ABUSE TRACKER

The legislature has yet to pass Erin’s Law, mandating child abuse prevention education, and other laws advocates say could strengthen protections for children.

Tess Sanford Ramirez and Kim Bergman share an experience they wish they didn’t. Their gymnastics and tumbling coach sexually abused them both — 10 years apart. 

But there’s a key difference between their stories, Bergman said. 

When Bergman told a friend and an adult about the abuse, they didn’t report it. Years later, when the same thing happened to Sanford Ramirez, she also told a friend. But this friend immediately pushed her to disclose the abuse to her father, leading to the coach’s conviction. 

Bergman said it shouldn’t be kids’ responsibility to prevent abuse, but it can make a real difference when children are educated on how to recognize abuse and what to do if it happens to them or to a friend. 

“One thing that I…

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David Sabatini, once a prominent scientist at M.I.T., sued a former colleague who accused him of inappropriate behavior. A jury found in his favor.

A prominent Massachusetts Institute of Technology biology professor forced out of his job over sexual harassment allegations won a defamation case against his accuser on Friday, along with a $6 million award.

The biologist, David Sabatini, was among the most prominent scientists in his field, and ran a research lab at the Whitehead Institute, in Cambridge, for 24 years. His lab studied cellular biology to better understand neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, diabetes, and aging.

He was forced out of his lab in 2021 after an internal Whitehead investigation concluded he had a past sexual relationship with a younger and less experienced colleague, Kristin Knouse, over whom he had a career-influencing role. The investigation also found that his lab had maintained a sexualized atmosphere. Dr. Knouse said that…

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A bombshell report released in March by Attorney General Peter Neronha named 75 Diocese of Providence clergy members as being “credibly accused” of sexual assault against children.

Since then, the Rhode Island General Assembly has opened a “revival window” for alleged victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits against perpetrators and institutions that were previously barred by the statute of limitations.

In a torrent of civil lawsuit filings since the opening of the revival window, new names not previously on the “credibly accused” list have surfaced, including 21 priests and one clergy member teacher.

Below are their names, their assignment histories and a summary of the accusations against them from lawsuit complaints.

Of the 22 clergy members, 21 have been confirmed to be deceased, while the status of one Bishop Hendricken High School teacher, accused of abuse in 1966, is unknown,…

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[Note: The text below is an excerpt. Please see the full text of this significant complaint, which includes photographs and documents.]

1. This action is brought against the Archdiocese of Chicago on behalf of one of the likely hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse committed by priests assigned to the Holy Angels Parish (“Holy Angels,” the “Parish”) between 1969 and 2002, particularly Father George Clements (“Fr. George Clements,” “Fr. Clements,” “George Clements,” or “Clements”), Father Paul Smith (“Fr. Paul Smith,” “Fr. Smith,” “Paul Smith,” or “Smith”), Father John Calicott (“Fr. John Calicott,” “Fr. Calicott,” “John Calicott,” or “Calicott”), and Father Kenneth Brigham (“Fr. Kenneth Brigham,” “Fr. Brigham,” “Kenneth Brigham,” or “Brigham”).

2. In spite of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s efforts to conceal it, substantial evidence overwhelmingly proves that one of the most famous and controversial priests in its history, George Clements, was the spearhead of a decades-long surge…

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Pope Leo’s health is expected to impact his upcoming trip to South America

As Pope Leo XIV convalesces from a significant pulmonary surgery, a planned papal trip to South America is expected to take place on schedule. But with Catholics concerned for the pope’s health, bishops and authorities in countries which the pope intends to visit have indicated that the trip’s agenda could see modifications in the weeks to come.

Pope Leo underwent surgery Oct. 13 to remove a cancerous nodule from his right lung, with the entire lower lobe of the lung removed by a laparoscopic procedure.

The pope’s medical team has said the surgery was successful and that the pope’s recovery has developed normally. But the trip to Argentina, Peru, and Uruguay is scheduled to start in less than three weeks, leaving a tight time frame for Leo to recover before heading abroad.

The trip’s agenda would be…

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Matteo Bruni states that the Pope maintains his “intention” and “desire” to travel in November to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru

Pope Leo XIV maintains his intention to travel in November to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, despite the operation in which the lower lobe of his right lung was removed after an adenocarcinoma was confirmed. This was indicated on Wednesday, October 14, by the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni.

“We have heard the Pope’s words about the trip, about his intention, his desire, and also the fact of going,” Bruni told journalists. Peruvian media that reported his words emphasize, however, that definitive confirmation will depend on the evolution of the Pontiff’s health and the tests in the coming days.

Lima postpones a preparatory meeting

According to ACI Prensa, the Archdiocese of Lima has postponed a meeting to prepare for the papal visit, although it assures that it…

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Bishops’ conferences across Latin America urged prayers for the health of Pope Leo XIV, whose visit to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru remains uncertain after he underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of his right lung.

The pope has been diagnosed with lung cancer, but was making a normal recovery, his physicians said Oct. 14, the day after surgery.

The Peruvian bishops’ conference — in which Pope Leo served as second vice president while he was bishop of Chiclayo — called for prayers, “entrusting his life and recovery with filial confidence to the merciful hands of the Lord of Miracles” — a venerated image of the crucified Christ known as the Cristo Moreno.

On Oct. 14, the Archdiocese of Lima postponed a session of preparations for the papal trip to the Peruvian capital and instead called for a day of prayer.

Bishops in Argentina and Uruguay also requested prayers for…

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A Catholic bishop has urged Church safeguarding officers to build a lasting culture of transparency and accountability, saying their mission must go beyond exposing abuse to preventing it.

Bishop Dennis Villarojo of Malolos said safeguarding officers must ensure that no part of the Church remains hidden from scrutiny, especially where children and vulnerable adults may be at risk.

“Our duty as safeguarding officers is not so much to uncover hidden rocks, but to allow the light to scatter the darkness,” Villarojo said in a homily Friday at Sta. Maria Goretti Parish Church in Manila.

Villarojo, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ Episcopal Office for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons, delivered the homily during the closing Mass of a four-day national safeguarding meeting.

He said safeguarding officers must initially uncover hidden problems, but their long-term mission is to sustain systems that prevent abuse and promote integrity…

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Key Points

• Recent court filings name 22 additional Catholic clergy members in Rhode Island accused of sexually abusing children.
• These new lawsuits were filed after a two-year “revival window” opened, allowing victims to file civil claims previously barred by statutes of limitations.
• The new allegations, spanning from 1958 to 1996, were not on the attorney general’s previously published list of 75 “credibly accused” clergy.

The number of Catholic priests and parochial school teachers accused of sexually molesting children in Rhode Island is longer than previously known.

While a bombshell report from earlier this year included 75 clergy “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children, recent court filings include accusations against 22 additional clergymen for sexually abusing children in Rhode Island.

The new lawsuits contain details from alleged cases that are as horrific…

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[See also the complaint in John Doe 61 v. Archdiocese of Chicago, alleging abuse by Father John Calicott.]

The Rev. George Clements helped propel the Black Catholic movement, created the “One Church, One Child” initiative urging adoption and, against church practice, adopted children himself.

Those headline-grabbing and sometimes polarizing moves served as cover for the late South Side pastor to orchestrate a “decades-long child sex ring” at his parish, according to a new series of lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“The charismatic local icon, civil rights leader, famed for his unprecedented adoption of four children, was an absolute imposter and probably the most prolific child molester in the history of the Archdiocese of Chicago,” said Sean O’Malley, a lawyer at Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge, which announced the suits on Tuesday.

Installed as pastor of the now-former Holy Angels Parish in 1969 after a blistering campaign by his supporters,…

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Pope Leo XIV resumed his regular diet, began walking and celebrated Mass in the hospital Wednesday as he recovered from surgery to remove a cancerous mass from his lung, the Vatican said. Questions remained about whether the cancer had spread, while Peru’s president suggested Leo might have to alter his planned visit to Latin America next month.

Blood tests and a chest X-ray showed the 71-year-old pope was recovering normally, his two doctors said.

“The Holy Father underwent respiratory physiotherapy and has begun walking in his room. He resumed his regular diet and had breakfast and lunch,” said Dr. Luigi Carbone, the pope’s personal doctor, and Dr. Stefano Margaritora, the head thoracic surgeon at Gemelli hospital. “Recovery is proceeding as planned.”

Tuesday’s surgery confirmed that Leo has lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. Surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung.

The right lung has three…

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We shouldn’t need more reports on sexual abuse to push for more protections against it.

The Roman Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council wrote that the church is “always in need of being purified.” After revelations from Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s new report on sexual abuse in the three Massachusetts dioceses, it is only clearer that the church must continue to reform.

