ABUSE TRACKER

Some Child Victims Act plaintiffs will be allowed to resume their lawsuits against Catholic parishes and schools in the Buffalo Diocese.

Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York has denied the diocese’s request to keep in place a temporary stay that since 2020 has blocked all lawsuits against parishes and other Catholic entities from moving forward in New York state courts.

The ruling does not impact a separate stay that applies to the Buffalo Diocese, which under Chapter 11 rules is automatically protected from state court litigation as it works through the bankruptcy process.

Bucki previously approved the diocese’s last seven requests for the temporary stay.

The diocese’s lawyers maintained that the stay was necessary so that the diocese would not be distracted in its mediated negotiations for a bankruptcy court settlement with an estimated 900 claimants who accused priests and…

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Mohsin Meghji drew scrutiny for behavior with bankruptcy judges in unrelated case involving drugmaker

Clergy abuse survivors and other parties ensnared in the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans’ expensive and lengthy bankruptcy reorganization are concerned after a nationally recognized business-turnaround expert brought on to assist with resolving the unusually contentious proceeding had some of his actions questioned in an unrelated case.

Judge Meredith Grabill’s chosen expert, Mohsin “Mo” Meghji, was recently the subject of a Wall Street Journal investigation that examined ethical concerns over some of his maneuvering in a pharmaceutical company’s high-stakes bankruptcy reorganization.

None of the clergy abuse claimants – who have spent years fighting for compensation – or their supporters wanted to speak on the record about the Journal’s investigation into Meghji for fear of troubling Grabill after their side and the church each presented to the judge competing settlement plans that are hundreds of millions of dollars…

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Two priests from a Catholic diocese in Poland that has been hit by a series of scandals in recent years have been charged with sexual offences against minors. A third former priest from the same diocese has also been charged with fraud allegedly committed during his time as a clergyman.

The announcement by prosecutors came as the local bishop revealed that the diocese of Sosnowiec is establishing a special commission to investigate the scandals. Those include a drug-fuelled sex party in a church apartment last year that led to a priest being convicted and the resignation of the previous bishop.

The first of the accused is a 63-year-old priest (who, like the other two, has not been named by prosecutors). He has been charged with committing two sexual offences against minors and placed in pretrial detention.

The second suspect, a priest aged 67, was charged with a total of nine “offences…

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A federal judge has denied Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul’s request to review the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s sealed bankruptcy records as part of his investigation into clergy sex abuse.

U.S. District Judge G. Michael Halfenger denied Kaul’s request on Monday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday. Halfenger called the scope of Kaul’s request “staggering” even before considering what it would take to provide abuse survivors notice of the request.

He added that Kaul did not give him any compelling reason to grant the request, calling it a “massive fishing expedition.”

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011 to address unresolved claims by abuse survivors. The case ended with a settlement in 2016 that called for the archdiocese to pay hundreds of survivors $21 million. Hundreds of their claims remain under seal.

Kaul, a Democrat, launched his investigation in April 2021, saying he wanted to develop a full picture…

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Wisconsin’s attorney general sought documents as part of investigation into sexual abuse by clergy

A federal judge won’t let Wisconsin’s attorney general review sealed records from a bankruptcy case involving the state’s largest Catholic diocese.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul’s office filed a motion last year, asking to confidentially view those records as part of a statewide investigation into sexual abuse by clergy and other faith leaders.

But, in an order this week, U.S. bankruptcy judge G. Michael Halfenger concluded the AG’s office hadn’t given a sufficient legal reason to reopen the case under bankruptcy law.

Milwaukee’s archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, before reaching a $21 million settlement deal with hundreds of sexual abuse survivors.

In his ruling, Halfenger noted that the case was closed more than seven years ago when since-retired Judge Susan Kelley approved the settlement. And Halfenger questioned why…

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The terms of a recent diocesan bankruptcy settlement, which require parishes to declare an “abbreviated bankruptcy,” are a first for such cases and shows the impact of a Supreme Court ruling in June, a legal scholar told OSV News.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre announced Sept. 26 that it had reached a preliminary $323 million settlement in its long-running — and at points contentious — bankruptcy case, facing a total of some 500 or more sex abuse claims due to two New York State lookback laws.

In its statement, the diocese said that no parishes would be closed — but they would have to enter into “an abbreviated Chapter 11” bankruptcy, expected to “be resolved within 48 hours of filing,” to secure a release from liability.

“The feature of the proposed settlement that has Rockville Centre’s 135 or so parishes filing their own chapter 11 cases is a first in…

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Regrettably, it’s time for another installment of our long-running feature, Catholics Behaving Badly.

First up is the Denver Archdiocese, which issued an unsigned statement regarding the expulsion of various members of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae after a Vatican investigation found what it termed “sadistic” abuses of power at the organization.

“The Archdiocese of Denver is shocked and saddened by the news of expulsions of members from the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, based on decades-old allegations in South America,” the statement began. “While the Archdiocese is actively working to understand the full extent of the Vatican’s investigation, we are unable to comment on specifics. This news is inconsistent with our longstanding experience of the men who have served within the Archdiocese of Denver.”

So, the archdiocese admits it doesn’t understand the “full extent of the Vatican’s investigation” but feels comfortable casting aspersions on it? Saying it is “inconsistent” with…

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A group of members of Dallas-based Gateway Church have filed a proposed class action lawsuit, alleging that the church fraudulently claimed it was giving 15% of members’ tithe to global missions, but did not.

According to the suit, Gateway should have been giving away a minimum of $15 million a year to global missions, since the church had annual revenue around $100 million.

However, the suit claims Gateway hired a “seasoned CPA” to oversee its global ministries in July 2011. And during his tenure, which ended in 2014, “he never observed the Global Ministries fund give away more than $3 million in any year,” the suit states.

Following initial publication of this article, Gateway Church spokesperson Lawrence Swicegood provided a statement.

“We do not comment on pending litigation,” Swicegood told The Roys Report (TRR). “These are serious allegations. Some of these concerns were brought to us recently, and we are actively investigating…

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The Archdiocese of Seattle announced on Friday the final settlements totaling approximately $785,000 for three separate claims related to allegations of sexual abuse by representatives of the Church. The cases, from the 1970s and ’80s, involve individuals who are now deceased.

In a news release, the archdiocese said it has settled:

• Two cases involving allegations of sexual abuse by Father Gerald Moffat in the mid-1980s when he served as pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Snoqualmie. Moffat is deceased.

• A case involving an allegation of sexual abuse by Terry McGrath in approximately 1975 when he was a basketball coach at Holy Family Parish in Kirkland. McGrath is deceased.

Moffat was included on the archdiocese’s List of Clergy and Religious Brothers and Sisters for Whom Allegations of Sexual Abuse of a Minor Have Been Admitted, Establish or Determined to be Credible when the list was…

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Catholic Priest Joseph O’Brien’s disturbing Alton story

This article discusses matters of sexual abuse, which may be distressing for some readers. We aim to approach this subject with sensitivity and accuracy, providing insights into the ongoing issues surrounding this topic. Reader discretion is advised.

I recently learned that a monster once lived in Alton. Not a mythical monster like the Piasa Bird, but a human monster. And he was a Catholic priest.

His name was Joseph Cullen O’Brien, and he served as pastor of the long-defunct St. Patrick’s Church in the Hunterstown neighborhood from 1968 to 1970.

My Catholic childhood was spent at St. Mary’s, but I heard plenty about O’Brien from Joe Dromgoole, my great uncle, who worked for The Telegraph. St. Patrick’s was his lifelong parish, and Uncle Joe believed O’Brien’s abrasiveness was destroying the church.

Uncle Joe told me that he first met O’Brien when he…

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A familiar face will be coming back to the local area soon, with Father Barry Stechshculte being welcomed into the Holy Cross Family of Parishes, replacing Father Ethan Hoying as the parochial vicar for the parish in Coldwater.

The announcement was made on Sept. 29 in a bulletin published by the parish, with his expected start date being said to be on Oct. 14.

Hoying, on the other hand, will be taking the job of parochial vicar in the Wapakoneta and Botkins area in order to replace Father Mike Willig, who is being named the new vocations director for the Archdiocese.

The appointment comes months after Setchshculte was said to have resigned from his previous position from the St. Susanna Parish of Mason, Ohio in July after complaints were made by his parishioners. The complaints stemmed from his admission of destroying evidence possibly connected to the sexual abuse of minors…

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The scandal came to light when the man fainted during the party and the emergency services had to be called to treat him.

Two Polish priests have been detained on child sex abuse charges, prosecutors said Wednesday, the latest development in a southern Poland diocese rocked by a wave of scandals involving its clergy.

Prosecutors said they had launched an investigation into sexual abuse after evidence emerged as they were probing a homicide-suicide case involving two other priests from the diocese of Sosnowiec.

Three men were now detained as part of the investigation into the abuse, among them two Catholic priests from the Sosnowiec diocese.

“The two men have been charged with committing sexual offences against minors,” prosecution spokesman Jakub Seweryn told AFP.

