-up, we are humbled and grateful to be a part of this potentially historic effort. SNAP Board President, Shaun Dougherty will be among those ‘Voices of Justice’ joining our allies at ECA (End Clergy Abuse) in the week-long events.

It is alarming to us that this papal synod will evidently not address the church’s most serious ongoing crisis: child-molesting clergy and their enabling superiors. Every time Catholic officials convene without addressing this ongoing crisis explicitly, they embolden clergy who deny, minimize, neglect, and conceal this devastating scandal. Too frequently, church officials miss out on crucial chances to make the church and society safer and healthier. In doing so, they perpetuate the harmful myth that most of the wrongdoing has occurred in…

View Cache

A law making it easier for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits goes into effect Sunday, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore is already preparing for how to pay survivors.

The Child Victims Act, passed in April on the heels of a state attorney general’s report that details the history of how Catholic clergy and lay people abused children and how the church covered it up, will likely result in dozens, if not hundreds, of lawsuits against the diocese. With civil suits looming, Archbishop William E. Lori is openly suggesting that America’s oldest Catholic diocese will consider filing for bankruptcy as a means to protect itself and limit liability.

Should that happen, the diocese’s assets — its cash, investments and, most importantly, its property — will be used to pay off the victims turned creditors. But…

View Cache

A prominent Belgian bishop on Wednesday criticized the Vatican for failing to defrock a former bishop who admitted sexually abusing children, saying it had led to massive frustration with the highest Roman Catholic authorities.

Disgraced bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who was brought down by a sexual abuse scandal 13 years ago, became a symbol in Belgium of the Roman Catholic church’s hypocrisy in dealing with abuse in its own ranks.

“We, the (Belgian) bishops, have been asking for years for a reaction. The letters are there, the discussions. All noted down in lists. When will we have a reaction? And why don’t we get one?” Johan Bonny, the bishop of Antwerp, said on broadcaster VRT’s website.

Vangheluwe shot to international infamy amid disclosures he had sexually abused his young nephew for over a dozen years when he was a priest and later a bishop. He later admitted he also abused a…

View Cache

Most of the facts were already known, but the raw and frank testimonies of mutilated genitalia and priests brutally pounding children’s bodies hit viewers like a hammer blow.

It remains unclear what issue the parliamentary investigation committee should look into. For example, there is still a judicial investigation into the abuse of minors by Catholic clergy: Operation Kilk. This began in June 2010 with searches in, among other places, the Diocese of Mechelen and the private home of Cardinal Godfried Daniels, who is said to have been aware of dozens of cases of abuse.

Although this investigation is not yet complete, it is already painfully clear that Operation Kilk will not matter much. Many of the priests and fathers mentioned have already died, and in many other cases the facts have come to an end. “The last thing you want is for the House of Representatives to interfere in the…

View Cache

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne will meet representatives of victims of sexual abuse by priests on Thursday.

They will also hold talks with the Bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny, the Prime Minister’s entourage said on Wednesday.

The broadcast of the VRT documentary ‘Godvergeten,’ in which victims of sex abuse by clerics along with their relatives gave testimonies, sent shockwaves through Flanders, and a broad consensus is emerging in favour of a parliamentary committee of enquiry.

The subject will be on the agenda of the Chamber’s Justice Committee next Wednesday.

View Cache

Flanders is looking into cutting subsidies from municipal authorities to religious communities such as the Catholic Church, after large-scale indignation over the recent Godvergeten documentary about sexual abuse in the institution.

The broadcast of the VRT documentary Godvergeten (which roughly translates to ‘Godforsaken’) in which victims of sex abuse by clerics gave testimonies along with their relatives, sent shockwaves through Flanders. It is now provoking ministers to rethink how the Catholic Church and other religious institutions are funded in Belgium.

“In total, local authorities contribute €60 million per year to cover the shortages of the Flemish religious communities,” Flemish Minister for Coexistence Bart Somers said on Flemish radio on Thursday. This mainly concerns maintenance costs and energy bills to maintain the buildings, he explained. The majority goes to the Catholic communities.

Municipalities are obliged to step in if the local religious community cannot afford the maintenance of the buildings, following the 2004 Worship Services…

View Cache

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has barred Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard from public ministry outside of his diocese of residence for five years as punishment for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl in 1987, La Croix reports.

The dicastery’s ruling, according to La Croix, permits the 79-year-old retired archbishop of Bourdeaux to vote in a conclave and to minister publicly in the diocese in which he currently resides, if the local bishop permits. Cardinal Ricard remains a member of the College of Cardinals and of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

The dicastery’s ruling, according to the report, came in late spring, when Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, SJ, was the dicastery’s prefect. The five-year ban on public ministry outside of his diocese of residence is renewable.

“Cardinal Ricard lives in total seclusion and is intelligent enough to understand that he needs to keep a low profile,” said Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille….

View Cache

Bernard Sonney, the deputy bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, has temporarily vacated his office after two weeks in the job following allegations of abuse. An investigation is underway against him.

Sonney had decided to take this step “following a report”, journalists were told at a media conference in Fribourg on Friday. The report was taken from a letter sent to the bishop, Charles Morerod, by an alleged victim.

Morerod was not present at the media conference. He is currently recovering from an emergency operation in mid-September after reportedly having a bicycle accident. Morerod’s emergency hospitalisation came a day after the publication of a study by the University of Zurich into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland. This documented more than 1,000 cases of abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland since the middle of the 20th century.

Morerod had been accused in the Sonntagsblick newspaper of having failed to…

View Cache

Victims’ advocates urged adult survivors of sexual abuse by members of the clergy to come forward Thursday ahead of a landmark Maryland law going into effect Sunday.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, held a news conference outside of the Baltimore Basilica on Cathedral Street to discuss the Child Victims Act, the possibility of the Baltimore archdiocese declaring bankruptcy and the still-redacted names in the attorney general’s report on child sexual abuse within the archdiocese.

“I want to reach out and urge anyone who is a survivor, who is a victim, who thinks of themselves as a victim, to please come forward,” Maryland Director of SNAP David Lorenz said. “You don’t necessarily have to file a lawsuit to come forward and begin the healing.”

Lorenz also asked parents to check in with their children, saying that he himself only came forward about his experience with child sexual…

View Cache

A group of Catholic Church abuse victims and their advocates on Wednesday called on Pope Francis to enforce “zero tolerance” against clerical sex abuse, after completing a six-day pilgrimage to Rome carrying a large wooden cross.

