ABUSE TRACKER

Johnny Hunt’s defamation case against the Southern Baptist Convention and its Executive Committee is dead, with a federal judge throwing out the remainder of the case Aug. 12.

Hunt, a former SBC president and former executive vice president of the SBC North American Mission Board, filed suit in March 2023, alleging former SBC President Bart Barber and the denomination defamed him and invaded his privacy by making public the story of his “brief, inappropriate, extramarital encounter with a married woman” in 2010.

That information was part of the blockbuster Guidepost Solutions report released in 2022 that documented a pattern of covering up and ignoring reports of clergy sexual abuse in the denomination. Hunt was unexpectedly snared in the investigation.

At first, Hunt denied the allegations leveled against him by first-person testimony of the woman involved, then he admitted the encounter had, in fact, occurred but insisted it was not abusive in nature. The woman…

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Note: This article includes references to sexual assault.

The Catholic Church will resume its investigation into a disgraced ex-bishop found guilty of sexually abusing young Aboriginal men.

Former Bishop of Broome Christopher Alan Saunders, 76, was convicted of 13 sex offences on Thursday, including sexual penetration without consent, following a 3.5-week trial in Perth.

A church probe into the retired clergyman’s activities was suspended when the Western Australian police started investigating him.

It is set to restart now the trial has finished.

“Its findings will inform decisions in Rome about Christopher Saunders’ position in the church,” Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said on Friday.

“The Diocese of Broome will determine any future financial or other support.”

Saunders’ offending between 2010 and 2019 also included a dozen unlawful and indecent assault charges.

He was acquitted of six charges, including two counts of indecently dealing with a child older than 16 under his authority…

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As ProPublica and the Minnesota Star Tribune investigated child sexual abuse in the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church, reporters found that children who were victims of sexual misconduct sometimes went on to repeat the behavior.

This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

For two sisters raised in a family of 11 children that moved back and forth between Washington state and South Dakota, danger didn’t come from outsiders like they’d been warned by their church.

It came from their brothers in the next bedroom.

Lynn said she was still in diapers when her abuse began. Two older sisters told her how they caught one of their brothers touching her. The sisters told their mother, but Lynn said her parents did…

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A US pastor who has served churches in California has been arrested on multiple child sexual assault charges, with investigators saying there may be other alleged victims.

Lino Hernandez, 41, was arrested on Wednesday after Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant at his home in Blythe, according to police.

The investigation began in June following an allegation that a minor had been sexually assaulted. Detectives subsequently identified Hernandez as a suspect.

Hernandez has served as a pastor at churches in Blythe and Indio, although authorities have not identified the congregations involved.

Police have also not said whether the alleged offences have any connection to Hernandez’s work as a pastor.

He was arrested without incident and booked on multiple sexual assault charges. Hernandez remained in custody ahead of a scheduled court appearance on Friday.

Investigators said the case remains ongoing and believe there may be additional alleged victims.

Authorities…

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Bishop David Oakley of Northampton was in court yesterday facing allegations that he raped a 15-year-old girl twice in the early 2000s.

Oakley, who was in his 40s and a priest for the diocese of Birmingham at the time of the allegations, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday via videolink to face the charges from his lawyer’s office. He was released on bail, on condition that he doesn’t contact the alleged victim or her family.

Prosecutor Sarah Madden said Oakley and the girl “started dating… after going on a pilgrimage to Lourdes.”

“She recalls sex with the defendant on at least two occasions,” Madden added. The incidents are alleged to have occurred between 2000 and 2001, when Oakley was in his mid-40s and a priest of the Birmingham archdiocese.

Oakley was not asked to enter a plea as the case has been sent to the Old Bailey by Chief…

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An 81-year-old temple priest was sentenced to four years in jail by the Magistrate’s Court here after being found guilty of molesting a 31-year-old woman two years ago.

Magistrate Wan Farrah Farriza Wan Ghazali imposed the sentence on Lim Ah Kau @ Lim Ho Cheng after finding him guilty following a full trial.

Lim was found guilty of using criminal force against the woman with intent to outrage her modesty at a temple here on Feb 29, 2024, about 10am.

He was charged under Section 354 of the Penal Code, which provides for a jail term of up to 10 years, or a fine, or whipping, or any two of the punishments, upon conviction.

During the trial, the prosecution called six witnesses, while the defence called two.

The court ordered Lim to serve his sentence from the date of his conviction on Wednesday (Aug 12).

However, the court granted a…

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“We wish to raise serious concern regarding patterns of religiously motivated violence and persecution,” the letter said, “especially Christians, including women and girls.”

A joint letter from U.N. human rights experts warning Nigerian officials of the heightened risk of violence against Christian women and girls in the country has been made public after the government failed to respond within 60 days.

The June 1 letter cited attacks against Christian women and girls in northern Nigeria and the Middle Belt region, including killings, forced conversion, and sexual violence. The letter was signed by Reem Alsalem, U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls; Gabriella Citroni, chair-rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; Morris Tidball-Binz, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions; Nicolas Levrat, U.N. special rapporteur on minority issues; and Alice Jill Edwards, U.N. special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman,…

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Oakley took a leave of absence, which he and his diocese said was for “personal reasons.”

An English bishop accused of raping a minor appeared in court on Thursday, where he was ordered not to contact his alleged victim ahead of his plea hearing set for next month.

Bishop David Okaley appeared in Westminster Magistrates’ Court via video from his lawyer’s office for the Aug. 13 preliminary hearing, with the bishop released from custody on bail as he awaits his upcoming trial.

The bishop, 70, was charged last month with two counts of rape of a minor, over claims dating back to alleged sexual misconduct involving a girl younger than 16, which reportedly took place between February 2000 and February 2001, when Oakley was in ministry as a priest.

While charges were announced in June, Oakley was under investigation for months before that, and the bishop began a leave of…

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A community – bystanders, law enforcement, colleagues and family – is likely to deny an atrocity when acknowledging it requires action.

Widespread denial accompanied the public exposure of Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long sexual abuse and trafficking of girls and women.

After the U.S. Justice Department released millions of case documents on Epstein in January 2026, billionaires, politicians, heads of state and academics proclaimed their ignorance of Epstein’s global network of sexual exploitation.

Why would so many intelligent and powerful people repeatedly trumpet their lack of awareness, especially after Epstein’s 2008 plea agreement to underage prostitution charges?

Submit a guest post. Your piece may be featured on Ripple.

And what about all of Epstein’s staffers and business associates who kept quiet about the suspicious behavior they observed?

As a human rights researcher who has conducted genocide research on four continents, I think denials of human rights atrocities can help people understand the denial of crimes…

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It’s been more than six months since the first trial in the Riverside Church child molestation scandal resulted in a settlement for former college basketball star Daryl Powell. In the immediate aftermath, hopes arose that the Powell case would lead to a quick resolution of the remaining 25 lawsuits filed against the iconic Manhattan church over allegations of sexual abuse in its pioneering youth-sports program, which put more than 60 players into the NBA.

That hasn’t happened.

Since Powell settled in January, just one additional case has been formally settled, according to state court files. In the interim, another plaintiff has died — the third former Riverside player who has died while awaiting justice under New York state’s Child Victims Act.

The plaintiff, who sued anonymously using his initials, D.N., died in February, according to a July 17 court filing from one of his attorneys at Herman Law, which said…

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The Vatican has reversed another Diocese of Buffalo closure decree for a Niagara County church, this time in Wilson.

Our Lady of the Rosary, at 345 Lake St., received the news that its closure decree was revoked in late July, with the Vatican’s Dicastery of Clergy finding that the diocese did not follow the proper discernment process regarding the closure’s impact, among other canon law violations. The church also received a decree stating that its $716,454 in assets would not go toward the diocese’s $150 million sexual abuse settlement.

“Our committee as well as the community is ecstatic,” said parishioner Michael Moley, the procurator for the Our Lady of the Rosary’s appeal process. “We’ve had an overwhelming response from the community in favor of keeping the church open, from the village board to other Protestant churches.”

Our Lady of the Rosary is part of the St. Brendan on the Lake…

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In a unanimous decision, Arizona’s Supreme Court upheld a broad definition of clergy-penitent privilege July 30. While the case involved the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church, the ruling has implications for the Catholic Church’s defense of the seal of the confessional.

The Arizona case, Doe v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, centers on a Latter-day Saints member, who had confessed to abusing his children in the context of the Mormon church’s formal repentance process. The plaintiffs sued the church along with individual clergy members for failing to report the abuse.

The Catholic dioceses of Arizona — Phoenix, Tucson and Gallup, New Mexico (which includes part of Arizona) — filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with other groups including the Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the Arizona Association for…

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Bishop Timothy Norton of Broome Diocese expresses his deep sorrow to victims and survivors following the conviction of Australian Bishop Christopher Saunders, pledging a diocesan path marked by listening, accountability, and hope.

Vatican News

The Bishop of Broome, Australia, has expressed profound sorrow for the suffering and shame endured by victims and survivors after his predecessor was convicted of sexual offences.

On Thursday, a jury in the District Court of Western Australia found Bishop Christopher Saunders, Bishop Emeritus of Broome, guilty of 13 sexual abuse offences against two young Aboriginal men. 

Bishop Saunders denied the sexual assaults took place and can appeal the conviction.

