ABUSE TRACKER

On his first full day in his adopted home of Peru, Pope Leo XIV said the Catholic Church must confront abuse perpetrated by its members, and, in his first address to the Peruvian public, he decried the mistreatment of women in the church and society.

The day followed an astonishing homecoming, when some 3 million people lined the streets to welcome the pope — the largest crowd he has seen as pope. His second day in the country, Nov. 12, carried the celebration forward while delivering pointed messages to the Peruvian church and society.

Pope condemns church polarization and abuse

Leo began the day by meeting with Peru’s bishops, a famously divided episcopate that splits liberation theology-minded progressives concerned with social issues and Opus Dei-influenced conservatives more focused on doctrinal orthodoxy and morality questions. 

Leo knows those divisions well. He was a member of the Peruvian bishops’ conference while leading…

View Cache

 Pope Leo met ​with six victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Thursday in Lima in his ‌second meeting with survivors during a 12-day trip to South America and discussed how the Church can better listen to abuse victims, the Vatican said.

Leo, the first Peruvian citizen to lead the Catholic Church, is on an emotional return visit to Peru through November 16 ​on the last leg of a three-country tour that has broken crowd records.

The pope, originally from Chicago, has ​met with survivors during several of his foreign visits, in an effort to help ⁠repair the Church’s standing after abuse scandals tarnished its reputation.

The meeting on Thursday lasted more than an hour, said ​a Vatican statement.

“The pope met with each person individually, listening to their stories of suffering and pain,” it said.

“Together, ​they reflected on how to foster a…

View Cache

Pope Leo XIV is opening his first day in Peru by giving marching orders to the country’s Catholic bishops

After his emotional homecoming, Pope Leo XIV got down to work Thursday telling Peru’s Catholic bishops to accompany their flocks as they face poverty and injustices, and respond to victims of clergy sexual abuse with truth, justice and amends.

Leo made it clear he knows the Peruvian church and people well in his opening events in Lima, identifying some of the biggest challenges facing them and calling the influential Catholic hierarchy especially to task to be models of unity and communion.

Peruvians turned out in droves to catch a glimpse of Leo, with crowds outside the church residence where he is staying and an even bigger gathering at the central Plaza Mayor where he had his first events Thursday. Leo thrilled them by looping around the plaza in his…

View Cache

Pope Leo XIV met six victims of clerical abuse in Peru on Thursday, including some linked to the once-powerful and now- disbanded Catholic society, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.

The US-born pope is on a nostalgic return to the nation he calls his “homeland,” and knows the abuse scandal well from the nearly two decades he worked in Peru as a missionary and bishop.

Leo spent over an hour with the victims, meeting “each person individually, listening to their stories of suffering and their pain,” and “thanked them for their invaluable testimony,” the Vatican said.

Together, “they reflected on how to foster a shift in mindset — by listening to victims, seeking the truth, pursuing paths toward healing, and committing to the creation of safe environments,” it said.

Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a lay society founded in the 1970s that was widespread in Latin America, was shut down in 2025 by…

View Cache

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday denounced widespread “machismo” and violence against women in Peru, demanding that women be protected and respected as he set out marching orders for his beloved Peruvian church and people.

After his emotional homecoming Wednesday, the Peruvian pope got down to business and turned to the challenges facing a church and country he knows well.

He called on the influential Catholic hierarchy to be models of unity and communion, and instructed Peruvian bishops to accompany their flocks and respond to victims of clergy sexual abuse with truth and justice. He also met with six survivors, including from an abusive sect-like group that Pope Francis suppressed last year.

But the 71-year-old pope also showed himself to be positively overjoyed to be home and as relaxed as he has been in public since his 2025 election.

Leo sang along enthusiastically as 40,000 people in Lima’s Plaza…

View Cache

The Accra Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women called for prompt investigations into child sexual abuse and legal accountability for perpetrators, urging stronger protection for children.

Members of the Accra Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women in Ghana have called for prompt investigations into child sexual abuse and legal accountability for perpetrators, urging stronger protection for children in schools, homes, and communities.

