Search Results for: mcgrath

Enraged by inaction surrounding abuse claims against a former Providence HS priest, a survivors network wants Catholic leaders to act.

NEW LENOX, IL — In the wake of a $2 million settlement reached in a lawsuit over rape allegations against a Catholic priest, a network of abuse survivors is seeking answers from the Vatican in a complaint filed last week.

Reached last month, the settlement will result in Providence Catholic High School and the religious order that runs the school paying $2 million to a former student who alleged he was raped by a priest at the school.

The organization Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is now decrying the actions of five specific officials as “repeated and deliberate recklessness, callousness and secrecy,” in a complaint sent to the Vatican. The complaint, SNAP wrote, was filed in “a sincere, even desperate, hope that the Vatican hierarchy will take immediate…

A New Zealand royal commission into abuse in care has heard horrific evidence about a member of a Catholic order who was transferred from his homeland to a boys’ home near Newcastle.

Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of abuse that readers may find distressing.

Key points:

• St John of God was established in New Zealand in 1955 after starting in Australia eight years earlier
• Survivors say Brother Bernard McGrath used fear to force them to remain silent during his time in Christchurch
• A representative for the church said McGrath’s crimes and the way they were handled internally were “deeply shameful”

The commission comes four years after Australian victims of the St John of God order called on New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden to set up a special inquiry to investigate brothers there.

An Australian royal commission into child abuse heard 40 per cent of St John of God brothers were…

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

February 5, 2021

By Robert Herguth

The Archdiocese of Chicago has been getting explicit details from religious orders on problem priests in the area for over two years. But it’s keeping that information secret. Some orders won’t release it, either.

Two and a half years after the latest sex abuse scandal rocked the Catholic church and prompted new pledges of transparency, the church in the Chicago region has yet to make a full accounting to the public of its problem priests.

Cardinal Blase Cupich has demanded for more than two years now that Catholic religious orders that operate in his territory fully disclose to him any information on their clergy members who now face or previously have faced accusations of child sexual abuse.

But Cupich — who heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, which covers Cook County and Lake County, and who reports to…

AUSTRALIA
ABC

March 23, 2020

By Sarah Ferguson

Former brother of St John of God, Bernard McGrath, will be eligible for parole in December 2044.

McGrath, who is serving two prison sentences in NSW for sex crimes against children, says his religious order and the Catholic Church covered up his offending at schools in Australia and New Zealand.

In the early 1990s, after decades as a sex offender, new reports emerged about McGrath’s behaviour at a residential school he’d run for street kids in Christchurch, New Zealand.

To learn how to handle the growing number of complaints against McGrath, the head of St John of God in Australia at the time took McGrath to meet Father Brian Lucas.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

April 8, 2019

By Anna Kim, Elyssa Cherney and Alicia Fabbre

In the 15 months since the Rev. Richard McGrath abruptly retired from Providence Catholic High School amid a probe into “potentially inappropriate material” on his phone, the priest was the subject of two criminal investigations, accused in a lawsuit by a former student of sexual abuse and deemed AWOL from his religious order.

Authorities have now closed both investigations without filing any criminal charges against McGrath, who led the New Lenox school for three decades until a student reported that she saw what she thought was an image of a naked boy on the priest’s phone.

Yet McGrath is still considered “illegitimately absent” from his order, its leaders said, and his current whereabouts are unclear.

New Lenox police said they ended the cellphone investigation after McGrath “steadfastly refused” to turn over the device. In…

CHICAGO (IL)
Patch Staff |

December 29, 2018

By John Ferak

Father Richard McGrath, the disgraced Catholic priest who served as principal and president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox for several years until his forced resignation one year ago, has now gone missing in Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The Chicago newspaper has been tracking Father McGrath’s whereabouts ever since the Joliet Patch and New Lenox Patch broke an important news story in July revealing that the well-known Augustinian priest, who is a suspected pedophile, was now taking up residence at the Augustinian Order’s St. John Stone Friary in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

In recent days, The Sun-Times published a story headlined, “Priest accused of child rape, porn, now AWOL from his religious community.”

According to The Sun-Times, the Rev. Richie Mercado, secretary of the Augustinians’ Midwest province, told the newspaper that McGrath “is unlawfully absent…

ILLINOIS
Herald-News

CHICAGO — An individual accusing former Providence Catholic High School President Richard J. McGrath of sexual abuse has filed suit in Cook County.

A reported sexual abuse survivor and his attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, will speak publicly for the first time about the alleged abuse at 1 p.m. Thursday in a press conference downtown Chicago, according to a news release from Minnesota-based law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates.

The plaintiff was a student at Providence, located at 1800 W. Lincoln Hwy. in New Lenox, at the time of the reported abuse. The lawsuit also accuses McGrath of possession and destruction of child pornography and the Augustinian Order and the high school of maintaining a hazardous public nuisance.

“Defendants placed McGrath where he had access to and worked with children as an integral part of his work,” the suit stated. “Plaintiff developed great admiration, trust,…

NEW LENOX (IL)
New Lenox Patch

February 19, 2018

By John Ferak

New Lenox Police told Patch on Friday that Father McGrath refused to cooperate with their investigation of him.

Father Richard McGrath, who abruptly retired in December as president of Providence Catholic High School, will not face criminal charges regarding allegations involving his cell phone, New Lenox Police Chief Bob Sterba told Patch on Friday afternoon. New Lenox Police spent the past two months investigating McGrath, 71.

The Augustinian Catholic priest had served as either the high school principal or president of Providence Catholic since the mid-1980s. In December, Providence announced McGrath’s retirement effective immediately and school officials removed all photos and biography material of Fr. McGrath from their school’s website at that time.

New Lenox’s police chief told Patch on Friday that McGrath refused to be interviewed by the New Lenox Police Department about…

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

[assignment record – BishopAccountability.org]

By DAVID MCGRATH |
June 11, 2017

Father Kenneth Gansmann, pastor of St. John’s Church in Union Hill in New Prague, sexually assaulted me when I was 6 years old.

He was a friend of the family and a Franciscan who wore the familiar brown robe, knotted white cord, and sandals, when he wasn’t saying Mass.

I remember him as a people-friendly monk: soft spoken, with an infectious laugh, more like a chuckle, when he talked about baseball with my father, or politics with my uncles.

And Gansmann was implicitly trusted by my parents, who felt honored to have a man of God visit their home. With charm, deception, and gifts, he manipulated a family who revered his office and power.

MISSOURI
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Michael S. McGrath was a St. Louis archdiocesan priest, ordained in 1975. He assisted in parishes in Florissant, Wentzville, Overland, Concord Village, Pagedale and Bridgeton. For a short while he was the lead priest in Jennings. McGrath also taught in several parish schools and at DuBourg High School.