The third man, a former priest, has been charged with fraud.

Prosecutors said they had identified the victims and declined to elaborate on the details of the…

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What are the contexts in abuse and sexual exploitation extant regarding clergy in the Serbian Orthodox Church?

There are many scandals related to the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church and their sodomic behavior. No one can deny this. 

Abuse and sexual exploitation is abnormal predatory behavior.

It is rarely talked about that Orthodox churches have the same, and according to information, maybe even worse prevalence of pedophile and homosexual scandals, but unfortunately they do not get the media attention they have in the Catholic Church.

There is very little or no discussion on this issue among Orthodox Christians. 

So, based on the evidence that has been publicly confirmed as true, there is a clear pattern of sexual abuse in the Serbian Orthodox Churches, but without criticism in the media and public inquiries.

One can only wonder what secrets lie within the hierarchy yet to be discovered.

Last year, at…

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Pope Francis also scolded over status of women in Roman Catholic Church

THE Pope has pledged to raise the status of women and prevent the cover-up of sexual abuse in his Church, after facing criticism during a visit to Belgium last week.

“Womanhood speaks to us of fruitful welcome, nurturing, and life-giving dedication — for this reason, a woman is more important than a man,” Pope Francis told listeners at the French-speaking Catholic University of Louvain.

“Let us be more attentive to the many daily expressions of this love, from friendship to the workplace, from studies to the exercise of responsibility in Church and society. . . Let us not forget: the Church is female, not male.”

The Pope spoke after listening to a 2000-word letter from students, praising his work for justice and integral development, but criticising the Roman Catholic Church’s all-male priesthood and “theology of women”.

He said that the “role…

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The penitential liturgy with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 1 opened with testimonies of those who have faced great suffering, among those a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. Laurence Gien, who was 11 when he was sexually abused by a priest in his native South Africa, told OSV News that standing in front of bishops, cardinals and Pope Francis himself, giving testimony about his lifetime trauma, was his way of “just trying to appeal to their better selves.”

The penitential liturgy concluded a two-day retreat for the 368 members of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which opened with Mass in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 2 and will run through Oct. 27.

Gien is a successful musician, pursuing his career as a baritone and performing on stages across Europe. Based in Germany, he has sung at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, the National Theater in Prague, the…

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Cindy Clemishire – the woman who accused former Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris of sexually abusing her when she was 12 – turned down a nondisclosure agreement that would have kept the alleged abuse secret, she told lawmakers at a Texas House committee hearing Wednesday.

During the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence meeting, Clemishire said Morris’ lawyers offered her $25,000 in 2007 if she agreed to sign the NDA and take blame for the alleged abuse.

Clemishire declined, she said, because she wanted to tell her story.

“I’m sitting here today because I did not accept that offer and refused to sign an NDA saying I couldn’t speak about my life,” Clemishire said.

Clemishire made the accusations against Morris in June on the Wartburg Watch and the Christian Post, alleging the abuse started Christmas night 1982 and continued through 1987.

Morris later admitted to…

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Chris Reed, former president of MorningStar Ministries, is starting a new church in South Carolina five weeks after resigning from the prophetic ministry and admitting to sexual misconduct with an adult student.

“Coming soon! Very soon. How this came together was/is a miracle,” Reed wrote in a Facebook post, which he’s since deleted. “Do not despise the day of small beginnings . . . (I)t’s been said ‘every move of God starts in a manger and dies in a cathedral.”

Jesus Revolution Church will open in York, South Carolina, on Oct. 13, Reed wrote in a letter to ministry subscribers today.  Reed wrote that Christians need a revolution, so Reed’s church will restore “the Fear of the Lord” and will be a base for people to learn how to heal the sick and cast out demons.

“Some may say, ‘Why the rush? Take your time; this…

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Editor’s note: Warning, this article contains graphic descriptions of images. 

Gabriel Mills, a father of five and husband who recently celebrated 20 years of marriage, was recently fired from his job as guest experience pastor at the Kenosha campus of the multisite Journey Church for allegedly sending himself nude photos of a female congregant from her husband’s cell phone.

Mills, 41, was charged Wednesday with two counts of capturing an intimate representation, which is a felony, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. At a court hearing that same day, his bail was set at $7,500.

The complaint against Mills, shared on Facebook by the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office, said the female congregant, identified as CMB, and her husband, identified as TAB, and an employee of the Racine Police Department, attended a life group meeting at Mills’ home with their children…

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This week, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to resolve 31 outstanding sex abuse lawsuits.

With assets largely depleted and a lack of insurance coverage, the diocese claims it has no other option if it is to settle with survivors. “The Diocese determined that reorganization under Chapter 11 is the only way to fairly and equitably fulfill the Diocese’s obligations to all survivors of sexual abuse,” Bishop John McDermott stated in the affidavit.

In the wake of groundbreaking reporting by the Boston Globe in the early 2000s that revealed widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests, as well as a massive conspiracy to cover up the matter, dioceses across the country, including here in Vermont, have reckoned with those sins — and paid dearly for them, both morally and financially. Since 2006, the Burlington Diocese has paid $34 million to settle 67 lawsuits filed…

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Harsh. Uncharitable. Abusive.

Alejandro Bermúdez acknowledges that those are accusations some critics have leveled against him about how he comports himself on social media, especially on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.

But even while acknowledging that he has sometimes been confrontational, Bermúdez told listeners during a Spanish-language video he posted Sept. 26 on Facebook that he had not done anything wrong because he was “telling the truth.”

“I think that behind all this there are people who simply hate my community,” he said in a Sept. 28 thread on X that provided an English translation of his remarks.

Bermúdez, 63, a Peruvian Catholic journalist and combative conservative media influencer, told his side of the story during the 24-minute Facebook video, which he posted a day after Pope Francis expelled him from the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a lay-led Catholic movement based in…

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Here is a compilation of videos of apologies delivered by Pope Francis and six cardinals ahead of the second session of the Synod on Synodality. [The cardinals read their apologies in Italian; the videos provide an English voice-over translation.]

Manila, Philippines – “How can we be credible in mission if we do not acknowledge our mistakes and bend down to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins?”

Emphasizing the need for the Catholic Church to confess its sins, Pope Francis led a penitential service on Tuesday, October 1, on the eve of the second session of the historic Synod on Synodality at the Vatican.

Six cardinals took turns in delivering apologies on behalf of the Catholic Church in a penitential service at Saint Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday. The final message and apology was reserved for the 87-year-old pontiff who, over the past 11 years, has called for a humble…

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Judge Carl Bucki ruled Monday that certain lawsuits that name diocesan entities like schools or parishes could be allowed to proceed.

Survivors of alleged clergy sexual abuse in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese are expressing “tempered hope” after a ruling in federal bankruptcy court this week that could mean their cases might finally be heard.

Judge Carl Bucki ruled Monday that certain lawsuits that name diocesan entities like schools or parishes could be allowed to proceed, denying the diocese’s request to keep them on hold.

The ruling means Judge Bucki will decide on a case-by-case basis which lawsuits can move ahead in state court and which ones won’t while the diocese’s bankruptcy case proceeds.

“This feels like it’s a great step forward,” said Brian Kirst, an abuse survivor.

Kirst is suing St. Patrick’s R.C. Church in East Randolph where he claims he was abused by Father Joseph Friel and Father Louis…

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Author Christa Brown shares her story of abuse and exposes the hypocrisy inherent in the Southern Baptist Convention’s cover-up.

When the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News published the 2019 exposé “Abuse of Faith,” documenting how the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) spent more than 20 years covering up sexual abuse allegations against nearly 400 clergymen, Christa Brown described it as a “hallelujah moment.” In her memoir, Baptistland, Brown recounts her own abuse by a pastor and her healing journey, providing solace for fellow victims.

Brown details the maddeningly minimal progress the country’s largest Protestant denomination has made to protect members after those revelations. Ignoring calls for meaningful action, attendees of the SBC’s 2024 annual meeting instead passed resolutions supporting Israel and opposing in vitro fertilization and voted to oust the First Baptist Church of Alexandria for allowing women pastors.

The biblically bereft boys club in Baptistland mirrors the dynamics of American politics. Through scandals and…

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The Irish Catholic Bishops Conference says “we cannot relent in our vigilance or in continuing to address the traumas of the past.”

Members of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference gathered this week in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, for their Autumn 2024 General Meeting. 

During the gathering, Bishops discussed the Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders, which was published on September 3.

The damning Report said that the Scoping Inquiry, which was set up to examine historical sexual abuse in Ireland’s day and boarding schools run by religious orders, heard of some 2,395 allegations of historical sexual abuse involving 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across all parts of the country between the years 1927 to 2013.

The Irish Government has accepted the principal recommendation of the Report, which calls for the establishment of a Commission of Investigation.

Meanwhile,…

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A judge will allow the state’s largest religious denomination to keep paying its staff as the church seeks Chapter 11 protection to reorganize finances depleted by past misconduct lawsuits.