He served as Bishop of Broome from 1996 to 2021, and the offences occurred between 2008 and 2019.

In a pastoral letter addressed to Catholics throughout the Kimberley region, Bishop Timothy Norton, SVD, current Bishop of Broome, acknowledged the verdict and thanked Australian…

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Hunt’s lawyers had argued he was a private figure and his misconduct was nobody’s business. He also claimed a tweet criticizing him was defamatory.

A federal judge dismissed the final claims of a defamation lawsuit filed by former Southern Baptist President Johnny Hunt, who claimed his career was ruined after his sexual misconduct became public in 2022.

Hunt, who had been a megachurch pastor in Georgia and a vice president with the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board — as well as a popular author and speaker — was named in the 2022 Guidepost Solutions report on how Southern Baptist leaders had dealt with issues of abuse.

According to that report, Hunt allegedly assaulted another pastor’s wife, then hid his misconduct from church members and his employer for years. Hunt said he had sinned but denied it was abuse.

RELATED: Is a pastor’s sin a private matter?…

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The former bishop was convicted of sexually abusing two men. The diocese apologized to the victims and asked Our Lady Queen of Peace to intercede “on this journey of reconciliation, healing and hope.”

Christopher Saunders, the former bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Broome, Australia, was convicted on Aug. 13 of sexually abusing two young Aboriginal men between 2008 and 2017.

Saunders, who is 76 years old, led the northwest Australian diocese from 1996 until 2021 when he resigned. He was convicted of 13 charges, which included nonconsensual sexual penetration. He originally faced 26 charges, but seven were dropped and he was not found guilty for the other six.

Bishop Tim Norton of the Diocese of Broome published a pastoral letter to the faithful after his predecessor was convicted.

Norton thanked the police and the prosecutors “for their commitment to bringing this matter before a jury.” He acknowledged “the…

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The Apostolic Nunciature in Lithuania said Thursday it was deeply concerned about allegations of sexual offenses against children involving two Catholic priests, Lithuanian news portal 15min.lt reported.

“The Holy See has been informed of this painful situation, continues to monitor it with great concern and regularly receives updates on any developments,” the nunciature said in a statement to 15min.lt. “The Holy See firmly reaffirms its zero-tolerance policy toward any form of abuse.”

The diplomatic mission expressed sympathy for the alleged victims and their families. It said criminal proceedings are under the jurisdiction of Lithuanian state authorities, while the corresponding canonical investigation is the responsibility of the Archdiocese of Vilnius.

One of the priests is accused of sexual offenses against 11 minors. According to law enforcement data, authorities recorded 34 alleged criminal episodes over a 23-year period, from 2002 through 2025.

The second priest is accused of possessing child pornography. Authorities…

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Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius on Thursday called for cooperation from the Catholic Church and answers on whether it took sufficient steps to detect and prevent child sexual abuse after two priests were charged with sexual offenses involving children.

“I expect open and constructive cooperation between the Church and law enforcement, transparency and a readiness to answer not only who may have committed the crimes, but also the vital question of whether sufficient measures were taken in all cases to ensure that potential abuse was detected early, prevented and reported to the responsible authorities,” Sinkevičius said in a Facebook post.

He said the government must also assess whether legal and institutional mechanisms adequately protect children in schools, families, sports organizations, religious institutions and other settings.

“There can be no tolerance for sexual violence against children,” Sinkevičius said, adding that an institution’s reputation cannot be placed above the safety of a…

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Lithuania’s justice minister is calling for renewed efforts to establish a public registry of people convicted of sexual offenses against children after prosecutors announced cases against two priests this week.

Justice Minister Rita Tamašunienė said Thursday that such a registry could strengthen monitoring and prevention measures and help protect children from repeat offenses.

“In my view as justice minister, the time has come to return to this idea and look for solutions that would help protect children even better,” Tamašunienė said in a statement. “We fully support making such data public.”

She said authorities should continue monitoring people convicted of sexual offenses even after they have served their sentences, arguing that this would strengthen the state’s role in preventing repeat offenses.

Social Security and Labour Minister Inga Ruginienė has also expressed support for the idea.

Lithuania’s parliament, Seimas, gave initial approval in 2024 to legislation that would establish a registry…

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The Bishop of Northampton has appeared in court over allegations he raped a teenage girl after they went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes.

David Oakley, 70, is accused of twice having sex with the girl, who was aged under 16 at the time, in the early 2000s.

Oakley, who was then in his mid-40s and working as a Catholic priest, was charged in June with two counts of rape of a girl under the age of 16, following an investigation by Staffordshire Police’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences team.

He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday via videolink from his lawyer’s office to face the charges for the first time.

Prosecutor Sarah Madden told the court Oakley and the girl “started dating… after going on a pilgrimage to Lourdes”.

“She recalls sex with the defendant on at least two occasions,” Ms Madden said.

Lourdes, in south west France, attracts…

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The Diocese of Palm Beach is putting sweeping new rules in place governing clergy conduct, sexual abuse allegations, whistleblowers and the monitoring of priests, nearly two months after a Boynton Beach pastor was placed on administrative leave amid what church officials called “serious allegations.”

Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez announced the new diocesan policies Thursday as part of a broad overhaul aimed at protecting children, vulnerable adults and others who come into contact with Catholic clergy, employees and volunteers.

At the center of the changes is a new body of diocesan law titled Protecting and Safeguarding the People of God, dated Aug. 7. The rules took effect Aug. 8 and are being implemented on an experimental basis for two years, according to the bishop’s decree.

The extensive policy package creates separate codes of conduct for clergy, employees and volunteers, procedures for handling allegations of sexual abuse…

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A former Amarillo pastor was indicted following his arrest in a prostitution sting.

A Randall County grand jury indicted David Austin Ritchie, 42, on a charge of solicitation of prostitution.

Ritchie, the former senior pastor of Redeemer Christian Church, was among eight men arrested during a June undercover operation conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

RELATED | ‘Shocked & heartbroken’: Church fires Amarillo pastor after arrest in prostitution sting

The church fired Ritchie after learning of his arrest. He had served as senior pastor since 2011.

Jorge Luis Lopez-Najera, 24, of Amarillo, who was arrested in the same operation, was also indicted on a charge of solicitation of prostitution.

The cases against the other six men arrested in the sting remain pending.

• John Alexander Grado-Vega, 26, of El Paso – solicitation of prostitution
• Braiden Deion Sellers, 34, of Pascagoula, Mississippi…

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Parents sue SC church, academy and denomination over registered offender’s access to children.

The Southern Baptist Convention and its Executive Committee have been named as defendants in a proposed federal class-action lawsuit against a South Carolina church and academy where authorities say a convicted sex offender was allowed to volunteer near children.

In addition to the SBC and SBC EC, the Aug. 4 filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina names Pawleys Island Community Church, Pawleys Island Christian Academy, former senior pastor Donald James Williams, his wife Virginia Lee “Ginny” Williams, former academy director Jennifer “Niki” Howard, unnamed church elders and Warren Spencer Perry as defendants.

“The Southern Baptist Convention does not comment on ongoing litigation,” said Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, in a statement. “We will review it and respond appropriately.”

In the filing, the parents, identified as John…

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An Australian jury on Thursday convicted a former Catholic bishop renowned for hosting alcohol-fueled house parties of sexually abusing two young Indigenous men.

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

Prosecutors alleged he lured young Indigenous men to his church-owned house in the tourist town of Broome with free alcohol and cigarettes paid for with church funds. House rules included that the male-only guests had to remove their shirts.

“The accused had a sexual interest in young Aboriginal men and a tendency to act on that interest when the opportunity presented itself,” Prosecutor Adam Ebell had told the court.

The convictions included one count of sexual penetration without consent and a dozen indecent assaults.

He was acquitted of six charges that…

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Note: this article contains references to sexual abuse.

A Catholic bishop who resigned when sexual abuse claims were levelled against him has been found guilty of abusing young Indigenous men.

Former Bishop of Broome Christopher Alan Saunders, 76, was found guilty of 13 sex offences on Thursday following a jury trial in the West Australian District Court.

The offending between 2008 and 2019 included one count of sexual penetration without consent and a dozen unlawful and indecent assault charges.

He was acquitted of six other charges, including two counts of indecently dealing with a child over 16 under his authority and four counts of unlawful and indecent assault.

Saunders was ordained as the second Broome bishop in 1996 and presided over 13 schools and nine parishes, before stepping aside in 2020 when the sex abuse claims became public.

Pope Francis accepted his resignation a year later.

Unless acquitted on appeal,…

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City Council Member Carl Wilson and other preservationists staged a rally outside Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Aug. 12 They called on the Landmarks Preservation Commission to intervene. The Archdiocese is trying to raise $800 million to pay survivors of sexual assault.

As part of its continuing efforts to raise $800 million for a fund to pay past victims of sexual abuse, the Catholic Archdiocese of New York is putting three more West Side complexes on the block including two schools and one church.

At a “Stop the sale” rally on Aug. 12, City Council member Carl Wilson revealed that the buildings that the Archdiocese is now seeking to sell include Our Lady of Guadalupe Church at 328 West 14th Street, the shut down elementary school of Guardian Angel at 193 10th Ave. that closed in 2023, and the shut down St. Michael’s Academy, a former all girls high school…

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An independent review is necessary to restore public confidence, said Sen. Joe Vitale.

