ABUSE TRACKER

An NBC Bay Area investigation into a new wave of lawsuits accusing Catholic clergy of sexually abusing children

The Catholic church is once again being buried in child sex abuse accusations across California. More than 4,000 people are suing Catholic institutions across the state, enabled by a recent law that opened a window for survivors to sue their alleged abusers, no matter how far back their accusations go. Hundreds of Northern California priests are being accused for the first time, including some still working in churches and schools today. NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit dug through the new claims, which suggest the decades-long scandal could go far deeper than the public previously knew.

NBC Bay Area investigates into a new wave of lawsuits accusing Catholic clergy of sexually abusing children.

This page is the culmination of more than four years of reporting by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit. You’ll find…

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[To see a PDF of this front-page story, click here.]

ABM Ministries/Lighthouse Christian Academy has operated quietly in Wayne County for over two decades. In recent weeks, the Christian boys’ home has been under the microscope after 5 students have run away.

David Clohessy of St. Louis was in the Piedmont area Sunday passing out fliers related to the school. “We are a confidential support group for anyone who was hurt by anyone in any an institutional setting,” reads the flyer. “We are especially worried about those who are or were at this controversial boarding school in Piedmont.” The flyer referred people to the group’s website SNAPnetwork.org.

Since the holidays, at least five boys have run away from this facility. When the runaways were found, they were returned to their parents.

Last week, the Kansas City Star did an in-depth story on the school and interviewed many area residents. The Star has…

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Former Connecticut State Representative John Metsopoulos reported sexual, psychological, and physical abuse by two Greek Orthodox bishops on the SNAP website in November of 2023. His outcry has apparently produced repercussions for one of the two prelates. We are very happy for John!

John named Metropolitan Athenagoras Aneste (George Angelo Aneste), the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Mexico and Central America, as his primary abuser. A metropolitan is the equivalent of an archbishop or a cardinal. According to the January 24, 2024, issue of Orthodox Times, a new metropolitan was elected for Mexico, and Metropolitan Athenagoras was elected as the new metropolitan of Vize, Turkey. As far as we can tell this is a significant demotion.

According to Pew Research, the Orthodox population of Mexico is 110,000. There are almost no Greek Orthodox faithful in Turkey. Politico noted in 2020 that even the larger city…

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Cody LaKose was sentenced to 45 days in jail, and he will also be required to register as a sex offender.

A former DeWitt high school teacher has been sentenced to jail after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor.

According to court records, former Central DeWitt High School teacher Cody LaKose pled guilty to three counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee on Wednesday, Feb. 21. Two additional counts of the same charges were dropped.

LaKose was sentenced to 45 days in jail on all three counts, with the sentences running concurrently. 

LaKose was employed as a science teacher at Central Dewitt in 2017 when court records say he allegedly groomed an underage female student into a sexual relationship. LaKose resigned from Central DeWitt in 2018.

An investigation was launched into the incident on March 2, 2022, after the victim came to the DeWitt Police Department with…

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One afternoon in mid-December, Pope Francis had a meeting that was not on his official agenda or otherwise recorded, that underscored the utter dysfunction of the Catholic Church’s response to the global clergy sex abuse scandal.

In the main reception room of the Vatican hotel where he lives, Francis met for more than an hour with a Spaniard who as a young seminarian was molested by his spiritual director. The former seminarian was desperate.

He had lodged a complaint with the Toledo, Spain Archdiocese in 2009, and visited Vatican offices multiple times to deposit damning documents and demand action be taken against his abuser and the bishops who allegedly covered for him. But for 15 years, he had received no justice from the church.

While Francis’ decision to hear his story was laudable and pastorally sensitive, it was also evidence that the church’s in-house system to deal with abuse isn’t…

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The law firm for the priest who sued the outlet says Church Militant will cease publication at the end of April.

Church Militant, the far-right Catholic media network, will cease operating at the end of April 2024, according to a press release issued Friday (March 1) by the law firm Todd & Weld LLP.

The law firm announced that Church Militant, operated by St. Michael’s Media, had lost a defamation lawsuit to the Rev. Georges de Laire, a canon lawyer and priest in the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire. Church Militant agreed to pay $500,000 and apologize to de Laire, said the law firm, which represented de Laire.

On Jan. 17, 2019, Church Militant published an anonymously written story titled, “NH Vicar Changes Dogma Into Heresy,” about de Laire. After de Laire sued the outlet for defamation, the author of the article was revealed to be Marc Balestrieri, a canon lawyer…

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A former Anglican priest who is charged with sexually assaulting nearly a dozen male members of his Fresno parish under the guise of spiritual healing has agreed to a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Jesus Antonio Castaneda Serna, 56, has pleaded no contest to nine counts of sexual assault and one count of attempting to prevent a witness from testifying. The remaining 12 counts will be dropped.

