ABUSE TRACKER

Bolivia’s Jesuit congregation apologized Tuesday and announced an investigation into a late Spanish priest who allegedly abused several minors in Bolivia dating back to the 1980s.

“We apologize for the pain this has caused,” said the Rev. Bernardo Mercado, head of the Catholic religious order known as La Compañía de Jesús. He said the congregation has launched a probe that seeks to bring justice for the victims and called the situation an “embarrassment.”

The case of Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas Moreno came to light over the weekend in a report by the Spanish newspaper El País. It published excerpts of the priest’s dairy, where he allegedly admitted to having abused at least 85 children while he was a teacher in Bolivia until 2009 when he died.

Bolivian officials have not released the number of victims nor the dates in which the alleged abuse took place. But earlier this week Bolivia’s top…

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Former Catholic foundation official engaged in protected activities, according to the state Court of Appeal

A trial court must reconsider its denial of a motion to block a libel suit stemming from an email allegedly containing a false insinuation that Diocese of Orange Bishop Kevin Vann used Orange Catholic Foundation funds to cover legal expenses for clergy accused of child sex abuse, a state appellate court has ruled.

Suzanne Nunn, former interim executive director of the foundation, sent the email to 47 Catholic leaders throughout the country after Vann unilaterally terminated her and the organization’s board of directors in June 2020.

In the three-page email that bore the subject line, “You can’t make this stuff up,” Nunn asked a series of rhetorical questions regarding her firing and that of the board.

“Is this considered a hostile take-over to distribute funds the diocese needs to cover debt? Lawsuits?”  she asked, according…

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An investigation into embattled Hillsong Church by the top-rated news outlet in Australia has uncovered new revelations of financial and sexual misconduct, as key sources go on-the-record for the first time.

“Hellsong: Hillsong Church Global Investigation” first aired on Australia’s 7News on April 23 and released Friday on YouTube.

The 45-minute documentary reveals more evidence of sex abuse cover-up at Hillsong and new details of pedophilia by Frank Houston, father of Hillsong founder Brian Houston. The film also features an exclusive interview with Geoff Bullock, a worship pastor who helped found the Hills Christian Life Centre, which became Hillsong. And it reveals evidence that Houston, whose career seems dead in Australia, may be launching a comeback in the U.S.

Speaking on camera for the first time, a young woman and former Hillsong member, Piper Cameron, alleged that a male Hillsong youth leader asked her for…

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A former Baptist missionary has been found guilty of sexually abusing a 4-year-old family member, who tested positive for gonorrhea last April.

On Friday, a court in Webster County, Iowa, found 30-year-old Jordan Webb guilty of second-degree sexual abuse with persons under the age of 12, a Class B felony, according to the Messenger News. The court also convicted Webb of incest, a felony, and child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.

The jury deliberated about two hours before delivering their verdict, the Des Moines Register reported. Webb faces up to 32 years in prison at his sentencing on June 5.

Webb reportedly served from 2019—2022 as a missionary in St. Lucia with “Christ in the Caribbean.” 

According to a now-deleted Facebook page, the “sending church” for “Christ in the Caribbean” was Harvest Baptist Church, an Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) church in Fort Dodge,…

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Australian megachurch Hillsong, facing leadership scandals and allegations of financial misdeeds, has embraced a defense strategy remarkably like American televangelists facing investigations and court challenges.

Hillsong’s responses to allegations can be summarized as …

1. Deny problems exist.
2. Create churches as limited liability companies as part of a risk containment strategy. Individual churches are overseen by managers.
3. Threaten to sue critics.
4. After indisputable evidence emerges, confess, or admit that mistakes have been made.
5. Request prayer for fallen leaders.
6. Acquire expert legal advice.
7. Make personnel and board changes.
8. Experts release a report denying systemic problems exist.

Hillsong History

In 1983, Brian Houston founded Hills Christian Life Centre. The church would become Hillsong.

Actions taken by Houston more than twenty years ago still haunt the organization. In 1999, Houston learned his father Frank Houston had committed sexual abuse of children but failed to report the criminal behavior to law enforcement. Houston is currently on trial for the failure to…

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Federal agency claims several office bearers of the Church of North India are involved along with the dismissed prelate

India’s federal investigating agency has claimed that it has unearthed financial violations by a former Protestant bishop and several officers-bearers of the Church of North India (CNI).

Various office-bearers of the CNI, including former Bishop P. C. Singh, have been found “involved in gross misappropriation of Church properties through sale or renting out at much lower prices by showing them as deteriorating and encroached,” said a press release by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)on April 28.

The federal agency has been probing allegations of money laundering and foreign exchange violations against Singh, a former bishop of Jabalpur diocese of the CNI, a union of Protestant churches based in northern India. He was also the moderator of CNI’s 27 dioceses.

Singh was arrested on April 12 from his residence in Jabalpur in the central Indian state…

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The Internet Child Exploitation Unit (I.C.E.) of the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) has laid additional charges in relation to an investigation in-which the accused was involved in luring children over the internet. 

It was recently determined that the accused (who has remained in custody since his arrest on January 5) had been luring children online from locations across the world.  The accused recorded children performing sexual acts and would often pay them for doing so (often using Roblox gift cards as the currency). 

In February of 2022, the accused met with a 14-year-old female in Brampton and sexually assaulted her.

Yesterday, on May 1, investigators laid an additional 28 additional charges against the accused.

Justin Zielke (44) of Ancaster has been further charged with:

• Voyeurism (4 counts)
• Accessing Child Pornography (5 counts)
• Luring (9 counts)
• Make Child Pornography (4 counts)
• Extortion (2 counts)
• Invitation to Sexual Touching
• Sexual Interference
• Sexual Assault
• Obtaining Sexual Services from a…

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Turning the fight against this devastating crime into a matter of colour and ethnicity could allow predators to avoid detection.

Last month, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak received some criticism – and from some quarters, praise – for suggesting victims of “grooming gangs” have been ignored because of “political correctness” and “cultural sensitivities”.

“For too long, political correctness has stopped us from weeding out vile criminals who prey on children and young women,” he said, referring to the widely publicised claim that in the United Kingdom, gangs of predominantly British Pakistani men are sexually abusing young white girls and getting away with it due to the “cultural sensitivities” of those responsible for reporting any suspicion or allegation of abuse to relevant authorities. “We will stop at nothing to stamp out these dangerous gangs,” the Prime Minister added.

Before adding my voice to this conversation, it is extremely important for me…

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One of the top advisers to Buffalo Diocese Bishop Michael W. Fisher has stepped down from her post as diocese chancellor in a move that she described in an email as a firing.

Fisher notified clergy across the diocese last week saying that Sister Regina Murphy “has completed her long and distinguished tenure with the diocese.”

The bishop did not otherwise describe the circumstances around Murphy’s departure.

Joseph Martone, diocese spokesman, responded to a reporter’s inquiry about Murphy with a written statement that echoed Fisher’s memo to clergy. Martone declined to comment beyond the statement.

Murphy used the word “terminated” in explaining to department heads in the Catholic Center that she was leaving, according to two sources who read her email. She did not respond to a voice message and an email from The News seeking comment.

Murphy, who worked under eight diocese top administrators, was appointed chancellor in 2018….

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The years I was engaged brought the most change my family had experienced in at least a decade. Loss, job changes, moves, retirements, medical diagnoses: All this, and we weren’t even married yet! 

But the straw that broke the camel’s back came from an unlikely place: witness affidavit interviews. Witness affidavits are forms containing interview questions to be asked of two people who can attest to each partner’s freedom and fitness to marry as well as their sacramental history. For some reason, my now-husband and I were told ours had to be completed in person (during the pandemic) by either our parents or godparents. For two people whose parents, godparents and friends are for the most part not local, not practicing, not present or not alive, this was exceedingly challenging. We had to schedule an extra trip across the country, scrounge up trustworthy witnesses and catechize them as to the…

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Last year, I wrote about the Irish Government and their treatment of the issue of the children of priests. Subsequent to this happening, the Irish Government met with the United Nations in Geneva to respond to the UNCRC 2016 Concluding Recommendations, a document wherein the Committee asked the State party to respond to the needs of the children of priests. It was simple enough, you would think. I only wanted the State to confirm verbally/in writing, that indeed it is wrong to stigmatise a child based on paternity. I watched the Irish State meet with the UN delegation. Unfortunately, nobody brought up the issue of priests’ children and so the statement which preceded the visit to Geneva would suffice it would seem.

However, after all was done and dusted, the UN issued its reflections on what the State party had presented. In February 2023 document, the UN requested the Irish…

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A canonical investigation is however underway and Maurice Gardès is subject to sanctions.

Une enquête canonique est toutefois en cours et Maurice Gardès fait l’objet de sanctions.