The 10 men and women walked 130 kilometres (81 miles) along the last stretch of the Via Francigena, a medieval trail that connects Canterbury, England, to Rome, ahead of a major Vatican summit on the future of the Church, starting next week.Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport this ad

The pilgrimage “shows the determination of survivors to come to deliver their message to Pope Francis … that there must be a universal law of the church of zero tolerance,” said U.S. attorney Timothy Law, co-founder of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA).

“Anything less than that is not adequate”, he added.

[PHOTO: Peter Isely, survivor of sexual abuse, and founder of ECA (Ending Clergy Abuse) Tim Law attend…

View Cache

Ahead of the upcoming Synod on Synodality this October in the Vatican, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors appeals for safeguarding children to be seriously and frequently deliberated throughout the Synod’s discussions.

Ahead of the upcoming Synod on Synodality, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has made an appeal for child protection to be seriously deliberated during Synod discussions.

In a statement, published in English and Italian, and titled ‘A Call to Action on the Occasion of the Consistory for the Creation of New Cardinals and the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops,’ the Commission calls for action.

Pope Francis has entrusted and encouraged the Commission, which is within the Roman Curia’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, but maintains its independence, to speak forth with what needs to be done, and not let others impede their efforts.

In the text, the…

View Cache

• Commission urges solidarity with victims and survivors in light of ongoing revelations of abuse.
• Commission calls on Church leaders to increase commitment and resources to promote safeguarding everywhere.
• Commission asks that safeguarding be given a priority in the Synod on Synodality.

SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR JUSTICE.

As the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, we express our deep sorrow and unwavering solidarity first and foremost to the victims and survivors of so many despicable crimes committed in the Church. Every day seems to bring forth new evidence of abuse, as well as cover up and mishandling by Church leadership around the world. While some cases are subject to intense reporting in the media, others are hardly known–if at all–leaving many countless people to suffer in silence. All abuse involves the anguish and pain of a terrible betrayal, not only by the abuser, but by a Church unable…

View Cache

Statement of the Archdiocese of San Antonio regarding Father Wanjiru Ndung’u

Late this afternoon – Tuesday, September 26 – Father Wanjiru Ndung’u was arrested by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department on aggravated sexual assault charges.

During his time in the archdiocese, Father Wanjiru ministered at Our Lady of Good Counsel, St. Martin de Porres, and St. Gabriel parishes in San Antonio, all in 2017. In 2018 he served at St. Ann in La Vernia and St. Mary’s in Stockdale. In 2019 Father Wanjiru ministered at St. Peter and Paul Parish in New Braunfels, and in 2020 was assigned to St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Canyon Lake. Lastly, from 2021 to 2023, he served at St. Rose of Lima Church in San Antonio.

The Archdiocese of San Antonio takes seriously any allegation of sexual misconduct. The safety and well-being of all people are very important, and the church’s safe-environment policies seek…

View Cache

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office arrested George Ndungu, a Catholic priest within the San Antonio Archdiocese, on Aggravated Sexual Assault charges.

According to investigators, Ndungu served at several churches in and around the San Antonio area since 2017. He was most recently at Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church.

Sheriff Javier Salazar says they received information from the archdiocese, who were working with a private investigator.

An active member of the church spoke out about the allegations, Sheriff Salazar shared.

An elderly lady did come forward, a member of that parish came forward and indicated that on three separate occasions, beginning on November of 2022, this suspect did attempt to sexually assault and was successful in sexually assaulting her on three separate occasions, said Sheriff Salazar.

Sheriff Salazar says if you or anyone had any inappropriate encounters with Ndungu, call the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.

View Cache

A Texas Catholic priest was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly sexually assaulting a parishioner in her 70s, police say.

Rev. George Mbugua Ndungu, 42, was charged with aggravated sexual assault, according to FOX 29 San Antonio.

A native of Kenya, Ndungu had served at multiple churches in the San Antonio area since 2017. Authorities say he most recently worked at Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church.

According to KSAT, an employee first told the archdiocese that Ndungu had said inappropriate things to her. Another victim — a woman in her 70s — alleged that Ndungu sexually assaulted her three different times.

The victim was reportedly a parishioner who turned to Ndungu for spiritual guidance. The archdiocese hired their own private investigator to review the matter.

“An elderly lady did come forward, a member of that parish came forward and indicated that on three…

View Cache

Representatives lied about its existence, Tim Ballard walked out of an interview with FOX 13 News when asked about the case

DAVIS COUNTY, Utah — FOX 13 News was the first to report in 2020 the Davis County Attorney’s Office opened a criminal investigation into Tim Ballard and the non-profit organization he founded, Operation Underground Railroad (OUR).

Now that at least a portion of that investigation has concluded, there’s still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the focus of that case.

An article from VICE News published Friday morning gives a small snapshot, citing information about Ballard receiving “psychic readings” and communicating with the prophet Nephi.

Records show President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was at least peripherally involved in the criminal investigation.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints released a statement to FOX 13 News on Friday, citing betrayal and “morally unacceptable”…

View Cache

ROME – In a bold new statement, the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, an advisory body created by Pope Francis in 2014, has condemned what they described as a failure on the part of Church authorities in abuse prevention, saying they will push leaders to do more.

“Every day seems to bring forth new evidence of abuse, as well as cover up and mishandling by Church leadership around the world,” a Sept. 27 statement from the commission said, issued ahead of a Sept. 30 consistory for the creation of new cardinals and a Synod of Bishops beginning Oct. 4.

Some abuse cases are covered in the media and some are not, meaning many victims suffer in silence, the commission said, saying all abuse “involves the anguish and pain of a terrible betrayal, not only by the abuser, but by a Church unable or even unwilling to reckon…

View Cache

Steubenville’s Bishop Jeffrey Montforton was appointed an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Detroit Thursday, less than one year after the bishop announced an eventually stalled merger between the Steubenville diocese and its neighboring Diocese of Columbus.

The bishop has reportedly been the subject of two Vatican-ordered Vos estis lux mundi investigations, but the results in neither case have been publicly released.

The Holy See press office made Monforton’s move to Detroit public in its Sept. 28 daily bulletin. It said that the bishop had been assigned the titular see of Centuria.

A Sept. 28 USCCB statement said that the Holy See had appointed Kalamazoo Bishop Emeritus Paul Bradley as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Steubenville.