A senior New Jersey lawmaker has asked the state attorney general to investigate Seton Hall University over its handling of sexual harassment and abuse allegations, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.

The request from Sen. Joe Vitale, the Democratic chair of the upper chamber’s health committee, comes about six weeks after an investigation ordered by the Archdiocese of Newark effectively cleared the university’s new president, Monsignor Joseph Reilly, of wrongdoing as a seminary leader more than a decade ago.

But Vitale said that that investigation “appears, to many, to be a whitewash” because it conflicts with the findings of a separate, 2019 probe focused on the disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the longtime archbishop of Newark and Washington, D.C. That investigation was never made public but, as POLITICO reported in 2024, implicated Reilly (he was not accused of abuse).

That means Seton Hall has…

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This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse.

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Reporting Highlights

• Promised Reforms: The Amateur Athletic Union said it would implement “historic” reforms after a child sex abuse scandal in 2011, including mandatory training. It still hasn’t done so.
• “People Tried to Cover It Up”: A few years later, the AAU exonerated a top executive accused of sexual abuse without interviewing a single witness.
• Banned Coaches: The AAU said it would bar coaches banned for misconduct by other youth sports groups. But we found eight banned coaches working with kids in the AAU.

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

In the competitive world of youth sports, few organizations have a reach as vast as the Amateur Athletic Union. 

With 760,000 athletes and coaches…

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Some priests are questioning how allegations of sexual abuse are investigated, but victims say the process still favors clergy.

On his last day of radiation treatment for prostate cancer, Fr. Michael Pfleger teared up as he hugged nurses and rang the bell in the hospital hallway, once for himself, once “for all the other people coming out of here.” Then he posted on Facebook that it was “Easier to beat Cancer than get Justice from the Archdiocese.” Earlier this summer, the popular yet controversial priest was temporarily removed from ministry while the Archdiocese of Chicago investigated an allegation that he sexually abused a minor decades ago. It is the fifth time that Pfleger, the senior pastor at St. Sabina Parish on Chicago’s South Side, has been accused; four previous allegations were found by the archdiocese to be unsubstantiated. 

Supporters have rallied around Pfleger and called for reform of the archdiocese’s investigative process…

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A Southern Baptist church and school in South Carolina provided a known sex offender unrestrained access to children for several years and silenced a teacher who raised concerns about the situation, according to a federal lawsuit filed Aug. 4.

The class-action complaint accuses Pawleys Island Community Church and its Pawleys Island Academy of allowing Warren Spencer Perry to volunteer as a maintenance worker at the school despite knowing of his prior conviction for sexual exploitation of a minor.

Defendants include former Senior Pastor Don Williams, his wife and former Guest Services Director Ginny Williams, former academy director Jennifer “Niki” Howard, the congregation’s elders and Perry. The Southern Baptist Convention and the SBC Executive Committee also are named in the lawsuit.

A notce on the church’s Facebook page says the Williamses, Howard and several elders have resigned amid the crisis.

Formerly known as Pawleys Island Baptist Church, the congregation is a cooperating church with…

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Every allegation of sexual abuse must be taken seriously.

Every person accused of sexual abuse must be treated fairly.

Those principles are not in conflict, and we should not have to abandon one to honor the other.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger has again been removed from ministry at St. Sabina while the Archdiocese of Chicago investigates an allegation of sexual abuse said to have occurred more than 30 years ago.

He strongly denies it. I have known and admired Father Pfleger for years, and I believe him.

I also believe that my personal feelings do not mean the allegation should be ignored.

This is the fifth accusation made against Father Pfleger since 2021. The previous allegations were investigated and determined to be unfounded, and each time he was returned to ministry. Those outcomes do not prove that the latest allegation is false. But…

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Editor’s note: This story describes allegations of child sex abuse and contains a mention of suicide.

A lawsuit filed last week accuses a Catholic priest of repeatedly groping a teenager while the cleric led a church in Agawam a little more than a decade ago.

Before he left the priesthood, before he pleaded guilty to possessing a forged passport and before he was reassigned to churches in the Miami area, Tomasz Parzynski ran St. John the Evangelist Church between 2013 and 2015.

His departure from the Agawam church prompted hundreds of parishioners to lobby the bishop at the time to reconsider the reassignment.

“Strange” was Parzynski’s response when hearing about the civil lawsuit’s allegations from a reporter. “I have no idea about that. You’re the first person telling me these things.”

The lawsuit accuses Parzynski of repeatedly groping the buttocks and genitals of a boy while they…

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The Lagos pastor allegedly began defiling the petitioner’s eldest daughter when she was 13 years old.

The police command in Lagos has detained a pastor for defiling two daughters of a church member in the Isolo area.

The suspect, who is the general overseer and founder of the church, was apprehended following a petition dated July 28 by the father of the victims.

Following the petition, the police commissioner, Fatai Tijani, directed the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Yaba, to conduct a thorough investigation into the case.

A police source said on Wednesday that the case was reported through a petition dated July 28 by the victims’ father, an adherent of the church, against the suspect.

The source said the suspect allegedly began defiling the petitioner’s eldest daughter when she was 13 years old.

“The pastor allegedly began having sexual intercourse with her at the church when she was 13…

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The justices ruled the pastor’s recorded statements to another pastor are not considered a confession that’s protected under Arizona law.

Recorded statements of a Phoenix pastor admitting to kissing and touching a child can be used as evidence in the pastor’s criminal case, the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled.

On Wednesday, the high court released its decision regarding a case involving Mario Rodriguez-Ramirez, who was arrested in 2021 for allegedly abusing a child.

Before his arrest, Rodriguez-Ramirez allegedly told another pastor he had secretly watched a child shower, as well as hugged, touched and kissed the girl. The other pastor recorded the conversation without Rodriguez-Ramirez’s knowledge or consent.

The other pastor shared the recording with the child’s family and the family subsequently contacted law enforcement, court records show

The defendant attempted to have the recording not used in court, claiming the conversation was protected under Arizona law because it was…

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A Baltimore deacon charged with sexually soliciting a minor was discovered in a partnership between local sheriffs and a streaming predator investigation television program.

“We heard that there are rumors that Chris Hansen of ‘Takedown’ was back in Harford County,” Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler wrote in an Aug. 7 Facebook post.

“Well, the rumors are true.”

“In partnership with Chris Hansen’s team, we just completed a week of filming here, and what our joint operation uncovered should concern every parent in our community. Throughout this effort, investigators encountered multiple individuals from within Harford County attempting to communicate with who they believed were children.”

Among those arrested, Gahler wrote, was Kenneth Goedeke, “who was taken into custody after engaging with an undercover deputy posing online as a 15-year-old boy. This case highlights exactly why these operations matter. Individuals continue attempting to approach children, and our investigators are confronting them…

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Deal resolves lawsuit stemming from allegations of molestation by school janitor decades earlier.

For the second time in as many months, Jesuit High School has agreed to pay an out-of-court settlement to resolve a lawsuit claiming child molestation decades earlier by a janitor at the Mid-City school. 

The plaintiff and Jesuit struck the agreement ahead of a late September trial date in Civil District Court, according to a July 27 court filing reviewed by The Guardian. 

That pact came after Jesuit and another plaintiff alleging child molestation by the same school janitor — as well as one of his custodian colleagues — served notice in court on June 4 that they had agreed to an out-of-court settlement. 

In June, an attorney for both of those plaintiffs, Richard Trahant, would not deny that the settlement in that case was worth more than a $2.4 million…

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The charge filed against Reverend Ranjan D’Sa have reportedly been withdrawn.

This case stemmed from an alleged incident between the accused and a victim inside the Oakville church.

D’Sa has been a member of the clergy since 2010 and has been employed at St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church in Oakville since 2016.

In a statement, the Diocese of Hamilton said he maintains his innocence, and that “he is a priest in good standing with the faculties necessary to continue to exercise his priestly ministry.” It’s also noted that he was recently named Dean of Halton.

ORIGINAL (Published on Tuesday, March 24th at 12:46 p.m.)

A Catholic priest in Oakville has been charged with sexual assault following a police investigation.

The Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) says the investigation began in early February after receiving an allegation involving a woman who was volunteering at a church in Oakville. Investigators allege the…

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Reverend Jeffrey Nowak from New York was arrested and charged in connection with the alleged possession of child pornography last month.

A tip-off from Police Scotland helped the FBI reopen an investigation into a priest arrested over alleged child pornography offences.

Reverend Jeffrey Nowak from Lackawanna, New York, was arrested and charged in connection with the alleged receipt and possession of child pornography on July 8.

The 46-year-old, who was a priest in the Diocese of Buffalo, is facing a minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years.

According to the criminal complaint, in August 2019, he was placed on administrative leave as an investigation was conducted following allegations of inappropriate contact with children and harassment of a seminarian.

In December 2019, an email address linked to Nowak was identified as an address that accessed a New Zealand cloud-based digital storage and file-hosting website/application, which…

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INFORMATION given to the FBI by police in Scotland has led to the high-profile arrest of an American priest on child sex abuse charges.

Father Jeffrey Nowak is facing up to 20 years in prison over his alleged involvement in an online group of paedophiles.