Une procédure pénale pour agression sexuelle à l’encontre de l’ancien archevêque d’Auch, Maurice Gardès, a été classée sans suite, a fait savoir jeudi 27 avril le parquet, l’Eglise catholique expliquant pour sa part que le prélat fait toujours l’objet de sanctions et d’une enquête canonique.

Après un signalement du diocèse de Lyon le 1er décembre 2020, le procureur d’Auch a « immédiatement » ouvert une enquête pénale et entendu une religieuse accusant Maurice Gardès « d’agression sexuelle et de tentative de viol entre fin 2007 et 2009 », écrit le parquet dans un communiqué. « A les supposer avérés, les faits d’agression sexuelle, de nature délictuelle, étaient atteints par la prescription », précise-t-il, ajoutant que « l’enquête n’a pas permis d’établir (…) les faits de tentative de viol dénoncés, de nature criminelle »….

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In September 2020, the diocese of Lyon received the testimony of a nun reporting facts of “moral and sexual harassment, spiritual abuse and sexual assault” involving Bishop Maurice Gardès, former archbishop of Auch.

Retrouvez ci-dessus le communiqué des diocèses d’Auch, Lyon et Toulouse, du 27 avril 2023, au sujet de Mgr Maurice Gardès.

Le diocèse de Lyon a reçu en septembre 2020 le témoignage d’une religieuse faisant état de faits de « harcèlement moral et sexuel, d’abus spirituels et d’agressions sexuelles » mettant en cause Mgr Maurice Gardès, ancien archevêque d’Auch.

A la suite de ce témoignage, le diocèse de Lyon a effectué un signalement auprès du Procureur de la République de Lyon, qui a transmis le dossier à celui d’Auch. Parallèlement, la justice canonique a été saisie et des mesures conservatoires ont été signifiées à Mgr Gardès par l’archevêque de Lyon.

En avril 2022, le Procureur de la République d’Auch a ordonné un…

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Following the publication of a press article concerning an investigation targeting Maurice Gardès, former archbishop of AUCH, the public prosecutor of AUCH provides the following details.

Communiqué du procureur de la République d’Auch concernant l’affaire Maurice Gardès  : 

A la suite de la parution d’un article de presse concernant une enquête visant Maurice Gardès, ancien archevêque d’AUCH, le procureur de la République d’AUCH apporte les précisions suivantes.

Le 1er décembre 2020, le procureur de la République d’AUCH a reçu du procureur de la République de LYON, pour compétence, un signalement du diocèse de LYON concernant des faits de nature sexuelle qui auraient été commis dans le Gers par Maurice Gardès sur une religieuse.

Le procureur de la République d’AUCH a immédiatement diligenté une enquête pénale.

Entendue, la religieuse a indiqué que Maurice Gardès avait commis sur elle des faits d’agression sexuelle et de tentative de viol entre fin 2007 et…

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A state district judge late last year rejected a consolidated plea prosecutors had offered a former school health aide accused of molesting four children after parents of two of his alleged victims spoke in opposition to the agreement.

An attorney representing one of the accusers says in a new court filing the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office days later dismissed the charges related to his client — the most serious of those leveled against Robert Apodaca — and is making access to the teenager’s protected mental health records a condition for refiling them.

Paul Linnenburger filed an emergency motion last week, requesting a protective order for the records, which he says the District Attorney’s Office has “demanded as a precondition to further prosecution.”

The state never interviewed his client or asked for the records prior to dismissing the case “pending further investigation” in December, according to the motion.

New Mexico…

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Lovingly displayed in a windowsill of Elizabeth Ann Murphy’s home in Timonium is a rectangular ceramic sculpture depicting a sailboat tossed on a stormy, turquoise sea. God’s outstretched hands hover over the fragile vessel, a reminder of his constant presence.

Standing near the painted ceramic are three other pieces of art: a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a small wooden carving of Christ carrying his cross, and a little glass rooster – an ever-present symbol of betrayal.

For Murphy, who experienced horrific sexual abuse for three years while a student at Catholic Community School in South Baltimore in the early 1970s, the artwork offers consolation. It’s also a reminder of suffering.

The agony she endured wasn’t just at the hands of John A. Merzbacher, her abuser who is serving four consecutive life terms for his crimes against Murphy. It also came from a church that failed to…

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Lawyers for the Catholic Church have argued that the new law violates the state constitution.

The viability of hundreds of lawsuits alleging childhood sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and elsewhere hung in the balance as the Louisiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday over a challenge to a recent state law that created a 3-year “lookback” window to sue.

At issue is a law the Legislature first passed in 2021 and revised last year in response to eruptions in a long-running clergy sex abuse scandal in Catholic churches in Louisiana, backed by studies on delayed recognition of abuse by survivors.

The legislation, which passed overwhelmingly, granted victims of childhood sexual abuse until 2024 to sue over their alleged mistreatment regardless of their age. Previously, they had until age 28.

Louisiana is among more than two dozen states that have carved out grace periods from laws…

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The top Bolivian prosecutor launched an investigation Monday into a late Spanish priest who allegedly abused several minors in Bolivia dating back to the 1980s.

The case of Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas Moreno, who died in 2009, came to light over the weekend in a report by the Spanish newspaper El País.

Attorney General Wilfredo Chávez said on Twitter that he was seeking information from the Spanish consulate on the case, and that he was asking the Catholic Church to comment.

“This horror would have been covered up by the leadership of the Catholic Church at the time,” Chávez alleged on Twitter.

El País had published excerpts of the personal diary of Pedrajas Moreno, who allegedly admitted to having abused dozens of children while he was a teacher in Bolivia until 2009 when he died.

“We feel embarrassed by the situation,” Bolivia’s Jesuit congregation said in a statement, and vowed…

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Should the US government, in this day and age, be doing business with an organization with a gruesome history of protecting predators?

My relationship with the Catholic Church is, um, complicated.

Consider a report in The New York Times last week: “An Oklahoma state education board is weighing whether to approve the nation’s first religious charter school…potentially setting up a high-profile constitutional battle over whether taxpayer money can be used to directly fund religious schools.”

The Times added that “the proposed school…would be run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, would be the first to operate as an explicitly religious school, with religious instruction.”

So, yes, there are a whole bunch of questions about whether or not, or how, taxpayers should be supporting religious institutions.

But that’s not the complicated part for me.

This is: The president of Americans United for Separation of…

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Religious organizations should not pay damages for crimes perpetrated by their leaders or members in private homes outside of church-organized religious activity, the court said.

On April 26, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom issued an important decision on the question of vicarious liability by a religious organization for a crime committed by one of its elders in a non-institutional setting.

These cases have been hotly debated, not only in the United Kingdom. In several countries, courts have stated that a religious organization is liable for crimes committed by its leaders or employees in an institutional setting. For instance, several decisions in different countries affirm that if a Catholic priest sexually abuses a minor during a retreat or youth camp organized by the parish, the Catholic diocese or religious order is responsible and should pay damages to the victims. This is highly significant for the victims…

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Nearly four years after his election, Morris Fiddler has been consecrated as the first suffragan, or assistant, bishop for Northern Ontario in the Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh, a position arising, among other things, from the difficulty and cost of travel in the North as well as the need for suicide and addictions ministry.

Elected as bishop in June 2019, Fiddler was consecrated March 11 at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in his home community of Muskrat Dam.

His consecration was initially scheduled to take place in September 2019, he says, then rescheduled to February 2020 to accommodate clergy who planned to attend. But the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread travel restrictions and more postponement.

Fiddler told the Journal that before the 2019 election, he was anxious and spent much time praying during a hunting trip with friends off the Hudson Bay coast.After the election, he says, “I was at…

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Over the past year, calls steadily trickled in to the Rice, Murtha & Psoras law firm in Lutherville, while Maryland lawmakers considered allowing survivors of child sex abuse to sue their attackers and the institutions that enabled their torment, no matter how long ago it happened.

Seizing on the momentum of a sweeping report from the Maryland Attorney General’s Office revealing decades of child sex abuse by Catholic clergy in the state, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore signed the widely supported Child Victims Act into law April 11.

Since then, “the phones are blowing up” at the law firm, said partner Randolph Rice.

Describing conversations with survivors, Rice said they’re saying: “I raised this issue 20 years ago and nobody listened to me. Here’s the church. Here’s the pastor. Here’s the clergy member. Here are the dates. Now I can finally be heard and I can finally do something…

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Review: Ghosts of the Orphanage – Christine Kenneally (Hachette); Crazy Bastard – Abraham Maddison (Wakefield Press)

Recent publicity about the continuing abuse of children in out-of-home care may be a source of shame for Australians, but it does not come as a surprise.