The move for Monforton, 60, comes after a tumultuous year in the Diocese of Steubenville, which began when Monforton announced last October that a process was underway to see the eastern Ohio diocese merged with…

View Cache

But Skeptics Say It’s Not Likely

At 93 and apparently suffering from dementia, former cardinal Theodore McCarrick is unlikely to be tried on criminal charges of sexual abuse. It’s likewise doubtful he’ll ever testify in court in pending civil lawsuits against him. And the Vatican seems to have moved on, having issued a long report about him almost three years ago, more than a year and a half after Pope Francis dismissed him from the clerical state. 

But some Catholics remain frustrated with what they see as unanswered questions. Among them:

· Who helped McCarrick rise in the Church hierarchy?

· Which bishop candidates did he champion, and why?

· Who in the hierarchy knew about McCarrick’s behavior with teenagers and young men, when did they know it, and why didn’t they stop it? 

In November 2020, the Vatican released a 449-page report on McCarrick that describes how the…

View Cache

The Anglican Church in North America, formed in 2009 after splitting from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, will soon begin a high-profile church trial against a beloved bishop who is accused of welcoming men with histories of predatory behavior into church leadership. One of those men, a former lay minister, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for felony sexual assault.

Bishop Stewart Ruch, head of ACNA’s Upper Midwest Diocese, is also facing separate church charges brought by three other bishops. Meanwhile, the diocese’s churches have suffered through years of controversy and power struggles.

Given the number of accusations and crimes involved, the increasing awareness of abuse and ACNA’s relatively short existence as a denomination, some have asked whether ACNA or Ruch lacked infrastructure of accountability or safeguards against abuse. How, in other words, could things…

View Cache

An itinerant minister based in Middle Tennessee has been charged with multiple counts of child rape and sexual battery. His wife has been charged with facilitation of the alleged crimes and related abuse and neglect. 

This morning at Rutherford County Circuit Criminal Court in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Benjamin Garlick, 32, and his wife, Shaantal Garlick, 29, appeared for an initial arraignment hearing.

Benjamin Garlick faces five counts of aggravated rape of a child, five counts of aggravated sexual battery, and one count each of soliciting sexual exploitation of a child under age 13 and continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Shaantal Garlick faces one count each of facilitation of aggravated rape of a child and aggravated abuse/neglect/endangerment of a child age 8 or under.

According to multiple reports, the couple has ministered as itinerant Christian evangelists with their six children. In recent years, the Garlicks…

View Cache

The Belgian Catholic Church will have to answer before a litigation chamber of the Data Protection Authority for its retention of names and details of people who chose to remove themselves from the baptismal register – known in Dutch as being de-baptised.

A recent documentary about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church (called ‘Godvergeten’), as well as extensive media coverage of a well-known Flemish radio presenter embroiled in a paedophilia scandal, have seen a large number of baptised people taking steps to officially break ties with the Church.

However, even after people are de-baptised, the Catholic Church still keeps track of the names of the people who have removed themselves from the register – leading to questions about whether the Church is breaching the European GDPR legislation protecting private data.

Therefore, Belgium’s Data Protection Authority (GBA) is looking into that question in a litigation chamber in the coming weeks…

View Cache

Former priest charged with rape, kidnapping, crimes against nature

A judge has denied a lower bond request for retired Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker. His bond is set at $855,000.

Earlier this month he entered a not guilty plea in court.

Previous Reporting

Retired Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker turned himself into the NOPD this morning.

He was transported to the Orleans Parish Justice Center and booked on charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape, aggravated crimes against nature, and theft.

Hecker was indicted by an Orleans Parish grand jury Thursday.

Hecker, who’s 91 years old is a retired priest, is accused of being a serial child molester.

View Cache

Child pornography is “criminality available to everyone through their phones,” Pope Francis said.

Discussing abuse prevention with representatives of a safeguarding research and formation center from Latin America Sept. 25, the pope put aside his prepared remarks to address “a problem that is very serious on this matter of abuse, the filming of child pornography.”

“Unfortunately, by paying a small fee, one can have it one their phone,” he said. “Where is this child pornography made? In which country is it made? Nobody knows. But it is criminality available to everyone through their phones.”

“Please let us talk about this, too,” Pope Francis urged the group of professionals from a variety of fields working to combat abuse in the church across Latin America. “These children who are recorded, are victims, sophisticated victims of this consumer society.”

In August, the pope told reporters during his return flight from Portugal that livestreamed…

View Cache

When Bishop Rick Stika resigned from the Diocese of Knoxville in June, he said in a statement that he hoped to find “relief” from the responsibilities he experienced as a diocesan bishop.

But while Stika may now have found “relief,” many Catholics in the Knoxville diocese — including many of its priests — are still processing the circumstances of Stika’s departure, and the multiple allegations of misconduct filed against him.

The diocese is now waiting for the appointment of a new bishop. But shortly after Stika resigned, The Pillar talked with Fr. Brent Shelton, a senior Knoxville priest who took a leave of absence from active ministry this spring, after alleging that Stika had become retributive toward him and toward several other priests, whom the bishop reportedly blamed for the allegations against him. 

Shelton reflected on what the situation in the Diocese of Knoxville can teach the Church about her efforts toward reform,…

View Cache

Today, Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown  released an updated interim Attorney General’s Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.  

According to Brown’s office the updated report removes some redactions that the court had previously ordered.

The revised interim public release is available on the website of the Office of the Attorney General www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov and can also be accessed here

 The office encourages those who haven’t yet, but may be ready to do so now, to reach out to us to report past abuse by members of the clergy by calling 410-576-6312 or emailing report@oag.state.md.us.  

Original Story (Aug. 22): A Baltimore court ruled last week that more redacted names can be revealed from the attorney general’s report into child sexual abuse at the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The Circuit Court for Baltimore City on Tuesday released its opinion that grants in part and denies in part…

View Cache

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released a newer, less-redacted version Tuesday of its report on the history of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, but some key names remain hidden as people are appealing their inclusion.

The names of five high-ranking Catholic officials who helped enable and cover-up abuse, according to the report, are still redacted along with the name of one alleged abuser.

Their names, which The Baltimore Sun previously verified and published, were set to be included in this most recent version of the report but are being withheld because the six are appealing the court’s decision to release them. Another alleged abuser’s name is being withheld because the attorney general’s office was unable to contact him — The Sun also was able to identify him.

The attorney general’s report, released in April, details how at least 156 clergy and laypersons abused more than 600…

View Cache

Following months of litigation that has played out under seal, the Maryland Office of the Attorney General on Tuesday released a new, less-redacted version of its 450-page report detailing decades of allegations of sexual abuse and cover-ups within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The new version of the report is embedded below.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert K. Taylor Jr. last month ruled that redactions could be lifted for 43 of 46 names that were blacked out in the interim report, which came out on April 5. He authorized the attorney general to release a new version of the document as soon as Sept. 26.