In a statement condemning sexual abuse, harassment, bullying, and exploitation of children, the council members urged authorities to investigate every reported case promptly and professionally, regardless of the alleged perpetrator’s social standing, influence, or institutional position.

“Sexual abuse is a crime, not a disciplinary matter,” the Catholic women said.

The council members further stressed that responding to abuse involves responsibilities for child protection, justice, and human rights, and requires national action. Institutions and individuals have a duty to protect children from further abuse, prevent exploitation, and…

View Cache

Pope Leo’s acknowledgement of the primacy of personal responsibility in abuse should not be used as a distraction from the need to address flaws in the structures and culture of the Church that allow sexual violence to breed.

INDIVIDUAL, stand-alone “keywords” can have an enormous impact, both intellectually and emotionally. They can open the door to a rational and reasonable understanding of complex realities, or subtle distinctions, nuances and shades of meaning can be closed down. The conversation over whether or not sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is “systemic” is a good example of how important distinctions could be lost when a keyword becomes conflated with emotion.

The 2021 report commissioned by France’s bishops and religious orders estimated that some 330,000 children had been sexually abused by priests and other church workers in France from 1950 to 2020. It argued that the abuse was “systemic”. After Pope Leo met…

View Cache

Old statutes of limitation are a major hurdle for authorities seeking to prosecute Catholic priests accused of decades-old abuse of children.

Prosecuting child abusers is considerably easier in Texas than it used to be. 

That’s good news for victims today. Not for survivors of clergy abuse from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s when the Catholic Church was accused of routinely covering up the sex crimes of priests. In those cases, too much time has passed to bring charges. 

Texas lawmakers in 2007 eliminated the state’s statute of limitations for the crime of child sexual assault, under its version of the 2005 Jessica Lunsford Act. The law is named for a girl who was abducted, raped and murdered in Florida two years earlier by a convicted sex offender.  

That change and others opened the door for more victims to bring lawsuits and press charges against their abusers.

Some victims….

View Cache

Former Diocese of Lafayette priest Michael Guidry is scheduled to be released from prison this Saturday, Nov. 14, after serving a seven-year sentence for molesting an altar boy. However, Guidry faces a new civil lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing another altar boy decades earlier.

Attorney Regan Charleston Thomas filed the lawsuit in Lafayette civil court on behalf of a Lafayette man who states Guidry sexually abused him in the 1970s. The alleged assault occurred 40 years before the 2015 case that resulted in Guidry’s criminal conviction and imprisonment.

Charleston Thomas emphasized that the civil lawsuit is distinct from the criminal case that sent Guidry to prison. “It’s important to note that this criminal case for which Guidry has been imprisoned is unrelated to my client’s case, which we have filed in civil court in Lafayette,” Charleston Thomas said.

The new filing comes after the Archdiocese of New Orleans released…

View Cache

A 41-year-old pastor from Ponce de Leon was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading no contest to sexually battering a teenage boy, the State Attorney’s Office said.

Randon Lee Carroll also received a 15-year prison sentence for a separate charge of using a child in a sexual performance. Prosecutors said he recorded some of the sexual acts.

Carroll entered an open plea, leaving the sentence up to Circuit Court Judge Russell Roberts. He was scheduled to go to trial in October on multiple charges.

At Tuesday’s sentencing, Holmes County Chief Prosecutor Jacob Cook asked Roberts to impose the maximum penalty. The State Attorney’s Office said Carroll testified that he had “fallen for it” and been “lured,” which Cook said was contrary to the evidence.

Holmes County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Bill Pate testified that the abuse occurred at Carroll’s home on…

View Cache

Three women who say they were sexually abused as children by a former Salvation Army youth pastor are accusing the organization of failing to protect them and covering up what was happening at its Tri-City Corps in St. Charles.

The women, now in their 30s, spoke publicly about abuse they said began after they started attending the church in the late 1990s.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

“For decades, I held guilt and shame,” Kristy Wynveen said.