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has expressed “interim” approval for the first steps in the Vermont Roman Catholic Diocese’s petition to reorganize finances depleted by clergy sex abuse lawsuits.

Judge Heather Cooper, holding an initial hearing Thursday in Burlington, voiced support for the state’s largest religious denomination to temporarily maintain its current staff, bank accounts and bookkeeping procedures as it becomes the nation’s 40th Catholic entity to seek Chapter 11 protection.

“This is an interim order,” Cooper said before scheduling another hearing for Nov. 26.

Under federal law, the diocese must present the court with a tally of its financial assets and liabilities and petition for Chapter 11 help. The judge, in turn, will decide whether to allow church leaders to develop a…

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The terms of a recent diocesan bankruptcy settlement, which require parishes to declare an “abbreviated bankruptcy,” are a first for such cases and shows the impact of a Supreme Court ruling in June, a legal scholar told OSV News.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre announced Sept. 26 that it had reached a preliminary $323 million settlement in its long-running — and at points contentious — bankruptcy case, facing a total of some 500 or more sex abuse claims due to two New York State lookback laws.

In its statement, the diocese said that no parishes would be closed — but they would have to enter into “an abbreviated Chapter 11” bankruptcy, expected to “be resolved within 48 hours of filing,” to secure a release from liability.

“The feature of the proposed settlement that has Rockville Centre’s 135 or so parishes filing their own chapter 11 cases is a first in…

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Two Catholic institutions say the child sex abuse accusations levied against a visiting priest cannot be tied back to the churches.

Eugene OR – A federal judge in Oregon is tasked with determining to what extent two Catholic organizations are responsible for the sexual abuse a priest is accused of having committed against a minor in the church.

U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai must decide if the Archdiocese of Portland and the Priests of the Sacred Heart have vicarious liability for the sexual abuse a plaintiff identified by the pseudonym John Doe accuses Father Bryan Benoit of committing against him in 1998 and 1999, or if the matter is best determined by a jury.

Doe claims Benoit, a visiting priest at the Holy Redeemer Church in North Bend, Oregon, during that time, sent sexually explicit emails from his personal Hotmail account that escalated into physical sexual abuse. Because Benoit was…

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In short:

In a landmark NSW court case a judge has found the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle directly and vicariously liable for the childhood sexual abuse of a man known as AA.

The court heard AA was given beer and cigarettes and was sexually assaulted after blacking out in a presbytery.

What’s next?

A directions hearing has been scheduled for next week.

*

A dying man has been awarded more than $500,000 in damages in a landmark case involving the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle was found to be directly and vicariously liable for the man’s abuse at the hands of a priest who taught scripture 55 years ago.

The man, who for legal reasons can only be referred to as AA, alleged he was abused by Father Ron Pickin at Wallsend High School in the Hunter Valley.

Father Pickin died in 2015.

In a judgement published this…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington has filed for bankruptcy protection after years of financial losses from settlements paid to survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Vermont’s last remaining diocese joins 39 other U.S Catholic religious organizations that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy which allows entities to continue normal operations while reorganizing finances.

Reorganization “is in the best interests of the Diocese, its creditors, and all parties in interest,” the Burlington Diocese argued in an emergency motion filed alongside its bankruptcy petition on Sept. 30.

VTDigger first reported on the Church’s bankruptcy filing on Monday.

Since the early 2000s, the Burlington Diocese has paid out over $34 million to survivors abused by clergy as far back as the 1950s, and to this day still faces 31 more pending civil lawsuits, according to Bishop John McDermott’s affidavit for the bankruptcy case.

In the process, the diocese has had to sell several properties,…

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The penitential liturgy with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 1 opened with testimonies of those who have faced great suffering, among those a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. Laurence Gien, who was 11 when he was sexually abused by a priest in his native South Africa, told OSV News that standing in front of bishops, cardinals and Pope Francis himself, giving testimony about his lifetime trauma, was his way of “just trying to appeal to their better selves.”

The penitential liturgy concluded a two-day retreat for the 368 members of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which opened with Mass in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 2 and will run through Oct. 27.

Gien is a successful musician, pursuing his career as a baritone and performing on stages across Europe. Based in Germany, he has sung at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, the National Theater in Prague, the…

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The Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy on Monday in an attempt to adequately resolve its fourth and largest wave of sex abuse lawsuits filed against it since the clergy sex scandal broke in 2002. 

“While my heart is heavy with the decision to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, such weight pales in comparison to the pain suffered by victims of abuse,” Bishop John McDermott said in a video statement released on Wednesday in which he addressed the decision to file and apologized to victims of clergy abuse. 

“This chapter in the Church’s history is horrific, and the harm it has caused, immeasurable,” McDermott said. “I know that the decision to file for reorganization may be challenging or even triggering for some survivors. For that and for every aspect of dealing with the crimes of these clergy, I sincerely apologize.” 

The diocese currently faces 31 lawsuits — with allegations dating back as far…

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An advocate group for abuse victims says the Catholic Church is failing to follow its own rules to stand down priests accused of wrongdoing.

Assurances were made by Palmerston North Bishop John Adams to the Manawatū Standard, in the wake of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care report in July, that priests accused of abuse would be removed from duty.

But the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests Aotearoa claims the bishop’s remarks are a direct contradiction of how the church handled two recent complaints.

The group’s leader Christopher Longhurst said two priests, who the Standard has chosen not to identify, had allegations of historical sexual misconduct made about them but neither were stood down.

A complaint was made in 2016 about a priest for an incident in Palmerston North in 1986 and a second priest was named in a complaint made in May last year alleging abuse by priests in…

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‘We are only allowed to look down on a person to help them get up,’ Pope Francis told young people at the penitential ceremony.

For the first time, victims of clerical abuse, of war and indifference told their stories Tuesday (Oct. 1) in the marbled nave of St. Peter’s Basilica before Pope Francis, prominent prelates and young people representing the next generation of Catholics.

The penitential ceremony occurred during a vigil that opened the monthlong Vatican summit on the theme of synodality, described by organizers as “a new way of being church,” focused on welcoming and dialogue.

A South African baritone singer, who introduced himself as Laurence, described the lasting trauma he has suffered from being abused by a priest as a child. He spoke about the effects the sexual abuse crisis, and its cover-up, have had on the credibility of the church.

“This moment in time, in all its…

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The Catholic Church cannot be credible in its mission of proclaiming Christ unless it acknowledges its mistakes and bends down “to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins,” Pope Francis said.

In an unusual penitential liturgy Oct. 1, the pope had seven cardinals read requests for forgiveness that he said he wrote himself “because it was necessary to call our main sins by name.”

The sins included abuse, a lack of courage and commitment to peace, lack of respect for every human life, mistreatment of women or failure to acknowledge their talents and contributions, using church teaching as weapons to hurl at others, lack of concern for the poor and a failure to recognize the dignity and role of every baptized person in the church.

The penitential liturgy with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica concluded a two-day retreat for the 368 members of the Synod of Bishops…

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has announced that the archdiocese has sued its longtime primary insurance company, Chubb, for “attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims” of sex abuse.

“It has always been our wish to expeditiously settle all meritorious claims,” Dolan said Oct. 1. “However, Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premium by today’s standards, is now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.”

In response, Chubb has put the onus on the Archdiocese of New York.

“The Archdiocese of New York tolerated, concealed, and covered up rampant child sexual abuse for decades, and despite having substantial financial resources, they still refuse to compensate their victims,” Chubb said in a company statement to Crux.

“Instead, the Archdiocese is attempting…

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After news broke last week that the Vatican had expelled 10 prominent members of a scandal-plagued Peruvian lay group, including the pastor of a Denver parish, the victim of the priest has spoken out against rumors he says are not only untrue, but revictimizing.

“I felt doubly betrayed, doubly victimized and violated, because I tried to be a good person (but) they don’t care. They care more about their vanity and their name,” Aharon Felipe Cardona, formerly Andrés prior to his conversion to Judaism around two years ago, told Crux.

Cardona is a former member of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a men’s lay group founded in Lima in 1971 by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, who last month was expelled amid an ongoing Vatican inquiry after previously being sanctioned in 2017 for the physical, psychological, spiritual and sexual abuse of members, including the sexual abuse of minors.

He spoke following a Sept….

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy on Monday in a bid to resolve more than two dozen sexual abuse lawsuits.

The diocese, which currently faces 31 lawsuits, doesn’t have insurance anymore to cover these claims, and has depleted assets, said Bishop John McDermott in an affidavit filed in federal bankruptcy court on Monday. In the filing, McDermott wrote that a large jury settlement in any of these cases would leave the diocese unable to compensate other survivors.

“The Diocese determined that reorganization under Chapter 11 is the only way to fairly and equitably fulfill the Diocese’s obligations to all survivors of sexual abuse,” McDermott said in the affidavit.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy, often called “reorganization” bankruptcy, allows an organization to continue to operate and propose a plan to pay creditors, in this case survivors of sexual abuse, over time.

