ABUSE TRACKER

Details can be revealed as one diocese argues it has no immediately available funds to pay abuse victims

Catholic dioceses with parishes in Northern Ireland are sitting on cash and assets totalling more than £400m.

Trusts overseeing the finances of Down and Connor, Derry, Clogher, Dromore and the Archdiocese of Armagh had close to £200m in the bank or investments, with income in 2024 reaching approximately £70m.

Details of the total funds held by the dioceses can be revealed as Dromore, administered by Archbishop Eamon Martin, asks a court to decide what cash and assets it can use to pay those abused by Malachy Finegan, the deceased former principal of St Colman’s College in Newry.

In total, across all four dioceses and the archdiocese, funds held amounted to £438m. This includes more than £180m in cash and investments.

Only Down and Connor, and Dromore are entirely within Northern Ireland.

Dromore…

View Cache

In the Catholic tradition, repentance begins with truth. It requires acknowledging harm, accepting responsibility and committing to change. Bankruptcy, by contrast, is a legal process. It exists to manage risk, limit exposure and bring disputes to procedural closure. When the church turns to bankruptcy to resolve clergy sexual abuse claims, the gap between those two ideas becomes difficult to ignore.

I am currently serving in a court-appointed role representing abuse survivors in a diocesan bankruptcy. I cannot discuss confidential details of that case. What I can describe is the structure survivors encounter once abuse enters the bankruptcy system and the unease many feel as deeply personal harm is absorbed into a process designed for financial claims.

In bankruptcy, language matters. Survivors become “claimants.” Abuse is categorized, scheduled and valued. Deadlines replace dialogue. The process is orderly and neutral by design. But for those who were harmed, nothing about this experience…

View Cache

Cardinal Pierre turns 80 on Friday. Who will follow him?

The long-serving apostolic nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, turns 80 on Friday. While the cardinal’s replacement may take a few days, or even a week to be announced by the Holy See, there is no doubt that the guard will soon be changed.

Media reports continue to speculate on who might be named to replace Pierre in one of the Vatican’s most senior and visible diplomatic postings — one made all the more sensitive by the ascension of the second Trump administration and the election of the first American pope last year.

While nothing is certain until the official announcement, some names have emerged as rumored or theorized front runners — among them current Vatican sostituto Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra — even if there appears little to recommend the logic of their prospective appointments.

Meanwhile, other, less remarked upon…

View Cache

A Contra Costa County jury on Wednesday convicted Richmond pastor Emilio Alberto Esperanza-Pacheco of sexually abusing a child in his congregation, a verdict that could carry life behind bars. Jurors found the 52-year-old guilty of five counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and 10 counts of forcible lewd acts for conduct prosecutors say happened between June and October 2023. Judge Danielle Douglas has set a sentencing hearing for April 9 at the Martinez courthouse. Prosecutors say the victim and her family

Verdict and charges

The jury convicted Esperanza-Pacheco on five counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 and 10 counts of forcible lewd acts, including a forcible lewd act committed during a burglary. Prosecutors told jurors the offenses occurred between June 1 and Oct. 14, 2023, and that the defendant used his position at God’s Lighthouse of Truth Church and a friendship with the family…

View Cache

De haber reincidencia, se debe acudir a denunciar formalmente y pueden dirigirse al comisión de protección de menores del obispado: Víctor Ledesma

Celaya, Gto.- Sin una denuncia formal de por medio, no se puede dar seguimiento a las declaraciones dadas por el colectivo de víctimas de abuso sexual, donde señalan que un sacerdote adscrito a la diócesis de Celaya presuntamente habría abusado sexualmente de niñas en años pasados, así lo señaló el obispo de la diócesis de Celaya, Víctor Alejandro Aguilar Ledesma.

Esto, luego de que en días atrás el Colectivo de Víctimas de Abuso Sexual de Apaseo el Grande hizo pública esta situación, en donde señalan presuntos actos de violación y presunto abuso sexual contra niñas y adolescentes por parte de un sacerdote identificado como Roberto Carlos.

El comunicado hizo público que el sacerdote Roberto Carlos, actual representante legal de la Diócesis de Celaya, tiene un historial de presunto abuso.

“Durante varios años fuimos víctimas de conductas que vulneraron de manera profunda nuestra integridad física,…

View Cache

Two former Gateway Church elders on Friday have lost their bid to be removed from a $1 million defamation lawsuit filed by sexual assault survivor Cindy Clemishire.

Dallas County Judge Emily Tobolowsky issued the ruling after a hearing Friday, saying the case can move forward.

Steve Dulin and Kevin Grove, both former elders, had argued they shouldn’t be part of the suit under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, legislation designed to protect people from meritless or retaliatory legal claims.

Defamation suit filed

Clemishire and her father filed the suit against Gateway Church in June of last year.  It names the church, its founding pastor, Robert Morris, wife, Debbie, along with former and current elders and a staff member.  In their suit, the Clemishires alleged the church downplayed and mischaracterized abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of Mr. Morris.

In November, the Fifth Court of Appeals…

View Cache

Group meetings are part of a $305 million settlement resolving hundreds of clergy abuse claims and come as Archbishop Gregory Aymond prepares to retire.

NEW ORLEANS — A small number of victims of clergy abuse filed into the Holy Name of Jesus Parish Center on Friday for the first of 10 group meetings with Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans agreed to the meetings as part of its bankruptcy settlement late last year. Group and one-on-one meetings are some of the nonmonetary terms of a settlement that’s expected to pay about 600 abuse survivors $305 million.

The church set the schedule for group meetings, with two each day for the next five days. Some survivors complained about the tight schedule during Carnival and Super Bowl weekend, but Aymond said he was “befuddled” by the criticism, pointing out that the church advertised the meetings in January and explaining a…

View Cache

Lafayette lawyer went from defending pedophile priest Gilbert Gauthe to crusading to expose breadth of US church’s coverup

Ray Mouton, a Lafayette attorney whose work helped crack open the Catholic Church’s long-hidden clergy sexual abuse crisis, died Thursday morning at Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson after a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 78.

Mouton’s path to becoming one of the earliest and most influential figures in exposing systemic abuse inside the Church was deeply personal — and professionally paradoxical. In the 1980s, he was hired by the Diocese of Lafayette to defend Gilbert Gauthe, a priest charged with raping children.

Mouton successfully negotiated a plea deal for Gauthe to serve a 20-year prison sentence. The case effectively started the US’s reckoning with the worldwide Catholic clergy molestation scandal, though Gauthe was released from prison after just a decade.

And in the course of that work, Mouton became privy to…

View Cache

Former priest Mark Ford indicted for allegedly victimizing a boy between ages 12 and 14, between 2006 and 2008.

A man accused of molesting a disabled boy whom he met while working as a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans has been indicted on child rape charges, according to authorities.

An Orleans Parish grand jury on Thursday handed up a nine-count indictment against Mark Francis Ford, nearly five months after authorities arrested him and jailed him without bail. The document charges Ford, 64, with aggravated rape of a child; raping a person suffering from a physical disability preventing resistance; two counts of molesting a juvenile; another three of indecent behavior with a minor; and kidnapping.

Ford is only the latest figure to come under authorities’ scrutiny during the longstanding clergy molestation scandal within the New Orleans Catholic Church. Prosecutors allege that he committed the offenses cited in the indictment between 2006…

View Cache

The student, who tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection in October, described inappropriate physical contact by a teacher at the Solomon Schechter Day School, according to the Boston Globe.

Multiple investigations are underway, and a private school teacher in Newton, Massachusetts, has been placed on leave after a young child, who tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection, reported the teacher touched them inappropriately.

The Boston Globe reports officials at the Solomon Schechter Day School sent an email to parents on Jan. 15, saying a student at the lower school “described inappropriate physical contact by a teacher at the school during the previous school year.”

The student’s age was not disclosed by school officials, however the lower elementary school is attended by students in pre-kindergarten through third grade. Solomon Schechter‘s head of school, Rebecca Lurie, and the board of trustees’ president, Eytan…

View Cache

For the second time in less than a year, Clovis Unified School District in Fresno County is being accused of ignoring sexual abuse, the Fresno Bee reported. 

A former Clovis North High School student is suing the school district and two men convicted of sex crimes in other cases. She alleges that the men groomed students and that they were able to do so because of the district’s lack of oversight, the Bee reported. 

The lawsuit, filed Dec. 19, alleges that the school’s drama teacher, Andrew Cardillo, often behaved inappropriately toward students and allowed community member and parent Michael Conner into the classroom, according to The Bee. Conner allegedly began sexually abusing the complainant in March 2010 after months of grooming. 

Clovis Unified failed to conduct proper background checks on Cardillo, to investigate rumors of his inappropriate behavior and to oversee the department, the lawsuit alleged. A…

View Cache

A Burlington County woman has filed a lawsuit against the Lenape Regional High School District, claiming teachers and administrators failed to protect her from a teacher’s alleged sexual abuse.

The woman claims in court papers she was 14 when Brantley Cesanek, her Latin teacher, began grooming her when she was a student in 2014 at Cherokee High School in Marlton.

“This case exposes the horrific experience of a minor student who was abused for years by a teacher and the school system that failed to protect that student,” the victim’s attorney, Ashley Garland, an associate at Anapol Weiss, states in a lawsuit filed Jan. 14 in New Jersey Superior Court.