Serna, who headed the Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe church in Fresno, was arrested in February 2019 and accused of preying on his male parishioners, many whom were not documented and had sought help with personal problems.

Serna convinced them that by fondling their genitals he was performing a spiritual ritual to help overcome their problems.

He was charged with 22 counts of sexual assault and was facing 26 years and six months in prison.

But the case lagged in the court…

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A former priest of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, Jesus Antonio Serna, has entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors in Fresno over charges he sexually assaulted members of his parish.

Serna, 56, entered a plea of no contest to nine counts of sexual assault and one count of witness tampering. Twelve other counts of assault will be dismissed. In return for his plea, prosecutors agreed not to seek a possible 26 year sentence, but have agreed to a sentence of no more than ten years in prison.

In February 2019 Serna was arrested by police and charged with 26 counts of sexual assault. He was accused of assaulting male members of his congregation, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe church in Fresno. He told his victims that by fondling their genitals he was performing a spiritual ritual to drive away evil. 

The Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin relieved Serna of…

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Archdiocese of Baltimore bankruptcy filing has resulted in a deadline of May 31, for individuals who were sexually abused by priests or clergy to present claims

Following the release of a four year-long investigation by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office early last year, which highlighted an extensive history of childhood sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, hundreds of survivors are now coming forward to pursue financial compensation before a May 31, 2024 deadline established by a U.S. bankruptcy court.

While many of these childhood sexual abuse claims were previously barred by the Maryland statute of limitations, since it often takes survivors decades to come forward and address what happened to them as children. Recognizing this injustice, Governor Moore and the state legislature passed the Child Victims Act of 2023 in April, 2023 just days after the findings of the Attorney General were released.

The…

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• In short: Details of sexual abuse allegations against former Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders have been revealed for the first time after the lifting of a suppression order.
• The 26 charges against him include two counts of sexual penetration without consent, three counts of indecent dealings with a child and 14 counts of unlawful and indecent assault.
• What’s next? Bishop Saunders remains on bail, and is due to face court again in June.

Details of charges against former Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders can be revealed for the first time, after the retired cleric failed in his bid to prevent their publication.

Bishop Saunders was arrested at his home in Broome on February 21 and charged with 19 sexual offences.

At his first court appearance the following day, his lawyer Seamus Rafferty indicated 74-year-old would plead not guilty to all charges.

He also requested a suppression order restricting coverage of proceedings, telling the…

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The pastor of a local congregation who is awaiting trial for child sex crimes is also accused of alarming teachings at his church, according to recently filed court documents.

Ronnie Allen Killingsworth, 78, of Wichita Falls, is charged with six counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact. His trial has been specially set to begin on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in the 78th District Court, with Judge Meredith Kennedy presiding.

THE LATEST: Details of child sex crime charges against Wichita Falls pastor released

On Tuesday, February 27, 2024, officials with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, tasked with prosecuting the case against Killingsworth, filed a notice filled with multiple alleged bad acts or offenses they intend to introduce into evidence.

In addition to previously unreleased details regarding the allegations against Killingsworth, the prosecution listed several of his teachings in the notice of bad…

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Recently filed court documents reveal more details of the allegations against a local pastor charged with sex crimes against several children.

THE LATEST: Court documents allege cult-like teachings from Ronnie Killingsworth

Ronnie Allen Killingsworth, 78, of Wichita Falls, is charged with six counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact. The indictment alleged Killingsworth committed sex crimes against three different female victims under the age of 17 over the course of eleven years.

On Tuesday, February 27, 2024, officials with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, tasked with prosecuting the case against Killingsworth, filed a notice filled with multiple alleged bad acts or offenses they intend to introduce into evidence.

New details of Killingsworth’s charges released

The state’s notice filed on Tuesday includes previously unreleased details on the indecency charges pending against Killingsworth, the longtime “Pastor-Teacher” of Rephidim Church, a non-affiliated…

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Senior church officials in Rome decline to act, citing worsening health of French clergyman known as ‘devil priest’

A French clergyman dubbed the “devil priest” who stands accused of sexually abusing Inuit children in Canada’s north will not be dismissed from his congregation after senior church officials in Rome declined to act, citing the nonagenarian’s declining health.

Johannes Rivoire, a priest with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, worked in several Canadian Arctic communities in the 1960s and 70s before returning to France in 1993.