The much-anticipated report from Campbell’s office found that 270 Catholic clergy in the Worcester, Fall River, and Springfield dioceses abused nearly 1,000 children over the past seven decades. The office reviewed 300,000 documents and conducted interviews with more than 100 people over the course of seven years.

The report did not cover the Boston archdiocese, the first to come under scrutiny due to the 2002 Globe Spotlight investigation, which…

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The public is invited to hear reflections from Albany Bishop Mark O’Connell, chair-elect of a key church committee for protecting children.

Three Catholic Upstate bishops will be in the room tonight (Thursday, Oct. 15) at the Spiritual Renewal Center in Syracuse when Bishop Mark O’Connell of Albany offers a public update on the work of a national Catholic panel. That committee is dedicated to protecting children and young people at a time when the church has been shaken by revelations of clergy sexual abuse.

The renewal center is part of the All Saints complex, at 1342 Lancaster Ave. The event came together through an invitation from Michael Koplinka-Loehr, a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest and a co-facilitator within the Syracuse Hope, Healing and Solidarity organization. It was formed as an offshoot of Call to Action at the St. Lucy’s and All Saints parishes, leading to a group…

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[See also the text of the MA AG’s report.]

A new report out of Massachusetts “provides for the first time a public accounting of the unimaginable harms afflicted on children,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell released a 203-page report on Sept. 30 showing more than 270 Catholic priests abused at least 1,000 children over several decades in the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester. 

The report focuses on how church leadership, including bishops, perpetuated this abuse by failing to report crimes to the police, obstructing investigations into these crimes and repeatedly reassigning perpetrators to new parishes, where they abused even more children. The report also details the ways current Catholic leadership continues to circumvent policies and procedures designed to protect children.

“For decades, survivors of clergy sexual abuse, including those who are no longer alive, have carried the devastating consequences of abuse, while…

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The Vermont Supreme Court upheld the school board’s firing of a high school principal.

The court said that after an internal investigation into complaints that former BUHS principal Steve Perrin “mistreated a female student on multiple occasions and attempted to prevent a mandatory report of child abuse,” the Windham Southeast School District Board terminated his employment. The Bennington Superior Court, Civil Division upheld the decision in November 2025 and Perrin appealed. 

In its Oct. 2 decision, the Vermont Supreme Court said it finds “no constitutional deficiency in either the termination or discovery process and conclude[s] that sufficient evidence supported the Board’s termination decision.”

Perrin was employed at BUHS from 2011 through Nov. 14, 2022. During an investigation into staff misconduct throughout the district, a former BUHS student came forward and Perrin was placed on administrative leave. The student is referred to as Jane Doe in court documents and has spoken…

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Perrin loses years-long appeal against the Windham Southeast School District regarding student sexual misconduct dating to 2012

The Vermont Supreme Court on Oct. 2 upheld the 2022 firing of former Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) Principal Steve Perrin.

The court rejected his arguments that the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) board denied him due process, was biased against him, and lacked the evidence to dismiss him.

The unanimous decision, written by Associate Justice Christina E. Nolan, affirms a November 2025 ruling by Judge David A. Barra in the Bennington civil division. That ruling granted summary judgment to the district, the board, and individual board members.

The Commons was the first to report the allegations against Perrin and has interviewed the former student at the center of the case, who has spoken to the newspaper on the condition that she not be named. She has been named in court documents, and…

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An executive of the Catholic Foundation of Ohio was arrested on October 1, for child sex crimes and now charged with multiple felonies.

Scott Hartman, 49, was indicted Tuesday on of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, pandering obscenity involving a minor, harmful to juvenile, tampering with evidence, and misdemeanor of grooming.

According to Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation began in April after the victim, a teenaged girl, reported the allegations to a school counselor. Investigators said the conversations between Hartman and the victim over six months included videos calls and texts involving video sex acts and exchange of videos and nude images.

The Catholic Foundations is a charity organization located in Downtown, Columbus that helps schools, Catholic parishes, and ministries across the Diocese of Columbus. Hartman joined the organization in 2002 and served as the chief development officer and the senior vice president.

The Catholic Diocese confirmed Hartman,…

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Roman Catholics across South America responded to news of Pope Leo XIV’s lung cancer diagnosis with an outpouring of prayers and support, along with concerns about whether the first American pope would go ahead with his highly anticipated and physically demanding visit to the region next month.

Across the three countries on his itinerary — secular Uruguay, predominantly Catholic Argentina and Leo’s adopted homeland of Peru — government officials wished the pontiff a swift recovery, church leaders urged patience and worshippers gathered to pray.

The Vatican said Wednesday that Leo was recuperating as expected after surgery and that the trip remained on his schedule. But Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori sounded a more cautious note, telling reporters that his recovery could take “several weeks, longer than expected,” potentially forcing changes to the Nov. 6-17 itinerary.

The trip would follow an ambitious itinerary

The 12-day South American tour would be the longest…

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Seven lawsuits filed Tuesday allege the Archdiocese of Chicago knew about sexual abuse at the former Holy Angels Parish in Bronzeville.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is facing new allegations over its treatment of Black Catholic children who were sexually abused by priests at a former South Side parish.

Seven lawsuits filed Tuesday allege the Archdiocese knew about sexual abuse at the former Holy Angels Parish in Bronzeville.

“Holy Angels was not a sanctuary for children, it was a sanctuary for sexual predators protected by the Chicago Archdiocese,” attorney Steven Hart, representing the victims, said at a Loop news conference.

Attorneys at Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge allege more than 100 Black children, some as young as 5, were sexually abused by priests at the former parish and school over several decades. On Tuesday, the attorneys filed lawsuits on behalf of seven alleged victims, with plans to file dozens more.

Hart said…

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“Some of these children were as young as 5 years old. Five-year-old children being sexually abused,” said attorney Steven Hart. “Holy Angels was not a sanctuary for children. It was a sanctuary for predators.”

Several adults who said they were abused by Catholic priests decades ago when they were children filed lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Chicago for allegedly failing to protect them.

Attorneys with Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge filed seven civil lawsuits on Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court against the archdiocese, but said dozens more clients will be filing lawsuits in the coming days.

All of the accusers and the accused have ties to the former Bronzeville church, known as Holy Angels, between 1969 and 2002. The Archdiocese of Chicago said in a statement it does not comment on lawsuits.

“Some of these children were as young as 5 years old. Five-year-old children being sexually abused,” said attorney…

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Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester appears to have slept through the last quarter-century.

I have an embarrassing confession: I kind of, sort of, miss Tom Tobin.

He made good copy.

You may remember Tobin. He was the Roman Catholic bishop in Providence whose idea of being a pastoral leader was to ignore survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

He liked to withhold communion from lawmakers who supported abortion rights while handing out the Eucharist to those who support the death penalty like they were Nilla Wafers.

In fairness, he had an affliction. It’s called tone deafness.

After two decades of exposes about priests raping children, including some extraordinary reporting by the Globe Spotlight Team, showing that bishops like Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston protected and enabled abusive priests, Tobin took to Twitter in 2019 to remind his followers they shouldn’t attend gay Pride events, lest they…

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Decoy who posed as a 14-year-old when engaging with Gallagher speaks to
The Irish News

A predator priest renewed his ordination vows on the morning of Holy
Thursday last year, hours before he was arrested and charged with child sex
offences.

Fr Edward Gallagher also used the same mobile number given out to
parishioners to engage in the sexual abuse of more than 60 children.

The charges relate to dates between June 2023 and April 2025 and include 43
counts of attempted sexual communication with a child under 16, 43 charges
of indecent images of children, 13 counts of possession of indecent images of a
child, two counts of possessing images of a child and possessing an extreme
pornographic image.

There were also five counts of trying to encourage a child to engage in sexual
activity, attempted sexual communication with a child under 16 and
disturbing indecent images. He is due to be sentenced on December 9.

The diocese has said steps…

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A federal judge has rejected the Oakland Diocese’s bankruptcy relief plan that would have resolved nearly 330 sexual abuse claims. The judge’s Oct. 2 decision comes three years after the Oakland Diocese filed for bankruptcy due to declining participation and an ongoing financial crisis linked to sexual abuse cases dating between 1960 and 1990.

Judge William J. Lafferty dismissed many of the diocese’s arguments in its bid to settle through bankruptcy, including wanting special considerations given its status as a religious institution, the diocese’s valuation of its many real estate assets, and the total amount owed to survivors. According to the diocese’s bankruptcy plan, submitted two years ago, the church owes between $160 million and $198 million.

As part of the Chapter 11 case, the diocese is to sell 13 churches in the East Bay, 7 of them in Oakland.

“The Court stresses, again, that the insufficiencies of this Plan…

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Upon concluding two separate investigations into whether educators failed to report suspected child abuse as required by law Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams urged school district employees to “act with a child protective mentality.”