The Vermont diocese began facing…

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Bishop Christopher Saunders appeared in Australian court Monday to enter a plea of not guilty to 28 criminal charges, including allegations of sexual assault and indecent dealings with a minor.

The former bishop of the Diocese of Broome stands accused of a long slate of alleged crimes of grooming and abusing young Aboriginal men over a period of eight years, beginning in 2008. Saunders, 74, confirmed to the court that he understood the charges and entered a plea of not guilty on all counts.

He is due back in court for the next hearing in the case in January, having last appeared in June as his lawyer argued against a petition to change the bishop’s bail conditions.

The bishop also faces several separate firearms charges, including illegal possession of a weapon. He did not enter a plea on those charges during the Sept. 30 hearing.

Saunders was arrested in…

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Vermont’s Catholic church has filed for bankruptcy protection as it faces more than 30 lawsuits alleging child sex abuse by clergy decades ago, according to a filing in federal bankruptcy court.

Since 2006, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, the state’s only diocese, has settled 67 lawsuits for a total of $34 million, Bishop John McDermott said in the court filing on Monday. Twenty of those were settled after the Legislature in 2019 removed the statue of limitations on when a claim could be made and the diocese faces 31 more, according to McDermott’s affidavit.

A 2019 report released by the diocese found there were “credible and substantiated” allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against 40 priests in the state since 1950. All but one of those allegations occurred prior to 2000, and none of the priests was still in ministry, the report said. Most of the…

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The Vatican’s decision to expel 10 important members from the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a scandal-plagued society of apostolic life founded in Peru in 1971, was received with surprise — and at times shock — by many in Peru.

Once a powerful Catholic institution that gathered members of the Peruvian elite, the Sodalitium saw itself hit by dozens of denouncements of sexual and psychological abuse, physical violence, misappropriation of funds, and other crimes by former members and journalists.

A Vatican inquiry into the organization included a 2023 investigative mission to Peru, formed by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who is the adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Spanish Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, also a member of that department. They gathered documents and interviewed members of the SCV, its alleged victims and journalists during their trip.

As a result of the investigation, Luis Fernando Figari, the Sodalitium’s founder, was expelled from the…

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New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan this week said the archdiocese’s longtime insurer is “attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation” to pay out financial claims to sex abuse victims, with the archdiocese launching a lawsuit against the insurer in response.

The prelate said in a letter to the faithful on Tuesday that the archdiocese has already settled more than 500 claims of sex abuse “not covered by insurance.” Yet there remain around 1,400 unresolved abuse allegations, Dolan said. 

“It has always been our wish to expeditiously settle all meritorious claims,” the archbishop said. “However, Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premiums by today’s standards, is now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.” 

“As a result we have sued them for violating New…

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Giuliana Caccia and Sebastián Blanco pretended to be victims to derail Pope Francis’s probe on abuse and violence at the Peruvian Sodalitium.

In Belgium, Pope Francis calls to bring evil to light. “Let it be known and whether layperson, priest, or bishop: let the abuser be judged.”

In Lima, archbishop Carlos Castillo cited Pope Francis’s call in Belgium and called for a “a deep process of renovation in the Church. We need to raise our voice, honestly, without subterfuges or lies.”

Less than one week after Pope Francis’s decision to expel a total of eleven leaders from the Sodalitium, news of the Pope issuing a decree of excommunication against two far-right activists broke on Sunday.

The Sodalitium, a Roman Catholic order marred by abuse accusations since the late early years of this century, found their “champion” in a couple of far-right activists pretending to be victims of clergy sexual abuse to…

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A Christian organization long plagued by allegations of child sex abuse is now facing a lawsuit that accuses the group of failing to protect a girl from one of her peers at its missionary training center.

Ethnos360, a religious nonprofit group based in Sanford, Florida, that was formerly known as New Tribes Mission, sends missionaries and their families to far-flung corners of the world. In 2019, multiple women told NBC News that they had been sexually abused decades earlier by their “dorm dads” — missionaries tasked with caring for children at New Tribes Mission’s overseas boarding schools while their parents served in the field.

The group issued a public apology to the abuse survivors following the NBC News report and said that it had “incorporated significant child safety training” after an independent party commissioned by New Tribes Mission shared recommendations…

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Pope Francis used his only Mass in Belgium to praise the courage of survivors of abuse at the hands of priests in improvised remarks to a crowd of some 30,000 people at Brussels’ King Baudouin stadium.

He publicly demanded priests who abuse young people be punished, and the church hierarchy stop covering up their crimes.

Belgium has a legacy of abuse and cover-up within the church, including the case of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, a very senior member of the clergy who was allowed to quietly retire in 2010 after he admitted to have sexually abused his nephew for 13 years.

Vangheluwe was only defrocked last year by Francis.

“Evil must not be hidden. Evil must be brought out into the open,” Francis said to repeated rounds of applause.

On Friday night, Francis held a meeting with 17 abuse survivors where he heard first hand the trauma they endured and…

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan also announced that the archdiocese will be selling its headquarters on First Avenue in Manhattan, moving into smaller offices elsewhere in 2025.

The Archdiocese of New York filed a lawsuit against its insurance provider for allegedly refusing to pay out victims of sexual abuse cases stemming from years of scandals that plagued the Church.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, said in a letter to church members Monday that the insurance company Chubb claimed it was not obligated to settle claims because the abuse of victims was “expected or intended” by the church.

“Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premium by today’s standards, is now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors,” Dolan wrote in the letter.

The Archdiocese sued…

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Pope Francis urged Catholic bishops to be more transparent and aggressive in combatting child sex abuse in the Church during his visit to Belgium on Sunday, declaring that “evil must not be hidden” and “must be brought out into the open.”

“Let it be known, as some abuse victims have done, and with courage,” Francis said in Brussels. “Let it be known. And let the abuser be judged. Let the abuser be judged, whether layperson, priest or bishop: Let the abuser be judged.”

The Pope’s remarks came two days after Belgium’s prime minister and king severely criticized him for the Catholic Church’s failure to prevent child sex abuse and make amends with survivors. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called for the Church to take “concrete steps” to adequately address the problem instead of merely paying lip service to solving it. King Philippe agreed.

“It has taken far too…

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[See also Bishop John J. McDermott’s affidavit.]

After decades of sexual abuse cases and dozens of settlements, the Catholic Diocese fears it won’t be able to compensate all the survivors, according to court paperwork.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont has filed for bankruptcy in federal court. It follows decades of sexual abuse allegations and settlements, according to current Bishop John McDermott, who was just installed in July.

In 2019, an independent committee formed by former Bishop Christopher Coyne published a public report about the abuse allegations.

To date, the Diocese says 40 priests had credible claims against them, for sexual abuse of a minor. Most of the incidents occurred between 1950 and 1980, according to court documents.

According to paperwork filed Monday, the Diocese settled nearly 30 cases in 2006 and 11 cases in 2013.

In 2019, the Vermont legislature removed the limitations period…

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The state’s only Catholic diocese, which has paid out more than $30 million to survivors over the years, still faces 31 lawsuits related to decades-old claims.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, a maneuver through which the church will seek to resolve scores of sex abuse claims and preserve its assets.

The state’s only Catholic diocese, which has paid out more than $30 million to sex abuse survivors in recent decades, still faces 31 pending civil lawsuits related to decades-old abuse claims, according to the petition filed in federal bankruptcy court in Vermont.

Most of the pending lawsuits were triggered by Vermont lawmakers’ 2019 decision to lift the statute of limitations for civil claims related to sexual abuse of children. One of those cases had been scheduled for trial earlier this month but was abruptly canceled without public explanation, VTDigger.org reported.

…

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The state’s largest religious denomination will continue to operate local parishes as it becomes the nation’s 40th church entity to try to reorganize depleting finances in court.

Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese has filed for bankruptcy protection in the wake of more costly lawsuits alleging priest misconduct as far back as 1950, according to a filing Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Burlington.

The state’s largest religious denomination, reporting 110,000 members, will continue to operate 63 local parishes as it becomes the nation’s 40th Catholic entity (of a total of some 200) to try to reorganize depleting finances in court.

In its initial petition, the diocese didn’t offer specific financial figures but instead estimated its assets at between $10 million to $50 million, its liabilities at between $1 million to $10 million, and its number of creditors at between 100 to 199, with 30 unresolved lawsuits said to be its largest…

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The three-day “apostolic journey” of Pope Francis to Belgium has largely been an occasion for Belgian advocates to call on the Catholic Church to better address clergy sexual abuse, to reconsider its view of women, to integrate LGBTQ+ individuals, and to “open up to gender.”

Two days after meeting privately with 17 victims of pedophile priests, Pope Francis said he “felt their suffering” during a Mass at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels before urging the local church “not to cover up the abusers.”

In his homily, concluding his trip to Belgium September 29, he did not spare the episcopate: “I ask everyone: do not cover up abuse! I ask the bishops: do not cover up abuse! Condemn the abusers and help them recover from this disease of abuse,” the pope declared to the numerous faithful present, estimated at 40,000 by authorities.