A series of inquiries at both state and Commonwealth level over the last quarter century exposed such “care” as inherently abusive. The inquiries also detailed the lengths to which the governing institutions were prepared to go to deny this reality.

The United States has resisted the “age of inquiry” that has swept across much of the western world, leaving former orphanage residents to pursue their cases through the courts as individuals.

It is this struggle that forms the core of journalist Christine Kenneally’s latest book, Ghosts of the Orphanage. Her focus is on St Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont, where generations of children were under the control of untrained and…

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As California legislators prepared to pass a law providing victims of childhood sexual abuse a new window to file lawsuits, the bill’s chief backer recalls most of the resistance coming from entities with famously troubled histories: school districts, colleges and youth athletic groups, along with some of their insurance companies.

Los Angeles County “just didn’t come up,” said former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), who sponsored the Child Victims Act.

But three years after the law went into effect, L.A. County — responsible for facilities meant to protect and rehabilitate the region’s youth — has emerged in court filings as one of the biggest alleged institutional offenders.

Two weeks ago, in an otherwise dry budget document, county officials delivered figures that stunned even some of the most seasoned California sex abuse attorneys. County officials predicted that they may be forced to spend between $1.6 billion and $3…

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Msgr. Wolfgang Rösch, who once administered the Diocese of Limburg (Germany), has resigned from his position as diocesan vicar general over the mishandling of an abuse complaints against the future diocesan seminary rector, who later committed suicide.

The Diocese of Limburg is led by Bishop Georg Bätzing, the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference.

In October 2013, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had determined Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, Limburg’s bishop since 2008, could no longer exercise his episcopal ministry. The prelate’s association with lavish spending gave rise to the nickname “bishop of bling.” According to the announcement, Msgr. Rösch, “by decision of the Holy See,” would immediately become vicar general and administer the diocese.

In 2014, Pope Francis accepted Bishop Tebartz-van Elst’s resignation, and the Pontiff later named him an official of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. In 2016, Pope Francis named then-Father Bätzing the new…

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A federal judge overseeing the New Orleans Roman Catholic bankruptcy recused himself in a late-night reversal that came a week after an Associated Press report showed he donated tens of thousands of dollars to the archdiocese and consistently ruled in favor of the church in the case involving nearly 500 clergy sex abuse victims.

U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry initially announced hours after the AP report that he would stay on the case, citing the opinion of fellow federal judges that no “reasonable person” could question his impartiality. But amid mounting pressure and persistent questions, he changed course late Friday in a terse, one-page filing.

“I have decided to recuse myself from this matter in order to avoid any possible appearance of personal bias or prejudice,” Guidry wrote.

The 62-year-old jurist has overseen the 3-year-old bankruptcy in an appellate role, and his recusal is likely to throw the case into disarray…

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Greg Guidry gave thousands to archdiocese before ruling in favor of New Orleans church in case involving nearly 500 clergy sexual abuse victims 

A federal judge overseeing a bankruptcy filing from the US’s second-oldest Roman Catholic archdiocese has recused himself from the case amid scrutiny of his donations to the church as well as his close professional relationship with an attorney representing archdiocesan affiliates in insurance disputes.

Greg Guidry, who was appointed to the judicial bench at New Orleans’s federal courthouse by the Donald Trump White House in 2019, issued an order after 8pm on Friday recusing himself from a role handling appeals in a contentious bankruptcy involving nearly 500 clergy sexual abuse victims.

It came a week after the Associated Press reported that he had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the archdiocese before consistently ruling in favor of New Orleans’s Catholic church during its Chapter…

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First, in 1985, came attorneys who began filing lawsuits on behalf of those who were sexually assaulted as children by Catholic clerics.

Much later came prosecutors who slowly started to pursue criminal prosecutions.

Then, even later, came grand juries and attorneys general who finally began launching deeper investigations into clergy sex crimes and cover-ups and who eventually began to publish reports on those probes.

As a result, far too belatedly, roughly 7,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive clerics have been exposed, suspended, defrocked and kept away from children.

But it has taken decades. And in the meantime, more kids have been hurt and more victims have continued to suffer.

Surely, survivors of child sexual abuse by Baptist predators won’t have to wait so long to see these horrors exposed, stopped and prevented.

But maybe they will.

It has been 16 years since a major ABC “20/20” exposé documented the pervasive problem of…

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More than 500 people have contacted Richard Wolf, the investigator for the state Attorney General’s Office, since the report about alleged sexual abuse by clergy and others in the Archdiocese of Baltimore came out two weeks ago.

I asked him if he was exhausted. Without hesitation, he told me no, because this is the first time many have told their story to anybody. So however hard it may be to do his job, it’s harder for them.

Most are new survivors. Many institutions in this state are hoping nobody looks too closely their way — like when you don’t want the teacher to call on you. This applies to the church, law enforcement, the government, schools, a hospital.

But thousands of broken angels are rising up together, a real big band of them. Their strength comes from each other and all of us who honor them, respect them,…

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The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is being sued over the alleged sexual abuse of two school students in the 1970s and ’80s by a priest who was found by the church to be a paedophile in 2005 and continued to perform clerical duties for more than a decade.

Father Joseph Doyle, who died in 2021, has been accused of sexual abuse by two former students of Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Bayswater, where he served as parish priest for 37 years until his abrupt departure in 2005.

Doyle allegedly molested and raped an 8-year-old boy in 1979 after promising to make him captain of the school’s football team, according to a writ filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria against the church late last year.

It is alleged in court documents that Doyle said, “Jesus won’t forget this”, when the boy attempted to spurn his sexual advances. On…

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This past Wednesday, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph observed a Day of Prayer in Atonement for Those Harmed by Sexual Abuse in the Church. All of our parishes were asked to offer Mass and other prayers for this intention.

The sexual abuse scandal is one of the saddest chapters in the church’s history. The scandal involved representatives of the church, priests and bishops, violating their promises to God and the church by using innocent children or vulnerable adults for sexual pleasure. In so doing, they contradicted the church’s sexual moral teaching and inflicted grave emotional, psychological and spiritual harm on their victims. The scandal also included the failure of bishops to receive victims with openness and respect, to remove abusive priests and to protect those entrusted to their pastoral care.

I am grateful to the brave victims who overcame many obstacles…

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Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence said even though he will be retiring from his position, he will still be around to help the diocese as leadership transitions to his successor, Richard Henning.

Tobin joined host Gene Valicenti this week for his last interview on “10 News Conference” as the head of the Providence Diocese.

Under church law, Tobin had to submit a letter of resignation by age 75, which Pope Francis then oversees accepting.

Henning currently serves as coadjutor bishop and will immediately succeed Tobin when his retirement is accepted.

As a retired bishop, Tobin is no longer in charge or responsible for administrative duties in the diocese.

“One of the documents from the Vatican says a bishop is never unemployed. It’s very interesting insight,” said Tobin. “What it means is I continue to be a bishop, which means I…

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CHALLENGING pedophile priests in court is possible today in the Philippines. Much has changed in the Philippine judiciary in the past 20 years. Prosecutors and judges in the family courts are armed with 37 laws that mandate that they protect children and bring their abusers to swift and strict justice. Many prosecutors and judges are doing just that in Luzon and other parts of the country.

Church influence over government prosecutors and judges has greatly diminished since the previous President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to expose the alleged wrongdoings of bishops and priests, saying he was sexually abused himself by a priest. The Philippine judiciary is more independent and many women prosecutors and judges, and men too, in the family courts are strong and independent-minded and will never bend to Church pressure.

There are at present prosecutors and judges holding priests accused of child abuse accountable and bringing them to court….

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A woman who was molested for years by her stepfather has been awarded $2.28 billion by a California jury in a lawsuit that also implicated her mother and the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in which both parents were active, her attorneys announced.

The panel in Riverside County Superior Court awarded damages Tuesday to a woman described in court papers only as Jane Doe, who said she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather from age 5 until she was 14, according to an announcement by the law firm of Gary A. Dordick.

The lawsuit alleged that beginning in the 1980s, the stepfather sexually abused the girl. The assaults took place at their Lake Elsinore home and at events, meetings, and property of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the lawsuit said.

“These ongoing acts of abuse brought Plaintiff to the brink of suicide,” according…

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A Riverside Superior Court jury awarded a woman $2.28 billion Tuesday for the sexual abuse she endured for years committed by her stepfather, her attorney announced.

The 39-year-old Riverside woman, known in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, sued for damages against her stepfather, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her mother, who she said knew about the sexual abuse but did nothing to protect her, according to a news release by the law firm of Gary Dordick.

The huge jury award of $836 million in damages and $1.44 billion in punitive damages is largely symbolic and unlikely ever to be fully paid, since the stepfather was the only remaining defendant in the suit. The church, which denied wrongdoing, settled its part of the lawsuit for $1 million in December, and the woman’s mother settled for $200,000 in February, according to news reports.