In 1993 McGrath was placed on leave and sent for treatment for a year after the archdiocese received an allegation that, while he was a seminarian in 1973-1974, McGrath fondled a boy. He was returned to active ministry. In 1997 he was suspended again after a concerned priest reported that McGrath had taken a group of boys on a trip to New Orleans. The archdiocesan review board recommended the suspension, saying that McGrath was not using “common sense.” McGrath found work driving buses for the city and for Greyhound.

In June 2003 a wrongful death suit…

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: After completing seminary training in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Francis McGrath was ordained for the Diocese of Trenton NJ in 1978. He assisted parishes in Redbank, Trenton and Tom’s River, and he served for a time as chaplain at McCorriston High School. In 1995 a man reported to the Archdiocese of Baltimore that McGrath had sexually abused him as a minor in the early 1970s, when McGrath was a seminarian. The archdiocese informed the Diocese of Trenton; McGrath admitted to the sexual abuse of “three or four victims” during his time in Trenton, and went on leave. The Official Catholic Directory shows McGrath as “Absent on Leave” through 2002, the year another individual alleged abuse by McGrath, in the mid-1970s.

Ordained: 1978

SCOTLAND
STV

A priest who abused three teenage boys in the 1970s and 80s has avoided jail.

Colman McGrath, 76, abused two boys who were training to join the priesthood at Blairs College in Aberdeen and went on to indecently assault another school boy he was tutoring at his chapel in Langside, Glasgow.

But McGrath, who is now retired, was only interviewed by police in June 2014 after the abuse came to light decades later.

McGrath pleaded guilty to three charges of indecent assault between August 1972 and September 1982 at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

SCOTLAND
BBC News

A retired priest has been told to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work after admitting indecently assaulting three teenage boys in Aberdeen and Glasgow.

Colman McGrath, 76, abused two boys who were training to join the priesthood at Blairs College in Aberdeen and a boy at his parish in Langside, Glasgow.

The offences were committed between August 1972 and September 1982.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, McGrath was put on the sex offenders’ register and placed on supervision for three years.

CALIFORNIA
The Valley Catholic

By Liz Sullivan

Diocese of San Jose Bishop Patrick J. McGrath recently sat down with The Valley Catholic to discuss the recent arrest of Monsignor Hien Minh Nguyen for 14 counts of Bank Fraud totaling $19,000 and Tax Evasion.

The Bishop was saddened by this development, noting that “Monsignor Hien has been a priest of the Diocese of San Jose for nearly 30 years. In his years as pastor of St. Patrick, he paid off previously accrued parish and school debts and created a strong foundation upon which to serve the community.”

Ordained in 1985, Nguyen served as Judicial Vicar for the Diocese of San Jose from 2001-2008 before being named Pastor of St. Patrick in 2008. He served in that capacity until 2011. Following a fire that destroyed the church in September of 2012, the parish was renamed and is now called Our Lady…

NEW ZEALAND
NZ City

A former Catholic brother facing hundreds of child sex charges in Australia is challenging Justice Minister Judith Collins’ decision to extradite him.

Australian authorities are trying to extradite Bernard Kevin McGrath, 65, from New Zealand to face 252 child sex charges.

A Christchurch District Court judge agreed to McGrath’s extradition in June last year, but it was up to Ms Collins to make the final decision and the case was referred to her in April.

Ms Collins’ office confirmed on Monday an order for McGrath’s surrender to Australia has been issued.

NEW ZEALAND
The Press

ANNA PEARSON

Former Catholic brother Bernard Kevin McGrath will face child sex abuse charges in Australia, the justice minister has ruled.

In November 2012, Australia requested the extradition of McGrath on 252 charges of sexual offending between 1977 and 1986.

Authorities allege that he raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions.

In June last year, Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish decided McGrath’s extradition should be granted, but the case was successfully appealed to the High Court.

The case was then referred back to district court level, from where Judge Farish sent it on to Justice Minister Judith Collins.

”I am satisfied that there are extraordinary and compelling reasons for the matter to be referred to the minister,” Judge Farish said in January.

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Monday 25 August 2014

A former Catholic brother facing hundreds of child sex charges in Australia is challenging the decision by New Zealand’s justice minister, Judith Collins, to extradite him.

Australian authorities are trying to extradite Bernard Kevin McGrath, 65, from New Zealand to face 252 child sex charges.

A Christchurch district court judge agreed to McGrath’s extradition in June last year, but it was up to Collins to make the final decision and the case was referred to her in April.

Collins’s office confirmed on Monday that an order for McGrath’s surrender to Australia had been issued.

NEW ZEALAND
ABC News (Australia)

New Zealand’s justice minister will decide whether former Catholic brother Bernard Kevin McGrath will be extradited to Australia to face 252 charges of child sexual abuse.

In the Christchurch District Court today, Judge Jane Farish said she would refer the matter to Judith Collins because of “compelling and extraordinary circumstances”.

The full reasons for her decision will be made available on Monday.

In April last year, Judge Farish ruled McGrath, 66, could be extradited, but on appeal, the High Court ruled the judge should further consider whether to refer the case to the justice minister.

New South Wales police allege McGrath abused 35 boys during the late 1970s and mid-80s.

Further details about McGrath’s alleged offending and his image remain suppressed.

NEW ZEALAND
Radio Australia

NZ justice minister to rule on extradition of Bernard Kevin McGrath to face child sex abuse charges

New Zealand’s justice minister will decide whether former Catholic brother Bernard Kevin McGrath will be extradited to Australia to face 252 charges of child sexual abuse.

In the Christchurch District Court today, Judge Jane Farish said she would refer the matter to Judith Collins because of “compelling and extraordinary circumstances”.

The full reasons for her decision will be made available on Monday.

In April last year, Judge Farish ruled McGrath, 66, could be extradited, but on appeal, the High Court ruled the judge should further consider whether to refer the case to the justice minister.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By New Zealand correspondent Dominique Schwartz

A judge has ruled that a former Catholic brother wanted in Australia on 252 charges of child sexual abuse can be extradited from New Zealand.

The extradition order was made in the Christchurch District Court for 66-year-old Bernard Kevin McGrath.

He has 15 days in which to appeal or voluntarily return to Australia, otherwise he will be arrested and extradited.

New South Wales police say the alleged offending involved 35 boys from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s.

CALIFORNIA
The Valley Catholic

Dear Friends,
As we observe “Child Abuse Prevention Month,” we are reminded, as with so many other annual observances, that what we observe is never only for a day, or even a month or a year. Just as in May and June we celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, hopefully not neglecting our parents for the rest of the year, so during April, we highlight our constant vigilance and commitment to the protection of our children, indeed of all children.