The US Department of Justice said the FBI started investigating the clergyman, of Lackawanna, New York, after they were given a tip-off by officers in Scotland.

They said “law enforcement in Scotland” were probing a group on the Telegram app whose members participated in group Zoom calls during which members were observed viewing and sharing indecent images of children.

Investigators linked one of the participants to the username PigBoy666, which was later identified as Nowak.

Last month the FBI raided Nowak’s home, during which investigators seized multiple electronic devices, including a cell phone, laptop, iPad, a USB storage device, and suspected narcotics.

An initial review of the electronics, including the…

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Accusations against the Edinburg pastor charged with indecency with a child late last month include instances of him kissing, hugging, touching the victim inappropriately and removing her clothing.

McAllen resident Jorge Ivan Gonzalez Martinez, who works at Poder Y Gloria Church in Edinburg, is charged with three counts of indecency with a child and one count of indecency with a child exposes.

The investigation began when the victim made an outcry to her dad on July 19, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The victim told police that she had been touched inappropriately on multiple occasions at their church located at 4801 S. Business Highway 281 between March and April 2025.

At 8:30 a.m. on July 24, an Edinburg detective attended a Children’s Advocacy Center interview with the victim who said the abuse began when Gonzalez gave her hugs that “became tighter” over time which included “body contact.”

“(The victim)…

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A Lithuanian priest whose criminal case has been referred to court is accused of committing sexual offenses against minors over a 23-year period, with 11 people recognised as victims, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office said the priest faces charges related to 34 intentional offenses, including crimes against sexual self-determination and integrity, offenses against children and crimes against public morality.

“The data in the case indicate that these crimes were committed, as stated in the indictment, from 2002 until 2025 – 23 years,” said Justas Laucius, chief prosecutor of the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

According to prosecutors, the priest is accused of 13 incidents involving providing alcohol to a child or children, nine incidents involving the exploitation of children for pornography, four cases of sexually abusing people under 16, and three cases of satisfying sexual desires for payment while violating a minor’s sexual freedom.

He is also accused…

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Friendswood police officers arrested 32-year-old Lewis Stott around 6:16 p.m. on Friday, taking him into custody on a Harris County warrant tied to an ongoing investigation into sexual abuse allegations spanning 2020 to 2026. Stott, who lives in Seabrook, worked at The Galloway School, a small private campus in Friendswood, where he held roles as a PE teacher, second-grade teacher, substitute teacher, and soccer club coach, according to Friendswood police.

Stott was booked into the Harris County Jail on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child less than 14 years of age, per police records cited by FOX 26 Houston. Early reporting on his custody status diverged: FOX 26 reported his bond was set at $100,000, while local outlet KPRC 2 reported, per Click2Houston, that he was being held with no bond. The discrepancy has not been independently resolved.

Friendswood police say…

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An 11-year-old child who had been living at a church in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, died after signs of suspected abuse were found, and it was confirmed that reports of suspected abuse of the child continued up until just before the death. Police arrested the church pastor on suspicion of child abuse resulting in death and are investigating the exact circumstances.

The South Chungcheong Provincial Police Agency said on the 10th it arrested Pastor A, in his 60s, from a church in Cheonan on suspicion of causing a death by neglecting a child (child abuse resulting in death). A is suspected of abusing or neglecting B, an 11-year-old boy, while having him live at the church for several years recently.

At about 8:49 p.m. on the 5th, B was taken to a hospital by a 119 ambulance crew dispatched after a report from a church official. At the time, B showed…

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The trial of former Broome Bishop Christopher Saunders is continuing in the Western Australian District Court, with the court hearing allegations concerning his relationship with a teenage boy.

Saunders, the former Catholic Bishop of Broome, is defending allegations that he repeatedly sexually abused the teenager. The prosecution case is examining the relationship between Saunders and the young person and the circumstances surrounding the alleged conduct.

The latest proceedings have focused on allegations that Saunders used his position of authority and influence to develop a relationship with the teenager. The prosecution has alleged that his status within the community gave him significant power and influence over the young person.

The court is considering evidence as part of a lengthy legal process. Saunders has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is defending the allegations against him.

The case has attracted significant attention in Broome and across Western Australia because Saunders was…

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Apollo Quiboloy fled US in 2021 to avoid arrest after a grand jury charged him with sexual abuse, trafficking and fraud

The Philippine government is reviewing a request for the extradition of Apollo Quiboloy, a controversial pastor and founder of a religious sect accused of a series of crimes including sexual abuse, trafficking and fraud, says a state official.

In a televised briefing on Aug. 10, Claire Castro, a press officer of Malacañáng Palace, the president’s official residence and workplace, said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants the request for the extradition of Quiboloy to be studied carefully.

The decision will be made in a “couple of weeks,” she said.

The response came four days after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) formally lodged an extradition request for Quiboloy on Aug. 6, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Analyn Ratonel said in a media statement.

Quiboloy, 76, known to have close ties…

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A federal bankruptcy judge has rejected competing reorganization plans proposed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore and a committee representing survivors of alleged child sexual abuse, saying both proposals were confusing, lacked important information and contained provisions that could not be confirmed under bankruptcy law.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michelle M. Harner denied approval of the disclosure statements accompanying both plans. The denials were issued without prejudice, allowing both sides to revise and resubmit their proposals.

The Tuesday ruling marks another delay in the archdiocese’s nearly three-year effort to resolve between 900 and 1,000 claims from people who say they were sexually abused as children by clergy or others connected to the Catholic Church. It also throws into doubt a September confirmation hearing that had been expected to determine whether creditors could vote on a final settlement plan.

The archdiocese did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.

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The Harrisville Central School District has been ordered to pay $3.5 million to a former student who claimed he was sexually abused by a third-grade teacher beginning in 1981.

The order follows a jury trial in state Supreme Court last month.

Abuse claims

The plaintiff, identified as E.L. in court documents, was 9 years old when he said the sexual assaults began.

Court papers identified his third-grade teacher, Bette Shampine, as “a serial sexual predator who sexually assaulted and abused plaintiff and many other students” while employed by the district.

According to the lawsuit filed in 2021, E.L. reported the abuse to his parents, who notified the school’s principal, Edward Shafer.

The suit said Shafer “called E.L. into his office and threatened to hold back plaintiff for an additional year of third grade if plaintiff continued to complain about Shampine.”

District’s alleged inaction

E.L. claimed the school district took no…

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Committee Files Suit After Diocese Refused to Pursue Claims That Could Recover Hundreds of Millions for Survivors

The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the “Committee”) in the chapter 11 case of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, Case No. 24-10205 (Bankr. D. Vt.), has been granted standing by the District of Vermont U.S. Bankruptcy Court to pursue claims on behalf of the Diocese and its estate, claims the Diocese itself refused to bring. As the debtor, the Diocese is responsible for maximizing funds available to pay its creditors, but here it refused to initiate actions to recover funds from its parishes and schools. The Court, therefore, gave the Committee the authority to pursue such actions. Acting on that authority, the Committee has filed an adversary complaint against the Diocese, Bishop John J. McDermott, and dozens of parishes and schools across Vermont. The Committee is represented by Pachulski Stang Ziehl…

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“Following a thorough, child-sensitive investigation, it is alleged that during the 2025-2026 school year, Garcia inappropriately touched five students on multiple occasions,” the state’s attorney’s office said in a statement.
When several students came forward with allegations of sexual abuse against a teacher at a West Chicago elementary school, the administration responded swiftly.

West Chicago Elementary School District 33 said staff took “immediate action” from “the moment concerns were reported” about third grade teacher Mario Garcia and removed him from contact with students, notified law enforcement and Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and subsequently terminated his employment.

Garcia, a 54-year-old man from Aurora, is facing two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, five counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and four counts of aggravated battery, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office announced on Friday.

Judge Joshua Dieden ordered the former third grade teacher to be detained pre-trial…

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Ahead of a papal visit to France, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV will ‘meet privately with individuals who have been victims of abuse.’ The pontiff promised the Catholic Church would make ‘additional efforts’ to address this issue.

Pope Leo XIV will meet victims of clerical sexual abuse during an official visit to France in September, the Vatican said on Friday, August 7, as it released the itinerary for the trip.

The Holy See did not immediately provide further details about the private meeting, which comes as the pontiff promised to further efforts to reform the Catholic Church in the wake of the global sexual abuse scandal.

“During his upcoming Apostolic Journey to France, Pope Leo XIV will meet privately with individuals who have been victims of abuse within the Church,” the Vatican said. “The victims themselves will be involved in preparing this meeting.”

Around 330,000 French clerical abuse…

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After a two-day trial, a Marion County judge found Christopher Seibert not guilty on all five counts. Seibert was formerly vice principal at Regis St. Mary.

A former Stayton vice principal accused last year of sexually abusing a student has been acquitted of all charges following a bench trial before a Marion County judge.

Police arrested Christopher Seibert in July 2025 after a grand jury indicted him on four counts of first-degree sex abuse and one count of second-degree unlawful sexual penetration.

According to the charging documents, a student under the age of 14 accused Seibert of sex abuse alleged to have occurred between 2022 and 2023, when he was a vice principal at Regis St. Mary Catholic School in Stayton. At the time of the report, Seibert was working at St. Joseph Catholic School in Salem.