The stepfather…

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A Toledo area Catholic priest facing multiple charges of sex trafficking goes on trial Monday.

According to the FBI, in 2015, Fr. Michael J. Zacharias allegedly “manipulated and coerced drug-addicted boys and men into sex.”

The priest allegedly “admits to first meeting the victim when he was a seminarian and the boy was in 6th grade St. Catherine’s in Toledo. The boy became drug-addicted as a teen, and Fr. Zacharias offered him money for sex to feed his habit. A second young man told the FBI he met Fr. Zacharias in first grade at St. Catherine’s and that the priest began sexually abusing him as a teen when he was in addiction to drugs. Zacharias was placed on leave by the Diocese,” according to news accounts and BishopAccountability.org

“We should all be grateful to the brave men who are helping law enforcement pursue a serial criminal,” said Claudia Vercellotti of…

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A fired St. Thomas More Catholic High School teacher has been arrested and is being held in St. Martin Parish after a video circulated online that appears to show him saying sexually suggestive things to someone he says he tutors.

Jacob de la Paz, 33, was arrested Thursday night and federally charged with enticing a minor to produce child pornography/child sexual assault material, according to media reports citing the Department of Homeland Security.

As of Friday night, de la Paz was still being held in the St. Martin Parish Jail, according to a St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.

De la Paz, who was a math teacher and track and field coach, was fired from STM Wednesday morning, according to an email sent from Chancellor Rev. Michael J. Russo to families and staff.

Russo said in his email that the school had “no reports, evidence or reason to believe” that…

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Cedarville University, an Ohio Baptist school that’s been accused of mishandling Title IX cases, recently sparked controversy for posting a message in women’s bathrooms that some say shamed and blamed women for abuse.

The message was reportedly posted on a mirror in the women’s bathroom in Jeremiah Chapel, where students attend daily chapel services. It read: “Examine Yourself: Have I ever encouraged my boyfriend to go beyond boundaries we set for our relationship?” A sticker on an adjacent mirror identified the messages as part of “Speak Up, Cedarville,” an initiative of the school’s Title IX office.

On Tuesday, blogger and survivor advocate Todd Wilhelm posted a photo of the Cedarville message on Twitter, which sparked outrage.

“Every time I think it can’t get worse, it does,” tweeted former Cedarville University professor Julie L. Moore. “The Thomas-White-blame-and-shame continues.”

Moore, who now teaches at Taylor University, was a vocal…

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Recent Hillsong whistleblower documents show that Hillsong’s alleged “celebrity preacher’s scam” didn’t just enrich Brian Houston, founder of the global megachurch, with hefty speaking honorariums. It also enriched other preachers participating in the “scam,” including many belonging to the leadership of a U.S.-based church planting group, called the Association of Related Churches or ARC.

ARC is one of the largest church planting organizations in North America, with over 1,000 churches in its network. Like Hillsong, ARC is charismatic in its theology and has a similar emphasis on growing megachurches with slick programming, youth-oriented worship, and charismatic pastors.

ARC also requires its member churches to give 2% of their tithes and offerings to ARC. (Hillsong requires its Hillsong Family churches to give 3%, according to the whistleblower documents.) Also like Hillsong, ARC has been embroiled in a steady stream of scandals involving  pastoral financial and sexual misconduct.

Yet, unlike Hillsong,…

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Syro-Malankara Church has not launched an internal probe against Father Benedict Anto as he is facing a police enquiry

A Catholic priest in a southern Indian state has been granted bail after he was remanded in custody for over a month for allegedly sexually abusing a teenage student and four other women.

A local court in Nagercoil, in Tamil Nadu’s Kanniyakumari district, granted conditional bail to Father Benedict Anto, a member of Marthandam diocese of the eastern rite Syro-Malankara Church, on April 24. 

“The diocese suspended the priest soon after police acted against him,” Father S Varghese, the vicar-general of the diocese, told UCA News on April 27.

“He has been restrained from exercising his priestly ministry,”  Varghese added.

The diocese, according to Varghese, “has not launched an internal probe against Father Anto as he is already facing a police inquiry.” 

The principal district and session court judge in his bail…

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The row over the Dalai Lama has reignited the issue of child abuse. Here, we shed light on the silence of the Catholic Church towards clergymen who abused children

Omerta, the mafia code of silence, had, for centuries, wrapped the Roman Catholic Church in a cocoon of purity and kept a tight lid over the secret lives of the clergy. From time to time, there were whispers of wrongdoing by a local parish priest, or even occasionally of a bishop, but these were snuffed out quickly and the church succeeded in keeping scandals at bay for a long time. However, by the beginning of the 21st century, the veil was finally torn aside and stories of sexual abuse by these men of God, burst into the open. As the incidents of child abuse; of harassment of nuns; and, gay sex poured from all corners of the Catholic world, it was…

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A retired French archbishop was ordered to lead a life of prayer and penance in 2021 following allegations of sexual assault and spiritual abuse.

Archbishop Maurice Gardès, who stood down as Archbishop of Auch in southwest France in October 2020 at the age of 75, was forbidden from exercising public ministry and returning to his former archdiocese. He was also required to undergo psychotherapy.

The report was confirmed by a joint statement issued April 27 by Auch’s current Archbishop Bertrand Lacombe, Toulouse Archbishop Guy de Kerimel, and Lyon Archbishop Olivier de Germay.

The statement said that in September 2020, the Archdiocese of Lyon received the testimony of a female religious who accused Gardès of “moral and sexual harassment, spiritual abuse, and sexual assault.”

The Lyon archdiocese alerted the local public prosecutor, who sent the file to the prosecutor in Auch. At the same time, a canonical process began, with precautionary measures imposed…

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Catholics will gather at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock on Sunday to pray for survivors of child sexual abuse.

Bishop Anthony Taylor will lead the Mass for Hope and Healing, which is held each April in Arkansas in conjunction with National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The Little Rock diocese’s Safe Environment Office sponsors the event, which begins at 5:30 p.m.

Deacon Matthew Glover, the diocese’s chancellor for canonical affairs, said Taylor has been involved with the Mass for Hope and Healing since its inception in 2017.

“Anybody who’s been Catholic for any period of time knows the kind of impact that this crisis and scandal has had,” Glover said. “This Mass is at least an attempt toward the spiritual healing, primarily of victim survivors, but also, of course, the church as a whole, even those who were not direct victims of abuse by clergy.”

In 2018, Taylor…

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Documentary following man suing Catholic Church screens May 18

A hard film to watch, but an important one.

The film “Prey” will be shown for free at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake on May 18 at 6 p.m.

Niagara’s William O’Sullivan is helping to host the screening.

O’Sullivan is a victim of sexual abuse by disgraced ex-priest Donald Grecco, who, in October 2017, received an 18-month sentence for sexually abusing three boys between 1975 and 1982.

His total number of known victims is six.

Since publicly sharing his story, O’Sullivan has become well known across Niagara for his advocacy work, and for protesting outside of St. Kevin’s Church where his abuse happened.

O’Sullivan refers to the movie as a “docu-film,” and it follows the story of Rod MacLeod, who has a similar story to O’Sullivan’s.

“He’s a survivor in Windsor of Father Hodgeson. His…

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A Michigan priest pleaded guilty this week to sexually assaulting a five year old boy after he had officiated a funeral service for a family member.

Vincent Delorenzo, 84, formerly of Flint, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

Delorenzo was a former priest with the Lansing Diocese.

The assault happened in 1987. 

In exchange for his guilty plea, the remaining charges will be dismissed.

Those charges related to the sexual assault of a child from 1995 to 2000, while he was a student at Holy Redeemer School and Church in Burton. 

Delorenzo was living in Florida when was charged with four other priests in May 2019.

Vincent Delorenzo Complaint and Affidavit by John Dodge on Scribd

While the crime occurred more than 10 years ago, Michigan’s statute of limitations did not apply in this case.   

…

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(For Immediate Release April 28, 2023)

A Toledo area Catholic priest facing multiple charges of sex trafficking goes on trial Monday.

According to the FBI, in 2015, Fr. Michael J. Zacharias allegedly “manipulated and coerced drug-addicted boys and men into sex.”

The priest allegedly “admits to first meeting the victim when he was a seminarian and the boy was in 6th grade St. Catherine’s in Toledo. The boy became drug-addicted as a teen, and Fr. Zacharias offered him money for sex to feed his habit. A second young man told the FBI he met Fr. Zacharias in first grade at St. Catherine’s and that the priest began sexually abusing him as a teen when he was in addiction to drugs. Zacharias was placed on leave by the Diocese,” according to news accounts and BishopAccountability.org

“We should all be grateful to the brave men who are helping law enforcement pursue a serial criminal,” said…

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A Georgia woman, who was a tutor at a local faith-based Classical Conversations program, has been arrested and charged with molesting a student, according to police records obtained by The Roys Report (TRR).  