Adams announced Friday that former Manheim Central High School social studies teacher and assistant football coach Jared Shearer, 35, was charged with failing to properly report alleged student hazing when notified in April.

But in a case involving the Manheim Township School District, Adams said while the district failed to report an April 2024 incident involving a high school lacrosse player who allegedly exposed himself to a teammate while another teammate held him down, the district was following the advice of its solicitor at the time.

“The district’s reasonable reliance on their attorney’s advice would negate the mental state required under the law for failure to report”…

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An Irish priest pleads guilty to minor sex abuse, Glasgow shutters 24 churches and half its parishes, the UAE gets a new Vatican ambassador, and more in this week’s Catholic world news roundup.

A priest from the Diocese of Derry in Ireland has admitted to 109 child sex offense charges from June 22, 2023, to April 18, 2025.

Bishop Michael Router said he would ask the Vatican to dismiss Father Edward Gallagher from the clerical state after he admitted to the charges, which include possession of child pornography, attempted solicitation of sexual activity from a child, and attempted sexual communication with a minor, the BBC reported Oct. 5. Gallagher awaits sentencing on Dec. 9.

“I have already instructed that the documentation required by the Holy See be finalized and transmitted without delay,” Bishop Router said in a statement on Oct. 5, according to a BelfastLive report.

“The Church…

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An investigation by Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, initiated in 2019, documents child sexual abuse in the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester since the 1950s

Massachusetts was the place where the biggest crisis of abuse in the Catholic Church in the United States erupted. In 2002, an investigation by The Boston Globe uncovered how the Archdiocese of Boston had covered up pedophile priests for decades. That same year, in direct response to the crisis, the state passed a law that made it a crime to recklessly endanger minors.

More than twenty years later, attention is focused on three other dioceses in the state: Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester. The Attorney General’s Office began investigating them in 2019, and since then, it has reviewed more than 300,000 pages of documents and interviewed more than a hundred people, including survivors, lawyers, clergy members, and diocesan officials and employees. The result…

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The Worcester diocese can now proceed with a canonical trial to have Father Alan J. Martineau, ordained a priest in 2018, permanently removed from the clerical state following “a determination of sexual abuse,” Raymond L. Delisle, chancellor and director of communications ministry, said in a statement Wednesday. The Vatican directs that the criminal trial be concluded first, he explained.
He said his statement was in response to a story that appeared Wednesday in The Boston Globe.
The Globe said that Father Martineau was initially charged with indecent assault and battery on a person aged 14 or older and he pleaded not guilty. In September 2025, he accepted a plea deal, agreeing that there were enough facts to convict him of assault and battery, but was not pleading guilty to that. The case was then dismissed.  
“The court gave him a year of probation and ordered him not to contact the victim, but then…

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See images of this article [1, 2] as it appeared in the hardcopy Boston Globe on 10/13/2026.

WORCESTER — A longtime organization that has fought against and brought awareness to sexual abuse by priests is calling on the Catholic church to use a recently created mechanism to investigate the Worcester diocese’s handling of a recently unearthed case.

This case, reported on last week by The Boston Globe based on sealed court documents, is a sign to Terence McKiernan of the Waltham-based Bishop Accountability that not enough has changed in the two-plus decades since a Globe Spotlight series brought about a massive reckoning for the church’s handling of abuse by priests.

The most recent Globe story referred to the Worcester diocese’s plan in 2021 to transfer a priest to another church after a teenager first raised complaints of inappropriate behavior involving…

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October the 13th, 2026 – A minor said she was physically abused by a Croatian priest in 2021, yet Bozanić allegedly failed to ever report him.

Index has reported that the Zagreb Archdiocese reported a priest accused of abusing a minor to the police allegedly only five years after receiving the complaint. This occurred only after Dnevnik.hr sent an inquiry about the case. A minor female person accused the priest of abuse back in 2021. The Archdiocese submitted the report to the Zagreb police only on the 9th of October this year, two days after Dnevnik.hr sent them an inquiry about the entire case. They have refused to answer any further questions about the case.

Zagreb police confirmed their receipt of the report. “The police received a report from a church legal entity, following which it has begun a criminal investigation,” they stated in their response. They…

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A survivor of shocking clerical abuse has been awarded more than $2.2 million by a County Court jury, despite a series of contentious claims by the Marist Brothers’ legal team that he lied about his mental health and had the “credibility of a $3 note”.

Greg Barclay was repeatedly accused of fabricating and exaggerating evidence during the civil trial, including a claim he faked details about two suicide attempts after he was sexually abused by brother John Anthony Skehan at the former St Colman’s College in Shepparton in 1970.

During a 12-day trial last month, barrister Jack Pappas, acting for the Trustees of the Marist Brothers, branded Barclay a “money-grubber” who was motivated by greed, while dismissing some of his testimony as “balderdash, piffle and rot”.

“I suggest to you [there] was a performance by Mr Barclay on the morning of the second day of his evidence, unabashed display of…

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Yes, they do, and here’s why.

On Friday the news broke of (yet another) pastor arrested for multiple charges of sexual abuse. Specifically, the pastor of Pleasant View Baptist Church of Waynesburg, Kentucky was charged with sexual abuse, sodomy, and incest.

I have made a decision to share some thoughts about these horrendous sexual abuse cases in churches, because I am in a fairly unique place to comment on what I see happening in places like Pleasant View Baptist.

I want to make it clear that I do not know the man involved or his family, and I have not attended this church since the very early 1990s. Furthermore, I have not identified as a Baptist since 1994. My comments are more general in nature and do not presume any knowledge of this specific situation beyond what has been reported by local media.

::

I spent a few of my…

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Five women have accused Jerry Finchum, the 51-year-old senior pastor of Lee’s Summit Baptist Temple in Missouri, of sexually abusing them as teenagers or young adults, according to an investigation by The Roys Report. The allegations put the church’s response in focus: the outlet reported that a concern was brought to church leadership in 2018, but the congregation elected Finchum senior pastor five years later and he remains in the pulpit. The women described unwanted touching and attempts to pressure them into sexual conduct, the outlet reported.

The accusations, detailed in a report from The Roys Report, describe a pattern stretching back nearly two decades. One woman told police Finchum attempted to have sex with her multiple times when she was 22 years old and living in the Finchum home. Another said their sexual relationship, which she said he convinced her to…

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When Pope Leo XIV met seven survivors of abuse by French clergy in Lourdes, the most important moment of his visit happened away from the crowds and ceremonies. During a private meeting that lasted nearly two hours, he listened to their stories, thanked them for sharing their “painful testimony” and reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring such abuse never happens again.

That matters. Survivors who were doubted, silenced, or urged to forgive quickly deserve to be heard without defensiveness. But listening is only the beginning. The value of the meeting will not be measured by the pope’s words in Lourdes. It will be measured by what the Church does afterward.

A compassionate encounter can open the door to repair. It cannot, by itself, constitute repair.

Why France, and why now

Pope Leo’s four-day visit came as France continues to reckon with a devastating history. In 2021, the Independent Commission on Sexual…

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Bishop planned to move accused to another par­ish before charges

In 2021, a young parish­ioner in the rural middle of the state told a vis­it­ing priest that the Rev. Alan J. Mar­tineau had cul­tiv­ated a spe­cial rela­tion­ship with her and then inap­pro­pri­ately touched her. Begin­ning in 2019, the girl said, Mar­tineau repeatedly hugged, kissed, and touched her. Mar­tineau also exchanged tens of thou­sands of text mes­sages with the girl, invest­ig­at­ors later found.

Noti­fied mul­tiple times, the bishop of the dio­cese, Robert Joseph McManus of Worcester, sought to do what church lead­ers before him had done so often: trans­fer Mar­tineau to another par­ish where he would receive the “tutel­age” of an older priest.

But before that trans­fer occurred, a social worker with the dio­cese decided the alleg­a­tions had become so ser­i­ous that they must be repor­ted to the state, so she called the Depart­ment of Chil­dren and Fam­il­ies.

Ulti­mately, instead of…

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Key Takeaways

• Massachusetts voters broadly support eliminating civil deadlines for childhood sexual abuse claims.
• The proposed reforms remain pending.
• A revival window is crucial for survivors whose claims have already expired.
• Survivors should seek an individual assessment rather than assume their age prevents a lawsuit.

The harm of child sexual abuse does not expire. A survivor’s opportunity to seek accountability should not depend on an arbitrary deadline.

A new Massachusetts poll shows broad support for removing those deadlines. As Boston 25 News reported on October 8, 84% of respondents support eliminating the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits.

Now lawmakers have an opportunity to act. Survivors and advocates are urging them to preserve reforms known as Amendment 110 in the final version of a major health care bill.