Police laid charges against Rivoire following accusations of sexual assault in the communities of Arviat, Rankin Inlet and Naujaat. But the charges were later stayed, largely due to France’s longstanding policy of not extraditing its citizens to face charges abroad. Rivoire, now in his mid-90s, remains the subject of a Canada-wide arrest warrant.

In 2021, the Inuk elder Peter Irniq told APTN News that his friend Marius Tungilik…

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Calling all whistleblowers. The Vatican wants to hear from you! This comes from the Vatican’s recent push to bring whistleblowers into the holy fold to help the church clean house. It is a big move for an institution historically averse to dealing so openly with misbehavior within its ranks. But there are limits to how far the church seems willing to go with its warm whistleblower embrace.

Most recently is the whistleblower procedure the Vatican implemented on Feb. 1, which provides formal guidelines for the Vatican’s official enlistment of church insiders to help uncover fraud and corruption. According to Vatican News, the new procedure “will facilitate the dissemination of knowledge and the possibility of ‘whistleblowing,’ or raising concerns about potential abuses, in force in the legislation of the Holy See and Vatican City State. This is one of the most effective tools for combating corruption.”

…

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John W. Perry, a seasoned and highly respected mediator of complex litigation in Louisiana, has been tapped to help the parties in the long-running Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy case work towards a settlement — a development that could signal a turning point as the case approaches its fourth anniversary.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill appointed Perry on Wednesday, following an hour-long hearing during which attorneys for the archdiocese, survivors of clergy sex abuse, and trade creditors exhibited a rare moment of solidarity.

“He is the man we all wanted,” said attorney Douglas Draper, who represents the archdiocesan affiliates — parishes, schools and charitable organizations.  “That is unprecedented in the case.”

Perry’s appointment comes nearly four years after the nation’s second-oldest archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection amid mounting claims of child sex abuse by local clergy. Since the May 2020 filing, more than 500 claims have been submitted, many…

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Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp said he was tired of hearing criticism of the Church when it had introduced more reform than other public bodies.

Senior Belgian bishops faced a hostile reception at a national commission on abuse in the Church, where federal deputies expressed disbelief at their apologies.

The meeting became so tense that the Bishop of Antwerp Johan Bonny riposted he was tired of hearing so much criticism of the Church when it had introduced far more reforms than public entities.

The session on 23 February was the latest stage in a sharpening debate about abuse since the television mini-series Gotvergeten (“Forgotten by God”) last September shone a critical light on years of cover-ups.

Bishop Bonny joined the Archbishop of Brussels Luc Terlinden and other prelates to apologise once again for the abuse and tried to explain how the Church responded to the scandal since it broke in 2010.

“We heard that…

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The city of Baltimore plans to pay $275,000 to settle a lay Catholic organization’s lawsuit over the city’s attempt to block it from holding a 2021 rally on the grounds that the event could create a risk of a violent disruption.

St. Michael’s Media, also known as Church Militant, is a nonprofit digital media outlet based in Michigan. It sued the city regarding its plans to hold a “prayer rally” at MECU Pavilion, a city-owned, open-air auditorium on the Inner Harbor, on Nov. 16, 2021.

The proposed settlement with Baltimore is outlined in the agenda for the next meeting of the city’s Board of Estimates, which is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to approve it.

The group, which is unaffiliated with the Catholic Church, bills itself as “a bastion of Catholic truth and a light to the faithful in hard times.” It is known for its frequent criticism of…

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Washington state lawmakers have again failed to pass a law that mandates clergy reporting of abuse amid concerns that it did not offer legal protection for Catholic confessionals.

Senate Bill 6298, which passed the Democrat-controlled Washington State Senate in a vote of 44-5 earlier this month, was defeated last week in the Washington House Committee on Human Services, Youth & Early Learning, reported Oregon Public Radio.

While the bill received bipartisan support in the Washington Senate, all five lawmakers voting against it were Republicans. 

A major point of contention was the legislation lacking an exemption for the Catholic Church’s sacramental practice of the confessional, in which actions confessed are meant to be confidential.

The Senate version of the bill, which passed in early February, exempted clergy from mandatory reporting if they heard of abuse exclusively in the confessional but required it should they hear about…

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In the roughly six months after Doubt: A Parable premiered off-Broadway in 2004, the play swept the Tony Awards and won its author, John Patrick Shanley, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Arriving amid a wave of sexual abuse cases involving the Catholic church, the story of a priest accused of just that at a Bronx middle school in the 1960s teemed with relevance. (A 2008 film starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis—all nominated for Academy Awards—would later bring the story of Sister Aloysius’s crusade against Father Flynn to an even wider audience.) Now, as a new revival starring Liev Schreiber, Amy Ryan, Zoe Kazan, and Quincy Tyler Bernstine prepares to open on March 7, the ambitious questions at Doubt’s center still feel as relevant as ever.