“The court’s order enables my office to continue to lift the veil of secrecy over decades of horrifying abuse suffered by the survivors,” Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement at the time.

Though the new version of…

View Cache

The unredacted report detailing child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore was released to the public Tuesday by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. 

Eight more names in the report were made public. The Attorney General’s Office hinted more will be published after an appeals process.

The report does not yet name five top church officials who investigators say helped enable and cover up abuse.

A Baltimore judge last month ordered that redactions be lifted for all but three of the names blacked out from a report on the history of sex abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

You can read the report here.

“People in the pews will now see that, in fact, these guys were as complicit in these crimes as the abusers,” said David Lorenz, Director of the Maryland Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The Maryland Attorney General released the  View Cache

Maryland’s attorney general released some previously redacted names in its staggering report on child sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore on Tuesday, but the names of five Catholic Church leaders remained redacted amid ongoing appeals, prompting criticism of the church by victims’ advocates.

While the names of the high-ranking church leaders already have been reported by local media, the Maryland director of Survivors of those Abused by Priests said he was disappointed, but not surprised that resistance continues against transparency and accountability.

“Once again, it just shows that the church is not doing what they say they’re doing,” said David Lorenz. “They’re just not. They’re not being open and transparent, and they should be, and they claim to be.”

Lorenz said he questioned whether the names in the report would ever be made public.

“I don’t have a ton of confidence, because the church is extremely powerful…

View Cache

A scandal centering on sexual abuse allegations against a long-deceased cardinal has created a “very difficult situation” for the troubled Catholic Church in Germany, a top German bishop said Monday, hours after a statue of the late cleric was removed from its perch outside Essen Cathedral.

The accusations against Cardinal Franz Hengsbach, who died in 1991, added to a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy that has shaken the German church.

Last week, the Essen diocese said there were suspicions that Hengsbach may have abused a 16-year-old girl in the 1950s when he was an auxiliary bishop in nearby Paderborn, and that another person — according to German news agency dpa, also a woman — also accuses him of abusing them in 1967, when he was bishop of Essen.

In a letter to parishes released on Friday, Essen’s current bishop, Franz-Josef Overbeck, apologized for his mistakes in…

View Cache

Johnny Hunt, who condemned same-sex marriage, says his own infidelity is a private matter

The religious hypocrisy of a former Southern Baptist Convention leader is center stage in an ongoing lawsuit, arguing that one man’s private sins shouldn’t be fodder for public allegations.

It all stems back to revelations from 2022 about the SBC, in which we learned that, over the previous decade, more than 250 SBC staffers or volunteers had been “charged with sex crimes” against more than 700 victims. We also learned in the SBC’s own investigation that a private list of alleged predators (that wasn’t shared with member churches) included “703 abusers, with 409 believed to be SBC-affiliated.” The situation was so bad that the Department of Justice announced it was investigating “multiple SBC entities,” though not specific individuals, about their mishandling of sexual abuse cases. That investigation is ongoing.

But the relevant part of that document for today’s story…

View Cache

THIS is the Malaga priest who is accused of drugging four women before filming himself having sex with their unconscious bodies.

Francisco Javier Cuenca, 34, was arrested on September 11 by Policia Nacional at the home he shares with his mother – who was a nun – in Velez-Malaga.

The investigation began in August when his partner, with whom he had lived in Melilla, reported him to the Family and Care Unit for Women (UFAM) after discovering his hard drive filled with the disturbing videos.

The alleged victims were stunned when contacted by the authorities, as they had no idea they had been sexually assaulted, reports La Opinion de Malaga.

Francisco J.C.,…

View Cache

Christopher Saunders, who denies grooming young boys, criticised the Catholic church’s response to child sexual abuse allegations at a royal commission in 2017

A Catholic leader now accused of assaulting or grooming dozens of young Aboriginal men once told a royal commission there was a “massive failure” in churches’ response to sexual abuse allegations.

A Vatican report leaked this week alleged that Broome bishop, Christopher Saunders, hosted “bunga bunga” parties, and spent church money on alcohol, cigarettes and mobile phones, according to Channel Seven. Saunders, who has stood down but has not been charged, denies the allegations.

According to Channel Seven, the report alleges four youths were sexually assaulted, and another 67 potentially groomed. One reported allegation dates back to 1976, when Saunders was a priest in Clovelly, Sydney, although Saunders’ diocese biography lists him being in WA from 1975 onwards.

In 2016, Saunders gave a witness statement to the royal…

View Cache

Cardinal Franz Hengsbach, who died in 1991, is the first German cardinal to be accused of abuse

A prominently placed statue of the late Cardinal Franz Hengsbach has been removed in the western German city of Essen. Allegations of abuse against the bishop who founded the Essen Diocese were made public by the diocese Sept. 19.

Work to remove the statue began at 7 a.m. local time Sept. 25 and lasted an hour, according to a spokesman for the diocese. Photos published online showed the statue being hoisted onto a truck with a crane. The cathedral board had decided in a special meeting Sept. 22 to remove the sculpture, which was close to the Essen Cathedral.

Cardinal Hengsbach, who died in 1991, is the first German cardinal to be accused of abuse.

The Essen Diocese said there were suspicions that the cardinal may have abused a 16-year-old girl in the…

View Cache

Over the past several days, hard-boiled newsman Ed Condon reluctantly conceded that “there is a motivating force for the protection of Rupnik,” and Robert Mickens—a veteran Vatican hand generally well disposed to Francis—openly asked whether Pope Francis isn’t the one protecting him.

How bad is this Rupnik business? It is very, very bad. The Rupnik business is worse—by orders of magnitude—than l’Affaire Barros, l’Affaire Inzoli, worse even than l’Affaire Zanchetta. The disgraceful rehabilitation of Danneels is mere tasteless imprudence by comparison. The Rupnik business will stain Pope Francis’s legacy, and possibly define it.

Over the past several days, hard-boiled newsman Ed Condon reluctantly conceded that “there is a motivating force for the protection of Rupnik,” and Robert Mickens—a veteran Vatican hand generally well disposed to Francis—openly asked whether Pope Francis isn’t the one protecting him.