The teacher allegedly bought the student coffee and breakfast, removed her from school grounds for sex at his home, groped her in his classroom and wrote her excessive hall passes when she was…

View Cache

An unidentified woman is suing the school district and the teacher, who was convicted in 2019 of endangering the welfare of a child and sentenced to five years in prison

NEED TO KNOW

• A New Jersey woman is suing her former school district for allegedly failing to protect her when her high school teacher groomed and sexually assaulted her
• The teacher, Brantley Cesanek, pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child in 2019 and was sentenced to five years in prison
• Cesanek was “obsessed” with the student, but no one at the school protected her, the complaint alleges

A New Jersey woman is suing her former school district for allegedly failing to protect her when her high school teacher groomed and sexually assaulted her.

In a civil complaint filed on Jan. 14 in New Jersey Superior Court, a woman identified as Jane Doe A.H. alleges that for more than…

View Cache

[Click here to see a PDF of the lawsuit filed by D.O. – BishopAccountablity.org]

The Diocese of Little Rock said it has put in place “significant” measures to protect minors from sexual abuse while in the care of the church.

Dennis Lee, a spokesman for the diocese, said the effort doesn’t minimize or change prior abuses, but the church is making an effort to ensure protections are put in place.

“What has happened in the past continues to be addressed,” Lee said.

Lee’s comments came after a man identified in court records only as “D.O.” sued the diocese in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Jan. 30, claiming a priest, Joseph Correnti, and an unnamed staff member sexually abused him in 1975 and 1976, when he was a 7-year-old attending school and church services at Our Lady of Holy Souls in Little Rock.

In View Cache

The allegation of sexual abuse involving a suburban private tutor and a juvenile has landed a 43-year-old behind bars.

According to Orland Park police, officers arrested Brett Smith on Wednesday, Jan. 28, after he turned himself in. Police say their investigation began when parents hired a tutor who identified himself as “BJ S. McAuliffe” to tutor their child.

Police say concerns grew when the name on a bank payment appeared as Brett Smith.

The parents ran an online search of Brett Smith, also known as Brett Zagorac. Police said they found news articles and videos referencing prior allegations against Smith involving children in other states.

Orland Park opened their investigation after the parents contacted the department.

Upon further investigation, area detectives found that Brett Zagorac legally changed his name to Brett Smith and used several aliases, including “BJ S.,” “BJ Smith,” and “BJ S. McAuliffe,” when advertising private tutoring services.

…

View Cache

In South Africa, a child or woman is raped or killed every 23 seconds. It is a daily reality documented by the South African Law Reform Commission.

The perpetrator could be anyone. A pastor delivering a Sunday sermon. A politician promising change. A judge sworn to uphold justice. A lawyer defending the vulnerable. A police officer meant to protect. A father, an uncle or a brother. A friend. A colleague. A celebrity admired by millions.

This crisis cuts across race, class, language and age. Black, white and Indian women live with the same fear. Newborn babies, toddlers, schoolchildren, teenagers, university students, mothers and grandmothers — even women in their late eighties — have become victims. No woman or child in South Africa can confidently say, “I am safe here.”

Some church leaders have mirrored the wider culture of abuse, leaving congregants spiritually and physically endangered.

Women and children are being…

View Cache

Note: This story contains details of child sex abuse.

A Texas woman says the pastor of the largest Assemblies of God church in Arkansas sexually abused her for years, starting when she was a teen.

Georgetown, Texas, resident Suzanne Lander filed suit against North Little Rock First Assembly of God Church (First NLR) and its lead pastor, Rodney Loy, on Jan. 26.

Lander claims that Loy began grooming her in 1996 shortly after she began attending the church. He was an executive pastor at the time. She was 16 and had recently “encountered God for the first time” at the church. She says she was previously a victim of parental sex trafficking and abuse.

According to the suit, Loy took Lander shopping for dresses, watched her model them, and began attending her basketball games. He then began inviting her over to his home to play Nintendo while “positioning himself as a…

View Cache

Rio Dell City Manager Kyle Knopp returned our phone message and explained that while the parcel is currently zone for one-acre minimum parcels, the city would “enthusiastically” support up-zoning to allow for denser development. 

The water board previously curtailed development in this area due to wastewater issues, but a new treatment plant was built in 2013 and restrictions were lifted in 2017. 

“We have a project going on already to upsize the sewer line in that area,” Knopp said. “The parcel is ripe for housing, it’s in a great location and it has beautiful views of the Scotia Bluffs.

The Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa recently put a handful of Northern California properties, including 8.19 undeveloped acres in Rio Dell, up for sale in an effort to raise some quick cash as it works through bankruptcy proceedings. 

The diocese, whose territory comprises Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma…

View Cache

Ray Mouton, the Louisiana attorney who defended since-defrocked priest Gilbert Gauthe against child sex abuse allegations and later co-authored a confidential report warning U.S. bishops about the growing crisis of clergy abuse nationwide, long before the Vatican publicly acknowledged the scandal, died Feb. 5 at a hospital in Jefferson, Louisiana. He was 78.

 His death was confirmed by his son Todd, who cited the cause as cancer.

The Cajun lawyer’s introduction to the scourge of child sex crimes committed by Catholic priests came from representing Gauthe, a prolific abuser, nearly two decades before revelations in The Boston Globe roiled the Vatican and stunned the faithful. Galvanized and horrified by what he learned, Mouton, a Catholic, began a crusade to caution bishops about a burgeoning national scandal that tallied untold numbers of young victims and threatened to bankrupt the church.

But attempts by Mouton and others to…

View Cache

Bishop Socrates Mesiona issued a pastoral message for the National Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking that serves as a “call to the conscience of the entire nation.”

A Filipino bishop said human trafficking is a significant problem in the country driven by poverty, illegal recruitment, online abuse, and growing dangers facing migrants, women, and children.

Bishop Socrates Mesiona of Puerto Princesa, chairman of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People within the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, issued a four-page pastoral message for the National Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking on Feb. 1 that served as a “call to the conscience of the entire nation.”

He urged all parishes nationwide to intensify their anti-trafficking efforts, particularly by increasing awareness, educating the public, and providing support for the protection of vulnerable individuals.

False promises

Twelve of the country’s 87…

View Cache

A Long Island man was recently arrested for sexual abuse that allegedly occurred at a Catholic school in Ozone Park more than a decade ago, according to the authorities.

The NYPD Special Victims Squad arrested Jeffrey Connelly, 36, on Jan. 22 for sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a teenage girl in 2015, cops said, within the confines of the 102nd Precinct.

According to the criminal complaint, between June 15 and July 17, 2015, Connelly, then a 25-year-old teacher at 103-12 101 Ave. in Ozone Park, the now-defunct St. Mary Gate of Heaven Catholic Academy, allegedly kissed and pressed himself against a 14-year-old student. He was charged with third-degree sexual abuse.

In addition to the incident in Queens, there is another on file, according to state court records, that also occurred in 2015, but within the NYPD’s 6th Precinct in Manhattan. In that case, Connelly is charged with three…

View Cache

Queen of Martyrs teacher, private tutor Brett Smith fired over history of child molestation allegations: Archdiocese of Chicago

There new allegations tonight against a fired Chicago-area Catholic school teacher.

Brett Smith was already accused of sex abuse. Now a family’s lawsuit says he groomed their second grader and “inappropriately touched” him last month.

A lawsuit filed by the mother of a second grader at Queen of Martyrs School in Evergreen Park alleges 43-year-old Brett Smith groomed her second grade son and inappropriately touched him.

Last week, days after the Archdiocese of Chicago said Smith was fired as a substitute teacher at Queen of Martyrs, Evergreen Park Police announced he was charged with battery related to his time at the school. It’s unclear if those charges and the new lawsuit are related.

Smith was also charged last week by Orland Park Police with criminal sexual abuse of a 9-year-old boy during private…

View Cache

The sentencing of a paedophile priest over the abuse of children in the 1970s and 80s has been adjourned after it emerged he has cancer.

Edward Phillips-Smith, 75, has admitted abusing boys while working as a priest in the Lichfield Diocese and chaplain at a school in Wolverhampton.

During a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Lockhart described the accused’s condition as “very significant and life-limiting”.

Phillips-Smith was remanded in his absence on conditional bail ahead of a sentencing date on 10 April, pending pre-sentencing and medical reports.

He has admitted and indicated guilty pleas to counts of abuse carried out between 1978 and 1983, following separate police investigations in Staffordshire and Wolverhampton.

In November, he pleaded guilty to indecent assault of a boy under the age of 14 and to inciting the boy to commit an act of gross indecency.

These two charges relate to attacks that…

View Cache

A judge at Derry Magistrate’s Court said that he was ‘disappointed’ that there was only one police officer assigned to the case of a priest charged with attempted sexual communication with a child.

Edward Gallagher (58) of Orchard Park, Lifford has been charged with one count of attempted sexual communication with a child between April 2 and April 17, 2025, and with seven further offences, including inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, causing a child to watch sexual activity, and charges of possessing indecent images of children.

Defence solicitor Derwin Harvey said that no time-frame has been identified for the case.

Deputy District Judge Trevor Browne gave two weeks to submit a completed file, and said he is ‘dissapointed that only one officer was allocated’ to a case this size.

The prosecution described the charges as a ‘huge crime’ with 650 pages of communications in police possession.