Sister Aloysius (Ryan) is a hardened nun with a hunch: She suspects that Father Flynn (Schreiber) molested Donald Muller, the…

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The Servites order has had numerous priests and brothers accused of sexual abuse and faces an onslaught of new lawsuits. But, unlike many dioceses and orders, the group has no public list of members deemed to have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. And other church lists are incomplete. Key findings

• The Order of Friar Servants of Mary, commonly known as the Servites, has its U.S. headquarters in Chicago, but it maintains no public list of credibly accused members despite calls for transparency.
• One church watchdog group counts 11 Servites accused of child sex abuse over the years, and the order has been accused of covering up for some offenders.
• Ther are at least nine pending lawsuits against the Servites stemming from alleged abuse by a former Chicago priest who allegedly molested numerous children in California years ago.
• A California law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on child sex abuse claims…

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The Utah Legislature has given unanimous support to a bill providing legal protections to clergy members who report ongoing child abuse or neglect they learn of through confession, which has been praised for threading the needle between protecting young victims without infringing upon religious rights.

Rep. Anthony Loubet, R-Kearns, the bill sponsor, has described it as a “middle ground” by giving clergy the option of reporting abuse revealed during confession and protecting them from civil or criminal liability if they do. The protections apply only to situations where the clergy member believes the abuse to be ongoing, and would not cover abuse or neglect committed in the past.

“It’s imperative that we are able to provide protection for these children, and we’re trying to make it that way so that law enforcement can get involved (and) make sure these children are safe,” Loubet  View Cache

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the release of Vos estis lux mundi, an apostolic letter establishing a mechanism for holding bishops to account for the mishandling of abuse cases. 

Ahead of the May 9 anniversary, there is growing discussion of whether the text — whose norms were made permanent last year — has proven effective. 

The debate about Vos estis lux mundi is often focused on the U.S. 

That’s understandable, given that the scandal of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick contributed to its creation, U.S. Church leaders such as Cardinal Blase Cupich are believed to have influenced the document, and a significant number of U.S. bishops have faced Vos estis investigations over the past five years. 

It also makes sense to study the text’s impact in the U.S. because it has the greatest number of Catholics of any country except Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines, along with over 250 active bishops.

But to get a fuller sense of Vos estis’…

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Archdiocese of Moncton says it has paid $5.4 million to victims

The Archdiocese of Moncton recently paid about $5.4 million to dozens of victims who sued the Catholic Church alleging sexual abuse by some priests.

The payments bring an end to dozens of lawsuits that have been filed over more than a decade involving multiple priests in southeast New Brunswick.

While some of the victims previously received partial payments after settling the cases, the church argued its finances — including a dispute with its insurer — meant it couldn’t pay the full amount until recently.

Archbishop of Moncton Guy Desrochers announced the payments in a Jan. 30 letter to parishioners. He said in an interview this week that the payments complete the compensation to 78 victims.

Desrochers said the archdiocese has spent close to $24 million over the last 13 years. 

The letter says Desrochers and his predecessor, Valéry Vienneau, began a fundraising…

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Utah faith leaders who learn about ongoing child abuse from a perpetrator during a religious confession will be able to alert police without fear of legal ramifications under a bill that received final legislative approval Thursday in the state Senate.

The measure extends to clergy members the same legal protections that exist for mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect, such as doctors, teachers or therapists. It passed the Senate in a 26-0 vote after receiving similarly unanimous approval in the House earlier this month. It now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Spencer Cox.

State law in Utah, where the vast majority of lawmakers belong to the locally headquartered Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, exempts clergy of all denominations from a requirement to report child abuse if they learn about the crime in a confessional setting. Certain communications to clergy are considered privileged under…

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After a nearly year-long vacancy, Pope Francis has appointed a new head of the French Archdiocese of Strasbourg, which has been subject to an apostolic visitation and two high-profile episcopal resignations in the past several years. 

The Holy See Press Office announced on Wednesday the appointment of 66-year-old Pascal Delannoy as the diocese’s new archbishop. The see had been vacant since the resignation of former Archbishop Luc Ravel in April 2023.

“I am happy to greet each of you as our Pope Francis has just named me Archbishop of Strasbourg,” Delannoy wrote in a Feb. 28 statement. 

“I welcome this appointment with confidence and serenity and I warmly thank Philippe Ballot, Bishop of Metz, for having administered the diocese during the vacancy of the see following the resignation of Luc Ravel.”