These changes are still pending. Massachusetts has not yet enacted the reforms discussed…

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A survivor of clergy abuse by a Buffalo Diocese priest has opposed the $362 million bankruptcy settlement. The victim, abused over 100 times, calls the agreement an insult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mjAXp6VVBM

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Australia’s highest-ranked bishop has spoken out from the Vatican, defending the Catholic Church’s handling of the former Bishop of Broome’s sexual abuse scandal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9To7pyjOD7A

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FOR this writer, the real heroes in the Philippines are the exploited and abused boys and girls who have endured horrific beatings and rapes by child sex abusers and found the courage to fight back and attain justice for themselves. Cases of child abuse, especially online child sexual abuse, are rising, according to data from the National Baseline Study on Violence Against Children in the Philippines. Eight out of 10 children — or 80 percent — face some form of violence or abuse during their lifetime.

Children from ages zero to 17 make up roughly 33.6 percent of the country’s population. In a total estimated population of more than 112 million, this translates to approximately 38 to 40 million underage children living in the Philippines. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) estimates that 17 percent of them experienced sexual abuse by parents, relatives and pedophiles. As many as 2 million…

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A 36-year-old pastor wanted in connection with the murder of a four-month-old baby and the alleged rape of her 43-year-old mother has been arrested in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg.

The infant’s body was found buried in a shallow grave near the Hennops River earlier this week.

The arrest brings to three the number of suspects in custody, including the pastor’s two wives.

Police say the suspect was arrested in a backroom in Diepsloot informal settlement this afternoon, following an intensive investigation involving detectives and crime Intelligence.

He was reportedly found with injuries.

The incident is alleged to have occurred when the mother went to the Hennops River near the R511 with the pastor and one of his wives for a ritual.

Police say the woman was allegedly raped and tied up but managed to escape and seek help at a nearby construction site.

The pastor’s 24-year-old…

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New court documents allege the head pastor at a Duncan Pentecostal church knew about his youth pastor’s inappropriate behavior with young girls years before he was arrested.

Thursday, 27-year-old Andrew Benton was booked into Stephens County Jail on two counts of child sex abuse charges.

He posted his bond and was released hours after he turned himself in.

Benton, according to officials, was the youth pastor at Grace Chapel Pentecostal Church and allegedly used his position to sexually abuse several underage girls. He was also the Youth President for the Assembly of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For one girl, the documents stated the abuse happened from the summer of 2025 to as early as February 2026.

For another girl, it is alleged that the abuse occurred from 2024 onward.

Benton is said to have utilized church events to end up sexually abusing several of the girls. He is also accused…

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A former Catholic priest was found guilty on Thursday of sexually abusing a student at a Catonsville Catholic school in the 1990s.  

William Mannion Jr. was accused of abusing the student, who was 10 years old when the offenses occurred, the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office confirmed to CBS News Baltimore. 

Mannion was found guilty of one count of child sex abuse and four counts of second-degree sex offense.   

A sentencing has been scheduled for Dec. 14.

A jury of eight men and four women deliberated for about an hour before breaking for lunch and later notified Judge Dennis Robinson Jr. that they had reached a verdict, our media partner, the Baltimore Banner, reported. Mannion — who had been on home detention since his arrest last year — was handcuffed and taken into custody. 

“You know I didn’t do this,” Mannion, 64, told his…

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A 49-year-old man is facing multiple felony charges after investigators say he used social media to pursue a sexual relationship with a teenage girl and then tried to hide the evidence.

Scott Hartman, a former Catholic Foundation executive, was indicted Thursday on three counts of pandering sexually oriented material of a minor, disseminating material harmful to a juvenile, tampering with evidence and grooming.

He will be arraigned in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Oct. 13.

Hartman was arrested last week by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force after investigators executed a search warrant at his home.

The investigation began in April after a teenage victim reported to school counselors that she had been involved in an online relationship with Hartman, according to the sheriff’s office.

Court documents say Hartman communicated with the girl through Instagram and TikTok from approximately November…

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Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus planned to move the Rev. Alan J. Martineau to another parish after a teenage parishioner accused the priest of inappropriate touching, according to court records The Boston Globe reported Wednesday, Oct. 7.

A diocesan social worker reported the allegations to the state Department of Children and Families before the transfer took effect. Nearly five months passed between the day McManus first heard the accusations and the day the diocese contacted authorities, the Globe found.

Martineau became the only priest prosecuted as a result of Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s investigation into the dioceses of Worcester, Fall River and Springfield. Campbell’s office released the findings Tuesday, Sept. 30. The report tied 90 accused clergy members to 216 survivors in the Worcester Diocese alone.

The Globe obtained the court records after a judge impounded them. A search for the case in the state’s…

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Jared Denney, a former leader at a McCracken County church, appeared Friday before Judge Jenny Hines in McCracken County District Court for arraignment, at which time a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.

Denney was arrested as a result of an investigation which began in late August, and alleges that Denney, 37, sent sexually explicit messages to a minor.  

Denney is currently charged with grooming, procuring or promoting use of a minor by electronic means and distribution of obscene materials to minors. He is set to appear back in court for a preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 15, according to the McCracken County District Court Clerk. 

While McCracken County Sheriff’s Office called Denney a former youth pastor/leader with the church in its original news release, Bellview Baptist Church said in a statement that Denney was a Sunday school teacher. It’s unclear if Denney’s position with the…

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A top Australian Catholic bishop has acknowledged the eight-year delay in bringing a fellow bishop to justice on charges he sexually abused young Indigenous men

A top Australian Catholic bishop has acknowledged the eight-year delay in bringing a fellow bishop to justice on charges he sexually abused young Indigenous men. But he defended the church’s decision to let police take the lead in the case as a necessary guarantee.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Bishops Conference, said Friday he hoped the church could soon reopen its own in-house legal procedures against former Broome Bishop Christopher Saunders now that he has been sentenced criminally.

“We still have to respect the integrity of the Australian justice system,” Costelloe told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a Vatican conference. “That’s been probably the fundamental reason why it’s stretched out as long as it has.”

Saunders, 76, was sentenced to…

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A youth pastor has been arrested after agents with the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation said he had sexual contact with children.

Officers with the Duncan Police Department asked OSBI to investigate possible child sexual abuse in March 2026. During the investigation, OSBI agents identified 27-year-old Andrew Benton as the suspect.

Benton was serving as the youth president at Assembly of our Lord Jesus Christ and a youth pastor at Grace Chapel Pentecostal Church.

OSBI shared its report of Benton with the Stephens County District Court on August 28, and an arrest warrant was issued on October 6.

Benton turned himself in to police on October 8. Bond was set at $100,000, and he was ordered to have no contact with any minors and to consume no intoxicants.

He faces two counts of child sexual abuse.

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As Cornell University grapples with a high-profile sexual assault case, Catholic leaders on campus said they are responding with “prayer, pastoral care, and renewed commitment to the formation of Catholic students,” along with an 11-page pastoral letter to guide the faithful on campus.

That response comes as the university has come under scrutiny following a Sept. 16 civil lawsuit filed by a former undergraduate student alleging she was gang raped at a campus fraternity house in 2024. 

Since the filing, concerns over previous handling of the case by university and local officials have led to campus protests, along with the appointment of New York State Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the matter as a special prosecutor.

“We are mindful that these issues are not solely matters of public debate. For some students, the recent news has brought back painful memories, including their own experiences of sexual violence, accusations, and…

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The registered sex offender was convicted of child sex crimes in Georgia

Members of Brookwood Church say they want answers about a registered sex offender’s alleged involvement with the church. Brookwood Church is based in Simpsonville and hosts thousands of members each week, in addition to hosting support groups for members of the community. The church is located off I-385.

The registered sex offender, identified as Jerry Sidell, does not face pending charges in South Carolina, and church leadership maintains safeguards were in place, but a member who came forward to FOX Carolina Investigates said the church did not do enough to be transparent with the congregation.

A casual conversation

David Walsh called Brookwood Church home for three years. He led different groups at the church and brought his children every Sunday.

“About three years ago, after a series they did called Breakthrough, that was the first time I attended,…

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Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Bishops, has spoken publicly about the consequences of the sexual assault allegations made against him in 2022, after a Canadian court declared them unfounded and convicted his accuser of defamation. The cardinal described the four years since the case began as a “nightmare” that affected his health, his reputation, and his moral authority.

In an interview given to Rome Reports, published on October 7, Ouellet referred to the ruling issued on August 31 by the Superior Court of Quebec, which ruled in the cardinal’s favor in the defamation lawsuit filed against pastoral agent Pamela Groleau.

“When I think about the whole matter, from beginning to end, it lasted four years. It has been like a nightmare, a very difficult and costly experience, because I had to hire lawyers to defend myself, and this affected my reputation, my moral authority, my…

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Decoy who posed as a 14-year-old when engaging with Gallagher speaks to The Irish News

A predator priest renewed his ordination vows on the morning of Holy Thursday last year, hours before he was arrested and charged with child sex offences.