Awareness is key to these efforts, for each of us must be prepared to recognize signs of abuse, of neglect, and of bullying wherever children are present: at home, at school and at play. Our Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults is constantly offering training for adults and children to do all that we can to ensure a safe environment, especially…

MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: McGrath was accused in the early 1990s of having sexually abused two girls, ages 16 and 14, in the late 1960s. The girls worked in the church office and rectory at the Minneapolis parish where McGrath was an assistant priest. McGrath was a priest of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese through 1994.

Ordained: 1957
Incardinated: St. Paul and Minneapolis

NEW ZEALAND
Newstalk ZB

One of Bernard McGrath’s victims says he’s worried the former Catholic brother has been granted bail.

McGrath has previously served time for offending in Christchurch and is now charged with over 250 new counts of sexual abuse against children and young adults in New South Wales.

He was today granted bail to live with his sister.

The 65-year-old flew back to New Zealand late last week.

He now faces extradition to Australia but has been given a fortnight to consider his stance on the charges.

Alan Nixon says while McGrath hasn’t yet been convicted, it’s hard for victims to know that he’s back.

NEW ZEALAND
The Age

December 3, 2012

David Clarkson

Former Catholic brother Bernard Kevin McGrath has been granted bail while he considers his stance on 252 fresh sex abuse charges on which he faces extradition to Australia.

The 65-year-old flew back to the city from Sri Lanka on Thursday and was arrested on Friday after fresh charges were laid in Australia.

The new charges allege he repeatedly raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese over several decades.

He was due to fly back to Christchurch from Sri Lanka next Saturday but he brought the flight forward.

Defence counsel Phillip Allan said McGrath had returned from Sri Lanka knowing that he would be arrested. He would have seen news reports on a New Zealand website before his return.

AUSTRALIA
Australian Times

By Australian Times on 3 December, 2012

A FORMER Catholic brother and pedophile, facing 252 child sex charges in Australia, has been arrested after returning to New Zealand from Sri Lanka.

Bernard Kevin McGrath, a former St John of God brother appeared in Christchurch District Court on Monday over a warrant to extradite him to Australia to face charges laid in Newcastle in June.

The news was greeted with relief by the family of an alleged Australian victim who had feared McGrath would not return, Fairfax Media reports.

“It’s excellent news. This really is very good news and an enormous relief after all this time,” said the father of an alleged victim who reported sexual abuse allegations to police two years ago.

The Catholic religious order, which runs St. Rita High School on the South Side and Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, won’t explain why the Rev. Richard McGrath, who was accused of sex abuse and having child pornography on his phone, isn’t on the group’s newly posted public listing.

After hiding the names of sexually abusive priests and religious brothers for years, the Augustinian Catholic order has posted its first public listing of clergy members in its Chicago province deemed to have been child predators, listing five men.

The list doesn’t include the Rev. Richard McGrath, who was the longtime head of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox until he was ousted in 2017 after a student reported seeing a nude image of a boy on the priest’s cell phone while he was a spectator at a wrestling match.

The police investigated McGrath, but the case ended up…

For the men who survived “evil” sexual and physical abuse in a Catholic boys’ home in Christchurch, last week was the first time authority figures gave them a reason to smile.

The reserve and street named after Marylands School is being renamed Validation, in recognition of the decades it took for abuse survivors to be believed.

The school was run by St John of God, a Catholic order, from 1955 until 1984 for boys with learning difficulties – or “naughty boys”, as survivor Eddie Marriott puts it.

He and several other survivors spoke to the Waihoro Spreydon-Cashmere-Heathcote Community Board on Thursday in favour of getting rid of the name Marylands. After the board unanimously agreed, the room broke into applause.

Marriott, Peter Wall and Adam Powell told The Press they had not dared to expect the vote to succeed, after years of horrific abuse and then decades of…

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

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

Early this year, a retired phys ed teacher left her ranch house in Easthampton and drove down the interstate to tell her story of clergy abuse.

It wasn’t Nancy A. Dunn’s first time before the Springfield Diocese’s review board, which meets in the red-brick Maguire Pastoral Center to hear allegations of clergy misconduct.

But it was her last.

The board later informed Dunn she needn’t have come back. Why? The diocese had already written her a six-figure check, she says she was told, to compensate her for a North Adams priest’s misconduct in the 1990s.

Dunn still had questions.

She wanted to know whether the Rev. Warren Savage had been held accountable, as the diocese had said he would, for engaging in a year-long sexual relationship with her nearly three decades ago. Savage remains in active ministry at Westfield State University.

“My intention was never to destroy this man; it…

Over the past 14 years, a Northampton therapist has been helping a client, Nancy A. Dunn of Easthampton, contend with fallout from a year-long sexual relationship with a priest.

In 2020, wanting more answers, Dunn got back in touch with the Springfield diocese. She did so 23 years after a misconduct board upheld her claim that a parish priest, the Rev. Warren Savage, drew her into a sexual relationship.

Before 2020, therapy focused on the past.

Since then, according to Dunn and her therapist, Nancy Knudsen, a main topic in counseling has been anguish over the diocese’s response to her requests for information.

“There are two betrayals here, one by Warren Savage and the other by the church itself in its handling of this matter, both when it first happened and now,” said Knudsen, a psychotherapist who directs the Couple and Family Institute of New…

Early this year, a retired phys ed teacher left her ranch house in Easthampton and drove down the interstate to tell her story of clergy abuse.

It wasn’t Nancy A. Dunn’s first time before the Springfield Diocese’s review board, which meets in the red-brick Maguire Pastoral Center to hear allegations of clergy misconduct.

But it was her last.

The board later informed Dunn she needn’t have come back. Why? The diocese had already written her a six-figure check, she says she was told, to compensate her for a priest’s misconduct in the 1990s.

Dunn still had questions.

She wanted to know whether the Rev. Warren Savage had been held accountable, as the diocese had said he would, for engaging in a year-long sexual relationship with her nearly three decades ago. Savage remains in active ministry at Westfield State University.

“My intention was never to destroy this man, it was to…

The Rev. Richard McGrath’s name belongs on lists of abusers kept by all church districts where he worked, supporters of survivors say.

After being secretive for years, the Augustinian Catholic order has promised to publish early in 2024 a list of priests credibly accused of abuse.

But an advocacy group says one priest accused of child sex abuse and viewing child pornography should not only be placed on the Augustinian’s list, but on lists kept by all of the Chicago-area districts where he worked.

Church officials won’t say if they plan to add the Rev. Richard J. McGrath’s name to their own lists.

But at a news conference Thursday outside a Hyde Park friary that McGrath once called home, survivor advocates demanded his name also be added to the lists of the dioceses where he worked in Chicago, Joliet and Rockford.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP)…

Anti-abuse activists lodged a Vatican complaint Thursday in response to a $2 million lawsuit settled by a New Lenox Catholic school and the Augustinian religious order, alleging that the “actions and inaction” by Chicagoland Catholic leaders in handling the accused priest is endangering kids.