Seibert chose to waive his right to a jury trial, preferring…

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[See also the judge’s decision.]

Parishes are often shielded from litigation during federal bankruptcy proceedings, but Judge Heather Cooper said they potentially constitute the “largest assets” in the Burlington Diocese.

Parishes in the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, are “not separate legal entities” from the diocese itself and may be included in bankruptcy proceedings related to Church abuse cases, a federal court ruled this week.

Judge Heather Cooper said in a July 28 decision in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that a committee of abuse victims could seek compensation from the reportedly “hundreds of millions of dollars” tied up in diocesan parishes and other assets.

The diocese had argued in part that opening those assets to legal proceedings would require “substantial” litigation “against over 64 defendants” linked to the diocese, though Cooper said that the federal bankruptcy process helps “streamline” such legal disputes.

Attorneys for the diocese also argued that the parishes…

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On Aug. 9, 1991, two young Polish missionaries were killed by Peru’s Maoist Shining Path guerrillas after refusing to abandon the people they served.

Thirty-five years after Conventual Franciscan Frs. Michal Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strzalkowski were martyred, their legacy endures as a reminder that the Gospel is lived not through privilege, but through closeness to the people entrusted to the church’s care.

For Fr. Jaroslaw Wysoczanski, the only surviving member of the three-man Polish Franciscan team that established the mission in Peru’s western coastal Diocese of Chimbote, the anniversary of their death is not primarily about coming back to the day his friends perished, but rather to why they chose to remain in Peru.

“A good shepherd does not abandon his flock when danger comes,” Wysoczanski, who now ministers to migrants and refugees in El Paso, Texas, told OSV News.

Pope Leo XIV, who spent more than two decades as…

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A judge has permitted abuse survivors to pursue the inclusion of Vermont’s Catholic parishes and schools in settling claims against the Diocese of Burlington, which has been in bankruptcy proceedings since September 2024.

However, several of the parishes had earlier challenged that effort in a federal district court, saying that imposing such liability on parishes, rather than the “alleged offending priests,” is unconstitutional. 

The survivors’ committee is now seeking to have the bankruptcy court enforce an automatic stay that was previously issued by the state superior court on multiple suits brought by survivors against individual parishes. The committee is also asking the court to have the parishes’ challenge declared a violation of both the stay and the bankruptcy code.

The case highlights the ongoing issue of determining to what extent parishes, schools and affiliated Catholic entities may be held financially liable in settling abuse claims against dioceses.

Litigation to focus on…

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Two weeks after the Vatican said its canonical criminal trial of Fr. Marko Rupnik was ongoing, OSV News has learned that 22 previously undisclosed letters from women who belonged to the Slovenian Loyola Community and described alleged abuse by the famed mosaic artist are part of the records of alleged abuse.

The letters, written in 2000 at the request of the community’s superior, Sr. Ivanka Hosta, and addressed directly to Rupnik, are held in the archives of the Loyola Community, which are now in the custody of the Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Slovenia, according to people familiar with the case. In the letters, 22 women described alleged spiritual, psychological and sexual abuse by Rupnik while he was their spiritual director.

On Dec. 15, 2023, the Archdiocese of Ljubljana announced that the Vatican had ordered the Sisters of the Community of Loyola to be dissolved within one year, following a decree issued…

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Jesuit high school deal resolves lawsuit stemming from allegations of molestation by school janitor decades prior

For the second time in as many months, a prominent Catholic high school in New Orleans recently agreed to pay an out-of-court settlement to resolve a lawsuit claiming child molestation decades earlier by a janitor at the institution.

Both the plaintiff and Jesuit high school struck the agreement ahead of a late September trial date in the city’s civil district courthouse, according to 27 July legal filings reviewed by the Guardian.

That pact came after Jesuit and another plaintiff alleging child molestation by the same school janitor – as well as one of his custodian colleagues – served notice in court on 4 June that they had agreed to an out-of-court settlement.

An attorney for both of those plaintiffs, Richard Trahant, in June would not deny that the settlement in that case was worth more than…

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Every week, Bill Guelker, 78, travels 30 miles each way to attend an older Latin Mass celebrated in the woods by a retired priest.

Before Traditionis Custodes, the 2021 guidance from Pope Francis that restricted the older liturgy, Guelker was attending Little Flower parish in St. Louis, Missouri, but then that Mass was canceled, he said.

For Guelker, staying put was not an option after Little Flower switched to the more contemporary English-language liturgy, approved in the wake of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, which aimed to modernize the church.

“I accept that it’s a valid Mass, but it’s a pathetic Mass, said Guelker, who said he attends the older Latin Mass not because of nostalgia, but because the text is “much better and much more helpful in understanding the sacraments.”

Guelker is one of over a million U.S. Catholics who attend the older…

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The bishop of Maine says the Catholic diocese has arrived at “financial resolutions” with a number of clergy sexual-abuse victims.“

Even though pending cases that were decades old no longer had legal standing based on the ruling, the diocese recognizes that the harm caused by sexual abuse is not erased with time and still desired to respond with compassion,” Bishop James Ruggieri said in a statement.

Ruggieri said the payments are *intended to acknowledge, in a tangible way, consistent with our resources and obligations, the seriousness of what has been reported and the lasting impact of abuse.”

Paul Kendrick of Freeport, a spokesman for clergy sexual-abuse victims, called the bishop’s announcement “a public relations ploy designed to protect the identities of priest abusers, keep secret evidence of the church’s failure to protect children and low ball financial compensation for the lifelong harms and injuries inflicted upon victims.”

The Portland-based diocese…

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has begun evaluating the United States’ formal request to extradite Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder Apollo Quiboloy, marking the first step in a legal process that could eventually lead to his surrender to US authorities.

Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez said the request, transmitted through the US Embassy and accepted by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), is now under review by the DOJ’s Office of the State Counsel, the agency tasked with handling extradition proceedings.

US asks Philippines to extradite Quiboloy

“Aaralin nang matindi ng Department of Justice through the Office of State Counsel para tingnan kung ito ay naaayon sa ating extradition law at kung iyan ay consistent sa RP-US Extradition Treaty,” Vasquez said in a DZMM interview on Saturday, August 8.

“Napaka voluminous kasi ng mga documents na pinadala ng US through the US Embassy na pinadaan nila earlier sa Department…

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Arizona justices unanimously ruled on Thursday (July 30) that trial courts couldn’t interfere in church leaders’ decision to report sexual abuse cases disclosed in confession, according to their own interpretation of religious doctrine.

The Arizona State Supreme Court ruled that church leaders do not need to report cases of sexual abuse, disclosed during confessions, to authorities, in a lawsuit brought against a man who confessed to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bishops to sexually abusing his daughter. 

Arizona justices unanimously ruled on Thursday (July 30) that trial courts couldn’t interfere in church leaders’ decision to report sexual abuse cases disclosed in confession, according to their own interpretation of religious doctrine.

“We hold that the First Amendment generally prohibits fact finders from inquiring into a clergy member’s application of his particular religious doctrine — absent fraud or collusion for secular purposes — in determining whether reporting should be withheld…

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Decades of Vermont bishops, not just the current ones, bear responsibility for hiding clergy abuse.

Letters to the editor are brief reader responses to stories and opinion pieces published by VTDigger. Letters give voice to community members and do not represent VTDigger’s views. To submit a letter, follow the instructions here

Dear Editor,

I’m writing to thank VTDigger reporter Kevin O’Connor for shining a light on corruption in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington in its effort to prevent justice for survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Vermont. There is plenty of shame to go around.

Let’s start with Vermont’s former bishop, Christopher Coyne, and his once second-in-command, John McDermott. According to a whistleblower, a woman who applied for the position of chief financial officer of the diocese, Coyne and McDermott moved the diocese’s money so they could claim that the diocese was broke when it came time to pay the…

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A former Cheektowaga priest who was removed from the clergy because of accusations that he sexually abused children has been employed to work with seniors at a Buffalo nonprofit for the last 13 years.

David Bialkowski, the former head of St. John Gualbert Catholic Church in Cheektowaga, has been working as a Senior Service Case Manager at the Lt. Col. Matt Urban Human Service Center since 2013.

Bialkowski, who is named on the Diocese of Buffalo’s list of clergy with substantiated claims of sexual abuse and is accused in two Child Victims Act lawsuits, was removed from his parish in 2011 and kicked off the diocese’s payroll in 2020, before being removed from the clergy altogether by the Vatican at some point between 2020 and 2025 – a process known as laicization or defrocking.

In a 2020 interview with the Buffalo News, Bialkowski denied that he sexually abused any child or…

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Pope Leo XIV will meet with victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church during his planned trip to France from September 25 to 28, the Vatican said Friday. The Holy See did not immediately provide details about the meeting, which comes after the pontiff vowed to further efforts within the Church to address its sex abuse scandals.

Pope Leo XIV will meet with survivors of clergy abuse during a four-day trip to France next month that will include a visit to UNESCO headquarters, a meeting with French bishops in Lourdes and an interreligious meeting in the border city of Metz, the Vatican announced on Friday.

The Vatican issued a brief separate statement highlighting the meeting with several abuse survivors and noting that the victims themselves will be involved in preparations for the meeting. The timing and location will be provided at a later date. 