Wynveen was 13 when she said then-youth pastor Brian Davis began grooming and sexually abusing her. The abuse stopped years later after her father contacted police. Davis was fired, convicted and sentenced to two months in prison.

Wynveen later learned there were other victims, including Lindsey Gauthier, who was 11 at the time.

“At the time I thought everything was my fault. And after it happened I…

View Cache

Three women came forward decades after alleged sexual abuse by a former youth pastor at the Salvation Army community center in St. Charles.

Three women came forward Wednesday to say they’ve carried the lasting effects of sexual abuse they endured as children at the hands of a Salvation Army youth pastor for nearly three decades — along with the burden of what they describe as the institution’s failure to protect them.

Attorneys for Kristy Wynveen, Lindsey Gauthier and Anna Kozak announced two lawsuits filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court against the Salvation Army, alleging its leaders knew about the abuse at a west suburban community center in the 1990s but allowed it to continue for years.

The three spoke publicly for the first time about their experiences, saying they hope to hold the national faith-based organization accountable and encourage other survivors to come forward.

“The effect that this has…

View Cache

A Tennessee jury convicted Benjamin Garlick of seven counts of aggravated rape of a child, six counts of aggravated sexual battery and more.

A traveling pastor convicted of sexually abusing three girls will serve three life sentences plus 84 years without parole, the Rutherford County court clerk confirmed.

Circuit Court Judge Barry Tidwell also sentenced Shaantal Garlick, the wife of Benjamin Garlick, to 25 years in prison on November 10.

A Rutherford County jury convicted Benjamin Garlick of seven counts of aggravated rape of a child, six counts of aggravated sexual battery, solicitation of sexual exploitation of a minor and two Child Protection Act violations, WSMV4 previously reported

The same jury convicted Shaantal Garlick of two counts of facilitation of aggravated rape of a child and two counts of aggravated child neglect.

Murfreesboro Police began investigating Benjamin Garlick in August 2023. Police previously said he traveled around the country…

View Cache

Dear Pope Leo,

On Friday, you travel to your beloved Chiclayo. That city’s faithful will throng the streets and give prayers of thanks for your return.  What an opportunity this could be for you to do something so brave, decisive, and loving that it will set an example for every bishop and religious superior in not just Peru, but the global church.

Earlier this week, you promised victims in Argentina that you would “strengthen measures for protection, well-being, welcome, and accompaniment within the Church.” Begin in Chiclayo: End that diocese’s cover-up of cases of sex abuse and make it instead a shining example of deep compassion and fierce child protection.

Your example will inspire your brother bishops and could mark a turning point in the crisis of clergy sex abuse in your beloved second home.

Pope Leo, the situation in Peru is dire.

Last week, my organization View Cache

In Peru, a group of 33 people who say they suffered abuse in the Catholic movement Sodalicio signed an open letter to Pope Leo XIV. According to one of the signatories, José Escardó, they are asking the pontiff to meet with them and draw attention to the unfinished process of dissolving the organization. This was reported by Tagesschau.

According to the U.S. portal Bishop Accountability, 77 clergymen in Peru have been publicly accused of abuse in recent years. Anne Barrett-Doyle, a representative of the portal, said that this figure may be only a small fraction of the actual number of cases.

Accusations against Sodalicio

Sodalicio is an ultraright Catholic lay organization founded in 1977 as a counterweight to left-wing liberation theology in Latin America. Escardó, who joined the movement at the age of 17, said that he and other members were subjected to physical violence and…

View Cache

It was 2002 when the Boston Globe’s exposé blew the lid off the clerical sex abuse crisis and led to enormous public outcry, particularly in the English-speaking world.

Yet in Spain, it wasn’t until 2018 when El País started compiling a database of sex abuse cases in the country, also later turning its attention to Latin America. 

This eventually led to Spain’s ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo, being tasked with investigating the problem. He produced a scathing report in 2023.

Thus, Spain’s institutional reckoning with the abuse crisis didn’t properly take place until over two decades after it first erupted in the US, and subsequently spread across the rest of the Anglo world. 