Gallagher…

View Cache

At the end of January, several civil lawsuits were filed against multiple churches in the city of Little Rock. In all three, the plaintiffs ask for a trial by jury.

The first, filed Jan. 26, claims a pastor at Defendant North Little Rock First Assembly of God Church sexually abused a 16-year-old girl in 1996. The girl, now a woman living in Texas, says the abuse continued for 20 years until she moved.

The accused pastor, Rodney Loy, served as executive pastor at Defendant Church in 1996 and now serves as the Senior Pastor of the church.

Court documents detail how Loy began grooming her by showing up at her after school events and part-time job. This escalated to her visiting his home multiple times a week and arranging private meetings in his church office. She says he began to sexually abuse her just a few months after she began…

View Cache

Detectives say there may be other victims.

Investigators believe there may be additional victims after a Pacoima pastor was arrested on child sex abuse charges, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department (SBSD) said.

Junior Andrew Bennett, 32, of Piñon Hills, was arrested on suspicion of child sex abuse after allegedly using his role as head Pastor of Breakthrough Church to target minors. According to SBSD, the suspect, who was known as Prophet Junior Bennett, used his title to “manipulate minors and ultimately sexually assault them.”

Bennett faces charges that include sodomy of a minor, lewd acts with a child and oral copulation of a minor.  Detectives say there may be other victims.

Anyone with information on the case or who believes they have been victimized by Bennett is urged to contact SBSD’s Victor Valley station at 760-552-6800 or 760-956-5001. Anonymous tips can be made by contacting the We-Tip Hotline at…

View Cache

One of the nation’s top podcasters says he is not backing down after Kanakuk Ministries threatened to sue him over statements about past child sex abuse at the summer camp. 

On Tuesday, in a video posted to his YouTube channel, Shawn Ryan said he had received a demand letter from Kanakuk, a prominent Christian camp in southwest Missouri. The letter accused Ryan of having “callous and malicious disregard of the truth” and demanded he retract one of his statements and apologize for its content.  

“Here’s my response: No,” said Ryan in his video. “I don’t negotiate with pedophiles or the people who defend them. I’m not taking anything down. I’m not apologizing. And I’m damn sure not going to stop talking about child sexual abuse in a Christian camp that continues to operate on the same grounds where horrific abuse took place.” 

Ryan also posted a lengthy letter his attorney sent in response. 

Kanakuk’s letter followed Ryan’s release of a four-hour podcast with abuse prevention advocate Elizabeth…

View Cache

Thirteen women filed a suit against David Lloyd Walther claiming he possessed pornographic images depicting them being sexually abused as children.

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

Multiple people filed the suit Wednesday in Austin against David Lloyd Walther, who served as the pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock before his arrest in 2022. 

Among those suing Walther are 13 women who are listed in the documents under the pseudonyms: “April” Doe, “Angela” Doe, “Chelsea” Doe, “Cara” Doe, “Lily” Doe, “Maria” Doe, “Sarah” Doe, “Pia” Doe, “Sloane” Doe, “Violet” Doe, “Maureen” Doe, “Taylor” Doe and “Jenny” Doe. The suit states that all of these women were sexually abused as children, and that their abuse was “depicted in images of child pornography” possessed by Walther. 

The suit states that Walther was…

View Cache

Legal experts are perplexed over how a substitute teacher convicted of abusing children passed a background check and worked as a substitute teacher for the Archdiocese of Chicago for over a year.

And no one has an answer why.

Brett J. Smith passed background and fingerprint checks despite allegations, charges and convictions going back over 20 years across several states. Searches on the Illinois State Police’s publicly accessible sex offender registry didn’t produce results for his name or his aliases. The archdiocese has not responded to a detailed list of questions asking about the church’s background check process.

But experts told the Sun-Times it’s hard to believe a person’s lengthy criminal record wouldn’t come up in a background check.

“I find that almost impossible,” said Mike Leonard, a Chicago-based criminal defense attorney who specializes in state and federal criminal matters and civil employment. “Especially with a fingerprint check. There is…

View Cache

Lea el artículo en español aquí.

More real estate from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa is being offered for sale as the organization seeks to shore up its finances as it navigates bankruptcy reorganization amid hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse.

The diocese, whose territory includes 40 parishes stretching from Sonoma and Napa counties north to the Oregon border, has been in mediation with insurers and groups of alleged victims, whose claims have totaled 260, The Press Democrat reported. A portion of those sexual abuse lawsuits have been headed for trial potentially this year. The claims prompted the Chapter 11 filing in April 2023.

The latest five real estate listings, mentioned vaguely in a recent court filing, are a couple of vacant acres in Sebastopol, a Napa Valley vineyard, a small Napa home, several undeveloped acres in Humboldt County and the long-vacant former clergy residence next to a 125-year-old stone…

View Cache

The archdiocese alleged that Chubb Insurance posed as the “Church Accountability Project.”

The Archdiocese of New York is arguing in state court that its longtime insurer has secretly been “waging a shadow campaign” and posing as a victims’ rights group in order to “undermine and weaken” the archdiocese amid an ongoing insurance dispute.

In a Jan. 31 legal filing at the New York State Supreme Court obtained by EWTN News, the archdiocese said that Chubb Insurance — which the archdiocese sued in 2024 over an alleged failure to pay out financial claims for sex abuse victims — has for several years been “secretly” posing as the “Church Accountability Project,” allegedly encouraging abuse victims to “pursue claims against the [archdiocese].”

The archdiocesan filing said the insurer has secretly run the website in order to “elevate Chubb’s own financial interests” and improve its leverage in the ongoing lawsuit.

As of…

View Cache

Brett Smith, a former substitute Catholic school teacher and private tutor employed by the Archdiocese of Chicago, has been charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse for allegedly molesting a 9-year-old student he was privately tutoring. The allegations surfaced after the child disclosed the abuse, prompting an investigation that raised serious concerns about Smith’s access to children and institutional oversight.

Smith, who used aliases (BJ S. McAuliffe and Brett Zagorac) and gained unsupervised access to children by offering additional tutoring via Nextdoor, was entrusted to work closely with young students. This position of authority gave him the ability to exploit a child’s trust. Investigators allege that Smith used that access to sexually abuse a minor during tutoring sessions, conduct that remained hidden until the child came forward.

In the aftermath of Smith’s arrest, the child’s parents discovered that he had worked in at least four Catholic schools in the Chicago area over…

View Cache

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are anticipating the release of the Rhode Island Attorney General’s report on his six-and-a-half-year historical review of clergy sexual abuse in Rhode Island dating back to 1950. Our diocese entered into this review voluntarily in 2019 in the interest of transparency and so that broader societal good could come from our experience, from the failures and successes of the past.

The report does not contain any new cases of abuse and much of its content has already been widely publicized in the media over the decades. For many, this report will undoubtedly be a difficult and painful retelling of historical cases of abuse in our diocese. Catholics and members of the wider community alike have understandably been scandalized, demoralized, and angered by these heinous sins and crimes of the past.

I take this opportunity to apologize to the victim-survivors for the failures of Church…

View Cache

The Brief

• 70-year-old Reymundo Almaraz was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 17-year-old male at a Lubbock TruFit gym in June.
• The victim reported being trapped in a dressing room and assaulted after witnessing the suspect acting suspiciously in the locker room.
• Almaraz, a former local ministry leader who recently retired, is no longer in custody following his arrest on Thursday.

A 70-year-old man has been arrested on sexual assault charges following an investigation into a June incident at a Lubbock gym involving a teenager, according to the Lubbock Police Department.

Lubbock pastor arrested

The backstory:

Reymundo Almaraz was taken into custody after multiple members of the public identified him as the suspect in the assault at the TruFit gym located near 82nd Street and Slide Road.

Police records show that officers were dispatched to the gym around 10 p.m. on June 30. When they arrived, investigators learned the victim, a 17-year-old…

View Cache

Mercy Culture Pastor Landon Schott visited disgraced pastor Robert Morris in jail on Tuesday and emerged talking about new beginnings and restoration.

Schott posted on Facebook Tuesday night that God told Schott that he’s forgiven Morris. Last October, Morris, the 64-year-old founder of Dallas’s Gateway Church, pleaded guilty for molesting Cindy Clemishire beginning when she was 12. Morris is serving six months in an Oklahoma county jail.

Schott, whose megachurch is based 300 miles away in Fort Worth, said he “had the honor” to meet with Morris.

“I do not believe we can preach mercy at our altars if that same mercy is not available to those who once stood behind them,” Schott wrote.

Morris’s release from jail is set for early April, right before Easter, which Schott’s said is spiritually significant.

“The week we celebrate the Lamb. The blood. The cross. The resurrection. You cannot script that,” Schott…

View Cache

Tuesday marked the first hearing in Lewis County court for John Radcliff, a former pastor accused of sexually abusing young girls over a period of several years.

Tuesday began the pre-trial motion hearing. Prosecutor Christina Flanigan moved to continue the case until the June term and informed the court that the investigating officer has learned of another named alleged victim who lives out of state.

Flanigan requested that the prosecution be given time to track down this new alleged victim to potentially pursue additional charges against Radcliff. The defense did not object to this motion, which was granted by Judge Jacob Reger.

The next pretrial hearing in Radcliff’s case is scheduled for June 3 at 9:15 a.m. Jury selection is set for June 15 at 9 a.m.