However, Francis said nothing about the Vatican’s responsibility. When…

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Calling on the world’s bishops not to cover up any instance or form of abuse, Pope Francis said the evil of abuse must be exposed.

“There is room for everyone in the church,” he said, and everyone will face God at the final judgment.

However, there is no room for abuse and no room for cover-ups, he said on his final day in Belgium, a country that has been shaken by shocking revelations of abuse by church members, including a Belgian bishop the pope laicized this year, 14 years after the bishop resigned after admitting he abused minors, including his own nephew.

In his homily during Mass Sept. 29 in Brussels’ open-air King Baudouin Stadium, the pope strayed from his prepared text to urge bishops to hide nothing, “condemn abuses” and assist perpetrators in getting help.

Nearly 40,000 faithful from Belgium and surrounding countries attended the Mass, which marked the…

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Speaking to a crowd of around 39,000 in the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, the pontiff wrapped up a difficult visit to Belgium by saying, “There is no place for the covering up of abuse.”

Pope Francis has urged all members of the Church to never cover up abuse, saying “Evil must not be hidden.”

Speaking to a crowd of around 39,000 in the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, the pontiff wrapped up a difficult visit to Belgium by saying, “There is no place for the covering up of abuse.”

“Let us think of what happens when little ones are scandalised, hurt, abused by those who are supposed to care for them, of the wounds of pain and helplessness, first of all in the victims, but also in their families and in the community as a whole,” he said.

“The church has not done enough. Certainly here in Belgium and…

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Aboard the papal plane to Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis responded to criticism of remarks he made about women during a Sept. 28 visit to a Catholic university in Louvain, Belgium, saying it is an “obtuse mind” that intentionally misunderstands his position.

In a meeting with students of the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Francis reflected at length on the role of women in the Church, saying: “What characterizes women, that which is truly feminine, is not stipulated by consensus or ideologies, just as dignity itself is ensured not by laws written on paper, but by an original law written on our hearts.”

“Womanhood speaks to us of fruitful welcome, nurturing and life-giving dedication. For this reason, a woman is more important than a man, but it is terrible when a woman wants to be a man: No, she is a woman, and this is ‘heavy’ and important,”  View Cache

 Pope Francis said on Sunday victims of Catholic clergy sexual abuse in Belgium deserved more financial compensation, calling the amounts allocated to them so far “too small”.

On the flight back to Rome from Belgium, where the pontiff was pressed by the country’s political leaders for more concrete actions to address clergy abuse, Francis also reiterated the Catholic Church’s commitment to helping survivors.

“We must take care of those who have been abused, and punish the abusers,” he said.

Francis was urged in Belgium by both King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo to do more to help abuse survivors in unusually forceful language for a papal foreign trip, always a carefully choreographed event.

In a two-hour meeting with survivors on Friday, the pope was also asked specifically to look at the issue of financial compensation.

“We didn’t talk about amounts as such, but we are very clear on…

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UCLouvain staff and students express ‘incomprehension and disapproval’ over pope’s views on role of women

Pope Francis has been sharply criticised by one of Belgium’s Catholic universities over his stance on the role of women in society, in a strongly worded press release issued just moments after the pontiff spoke at the college.

Professors and students at UCLouvain, where the 87-year-old pontiff had made a speech on Saturday afternoon, said they wanted to express their “incomprehension and disapproval” about the pope’s views.

“UCLouvain deplores the conservative positions expressed by Pope Francis on the role of women in society,” said the statement, in extraordinary language from a Catholic university about a pope.

Francis went to the university on Saturday to celebrate its upcoming 600th anniversary as part of a weekend trip he is making to Belgium. His speech largely called for global action on climate change, but he also responded to…

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Pope Francis wrapped up a troubled visit to Belgium on Sunday by doubling down on his traditional views on women and abortion and demanding that Catholic bishops stop covering up for predator priests — a scandal that has devastated the church’s credibility around the globe.

Francis revisited the key thorny topics of his trip to Belgium during his in-flight news conference coming home, praising Belgium’s late King Baudouin as a “saint” for having abdicated for a day in 1990 rather than sign legislation legalizing abortion.

“You need a politician who wears pants to do this,” Francis said, using a Spanish expression. “You need courage,” he said, adding that Baudouin’s beatification process was moving along.

Francis drew criticism from some in Belgium for having prayed at Baudouin’s tomb and for calling the abortion law “homicidal,” given that abortion remains a political issue in Belgium, with new proposals to extend the legal…

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OSV News recently spoke with Father Michael Bechard, who alleges in a civil lawsuit filed in March with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that he was sexually abused by Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, a Vatican media expert, founder of a prominent Canadian national Catholic television network and organizer of the 2002 Toronto World Youth Day. The suit also names Father Rosica’s order, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto.

For his part, Father Rosica has denied any improper conduct and maintained his innocence. He has urged the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing the allegations should play out instead in a canonical court of the Catholic Church.

Father Bechard told OSV News he has also filed a complaint under “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” Pope Francis’ 2019 motu proprio governing the reporting of alleged sexual abuse involving clergy, religious and bishops.

This interview with Father Bechard has been edited for clarity and…

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Pope Francis meets with Belgian victims: Statement from Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, BishopAccountability.org

Friday, September 27, 2024

After expressing shame and sorrow in Belgium on Thursday, Pope Francis attempted damage control again Friday evening, when he met with 17 Belgian victims of clergy sex abuse. 

Each time the Pope visits a country rocked by revelations of clergy sex abuse, he follows the same PR playbook: he meets with victims, expresses shame, and promises change.  He employed these tactics in Portugal in 2023, in Canada in 2022, in Ireland in 2018, in Chile in 2018, and in the U.S. in 2015.

We know from these past examples that the Pope’s meeting with victims in Belgium will have few meaningful consequences. While it may have provided validation to the 17 survivors in attendance, it won’t change the systemic corruption in the Belgian church, and not one child in Belgium will be…

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Little brings more heavenly bliss to the faithful or otherworldly wonder to casual visitors than ethereal hymns cascading amid the columns of Catholic cathedrals. That is, unless the composer is a known molester or someone accused of sexual abuse.

A few days before the highlight of Pope Francis’ visit to Belgium — a Mass at the biggest stadium in Brussels — the specially selected choir of 120 was rehearsing a brand-new closing hymn when it became known that the composer was a priest accused of molesting young women.

The hymn was hastily removed from the order of service and replaced with another composition but it was too late to reprint the official Magnificat booklet for the Mass because of the number of copies required. The name of the alleged abuser, who died two weeks ago, is right there at the bottom of page 52, next to a request for donations,…

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The Pope is also expected to meet with victims of sexual abuse.

In Belgium’s Laeken Castle, Pope Francis confronted the Catholic Church’s long-standing clerical abuse crisis in the country, declaring unequivocally that “the Church should be ashamed” and must seek forgiveness for its failures.

Speaking before approximately 300 dignitaries, including King Philippe and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, the pope remarked that child abuse is “a scourge that the Church is tackling resolutely and firmly, listening to and accompanying the wounded and implementing a widespread prevention program throughout the world.”

“The Church is both holy and sinful,” Francis said in the castle’s Grand Gallery on Sept. 27 in his first speech since his arrival in Belgium. “The Church lives in this perennial coexistence of holiness and sin, of light and shadow, with outcomes often of great generosity and splendid dedication, and sometimes unfortunately with the emergence of painful counter-witnesses.”

…

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Pope Francis demanded Sunday that sexually abusive clergy be judged and their bishops stop covering up their crimes as he ended a troubled visit to Belgium by responding to the outrage over the scandal here that has devastated the church’s credibility.

“Evil must not be hidden. Evil must be brought out into the open,” Francis told some 30,000 people at Belgium’s sports stadium, drawing applause repeatedly as the crowd took in what he was saying.

Francis deviated from his prepared homily to respond to the meeting he held with 17 abuse survivors on Friday night, where he heard first-hand of the trauma and suffering they endured and the tone-deaf response of the church when they reported the crimes.

Belgium has had a wretched legacy of abuse and cover-up, none more symbolic of the church’s hypocrisy than the case of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe. He was allowed to quietly retire in 2010…

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In a country still reeling from a deep clerical sexual abuse crisis, Pope Francis on Saturday bitterly acknowledged that such abuse “generates atrocious suffering and wounds,” vowing that the path of reform includes learning from survivors.

The realities of abuse, the pontiff said, can even “undermine the path of faith.”

“There is a need for a great deal of mercy, to keep us from hardening our hearts before the suffering of victims, so that we can help them feel our closeness and offer all the help we can,” the pope said.

“We must learn from them … to be a Church at the service of all without belittling anyone,” Francis said. “Indeed, one of the roots of violence stems from the abuse of power when we use the positions we have to crush or manipulate others.”

The pontiff’s remarks came during a session with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians…

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Pope Francis promised Saturday to “offer all the help we can” to aid victims of clergy sexual abuse heal after victims told him first-hand of the trauma that had shattered their lives and left many in poverty and mental misery.