Fr Edward Gallagher also used the same mobile number given out to parishioners to engage in the sexual abuse of more than 60 children.

Diocese of Derry cleric Gallagher (59), of Orchard Park in Lifford, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty to more than 100 offences at Derry Crown Court this week.

The charges relate to dates between June 2023 and April 2025 and include 43 counts of attempted sexual communication with a child under 16, 43 charges of indecent images of children, 13 counts of possession of indecent images of a child, two counts of possessing images of a child and possessing an extreme pornographic image.

…

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Christopher Saunders had spent 25 years forging a career in the Catholic Church, but simmering beneath his philanthropy was a shocking truth: the clergyman was living a sinful and sleazy double life.

Christopher Saunders was a sexual predator hiding in plain sight.

As bishop of the diocese of Broome, Saunders had forged a career teaching Catholicism and visiting remote Aboriginal communities in the State’s Kimberley for more than 25 years.

But simmering beneath a veneer of philanthropy was a shocking truth: the clergyman was living a sinful and sleazy double life, plying young Aboriginal men with booze in exchange for sexual advances.

News of the bishop’s arrest in 2024 shocked the coastal town of Broome, but for one woman it cemented long-running whispers that one of Australia’s most powerful members of the Catholic Church was a rapist.

THE SECRETARY

Cherrille Quilty hadn’t been looking for a new gig, but was…

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Albert Wiggan describes the jailing of disgraced bishop Christopher Saunders as like “cutting off the head of a snake”.

The Aboriginal community leader describes the Catholic cleric as an “evil predator” and is urging people to call out sex abusers. 

“They’ve exposed this bloke for who he is,” Mr Wiggan said.

“But the community has to become more vigilant about exposing this type of behaviour.”

Mr Wiggan says he knew Saunders since childhood, but had never experienced inappropriate behaviour.

But he feels deeply for those who did, describing a sense of betrayal that is still sinking in.

It is a call for action echoed by current Bishop of Broome Tim Norton, who concedes the Catholic Church has been too slow to act.

“As a church I hope we are learning in this very deep and difficult process,” Bishop Norton said.

“I sense we are but it’s a slow pace….

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An overwhelming majority of Massachusetts voters believe the clock shouldn’t run out for child sex abuse survivors suing their alleged abusers, according to a poll released Thursday.

Eighty-four percent of voters said that there should be no expiration date for survivors to sue alleged offenders in civil court, according to the poll, published by survivor advocacy group Enough Abuse and conducted by the MassINC Polling Group.

The findings were published as a primary health care bill, that includes an amendment removing the time restriction for such lawsuits, and is making its way through the state Legislature. Under current state law, the time limit, frequently called the statute of limitations, for childhood sexual abuse requires survivors to file a civil lawsuit within 35 years of the alleged abuse or within seven years of the victim becoming aware the alleged…

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Bishop sentenced to 6.5 years in prison – ABC listen

Rachel Mealey: A prison sentence handed down to Catholic Bishop Christopher Saunders for sexually abusing two young men has been met with relief but also fury. International advocates have slammed the Vatican’s handling of the case, saying it exposes dangerous flaws the church has repeatedly promised to fix. Erin Parke reports from Broome.

Christopher Saunders: Isn’t that a wonderful piece of theology?

Erin Parke: For almost 50 years, Christopher Saunders was a formidable presence in the remote Kimberley region.

Christopher Saunders: Believing in Jesus Christ and living a life according to Jesus Christ can set us free.

Erin Parke: As a priest and then bishop based in Broome since 1976, Saunders officiated the baptisms, marriages and funerals of generations of local families. His humour and love of a drink and a smoke endeared him to wealthy business owners in…

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A federal judge has rejected the Catholic Diocese of Oakland’s $180 million Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan, ruling that the church failed to prove its proposed compensation for 345 clergy sexual abuse survivors met federal requirements. The decision prevents the diocese from moving forward with its proposed reorganization as it seeks to resolve hundreds of abuse claims through bankruptcy.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William J. Lafferty III issued the 109-page decision on October 2, 2026, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. He found material errors in the diocese’s calculations of what creditors could receive if its assets were liquidated, a comparison required before a court can approve a Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 protection on May 8, 2023, amid hundreds of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy and other church personnel. The filing allowed it to continue operating while pursuing a court-supervised…

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Viewer discretion: This story includes depictions of sexual assault.

A child sexual abuse psychologist said she believes Gary Tom Keesee Jr.’s four alleged victims experienced “compelling, specific, and detailed” trauma from their alleged exposure to Keesee Jr.

“The disclosures were clinically significant and consistent,” said Carrie Schnirring, with Lighthouse Family Center, during her expert testimony Thursday.

Schnirring is an expert in psychological assessment and has conducted over 2,500 evaluations with children experiencing sexual trauma and testified in sex abuse trials more than 30 times after evaluating the victims.

MORE | Complete coverage of the case

This comes as victim and witness testimony continued Thursday in the trial against Keesee. He is facing 32 charges, including 13 counts of rape. Prosecutors allege he sexually assaulted four minor girls over the course of nine years.

Prosecutors say all four women were members of the…

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Gary Keesee Sr., co-founder and senior pastor of Faith Life Church in New Albany, Ohio, denied in court Monday that he knew his son, Gary Thomas “Tom” Keesee Jr., had allegedly sexually abused multiple minors when he was also a minor, prior to those allegations becoming public in 2025.

During testimony at his son’s trial at the Knox County Common Pleas Court in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Keesee Sr., who founded the church with his wife, Knox County Commissioner Drenda Keesee, told prosecutors that he wasn’t aware of anyone who was sexually abused in his church in the 31 years he has served as a pastor. He was the only witness called by the defense in the bench trial before Judge Richard Wetzel, which Keesee Jr. chose after waiving his right to a jury midway through jury selection, according to View Cache

A longtime former educator at a private school in Shelby County is back in jail after authorities arrested him for the second time on child pornography charges.

Michael Roy Bridges, the 70-year-old former performing arts director who had had also served during his career as an assistant principal at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School, was booked into the Shelby County Jail on Thursday.

Bridges was initially arrested in May 2025 on 13 counts of possession of child sex abuse material.

He was out on bond when sheriff’s deputies on Thursday arrested him with one count of dissemination of child sexual abuse material.

“At this time, investigators have no information that suggests the images were produced in or near Shelby County,” sheriff’s officials said in a statement.

Shelby County Circuit Judge Bill Bostick on Thursday revoked Bridge’s bond on the previous…

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A criminal complaint alleges that Seth Day sexually assaulted the couple’s daughter. The couple has been barred from seeing their children by an emergency protective order.

A criminal complaint reviewed by RNS revealed previously undisclosed details about sexual abuse allegations against Seth Day, husband of bestselling Adventist author and speaker Heather Thompson Day.

The Days were both arrested in late September and charged with injuring a child age 14 or younger. Seth Day was additionally charged with sexual assault. 

According to the complaint filed in Johnson County Court in Cleburne, Texas, the Days’ daughter, who is a minor, told an investigator that her father, a professor at Southwestern Adventist University, had sexual intercourse with her on her bed, which she described as “yucky.”

The arrests came after a schoolteacher reported concerns about abuse after seeing bruises and lacerations on the couple’s daughter. The daughter later told investigators that her father had…

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The Days, popular Christian authors, were arrested after a teacher reported concerns about abuse. The couple had been reported to Child Protective Services in the past. Police in Keene, Texas, charged the couple after speaking to their daughter.

More details have emerged regarding the arrests of Christian author and influencer Heather Thompson Day and her husband, Seth Day, a Christian college professor.

The two were arrested last week and charged with allegedly harming a child. Seth Day was also charged with alleged sexual abuse.

RELATED:  Heather Thompson Day and Seth Day, Christian authors, arrested for alleged abuse

The Keene Police Department in Keene, Texas, first became aware of the allegations against the Days on Sept. 24, when an officer was called to the Johnson County Children’s Advocacy Center, according to arrest affidavits in the case. There he met with the Days’ daughter, after a high school…

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New details have emerged regarding the arrest of bestselling Christian author Heather Thompson Day and her husband, Seth Day. The couple is facing child abuse charges, and Seth is accused of child sex abuse. 

Editor’s note: This article refers to disturbing reports of child sex abuse that some readers might find triggering.

Heather Thompson Day is a Christian speaker, podcaster, and the author of several books, including “What If I’m Wrong?: Navigating the Waves of Fear and Failure” and “It’s Not Your Turn: What To Do While You’re Waiting for Your Breakthrough.” Her work has been featured by Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Barna Group, and Newsweek.

Seth Day is an assistant professor of psychology at Southwestern Adventist University (SWAU). Following his arrest, he was placed on leave from the school.