Radcliff was indicted in Lewis County in July 2025 on 47 felony charges against eight victims, including sexual assault,…

View Cache

Isaiah Teague was sentenced to life, with a minimum of 20 years, for sexual abuse of a minor.

A Meridian youth pastor was sentenced to life in prison for sexual abuse of a minor this week. 

Isaiah Teague, 25, will serve a minimum of 20 years following a guilty plea to a felony charge of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor. He was accused of five separate counts of sexually abusive conduct according to court documents obtained by KTVB.

Teague was arrested in June 2025 after reports of contact with the 14-year-old victim for over a year. According to the prosecutor’s office, Teague sexually assaulted the victim multiple times and threatened the victim, saying he could make her “disappear” if she told anyone.

The repeated abuse was discovered by the victim’s mother, who found messages on her daughter’s phone discussing the assaults with a friend, according to…

View Cache

The Queens Special Victims Squad arrested a former parochial schoolteacher from Long Island to close a cold case investigation into an incident that occurred more than a decade ago.

Jeffrey Connelly, 36, of Meadowbrook Lane in Valley Stream, was taken into custody on Jan. 22 and booked at the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill, where he was charged for a sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child incident of a 14-year-old girl inside the St. Mary Gate of Heaven Church in Ozone Park in 2015.

Connelly was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Jan. 23 on a complaint charging him with sexual abuse in the third degree.

According to the criminal complaint, on June 14, 2015, inside the church at 103-12 101st Ave., Connelly kissed his 14-year-old student on her lips, pressed his body against her, and pressed his penis against her leg. Connelly was 25 years…

View Cache

Survivors of sexual abuse connected to the Diocese of Alexandria only have a few months to file a claim.

On Monday morning, the diocese announced the bankruptcy court of the Western District of Louisiana set a deadline of June 8, 2026, for both general and abuse survivor claims. CLICK HERE TO FILE A CLAIM.

Last October, Bishop Robert Marshall of the Diocese of Alexandria wrote a letter to the public, announcing the diocese had filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for two reasons.

First, to “compensate all abuse survivors with unresolved claims in a single process overseen by a court – ensuring all are treated equitably”.

And second, “to allow the church to move forward on stable financial ground, focused on its gospel mission.”

According to the diocese, anyone who suffered sexual abuse connected to any of the following are entitled to relief: a parish church, a diocesan school, an orphanage or…

View Cache

A lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for not reporting child abuse was revived last year by an Arizona court.

The Church is back in court on charges it failed to alert police to child sexual abuse known to authorities at the highest level.

The Church claimed it had no responsibility to report the abuse to police. The court of appeals noted that the man admitted the abuse to his wife during a meeting with a Mormon bishop — and a jury could decide that the meeting was not a religious confession.

The court remanded the case to the lower court, pending the Church’s expected appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.

The Church has not apologized for its decision to not report the case to police, and no apology should probably be anticipated since the new prophet and president of the church has publicly stated, “The…

View Cache

Gov. Josh Shapiro took aim at the Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday, urging them to open a path for older survivors of childhood sexual abuse to bring lawsuits and “stop tying justice to … pet political projects.”

For decades, survivors have urged the state to open a temporary window so those abused can file lawsuits even though the statute of limitations has passed. They view creating a path for victims in older cases to sue their abusers as a crucial step for accountability.

In recent legislative sessions, Republican leaders in the state Senate have refused to advance a proposed constitutional amendment on the issue unless it is tied to an expanded voter ID measure.

“Leader [Matt] Bradford has put a clean bill on the House floor six different times over the last three years, and it has passed each time. But I got to say it, I…

View Cache

David Ryan, an Irish survivor whose tragic story of the abuse he and his brother suffered was the subject of a 2022 documentary, was overcome with emotion after meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. The pope was reportedly shocked and apologized to the Irish victim. 

“I’ll never forget it,” Ryan told journalists outside the Santa Anna gate entrance to Vatican City Feb. 2, recalling the pope’s “sincerity” and “empathy.” 

“He felt my pain. He hasn’t experienced my pain, but he knows what pain I had gone through with my family,” Ryan said.

Fighting back tears, Ryan said Pope Leo was “just a lovely, lovely man. What an experience to have.”

Abuse at Blackrock

In 2022, Ryan and his brother, Mark, were featured in the RTÉ documentary “Blackrock Boys,” which chronicled the years of abuse they suffered at the elite Blackrock College in South County Dublin, which was…

View Cache

William Hambleton alleged last year that he was abused as a teen by a priest in Utah, an assertion the Diocese of Salt Lake City later deemed “credible.”

Now Hambleton contends that the diocese has confirmed to him a wider issue: A powerful cleric occasionally destroyed documents in personnel files of priests.

Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, the diocese’s longtime vicar general, told multiple priests about his purges of “information that could cast clergy in a poor light,” according to Robert Moriarty, a former priest in the diocese.

“I came to assume that this practice was common knowledge,” Moriarty, a friend of Hambleton, wrote in a letter provided last summer to the diocese’s internal review board during its investigation.

In a meeting earlier this month, Hambleton said, Bishop Oscar Solis told him that the diocese found “credible” the allegation that…

View Cache

A senior Catholic Church official in Poland has called for the creation of an independent commission to investigate cases of sexual abuse within the institution.

Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś said he hopes that a nationwide commission made up of independent experts will be established at the next plenary meeting of the Polish Bishops’ Conference in March.

Ryś, who serves as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, added that if no such decision is taken, he will set up a commission at diocesan level.

In a statement issued on Monday, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Kraków, Father Piotr Studnicki, said the commission would be tasked with examining abuse cases and creating a space in which those reporting harm could be heard and offered appropriate support.

This would be particularly important in situations where no formal investigation can be carried out against the accused, he said.

Recent allegations

The announcement follows allegations made against the late…

View Cache

CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati man who was fired from his teaching job at a Pittsburgh Catholic school 25 years ago for molesting two teen boys has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for possessing child pornography.

In a release, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio’s office said 58-year-old Martin Bayhan pleaded guilty in July 2025 to possession of child porn. Court documents say Bayhan’s Kik, Snapchat and Telegram accounts were all flagged for uploading child sexual abuse material. After executing a search warrant, agents found more than 30 videos and 300 images on his phone and thumb drive.

Officials said Bayhan had previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor crimes in connection with a 1999 case where he molested two students at a Catholic school in Pittsburgh. At the time, he received probation.

Bayhan was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to 84 months in prison and 10…

View Cache

The Chicago Archdiocese announced Monday that Evergreen Park’s Queen of Martyrs Catholic School appointed an interim principal, less than a week after a substitute teacher was fired and charged over child molestation allegations.

While the archdiocese did not confirm why former Principal Stephen Davidson no longer works at the school, Beth Guerrero’s appointment “comes as Queen of Martyrs moves forward after the termination of a second-grade teacher,” it said in a news release.

Brett Smith, a 43-year-old Tinley Park resident, was charged last week in Orland Park with felony aggravated criminal sexual abuse to a minor and in Evergreen Park with misdemeanor battery for physical contact with a minor.

“Our community has shown tremendous strength and resolve over the past week,” said the Rev. Ritchie Ortiz, priest and administrator of St. Gianna Molla Parish in Evergreen Park. “Beth’s leadership reflects the values that define Queen of Martyrs — faith, integrity, and an…

View Cache

“I told him about the abuse,” David Ryan said. “I did get a feeling of being listened to and being understood.”

A victim of clerical sexual abuse from Ireland shared his story in a private meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Monday.

David Ryan, who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest at Blackrock College in Dublin in the 1970s, told a small group of reporters, including Colm Flynn of EWTN News, after the meeting that the pope “was horrified” by his story during their 40-minute conversation Feb. 2.

“I didn’t hold back. I told him about the abuse,” said Ryan, whose deceased brother, Mark, was also abused while attending the same school.

The pope “just listened to me and then I put my questions to him and we spoke about each one at length,” Ryan said.

Ryan said Leo called his questions “tough” and asked if…

View Cache

Mr Ryan and the Pope held a private audience at the Vatican Monday to discuss the abuse both men suffered at Blackrock College and its preparatory school, Willow Park, in Co Dublin, as children.

Pope Leo XIX has apologised to Blackrock College abuse survivors David Ryan and his late brother Mark.

Speaking after the exchange, Mr Ryan said the newly elected pontiff was “so sorry to hear of my pain, for my family’s pain and for the other survivors that haven’t come forward yet.”

Abuse survivor and campaigner Colm O’Gorman told The Anton Savage Show on Newstalk Sunday that the meeting was “very significant to David Ryan and unprecedented in the context of such cases.”

“The Vatican is not good at this. When all of these stories started to emerge like when I came forward in the 90s, the Vatican was dismissing that abuse even happened: it was describing victims as fantasists. 

“All…

View Cache

‘What stood out was his sincerity, his empathy,’ says Ryan, who was abused as a child

For David Ryan, Monday February 2nd, 2026, will live long in his memory. “What an experience. I’ll never forget it, never, never forget it,” he said.

It was the day a pope apologised to him personally for the abuse he, his late brother Mark and their friend Aidan Moore suffered as children at the Spiritan-run Blackrock College in Dublin and its preparatory school Willow Park. He had also told the pope about the abuse he suffered as a child at the Jesuit-run St Declan’s school on Dublin’s Northumberland Road.