Francis’ visit to Belgium has been dominated by the abuse scandal, with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo both blasting the Catholic Church’s dreadful legacy of priests raping and molesting children and its decades-long cover-up of the crimes.

Francis met for more than two hours late Friday with 17 survivors who are seeking reparations from the church for the trauma they suffered and to pay for the therapy many need. They said they gave Francis a month to study their demands – a demand the Vatican said Francis was studying.

“There are so many victims. There are also so many victims who are still completely broke,” survivor Koen Van Sumere…

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Pope Francis addressed the Belgian victims of clerical sexual abuse again on Saturday, offering words of contrition in a speech at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Koekelberg.

“Abuse generates atrocious suffering and wounds, undermining even the path of faith,” the pope told the congregation gathered in the church.

“One of the roots of violence stems from the abuse of power when we use the positions we have to crush or manipulate others,” he added, vowing that the Catholic Church would learn from the victims.

The pontiff was speaking after a bruising welcome to Belgium from Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and King Philippe on Friday over sexual abuse within the church.

The Belgian king told the pope that “it has taken far too long to begin looking for ways to repair the irreparable.”

The Belgian prime minister meanwhile told the head of the Catholic Church that words are…

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• Summary

• Belgium’s king and premier demand concrete action on clerical abuse
• Francis says Church is tackling abuse with global programme
• Survivors’ groups question effectiveness of Church’s measures
• Catholic university rector also presses pope on abuse, asks for women priests

Pope Francis was pressed firmly by Belgium’s king and premier on Friday for more concrete action to address sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, an issue once more in the spotlight as he visits.

Both King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo raised the issue in public in unusually forceful language for a papal foreign trip, always a carefully choreographed event.

Philippe told Francis in a speech welcoming him to Belgium that it had taken the Church “far too long” to address the scandals. De Croo said it had “a long way to go” and that “words alone are not enough”.

“Concrete steps must also be taken,” the premier said.

Francis’…

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Pope Francis spoke in Brussels with victims of clergy sexual abuse who are demanding compensation from the Catholic Church. The Vatican said that he is looking over the requests.

Pope Francis vowed on Saturday to help the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy.

He made the comments during a visit to Belgium, which has been rocked by two decades of revelations of abuse and systemic cover ups in the Catholic Church.

Pope meets with abuse survivors

“Abuse generates atrocious suffering and wounds, undermining even the path of faith,” Pope Francis told a congregation gathered at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in the Brussels suburb of Koekelberg following the meeting.

The 87-year-old pontiff promised to “offer all the help we can” for sexual abuse victims.

The comments come after Pope Francis held a two-hour meeting with victims of abuse who were seeking compensation from the church for the…

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‘Belgium’s prime minister on Friday blasted Pope Francis to his face for the Catholic Church’s horrific legacy of clerical sex abuse and cover-ups in his country, demanding “concrete steps” to come clean with the past and put victims’ interests over those of the church. Alexander De Croo’s blistering welcome speech at the start of Francis’ visit was one of the most pointed ever directed at the pope during a foreign trip, where the genteel dictates of diplomatic protocol usually keep outrage out of public remarks. But even King Philippe had strong words for Francis, demanding the church work “incessantly” to atone for the crimes and help victims heal. Their tone underscored just how raw the abuse scandal still is in Belgium, where two decades of revelations of abuse and systematic cover-ups have devastated the hierarchy’s credibility and contributed to an overall decline in Catholicism and the influence of the once-powerful…

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A pastor’s daughter was in sixth grade when he prayed over her, then started to touch her inappropriately, Oklahoma police said. Bertheophilus Maurice Bailey, of Tulsa, then sexually assaulted her and continued to do so for years, police said.

“For too long, I suffered in silence, afraid of the repercussions of speaking out against someone with such influence and power,” the daughter, Harmony Bailey Oates, said in a Sept. 17 Facebook post, coming forward about a decade of mental and sexual abuse by her father.

McClatchy News reached out to Oates but did not immediately hear back.

Tulsa police said the victim filed a report about the abuse in August 2023, but they said she was not ready to press charges until this month. On Sept. 25, 45-year-old Bailey was arrested and charged with rape, child sexual abuse, incest, forcible sodomy and burglary, according to jail records.

He’s…

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The incident took place when the accused priest, identified as Thilagar, found a few local children playing outside the temple.

In a disturbing incident, a 70-year-old priest has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl inside the Bhagavathi Amman temple in Tamil Nadu’s Theni district.

According to the complaint filed by the girl’s family, the incident took place on September 26 when the accused identified as Thilagar found a few local children playing outside the temple. He lured them inside with promises of sweets and then assaulted one of the girls.

The situation escalated when the victim narrated the harrowing ordeal to her parents, following which locals including relatives of the girl staged a protest outside the temple demanding action against the priest. Fearing for his safety, Thailagar locked himself inside the temple. Local police rushed to the scene and detained him.

Speaking on the case, a senior…

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“Nothing draws fire like drawing attention to sexual abuse and coverups in white evangelical churches. Nothing even comes close.”

These are the words Kristin Du Mez chose to reflect on as she prepared herself on the eve of the release of her film For Our Daughters. “Those of us who do this work know what’s coming.”

Nineteen months earlier, she posted online: “I’ve noted this pattern for two-plus years now. What sickens me is that I know this is only a mild version of what survivors face in these spaces. And they don’t have platforms and often don’t have people who have their backs.”

That’s what For our Daughters provides. It’s an opportunity for women who have been abused by powerful men within the most influential movements of modern evangelicalism to warn the rest of the women in the country about what’s ahead for them if these men expand their power beyond the…

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Megan Anderson, wife of popular worship artist Jared Anderson, has watched her former pastor lead four different churches over the span of 25 years, while she’s lived with an open secret that he sexually abused her. While the abuse lasted less than a year, she said the ongoing platforming of this “predatory” pastor has exacerbated her pain and given the pastor opportunity to abuse others.

“It’s taken me this long to make sense and to find my voice,” Anderson told The Roys Report (TRR). “I still feel like the truth needs to be told. There needs to be accountability.”

The pastor Megan Anderson accuses of abusing her is Ed Gungor, former pastor of the now-shuttered Believers Church in Marshfield, Wisconsin—a church Anderson credits for saving her life when she was a struggling teenager. Ed Gungor is also the father of the well-known musician Michael Gungor.

Due to what  View Cache

Perfect predators are ones that use their status and power as means of grooming victims. Take these five men, for example. One man won a Nobel Peace Prize. Another was a “charity icon” and “an adored figure in France.” Another “became a widely known and admired public figure, earning praise from Presidents Reagan and Bush, Sr.”

Another was “a prolific fundraiser” who was connected to prominent politicians and, even into his 80s, remained recognized on the global stage as a Washington power broker who participated in funeral masses for political luminaries like Edward M. Kennedy, the longtime Massachusetts senator, and Beau Biden, the son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.”

And one has been called “a change agent, advocate, and an out of the box thinker,” who was “strongly influenced by Martin Luther King,” a “community organizer of the…

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25 News is learning more about the case against the disgraced Waco priest accused of sexually assaulting at least 10 women so far.

Lauren Adams talked to the lead investigator on the case and he says four of the victims were connected to Baylor.

Anthony Odiong is behind bars facing numerous sexual assault charges.

So far 10 victims who have come forward, and seven of the women were abused in McLennan County.

Odiong was the catholic priest of St. Peters Catholic Student Center in Waco and St. Mary’s of the Assumption in West from 2007-2012.

St. Peters serves Baylor and lead detective Bradley DeLange says four of the victims were connected to Baylor.

Detective DeLange says this investigation began when one woman walked into the police station.

L“This started with one woman coming in and saying for my healing process I need to get this off my chest,”
DeLange said.

Then…

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A McLennan County grand jury indicted the Rev. Anthony Odiong, a former priest at St. Peter’s Catholic Student Center, on four additional charges of first-degree sexual assault on Thursday.

Odiong now faces a total of seven charges.

According to an email from special crimes detective Bradley DeLange of Waco Police, the new charges are based on a previously-identified survivor whose case was uncovered as evidence obtained through search warrants during the investigation.

“The evidence of a sexual relationship was/is present from 2007-2012 in emails, text messages and corroborated by repeated predatory behaviors by Anthony Odiong that have appeared amongst nearly every survivor identified (10 thus far) to date,” DeLange said.

From 2007 to 2012, Odiong was the priest at St. Peter’s Catholic Student Center and since 2006, he had served as an associate priest in West at St. Mary’s Church of the Assumption. During this time, many students…

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The Peruvian Episcopal Conference announced that on Sept. 25 Pope Francis ordered the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (Sodality of Christian Life) to expel 10 of its members. The measure caused surprise in the Archdiocese of Denver, which has pastoral ties to several of those who were sanctioned.

Peru’s bishops published on their website a press release from the country’s apostolic nunciature, stating that the pontiff, “after assessing the defenses corresponding to the allegations that emerged during the special mission” — sent to Lima in July 2023 — approved the expulsion of 10 members of the organization.