The cardinal vicar of Rome, Angelo…

View Cache

“The Rupnik business will stain Pope Francis’s legacy, and possibly define it,” writes Christopher Altieri in Catholic World Report. The evidence is there— no doubt about that— and give Altieri due credit for making the case. But I question whether this scandal will damage the Pope’s standing with the mainstream media. Having overlooked one scandal after another throughout this pontificate, why would complacent reporters balk at this one?

In his bid to demonstrate the gravity of the latest scandal (and again, I will not argue the point), Altieri begins his essay thus:

How bad is this Rupnik business? It is very, very bad. The Rupnik business is worse— by orders of magnitude— than l’Affaire Barros, l’Affaire Insoli, worse even than l’Affaire Zanchetta. The disgraceful rehabilitation of Danneels is mere tasteless imprudence by contrast.

Each one of the scandals to which Altieri refers involves the protection and/or promotion of…

View Cache

The young woman who former Mobile priest Alex Crow coerced into leaving Mobile for Europe with him this summer is no longer allowed to talk to her mother, a family representative said Wednesday.

Mobile attorney Christine Hernandez said the 30-year-old cleric and the young woman who graduated from McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in May are still in Italy, where they have lived since the end of July. Recently, Crow contacted a member of the young woman’s family and told them he will no longer allow her to speak to her mother.

“He’s targeted the mother of this child saying she’s the one that’s ruining his life, and because of her, they’re not going to be talking to her or having anything to do with her,” Hernandez said. “He won’t let her call the mother and talk to her.”

In August, Hernandez said Crow forced the young woman to rely on him…

View Cache

In the Philippines, the powerful ruling elites that controlled the passing of laws in the Congress blocked the efforts of child rights advocates for years to raise the age of consent for a child to have sexual relations from 12 year old to 16.

When powerful congress-women were elected in recent years, that changed. Only in March 2022, the age when a child could give consent was raised to 16 years of age. Any sexual act against a 16-year old and younger is statutory sex abuse, according to Republic Act (RA) No. 11648.

Child abuse is widespread in the Department of Education, too, a situation that the majority of good teachers and principals find difficult to uncover. The dedicated Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also the Education secretary, has a big challenge to eliminate child sexual abuse being perpetrated by male teachers.

She should order their immediate suspension when…

View Cache

Avid readers each day of Pearls and Irritations (of which I am one) hopefully enjoyed Paddy Gourley’s review of Martin Flanagan’s new memoir ‘The Empty Honour Board: A School Memoir’. Stimulated by that review I have now read Flanagan’s remarkably honest and painful memoir. His story is consistent with repeated accounts of sexual abuse and unwarranted physical punishment in Catholic schools across Australia in the 1950s and onwards. Bad news receives more attention than good news. However there are and were many teachers in the Catholic education system (the vast majority probably) whose fine contributions have been accidentally tarnished by the necessary accounts of abuse including the one written by Flanagan.

Like Martin Flanagan, I too was sent to a Catholic boarding school at a young age. In my case, I was thirteen when I was sent to an all-boys Marist Brothers’ college in central Victoria from 1955-1958. The total enrolment…

View Cache

The slow-burn saga of Broome bishop Christopher Saunders has again hit national headlines with an independent report commissioned by the Vatican this week describing him as a sexual predator.

Bishop Saunders strenuously denies any wrongdoing and has never been charged with an offence.

But the Vatican will soon have to decide whether he remains an honoured emeritus Bishop or is defrocked in disgrace.

The case has much in common with international Catholic Church abuse cases — allegations of secrecy, sexual misconduct and abuses of power.

But at the heart of it are some of the most remote and vulnerable communities in Australia, where some deeply religious Aboriginal elders believe speaking out against the church can trigger floods and other natural disasters.

Over the past four years there’s been a distinctly outback flavour to this slowly unfolding crisis.

To this day, Bishop Saunders has a beer named after him at a popular Broome brewery, where a large painting of the cleric…

View Cache

Event organisers say it’s ‘crunch time’ for pope as scandal and bigotry drive Church members to leave

They make up more than half its membership, they have been denied a say for centuries in the way it is run: but, early next month, women will gather in Rome for a process that they hope can bring the Catholic church’s thinking on female equality into the 21st century.

The central event is a mass listening exercise announced by Pope Francis in 2021, the synod on synodality. Its delegates will meet in Rome throughout October to discern the future direction of key issues in the church; and at the forefront of soundings already taken across the 1.3 billion-strong Catholic church across the globe has been the role of women.

To underline this clamour for change, a consortium of 45 pro-reform Catholic organisations will run their own synod – entitled Spirit Unbounded – alongside…

View Cache

The Commission of Investigation concluded its first public hearings this week with new light thrown on the case.

In its second week sitting in public, the Commission of Investigation examining an alleged child abuse cover-up in Waterford city heard new details around how State agencies and political figures handled the scandal.

The commission is looking at whether convicted sex offender Bill Kenneally, who is currently in prison for the abuse of 15 boys, could have been stopped much sooner than he was.

Across this week’s three lengthy hearings in the Dispute Resolution Centre in Dublin’s Law Library, filled with survivors and their family members, the commission heard:

• There may be twice as many victims of the sports coach as was previously known
• A former Fianna Fáíl TD, who was a cousin of the sex offender, denied being aware of his cousin’s abuse of children in the 1980s
• That same TD admitted he…

View Cache

A civil court ruled that the woman was sexually abused by a chaplain in a Christian-run hospital in Tokyo in 2017

A Japanese woman who was sexually assaulted by a chaplain in a Christian-run hospital has sued three pastors and two Christian newspapers for publicly alleging she lied about her ordeal, says a report.

The unnamed woman filed a defamation lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court on Sept. 21, seeking 3.3 million yen ($22,300) in damages and the removal of the newspaper articles, Asahi Shimbun reported on Sept. 22.

During a press conference in Tokyo on the same day, the woman alleged that the statement from the pastors and the newspaper articles that carried the statement “victimized” her for the second time in 2018.

She reported to police after the chaplain, who provides mental care at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo, abused her in 2017 while undergoing treatment for an intractable…

View Cache

The Australian Bishops Conference confirms the Church has provided civil authorities with a copy of an independent report on accusations of abuse and grooming against Bishop Christopher Saunders, and offers important clarifications concerning the Church’s handling of the case.

The Church in Australia has provided West Australia police with its internal report on accusations of sexual misconduct and grooming made against Christopher Saunders, the Bishop emeritus of Broome. The Bishops clarified that the Church was never opposed to providing the report to the police, and said, “to portray the discussions” about handing the report over “as in any way adversarial is false.”