Former Providence Catholic High School student Robert Krankvich filed a lawsuit in April 2018 alleging the school’s longtime principal and president, the Rev. Richard McGrath, repeatedly raped and abused him. Krankvich was between 13 and 15 when he was abused in the school’s gym and wrestling room in the mid-1990s, the lawsuit alleged.

The school and religious order McGrath belongs to finalized the settlement in mid-November, according to Krankvich’s attorney, Marc Pearlman.

McGrath abruptly retired from the school in December 2017 after a student reported she witnessed McGrath view a picture of a naked teenage boy on his phone. The priest…

The payout is in a lawsuit regarding the Rev. Richard McGrath, an Augustinian priest who ran Providence Catholic High School — and took the Fifth when asked about child pornography.

If Robert Krankvich could ask a question of the Rev. Richard McGrath, the Catholic priest who Krankvich says raped him when he was a student at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox in the 1990s, it would be: “Why? Why me?”

The Augustinian Catholic religious order that McGrath belongs to and the school it runs that’s owned by the Diocese of Joliet has reached a $2 million settlement on the eve of a trial over a lawsuit Krankvich filed, lawyers confirmed.

Church officials admitted no wrongdoing in agreeing to the payout to end the civil case.

But records reviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times and interviews by the newspaper show there were warning signs about McGrath.

The diocese — the arm…

A new offering from the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life aims to help seminaries and dioceses strengthen formation programs, particularly in pastoral ministry to victim-survivors of sexual abuse.

“Fully Equipped for Every Good Work: A Proposal of Twelve Core Competencies in Ministering to Survivors of Sexual Abuse for Seminary,” outlines twelve competencies for seminaries to adopt for seminarians to demonstrate before they’re ordained.

“The present whitepaper is very much a work in progress; it can serve as the basis for an ongoing and very important conversation about how to best prepare clergy for this delicate ministry, and especially how to best incorporate trauma-informed pastoral care into seminary formation programs and programs of ongoing priestly formation,” Father Thomas Berg, a visiting scholar at the McGrath Institute and a co-author of the proposal, said in a statement.

In the 40-page proposal, the competencies are divided between two sections.

…

NEW YORK – A new offering from the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life aims to help seminaries and dioceses strengthen formation programs, particularly in pastoral ministry to victim-survivors of sexual abuse.

“Fully Equipped for Every Good Work: A Proposal of Twelve Core Competencies in Ministering to Survivors of Sexual Abuse for Seminary,” outlines twelve competencies for seminaries to adopt for seminarians to demonstrate before they’re ordained.

“The present whitepaper is very much a work in progress; it can serve as the basis for an ongoing and very important conversation about how to best prepare clergy for this delicate ministry, and especially how to best incorporate trauma-informed pastoral care into seminary formation programs and programs of ongoing priestly formation,” Father Thomas Berg, a visiting scholar at the McGrath Institute and a co-author of the proposal, said in a statement.

In the 40-page proposal, the competencies are divided…

SHELBURNE FALLS — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield this week acknowledged new credible findings against the late Richard Lavigne, a convicted sex offender and former Shelburne Falls priest believed to have killed a 13-year-old altar boy in 1972.

The diocese issued a statement on Oct. 31 to announce an update on Lavigne, as well as on the late Stigmatine priest Joseph E. Flood and the late Rev. J. Victor Carrier.

“Out of respect for the privacy of the survivor, no further details will be released at this time,” Carolee McGrath, a diocese spokesperson wrote in an email regarding Lavigne’s case.

Lavigne and Flood were already listed on the diocese’s “Findings of Credibility of Allegations of Sexual Abuse of a Minor,” and Carrier’s name was recently added based on a credible finding by the diocesan Review Board. The diocese’s statement mentions that an allegation being found credible does not equal…

A deceased priest who served at St. John’s Jesuit High School in the 1990s and early 2000s was placed on a list of established allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

An allegation was made in 2022 against the Rev. Francis Canfield, who died in May, by a former student of the Toledo school, according to an email sent to an alumnus from the school’s president Mark Swentkofske.

Mr. Canfield’s name was added Monday to the list of Midwest Jesuits with an established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus.

St. John’s released a media statement detailing the investigation and the school’s safety process, but deferred additional questions to the province’s communications office.

The Diocese of Toledo said in a statement that “after learning of the allegation in 2022, the Diocese reported the matter to the Lucas County Prosecutor, and…

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield this week acknowledged new credible findings against the late Richard Lavigne, a convicted sex offender and former Shelburne Falls priest believed to have killed a 13-year-old altar boy in 1972.

The diocese issued a statement on Oct. 31 to announce an update on Lavigne, as well as on the late Stigmatine priest Joseph E. Flood and the late Rev. J. Victor Carrier.

“Out of respect for the privacy of the survivor, no further details will be released at this time,” Carolee McGrath, a diocese spokesperson wrote in an email to the Greenfield Recorder regarding Lavigne’s case.

Lavigne and Flood were already listed on the diocese’s “Findings of Credibility of Allegations of Sexual Abuse of a Minor,” and Carrier’s name was recently added based on a credible finding by the diocesan Review Board. The diocese’s statement mentions that an allegation being found credible does not…

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

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

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

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

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

At Marylands School, sexual and physical abuse by Catholic brothers was brutal, prevalent and normalised. Survivors were so traumatised that, after they left, they found it difficult to understand the boundaries between right and wrong. 

This article is part of The Quarter Million, exploring the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care. Read the introduction here and the rest of the series here.

Content warning: This feature describes physical, sexual and emotional violence, child abuse and neglect. If this is difficult for you and you would like some help, these services offer support and information: Auckland specialist service Help, 0800 623 1700; specialist men’s service Male Survivors Aotearoa, 0800 044 334; and Snap (Survivors network of those abused by priests). Please take care.

At the frayed edge of Christchurch, the city dissolving into large fields…

The list of priests and brothers accused of child sexual abuse grew by dozens of names, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced on Friday.

The archdiocese voluntarily began publishing its online list in 2002. The addition of the names comes after Baltimore Archbishop William Lori made a recommendation to the Independent Review Board and is an acknowledgment of the Maryland attorney general’s recommendation that the archdiocese expand the list.

“Today’s transparency and culture of child protection in the church certainly does not erase the untold trauma, deep pain and lasting anguish of those who have been impacted by child sexual abuse,” Lori said in a statement.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office spent years on an investigation before it released a report in April that paints a damning picture of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which is the oldest Catholic diocese in the country and spans much of Maryland. The report…

The list of priests and brothers accused of child sexual abuse grew by dozens of names, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced on Friday.

| VIDEO ABOVE: Attorneys to sue archdiocese over child sex abuse (May 2023)

The archdiocese voluntarily began publishing its online list in 2002. The addition of the names comes after Baltimore Archbishop William Lori made a recommendation to the Independent Review Board and is an acknowledgment of the Maryland attorney general’s recommendation that the archdiocese expand the list.