Cheryl McCullough, 37, was arrested and charged by the Monroe Police Department with one count of child molestation on March 20. She bonded out the same day, police records show. 

McCullough had served as a tutor at a local chapter of Classical Conversations, a faith-based homeschool co-op program which meets at Faith Baptist Church in Monroe. According to the police report, the alleged incident occurred with a teenage student enrolled in the program whom McCullough had been tutoring at her home. 

The police report recounts how the minor visited the McCullough home for an overnight stay on February 7. In the account, the minor claims his tutor “got in bed with him” and made “sexual comments.” The minor…

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Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul discusses impacts of an ongoing state Department of Justice effort to enable survivors to report abuse by religious authority figures and prosecute sex crimes.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT 

FREDERICA FREYBERG:

In criminal justice news, the Walworth County district attorney this week charged 92-year-old defrocked former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with sexual assault. The criminal complaint says McCarrick repeatedly sexually abused the victim in the 1970s. The charges stem from a 1977 incident at a Geneva Lake residence. McCarrick also has charges pending in another state and in 2019, Pope Francis defrocked McCarrick for sexually abusing minors and adults. McCarrick is the only U.S. Catholic cardinal ever to be criminally charged with child sex crimes. The Wisconsin charges are the result of a report made to the attorney general’s Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative. That tip line and online reporting systems started nearly two years ago, and…

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A man sexually abused by a former Kanakuk camp staff member claims leadership of the organization mislead him and his family about what they knew regarding Pete Newman’s abuse of campers. A judge has dismissed Kanakuk’s motion to dismiss the suit.

A judge has ruled against Kanakuk in their attempt to get a fraud lawsuit brought against them by a sexual abuse survivor thrown out of court.

Judge Raymond Gross ruled on Tuesday, April 26, denying Kanakuk’s motion to dismiss. (The judge did approve the motion to dismiss from the insurance company named in the case, Westchester Fire Insurance Company.) 

According to the judge’s order, Kanakuk’s motion to dismiss had two arguments why the case should not continue. The first is a legal term, “res judicata.” According to Cornell University’s law school, the term translates to “a matter judged” and the legal principle is a case which has been adjudicated…

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Stephen Clapham, 61, former vicar at All Saints Church, Crewe, was having an affair with Sally Shaw, 52, when they abused the child

A Cheshire vicar and a woman he was having an affair with have been jailed for sexually abusing a child. Stephen Clapham, 61, was vicar at All Saints Church in Crewe and later in Church Lawton when he abused the child with Sally Shaw, 52, of Crewe.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the pair began an affair in 2016 when Clapham, of Middlewich, was vicar at All Saints Church in Crewe, and the affair continued when he moved to All Saints in Church Lawton. Clapham and Shaw engaged in sexual activity in the presence of a child, then incited the child to become involved in their sexual activity.

Indecent photographs of the child were also taken by Shaw and distributed to Clapham. The abuse came to light…

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In 1985, completing a church-directed evaluation, a doctor described Father William Q. Simms as being attracted to the “innocence, gracefulness and liveliness” of young boys around him.

Though parents had voiced their concerns about “some unusual behavior,” as the Archdiocese of Baltimore phrased it before ordering treatment, health care providers at the St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring stopped short of calling Simms a pedophile.

Instead, in one sentence, they stated the priest was never, “in fact or fantasy,” aroused by children. In the next, they described Simms being brought to orgasm at the touch of a child’s arm or leg.

Simms was diagnosed with an unclassified sexual disorder and removed from his priestly duties at St. Andrew by the Bay Parish in Cape St. Claire. That is, Baltimore Archbishop William Borders wrote, until he could prove he had returned to “good health.” He would go on to work in…

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A newly proposed bill could extend the amount of time victims of child sexual abuse have to file civil cases against their abuser or the organizations that protected their abuser.

A bill circulated Tuesday for co-sponsorship seeks to allow victims to file civil suits until age 45, instead of capping the age at 35, and applies that time limit to a broader range of actions. If passed, the bill — known as the “Child Victims Act” — would allow a survivor to take civil action “for injury resulting from being subject, as a child,” to any sexual contact by an adult or adult member of the clergy,” according to the information circulated with the proposed legislation.

But the bill doesn’t open a “look-back” window for those older than 45 to file suits against their abuser or organizations, something that advocates and survivors have requested for years. Eliminating the statute…

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Oak Ridge pastor is a witness in assault suit

A priest who is a witness in the lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville suddenly left his Oak Ridge parish earlier this week after he was told he was likely to be transferred to another parish, Knox News has learned.

The Rev. Brent Shelton of St. Mary Oak Ridge left April 25, Bishop Richard Stika announced in a letter to the parish this week. Shelton left “without my knowledge and permission,” Stika wrote.

“On Monday, a few days after I asked Father Brent Shelton to consider a new assignment, he asked me for permission to take a leave of absence from his role as pastor of St. Mary Parish in Oak Ridge,” Stika wrote. “This request came as part of the annual review of all parish needs and how to address many of our parishes that don’t have pastors.”

Shelton…

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The sexual abuse supposedly occurred in 2003 at St. Agatha Catholic Church on the city’s West Side.

Accuser “John Doe” claimed in court documents that as a young boy he had been sexually assaulted multiple times during the after-school SAFE program by Daniel McCormack, a defrocked Chicago priest who pleaded guilty in 2007 to sexually abusing five children while serving at St. Agatha’s parish.

Memories of the abuse were repressed until 2020, according to court documents, when Doe filed a lawsuit against the former priest and the Chicago Archdiocese, seeking monetary damages.

Except the entire story was later proven in court to be a fabrication, seemingly in an attempt to get a settlement.

As the Catholic Church continues to grapple with a global decadeslong clerical sex abuse scandal, one ramification that’s emerged is fraudulent claims against priests and other members of the clergy.

While data…

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A healing garden dedicated to sexual abuse victims opened Tuesday night at Our Lady of The Assumption Catholic Church in Ventura.

The garden is one of five planned across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which includes Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties. The gardens were inspired by clergy abuse victim and horticultural teacher Joe Montanez, who spoke during a blessing and prayer service Tuesday.

The blessing was led by Monsignor Leon Hutton, episcopal vicar for the Ventura and Santa Barbara counties region of the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese. It was followed by prayers that are part of a nine-day Novena for Healing from Abuse. There was also a presentation that included support resources for victims.

In a news release, archdiocesan officials asked people with information regarding sexual misconduct to contact law enforcement and to also reach out to the archdiocese’s Office of Victims Assistance Ministry at 800-355-2545 or…

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Spain’s Catholic bishops have adopted guidelines for tackling sexual abuse by clergy, while also urging the prohibition of surrogacy and restating the church’s political independence in key upcoming elections.

In a weekend statement following its April 17-21 plenary, the bishops’ conference said the “guidelines for action,” worked on since April 2019, had now been approved for all dioceses and religious orders in light of Pope Francis’ recent updates to his 2019 apostolic letter on abuse, “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the light of the world”), which take effect April 30.

The conference added that the guidelines, compiled with the Vatican’s Madrid nunciature, would be binding throughout the Spanish church and face updates whenever canonical regulations changed.

The announcement follows a March 13 report by a lay commission, appointed by Spain’s Cortes parliament in March 2022 under ombudsman Ángel Gabilondo, which said it so far collected testimonies from 445 victims…

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The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph hosted its sixth annual Day of Prayer in Atonement for those harmed by sexual abuse Wednesday.

Bishop James Johnston said the annual mass is held every April in honor of National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

“It’s an annual occasion for us to highlight the importance of keeping our children safe and this mass today is kind of a centerpiece for all of that,” Johnston said. “We lift up those who have been wounded by sexual abuse. Whether it’s in the church or outside the church, we want to lift up and give to God all those who have been wounded and pray with them and for their healing.”

A group of Bishop LeBlond students also sang at the mass.

The annual day of prayer brings together diocesan schools and helps provide education on the established child abuse prevention efforts in 93 parishes and…

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Bishop Robert Lombardo will preside over the prayer service that begins at 11 a.m.

Chicago, (April 27, 2023) – The Archdiocese of Chicago’s 12th annual prayer service for child abuse prevention and pinwheel planting will be held at 11 a.m., on Thursday, April 27, 2023 at the Healing Garden at Holy Family Parish, 1080 W. Roosevelt Rd., Chicago. The outdoor service will be led by Bishop Robert Lombardo. 