The couple coauthored the book “I’ll See You Tomorrow: Building Relational Resilience When You Want To Quit.”

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A former pastor already facing multiple charges involving an alleged juvenile victim has been charged with additional sex crimes after another alleged victim came forward, according to the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office.

Scott C. Hughes, 54, of Somerset, was served Thursday with a new arrest warrant while being held at the Pulaski County Detention Center, where he has remained since his Oct. 1 arrest on a $75,000 bond.

Sheriff Bobby Jones said investigators filed the new charges after interviewing an adult male on Oct. 7 who reported he was allegedly sexually abused by Hughes beginning when he was about 10 years old.

The man told investigators the alleged abuse continued for several years and included incidents in Pulaski County.

Former pastor, Sunrise Children’s worker charged with child sexual sexual abuse

Based on those allegations, Hughes was charged with first-degree sodomy, second-degree sodomy involving a person in a position of…

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Key Takeaways

• Isaias Escobar, 22, was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child following an investigation by the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office.
• The alleged victim, a 16-year-old girl, reportedly attended a Grace Woodlands youth event with Escobar and his family before the alleged assault.
• The church said that Escobar entered a pastor training program in 2025 but said he was not an employee and did not hold an official position at the church. The alleged victim’s mother described him as a youth and worship leader.

Isaias Escobar, a 22-year-old Texas man enrolled in a training program through Grace Church in The Woodlands, Texas, has been arrested and charged with with sexual assault of a child following an alleged assault involving a 16-year-old girl.

San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office Announces Isaias Escobar’s Arrest

The San Jacinto…

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Legislation to remove the statute of limitations is currently in conference committee

A new poll shows widespread support among for eliminating the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse civil claims in Massachusetts.

The poll, conducted by MassInc, was released on Thursday, by the group Enough Abuse about an amendment, currently in conference committee, to eliminate the statute of limitations and the $20,000 charitable immunity cap for child sexual abuse civil cases.

It would also make the law retroactive, allowing survivors who are currently barred from suing to file claims for two years.

Massachusetts law currently bars child sexual abuse survivors age 53 or over from suing their abusers in civil court, as previously reported by 5 Investigates.

For those who can file claims, liability is capped at $20,000.

A new poll released Thursday by MassINC shows 84% of voters support the measure, and 67% said…

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A FORMER priest who abused a child at a church in Greenock has died in prison.

Vincent Cassidy, 85, died at HMP Low Moss on October 3.

In April this year, he was sentenced to nine years in prison after being convicted of two charges of indecent assault and one of lewd and libidinous practices.

The offences, which date back to the 1970s, related to two young males, one of whom was 16 at the time, and one who was aged between eight and 12.

Cassidy’s abuse of a child in Greenock involved a number of instances of sexual contact.

He preyed on his second victim at locations including a swimming pool, a beach, and a caravan.

His crimes were also committed at locations in Paisley and Lossiemouth.

The former priest was extradited from Australia to face the charges and was previously…

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Nancy Lescarbeau, 52, facing 8 charges for alleged crimes in 2021, 2022

WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​sexual violence or know someone affected by it.

Ottawa police have charged Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) teacher Nancy Lescarbeau with sexually assaulting a student earlier this decade, among other alleged crimes.

Police said Wednesday morning the eight charges against Lescarbeau, 52, date back to 2021 and 2022.

They include sexual assault, forcible confinement, intimidation by threats of violence, assault with a weapon and sexual interference, which is a charge involving children under age 16.

Lescarbeau was arrested and charged on Wednesday, police confirmed in an email to CBC News. They began investigating allegations last month.

Police said they are concerned there could be other victims and ask people with information to reach out to their Sexual Assault and Child Abuse unit or Crime Stoppers.

Teacher ‘immediately removed from…

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Bishop Christopher Saunders was handed a term of six and a half years in jail on October 7, guilty of abusing two young men.

A retired Australian bishop was given a six and a half year jail sentence this week, after being found guilty of sexually abusing two men. 

Bishop Christopher Saunders, 76, was handed down a term of six and a half years in jail on October 7, with the former bishop of Broome only becoming eligible for parole in February 2031 after he will have served four year and four months.  

As the Catholic Herald reported in August, Saunders was convicted of sexual assault of two indigenous men, during his trial in the District Court of Western Australia. He was found guilty of a total of 13 out of 19 charges of abuse, in instances which dated from 2008 to 2019 whilst Saunders was in situ…

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The former bishop of Australia’s Broome diocese was sentenced Wednesday to six years and six months in prison for sexually abusing two young Aboriginal men.

Bishop Christopher Saunders, who led the diocese from 1996 until his resignation in 2021, was sentenced Oct. 7 at the District Court of Western Australia.

The 76-year-old will serve at least four years and six months, backdated to Aug. 12, 2026, the date he was convicted and taken into custody. He will become eligible for parole in February 2031, when he will be 81 years old.

Following a three-week trial, a jury found Saunders guilty on 12 counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual penetration, arising from incidents between 2008 and 2019. He was found not guilty of six other charges.

Most of the charges reportedly concerned one victim, who was 16 when the sexual contact began and 19 when it ended.

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore, one of several Catholic dioceses that downsized parishes after filing for bankruptcy amid sex abuse claims, plans to ordain its largest number of priests in 50 years.

The Catholic Review, the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s official news outlet, reported that Baltimore will ordain 12 men as priests next year, up from five this year and the most since the 1970s.

The number of Baltimore seminarians has grown from 28 in 2007 to 52 in 2020 to 66 this year.

The surge follows years of pain for the archdiocese, which serves more than 500,000 Catholics spread over most of Central and Western Maryland. It also reflects a national trend of increasing enrollment in Catholic seminaries.

In 2024, the Archdiocese of Baltimore consolidated 61 parishes into 23, reducing its overall total from 137 to 108. The archdiocese is negotiating in U.S. Bankruptcy Court a settlement with…

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A Baltimore County jury Thursday found a former Catonsville priest guilty of one count of child abuse and four counts of second-degree sex offenses in the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old St. Agnes Catholic School student more than three decades ago.

William “Father Bill” Mannion Jr., 64, was accused of grooming the boy in 1994 and using religious teachings and the threat of eternal damnation to manipulate him into performing sexual acts in the church rectory after religious education classes.

The jury reached its verdict Thursday after a four-day trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court. The state dropped the remaining charges against Mannion.

Dates were central to the defense throughout the trial. Defense attorney Chris Luber argued that the former student’s accounts placed the alleged abuse before Mannion arrived at St. Agnes in July 1994.

Prosecutors, however, argued that the six-month period when Mannion and the boy…

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[Click here to see video.]

Six years after a 7NEWS investigation by Chief Reporter Chris Reason exposed the former Bishop of Broome as a sex predator, Christopher Saunders is now behind bars. Today he was locked up for six-and-a-half years, the most senior Catholic ever convicted of sexual abuse.

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In short:

Christopher Saunders has been jailed for sexually abusing two young Indigenous men in WA’s remote Kimberley region.

The judge read out a statement from one of his victims, who described his pain and said he was a “toy” that Saunders had used.

What’s next?

Saunders will be eligible for parole in February 2031.

The former Bishop of Broome, once one of the most senior and longest-serving Catholic clerics in the country, has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for sex offences against two young men.

Christopher Alan Saunders, 76, was found guilty earlier this year of multiple offences against the men when he was the bishop of a remote area of Western Australia three times larger than England.

He was convicted of one count of sexual penetration and 12 counts of indecent assault.

The victims were young Aboriginal men who lived in the Kimberley, where…

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“I’m a battler,” Bishop Christopher Saunders once told the ABC on live radio.

“I’m somebody who has a strong sense of justice, and I feel compelled to correct what is wrong.”

They are haunting words from the charismatic Catholic cleric, who has been jailed for six and a half years for the sexual assault of young men.

The court sentence has been met with relief by parishioners and church accountability campaigners.

But there is also fury.

Why did it take church authorities several years to act on abuse allegations? Why did they urge people to pray for him while he was investigated?

And why has the 76-year-old still not been defrocked?

“It is absolutely chilling to hear what’s occurred,” safety campaigner Anne Barrett Doyle says.

The practising Catholic has been monitoring the case from faraway Boston, where she helps run an online database of bishops accused of abuse and…

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Advocates are calling for the Catholic Church to defrock the former bishop of Broome.

Christopher Saunders was sentenced to more than six years in prison yesterday for sexually abusing young men while serving in his position.

Co-director of Bishop Accountability in Boston, Anne Barrett Doyle, said Pope Leo had a chance to send a strong message in response.

“Let’s hope he punishes Christopher Saunders to the fullest extent of church law which would be removing him from the priesthood,” she said.

“He does not deserve that title of priest, let alone bishop.”