“I told him that it took me 40 years to realise it wasn’t my fault, it was their fault,” he said.

He felt the pope’s “sympathy, his empathy for survivors, for myself and for my family and my close friends. He felt it and he was sorry.”

…

View Cache

SÃO PAULO, Brazil – Jesuit Father Francesc Peris, accused by numerous former students of committing sexual abuse against them at a school in Barcelona, Spain, and another in Cochabamba, Bolivia, will not face criminal prosecution due to the statute of limitations of his crimes, according to a judicial decision issued last week.

Spanish judge Santiago García had opened an inquiry into Peris’s actions and concluded that two allegations of abuse, committed by him in 1999 and 2004, could lead to criminal proceedings.

However, according to a story published on Jan. 25 by the Catalan newspaper El Periódico, the District Attorney’s Office determined that the 2004 incidents have already reached the statute of limitations, meaning the 1999 allegation will likely meet the same outcome.

These were the most recent of several accusations made against Peris by students of Casp–Sagrat Cor de Jesús School, run by the Catalan Jesuits in Barcelona since 1881.

…

View Cache

Pope Leo XIV addressed the participants in the plenary session of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on Thursday of last week, and his remarks for the occasion reward careful attention.

Gently and without fanfare, without spectacle, in terms humane and genuinely solicitous of the department’s work, Leo set not so much a new agenda as a new – old – course for the office, after a two-year adventure inaugurated when Francis named Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández to lead the dicastery.

“I am well aware of the valuable service you perform,” Leo said, “with the aim – as the Constitution Praedicate Evangelium states – to ‘help the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world by promoting and safeguarding the integrity of Catholic teaching on faith and morals … by drawing upon the deposit of faith and seeking an ever deeper understanding of it in the…

View Cache

Pope Leo XIV will hold a private audience with abuse survivor David Ryan who featured in the RTÉ Radio documentary Blackrock Boys.

In November 2022, the Doc on One programme revealed through interviews with Mr Ryan and his brother Mark, that they had been repeatedly sexually abused at Blackrock College during the 1970s.

The school is run by the Spiritan Order, formally known as the Holy Ghost Order.

Hundreds of victims from many fee-paying schools across Ireland reported alleged historical sexual abuse following the Blackrock Boys documentary.

Some revealed their abuse for the first time.

David Ryan took it upon himself to request a meeting with the head of the Catholic Church about the shame and hurt they experienced as a result of the abuse.

Mark Ryan was sceptical that such a meeting would take place and, sadly, he died in 2023.

In the absence of his brother, David continued in…

View Cache

(ANALYSIS) The Boston Globe headline was blunt: “Church allowed abuse by priest for years.”

This massive investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic clergy won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, forcing major newsrooms to cover a scandal that had festered for decades. The shockwaves continued in Boston and, more than a decade later, The Globe began a website — Crux (Latin for “cross”) — to cover Catholic news.

Reporter John L. Allen Jr. was a pivotal figure in that project since he was already an established expert on all the roads that lead to Rome. However, Crux quickly showed that the news was there, the readers were there, but the dollars didn’t add up — yet.

Allen got the green light to create an independent Crux, which launched on April 1, 2016. The question was whether he could build a coalition of donors and organizations — the Knights of…

View Cache

A familiar announcement, a familiar pain—when headlines celebrate progress that survivors know is unfinished.

When the archdiocese of New York announced plans to raise at least $300 million toward a potential global settlement with childhood sexual abuse survivors, headlines framed it as progress. For those living with the trauma, it landed as a mix of relief, anger, exhaustion and deep skepticism shaped by decades of abuse of power, institutional denial and calculated delay. 

The story isn’t the dollar amount; it’s the decades survivors have waited for justice. They had to fight just to be heard by the very institution that failed to protect them and now must watch that same institution frame overdue negotiations as moral penance. 

Any willingness by the church to engage in meaningful talks is better than silence, but this moment should not be mistaken for accountability. It signals the start of a process survivors should never have had to force through legislation, litigation and…

View Cache

Teacher at Chicago, suburban Catholic schools recently fired over history of child molestation allegations: Archdiocese of Chicago

Private tutor Brett Smith, a former Chicago-area Catholic schools teacher, was charged with sexual abuse of a juvenile in Orland Park, police said.

EVERGREEN PARK, Ill. (WLS) — A man working as a private tutor in the south suburbs has been arrested and charged with felony criminal sexual abuse and battery.

He worked as a substitute teacher at local Catholic schools and was recently fired, the Chicago Archdiocese said.

Orland Park police say 43-year-old Brett Smith engaged in sexual contact with a juvenile.

Smith was expected to make an initial court appearance Friday in Bridgeview.

In a letter to school parents, the Chicago Archdiocese says they fired Smith as a substitute teacher after learning of a history of sexual misconduct allegations.

View Cache

[See also the text of Bishop Lewandowski’s letter.]

• Rhode Island’s Catholic Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski has apologized ahead of a state report on clergy child sex abuse.

• The attorney general’s report is expected to detail how the church hid abuse by dozens of priests affecting hundreds of children.

• The diocese voluntarily entered the review and asserts it now has robust policies to protect children.

Rhode Island’s Catholic Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski is seeking to prepare the many Catholics in the state for the imminent release of the attorney general’s long-anticipated report on decades of clergy child sex abuse.

And, on Thursday, he also offered an apology.

“I take this opportunity to apologize to the victim-survivors for the failures of church personnel and others in past decades to protect them and keep them safe,” he said Jan. 29 in a letter addressed to “Brothers…

View Cache

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are anticipating the release of the Rhode Island Attorney General’s report on his six-and-a-half-year historical review of clergy sexual abuse in Rhode Island dating back to 1950. Our diocese entered into this review voluntarily in 2019 in the interest of transparency and so that broader societal good could come from our experience, from the failures and successes of the past.

The report does not contain any new cases of abuse and much of its content has already been widely publicized in the media over the decades. For many, this report will undoubtedly be a difficult and painful retelling of historical cases of abuse in our diocese. Catholics and members of the wider community alike have understandably been scandalized, demoralized, and angered by these heinous sins and crimes of the past. 

I take this opportunity to apologize to the victim-survivors for the failures of Church personnel…

View Cache

[This statement was made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Buffalo NY on January 27, 2026 by survivor Joe Cercone. See also the original PDF of his statement.]

Ladies and gentlemen
I stand before you today as a broken man and, as a broken child.
I was only thirteen years old.

At thirteen, a child should be worried about homework, friendships, sports, and what they want to be when they grow up. I was not given that chance. Instead, I was placed in the care of someone who held power, authority, and trust—and that trust was abused in the most devastating way.

Parents, I ask you to pause for a moment and imagine sending your child somewhere you believed was safe. Somewhere tied to faith, morality, and protection. Now imagine discovering that the very place you trusted caused your child harm that will follow them for the rest of their life. My…

View Cache

[This statement was made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Buffalo NY on January 27, 2026 by the parents of Joe Cercone. See also the original PDF of their statement.]

Your Honor,

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I would like to thank all the courageous men and women who have spoken the truth about the horrendous evil that has taken place in the Buffalo Diocese for decades, but most especially the courageous survivors, the whistleblowers and the journalists who put their necks on the line for exposing the
horrendous evil we are hear to discuss today. It was their involvement and stories that encouraged my son to expose the evil done to him.

My husband and I and our children were parishioners of St. Mary’s in Swormsville starting 2009. Both my husband and I were educated on child sexual abuse. My husband was a teacher, thus a mandatory…

View Cache

The mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations against Fr. Robert Yetter is one of the things that brought down former Bishop Richard J. Malone in 2019.

Joe Cercone was silently watching that scandal. He says Yetter sexually abused him in 2015, when Cercone was 13 years old, during the sacrament of reconciliation or confession at St. Mary’s of Swormville Catholic Church.

“There was the traditional kind of wall, and as soon as he would hear my voice, he would say, ‘oh, Joe,’ and then he would make me move from that wall to sitting in front of him,” Cercone said in an interview this week. “But then, you know, when he starts moving his hand up my leg and, you know, and kissing me, it’s…it’s a lot.”

It is difficult for the 23-year-old to talk about it even now, 10 years later. 

“That broke me as a child,” Cercone…

View Cache

Survivor statements began Tuesday, nearly seven years after the Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Nearly seven years after the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, abuse survivors finally had their day in court on Tuesday.

It was a heavy feeling in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in downtown Buffalo on Tuesday when abuse survivors shared horrifying details about when they were raped as children by priests and nuns who were supposed to be counseling them and helping them.

Michael Whalen of South Buffalo, who was the first survivor to go public in 2018, spoke first, saying he wanted survivors to know they are not alone.

“Where was the diocese?” Whalen asked. “Has anyone from the diocese cried with survivors? I have.”

Whalen was abused by Fr. Norbert Orsolits, an admitted pedophile, in the 1980s at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Orchard Park.

Gary Astridge,…

View Cache

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you.

Good morning and welcome!

Dear Cardinals,
Dear brothers in the Episcopate,
Dear brothers and sisters,

I welcome you with joy on the occasion of your Plenary Session. I cordially greet and thank the Prefect of the Dicastery, with the Superiors and the Officials. I am well aware of the valuable service you perform, with the aim – as the Constitution Praedicate Evangelium states – to “help the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world by promoting and safeguarding the integrity of Catholic teaching on faith and morals … by drawing upon the deposit of faith and seeking an ever deeper understanding of it in the face of new questions” (no. 69).