In a statement issued on Friday, the Bishops noted that the Church immediately responded positively to the police request for the report, and that the report was handed over to the Deputy Commissioner of Police two days later.

Investigated under Vos estis

According to a statement issued on Friday,…

View Cache

The quasi-religious group with over 3,500 members is nestled in an enclosed, heavily guarded mountainous area in Mindanao region

The Philippine parliament has issued a summons to a quasi-religious group following allegations that some of its members, including leaders, committed crimes including rape and forced marriage of children.

The Senate, the upper house, issued the summons on Sept. 21 to the Soccorro Bayanihan Services Inc. (SBSI), based in Surigao province in Mindanao region, GMA News reported.

The community registered as a civic-religious group, has reportedly agreed to face the hearing scheduled on Sept. 28 and an investigation into the allegations. 

The group’s leader, Jey Rence Quilario, was also accused of being involved in illegal drugs, and firearms and building a private army, the report said.

Quilario, together with 12 others, were accused of sexual abuse of minors after their alleged victims claimed they were forced to “give up” their virginity as “offering to…

View Cache

It is hardly surprising that SNAP — the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — should doubt the good faith of the Catholic hierarchy.

When you have spent years watching child abusers discreetly shuttled back and forth between parishes, you are bound to conclude that appearances take precedence over the physical and psychological welfare of the youngsters in pastoral care.

We have known for some years now that the church was on the hook for damages owed to the victims of predatory clerics and that the final bill would be ruinous, but the scope of the problem is only just now becoming a little clearer. Even going broke is an expensive business in America. Attorney and consultant bills alone so far exceed $26 million.

If SNAP already had good reason to take archdiocesan pronouncements with a grain of salt, it is on high alert right now, figuring that this would be logical…

View Cache

A statue of late German Cardinal Franz Hengsbach will be removed from outside a cathedral in western Germany after allegations of sexual abuse against him surfaced, Catholic church officials said Friday.

A memorial for victims of sexual abuse will be created to take the place of the statue, which was erected in 2011, German news agency dpa reported, citing Thomas Zander, the dean of the cathedral of the city of Essen.

The move came after several hours of closed-door deliberations.

The controversy around the statue, which is located just outside Essen Cathedral, was sparked on Tuesday when the German Dioceses of Essen and Paderborn announced that they had started investigations into at least three sexual abuse allegations brought against Hengsbach.

Two allegations date back to the 1950s and 1960s. The first case alleges that Hengsbach abused a 16-year-old girl in 1954 while he was still an auxiliary bishop in the…

View Cache

FALSCHE EINSCHÄTZUNG DER ERSTEN MELDUNG IM JAHR 2011

ESSEN ‐ Schon 2011 wurde Bischof Overbeck erstmals über einen Missbrauchsvorwurf gegen seinen Vorgänger Kardinal Hengsbach informiert. Rom hielt den Vorwurf nicht für plausibel, Overbeck sah den Fall als erledigt an – ein Fehler. Jetzt zieht der Bischof Konsequenzen.

Der Essener Bischof Franz-Josef Overbeck hat Fehler im Umgang mit den Missbrauchsvorwürfen gegen seinen Vorgänger Kardinal Franz Hengsbach eingeräumt. Aus heutiger Sicht sehe er es als persönlichen Fehler an, 2011 den ersten ihm bekannt gewordenen Vorwurf als erledigt betrachtet zu haben, schreibt er in einem Brief an die Gläubigen seines Bistums am Freitag. Overbeck wurde im August 2011 durch das Erzbistum Paderborn über einen Vorwurf informiert, der in Hengsbachs Zeit als Weihbischof dort fiel. Der Essener Bischof sei mündlich darüber informiert worden, dass die Glaubenskongregation den Vorwurf nicht als plausibel einordnet. “Daraufhin unternahm ich nichts weiter, denn ich sah den Fall als…

View Cache

Recently I was surprised to see a post from one of my former seminary professors quoting leadership advice from John Ortberg. Perhaps he did not know what caused John Ortberg to resign from his church.

Multiple credible media reports have noted Ortberg left his last position as pastor because he allowed one of his children to continue to volunteer with minors after discovering the adult child struggled with a sexual attraction to minors. While reports and opinions vary on the result of investigations, Ortberg was reinstated after a period of leave and said he “failed to do the right thing” and apologized for his “lack of transparency.” Later he and the church parted ways, citing broken trust and fallout from his poor decision making.

I don’t think sharing leadership advice from this man is appropriate and said so in the social media comments. Particularly coming from a dean of a seminary. I’m grateful…

View Cache

A settlement worth millions of pounds in the case of one of Canada’s most prolific sexual abusers has been agreed with the Anglican Church of Canada and Scouts Canada.

A former priest and volunteer with the Scouts, Ralph Rowe, is believed to have abused hundreds of boys in Indigenous communities in Ontario and Manitoba in the 1970s and ’80s.

Rowe has a total of nearly 60 convictions for sexual abuse, but he served less than five years in prison, owing to a plea bargain. Now in his eighties, he lives on Vancouver Island.

The class action against his employers, the Anglican diocese of Keewatin and Scouts Canada, was begun in 2017. The diocese and the Scouts had previously accepted shared liability for their failure to stop his abuse. A proposed settlement was agreed last month, and posted on the website of the law firm representing the survivors, but still needs to be formally…

View Cache

Walking alongside those who have been abused by a Catholic Church representative is a collaborative effort for the archdiocesan office for protection and care (OPC).

This summer, the office added two new team members to the mix.

Jessica Crocker was hired as a victim care advocate in August, just a few weeks after Kristi Lam became the office’s new investigator/auditor.

“These positions are critical to the ministry of the OPC,” said director Jenifer Valenti.

“We are working to earn lost trust and the confidence of the community,” she continued, “which is why it is so important our team is qualified, dedicated and has a balanced and well-informed approach.”

‘Counselor by trade’

Crocker, who received a bachelor’s degree in psychology before earning a master’s in counseling, will work closely with fellow victim care advocate Amy Stork.

She’s had experience in the areas of employee assistance, trauma response and private practice. She’s…

View Cache

Canberra – The Vatican had shared with police findings of an internal investigation of a former Australian bishop over child sex abuse allegations and the church would fully cooperate with criminal investigators, a cleric said on Friday.

The Catholic Church announced the handover of its investigation report into former Bishop Christopher Saunders three days after the Western Australia Police Force publicly revealed it had requested a copy.