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Australian Bishop Christopher Saunders was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison Oct. 7 for abusing two victims who were part of the Indigenous Aboriginal community.

An Australian district court found Bishop Saunders guilty of committing over a dozen counts of sexual abuse against three young Aboriginal men in August. He was acquitted by the jury of alleged offenses against a third young man. Bishop Saunders resigned as bishop of Broome when first accused of wrongdoing in 2020.

According to the BBC, he will be eligible for parole in February 2031.

“His trial in the state of Western Australia heard Saunders systematically groomed the two young men, inviting them to ‘shirts-off’ gatherings and plying them with alcohol, often using church funds and church-owned properties to do so,” the BBC said.

One of his victims wrote in a victim impact statement provided to the court: “I was a toy that he was…

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A former Australian Catholic bishop was sentenced Wednesday to six years and six months in prison for sexually abusing two young Indigenous men.

A District Court of Western Australia state jury convicted Christopher Saunders, 76, in August of 13 out of 19 charges of sexual abuse that occurred between 2008 and 2019 in his sprawling Broome Diocese on the country’s tropical northwest coast.

Saunders will become eligible for parole in February 2031.

Saunders was acquitted of six charges involving a third accuser. He was accused of indecent dealing with a child over the age of 16. The age of consent in Western Australia is 16, but the law raises it to 18 if the older person is in a position of trust, power or responsibility.

Four charges involving a child younger than 13 were dropped on the first day of Saunders’ three-week trial.

Saunders is one of the…

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Riverside Church Ordered to Pay $11.3 Million to Child Sex Abuse Victim

A former player for the Riverside Church basketball program was awarded $11.3 million by a New York jury Wednesday for the sexual abuse he suffered decades ago as a teenage member of the once-vaunted youth team. 

The plaintiff, identified in court documents by his initials, J.M., testified in state Supreme Court in lower Manhattan last week that he was sexually abused “eight or nine” times in the spring of 1978 by Riverside’s former sports program director, Ernest “Ernie” Lorch.

J.M., now 63, was 14 years old at the time of the abuse and living in a single-parent household in the Bronx. Lorch, who died in 2012 at the age of 79, was a powerful corporate attorney and executive whose Riverside Hawks basketball teams forged the template for the modern $40 billion youth sports industry.

On Wednesday, the…

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“Has the horn tackled you yet?” (36). Massachusetts students called Father James Porter, who was accused of abusing hundreds of children, the Horn. We learn this from the new Massachusetts Attorney General’s report on Catholic sexual abuse in the Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester Dioceses in Massachusetts.

This is an old story with new details. Evidence “demonstrate[s] that, for years, church decision-makers in the Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester Dioceses knew that scores of children were being abused by a substantial number of priests in their dioceses and did not take effective action to stop that abuse. Instead, at the time, the dioceses actively sought to cover up the child sexual abuse to protect the reputation of the Church.” (15)

This is not surprising. We already know a lot about Catholic sexual abuse in Massachusetts. The Boston Globe published its huge investigative series in 2002 about the numerous ways…

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Fairfield University has agreed to pay $1.1 million to a former Fairfield College Preparatory School student who claimed that he was sexually abused by his teacher more than 20 years ago.

The agreement was reached in August after the student alleged he was abused between 2001 and 2005, according to Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based lawyer known for representing victims of sexual abuse.

“By coming forward and reporting the sexual abuse the sexual abuse survivor is a voice for those who cannot come forward yet and is also helping to keep the world safer for children,” Garabedian said Tuesday.

Christian Cashman, the president of Fairfield Prep, confirmed in a statement that a settlement has been reached. He said the private Jesuit school has approached the matter with “careful consideration and attention.”

“Fairfield Prep has no higher priority than the safety and well-being of our community,” Cashman said….

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EAST BROOKFIELD — In 2021,a young parishioner in the rural middle of the state told a visiting priest that the Rev. Alan J. Martineau had cultivated a special relationship with her and then inappropriately touched her. Beginning in 2019, the girl said, Martineau repeatedly hugged, kissed, and touched her. Martineau also exchanged tens of thousands of text messages with the girl, investigators later found.

Notified multiple times, the bishop of the diocese, Robert Joseph McManus of Worcester, sought to do what church leaders before him had done so often: transfer Martineau to another parish where he would receive the “tutelage” of an older priest.

But before that transfer occurred, a social worker with the diocese decided the allegations had become so serious that they must be reported to the state, so she called the Department of Children and Families.

Ultimately, instead of moving to another parish, Martineau would become the View Cache

Stephen Lake joins growing list of CofE bishops embroiled in scandal

The bishop of Salisbury Stephen Lake has been suspended by the Church of England as safeguarding complaints against him proceed.

Lake is the next bishop in line to take an ex officio seat in the House of Lords. The Church says he will not to be introduced into the Lords while he “remains subject to a complaint under a statutory process”.

Details of the safeguarding complaints have not been made public, except that they allegedly do not involve children.

Lake had already stepped back from his role in April while he was being investigated for alleged financial misconduct. He had also been a trustee of the Church Commissioners, which manage the CofE’s £11.1bn endowment.

Litany…

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Federal probation officers found themselves in unincorporated St. Louis County last month, where convicted sex offender and former priest William F. Vatterott lives. It started with Vatterott’s simple reported failure to report a work mobile phone.

That ended with the reported discovery of five unauthorized devices and then a more concerning discovery of what the feds reported finding on those devices.

Neighbor Rathwaan Algebory witnesses federal agents swarming Deerfield Lane.

“I saw a bunch of federal officers. They had these vest on that said federal agents and they were basically going through the car and the house and it was kind of a strange scene in an area like this,” Algebory said.

In Vatterott’s home and car, federal agents described finding “unauthorized devices” with “nude pictures and videos of what appeared to be minor males.”

“I think it’s terrible. I think it has no place in this neighborhood and in…

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David Lloyd Walther was arrested in 2022 after law enforcement found hard drives containing more than 100,000 images and 5,000 videos of child pornography.

A federal lawsuit has been filed against a Round Rock church whose former pastor was sentenced for possession of child pornography.

Faith Baptist Church pastor David Lloyd Walther was arrested in 2022 after law enforcement found two large computer hard drives containing more than 100,000 images and more than 5,000 videos of child pornography. Law enforcement officials found images of child sexual abuse connected to the church’s IP address and the BitTorrent network.

The lawsuit was filed against Walther earlier this year by 14 adults who say they were sexually abused as children and that their abuse was depicted in images of child pornography he possessed.

The plaintiffs have now added Faith Baptist Church to that lawsuit, alleging Walther used on-site internet connection…

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The Bishop of Raphoe, Niall Coll, has said that the guilty plea by disgraced priest Fr Edward Gallagher to over 100 charges relating to the sexual abuse of children will be felt across Donegal.

Fr Gallagher was the curate for the Camus, Clonleigh and Leckpatrick parishes, which include St Patrick’s Church in Murlog, Lifford at the time of his arrest in April 2025.

He had previously served in the Moville parish, but has been suspended from ministry since his arrest. 

On Monday, Gallagher, a 59-year-old most recently based in Lifford but whose address was given as Maghaberry Prison, pleaded guilty to 109 sex offences at Derry Crown Court. 

The charges, which include attempted sexual communication with a child under 16, possessing indecent images of a child, possessing an extreme pornographic image and attempting to encourage a child to engage in sexual activity, relate to dates between 22 June 2023 and…

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A woman claims ex-Green teacher Gary Huff sexually abused her in the late 1990s when she was a teen, coming forward just before the statute of limitations expired.

A former Green Middle School teacher has been arrested and charged with rape and sexual battery after a woman came forward decades after she says the alleged abuse began.

Gary Huff, who retired from the Green Local Schools in 2017, was arrested this week. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office says a woman came forward last October, when she was 42 years old, and reported alleged sexual abuse that she said began when she was 13.

Investigators said the woman reported numerous sexual encounters with Huff, both on and off school property, between 1997 and ’99. Ohio state Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Township, tells 3News it’s not uncommon for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to wait years before coming…

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Judge William Lafferty said the diocese had not settled bankruptcy requirements and did not qualify for a special religious dispensation in the proceedings.

A federal judge this month rejected a request from the Diocese of Oakland, California, to resolve its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, arguing that the diocese had not satisfied statutory requirements to do so while dismissing claims that the diocese should be granted a special religious dispensation.

The diocese had proposed a plan earlier in the year to pay more than $200 million into an abuse victims’ fund. A committee of survivors countered with a proposed payout of more than $300 million, which the diocese itself subsequently opposed.

Judge William Lafferty said in an Oct. 2 decision that the diocese had failed to demonstrate that it was undergoing a “substantial burden” on its religious rights in being required to adhere to federal bankruptcy proceedings.