Your task is to offer clarifications regarding the doctrine of the Church, through pastoral and theological guidance on often…

View Cache

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you.
 

Dear sisters and dear brothers, good morning and welcome!

I am pleased to meet you, on the occasion of your General Assemblies, and I would like to take the opportunity to share some reflections with you, which I would like to divide into three points: charism, governance and communion.

Regarding the first, the Magisterium teaches us that “the Church rejuvenates in the power of the Gospel and the Spirit continually renews her, builds her up, and guides her ‘with hierarchical and charismatic gifts’. [1] The Second Vatican Council has repeatedly highlighted the marvellous work of the Holy Spirit that sanctifies the People of God, guides it, adorns it with virtue, and enrichens it with special graces for her edification”. [2]

In these days you have had the opportunity to reflect and discuss the definition…

View Cache

Dear brothers in the episcopate,

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you who have come to Rome for the ad Limina Apostolorum visit. [I am grateful for the kind words that the president of the Episcopal Conference has addressed to me on behalf of everyone.] I ask you to remind my dear children in Peru that the Pope carries them in his heart and remembers them with affection, especially in his prayers.

It seems providential to me that this visit is taking place in the context of the 300th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo. You, dear brothers, are the fruit of the evangelical seed that this bishop saint sowed in those lands. Therefore, I would like to propose that, following his example, we look with the eyes of faith on the reality we are facing today, which has been summarized well in the…

View Cache

John L. Allen Jr., a journalist admired for his informed coverage of the Vatican, much of it derived from his extraordinary insider access to the church’s power players that some critics said put him too close to his sources, died on Jan. 22 in Rome. He was 61.

His death, from stomach cancer, at a hospice facility, was announced by the Catholic news website Crux, which he founded.

For 25 years, Catholic Church watchers paid close attention to the reporting that Mr. Allen did, first as the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, and then as the executive editor of Crux and as a columnist for it.

Mr. Allen seemed to know everybody at the Holy See, from the lowest functionaries to the popes themselves — from John Paul II to Leo XIV — and it showed in the depth of his reporting. He arrived in Rome…

View Cache

Pope Leo XIV told the Vatican’s doctrine office on Thursday to uphold truth, justice and charity when deciding clergy sex abuse cases, confirming a calibrated approach to dealing with a scandal that has tarnished the Catholic Church’s credibility worldwide.

History’s first American pope dedicated only a small part of his speech to abuse in an address to members of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that polices Catholic doctrine but also processes abuse cases worldwide.

What Leo didn’t say was almost more significant than what he did: Leo made no mention of victims in his speech, suggesting he believes the dicastery should function almost exclusively as a church tribunal, not a pastoral office.

Another Vatican department, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, has become a main point of reference for abuse survivors. Pope Francis had made the commission part of the doctrine office,…

View Cache

The diocese has paid out millions to Malachy Finegan victims

A Catholic church diocese facing a multi-million pound sex abuse compensation bill has lodged an application with a court over “material uncertainty regarding its finances” and asked for guidance on how to manage its shrinking assets.

The Diocese of Dromore has been at the centre of an abuse controversy over its handling of serial child abuser Malachy Finegan, a former priest of the diocese.

It has emerged that church authorities have made an application to the Chancery Court, which deals with various financial matters, last month.

It is understood a court hearing linked to the application was held behind closed doors on Friday.

Lawyers for the church were instructed to file an application for directions with the Chancery Court on behalf the Dioceses of Dromore Trustee “arising from material uncertainty regarding its finances”.

According to correspondence from church legal representatives,…

View Cache

“The presence of this individual in some of our schools and with some of our students is very alarming,” the Archdiocese of Chicago said in a letter.

A man used a fake name to get a private tutoring job in the south suburbs, then engaged in sexual contact with a child, police say. He also worked at multiple Catholic schools in the Chicago area, according to the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Orland Park police arrested 43-year-old Brett Smith, and he made his initial court appearance Friday in Bridgeview. He’s been charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Authorities said parents in the south suburbs looked on the Nextdoor app for a tutor for their 9-year-old son and found a man going by the name BJ S. McAuliffe.

He got the job, but the parents became suspicious after the Zelle bank payment showed up under the name Brett Smith. Soon after, they found…

View Cache

Did British Jesuits try to conceal a high-profile abuse allegation?

A student has accused the Jesuits in Britain of falsely stating he had withdrawn an allegation of misconduct against a former Jesuit provincial superior.

But while the Jesuit province says it handled the allegation correctly, the Oxford University graduate student said he was shocked to see a communication between the Jesuits and a diocesan safeguarding team, which claimed he had retracted the complaint.

The student told The Pillar that he never indicated he wished to withdraw his allegation, and could not explain or understand why the British Jesuit province would claim otherwise.

The alleged victim, who asked not to be named, made in July 2025 an allegation of inappropriate conduct on the part of Fr. Damian Howard, S.J., the British Jesuits’ former provincial superior, who was then serving as senior chaplain at the Oxford University Catholic Chaplaincy.

The complaint saw Howard removed…

View Cache

Newly obtained records are raising serious questions about how the Diocese of Lafayette handled allegations against an Acadia Parish priest who remained in active ministry for more than six weeks during a criminal investigation.

According to documents uncovered by News 15 anchor Jim Hummel, Father Korey Lavergne was under investigation by the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office beginning December 2, 2025. Deputies received a complaint that a boy had been inappropriately touched by Lavergne on multiple occasions at St. Edward Catholic Church in Richard.

Mother Says Bishop Was Informed Early

The mother of the alleged victim told News 15 that she and her son met with Lafayette Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel in early December, shortly after the complaint was made. She said the discussion involved what she now believes was grooming behavior, including gifts, private time at the rectory, and physical contact that made her son…

View Cache

A man who has served as a leader in the Lutheran Church in Illinois was arrested and appeared in court on a charge of child pornography.

Michael William Mohr, 54, of Springfield, was charged by complaint on Wednesday with one count of producing child pornography, according to the Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Mohr waived his right to a detention hearing and will be held in jail until trial.

In a release, according to an affidavit, a court-approved search of Mohr’s home in Springfield allegedly found storage devices that contained videos of three juveniles in a bathroom. In a search of a home used by Mohr in Vandalia, hidden cameras disguised as a wall clock and a Bluetooth speaker were also allegedly uncovered.

The DOJ said the investigation began after one of the juveniles told Vandalia Police that he allegedly discovered…

View Cache

The former pastor of a Downtown Peoria church will be allowed to remain out of custody pending trial on allegations he sent inappropriate pictures to a boy last summer.

Michael S. Ritchason, 48, of Pekin, appeared in Tazewell County Circuit Court on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to the single felony count of dissemination of harmful materials, a felony that could send him to prison for up to three years.

He was charged last month and Thursday’s brief court hearing was his first. Prosecutors did not seek to detain him but asked for some conditions which included allowing pretrial release officers to have access to any electronic device that was connected to the internet.

He was also ordered to remain away from a minor whose name was redacted. He will next appear in court on Feb. 26.

According to a probable cause statement filed in court, Ritchason was allegedly sending…

View Cache

A former Tulsa minister has pleaded no contest to allegations he sexually abused his daughter.

On Jan. 22, Bertheophilus Maurice Bailey, Sr., also known as “Judge,” pleaded to charges of first-degree rape, child sexual abuse, incest and forcible sodomy.

A no-contest plea means the defendant acknowledges sufficient evidence exists for conviction, and the judge enters a guilty ruling.

Bailey’s now-adult daughter has publicly identified herself as his victim on social platforms, as previously reported by The Roys Report (TRR).

In a Jan. 22 Facebook post, Harmony Bailey Oates wrote:

“Finally Got justice 🥹🤍

“I am not ashamed to say I am the victim I am his daughter but I got justice … God has his hands on me and is not done with me yet!!! I’m so grateful for everyone would (sic) stood by me through this whole journey!!!”

Oates told police the abuse began when she was in sixth grade….

View Cache

Records obtained by News15 Investigates show Father Korey Lavergne was under criminal investigation for more than six weeks before his arrest on child sex crimes. As some Catholics question why Fr. Lavergne wasn’t removed from ministry during the investigation, the accuser’s mother tells News 15 that both she and her son met with Lafayette Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel in early December.

According to the initial report obtained through a public records request, deputies with the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office first received a complaint against Fr. Lavergne on December 2, 2025.

Records show the person who called the sheriff’s office reported that a boy told him he was inappropriately touched by Fr. Lavergne at St. Edward Catholic Church in Richard on multiple occasions within the last year.

The name of the person who filed the complaint is redacted in the initial report, but News15 Investigates has learned the complaint was made…

View Cache

Salt Lake City diocese confirms it conducted an investigation but says only that it “has taken steps to address its findings.”

William Hambleton alleged last year that he was abused as a teen by a priest in Utah, an assertion the Diocese of Salt Lake City later deemed “credible.”

Now Hambleton contends that the diocese has confirmed to him a wider issue: A powerful cleric occasionally destroyed documents in personnel files of priests.

Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald , the diocese’s longtime vicar general, told multiple priests about his purges of “information that could cast clergy in a poor light,” according to Robert Moriarty, a former priest in the diocese.