There are many survivors in the Hispanic world who say that far more needs to be done and that the pace has been too slow. José de Jesús Barba Martín, a victim of abuse from the notorious Marcial Maciel,…

View Cache

Richard Brown, a defrocked Catholic priest from the Dallas Diocese, was arrested in 2020 and released on bail. Since then, the case has stalled.

They took a drive to visit the Sisters of Charity in Dallas. In those days, it wasn’t unusual for a child to travel alone in the company of a Catholic priest.

Father Richard Thomas Brown had other designs for the outing, according to police. He parked down the street from the nuns, the girl told detectives, and then raped her in the back of his station wagon.

It wasn’t an isolated episode, according to police, but part of his alleged continual sexual abuse of the girl from July 1989 to December 1996, when she was between the ages of 6 and 14 and he was between 47 and 55 years old.

Brown was not formally charged until 2021. He faces one count of aggravated…

View Cache

One North Texas survivor of clergy sexual assault wants her alleged abuser in prison, not a church-affiliated treatment center.

The child sexual assault case against former priest Richard Brown in Dallas has shed light on the Catholic Church’s practice of warehousing accused pedophile priests at “in-house” residential treatment centers and remote monasteries — a practice documented in multiple attorney general investigative reports into clerical sexual abuse.

Many accused current and former priests such as Brown have been sent by the church to clerical retreats and monasteries across the U.S., according to state attorneys general.

Some of these facilities are run by religious orders that oversee priests who were accused or convicted of sex crimes against children, state attorney general reports show. The statute of limitations to prosecute them long expired, often because church officials delayed reporting the abuse or hid it from the public for decades. 

Here, the priests…

View Cache

Nexus Family Healing, the company that runs the Austin center where the abuse reportedly occurred, had maltreatment reports at a Twin Cities area center.

An employee at a residential mental health treatment center for children in Austin reportedly sexually abused three teenagers multiple times, according to a state maltreatment investigation.

The investigation also found the worker, who is no longer employed there, and another employee provided marijuana and vapes to nine young people at Nexus Gerard Family Healing.

The Nexus campus on a 12-acre estate in Austin serves 9- to 18-year-olds who need intensive emotional, behavioral or mental health care. The organization serves kids with challenging behaviors, including aggression, self-harm and social withdrawal — a service that is in high demand in Minnesota.

The alleged abuse comes as Nexus’ operations at a similar children’s residential treatment center in East Bethel are also under scrutiny from the state.

The…

View Cache

Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann is the latest in a string of German prelates to offer their resignations well ahead of the customary age.

A German diocesan bishop stepped down Wednesday at the age of 66, citing the “psychological strain” of office. He is the latest in a string of German prelates to offer their resignations well ahead of the customary age, suggesting the burdens of episcopal office are taking an increased toll in the country.

The Holy See press office announced Aug. 19 that Pope Leo XIV had accepted the resignation of Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of Speyer, southwestern Germany.

The Vatican gave no reason for the pope’s decision to accept the resignation nine years before Wiesemann turned 75, the standard retirement age for diocesan bishops. German Catholic media described the move as a surprise.

But in a candid letter…

View Cache

US pushes for extradition of detained Pastor Quiboloy over trafficking allegations

The United States has formally asked the Philippines to extradite detained pastor Apollo Quiboloy and two other individuals to face criminal prosecution over alleged international human trafficking, sex trafficking and related offences.

The Philippines’ Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed that the extradition request was filed on November 9 before a Makati court.

It marks a significant procedural development in Washington’s efforts to bring the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder and his co-respondents under US jurisdiction.

Makati is one of 16 the component cities of the National Capital Region (NCR), which also includes the City of Manila.

Two others sought by US

The two other individuals named in the request are Teresita Tolibas Dandan and Helen Panilag, local media reported.

The case was assigned to Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 145, presided over by Judge Karen Matti Sy, according…

View Cache

A recently published decision by the Roman Rota upheld a complaint of defamation against a religious order, brought by a former member over his inclusion on a list of “credibly accused” clergy.