The expelled members are the Sodality’s former superior general, Eduardo Antonio Regal Villa; the archbishop emeritus of Piura, José Antonio Eguren Anselmi; as well as former regional superiors Father Rafael Alberto Ismodes Cascón and Father Erwin Augusto Scheuch Pool; former formators Humberto Carlos Del Castillo Drago, Oscar Adolfo Tokomura, and Father Daniel Alfonso…

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The Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York this week announced it has reached a massive settlement of more than $300 million for victims of clerical sex abuse there, bringing an end to a four-year-long process that included an earlier offer that the abuse survivors had rejected. 

The diocese said in a press release on Thursday that the total proposed settlement amount “is just over $323 million, which includes insurance contributions, diocesan assets, and sale proceeds from diocesan property, and contributions from parishes and other related entities.” 

The amount represents the largest settlement in U.S. diocesan bankruptcy history. It will be distributed to about 600 abuse survivors.

“The diocese, parishes, and other related entities will contribute a total of $234.8 million,” the statement said. “Insurance companies will contribute a total of just over $85 million. Counsel for the creditor’s committee will contribute $3 million.” 

The contributors to the…

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[See image of original statement here.]

Re: Hearing in Bankruptcy Court (2:00 PM on September 26, 2024)

From: Spokesperson for the Diocese of Rockville Centre

The Diocese of Rockville Centre and its related ministries are grateful that preliminary terms have been agreed upon for the settlement of our bankruptcy case. For the sake of survivors and the Church’s mission on Long Island, we pray that the plan is approved and completed as quickly as possible.

The total proposed settlement amount is just over $323 million, which includes insurance contributions, Diocesan assets and sale proceeds from Diocesan property, and contributions from parishes and other related entities. The Diocese, Parishes and other related entities will contribute a total of $234.8 million. Insurance companies will contribute a total of just over $85 million. Counsel for the Creditor’s Committee will contribute $3 million. All participated in order to help offer equitable compensation to…

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BRUSSELS – After Pope Francis met a group of survivors of clerical sexual abuse in Belgium Friday, one advocacy organization has said such gestures are not enough, but the church must pursue real reform.

On Friday evening, after being scolded by Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo over the country’s clerical abuse scandals earlier that morning, the Pope met with a group of 17 abuse survivors at the Vatican’s nunciature in Brussels.

A Sept. 27 Vatican statement said the meeting lasted for over two hours, and allowed victims to “bring to the Pope their own story and their own pain to the Pope, and to express their expectations regarding the church’s commitment against abuse”.

Pope Francis, the statement said, was able to “listen and draw close to their suffering” and he thanked them for having the courage to tell their stories.

He also expressed his own “feeling of shame” for…

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BRUSSELS (AP) — Pope Francis promised Saturday to “offer all the help we can” to aid clergy sexual abuse victims, after a group of Belgian survivors told him first-hand of the trauma that had shattered their lives and left many in poverty and mental misery.

Francis’ visit to Belgium has been dominated by the abuse scandal, with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo both blasting the Catholic Church’s dreadful legacy of priests raping and molesting children and its decades-long cover-up of the crimes.

Francis met for more than two hours late Friday with 17 survivors who are seeking reparations from the church for the trauma they suffered and to pay for the therapy many need. They said they gave Francis a month to consider their requests, which the Vatican said Francis was studying.

“There are so many victims. There are also so many victims who are still completely broke,” survivor…

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(OSV News) — The Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, has reached a preliminary settlement in what it called the “difficult ordeal” of its long-running — and at points contentious — bankruptcy case, while assuring the faithful that “no parishes are closing as a result of this process.”

In a Sept. 26 statement, the diocese announced the total proposed settlement is just over $323 million, an amount that includes “insurance contributions, Diocesan assets and sale proceeds from Diocesan property, and contributions from parishes and other related entities.”

The diocese said that it — along with parishes and other related entities — will pay the bulk of that amount, contributing $234.8 million. Insurance companies (several of which have in recent years become increasingly reluctant to cover diocesan sex abuse lawsuits) will pay “just over $85 million” and counsel for the creditors’ committee $3 million.

The diocese also said that “part of…

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PARIS (OSV News) — As the Emmaus Community for the poor investigates accusations of sexual abuse against its once-iconic, now disgraced, founder Abbé Pierre, the case made international headlines as Pope Francis commented on it while on his return voyage to Rome from Asia last week. A few days later, the French national daily Le Monde published an editorial by the president of the French bishops’ conference, which urged the Vatican to cooperate in an investigation.

As the pope’s September 2024 trip to Asia began, the Emmaus Community announced that new accusations of sexual abuse of women and children had been made against the priest, and French media reported that church officials and leaders of the community had tried to cover up allegations as far back as the 1950s.

“We must speak clearly on these things and not hide them,” Pope Francis said. “Abuse, in my judgment, is something diabolical”…

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Pope Francis said Saturday the Catholic Church must learn from victims of child sexual abuse, as he was pressed on the issue on the second day of his Belgium visit partially overshadowed by past scandals.

Replying at a meeting in Brussels to a scripted question by a representative of an organisation helping abuse victims, the pontiff acknowledged the “atrocious suffering and wounds” caused by the Church.

“There is a need for a great deal of mercy to keep us from hardening our hearts before the suffering of victims, so that we can help them feel our closeness,” Francis said at the meeting with clergy and pastoral workers, a day after meeting with a group of Belgian abuse victims.

“We must learn from them, as you said, to be a Church at the service of all without belittling anyone,” the 87-year-old pope told the gathering at the vast Basilica of the…

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BRUSSELS, Sept 28 (Reuters) – The Catholic Church’s failures in responding to sexual abuse by clergy have been in focus again during Pope Francis’ visit this weekend to Belgium, with the pontiff facing calls from high-profile figures and survivors for more concrete action.

The country’s king, prime minister and a Catholic university rector led the calls, and in a two-hour meeting on Friday with more than a dozen abuse survivors, Francis heard requests in particular to provide better financial compensation for victims.

“We didn’t talk about amounts as such, but we are very clear on the fact … that what has been achieved and obtained so far is totally insufficient,” said Annesophie Cardinal, one of the survivors in the meeting at the Vatican’s embassy in Brussels.

Cardinal, who was abused as a child, spoke emotionally about the encounter, calling it “very challenging”. She said the survivors felt a responsibility “also to…

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Pope Francis has pledged to root out the “scourge” of clerical sexual abuse after Belgium’s prime minster urged him in unusually frank terms to take concrete action.

Francis was addressing political leaders on Friday at the official residence of the King of Belgium, a country where devastating clerical abuse scandals have erupted in recent years.

Before he spoke, both the Belgian king and Prime Minister Alexander de Croo raised the issue in their speeches, the latter speaking directly to the pope, in remarks that underline how the abuse crisis has come to dominate Belgian national attention.

“You are committed to a fair and equitable approach. But the road is still long,” the prime minister told Francis. “If something goes wrong, we can’t accept cover-ups. It harms the precious work done by everyone. And that’s why words are not enough today. Concrete steps are needed. The victims must be heard. They…

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After his arrival to Belgium in the rain on Thursday night, Pope Francis told civil authorities the next day to make peacemaking a priority, and voiced regret over recent scandals in the Belgian Church, including the crises of clerical sexual abuse and forced adoptions.

Speaking to national civil authorities Sept. 27, the pope highlighted the Church’s contribution to society through its charitable works, but acknowledged that the church must also reckon with “the fragility and shortcomings of her members, who are never fully up to the task entrusted to them since it is always beyond their capacity.”

Though often a force for good, the Church, he said, “lives in a specific culture, within the thinking of a given age that she sometimes helps to shape and to which at other times she is subjected; and her members do not always understand and live the message of the Gospel in all…

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BRUSSELS (AP) — On a brutal day for the frail and aging Pope Francis, the king of Belgium, its prime minister and the rector of the Catholic university that invited him here all ripped into the institution he heads for a spectrum of sins: for covering up cases of clergy sex abuse and being far behind the times on embracing women and the LGBTQ+ community in the church.

And that was all before Francis met with the people most harmed by the Catholic Church in Belgium — the men and women who were raped and molested by priests as children. Seventeen abuse survivors spent two hours with Francis on Friday evening, telling him of their trauma, shame and pain and demanding reparations from the church.

Through it all, Francis expressed his remorse, begged forgiveness and promised to do everything possible to make sure such abuses never occur again. “This is…

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Pope Francis said Friday the Catholic Church had to “seek forgiveness” for the “scourge” of child sexual abuse, during a visit to Belgium where the clergy’s dark past looms large.

In a speech to political and civil society leaders beginning his three-day visit, Francis denounced the “tragic instances of child abuse” as a stain on the Church’s legacy.

“It is our shame and our humiliation,” Francis told the gathering at the Laeken Palace royal residency.

“The Church must be ashamed and must seek forgiveness,” he said. 

The 87-year-old pontiff later met 17 clerical sexual assault victims in Brussels as part of his stay in the European nation rocked by decades of scandals and cover-ups.