“I came to assume that this practice was common knowledge,” Moriarty, a friend of Hambleton, wrote in a letter provided last summer to the diocese’s internal review board during its investigation.

In a meeting earlier this month, Hambleton said, Bishop Oscar…

View Cache

A former Catholic school teacher, who just days ago was fired by the Archdiocese of Chicago, has been charged with sexually abusing a child while working as a private tutor in southwest suburban Orland Park.

Brett Smith, 43, has been charged with one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Orland Park police said they began investigating Smith – who had been advertising private tutoring services on social media – after parents who had hired him became suspicious, because he identified himself as BJ S. McAuliffe, but the name associated with their requested bank payment for his services appeared as Brett Smith. 

After conducting an online search for Smith, who had legally changed his name from Brett Zagorac in 2019, they discovered several news articles from other states involving prior allegations of child molestation, and contacted police.

After launching an investigation, detectives determined Smith had used several aliases while advertising private…

View Cache

“I will be listening intently with an empathetic heart and mind”

Survivor details decades of abuse

More than five years after the first Child Victims Act lawsuit was filed, clergy sex abuse survivors of the Buffalo Diocese are finally having their voices heard in federal court.

Survivors began delivering statements Tuesday before U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Carl Bucki and Buffalo Bishop Michael Fisher as part of the diocese’s ongoing bankruptcy case.

The emotional and graphic testimonies marked a significant moment for those who have waited years for this opportunity.

Michael Whalen, a clergy sex abuse survivor, was the first of about 20 survivors to speak. He was also the first person to come forward eight years ago, saying he was sexually abused by Father Norbert Orsolits at St. John Vianney Church in Orchard Park when he was a teenager.

“These were crimes against children and they went unpunished,” Whalen noted.

…

View Cache

When John Carr was growing up in Minnesota, he dreamt of one day becoming either a priest or a U.S. senator.

Meeting and falling in love with his future wife, Linda, halted the priesthood dream for the onetime seminarian.

“She changed my life,” he said in a recent interview. In 2025, John and Linda Carr marked their 50th wedding anniversary, and they have four children and 10 grandchildren.

And losing a close race for the Minnesota House of Representatives at the age of 24 scuttled his dreams of public office.

Yet his life and work would ultimately revolve around the intersection of faith and politics, and on Jan. 21, 2026, John Carr – the founder of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University who retired at the end of 2025 – was honored for a half-century of connecting Catholic social thought and public life.

That Georgetown…

View Cache

Multiple survivors in the Awake community have shared that confession, formally known as the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, played a role in their abuse.

In some cases, the sexual abuse itself took place in the confessional or reconciliation room. Other times, information the priest heard from a person in confession was used to groom, manipulate, and victimize them. And some survivors have described situations in which confession took place immediately before abuse or after it.  

Terence McKiernan, best known as founder and co-director of BishopAccountability.org, an extensive archive of information about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, is currently researching and writing a book about confession, including its history in the Church and influence in broader culture. The book will also consider what McKiernan calls “the horror of confessional abuse” and what survivor stories can tell us about the risks of harm in this sacrament.

The Power of…

View Cache

[See also the original article in Romanian.]

A Roman Catholic priest sexually abused* a 13-year-old minor in the parish in Bacău County where he served: the bishop of Iași knew, sent the case to the Vatican and applied canonical sanctions, but did not notify the authorities, who only intervened later and definitively sentenced him to prison.

• The Roman Catholic Bishop of Iași, Iosif Păuleț, learned in 2022 that a priest under his command had sexually abused a 13-year-old minor, sanctioned him canonically, but did not notify the Police or the Prosecutor’s Office. 
• The documents in the criminal file show that, before the Romanian state found out and intervened, the case was managed exclusively within the Catholic Church, through canonical procedures initiated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași and later validated by the Vatican itself. 
• Although Vatican norms explicitly recommend cooperation with state authorities in cases of abuse of…

View Cache

[See also the original article in Romanian.]

Catholic priest Augustin Benchea, sentenced in 2024 to four years in prison for continuous sexual assault on a minor – a case revealed exclusively by PressOne – could be released from prison after the Vaslui Court ordered his conditional release today, January 27. However, the decision is not final and can be appealed within three days of notification. 

Beyond the court’s decision, however, an essential question remains: what will happen to priest Augustin Benchea after he leaves prison and what will be his status within the Catholic Church?

PressOne requested clarification regarding its situation from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași.

The spokesperson for the Episcopate, priest Adrian Blăjuță , exclusively told PressOne that representatives of the institution have sent the Vatican an official request to receive ” clear instructions ” regarding Benchea’s status and the steps to be taken upon his release.

…

View Cache

When Josh Shapiro ran for governor in 2022, he touted his work as Pennsylvania attorney general to expose a systematic cover-up by the Catholic Church to protect priests who abused children.

“I sought justice for victims of abuse and put predator priests behind bars,” Shapiro said on social media during his campaign. “As Governor, I’ll continue fighting for accountability for victims of sexual abuse.”

Four years later, former lawmakers who are also survivors of child sexual abuse sayShapiro hasn’t done enough to live up to that promise.

Bill Wachob, a former Democratic state representative for Clearfield and Elk Counties who says he was abused as a preteen, penned an open letter accusing Shapiro of letting the issue “languish.”

“Here was a guy that made this such a pivotal issue, now in charge of the state,” Wachob told Spotlight PA. “You would think that the governor who exerted…

View Cache

Key Points

• Former Green Bay Bishop Robert Banks died at the age of 97 after serving as a priest for 73 years.

• Banks served as the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay from 1990 until his retirement in 2003.

• Banks later faced criticism for his role in reassigning priests accused of abuse while he was vicar general in Boston.

Former Green Bay Bishop Robert Banks died Jan. 25 at the age of 97. Banks was the bishop of Green Bay for 13 years since 1990.

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay announced that Banks died about 8 a.m. Jan. 25 at St. Paul Elder in Kaukauna, where he lived. He had been a priest for 73 years and served as a bishop for 40 years in Green Bay and the Archdiocese of Boston.

The diocese said Banks was “an outstanding shepherd of the flock entrusted to…

View Cache

Warning: This story contains disturbing content.

A self-proclaimed preacher in Kenya linked to an infamous starvation cult that killed more than 400 people will be charged over a further 52 deaths at another village, prosecutors said Monday.

In a case that made global headlines when it came to light in 2023, hundreds of people died in what became known as the “Shakahola Forest Massacre”, one of the world’s worst cult-related tragedies, discovered just inland from the Kenyan beach resort of Malindi.

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of manslaughter at his trial in Mombasa and has remained in custody.

But last year, Kenya was shocked by the discovery of yet more bodies in the remote village of Binzaro, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Shakahola along the Indian Ocean coast.

It appeared to show that the same cult had continued to operate even after the…

View Cache

In a statement this week, Bethel senior leaders Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton acknowledged they didn’t do enough when one or more alleged victims confided in them.

Editor’s Note: Please be aware that this story contains allegations related to sexual misconduct. Read with care. If you have experienced harm, help is available. 

Bethel’s lead pastor Dan Farrelly’s voice broke as he greeted his congregation on Sunday morning. 

“The truth is we did not properly and fully discipline, and bring to closure, and bring out the truth of a very important situation involving a man named Shawn Bolz,” Farrelly told parishioners, during the January 25 service at Bethel’s campus in north Redding.

The same day, Bethel leadership also released a 2,700-word open letter regarding the church’s relationship with Bolz, who Bethel regularly platformed up until 2019. That’s when Bethel leaders say they first became aware of sexual misconduct allegations against Bolz as well as allegations…

View Cache

Abuse victims began to deliver impact statements in the bankruptcy case against the Diocese of Buffalo on Tuesday.

It’s the first of four sessions where 80 people will speak about the sexual abuse they say they experienced from clergy members.

The courtroom was filled with both tears and anger Tuesday as men and women approached the stand to speak about the sexual abuse they say they experienced in non-testimonial statements. These statements are not intended to be used as evidence in a legal case, but rather to describe and resolve an immediate crisis and prevent further harm. 

Some statements went into graphic detail about forms of abuse that the victims experienced as children by both priests and nuns belonging to the diocese.

Michael Whalen, who first came out about the abuse he endured back in 2018, which then led to an investigation that uncovered more than 900 people with similar…

View Cache

Abuse survivors are sharing their stories of sexual abuse by clergy members of the Diocese of Buffalo.

The statements are part of an ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy court case. Tuesday was the first of four scheduled sessions where survivors could share nontestimonial statements, meaning they weren’t be questioned by any attorneys.

It was an important opportunity being able to recount the abuse by clergy members over the years, and making those offenses publicly known, abuse survivor Michael Whalen said.

“That’s what we needed to let the world know, is that these were crimes against children, and they went unpunished. You know, my abuser admitted to (abusing) a couple of dozen boys, and he openly admitted and he was able to walk free.”

This was the first time abuse survivors in Buffalo were given the time to make their own stories known in front of a judge and in a courtroom.

…

View Cache

Survivors described decades of abuse, coverups, and lasting trauma while urging a federal judge to end the bankruptcy case, which is approaching its sixth year.

Rage. Humiliation. Guilt. Distrust.