“The church will continue to offer full transparency and cooperation with W.A. Police,” Bishop Michael Morrissey, who replaced Saunders in the Broome Diocese in 2021, said in a statement.

“The church encourages anyone who has experienced abuse, or suspects abuse within the community, to come forward and report it to police,” Morrissey added.

Saunders, now 73, denied any wrongdoing and refused to participate in the Vatican investigation, which began last year, the church said.

He resigned in…

View Cache

In a Sept. 5 message to members of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Archbishop William E. Lori said that in light of the Oct. 1 implementation of a new law in Maryland that removed any statute of limitations for civil suits involving child sexual abuse approaches, the archdiocese was weighing its options to respond to potential lawsuits.

The Child Victims Act, passed by the Maryland General Assembly earlier this year, removed any statute of limitations for suits that were previously barred because the abuse happened decades ago. It also caps damages against public institutions such as government schools at $890,000 per claimant for injuries arising from an incident or occurrence; non-economic damages awarded to a single claimant against individuals or private institutions such as churches are capped at $1.5 million per defendant.

Archbishop Lori said the archdiocese has several options to address the number of cases expected to be filed in…

View Cache

Paris prosecutors have closed a sexual abuse investigation against the former Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit, concluding that charges brought against him by a female parishioner had no foundation.  

The accusations, which Archbishop Aupetit has always denied, led to avid speculation about his private life and led Pope Francis unexpectedly to accept his perfunctory offer to resign.

“Mgr Aupetit…was certain that it could only end with no further action being taken. He can continue to act in his pastoral mission without there being any difficulty from now on,” his lawyer Jean Reinhart said.

Since leaving Paris, Aupetit – who was a doctor for 11 years before entering the seminary – has lived in a monastery near Toulouse and worked with groups helping the poor.

The scandal broke in late 2021, when France was reeling from a damning report on widespread clerical sexual abuse going back to 1950.

The Pope said…

View Cache

The Catholic Church will give West Australian police a Vatican report that concluded a longstanding bishop of Broome sexually assaulted four Aboriginal boys and young men and groomed dozens more.

The report found Christopher Saunders hosted “bunga bunga” parties at church properties and spent thousands of dollars of church money on cash payments, mobile phones, alcohol and cigarettes, the Seven Network has reported.

The bishop has denied the allegations and has not been charged by WA Police but he resigned in 2020 after sexual misconduct and bullying claims emerged.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said that following a request from WA Police the church was “taking immediate steps” to provide them with a copy of the report.

“The church and Western Australia Police remain in ongoing and collaborative contact in relation to this matter,” he said in a brief statement late on Wednesday.

Earlier this week…

View Cache

Several hundred people showed up for the outdoor blessing service for same-sex and also heterosexual couples. About 30 couples were blessed.

Berlin – Several Catholic priests held a ceremony blessing same-sex couples outside Cologne Cathedral on Wednesday night in a protest against the city’s conservative archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki.

Their protest was triggered by Cologne church officials’ criticism of a priest from Mettmann, a town near Duesseldorf, who in March had held a “blessing ceremony for lovers” — including same-sex couples.

Officials from the Cologne archdiocese, which Mettmann belongs to, had reprimanded the priest afterward and stressed that the Vatican doesn’t allow blessings of same-sex couples, German news agency dpa reported.

The blessing of same-sex couples on Wednesday was the latest sign of rebellion of progressive believers in Germany’s most populous diocese with about 1.8 million members.

Several hundred people showed up for the outdoor blessing service for same-sex…

View Cache

The clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church has long been over and now it is practically non-existent. To be sure, there continues to be a tiny fraction of the clergy who are offenders, but it has long since been of the magnitude of a scandal. But don’t look to the media to tell you this. And don’t take our word for it—just consult the data.

On p. 41 of the recently released 2022 Annual Report on the Implementation of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” it lists data on credible allegations against the clergy made between 2004 and 2022:

• 2 percent occurred or began in the 2000s
• 1 percent occurred or began in the 2010s
• Less than 1 percent occurred or began between 2020 and 2022

In short, contemporary news reports about priestly sexual abuse are almost always about alleged offenses that took place decades…

View Cache

It’s 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and locals and tourists make their way into the iconic St. Louis Cathedral, the seat of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

As they seek peace through prayer inside the country’s oldest cathedral, many of these attendees come with a heavy heart: The Archdiocese is struggling under payments owed to survivors of sex abuse estimated to be in excess of $100 million. 

Mark Vath is one victim, but he’s also a victims’ advocate, as the New Orleans representative of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. 

“We want justice and consequences. Period,” he said. “These people should be punished for what they did, especially men of God.”

The Archdiocese of New Orleans says when they originally filed for bankruptcy in 2020, they were facing 30 abuse claims. Today, they say that the number is 500.

In a letter posted…

View Cache

Father Alejandro Ortega, Rev. Jesus Eduardo “Lalo” Martinez-Solis both removed from service

Converse TX – No criminal charges have been filed against two Catholic priests in the San Antonio Archdiocese accused of sexual abuse against minors.

Both priests were removed from their church duties last month by the archdiocese.

According to San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, Father Alejandro Ortega, a priest at St. Monica’s Church in Converse, was accused of sexually inappropriate physical contact with a minor.

“The Archdiocesan Review Board reviewed the investigation and advised me that there was sufficient evidence of sexually inappropriate physical contact with a minor to require that I refer the matter to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith for their judgement on the matter. The Review Board further recommended that Father Ortega may pose a continuing risk to minors, that he should not be returned to ministry, and that the affected communities…

View Cache

The former Bishop of Broome has been described by witnesses as a sexual predator who preyed upon vulnerable Aboriginal men and boys

A Pope Francis-commissioned investigation has discovered that Retired Bishop Christopher Saunders of Broome, 73, in Australia allegedly sexually assaulted four young people, while grooming another 67.  

According to 7NEWS, the investigation came under Pope Francis’ “motu proprio” Vos estis lux mundi (“You are the light of the world”), his apostolic letter on preventing the “crimes” of sexual abuse against minors and vulnerable people that came into force in June 2019. 

“The bishop has been variously described by witnesses as… a sexual predator that seeks to prey upon vulnerable Aboriginal men and boys,” 7NEWS reported, quoting the investigation’s final 200-page report. “During the investigation, four victims of sexual (delictual) acts were identified… Sixty-seven additional Aboriginal boys and men were also identified as persons that may have been subjected to…

View Cache

Representatives of various religious denominations in France meet to address new data that suggests women of faith are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse

The forms of sexual violence are dramatically diverse: incest, violence by a religious leader, domestic violence, etc.