In June 2022, Pope Francis ordered an apostolic visitation to the diocese amid concerns over the pastoral…

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The Apostolic Nunciature of Poland has revealed further information regarding the resignation of Polish Archbishop Andrzej Dzięga, indicating that he stepped down due to alleged negligence in overseeing sexual abuse claims.

The Holy Father accepted Dzięga’s resignation last week. Neither the nunciature nor the Vatican had immediately given a reason for his departure. The prelate, meanwhile, had published a two-page resignation letter on Feb. 24 in which he cited a “radical weakening of my condition.” 

In the letter, he apologized to his “brother priests,” saying: “If my weaknesses, including incomplete understanding of specific circumstances, and sometimes even my ordinary human fatigue, became the cause of your anxiety, I am sorry.” The prelate has faced allegations that he ignored abuse cases in Poland.

The Apostolic Nunciature in Poland subsequently released a statement addressing the controversy, saying that the release was in “response to emerging questions” regarding…

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ROME – Earlier this week the leadership of the Italian bishops’ conference met with a group of clerical abuse survivors and their family members, days after the country’s largest victims advocacy group inaugurated a new memorial.

In a Feb. 27 statement, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, president of the Italian bishops’ conference (CEI), said, “The voice of those who have suffered abuse remains essential to help us understand in depth the pain experienced by victims and their families, and their wounds, to enter into authentic communion with those who have suffered.”

Listening to survivors is also essential to understanding what is expected from the church, he said, asking, “what has been missing? What can be done to improve?”

“It is also from the answer to these questions that the path of prevention and protection can progress every day with significant and meaningful steps,” he said.

Zuppi met with the…

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“Bez transparentności nie ma mowy o odbudowywaniu zaufania i wiarygodności” – mówi ks. Piotr Studnicki.

Nuncjatura poinformowała w minioną sobotę, że papież Franciszek przyjął rezygnację z urzędu abp. Andrzeja Dzięgi, metropolity szczecińsko-kamieńskiego. W pierwszym komunikacie nie ujawniono powodów tej decyzji, jednak w poniedziałek nuncjatura opublikowała dodatkowy komunikat wyjaśniający, że rezygnacja abp. Dzięgi jest związana z prowadzonym wobec niego postępowaniem ze strony Stolicy Apostolskiej.

ZOBACZ: Nuncjatura przyznaje: rezygnacja abp. Dzięgi następstwem dochodzenia

Wszystko wskazuje na to, że w przypadku abp. Dzięgi zastosowano art. 4 motu proprio papieża Franciszka „Come una madre amorevole”. Opisuje on dwa możliwe tryby usunięcia biskupa z urzędu, gdy potwierdzone zostały zarzuty dotyczące poważnego braku sumienności w prowadzeniu postępowań kanonicznych w sprawach wykorzystywania seksualnego małoletnich i dorosłych bezbronnych. Właściwa dykasteria watykańska może wtedy wydać dekret usuwający biskupa z urzędu, ale może też – jak miało to miejsce w przypadku abp. Dzięgi – „zachęcić po bratersku biskupa do przedstawienia swej rezygnacji w…

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Kierownik Biura Delegata KEP ds. ochrony dzieci i młodzieży podaje prawną podstawę działań Stolicy Apostolskiej.

Ks. Piotr Studnicki, kierownik Biura Delegata episkopatu ds. ochrony dzieci i młodzieży, bliski współpracownik prymasa Polski, abp. Wojciecha Polaka, w rozmowie z Katolicką Agencją Informacyjną wyjaśnia okoliczności prawne rezygnacji abp. Andrzeja Dzięgi.

– Wszystko wskazuje na to, że w przypadku abp. Dzięgi zastosowano art. 4 motu proprio papieża Franciszka „Come una madre amorevole”. Opisuje on dwa możliwe tryby usunięcia biskupa z urzędu, gdy potwierdzone zostały zarzuty dotyczące poważnego braku sumienności w prowadzeniu postępowań kanonicznych w sprawach wykorzystywania seksualnego małoletnich i dorosłych bezbronnych. Właściwa dykasteria watykańska może wtedy wydać dekret usuwający biskupa z urzędu, ale może też – jak miało to miejsce w przypadku abp. Dzięgi – „zachęcić po bratersku biskupa do przedstawienia swej rezygnacji w ciągu 15 dni”. Oczywiście, jeśli biskup nie udzieli odpowiedzi w przewidzianym czasie, Dykasteria może zastosować tryb pierwszy, czyli wydać dekret…

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