“More than 30 years ago, the Archdiocese of Chicago established policies and procedures to address sexual abuse of minors and we remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring our schools and parishes are safe places for children,” said Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago. “We must continue to build a culture of awareness, accountability and trust and offer healing and justice to abuse survivors and their families.”

Students from archdiocesan Catholic schools will participate in prayer and song at the service and…

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A large part of what God has asked of me as a priest is to accompany hurting people, and particularly hurting Catholics. And much of my life as a priest has been spent dealing with the fallout of an institutional Church that became a haven for sexual predators, and whose shepherds cultivated a decades-long culture of denial, unfathomable inaction, and cover-up.

If the Church today finds itself in a perilously unstable condition—the doctrinal tribalism of the self-consciously Catholic, the gradual attrition of “none”–leaning nominal Catholics, the lack of vocations, the financial bankruptcy of dioceses, and so on—the Church’s crisis of clergy sexual abuse has largely contributed to our current sorry state. While there is some hard data out there to support this contention,[1] I say this simply because I have seen it in the lives of the Catholics I serve, as have hundreds of my brother priests. Although certain that every day…

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Documentary following man suing Catholic Church screens May 18

A hard film to watch, but an important one.

The film “Prey” will be shown for free at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake on May 18 at 6 p.m.

Niagara’s William O’Sullivan is helping to host the screening.

O’Sullivan is a victim of sexual abuse by disgraced ex-priest Donald Grecco, who, in October 2017, received an 18-month sentence for sexually abusing three boys between 1975 and 1982.

His total number of known victims is six.

Since publicly sharing his story, O’Sullivan has become well known across Niagara for his advocacy work, and for protesting outside of St. Kevin’s Church where his abuse happened.

O’Sullivan refers to the movie as a “docu-film,” and it follows the story of Rod MacLeod, who has a similar story to O’Sullivan’s.

“He’s a survivor in Windsor of Father Hodgeson. His…

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An important film: there are no other words to describe “The Lost Boys of Mercury” (Les Oubliés de la Belle Étoile), the second documentary feature by French director Clémence Davigo, which is in competition at Visions du Réel, in Nyon, Switzerland.

Important because it reveals a tragedy hidden for more than half a century: that of the children under the care of the French social services in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s placed in the La Belle Étoile Catholic correctional center in the mountain village of Mercury, Savoie. There, for three decades, hundreds of them were mistreated, humiliated, starved, beaten, tortured with thumbtacks stuck under their nails, and some were sexually abused.

The film offers the first form of recognition to those who lived through hell there, by allowing them to be heard at last.

The research work carried out by the director, who travelled all…

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State Rep. Julie Brixie is proposing new legislation that would raise the age minors are able to come forward from age 28 — where it stands today — to age 52. It was raised from 24 to 28 back in 2018.

LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — As a young child all the way through college at the University of Oklahoma, gymnastics was McKenzie Wofford’s life.

“Started at the age of 3 years old, got competitive pretty quick, doing 40 hours a week by age 10,” Wofford said.

She spent years training at the Karolyi Ranch in Texas, a former USA gymnastics training center where Larry Nassar often worked with young gymnasts.

After Nassar’s trial unfolded in a Michigan court room, the state passed reforms on its statute of limitations. Still today, Michigan lawmakers say it didn’t go far enough.

“Our statute of limitations for criminal sexual conduct is among the narrowest…

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Father Johan Verschueren, the superior of Father Marko Rupnik, a Jesuit priest and artist accused of sexually abusing numerous nuns, explained that from an ecclesial point of view it is “illegal” for Rupnik to be the owner of a company.

On April 22, Verschueren, the Jesuit superior in Rome, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that “the unhappy thing” is that Rupnik owns 90% of a commercial company.

“From an ecclesial point of view it is illegal, unless it is proven that the right Church authorities gave permission for an exception. So far this proof has not been given,” the superior said.

The Code of Canon Law, which governs the Church throughout the world, establishes in Canon 286: “Clerics are prohibited from conducting business or trade personally or through others, for their own advantage or that of others, except with the permission of legitimate ecclesiastical authority.”

In addition, Canon…

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[Click here to see video.]

The handling of sex abuse cases in the Hungarian Catholic Church has got off to a very difficult start. One well-known priest has quit after revealing that he himself is a survivor of sexual abuse, while another victim was charged with harassment when he refused to stop searching for answers. Despite all this, neither man has lost his faith. Both, however, hope for change within the Church. 

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A Michigan Catholic priest who was removed from active ministry in 2002 after a sexual abuse complaint was brought against him pleaded guilty in state court April 25 to charges of sexually abusing a 5-year-old boy in 1987.

Since the first complaint was brought to the Diocese of Lansing against Father Vincent Delorenzo in 2002, seven more accusations have been brought against him to the diocese, where he served as a priest from 1965 to 2002, the Diocese of Lansing said in an April 25 press release.

The criminal charge alleged that Delorenzo sexually assaulted the boy after officiating a funeral service for the boy’s deceased family member. The accusation stemmed from a complaint brought to the diocese in 2018, which was forwarded to law enforcement.

Originally charged with three counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct and three counts of second degree criminal sexual conduct, Delorenzo…

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Sexual abuse in the nation’s federal prisons must be rooted out, the Justice Department’s second-highest-ranking leader told prison wardens gathered for their first nationwide training since revelations that a toxic, permissive culture at a California prison allowed abuse to run rampant.

The Associated Press gained exclusive access to the training Tuesday for wardens of the country’s 122 federal prisons, the first since AP investigations uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the federal Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department’s largest law enforcement agency.

Teams of experts and officials will soon be fanning out to women’s prisons around the country to follow up on on reforms the agency adopted last fall, and they’ll speak to both staff and incarcerated people, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a speech at the training facility outside Denver.

At the training, wardens sat at round conference tables dotted with quotes about wellness and leadership from…

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Senate Bill 5280, which would designate members of the clergy in the Catholic Church as mandatory reporters even when performing the Sacrament of Confession, has sent a shock through the Catholic community in Washington State. If passed, the bill would require clergy to report instances of child abuse and neglect, with a later House amendment including instances that were admitted in Confession. Currently, the bill is still under discussion in the Washington State legislature due to the Senate and House of Representatives not being able to concur. Now that the session has ended, as of April 24, it is unlikely to be passed this season. 

Reverend Thomas Daly, who serves as the Bishop to the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, released a statement addressing how the House amendment encroaches on religious freedom in the Catholic community.

“I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishop and priests are committed to keeping the…

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A message to the faithful of eastern Washington,

On Monday of this week, the Washington State Senate rejected a House amendment to bill number SB5280 which intends to force priests to violate the Seal of Confession if child abuse is revealed within the celebration of the sacrament. I am particularly grateful for the leadership of Senator Mike Padden, Senator Judy Warnick, and Senator Phil Fortunato on this matter. The legislature should strive to make good law which is able to be followed and enforced. Senators Padden, Warnick, and Fortunato, as well as several of their colleagues, are very aware of this important duty.

The State of Washington is not the first governing body to attempt to criminalize our commitment to keep the Seal of Confession sacred. History is replete with examples of kings, queens, dictators, potentates, and legislators who have attempted to have the seal of confession violated through law,…

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Leaders of the Jehovah’s Witnesses are not liable for the suffering of a woman raped by a church elder, the Supreme Court has concluded.

The woman was attacked in 1990 by Mark Sewell after going door-to-door for the religious group near Cardiff.

Sewell was jailed for 14 years in 2014 for raping the woman and sexually abusing two young girls.

Justices reversed a High Court award of £62,000 in damages to the woman on Wednesday.

They concluded the “Jehovah’s Witness organisation is not vicariously liable for the rape”.

The woman, who is no longer a Jehovah’s Witness, said she suffered depression as a result of the rape and sued for compensation, claiming leaders of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were “responsible in law” for the rape.

The worldwide governing body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the trustees of the congregation in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, where the woman was a member, denied being vicariously…

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The 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office will not prosecute a former St. Mary Catholic Church priest accused of sexually assaulting an altar boy multiple times over a four-year period, following an investigation that didn’t yield sufficient evidence to file criminal charges, the Aspen Police Department said Wednesday.

“The investigation was conducted with the assistance of the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. On review with the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Aspen police closed the case as unfounded. No charges will be filed,” an APD news release states.

The investigation into Father Michael O’Brien began in September 2021 in response to a former altar boy’s accusations that the priest sexually assaulted him in a series of incidents from 2004 to 2008, the release says. 

“We understand the significant impact this case had on (the reporting person), Father O’Brien, St. Mary’s and our community,” Detective Sgt….

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Aspen Police investigators took their time, 19 months, before closing a sexual assault allegation against a Catholic priest as “unfounded” on Wednesday.