“Today’s transparency and culture of child protection in the church certainly does not erase the untold trauma, deep pain and lasting anguish of those who have been impacted by child sexual abuse,” Lori said in a statement.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office spent years on an investigation before it released a report in April that paints a damning picture of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which is the oldest Catholic…

John D. Murphy, a former Augustinian priest, isn’t on any public list of abusers. The attorney general’s investigation didn’t name him. The Archdiocese of Chicago settled claims over Murphy but doesn’t include him on its list. And his Catholic religious order hasn’t named abusers — but said Saturday it hopes to “in the near future.”

John D. Murphy, a formerCatholic priest and member of the Augustinian religious order in the Chicago area, was accused in lawsuits two decades ago of sexually assaulting numerous children.

More than a dozen accusers ended up settling legal claims with the Augustinians — who oversee St. Rita High School on the Southwest Side and Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox — and the Archdiocese of Chicago over accusations against Murphy, according to interviews and records.

So why isn’t Murphy included among the 451 Catholic priests and brothers named a week and a half ago…

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

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

Among the many startling revelations in the new Maryland attorney general’s investigative report on clergy sex crimes and cover-ups in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, this line jumped out at us: “In an internal email in 2002, described the files for (Fr. Bruce) Ball, (Fr. John) Banko, (Fr. Mark) Haight, (Fr. Michael) LaMountain, and (Fr. Raymond) Melville, the priests from other dioceses who committed abuse in Baltimore, breeds seminarians, as the ‘bad boy’ files.”

Bad boys? Normal people would call those who prey on youngsters far more explicit names. This troubling sentence caused us to wonder just how much abuse happened in Maryland Catholic seminaries and how much abuse was perpetrated by seminarians. We were stunned to learn how widespread these horrors were. We at Horowitz Law have read each of the reports issued by attorneys general across the US and believe that this one details more crimes and cover-ups in…

You can read it now. The Attorney General’s Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It is an incriminating story, based on a Baltimore grand jury investigation, telling the “incontrovertible history . . . one of pervasive and persistent abuse by priests and other Archdiocese personnel. It is also a history of repeated dismissal or cover up of that abuse by the Catholic Church hierarchy.” (p. 1). Abuse of more than 600 victims by 156 persons in the diocese, with an appendix that gives the names of 43 more abusers from Baltimore who committed abuse outside of Maryland.

Everyone should read it. You should know what the victims and survivors of abuse had the courage to report and how that abuse still affects them.

Reading it might also encourage you to support the attorney general’s two recommendations: “amend statute of limitations for civil actions involving child sex…

A priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit has been sentenced for the rape of an elementary student at the Catholic school attached to the parish he served as pastor in the mid-2000s.

“We trust the judgment of the court. We pray for everybody involved,” Ned McGrath, director of public affairs at the Archdiocese of Detroit, told CNA March 2. “Our priority in all of these cases is always the victim-survivors.”

Father Joseph “Jack” Baker, 61, was sentenced to three to 15 years in prison on March 1 in Wayne County’s 3rd Circuit Court in Detroit. In October 2022 he was convicted of first-degree criminal conduct–sexual penetration with a person under age 13.

Baker’s attorney said he planned to appeal the verdict, Fox News reported.

The charge dated back to 2004, when the victim was a second-grader at St. Mary Catholic School in Wayne, Michigan, and Baker was pastor of St….

A former Christian brother who was convicted in October on 38 counts of indecently assaulting young boys has been sentenced to five years in prison.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims, was found unanimously guilty after a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court deliberated for four hours and twenty-six minutes.

The former priest was described by one of the victims in his victim impact statement as “the epitome of evil”.

The court heard that the man was convicted of indecently assaulting five boys in the late seventies, when the boys were then aged nine and ten.

The accused pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has seven previous convictions, all for indecent assault.

Garda Sergeant James Neary told Patrick McGrath SC, prosecuting, that the accused was a Christian Brother who was teaching all five boys at the time of the assaults.

Gda Stg…

The Archdiocese of Chicago for the first time has posted the names of credibly accused sex-offender priests from multiple Catholic religious orders — with many unexplained omissions.

Several years after Cardinal Blase Cupich began cracking down on religious orders to report their sexually abusive clergy members who preyed on minors, the Archdiocese of Chicago has added dozens of order priests to its online posting of predatory clergy.

But Cupich is still keeping secrets on clergy sex abuse of minors, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.

Even though the archdiocese instantly nearly doubled the size of its list of clergy deemed to have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children, there are significant gaps in what’s been added.

Those include the omissions of some clergy members whose orders deemed them to have molested children or who were the subject of lawsuits over predatory sexual acts that church officials settled. Among them:

…

The latest hearings into abuse in state and faith-based care ended with a number of survivors and advocates walking out as the head of the Catholic Church gave evidence.

Cardinal John Dew was speaking before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care this afternoon on the subject of how the church deals with sexual abuse admissions that are divulged during the sacramental rite of confession.

In reference to a colleague’s earlier statement, he said: “As Tim Duckworth said this morning, in 40 years he hasn’t had anyone who’s confessed sexual abuse, and I certainly haven’t. Or in over 40 years [had] someone who has spoken about sexual abuse.”

One of those who walked out told 1News many had heard this as saying the church had not been made aware of abuse – when the evidence said otherwise.

Today’s hearings are part of a fortnight of sessions that look…

A year ago, Sheri Biasin of Cheshire was still waiting for the Catholic priest who molested her to be listed as “credibly accused” by the Springfield Diocese.

The diocese, in a spirit of disclosure and healing, had just changed its policy to include priests who died before those accusations surfaced. But that new and more complete list, released in June 2021, did not mention the Rev. Daniel Gill.

Now it does.

The diocese said Wednesday it added Gill to its online roster Aug. 1, “based on a credible finding by the diocesan Review Board.”

Biasin said Wednesday she recently received a letter from the Most Rev. William Byrne regarding her molestation by Gill, which the new listing says occurred between the years 1967 and 1971. At the time, Gill was assigned to both the Saint Jerome Parish in Holyoke (1962-69) and the Saint Charles Borromeo Parish in Pittsfield…

A woman said she was abused in the 1980s at a Catholic school on the South Side, St. Cyril Catholic School in Woodlawn, which since has closed.

A sex abuse case against the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Carmelites, a Catholic religious order, has been settled for $1.75 million, attorneys for the victim announced Friday.