These were among the words spoken Tuesday in U.S. District Court by survivors of clergy sexual abuse as they testified in the Diocese of Buffalo’s bankruptcy case.

Eleven survivors, some now in their 60s, delivered raw, sometimes graphic accounts of sexual abuse by priests and nuns of the Catholic Church. Dozens more are expected to testify through the week.

The abuse spans decades. More than 900 survivors filed claims against the Diocese and their abusers. A Vatican investigation previously found that former bishops shielded abusive priests and moved them from parish to parish.

Among those who testified was Paul Barr, an attorney who represents numerous survivors and who was abused in the early 1980s by the Rev. Michael Freeman.

“What we…

View Cache

Bethel Church leaders apologized Sunday for mishandling allegations that prophetic minister Shawn Bolz sexually harassed his staff and used social media to fabricate charismatic “words of knowledge.”

“We did not tell the truth enough, early enough, long enough, or loud enough,” top leaders at the Redding, California, megachurch said in a statement posted online on Jan. 25.

Pastors Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and Dann Farrelly dedicated about half of each of the church’s three services to apologies and explanations. They said they tried to deal with the concerns about Bolz privately in 2019 but didn’t think it was their responsibility to say anything publicly. They did not acknowledge any concerns about him or his ministry until allegations started to come out online in early 2025.

The ministers reconsidered their silence amid the furor following charismatic Bible teacher Mike Winger’s 5-hour 50-minute YouTube video, released Jan. 17, detailing…

View Cache

Two more states have joined a national movement to “end silence and expose abusers” wishing to silence their victims. State legislators in Oklahoma have filed a bill to ban agreements used to cover up sexual abuse, while the Georgia governor has stated a similar bill will be introduced soon. 

Both proposed state laws, which will be known as Trey’s Law, are designed to prohibit non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in cases of child sexual abuse.

Also, on Friday, Alabama legislators, who had previously filed a version of Trey’s Law, voted to unanimously approve bills SB 30 and HB 93 through both chambers.

“We want to continue to give victims of sexual abuse a voice,” said State Rep. Susan DuBose (R–District 45) on the House floor. “Prohibiting these nondisclosure agreements is essential.”

However, because Alabama’s version of Trey’s Law does not apply retroactively, it…

View Cache

A bill that would make clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse is entering its fourth year in the Kansas Legislature after failing to pass the House three years in a row.

The legislation seeks to require ordained ministers or clergy to report suspected child abuse to authorities. Representative Tobias Schlingensiepen introduced the bill in 2023 following conversations with abuse survivors.

Joe Cheray, who says she was sexually abused by her grandfather between 1982 and 1987, testified in support of the bill on Monday before the House Judiciary Committee. Cheray was raised in the Catholic Church and told her priest about the abuse, but he was not a mandated reporter, so no one was told.

The abuse still affects Cheray today. She said she has PTSD, doesn’t trust many people and had a severe fear of public speaking until recently.

“I trusted religion completely,” Cheray said.

Under the proposed legislation, if…

View Cache

An usher at a Catholic church in Fredericksburg has been arrested and charged in connection with child sexual abuse material, according to a statement from the church.

The individual volunteered at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception as an usher before his arrest. The church is part of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, which said they were not aware of any activity that took place on parish grounds.

“We encourage anyone who may know of any abuse or misconduct on the part of any cleric, employee, or volunteer of the diocese to immediately notify civil authorities as well as to reach out to the diocesan Victim Assistance Coordinator at (703) 841-2530,” the church’s statement reads.

DC News Now has reached out to the Fredericksburg Police Department and is working to gather more details.

This is a developing story.

View Cache

Evergreen Park IL – School parents are reacting, after a substitute teacher that has worked at multiple schools within the Chicago Archdiocese has been fired.

It was revealed that he has been previously accused of child molestation.

The archdiocese is defending itself, saying he had passed background checks despite those allegations.

Last Wednesday, Evergreen Park police say parents brought forward disturbing information about a substitute teacher at Queen of Martyrs School.

Police say the parents had learned the teacher has a history of allegations of child sexual abuse, and one family reported a possible incident involving their child while he was at school.

“It’s disturbing. There’s, there’s no other words to say it. Besides, it’s disturbing,” one parent said.

The parent has asked to remain unnamed. He works at ABC7 Chicago.

He’s concerned with the fact that a man with a history of troubling allegations levied against him would be…

View Cache

A group of Catholic parishioners from southern Maine say they have been prevented a second time from meeting with a Falmouth priest to discuss his qualifications.

Paul Kendrick of Freeport and Michael Sweatt of North Yarmouth, co-founders of Voice of the Faithful in Maine, said Rev. Steven Cartwright has now cancelled twice on them.

As baptized Catholics they said they can’t fathom why their clerical leader won’t meet with them.

Cartright has now reportedly put off two proposed meetings with the group.

Though Kendrick previously said he saw no reason to explain to Cartwright what its representatives want to talk to him about, he and Sweatt have since done so.

“We hope to determine if you, in your role as a Catholic priest and pastor, are qualified to be a vibrant and effective spiritual director,” they wrote him.

“It’s just about two guys wanting to meet with their pastor,” Kendrick told…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Chicago has sent a letter to Catholic school families alerting them to the termination of a teacher with a history of child molestation allegations in Illinois and other states.

According to the letter, the male teacher was employed as a substitute at Queen of Martyrs Catholic School in Evergreen Park earlier this month.

The letter states the terminated teacher also worked in at least three other South Side and south suburban Catholic schools over the past 16 months.

The Archdiocese of Chicago says as of now, none of the allegations took place at any Chicago-area schools.

“We have learned, however, that one family in the south suburbs filed a complaint… with their local police for conduct that occurred while he was tutoring in their home,” the letter from the archdiocese read in part.

The Archdiocese of Chicago says they’re cooperating with DCFS and two suburban police departments…

View Cache

The Brief

• The Archdiocese of Chicago has restored Father Ronald Kondziolka to ministry after an independent review found no reasonable cause to support a decades-old abuse allegation.
• Kondziolka had stepped away from ministry while investigators reviewed the claim, which he denied.
• Church officials said the priest is in good standing and emphasized both child safety and due process.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has restored a priest to ministry after an independent review determined there was no reasonable cause to support a decades-old allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

What we know

Archbishop Blase Cupich announced that Father Ronald Kondziolka has been returned to ministry following an investigation into an allegation dating back more than 40 years. Kondziolka had been directed to step away from ministry last August while civil authorities and the archdiocese’s Independent Review Board reviewed the claim.

In a statement, the archbishop said the review board…

View Cache

Six weeks ago, attorneys for the Archdiocese of New Orleans and clergy sex abuse survivors agreed to a settlement in the long-running bankruptcy of the local Roman Catholic church that will pay survivors more than $230 million.

Thursday, the two sides were back in court arguing over how much the lawyers in the case will get paid.

As of December, legal and professional fees topped $52.7 million, according to bankruptcy court documents filed in late December. That doesn’t include millions more in fee applications that have yet to be filed.

The issue of legal fees has surfaced periodically throughout the long-running case. But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill ruled in 2024 that the question of whether certain fees were excessive — and who has legal standing to challenge them — would be settled after the case was resolved, not before.

The court is revisiting the issue now that…

View Cache

France’s Catholic school federation announced Thursday the closure of the establishment, targeted by numerous complaints of violence and rape from former students. Separate authorities denied this just hours later. In practice, the school is likely to come under new supervision.

“Bétharram will close, there is no other option,” Pierre-Vincent Guéret, president of French Catholic school federation FNOGEC, announced in a radio interview on Thursday, January 22. The announcement of the closure of the Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram private school, which was renamed Le Beau Rameau in 2009 and which still counts around 200 middle school students, caused a stir.

The institution, located a few kilometers from Pau in southwest France, has become infamous as a site of abuse, sexual assault and rape of students over several decades. In total, nearly 250 complaints have been filed, half of them relating to sexual abuse. “The name Bétharram must be consigned to the dustbin of history,”…

View Cache

Rite & Reason: No one is Catholic by birth and the notion of ‘Baptismal promises’ is risible

Throughout the world, there continues a long-standing, systemic and overlooked severe restriction on children’s rights with regard to religion. This warrants, but has yet to receive, serious examination. It impacts Ireland in a special way and contemporary circumstances make Ireland an ideal place to conduct that examination.

Let me set the scene with a couple of brief, inter-related stories. They concern the relationship between children’s rights and religion in Ireland, and certain unchallenged aspects of the canon law of Ireland’s major Christian denomination and provider of education, the Latin Catholic Church.

It restricts children’s rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989, to which both Ireland and the Holy See…

View Cache

One of the most striking aspects of our therapeutic age is the increasing inability of many to sustain a sane and coherent moral hierarchy. Perhaps this stems from the omnipresence of social media. Everything, everywhere always demands our attention and yet, with nowhere solid to stand, we have no way of judging what is important and what is trivial. Or perhaps it’s because the label of “victim” has become the most coveted title. Now many seek the “prize” without having been subjected to real abuse—abuse that no one would wish upon himself.

A prominent Catholic recently argued in the Irish Times for a new category of victim: those subjected to infant baptism, especially as practiced by the Catholic Church. Former president of Ireland and canon lawyer Mary McAleese declared it to be “a long-standing, systemic and overlooked severe restriction on children’s rights with regard to religion.” Really? At the very…

View Cache