Leo met with six abuse survivors during his recent…

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Pope Leo XIV will make a four-day apostolic journey to France Sept. 25-28, with a program that stretches from the Élysée Palace and UNESCO in Paris to the Marian shrine of Lourdes and a final stop in Metz, and it will include a private meeting with victims of abuse in the Church, the Vatican has confirmed.

The Holy See Press Office released the detailed schedule Aug. 7, along with a statement to journalists saying, “During his upcoming Apostolic Journey to France, Pope Leo XIV will meet privately with several victims of abuse in the Church. The victims themselves will be involved in preparing for this event. Further details may be provided later.”

The motto of the trip, “That the world may have life,” can be clearly read through the prism of a recent vote made by French lawmakers to legalize “assisted dying,” a move that French bishops called a “radical choice.”

Paris:…

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 Pope Leo XIV will meet with survivors of clergy abuse during a four-day trip to France next month that will include a visit to UNESCO headquarters, a meeting with French bishops in Lourdes and an interreligious meeting in the border city of Metz, the Vatican announced on Friday.

The Vatican issued a brief separate statement highlighting the meeting with several abuse survivors and noting that the victims themselves will be involved in preparations for the meeting. The timing and location will be provided at a later date.

Leo met with six abuse survivors during his recent trip to Spain, where the Catholic hierarchy has only recently begun reckoning with its legacy of abuse and cover-up after long dismissing the severity of the scandal.

In France, a 2021 report estimated 330,000 children had been sexually abused over 70 years by church personnel. The pontiff last month signaled commitment to continuing the  View Cache

Pope Leo will visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from November 6 to ​17, the Vatican announced on Wednesday, ‌in a major trip for the Catholic leader who spent decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru ​before becoming pope last year.

The pope ​will spend November 6-8 in Uruguay, 8-11 ⁠in Argentina and 11-17 in Peru, the ​Vatican said.

The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.

Leo, the first U.S.-born pontiff, is also ​a citizen of Peru, where he served as bishop of Chiclayo, in the northwest, from 2015 to 2023.

The ​pope will visit Chiclayo as well as ​Lima, Cusco and Pucallpa while in Peru, the Vatican said. ‌In ⁠Argentina, he will visit Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Lujan. In Uruguay, he will visit Montevideo, Paysandú and Florida.

The Vatican did not offer further ​details about ​the visits, ⁠saying the…

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A local pastor has been charged with indecency with a child, according to the Edinburg Police Department.

Police say Jorge Gonzalez Martinez, 49, was arrested Monday without incident following a police report that was filed earlier this month.

According to a police summary report obtained by ValleyCentral, Martinez was arrested at Iglesia Internacional Poder y Gloria in Edinburg.

ValleyCentral spoke to a woman who identified herself as Martinez’s wife, who said she could not comment on the case but maintained that her husband is innocent.

The alleged incidents happened between March and April 2025, according to investigators.

Edinburg police Chief Jaime Ayala said police began investigating after a girl made an outcry.

More children have come forward with allegations against Martinez, but the investigative findings did not rise to the level of more criminal offenses, Ayala said.

“Part of why we wanted to push this out, if there’s potentially any…

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Monte Chitty, 64, will be a sex offender for life

A Marathon pastor who briefly fled to Texas while facing charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl at his church in 2024 took a plea deal on Thursday, receiving a six-year state prison sentence.

Leer en español

Preacher-turned-fugitive Monte Chitty will now have to register as a sex offender for life. Facing a judge in Marathon on Thursday, the 64-year-old pleaded no contest to sexual battery of a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies first arrested Chitty, then 62, on March 4, 2024, one day after they said he abused the girl.

Graphic texts, searches incriminate pastor

Investigators said while serving as pastor of First Baptist Marathon, located at 200 62nd St., he provided alcohol to the victim ― who believed the beverage was “spiked” ― and she passed out…

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A complaint against Rev Canon Andrew Cornes under the Church of England’s Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) has been upheld by a Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal.

Rev Canon Andrew Cornes was told in 1982 by a young man that he had been abused by John Smyth, but a Church of England disciplinary tribunal has found he failed to take appropriate action.

The Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal found that Canon Cornes, who was then an assistant curate at All Souls’, Langham Place, should have reported the information, made further enquiries, or taken steps to protect others after learning about the abuse.

The tribunal ruled that, although safeguarding procedures were not in place at the time, his decision to take no further action amounted to neglect in the performance of his duties as a priest.

It found the misconduct charge against him proved. A separate decision on sanction has not yet been published.

The complaint…

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A suspended Catholic priest on a tiny Caribbean island is embracing calypso to make his voice heard on topics including Gaza and sexual abuse within the church.

Father Gerard Paul, who hails from Grenada, can no longer officiate masses, funerals, weddings or baptisms after repeatedly criticizing the church and clergy. But that hasn’t stopped him from preaching via the lilting rhythms of calypso, an Afro-Caribbean music genre known for its witty lyrics and satirical social commentary.

“It’s a kind of pulpit for me,” Paul told The Associated Press in a phone interview this week.

The 64-year-old priest made his debut this year at Spicemas, Grenada’s biggest soca and calypso carnival. Like many annual carnivals across the Caribbean, it celebrates rebellion against enslavement. Paul sang his way into the finals and is scheduled to compete as “Father Paul” against 10 other singers this weekend, including “Killa B” and “Sour Serpent.”

Paul…

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Click below for video:

https://www.fox8live.com/video/2026/08/07/clergy-sex-abuse-survivors-accuse-new-orleans-archdiocese-delaying-multimillion-dollar-settlement

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Deputies arrested Deacon Kenneth Goedeke after he reportedly arranged a meeting with what he believed was a 15-year-old boy.

A deacon in the Archdiocese of Baltimore has been removed from ministry after he was arrested by law enforcement on charges of sexually soliciting a minor.

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office said Deacon Kenneth Goedeke was arrested after arranging a meeting with what he believed was a 15-year-old boy.

Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said in an official statement on Aug. 6 that the 45-year-old Goedeke had been communicating with an undercover detective rather than an underage boy. He was charged with two counts of soliciting a minor.

Gahler in the statement said he was “angry” and “disgusted” but added that he was “deeply thankful” to detectives for “intervening before a child was harmed.”

In a separate statement on Aug. 6, the Archdiocese of Baltimore confirmed Goedeke’s…

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A former priest-in-training will serve 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing child porn, according to the DeSoto County District Attorney’s Office.

Johnathan Tu Nguyen-Vuong, 25, was convicted of child exploitation involving the possession, uploading, and downloading of child sexual abuse material.

He was sentenced to 25 years, with 10 years suspended, in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, prosecutors said.Former priest-in-training pleads guilty to child sex crime

Nguyen-Vuong will have 15 years of post-release supervision and will have to register as a sex offender.

In July 2025, deputies participated in an ongoing investigation that involved the transmission of child sexual abuse material over the internet.

During the investigation, they found a device located at St. Michael’s Community House in Nesbit, Miss., that had child sexual abuse material.

Priest-in-training accused of possessing child porn

After obtaining a search warrant, Nguyen-Vuong was identified as the suspect responsible, authorities…

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Defense lawyer says prosecutors failed to prove specific acts that constituted a crime under Vietnamese law

An Ede Protestant pastor from an ethnic minority in Vietnam’s Central Highlands has been sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for allegedly undermining the policy of national unity, in a case his lawyer says failed to establish specific acts constituting a crime.

The People’s Court of Dak Lak province sentenced Pastor Y Nuen Ayun, 59, on Aug. 5 and ordered him to serve four years of probation after his release.

His wife and children attended the trial, which lasted just over two hours, according to his lawyer, Ha Huy Son.

Nuen Ayun was arrested at his home Oct. 7, 2025. Authorities accused him of using the Central Highlands Protestant Church of Christ as a cover for activities that violated national security.

Prosecutors alleged that he received more than 7.7 million dong…

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Pope Leo XIV will meet privately with survivors of clerical sexual abuse during a four-day visit to France next month. On Friday, the Vatican published the itinerary for the 25–28 September trip – the first papal state visit to the country since Benedict XVI visited in 2008.

The Holy See said the survivors themselves would help prepare the encounter, with the time and place to be confirmed later, according to Associated Press.

The meeting follows Leo’s recent trip to Spain, where he met six abuse victims and pledged that the Church would step up efforts to tackle abuse.

The issue remains raw in France, where a landmark 2021 inquiry estimated that some 330,000 minors had been abused by clergy or lay Church workers over seven decades.

French Catholic church sex abuse: nearly 1,600 compensation claims since 2022

Last month the pontiff appointed French bishop Thibault Verny to…

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In short: 

The judge in the trial of the former Catholic Bishop of Broome has instructed the jurors that it is not necessary for them to return verdicts on seven sexual assault charges. 

Christopher Alan Saunders, 76, remains accused of 19 sex offences against three young men when he was the Bishop of Broome. 

What’s next? 

Mr Saunders has chosen not to give evidence in his defence, with closing arguments scheduled to start on Monday. 

The judge presiding over the sexual abuse trial of a former Western Australian Catholic bishop has told the jury to disregard seven charges against him, because of a lack of evidence to convict him.