The case was filed by a woman who said she was repeatedly abused as a child in the 1980s by Robert Boley, a Carmelite priest who taught at St. Cyril Catholic School, 6423 S. Woodlawn Ave. which has since closed.

“During one school year, he abused her multiple times in the classroom, having her stay inside for recess and sexually assaulting her while also telling her she was a bad child, that God was angry with her and making her read the Bible during the abuse,” according to a statement Friday from Romanucci & Blandin,…

The Telegraph’s podcast criticized a 2020 decision by the Supreme Court of Montana that protected the confessional privilege. But it correctly applied the law.

Article 4 of 5. Read article 1, article 2, and article 3.

Call Bethel, the Telegraph’s podcast, also discusses cases in the United States. In particular, we hear the voices of the plaintiffs in a case in the American state of Montana, where they obtained a verdict of $35 million against the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The verdict was reversed by the Supreme Court of Montana on January 8, 2020, which affirmed that the Jehovah’s Witnesses were excepted from Montana’s mandatory reporting laws in cases of sexual abuse of children because the information obtained by the elders was protected by the confessional privilege.

The podcast includes an ironical comment by one of the plaintiffs after the Supreme…

[Via Crux]

Catholic journalists face a twofold lack of trust as reporters who cover the church, a Catholic theologian reminded them July 6 at the annual Catholic Media Conference in Portland.

He urged them to find a way forward that brings Catholics together and also reaches out to the public at large with nuanced, not simply reactive, reporting and by providing necessary context, or the bigger picture, to their readers and viewers.

Put another way: “Journalists and communicators have a role to play here, to let the eucharistic mystery of the church manifest itself for the life of the world,” said Timothy O’Malley, director of education at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.

“The church is experiencing a crisis related to communications,” he said during his keynote address, adding that it can’t be solved by a new technique such as a better way to…

The deeply evil abuse of vulnerable children that happened at the Marylands School in Christchurch, and at St Joseph’s Orphanage and the Hebron Trust, was “the darkest chapter of the Catholic Church’s history in New Zealand”.  

That’s what was stated in the closing submission filed by Te Rōpū Tautoko, on behalf of the Bishops and Congregational Leaders of the Catholic Church of New Zealand, on the last day of the case study hearing into Marylands School by the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care. 

Marylands School operated from 1955 to 1984, and was run by the Hospitaller Brothers of St John of God.  

The royal commission hearing, which ran from February 9-17 this year, heard testimony from 22 abuse survivors, as well as from survivor advocates, a Police representative, a Government official, a lawyer, Brother Timothy Graham of the St John of God brothers, and Archbishop Paul Martin, SM, the…

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Former Anglican priest Robin Barrett’s latest trial for child pornography offences is expected to be cancelled Friday morning, March 4, as he changes his pleas to guilty.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place instead for Barrett, 61, who is charged with accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography.

It will be Barrett’s second time being sentenced for child pornography crimes. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to similar offences after police found thousands of images and videos of the material on his computer. He was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

Barrett was arrested again in 2015 after members of a joint Royal Newfoundland Constabulary/RCMP team of investigators received information from Ontario police about Barrett’s alleged participation in downloading and sharing child pornography online. Investigators knocked on his door and got no answer before using…

To organize a National Eucharistic Congress in 2024, the Catholic bishops in the United States have partnered with an event planner who was accused of charging exorbitant rates during the preparations for Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in January 2017.

The bishops are also relying on conservative Catholic organizations to provide funding and create catechetical and promotional materials for a multiyear National Eucharistic Revival that will lead up to the four-day congress in July 2024. The bishops intend to set up a nonprofit organization to handle logistics and raise $28 million over the next two years to hold the event in downtown Indianapolis.

Some Catholic observers, including experts in financial planning and church management, say the bishops’ plan is sound and consistent with other large religious events in recent years, including the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

Also linking belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist…

Abuse of children at Marylands School in Christchurch was so rife it was described as a state-supported, church-run brothel for paedophiles. But so far the spotlight has focused on a handful of individual abusers. An inquiry this week tried to find out how deep the rot went.

Alan Nixon nearly had to burn a church down to get noticed.

After Nixon racked up 400 convictions including arson, vandalism and burglary, his lawyer eventually asked him why he had targeted church buildings.

Nixon told a story he had already told many times: He had been sexually and physically abused at a Catholic school, Marylands, in the 1970s. Any building with a steeple reminded him of the school in Halswell, Christchurch, which he attended from age 8 to 14.

He had told police the same story 30 years earlier after they caught him running away, but later found in their records that…

Business has been brisk this past week at the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.

The latest phase of the inquiry has looked at the historical wrongdoing that took place at the Marylands residential school and its co-located St Joseph’s orphanage in Christchurch, as well as the nearby Hebron Trust facility.

These residences were overseen by the Brothers Hospitaller of St John of God, a Catholic order known for its work with at-risk young people, including kids with learning disabilities – and rather too many of the 1680 reports of abuse against local Catholic clergy and workers from 1950 to the present day.

Like its state-run counterparts, the order’s local operation seems to have been established with benevolent intentions. The aim was to provide a refuge for youngsters not unlike the order’s own namesake Portuguese-born saint, who as a child was forced to live on the streets of Europe.

As…

Warning: This story contains references to sexual and physical abuse and may be upsetting for some readers.

Too much shame and guilt to speak out at the time.

The words of Hanz Freller, 47, to the inquiry into Abuse in Care and its investigation into the religious brothers of the Order of St John of God.

The Royal Commission is investigating historical abuse at the Marylands residential school in Christchurch, and the Hebron Trust, a home for at-risk youth, both run by the Order.

Freller was a resident at the Hebron Trust’s Pampuri home in Christchurch in the early 1990s from the age of 15.

It was overseen by the now notorious Brother Bernard McGrath.

Freller said McGrath befriended him, gave him privileges the other boys did not have and generally kept a close eye on him.

McGrath took a keen interest in him, often standing in the doorway of…

Repeated claims that the St John of God order was “deeply shameful” of the abuse that occurred over decades at Marylands School in Christchurch have been labelled as hollow words by the survivors of the abuse.

In his closing statement before the royal commission of inquiry on Thursday, Dr Christopher Longhurst from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) slammed claims by leaders of the Catholic Church that it welcomed the inquiry.

He pointed out that church leaders initially opposed that faith-based institutions be included in the inquiry.

“Simply stating that the church is shameful in 2022 after it was forced to become the subject of a royal commission, is entirely insufficient,” Longhurst said.

“Where was their shame decades ago when child victims and their parents first reported the abuse? Where was their shame when disgraced brothers were shipped overseas instead of facing justice? Where was their shame when some of their…

The treatment of boys with learning disabilities by a Catholic religious order over a nearly 30-year period comes under the spotlight of the Abuse in Care inquiry starting today.