There will be no charges filed against Father Michael O’Brien, who served at the St. Mary Catholic Church in Aspen from 2002 to 2011.

The investigation, conducted with the assistance of the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office and the FBI, began in September 2021 with an accusation of sexual assault against O’Brien regarding what was reported as a series of up to 300 incidents between 2004 and 2008 in Aspen, allegedly involving a juvenile victim.

Investigators with the Aspen Police Department said they spoke with at least 26 law-enforcement agencies, interviewed more than 80 witnesses and reviewed a polygraph report that O’Brien voluntarily submitted to. In total, the Aspen Police led by Detective Jeremy Johnson invested more than 500 hours into this case in…

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Aspen Police close the case; Archdiocese set to launch internal investigation

After an exhaustive year and a half long investigation completed by the Aspen Police Department, the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has determined the allegations against Father Michael O’Brien are baseless and the District Attorney has closed the case. This work and the outcome of the investigation informs the public that the allegations that Fr. O’Brien sexually abused a minor more than 15 years ago during his time at St. Mary Catholic Church in Aspen are false accusations against a good man.

During the 18-month investigation, multiple investigators put in over 500 hours of work and collaborated with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. The detectives interviewed more than 80 witnesses. The police formally interviewed the individual making the allegations for many hours. From the beginning of the investigation Fr. O’Brien cooperated with the Police and District…

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A former Flint-area priest accused of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old boy more than 30 years ago pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted criminal sexual conduct.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel Tuesday announced Vincent Delorenzo, 84, a former priest with the Lansing Diocese, was pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a five-year-old boy following a service he officiated for the boy’s deceased family member in 1987.

Delorenzo was among the first five priests charged by Nessel on a total of 21 counts involving sexual crimes allegedly committed while they served as priests in Michigan as part of her office’s clergy abuse investigation. Delorenzo was arrested in late May 2019 in Marion County, Florida where he moved to in 2008, according to an affidavit by Michigan State Police detective Craig Carberry.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the remaining charges Delorenzo was facing were dismissed, according to a Tuesday…

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A news report published this month in the diocesan newspaper of the Diocese of Knoxville has become a source of some wonderment — and something of a metaphor — among priests and laity in the Tennessee diocese.

The report opened at a March 19 Mass celebrated by Knoxville’s Bishop Rick Stika, on the occasion of his 14th episcopal anniversary. 

During the Mass, Stika reportedly realized that he wasn’t wearing his episcopal ring, and began asking the people to pray. He reportedly thought he might have left it at a gas station, on the way to the parish where he celebrated the Mass.

One parishioner, seated in the front row, spotted the ring under Stika’s chair. The bishop picked it up, held it aloft, and declared a miracle.  

While parishioners laughed, Stika seemed sincere.

“It really is a miracle,” he said afterward. “I was ready to go back to the gas station…

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As lawmakers return to Harrisburg this week, it is imperative that they prioritize passing window legislation that will allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to seek justice against perpetrators and the institutions that enabled them.

As an attorney, I have received innumerable phone calls from adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The calls are all too familiar – they are reaching out because they finally have the strength to talk about what happened to them as a child, and they want to seek justice through the court system.

Often, I am the first person they have ever had the courage to tell. Most of the time, it has taken decades for them to find the strength to come forward. Unfortunately, I frequently have to tell survivors that, while I commend their courage, there’s little we can do because of an outdated statute of limitations that makes it impossible for many victims…

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April 19, 2023

Dear Bishop McGovern:

 

As you are no doubt aware, this spring marks the 30th anniversary of the early, dramatic and traumatic disclosures that led to the removal, over just a few years, of nearly 10% of the Belleville clergy because of credible reports of child sex abuse. Equally jarring to many were the persistent and effective cover ups of those crimes for decades by your predecessors.

 

This happened nearly a decade before the 2002 eruption of the Catholic church’s abuse and concealment crisis that began in Boston with the Globe’s thorough investigation.

 

In effect, the hierarchy of the Belleville diocese was given an opportunity to reveal and wrestle with the scandal far sooner than many other church institutions across the country.

 

(And the crisis in your diocese continues, Bishop. In the last four years, at least four Belleville clerics were arrested,…

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A former Michigan priest accused of abusing a child in the 1980s has pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted criminal sexual conduct, state officials announced Tuesday.

Vincent DeLorenzo, 84, formerly of Flint, was one of the initial five priests accused by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in 2019 as part of an ongoing investigation into clerical sexual abuse.

According to a statement from the authorities, DeLorenzo’s guilty plea is related to allegations that he sexually molested a 5-year-old kid after officiating the boy’s relative’s burial in 1987.

When a defendant departs the state for any reason, the statute of limitations in Michigan is suspended. DeLorenzo was detained in Florida’s Marion County in 2019. SNAP believes DeLorenzo had intimate knowledge about a fellow priest accused of abuse in 2007. While we applaud the heroic efforts of AG Nessel in investigating and securing convictions of abusive clergy, it comes…

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On Wednesday, E. Jean Carroll, who told a Manhattan jury that former President Donald J. Trump raped her in a department store, said she was trying to get her “life back” and grew emotional as she spoke nearly 30 years after the events she described.

It is not unusual for people who are sexually assaulted to not come forward right away.

“The victim has to be prepared to be the sole carrier of the information, and they also carry the burden of all the questions,” said Veronique Valliere, a psychologist who counsels sexual assault perpetrators and victims.

“All the defense has to do really is to attack the decision-making of the victim,” she said. “All they have to do is to try to diminish the credibility of the victim to introduce doubt.”

Often, a victim of a sexual assault must struggle against public perception if they are accusing someone famous…

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‘Republicans and Democrats together, we’ve always come through for victims. Now it’s time that the Senate comes through … to give victims their day in court,’ Rep. Mark Rozzi said

A longtime champion of legislation that would allow survivors of childhood sexual abuse to sue their attackers implored the Pennsylvania Senate to pass one of four bills sent to the upper chamber by the state House.

With a 147-54 vote, the House on Tuesday passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would give survivors a two-year exemption from the civil statute of limitations, which bars many victims from suing after age 30.

Although the proposal has had strong bipartisan support, Republicans, who control the Senate, have staunchly insisted that the amendment be bundled with other proposals on voter identification, election audits and legislative review of regulations from the executive branch.

Former House Speaker Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, noted that in addition to…

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Soccer players, boxer, fencer describe rampant abuse in sport during Commons committee appearance

Elite athletes appeared before a House of Commons committee Monday to accuse the federal government of doing nothing in response to abuse in sports and to demand a national public inquiry.

The athletes — who included Olympic boxer Myriam Da Silva Rondeau, soccer players Ciara McCormack and Andrea Neil, and fencer Emily Mason — told MPs about the physical and mental abuse they endured at the hands of coaches and others officials.

They said that abuse is rampant in multiple sports and they’re calling for a fundamental re-think of how elite sports are governed in Canada.

The athletes said existing protections are inadequate and whistleblowers are often scared to come forward because they fear retribution from their abusers, many of whom still work in sport despite past allegations of wrongdoing.

McCormack told MPs she was forced to leave Canada for Ireland to escape…

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A man has been charged by the Child Abuse Squad as a result of investigations into his alleged activities.

Police will alleged that in March this year, a male teacher at a Catholic College in Perth’s north-east indecently recorded pictures of four girls in his class.

The 41-year-old Scarborough man has been charged with:

• Four counts of Indecently Record a Child Over 16 under their Authority.

The man appeared in the Midland Magistrates Court today, Wednesday 26 April 2023.

Police says investigations are underway and they are urging anyone with information on this incident to contact Crimestoppers.

You can call 1800 333 000 or online at www.crimestopperswa.com.au.

If you are or have been a victim of sexual abuse, or if you have information about someone being abused, please contact police on 131 444.

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Portugal’s Catholic bishops have vowed to stick to a path of reform in the matter of clerical sexual abuse, two months after an independent commission published a 400-page report that detailed incidences of child abuse and estimated a minimum of 5000 cases over the past 70 years.

During the bishops’ plenary meeting in Fátima, Bishop José Ornelas presided over a special Mass for abuse victims, saying, “There can be no condoning situations or attitudes that endanger the lives of innocent people. The ‘zero tolerance’ that Pope Francis speaks of expresses this fundamental commitment to life and justice, especially for those who were cruelly deprived of them. The Church cannot turn back from this path.”

During a press conference later that afternoon, the bishops explained that a new organisation is being set up to accompany abuse victims who turn to the Church for help. This commission, staffed by other mental health…

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A White County man who says he was molested when he was a 10-year-old altar boy 42 years ago by a now-deceased Catholic priest filed suit Thursday against the Diocese of Little Rock and two churches where Richard Patrick Davis was pastor.