Christopher Alan Saunders, 76, was one of Australia’s longest-serving Catholic clerics and is accused of committing 26 sexual offences against three young men when he was the Bishop of Broome in WA’s north.

But on Friday morning, Judge Martin Flynn…

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The United States has formally asked the Philippine government to extradite Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo Quiboloy to face trial on charges including child sex trafficking and fraud that landed him on the federal most wanted list.

The US request for extradition was sent to the Department of Justice in Manila through the Department of Foreign Affairs in July, Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez said yesterday. The DFA confirmed receiving the extradition request, and said it has been endorsed to the DOJ.

One of Quiboloy’s lawyers  said yesterday afternoon that they have yet to receive any notice that the pastor, once an influential adviser to former president Rodrigo Duterte, is being sought for extradition.

“I have yet to verify that because as of the present, my office did not receive any notification to that effect, and I reserve my comments about that report pending receipt of a formal…

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Bishop Hendricken High School, an all-male Catholic prep school in Warwick, Rhode Island, has faced a string of publicly documented sexual misconduct allegations involving school leadership dating back to 1986. The accused include a principal, a vice principal, and a priest credibly accused by the Diocese of Providence, raising questions about oversight at the school across four decades.

1986: The Principal Is Arrested

On January 1, 1986, Brother John M. Walderman, then the school’s 40-year-old principal, was arrested on morals charges after allegedly soliciting a 17-year-old boy for sex, reportedly offering to pay him. He was released on his own personal recognizance and did not return to the school. Published reports indicate the charge was later dropped.

2004: A Vice Principal Is Arrested for Soliciting a Minor Online

In December 2004, Vice Principal Timothy Sheldon was arrested after allegedly holding a sexually explicit online conversation with an adult volunteer posing…

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore was informed by the Harford County Sheriff’s Office of the arrest of Kenneth Goedeke on charges of soliciting a minor. Goedeke served as a deacon at St. Margaret Parish in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and began employment at St. Ignatius Church in Hickory in July of 2026. According to communications from law enforcement officials, these charges are not related to anyone at the parishes or schools where he served.

Pursuant to Archdiocesan policy, the Archdiocese removed Goedeke’s faculties to function as a deacon and suspended him from ministry and employment, pending the results of a full investigation.

Deacon Goedeke was ordained as a deacon in 2023. He served at St. Patrick Havre de Grace and St. Joan of Arc in Aberdeen before working at St. Margaret Church in Bel Air, beginning in 2025. Goedeke previously worked at St. Isaac Jogues Church from 2005 to 2012 and…

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Popular pastor Kenny Baldwin arrested on 13 counts involving sexual exploitation of PA minor.

Kenneth Baldwin, 47, the former senior pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, has been arrested and charged with sexually explicit communication and conduct with a minor from York County, Pennsylvania, that allegedly started when the male victim was 15.

Baldwin faces 13 criminal charges in Pennsylvania, including two felony counts of unlawful contact with a minor, two counts of corruption of a minor, three misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure, and six misdemeanor counts of open lewdness. He was released on an $80,000 unsecured bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing this month. As with all defendants, Baldwin is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

Pennsylvania State Police said Baldwin sent the teen weekly explicit text messages and nude photos via text message and WhatsApp between…

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A Roman Catholic deacon who served at St. Margaret Parish in Bel Air has been arrested and charged with two counts of sexual solicitation of a minor after he allegedly arranged to meet someone he believed was a 15-year-old boy for sexual activity. The person on the other end of the conversation was actually an undercover detective, and 45-year-old Kenneth Goedeke, who lives in Bel Air, was taken into custody before any child was harmed, according to authorities.

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said detectives intervened before a child was harmed, a detail confirmed by WBAL News Radio in its report on the case. The sheriff’s office reported that the church deacon was arrested on two counts of sexual solicitation of a minor after communicating and arranging to meet the undercover detective. The investigation was carried out through the sheriff’s Child Advocacy Center, which has run an Internet…

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A deacon for the Catholic Church in Maryland’s Harford County has been arrested and charged with two counts of sexual solicitation of a minor, the sheriff’s department announced on Thursday. 

Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler identified the suspect as 45-year-old Kenneth Goedeke, of Bel Air, Maryland. 

Gahler said in a statement that Goedeke was taken into custody by deputies after communicating with an undercover detective whom he believed to be a 15-year-old boy. The suspect then allegedly arrived at a location to engage in sexual activity with the child.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore released a statement confirming that Goedeke served as a Catholic Church deacon and former Catholic school teacher. It said that before Goedeke was hired, he underwent “a thorough employment screening, which included FBI/CJIS fingerprint criminal history check, and a comprehensive background and reference check.”

Archdiocese of Baltimore statement

The Archdiocese of Baltimore said it was informed by the Harford…

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A teacher and church deacon was arrested on two counts of sexual solicitation of a minor, according to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.

Kenneth Goedeke, 45, of Bel Air, was taken into custody Wednesday after communicating and arranging to meet with an undercover detective whom he believed to be a 15-year-old boy allegedly to engage in sexual activity with the child, the sheriff’s office said.

A judge on Thursday denied bail for Goedeke.

According to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Goedeke served as a deacon at St. Margaret Parish and he started working at St. Ignatius Church in Hickory in July. Citing law enforcement, the archdiocese said the charges against Goedeke are not related to anyone at the parishes or schools where he served.

Per archdiocesan policy, Goedeke has been removed as a deacon and is suspended him from ministry and employment, pending an investigation.

The archdiocese said Goedeke was ordained…

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A former vice principal at Regis St. Mary’s School, in Stayton, has been acquitted of sexual abuse charges following a three-day trial in Marion County Circuit Court.

Christopher Wayne Seibert, 57, of Salem, was acquitted by Judge Thomas Hart on Wednesday after Hart determined there was not enough evidence to support a conviction.

The case has been closed and Seibert has no other pending criminal matters.

He was indicted July 11, 2025, on four counts of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of second-degree unlawful sexual penetration after a former student claimed Seibert allegedly touched her inappropriately. Seibert denied wrongdoing and was released on $250,000 bail.

The trial began Monday and Seibert waived his right to a jury, allowing a judge to hear evidence and determine guilt instead of jurors. Both the prosecution and the defense presented numerous witnesses including law enforcement, school employees, social workers and those who personally…

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A $30-million settlement over alleged historical abuse at two Vancouver-area Catholic schools has been approved by the B.C. Supreme Court, but the deal could unravel after the judge gave 12 former students permission to leave the class action and pursue their own lawsuits.

Justice Simon Coval acknowledged the issue of the former students opting out of the class action was “particularly thorny” because it could allow the three settling defendants — Vancouver College, St. Thomas More Collegiate and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver — to cancel the settlement.

However, in the ruling released July 30, Coval said he had “no hesitation” approving the settlement as fair, reasonable and in the best interests of class members, saying it would provide compensation more quickly through an individualized, confidential and trauma-informed process while sparing survivors a lengthy trial.

The agreement, signed Feb. 4 by the plaintiffs and the three settling defendants, does…

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Paragraph 89 is perhaps my favorite passage from Pope Leo’s encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. It’s at the end of a short section titled “An examen for the Church,” where Pope Leo makes the case that the Church must live out its own social doctrine “within its own structures” in order to be faithful to the Gospel and to be a credible witness to the world.

In all of the teaching I’ve done about spiritual abuse in the Catholic Church, I’ve contextualized spiritual abuse within the principles and framework of Catholic social doctrine. I do this because I believe the Church’s teaching on things like human dignity, freedom, conscience, subsidiarity, structures of sin, and solidarity can not only show how gravely harmful spiritual abuse is, but also how abuse of power is a systemic problem in the Church that we all can participate in or choose to disrupt. And…

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Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of sexual assault that may be disturbing to some readers. Sexual assault resources for victims and their loved ones are available at the bottom of this story.

A Pueblo County pastor arrested in March 2025 on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl when he was a youth pastor in Fountain was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust.

Stephen Hutto, 46, is set to be sentenced for the two felony charges in October after an El Paso County jury found him guilty on July 10.

Hutto was previously a youth pastor at Fountain Independent Baptist Church and, at the time of his arrest, was the pastor of Highlands Baptist Church in Boone in Pueblo County, according to a news release from the Fountain Police Department.

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Listen to this ABC Radio National program on the original article.

“Women religious” have led major education, health and charitable institutions. 

They’re a social media hit. Images of nuns playing sport, singing, and generally having a great time proliferate on Instagram. 

But they’ve also been victims of their own church. 

Tracy McEwan and Kathleen McPhillips of the University of Newcastle are running a new project to document the experiences of religious sisters affected by sexual and gendered violence.  

GUEST:

• Dr Tracy McEwan is a sociologist of religion and gender in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle

This program is recorded on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation

Credits

• Andrew West, Presenter
• Amanda Roberts, Producer

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The Roman Catholic congregation has been accused of using tactics that delay settling civil abuse claims and litigations by legal representatives for victims of historical childhood abuse

The Christian Brothers has denied claims it is delaying settlements, adding it has paid out over €40m to more than 200 victims of abuse.

The Roman Catholic congregation has been accused of using tactics that delay settling civil abuse claims and litigations by legal representatives for victims of historical childhood abuse.