The decision, news of which first broke last year, was scathing in its verdict on the widespread practice in North American dioceses and religious orders of maintaining lists of clerics, living and dead, who were subject to accusations deemed to be “credible” or “substantiated.”

The rotal judges branded the lists, and the process by which clerics could be placed on them, a kind of continuous act of libel if the accusations were otherwise not investigated, prosecuted or judicially resolved — be it by civil or canonical authorities.

The decision is only the latest in a years-long series of Roman denunciations of so-called credibly accused lists, which have been branded as unjust by both the Dicastery for…

View Cache

Allegations of child grooming, sexual misconduct and online deception have surfaced against the recently announced pastor-elect of a Memphis church, prompting concerns from community members and calls to pause her appointment. 

Dr. Sheralyne Brevard was announced as the pastor-elect of Greater Middle Baptist Church last month.

Since that announcement, several women have come forward with allegations involving Brevard, including one woman who says she was victimized as a teenager.

FOX13 has learned that a police report has now been filed concerning the allegations.

The filing of a police report does not establish that a crime occurred, and the information provided to FOX13 does not indicate that Brevard has been criminally charged.

Dr. Tonya Lyons told FOX13 she believes Brevard deceived her into developing an online relationship with someone Lyons thought was a man.

Lyons said the relationship lasted for months and involved someone she knew from church more than a…

View Cache

Judge Waverly Crenshaw heard opening arguments for case originating in Baltimore

On Tuesday morning, after the plaintiffs’ attorneys examined their first witness — Father John Hammond of the Diocese of Nashville — a case involving sex abuse in the Catholic Church in the 1960s settled for an undisclosed amount. The case dealt with the Diocese’s culpability for the actions of Father Water Emala, who worked in the Diocese of Nashville before moving on to Baltimore, where he allegedly abused nine-year-old altar boy Greg Valancius. Valancius alleged that the Diocese of Nashville knew about Emala’s history of sexual abuse and allowed it to continue. During Hammond’s examination, Valancius’ attorneys showed the jury a document in which the chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore asked the Diocese of Nashville if they had “anything in the secret archives pertaining to [Emala].” “We are proud that Mr. Valancius finally got his day in…

View Cache

A Catholic order is engaged in an extraordinary legal stoush with women it employed to investigate child abuse, turning on a whistleblower after she alleged serious bullying by its leader and said the order knowingly used an alleged child abuser as a star witness in a court case.

An ABC investigation has uncovered allegations by a group of women who claim severe bullying and intimidation by the province leader of the Sydney-based Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), which runs four Australian schools.

At the same time, MSC was defending a historical child sexual abuse case in Victoria’s Supreme Court, putting forward a priest and former school principal as a crucial witness without disclosing there had been abuse allegations substantiated against him.

After that case was thrown out on appeal, MSC launched legal action against one of the women who alleged she had been bullied by the province leader, accusing…

View Cache

 Personas con discapacidad auditiva que sufrieron abusos en manos de sacerdotes en la provincia argentina de Mendoza y las más de 40 mujeres que afirman haber sufrido explotación laboral en centros del Opus Dei sienten una profunda decepción por su exclusión de la agenda de encuentros del papa León XIV durante su visita al país sudamericano.

“Queremos transmitir la desilusión y la tristeza que sentimos… sabemos que los tiempos de él no son los nuestros, pero necesitamos ser escuchadas”, dijo el martes en una rueda de prensa Andrea Martínez, una de las mujeres que denunciaron penalmente a varias autoridades del Opus Dei a nivel global y que esperaba contarle al papa los maltratos que dice haber sufrido.

Junto con Martínez estaban otras cuatro exnumerarias auxiliares del Opus en Argentina que también han presentado denuncias en contra de miembros de esa organización de la Iglesia católica. Las cinco dijeron…

View Cache

La organización internacional Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) cuestionó este lunes que dos grupos de víctimas de abusos eclesiásticos no pudieron participar en una cita con el papa León XIV, quien realiza una visita apostólica a Argentina.