A Pocahontas native, Davis died in May 2020 at age 83 after 57 years as a priest in Arkansas, serving past the traditional retirement age of 65. He spent his last 14 years as the pastor of St. Boniface Church in New Dixie and, while assigned to St. Patrick Church in North Little Rock in the mid-to-late 1960s, taught religion at Mount St. Mary Academy and was the chaplain at St. Vincent Infirmary.

His obituary in the Arkansas Catholic newspaper states he “created the Teen Aged Religious Education program, which helped teens in the Arkansas River Valley grow in their faith.” A Knights of Columbus obituary describes Davis…

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An anonymous White County man has filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Little Rock and two churches where a now-deceased Catholic priest from Pocahontas served as pastor.

The man alleges that he was sexually abused by the priest, Richard Davis, when he was a 10-year-old altar boy 42 years ago. According to a report by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the man, referred to in the suit as “John Doe,” is seeking compensation for vicarious liability for Davis’ actions, as well as negligence, negligent supervision and retention of an employee, failure to protect him, and premises liability.

The Diocese of Little Rock said that this is reportedly the first time anyone has made allegations against Davis. Doe is asking for a jury trial to rule on compensatory and punitive damages.

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It’s alleged Father Emile Jungbluth sexually assaulted a child between 1971 and 1977.

A northern B.C. woman is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George with allegations she was sexually abused as a child by a priest.

The B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim, filed on April 19, alleges Father Emile Jungbluth sexually assaulted the child between 1971 and 1977. The court documents name The Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Prince Rupert, also known as the Diocese of Prince George, as the defendant.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Seth Wheeldon, said a court anonymization order is being sought for her name.

“The perpetrator used his position of authority and trust, also the fact that the plaintiff was a young child, to ensure that the plaintiff did not tell anyone about his wrongdoing,” said the claim, filed by lawyer Christopher McDougall. “In order to facilitate abuses, the perpetrator engaged in a pattern of behaviour which…

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The Diocese of Lansing today expressed gratitude to the victims of Genesee County-based priest, Reverend Vincent DeLorenzo, after the 84-year-old pleaded guilty to attempted criminal sexual conduct in the first degree.

“It was the bravery of those victims who came forward with testimony against DeLorenzo that helped to secure today’s conviction – for that, those individuals have our gratitude, our support and, of course, our prayers that they find both healing and peace,” said spokesman for the Diocese of Lansing, David Kerr, April 25.

“DeLorenzo’s actions were as gravely immoral as they were illegal, he besmirched the good name of the Catholic priesthood, he betrayed the trust put in him by the Catholic community of the Diocese of Lansing and, most disturbingly, he damaged the lives in his young victims.”

DeLorenzo’s guilty plea today relates to the sexual assault of a five-year-old boy in 1987. It was in 2002 that…

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The Catholic Church in the U.S. has made progress over the past two decades in confronting sexual abuse against minors within the church, but has only begun to address the vulnerability of adults to sexual abuse by clergy, religious and lay leaders, experts told OSV News.

“We’ve accomplished a tremendous amount in the area of (creating) safe environments,” said Suzanne Healy, chairwoman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, a lay-led group that advises the bishops on preventing sexual abuse of minors.

At the same time, “there’s still a lot more work to be done” in extending safeguards to adults, said Healy, a licensed marriage and family therapist who served as the victim assistance coordinator for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 2007 to 2016.

At present, two key documents lay out broad protocols for the response of the Catholic Church in the U.S. to sexual abuse…

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A former Mid-South church leader and Christian school administrator is accused of persuading a high school student to engage in sexual activity online, and then recorded that activity without the victim’s knowledge.

John “Jay” Brownlow, 32, allegedly groomed the teen, a Westminster Academy student, at the peak of the pandemic, and installed cameras in the boy’s bedroom without him knowing.

The Action News 5 Investigators have been watching Brownlow’s case move through a Shelby County courtroom since September when he pleaded not guilty to seven felonies and one misdemeanor.

The Investigators were tipped off about the arrest, and have since been corresponding with the teen’s family.

According to a nine-page indictment, Brownlow also stalked and spied on the victim.

A now-deleted online post states that Brownlow was a bookkeeper at Westminster Academy and was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in September 2021. According to the post, Brownlow enjoyed “playing board…

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The complaint highlights unaddressed challenges in the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse involving adult victims

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is facing a civil lawsuit over claims it covered up for one of its former priests who allegedly sexually abused a student at a Nashville, Tennessee, Catholic college run by Dominican women religious.

The complaint highlights problems in the sharing of information among dioceses and institutions, as well as unaddressed challenges in the Catholic Church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse involving adult victims.

Attorneys for “Jane Doe,” an undergraduate at Aquinas College in Nashville from 2014-2018, filed a 31-page complaint April 18 with the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Civil Trial Division, naming as defendants the archdiocese and Kevin Barry McGoldrick, a former priest of the Philadelphia archdiocese and currently a Nashville resident.

Doe, now a 28-year-old educator working in Virginia, claims McGoldrick groomed and then sexually assaulted…

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A Georgia woman, who was a tutor at a local faith-based Classical Conversations program, has been arrested and charged with molesting a student, according to police records obtained by The Roys Report (TRR).  

Cheryl McCullough, 37, was arrested and charged by the Monroe Police Department with one count of child molestation on March 20. She bonded out the same day, police records show. 

McCullough had served as a tutor at a local chapter of Classical Conversations, a faith-based homeschool co-op program which meets at Faith Baptist Church in Monroe. According to the police report, the alleged incident occurred with a teenage student enrolled in the program whom McCullough had been tutoring at her home. 

The police report recounts how the minor visited the McCullough home for an overnight stay on February 7. In the account, the minor claims his tutor “got in bed with him” and made “sexual comments.” The minor…

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In March 2022, Anglican Watch forwarded to the Rev. Rob Morpeth the allegations we received regarding Stephen McWhorter. Morpeth is the Title IV intake officer for the Diocese of Alabama. The allegations were that Stephen McWhorter, a retired Episcopal priest canonically resident in the diocese, made unwanted sexual advances against a boy while serving in Pittsburgh.

The result? Profound silence.

For the record, we don’t know if the allegations are accurate. But they come from a credible source. And given what we know about other issues involving Stephen McWhorter, the allegations are plausible.

That also raises another issue: Why is Morpeth, who is the diocesan compliance guy, not doing a little compliance of his own? As in complying with the requirements of Title IV? These requirements include:

• A pastoral response to all who may be affected.
• Notice of status.

And more.

We’d also suggest that the appropriate response is to 1) Conduct a third-party…

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Priests and religious are bound to obey their conscience and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth

The latest and most shocking investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests has been released in the United States. Hundreds of victims in the Archdiocese of Baltimore have come forward to report their suffering and Archbishop William E. Lori has issued a statement of apology.

The report released on April 5 by Maryland Attorney-General Anthony Brown revealed 156 priests abused more than 600 children since the 1940s through 2002 “while the archdiocese leadership looked the other way.” 

“Time and again, members of the Church’s hierarchy resolutely refused to acknowledge allegations of child sexual abuse for as long as possible,” the report said.

The situation in Asian Churches today is not different from what is acknowledged in the Baltimore archdiocese.

In the US, Attorney-General Brown set up a website and a call center to get victims to…

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Frank Pavone, the national director of the pro-life organization Priests for Life, has repeatedly framed his dismissal from the priesthood late last year as the culmination of a long-running campaign by some in the Catholic hierarchy to undermine his outspoken pro-life activism.

“This is not just an attack on me,” Pavone said in a Dec. 19, 2022, statement, “but an effort by forces both inside and outside the Church to intimidate every courageous pro-life priest and lay activist.”

Pavone’s narrative is difficult to square with his recent troubles, however, as former members of his own organization and other leaders in the wider pro-life community have sought to distance themselves from him, especially after several women went public with allegations that Pavone sexually harassed them while they worked for him at Priests for Life. Those accusations, first reported by The Pillar,…

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Former Jewish girls school principal and now convicted sex offender Malka Leifer was ordered on Wednesday to appear in an Australian court in June for a two-day sentencing hearing.

A Victoria state County Court jury convicted the 56-year-old Israeli citizen and mother of eight early this month on 18 charges relating to the sexual abuse of sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper when they were students and student teachers at Adass Israel School in Melbourne from 2003 until 2007.

Leifer faced a procedural hearing via a video link from prison on Wednesday during which Judge Mark Gamble set a timetable for her sentencing hearing on June 28-29.

Gamble said there were significant matters he wanted addressed by prosecutor Justin Lewis and Leifer’s lawyer Ian Hill in the hearing, including details of the time Leifer spent in police or correctional custody in Israel.

That includes time in “quasi-custody” such as home detention,…

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