“The participants were able to tell their story and their pain and express their expectations” to Francis, who “took note” of their requests, the Vatican said in a statement.

It was arranged after a hard-hitting…

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The pope thanked them for their courage in coming forward and expressed his feelings of shame for what they experienced

The Catholic Church must plead for forgiveness for the crime of the abuse of minors by its members and everything must be done to prevent such “a disgrace” from ever happening again, Pope Francis said.

He also called for clarity about the church’s role from the 1940s to 1980s in coercing unwed mothers to give up their newborns.

“Today, in the church, there is this crime” of abuse against minors, which the pope compared to King Herod’s massacre of the innocents, during a speech to Belgian authorities and local representatives at the Castle of Laeken in Brussels Sept. 27.

“The church must be ashamed, ask for forgiveness, try to resolve this situation with Christian humility” and do everything possible so “this will not happen again,” the pope said at the…

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After a four-year court battle, the Diocese of Rockville Centre has reached an agreement with hundreds of survivors of clergy sexual abuse that calls for the church to pay a total of just over $323 million, officials said in federal bankruptcy court Thursday.

While some steps remain to finalize the deal, the lead attorney for the diocese indicated that an agreement had been reached.

“After nearly four years … we do have a global resolution,” Corrine Ball told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan.

The agreement would benefit more than 500 people who have filed lawsuits against the diocese contending they were sexually abused by clergy when they were children.

    WHAT TO KNOW

• The Diocese of Rockville Centre has reached an agreement with hundreds of survivors of clergy sexual abuse that calls for the church to pay just over $323 million.
• Some steps remain to finalize the…

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The Diocese previously offered the survivors a $200 million settlement, which was rejected.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre has reached a more than $320 million settlement with hundreds of alleged sex abuse survivors.

A law firm for the survivors says the preliminary settlement was reached Thursday in federal bankruptcy court, and includes about 600 survivors.

Richard Tollner is one of the 600 survivors and is the chairman of the Diocese of Rockville Centre Unsecured Creditors Committee.

“Today is the first victory, but it’s a victory that took a long time,” he said.

Adam Slater is an attorney who represents roughly 100 survivors.

“This is the largest diocese settlement in the history of New York state,” he said. “Hopefully, it enables the survivors to put it behind them and gives them some measure of closure.”

According to a spokesperson for the Diocese, $234.8 million will come from the diocese, parishes and…

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(Long Island, NY)— Under the New York Child Victims Act, hundreds of survivors in New York were given the chance to bring legal action and expose offenders and the truth through the legal system. Hundreds of previously unknown and unidentified offenders were exposed, along with the dangerous practices of the officials in charge.

The financial contours of the $320 million settlement were made public in today’s hearing. What was not mentioned and is the most important aspect of this case: Because of the courage, perseverance, and truth-telling of the survivors, the Diocese of Rockville Centre, the bishop, the parishes, and the schools are all required to have rigorous child protection protocols in place as part of this settlement.

“The credit for having saved so many kids in the future from the horrors inflicted on so many in the past goes to the courageous survivors for having fought, suffered, endured, and stood strong against darkness…

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Rockville Centre diocese in New York settles with more than 530 victims after proposed deal comes close to failure

A Roman Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York, announced a new bankruptcy settlement on Thursday that would pay more than $323m to about 530 sex abuse survivors who alleged they were abused by priests when they were children.

The diocese of Rockville Centre, which serves about 1.2 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said earlier this year that it did not think a bankruptcy settlement would be possible after abuse survivors rejected the diocese’s previous $200m settlement offer.

US bankruptcy judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan, who is overseeing the case, said the deal represented “enormous progress” after the bankruptcy came “within a hair’s breadth” of failure.

Rockville Centre will contribute $234.8m to a settlement fund, with four insurers contributing $85.3m. The settlement will also receive funding from another insurer that…

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Summary

• Belgium’s king and premier demand concrete action on clerical abuse
• Francis says Church is tackling abuse with global programme
• Survivors’ groups question effectiveness of Church’s measures

BRUSSELS, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Pope Francis was pressed firmly by Belgium’s king and premier on Friday for more concrete action to address sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, an issue once more in the spotlight as he visits.

Both King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo raised the issue in public in unusually forceful language for a papal foreign trip, always a carefully choreographed event.

Philippe told Francis in a speech welcoming him to Belgium that it had taken the Church “far too long” to address the scandals. De Croo said it had “a long way to go” and that “words alone are not enough”.

“Concrete steps must also be taken,” the premier said.

Francis’ weekend trip to Belgium is meant to focus…

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Belgium’s authorities rather directly called on Francis to “hear the cry” of the victims of pedocriminality, as well as of “forced adoptions.” The pope, who spoke of the Church’s “shame,” is expected to meet 15.

The Belgian downpour that had greeted Francis the previous day on the tarmac of a military airport, accompanied by a warm, multicultural choir from Molenbeek, had dissipated. But at the Château of Laeken (Brussels), the royal residence where the pope addressed Belgian authorities on Friday, September 27, the atmosphere was somewhat tense, matching the gravity of the morning’s topics, during which Francis was politely questioned.

“What a joy to welcome you here among us, nearly 30 years after the visit of Pope John Paul II,” King Philippe cordially began, before quickly addressing the issue that has been stirring the Belgian press and the entire society since the airing of a Flemish television documentary featuring victims…

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Pope Francis expressed shame over the abuse of minors in Belgium, calling for the church to seek forgiveness and prevent future abuse. He also called for clarity on the church’s role in the forced adoption of babies from unwed mothers from the 1940s to 1980s.

BRUSSELS (CNS) — The Catholic Church must plead for forgiveness for the crime of the abuse of minors by its members and everything must be done to prevent such “a disgrace” from ever happening again, Pope Francis said.

He also called for clarity about the church’s role from the 1940s to 1980s in coercing unwed mothers to give up their newborns.

“Today, in the church, there is this crime” of abuse against minors, which the pope compared to King Herod’s massacre of the innocents, during a speech to Belgian authorities and local representatives at the Castle of Laeken in Brussels Sept. 27. 

“The church must…

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Pope Francis says the Church must face the “shame” of child sexual abuse, which he described once again as a “scourge”, with Christian humility and make every effort to ensure it never happens again.

The sexual abuse of children is “our shame and humiliation”, Pope Francis said on Friday, insisting that the Church “must be ashamed and try to resolve the situation with Christian humility and make every effort so this doesn’t happen again”.

In remarks to civil leaders in Belgium, Pope Francis once again described clerical sexual abuse as a scourge, comparing it to the slaughter of the Holy Innocents by King Herod when Jesus was born.

Clerical sexual abuse is “our shame”, the Pope repeated, “the shame that today we must confront and beg forgiveness and resolve the problem, the shame of abuse, of the abuse of minors”.

The Pope insisted that the Church cannot make excuses, even…

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“Concrete steps must also be taken,” Alexander De Croo told the pontiff.

BRUSSELS — Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Friday told the Pope that the Catholic Church needs to do more to make amends for decades of clerical sexual abuse against children.

“Today, therefore, words alone are not enough, concrete steps must also be taken,” De Croo said during his meeting with Pope Francis and Belgium’s King Philippe at the Castle of Laeken in Brussels on Friday.

De Croo’s unusually blunt remarks were directed at the Pope as political and public tensions over sexual abuse overshadow the papal visit to Belgium. Several top Flemish politicians have boycotted a meeting Friday with the Pope, saying that the Church isn’t doing enough to deal with the problem.

“The victims must be heard. They should be central. They have a right to the truth. The wrongdoings must be acknowledged. And justice must…

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BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s prime minister on Friday blasted Pope Francis for the Catholic Church’s horrific legacy of clerical sex abuse and cover-ups in his country, demanding “concrete steps” to come clean with the past and put victims’ interests first.

Alexander De Croo’s blistering welcome speech at the start of Francis’ visit was one of the most pointed ever directed at the pope during a foreign trip, where the genteel dictates of diplomatic protocol usually keep outrage out of public remarks. But even King Philippe had strong words for Francis, demanding the church work “incessantly” to atone for the crimes and help victims heal.

Their tone underscored just how raw the abuse scandal still is in Belgium, where two decades of revelations of abuse and systematic cover-ups have devastated the hierarchy’s credibility and contributed to an overall decline in Catholicism and the influence of the once-powerful church.

Francis applauded at the end…

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Pope Francis on Sept. 27 kicked off a three-day trip to Belgium by asking forgiveness for the church’s shameful record on clergy abuse, but was met with a challenge by the country’s prime minister that “words alone do not suffice.”

“We also need concrete steps,” said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. “Victims need to be heard. They need to be at the center. They have a right to truth. Misdeeds need to be recognized.”

The prime minister’s unusually sharp remarks spotlighted an issue that has loomed large over the pope’s visit here ever since it was first announced and where the local church is reeling from the fallout of a damning 2023 documentary on clergy abuse.

The documentary has prompted the Belgian Federal Parliament and the regional Flemish assembly to launch investigations into the church’s handling of cases and to revisit how the…

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