Mediante un comunicado, la organización denunció que las víctimas del Instituto Próvolo y las 43 mujeres que denunciaron al Opus Dei pidieron públicamente ser recibidas por el pontífice pero quedaron afuera del encuentro.

Este lunes en Buenos Aires, el papa conversó durante cerca de una hora con cinco personas víctimas de abusos cometidos por miembros del clero y de instituciones eclesiásticas.

Según ECA, no se informó de qué casos se trata ni con qué criterio se las eligió.

“Nuestro reclamo es con un mecanismo que dejó en manos de la jerarquía eclesiástica argentina la decisión de a quién escucha el Papa. Esa jerarquía es justamente la institución cuya respuesta frente a los abusos está…

View Cache

El pontífice, de 71 años, recibió a cinco víctimas de abusos cometidos por miembros del clero o en instituciones de la Iglesia católica en Argentina.

Más de dos millones y medio de personas asistieron este lunes (09.11.2026) en Buenos Aires, la capital de Argentina, a la misa más multitudinaria del pontificado de León XIV, en una jornada en la que el papa también se reunió con víctimas de abusos por parte del clero.

Ante la multitud congregada en torno al Monumento a los Españoles en el barrio de Palermo, en el primer evento masivo de la escala argentina de su viaje latinoamericano, el pontífice de 71 años defendió la vigencia de la fe cristiana como “un pilar”.

Al grito de “Olé olé León León” y agitando banderas argentinas y vaticanas, los fieles se agolparon formando un corredor de más de dos kilómetros sobre la anchísima avenida del Libertador…

View Cache

La Oficina de Prensa de la Santa Sede ha informado que León XIV se reunió esta tarde con cinco víctimas de abusos, manifestado su cercanía y su voluntad de reforzar las vías de protección, de bien, de acogida y de acompañamiento en la Iglesia.

Esta tarde, antes de dirigirse a la Universidad Católica Argentina para el Encuentro con el Mundo del Trabajo -informa la Oficina de Prensa de la Santa Sede-, el Papa León XIV mantuvo una reunión con cinco personas, víctimas de abusos por parte de miembros del clero y de instituciones eclesiásticas del país, presentadas por la Iglesia local.

El Papa habló individualmente con cada una de ellas, escuchó sus palabras, las dolorosas historias que habían vivido y las propuestas para consolidar los caminos de sanación en la Iglesia. Al finalizar, al despedirse de todos ellos, les impartió su bendición y les agradeció el encuentro y su testimonio…

View Cache

La organización internacional cuestionó que las víctimas del Próvolo y 43 mujeres que denunciaron al Opus Dei no fueran recibidas. También pidió explicaciones sobre la selección.

La organización internacional Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) criticó que la Iglesia argentina seleccionara a las cinco personas que mantuvieron un encuentro con el papa León XIV en Buenos Aires. Entre quienes quedaron afuera están las víctimas del Instituto Antonio Próvolo y 43 mujeres que denunciaron al Opus Dei.

La situación generó el cuestionamiento de la organización que había manifestado su intención de reunirse con el Papa para trasladarle sus reclamos y plantear la necesidad de avanzar en medidas de reparación y protección de las víctimas. Este lunes, luego de que la Oficina de Prensa de la Santa Sede informara que León XIV había conversado durante más de una hora con cinco personas víctimas de…

View Cache

El padre Juan Bytton, en diálogo con RPP, destacó que el Santo Padre tiene previsto reunirse con víctima de abusos sexuales.

El secretario general de la visita del papa León XIV en Lima, Padre Juan Bytton, comentó los detalles sobre el recorrido apostólico que realizará el sumo pontífice, el cual incluirá tiempos para que pueda descansar tras sus visitas a Argentina y Uruguay previamente.

En comunicación con RPP, Bytton recalcó que cuando el Santo Padre llegue a la capital ya tendrá dos actividades oficiales: el saludo en Palacio de Gobierno y el encuentro con el cuerpo diplomático de la sociedad civil en el Gran Teatro Nacional.