Between 1955 and 1984, 537 boys attended Marylands School in Christchurch.

The residential school was run by the St John of God Order.

The inquiry will also focus on St Joseph’s Orphanage and the HebronTrust, which both had close connections to the order.

It is not exactly known how many boys were abused while in the care of St John of God, but two staff members, Brother Rodger Moloney and Brother Bernard McGrath were both convicted for sexually abusing boys at Marylands School.

The Royal Commission will look at the nature and extent of other allegations of abuse and the roles and possible failures of the Catholic Church and the State.

An advocate for survivors of Marylands, Ken Clearwater believes it…

A New Zealand inquiry on Wednesday heard harrowing accounts from people who were abused as children while they were under the care of the Catholic Church, one of whom said he was shown a corpse in a hospital morgue by a priest to keep him quiet.

The livestreamed hearings are part of a wider Royal Commission of Inquiry that is looking into abuse in state care and faith-based institutions that is under way in the Pacific island nation.

An interim report on the inquiry released in Dec 2020 revealed that up to a quarter of a million children and young and vulnerable adults were physically and sexually abused in New Zealand’s faith-based and state care institutions from the 1960s to the early 2000s.

Wednesday marked the first of a seven-day hearing into abuse in the care of the Catholic Church, which has been rocked by decades of 

Notes:

• Witness information and schedule: Information about survivors and other witnesses giving evidence at the hearing and a schedule can be found below this media release.
• COVID-19 hearing protocol: The health and safety of survivors, witnesses and the public are our utmost priority. Members of the public cannot attend the hearing in the current red traffic light setting, under the COVID-19 Protection Framework. The hearing will be livestreamed daily. We encourage the public to watch the livestream from 9 February, which can be found on the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry website.

Survivors abused while in Catholic Church care, many who were disabled children and at-risk young people, will give evidence at an upcoming Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry public hearing.

The six and a half-day hearing begins on Wednesday 9 February in Tāmaki Makaurau.

The hearing will focus on abuse by religious brothers of the Hospitaller Order of St John…

The complaints, going back seven decades, attest to the pervasiveness of sexual and other abuse within the Catholic Church and are part of a worldwide reckoning.

Reports of abuse were filed against hundreds of clergy members and others in the Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand dating back to the 1950s, according to figures released this week to a royal commission, which for the first time capture the pervasiveness of abuse accusations in the church there.

Between 1950 and 2021, there were 1,680 allegations of abuse reported against diocesan clergy and members of Catholic religious orders or associations, according to data from Te Ropu Tautoko, a group coordinating between the commission — the highest form of investigation in New Zealand — and the Catholic Church.

The “sobering data” uncovered the scale of abuse within the Catholic Church, Katherine Anderson, a lawyer assisting the commission, said…

Just two years after his ordination in 2017, the Rev. Robert McWilliams was charged with a cascade of sexual assault and child pornography charges. He was sentenced to life imprisonment a few weeks ago, on Nov. 9, in a federal criminal court in Cleveland.

The McWilliams case came as an unhappy shock to Catholics in the Diocese of Cleveland and all over the United States who might have hoped that years of procedural changes and an enhanced screening process for seminarians would have put an end to the ordination of priests like Father McWilliams. The most recent report card from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection, released the same day as Father McWilliams’s sentencing, offered some reason for optimism. Although 4,228 allegations of sexual abuse by clergy surfaced between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, only 22 came from individuals who are now minors; the…

Rev. Timothy Keppel ended up living next to two Chicago-area schools, records show. His Resurrectionist order didn’t tell either about the accusations he faced. The order also has had other credibly accused clerics living in Chicago.

The Rev. Timothy Keppel was overseeing two parishes near San Bernardino, Calif., when a man told the diocese there that, while in his teens, he’d been repeatedly sexually abused by the priest.

The abuse happened decades earlier, he said. And Keppel was never charged with a crime.

But the Resurrectionist religious order of Catholic priests, brothers and deacons that Keppel belongs to determined the accusations were credible.

So it barred him for life from public ministry. And it later included him in its online posting of members found to have been credibly accused of child sex offenses.

Yet Keppel — who was moved to the order’s Chicago region, its…

Robert McWilliams, who was ordained by the Diocese of Cleveland in 2017, was convicted in July of sex crimes he committed involving children, beginning in the year he was ordained.

When Father Robert McWilliams was charged with sex and pornography crimes involving children just two years after his ordination, few were more stunned than those who had screened and formed him for priesthood.

This was a priest chosen and educated in the wake of the Church’s clergy sex-abuse scandal, someone who had undergone an intensive, detailed vetting process and seminary training steeped in teaching about sexual ethics and appropriate boundaries. 

Although a sense of betrayal and shock always follows such allegations, in McWilliams’ case it was intensified by the fact that he had been ordained just two years before his arrest in December 2019. From the rector of his seminary and psychologists who evaluated him to his peers, those who…

A 69-year-old plaintiff shouldn’t be kept waiting.

After hearing that plea from an attorney, a Springfield judge ruled last week that the former Chicopee altar boy raped by a once-celebrated bishop deserves to have his civil lawsuit heard with as little delay as possible.

Until the decision came Wednesday from Judge Karen L. Goodwin, the plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, expected to have to wait for a year or more as defendants pursued an appeal of an earlier ruling.

Goodwin scribbled the word “Allowed” on a court document submitted by the plaintiff’s attorney, Nancy Frankel Pelletier, and set a status conference for 3:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in Hampden Superior Court, at which lawyers will discuss the trial’s timing.

Her decision is another setback to lawyers for the Springfield Diocese, who claimed in court filings that their clients, including the diocese itself, could not be sued…

It began on the afternoon of her first Communion, the day Sheri A. Biasin, a reedy child of 7 or 8, dressed in the shiny white dress her grandmother made.

That was the day one of the most trusted people in Biasin’s life, the family’s priest, the Rev. Daniel L. Gill, followed her into a bathroom at her house in West Stockbridge, declared she was “the chosen one,” and put his tongue in her mouth.

Over the next four years, until she was able, at age 12, to fend him off, Biasin says, Gill groped and fondled her sexually at family picnics, sleepovers and beach outings in Pittsfield, West Stockbridge, Sandisfield and in the Franklin County town of Ashfield. Biasin says she grew up feeling different, alone, unlovable, dirty. She cried into her pillow and worried about the next weekend outing with the handsy priest so adored by her parents.

…

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — The Diocese of Fresno has finished a lengthy investigation reviewing claims of sexual assault involving clergy members within the Diocese.

The investigation began in May of 2019, reviewing more than 2,800 files to identify any priest, deacon, or other member of the church facing allegations of sexual abuse involving a minor within the Diocese.

The files listed accusations that went back as early as the 1900s to the present.