Last week, the High Court granted permission for the publication in the Irish Independent of the names of 341 former Christian Brothers who are now co-defendants accused of a breach of duty in a civil abuse claim. They are not accused of any assaults.

The names were published on Tuesday this week in a legal notice in the Irish Independent.

In a statement to the Irish Independent on Wednesday, the Christian Brothers said its focus remained “resolutely…

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A U.S. Bankruptcy Court will allow clergy abuse claimants to sue for an estimated half-billion dollars in parish assets to fund settlements under the Vermont Roman Catholic Diocese’s current financial reorganization case.

In a written order, Burlington-based Judge Heather Cooper said creditors can pursue not only the highest-level bank and building holdings of the state’s largest religious denomination, but also the trust-sheltered local property and possessions of nearly 70 parishes — from St. Edward the Confessor in northernmost Derby Line, population 687, to St. Joachim in southernmost Readsboro, population 702.

The order doesn’t promise any parish assets, but simply permits abuse claimants to file a lawsuit — what the bankruptcy court labels an “adversary proceeding” — to determine whether they’re entitled to local holdings.

“Unless settled,” Cooper wrote of the question in her July 28 ruling, “there may be years of litigation ahead and millions of dollars spent in attorneys’…

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Survivor advocates are renewing calls for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence to release internal records after a man reported an allegation of childhood sexual abuse involving the late Rev. Raymond C. Theroux.

According to an attorney, the man alleges that Theroux sexually abused him twice inside the rectory of St. John Vianney Parish in Cumberland, Rhode Island, around 1996. The impacted individual was approximately 9 years old at the time of the alleged misconduct.

Theroux served at St. John Vianney for 28 years and died in December 2024. The Diocese of Providence said it had not been notified of an allegation or lawsuit involving him when contacted about the advocates’ claims. The reported allegation comes as Rhode Island gives childhood sexual abuse survivors a limited opportunity to bring certain civil claims that may previously have been blocked by filing deadlines.

Theroux Was Not Included in the Attorney General’s Report

In…

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The status hearing for Acadia Parish Catholic priest Korey Lavergne, accused of indecent behavior with a juvenile, has been postponed until next week.

The new date is set for Thursday, July 23. The hearing was initially set for June 12 but was moved to allow for a new judge to preside over the case. Judge David Smith recused himself due to personal connections to the church and to avoid any concern of bias.

Lavergne was arrested Jan. 17, and pleaded not guilty to all charges March 20.

Judge Scott Privat is the new judge who will take over the status hearing and possibly set new dates to move the case forward.

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Portsmouth Abbey School, a Catholic boarding and day school run by Benedictine monks in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, has confronted sexual abuse allegations twice in recent years, separated by decades. One case involved monks accused of abusing students between 1959 and the early 1980s. The other involved a teacher accused of abusing a student beginning during her sophomore year at the school. Together, they show how institutional failures to protect children can repeat themselves across generations.

An Investigation Confirms Decades-Old Abuse by Monks

In August 2017, Portsmouth Abbey released the findings of an investigation by the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, which the school and monastery commissioned to review allegations of sexual abuse within the monastic community. The investigation found credible allegations of sexual abuse by two former monks, Father Bede Gorman and Father Geoffrey Chase, dating back as far as 1959 and continuing into the early 1980s. Both men were…

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In the spirit of transparency and full cooperation with law enforcement authorities, the Diocese of Buffalo wishes to provide the following background concerning the status of Jeffrey Nowak as a suspended priest of the Diocese and further details relating to his removal from active ministry:

In 2019, the Diocese was advised of numerous complaints about Rev. Nowak.  None of the complaints included any allegation of inappropriate sexual contact, possession of child pornography or sexual abuse of a minor.  However, given clear evidence of inappropriate conduct of Jeffrey Nowak with adults, then-Bishop Richard Malone removed him indefinitely from active ministry in 2019.  The Diocese further required Rev. Nowak to engage in professional counseling which he repeatedly failed to do. In 2020, then-Apostolic Administrator Bishop Edward Scharfenberger reviewed Rev. Nowak’s circumstances and decided to remove him from the Office of Pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians through a process required by canon law, despite…

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A one-person show about surviving clergy abuse is coming to Western Massachusetts later this month and its performer says what happens after the curtain falls is just as important as the play itself.

“Unreconciled,” written and performed by Jay Sefton, is rooted in his own childhood experience growing up outside of Philadelphia. He said he was cast to play Jesus in an eighth-grade passion play directed by a parish priest who was later defrocked and named in a grand jury report for sexual abuse of minors.

Humor and hope alongside heavy subject matter

Sefton said he understands why some audiences may hesitate to attend a show on this topic, but said the goal is connection, not shock.

“I think the humor is the thing that surprises people and also the hopefulness,” Sefton explained. “It can be intimidating to come and see a solo show about clergy abuse and so lots…

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A priest identified as Enrique “N” has been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of a minor girl based on a preliminary investigation. The Archdiocese of Mexico has initiated a canonical investigation.

The Mexico City attorney generalʼs office announced the arrest of a priest from the Archdiocese of Mexico accused of aggravated child sexual abuse against a 17-year-old girl and stated that a judge has already initiated criminal proceedings against him.

Obtuvimos la vinculación a proceso de Enrique “N” por su probable participación en el delito de pederastia agravada, en perjuicio de una adolescente.

La investigación inició a partir de la denuncia presentada el 4 de junio de 2026 por la madre de la adolescente, quien refirió haber encontrado en el teléfono celular de su hija conversaciones de contenido sexual con un contacto identificado como “Winnie Poo”. La víctima manifestó que dicho contacto correspondía a Enrique “N”, identificado como sacerdote,…

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Pawleys Island Community Church pastor could not be reached to answer questions about Power of Attorney

A registered sex offender accused of violating his probation by working near children answered his door, but not WMBF’s questions on Thursday.

70-year-old Warren Spence Perry, of Murrell’s Inlet, was arrested on July 14. The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office said Perry violated his probation by doing volunteer work at Pawleys Island Community Church, which also runs an elementary school, preschool, and nursery.

Perry was convicted of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor in 2023 for a crime committed in 2020.

WMBF has contacted the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services to inquire why Perry’s probation officer did not know of his activities at PICC, but has not received a response yet.

Perry declines to answer questions

WMBF reporter Sydney Ryan knocked on Perry’s door Thursday to ask why he worked near children…

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The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a Hollister man for sexually assaulting at least four children, and authorities believe there could be additional victims.

Emmanuel Marchica, 51, of Hollister, was arrested and booked on July 10, 2026, on charges of lewd or lascivious acts with a child, sexual penetration of a child, oral copulation of a child, and annoying or molesting a child, according to a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.

On July 5, a report of ongoing sexual abuse of a child was made to the sheriff’s office. Investigators followed up by interviewing witnesses and subsequently identified several other victims, according to the sheriff’s office.

Based on the evidence, authorities said there was enough to book Marchica into the Monterey County Jail.

The investigation uncovered victims whose disclosures date back to 2012. Based on this and other evidence gathered, the spokesperson said there is reason to suspect there…

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A former Mississippi educator is in custody after police say she had sexual relations with a student.

Olivia Marie Smith has been charged with sexual battery and enticement of a child to meet for sexual purposes.

Smith previously worked as a teacher at Ocean Springs Middle School, where she won “Teacher of the Year” in 2022, and was most recently assistant principal at Oak Park Elementary.

Investigators with the Ocean Springs Police Department said they were first informed of the situation by Ocean Springs School District officials on June 20.

The district said it was “deeply saddened” to hear about the charges being filed against one of its former employees but said it was fully cooperating with the investigation.

“After being tipped off about potential inappropriate behavior taking place involving an employee, OSSD immediately notified OSPD and Mississippi Child Protective Services,” the district shared in a statement. “OSSD has been…

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Members of St. Sabina Catholic Church are standing by their pastor, Fr. Michael Pfleger, and they’re demanding that the Archdiocese make some changes to how it handles sexual abuse allegations after the priest was accused of wrongdoing for the third time.

“While we fully recognize the church’s sacred responsibility to take every allegation seriously, and to ensure that every person who comes forward is heard with compassion, dignity and respect, we can no longer remain silent about the devastating impact of a process that has repeatedly demonstrated itself to be fundamentally unjust to those who are accused,” said church leader Felicia Chase, standing with about two dozen church members in the basement at St. Sabina.

She said it is “unjust and unnecessary” for the Cardinal to publicly announce that an allegation has been made and to remove the priest before there has been an investigation, without taking into account how…

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Leaders and parishioners at Saint Sabina Church are calling for the reinstatement of Father Michael Pfleger and demanding the Archdiocese of Chicago reform its investigation policy, days after the senior pastor was removed from the church amid sexual abuse allegations. 

Pfleger is being investigated for an accusation of sexual abuse against a girl when she was a student at Saint Sabina School between 1993-95, the senior pastor said in a July 11 statement. 

The Archdiocese of Chicago asked Pfleger to step aside from his role at the parish and live off campus while the accusation is investigated, Cardinal Blase Cupich previously wrote in a letter to parishioners.

“We do not presume the truth or falsity of an allegation until the process is complete and our Independent Review Board has made a recommendation that I accept,” Cupich wrote in the letter. “Only by conducting a thorough and impartial review…

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