Juan Bytton: “Cada evento va a tener momentos especiales”

El Padre Bytton indicó que cada evento religioso que oficiará su santidad en Lima será especial e hizo referencia al encuentro que tendrá con los jóvenes en el Estadio Nacional.

“Cada…

View Cache

León XIV se reunirá con víctimas de abusos por parte de miembros del clero durante su próximo viaje a Uruguay, Argentina y Perú del 6 al 17 de noviembre, según confirmó el Vaticano, como ya hizo en España o Francia.

El papa León XIV se reunirá con víctimas de abusos durante su gira por América del Sur del próximo mes, que le llevará a Uruguay, Argentina y Perú del 6 al 17 de noviembre, informó el Vaticano este martes (27.10.2026). “Durante los días del próximo Viaje Apostólico del Santo Padre a América Latina, están previstos algunos encuentros con personas que han sido víctimas de abusos por parte de miembros del clero y de la Iglesia”, informó el Vaticano en un breve comunicado.

“Estos encuentros reflejan el deseo del Papa de expresar su cercanía con quienes han sufrido -y continúan sufriendo- a causa de esta violencia”, agregó la fuente….

View Cache

As Pope Leo XIV arrives in Peru, 250 victims of the now-defunct ultraconservative group have come forward, while the Holy See is still trying to trace the organization’s hidden assets in order to compensate them

EL PAÍS launched an investigation into clerical child sexual abuse in the Spanish Church in 2018 and maintains an updated database with all known cases. If you know of a case that has not come to light, you can write to us at: abusos@elpais.es. If it is a case in Latin America, the address is: abusosamerica@elpais.es.

───────────

Pope Leo XIV arrives in Peru on Wednesday, returning to the country where, as a bishop, he waged his most significant battle against clerical abuse within the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, one of Latin America’s most powerful ultraconservative Catholic groups.

Founded in Peru in 1971 and inspired by Spain’s Falange fascist organization, the group became the focus of…

View Cache

Nuncjatura Apostolska w Polsce poinformowała Biskupa Bielsko-Żywieckiego, że Ojciec Święty zarządził w diecezji bielsko-żywieckiej wizytację apostolską. Jej przeprowadzenie powierzył Jego Ekscelencji Księdzu Biskupowi Krzysztofowi Wętkowskiemu, biskupowi włocławskiemu, przewodniczącemu Rady Prawnej Konferencji Episkopatu Polski.

Wizytator apostolski otrzymał od Stolicy Apostolskiej wszystkie upoważnienia potrzebne do przeprowadzenia wizytacji.

View Cache

A Palm Beach County school employee and youth pastor who allegedly solicited a 14-year-old boy during an undercover online sting was arrested Monday, police said.

Donald Rush, 65, of Lake Worth Beach was arrested after an undercover investigation by the Boynton Beach Police Department’s Human Exploitation Task Force.

Rush appeared in court Tuesday morning. A judge set his bond at $85,000 and ordered him not to have any contact with Palm Beach County School District employees or students. The judge also ordered he cannot have any contact with anyone under the age of 18 and no internet access.

According to police, detectives posed as a 14-year-old boy advertising lawn mowing services on Craigslist when Rush allegedly contacted the fake account under the screen name “Palm Guy.”

Investigators said Rush began asking the supposed teenager his age, whether adult men had approached him about sexual activity and…

View Cache

Questions remain in the Pawleys Island Community Church case after a judge dismissed charges against a registered sex offender accused of volunteering around children and the church leaders accused of allowing it. Convicted sex offender Warren Perry had been accused of volunteering at a church with a day school, and authorities alleged the pastor and several church leaders knew of his past. Perry was charged with criminal conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Pastor Don Williams and Niki Howard faced charges of obstruction, unlawfully placing a child at risk or causing a child harm, and criminal conspiracy. The defendants were cleared in court Friday, after a judge dismissed the charges.