The judge dismissed as “incorrect…

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In his 109-page ruling, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William Lafferty detailed his issues with the plan and found the Diocese failed to satisfy a key test in bankruptcy court.

A federal bankruptcy judge has rejected a plan from the Diocese of Oakland that would resolve nearly 350 sexual abuse claims and chart a path out of Chapter 11. 

Plaintiffs’ attorneys celebrated the decision after nearly every survivor with a pending claim opposed the plan.

“Now, hopefully, we can work with the bishop to bring speedy justice to the suffering,” said attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents survivors with claims against the Diocese. “For over three years, the Bishop and his lawyer, bankruptcy lawyers, have deployed hardball tactics to further oppress and suppress justice, truth, and transparency that the survivors seek through the creditors committee.”

In his 109-page ruling, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William Lafferty detailed his issues with the plan and found the…

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Complaints filed by two adults alleged ‘conduct unbecoming to the episcopal office.’

The upheaval in the Argentine episcopate continued last Friday with the removal of an auxiliary bishop of Córdoba from his offices weeks before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit the city.

The Archdiocese of Córdoba announced Oct. 2 that Bishop Ricardo Seirutti had been removed from his offices as auxiliary bishop and vicar general following a canonical judicial process ordered by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and conducted by the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Buenos Aires.

“The case was initiated following complaints filed by two adults who alleged that he had engaged in conduct unbecoming to his episcopal office,” said the archdiocese, which is preparing to host Pope Leo Nov. 10.

The archdiocese did not specify the nature of the allegations against the bishop and Seirutti does not appear to have addressed them…

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For Immediate Release: October 6, 2026

Last week, the Attorney General of Massachusetts came out in favor of legislative reforms to help victims of child sexual abuse seek justice. Unfortunately, Governor Maura Healey, while expressing support, stopped short of saying she will sign legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations for civil claims of child sexual abuse and the $20,000 charitable immunity cap for these cases. The members of the Abuse Survivors Coalition (ASC) want Governor Healey to fully commit to supporting survivors, and pledge to sign into law any of the reforms suggested by AG Andrea Campbell should they be passed into law.

The AG recommended several changes to state law, including:

• “Eliminating the $20,000 charitable immunity cap for civil claims involving child sexual abuse;
• “Eliminating the statute of limitations for civil claims involving child sexual abuse; and
• “Creating an…

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The sordid past of the Oakhurst Manor – the historic Whitinsville mansion that suffered serious damage in a 2024 fire – receives significant attention in attorney general’s recently released report on clergy sex abuse. 

The 1890s structure, located at 120 Hill St., housed “one of the most problematic treatment facilities used to clear abusive priests for service,” the report said, with influence extending far beyond Worcester County. 

Allegations about the house – including one victim’s report that it served as the base of a clergy sex-abuse ring – were covered by the Telegram & Gazette in the early 2000s, as part of a series of articles from reporter Kathy Shaw, the report notes. 

Below is a summary of what the attorney general’s report included about the home, as well as some of the unanswered questions that remain. 

National reach 

The home, which operated from 1973 to 1989 as…

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The recent release of an explosive state report about clergy sexual abuse of children is stirring up old pain for people like 67-year-old Edna Wallace.

Wallace is one of at least 216 people claiming they survived sexual abuse by a cleric in the Diocese of Worcester. She wishes the diocese would accept more accountability.

“They need to come out the closet and let all the people know that what they have done,” Wallace told GBH News.

But Worcester’s Bishop Robert McManus has not released a full list of names of priests and other clergy credibly accused of abusing children — unlike the state’s three other bishops, who have disclosed such names.

On Monday, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell stepped up calls for the Worcester diocese to release a list of of priests accused of abuse during a conversation on GBH News’ Boston Public Radio.

“We’re not taking our foot…

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A federal judge has rejected the Oakland Catholic Diocese’s fourth bankruptcy plan, finding that its case for special treatment and some financial estimates fell short, sending the diocese and sexual abuse survivors back to negotiations.

In his 109-page decision Friday, US Bankruptcy Judge William J. Lafferty rejected the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland’s latest proposal for resolving hundreds of sexual abuse claims, ruling that the diocese had not made the case for approval. As the Chronicle reports, the plan was opposed by a nine-member committee representing abuse survivors, who argued that the diocese had undervalued its property and other assets.

Lafferty specifically rejected the diocese’s argument that its status as a religious institution warranted special consideration in the bankruptcy process. He said the church was not entitled to be treated “differently or more leniently” than another nonprofit or business going through bankruptcy.

According to the Chronicle, the judge also…

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The ruling comes as several more abuse cases near trial

A federal judge has slammed the door on a controversial plan by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland to emerge from bankruptcy, which had garnered the near-unanimous opposition of hundreds of people claiming decades of abuse at the hands of local priests.

Judge William J. Lafferty III on Friday found the Oakland diocese failed to put forward an adequate plan during a recent monthslong trial that would allow it to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, which have dragged on since 2023. In doing so, the judge dismissed a suggestion by the diocese that its status as a religious entity allowed it to be treated differently in bankruptcy proceedings — opining that being a church “doesn’t make it a religious entity worthy of special protections, it makes it a debtor.”

The ruling…

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The prosecution and defense laid the groundwork Wednesday in the sexual abuse case against Gary ‘Tom’ Keesee Jr.

Keesee, a former church leader, is accused of 32 counts of sexual assault, including 13 counts of rape. All four victims were minors with ages ranging from 5 to 15.

The alleged incidents started in 2001 and occurred over the course of 15 years.

Knox County Common Pleas Judge Richard Wetzel is hearing the case because Keesee waived his right to a jury trial midway through jury selection Tuesday.

Keesee is the son of Gary Sr. and Drenda Keesee, pastors of Faith Life Church in New Albany. Drenda Keesee is also a Knox County commissioner.

Licking County Assistant Prosecutor Darcy Cook said Tom Keesee grew up in a church, and through 2024, worked and volunteered in different roles. He resigned his position as chief…

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A western Kentucky man is accused of grooming a 15-year-old girl while he was a church youth pastor and leader.

Jared Denney, 37, of McCracken County, was arrested for felony grooming, felony procuring or promoting the use of minor by electronic means and misdemeanor distribution of obscene matter to minors – first offense.

According to the McCracken County Sheriff’s Office, detectives have been investigating the allegations starting at the end of August and through Friday, October 2.

They say a man, identified as Denney, allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to the juvenile.

Detectives say Denney is a youth pastor and leader at a church in McCracken County.

Denney was arrested on Friday and taken to the McCracken County Regional Jail.

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Opening statements in the trial of a former priest accused of abusing a Catonsville Catholic school student in the 1990s included sharply different accounts on Monday about a case that divided Catholics across the region.

William Mannion Jr., who left the priesthood and later married, has been charged with multiple felony child abuse and sex offenses from his time at Baltimore County’s St. Agnes Church. He maintains his innocence.

The criminal trial underway in Circuit Judge Dennis Robinson Jr.’s courtroom is expected to last four days.

Dozens of Maryland priests have faced misconduct allegations since the state attorney general’s office began investigating the Archdiocese of Baltimore, culminating in a lengthy 2023 report detailing decades of “horrific and repeated abuse.”

Mannion, of Sparrows Point, left the priesthood in 1998, married and became a father. He started working at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center as a case manager and…

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Thanks for reading Mass. Politics, where we try to go behind the oft-closed doors of the State House. In this edition: Andrea Campbell, Aaron Michlewitz and more

After the latest clergy sex abuse report, what stands in the way of reform on Beacon Hill? 

After releasing a damning report last week on a yearslong investigation into sex abuse at three Catholic dioceses in Massachusetts, Attorney General Andrea Campbell called for lawmakers to take specific actions. Her office recommended ending the statute of limitations for civil child sexual abuse claims and eliminating the $20,000 cap on how much nonprofit charities like the dioceses can be forced to pay in damages.

Advocates say both the cap and the current statute make it hard to sue and seek justice in child sex abuse cases, particularly since victims often don’t come forward until they’re much older. Many of the cases in Campbell’s report…

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The ruling is a small victory for the religious entities, which are facing more than 1,000 lawsuits over claims of childhood sexual abuse.

(CN) — A California court of appeal ruled Monday that liability in childhood sexual abuse cases revived by a 2019 law is still subject to a 1986 ballot measure that limited noneconomic damages.

“The Legislature undoubtedly intended to give childhood sexual abuse survivors a chance to pursue claims they may have understandably been reluctant to pursue, or could not pursue, when they were younger,” Baker wrote. “But we see no persuasive evidence of a legislative intent to require the revived claims to proceed as if the law were trapped in 1986 amber,” wrote Associate Justice Lamar Baker in the opinion.

The court’s opinion arises out of a consolidated action based in Alameda County Superior…

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