.And statistics show that women of faith are more exposed to this abuse than others, no matter what religion they belong to. A survey carried out in 2000 showed that 7.8% of women with no religious affiliation were victims of domestic violence, while the figure rose to 9.1% for Catholic or Protestant women, and 17% for Muslim or Jewish women. 

This reality led the Conference of Religious Leaders in France, which was created in 2010, to meet on Tuesday in Paris for its first-ever study day on sexual violence. 

A historic milestone 

“This is a major first. All religious denominations recognize that they are concerned by this scourge, and agree…

View Cache

Pope Francis has dismissed from the priesthood Father Pio Aclon of Borongan, Eastern Samar, for alleged sex abuse, the news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) reported on Sunday, September 17.

The Pope expelled Aclon “for sexual abuse involving minors,” said CBCP News, which noted that Aclon “last served at a minor seminary in Borongan before the diocese suspended him from his clerical duties.”

Earlier on Sunday, the Diocese of Borongan released a July 18 announcement that stated: “Notice is hereby given that the Holy Father Pope Francis has dismissed from the clerical state PIO CULTURA ACLON of the Diocese of Borongan. He is, therefore, no longer a cleric and cannot exercise priestly ministry in the Church.”

Father James Abella, chancellor of the diocese, signed the notice “by the mandate of His Excellency, the Most Reverend Crispin B. Varquez, DD, the Bishop of Borongan.”

“This advisory…

View Cache

A youth pastor, who’s being sued along with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in a potentially precedent-setting sex abuse case, is facing a new allegation of sexual misconduct, dating back 16 years.

This allegation is contained in a police report filed this summer and obtained by The Roys Report (TRR). In the report, a woman claims that former youth pastor, Michael D’Attoma, groomed and solicited photos from her from 2007—2008. This is when D’Attoma worked as a youth pastor at Rural Chapel Methodist Church in Galena, Ohio.

From 2009—2012, D’Attoma was youth pastor at Northside Baptist Church in Lexington, S.C. And, as previously reported by TRR, two women, who were students in D’Attoma’s ministry at Northside Baptist, are suing D’Attoma for allegedly sexually abusing them during their time there.

The women are also suing Northside Baptist Church, as well as the SBC and the South Carolina Baptist Convention (SCBC),…

View Cache

German Cardinal Franz Hengsbach is accused of having sexually abused three individuals in the 1950s and 60s. Victims groups want to know if Pope Benedict was involved in quashing an investigation a decade ago.

The German Dioceses of Essen and Paderborn have separately announced an investigation into sexual abuse allegations brought against Cardinal Franz Hengsbach (1910-1991) in 2011 and 2022.

Hengsbach is accused of having sexually assaulted three individuals, at least two of whom were young women, one a minor, throughout his career.

The first of these alleges that he abused a 16-year-old girl in 1954 while he was an auxiliary bishop in the city of Paderborn. The alleged victim originally came forth with the accusations in 2011, 10 years after Hengsbach’s death.

The accuser leveled abuse allegations at Hengsbach’s brother Paul, too. Also a priest, Paul Hengsbach vehemently denied the accusations until his death in 2018.

Church investigators original conclusion ‘clearly…

View Cache

Soon after she learned what happened, Helmut Kramer’s mother grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the priest out of photographs from her son’s baptism.

“She kept the photos after that,” said Kramer, who was sexually abused at age 12 in a Jesuit school in Antofagasta, a city in northern Chile.

“My mom is still Catholic, but she never attended Mass again. She says that she will never set foot in a church, and she does not trust the pope or any priest,” the 53-year-old Chilean said.

His mother’s feelings echo hundreds of Chileans who have distanced themselves from the Catholic Church since 2010, when victims of another priest, Fernando Karadima, raised awareness about clergy sex abuse in the South American country.

The Karadima case shook the Vatican itself and marred Pope Francis’ trip to Chile in 2018. Instead of applause, he was greeted with unprecedented protests against…

View Cache

WDSU Investigates is digging deeper into new claims against a 92-year-old former priest now in jail accused of rape and kidnapping.

The case against Lawrence Hecker rocked the New Orleans catholic church to its core, with alleged abuse from his arrest dating back to the 1970s.

The new allegations are separate from the criminal charges Hecker is facing.

In these new claims, one of Hecker’s accusers alleges while being an altar server in 1983, Hecker allegedly had him and other young boys strip down naked to “inspect” them.

His accuser alleges that it is their belief the archdiocese of New Orleans was aware, or became aware, of Hecker’s sexual molestation of children prior to this incident.

In a separate claim, one of Hecker’s accusers alleges abuse during the early 1980s.

In another location, his accuser says he and Hecker went to walk in the woods and see a stream.

…

View Cache

Number of claimants now north of 200 as Sept. 30 deadline approaches

Survivors of abuse at the hands of Mount Cashel’s Christian Brothers and Roman Catholic clergy in the St. John’s Archdiocese have until the end of the month to apply for compensation.

And that court-imposed deadline has prompted an influx of new claimants to reach out to lawyers like Geoff Budden, who has spent the last three decades pursuing justice for abuse victims.

Budden said at least two dozen people have come forward in recent months; people who say they’ve lived with trauma for decades, and never told their story — until now.

“People often only come forward when they know they have to come forward by a certain date or else they will never be able to seek compensation,” said Budden.

The deadline to file a so-called proof of claim with lawyers like Budden is 5 p.m. NT on Saturday, Sept….

View Cache

Police say they are considering a criminal investigation into a West Australian Catholic bishop accused of sexual misconduct, in light of a leaked Vatican report that levels serious allegations against him.

Key points:

• Catholic Bishop Christopher Saunders has been accused of sexual misconduct in a Vatican report
• Leaked extracts allege the Bishop committed sexual abuse, financial misconduct
• Police and the Attorney-General have asked the Vatican to hand over the full report

The Vatican commissioned an investigation into long-time Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders, with extracts of the 200-page report published by Channel 7 and The Australian this week.

Allegations against Bishop Saunders include that he sexually assaulted four teenagers and young men, potentially groomed another 67 and used church funds to purchase alcohol for Indigenous youth.

Bishop Saunders has been based in the Kimberley for almost 50 years and has denied any wrongdoing.

WA Police had previously investigated allegations of sexual and professional misconduct against Bishop Saunders,…

View Cache