Diocese officials looked into the allegations and determined credible allegations against 37 priests, deacons, or members of a religious order of which 24 are incardinated priests for the Diocese of Fresno, 7 extern priests, and 6 members from a religious order

A separate list of 29 clerics and members of religious orders are also named who have no allegations of sexual abuse of a minor while serving in the Diocese of Fresno, but were determined to have allegations against them…

[With a video report.]

The new account of a state trooper bolsters a meticulous new report on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s misdeeds — and how his inner circle allowed such conduct to fester.

The governor placed his finger on the back of the trooper’s neck, standing behind her in an elevator at his Manhattan office, tracing the path of her spine with a two-word narration: “Hey, you.”

Sometimes, he asked questions — Why didn’t she wear a dress? Why pursue marriage when “your sex drive goes down” afterward? Could he kiss her? — and sometimes, he made statements: He remarked that his ideal girlfriend could “handle pain.” He said that the trooper, in her late 20s, was “too old” for him. He directed her to say nothing of their conversations.

The trooper was perhaps most unsettled after an event on Long Island in 2019. As she held a door open…

While the First Amendment protects “the free exercise” of religion, that does not shield the Springfield Diocese from claims that it tried to conceal sexual abuse by a late bishop, a Hampden Superior Court judge ruled this month.

As a result, a civil lawsuit filed in February ordinarily would proceed against the diocese and eight individual defendants, including the local church’s longtime lawyer and its former bishop, the Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski.

But, the defendants say they plan to appeal the rejection of their motions to dismiss to the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

In her 13-page decision, Judge Karen L. Goodwin said the defense had misapplied case law in arguing that the complaint should be dismissed because civil courts lack jurisdiction over “doctrine, canon law, polity, discipline and ministerial relationships.”

In the suit, an unnamed Chicopee man says he repeatedly was raped by former Bishop Christopher J. Weldon…

By most accounts, Fran O’Connell seemed to have the world at his feet as a teen in the 1970s. But on one evening, he found himself holding his father’s gun to his temple.

At 14 years old, O’Connell was a brute of a boy. He stood over 6 feet tall and was a dominant athlete at Holyoke Catholic High School. He came from a large, Irish-Catholic family. A natural leader, he was the kid who organized neighborhood kickball and pick-up games. He turned his fair share of heads among his female classmates. His dad was among the Holyoke Police Department brass, serving as chief for a time.

These factors combined offered O’Connell a solid pedigree in a working-class city that valued family and faith — and applauded his thunder on the basketball court and football field.

But on that night, he took his father’s revolver down…

The Catholic church in western Massachusetts has announced that it will release an expanded list of those credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor while serving the church.

In a letter to parishioners, Bishop William Byrne said the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield — comprising 79 parishes and seven missions across Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties — is expanding its criteria for disclosure of accusations. The diocese will release its updated list in early June, and Byrne said it will include a “considerable addition” by including those who were dead when an allegation surfaced, were members of a religious order or were lay employees of the diocese.

“As a Church, both locally and universally, too many times in the past we have failed to protect the innocence and dignity of minors from those who committed these heinous crimes,” Byrne wrote. “We can never erase the harm done, however, acknowledging…

“Today’s news that Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni was prepared to charge Richard Lavigne in the murder of Danny Croteau in 1972 brings sad closure to a tragic event which I know has hung over our faith community for decades. I was angered and sickened to hear Lavigne’s unapologetic admissions in the heinous murder of this innocent child.

It is incredibly disheartening to learn that a priest, a person ordained to care for God’s people, would have committed such an evil crime and then not taken responsibility for his actions. This is all totally contrary to the teachings that we as Catholics believe in and hold sacred.

It is also another reminder of our past failures as a Church and a diocese to protect children and young adults from such terrible predators in our midst. Although we have made great strides in improving our child protection efforts, that is little…

[Via National Catholic Reporter]

Fifteen seminaries have committed to meeting five sexual misconduct policy benchmarks developed by a group of laypeople, seminary leaders and bishops.

Developed by a seminary study group assembled by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, the voluntary benchmarks are meant to bolster the sexual misconduct policies seminaries already have in place, said John Cavadini, institute director.

“We worked really hard to come up with benchmarks so that if you adopted all of them into your policy, you would have a policy that is credible to potential victims,” Cavadini told Catholic News Service.

Specifically, the benchmarks are:

• Systematic training for seminarians, staff and faculty on policies on sexual harassment and reporting procedures.
• Reporting and investigation to include internal procedures and the ability to report issues to an agency outside of the seminary structure and that is independent of the seminary.
• Victim support as the process…

[With comments section]

The ongoing sexual abuse crisis in the Church has left many good Catholics shaken, and like many I have tried to understand how this has happened. Obviously, homosexuality in the clergy plays a role, and the all-male nature of the priesthood provides opportunities for such abuse. But here I want to explore the larger historical forces that allowed abuse to flourish in the Church, which at least for me makes it somewhat more explicable in human terms, the supernatural nature of evil notwithstanding. 

Perhaps the most insightful explanation I have encountered comes from the Canadian philosopher John Lamont, whose article “Tyranny and Sexual Abuse in the Church: a Jesuit Tragedy,” identifies a warped idea of obedience which has influenced priestly formation since the 16th century. According to Lamont, a voluntarist conception of obedience, which made the will of a superior the necessary criteria for obedience,…

The pastor at Christ the King parish in Beverly has been reinstated after officials found an allegation that he sexually assaulted someone 37 years ago could not be substantiated, Cardinal Blase Cupich said Friday in a letter to the community.

The Rev. Larry Sullivan was asked to step aside from the parish at 9325 S. Hamilton Ave. in April after an accusation that he and another person attacked a woman in an alley in 1984 before he was to leave for the seminary, when he was 18 years old, according to the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“A thorough review of this matter by the Archdiocesan Office of Child Abuse Investigations and Review and an outside investigator, including multiple unsuccessful attempts to obtain information from the accuser, concludes that the accusation against him, which was alleged to have occurred prior to his entering the seminary, cannot be substantiated,” Cupich wrote.

RELATED

…

Despite public pressure, some orders still resist telling the full truth about sexual abuse allegations, as the Sun-Times’ Robert Herguth has reported.

A clerical sex abuse scandal has rocked the Catholic Church for decades now, and to our way of thinking, full disclosure is the only way for the church to put the scandal completely to rest.

Every independent religious order must follow the lead of the rest of the Church and come clean about abusive priests in their ranks.

A number of those independent orders — among them the Jesuits and Carmelites — have made the only correct moral and ethical choice. They now publicly disclose the names of clergy who have been credibly accused of abusing minors. But other independent orders have stubbornly resisted full disclosure of the details regarding abusive clergy, as the Sun-Times’ Robert Herguth has reported in a recent investigative series.