MORE: https://wpde.com/news/local/questions…

View Cache

A federal jury is hearing a lawsuit that accuses the Diocese of Nashville of concealing prior knowledge of allegations against Father Walter Emala. Before trial, Judge Waverly Crenshaw rejected the diocese’s request to dismiss the case under Tennessee’s statute of limitations. The ruling leaves jurors to decide when Greg Valancius knew, or reasonably should have known, of the diocese’s alleged wrongdoing; it did not decide liability, according to WKRN.

The disputed move to Maryland

The accounts cited in coverage differ over how Emala left Tennessee in 1968. WKRN reports that Diocese of Nashville Apostolic Administrator Joseph Durick directed him to retire or leave the state, and that Emala chose Maryland. A Maryland attorney general investigation, as reported by WMAR, describes Emala as banished from the Diocese of Memphis that year after multiple reports of child abuse; the report also said he went…

View Cache

Richard Trahant says accusers have been vindicated after Catholic church officially classifies Paul Hart as sex abuser

An attorney who was fined more than $400,000 after getting an abusive Roman Catholic priest removed as a New Orleans high school’s chaplain says it was “worth it” now that the church has officially classified the cleric as a clergy molester.

That remark from Richard Trahant came days after the archdiocese of New Orleans, having waited years, added Paul Hart on 6 November to a list of Catholic priests and deacons faced with credible claims of clergy abuse while serving in the area.

The late Hart had previously dismissed news coverage of his admitted but largely unpunished sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old girl he met in the course of his ministry as “bogus” and “made-up”. But, while continuing to implement the terms of an agreement to settle a bankruptcy protection case…

View Cache

Victims face intimidation, pressure to keep quiet, child rights activists, lay people allege

A second case of child sex abuse has been registered against a Catholic priest by police in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, sparking outrage among child rights activists and lay leaders who demanded action against the top leadership of his diocese.

Father Cyprian Pinto, the parish priest of St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Valencia, was arrested last month by police in Mangaluru (earlier Mangalore) city for allegedly abusing a 14-year-old boy who regularly visited the church for prayers.

Mangaluru police said another criminal case has been registered against Pinto for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

In a press release issued on Nov. 9, the police said the 65-year-old Catholic priest was booked under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, based on a complaint alleging that he abused the boy on May 13.

…

View Cache

A group dedicated to addressing abuse by the clergy is calling on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Falls to name the priest it sent to a treatment facility in Toronto in the 1970s after receiving complaints about him from the parents of a child.

End Clergy Abuse (or ECA) says then-Bishop Alphonsus Penney sent the unnamed priest to the Southdown Institute in 1975 after the parents complained about his conduct with their child. ECA says more than 50 years later the public still doesn’t know that priest’s name, whether he returned to the ministry, or whether there are other potential victims.

According to End Clergy Abuse, an affidavit was recently filed in a Grand Falls-Windsor courtroom by the Institute’s former insurer, seeking records on Father Leonard Joseph Kelly and the unnamed priest, but the application was discontinued last month after Southdown revealed that decades of clinical files were destroyed…

View Cache

An independent inquiry into historical sexual abuse at St Bede’s College will examine whether there were attempts to conceal or suppress any complaints of abuse.

The terms of reference – released six months after the school announced an inquiry – cover nearly 50 years of the school’s history and will examine whether it knew, or ought to have known, about complaints of sexual abuse and what action was taken in response.

RNZ earlier revealed that former priest Rowan Donoghue had admitted sexually abusing four boys at the school between 1996 and 2000.

It was then revealed Donoghue admitted sexual abuse to leaders of his religious order, the Society of Mary, in 2007. The order immediately removed Donoghue from public ministry. Donoghue was unable to identify the anonymous complainant and instead of notifying police, the order sent him to Australia for a six-month programme that provided “professional risk assessment and…

View Cache

Editorial of the Catholic News Agency

While Pope Leo XIV undertakes his pilgrimage to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru between November 6 and 17, 2026, his first apostolic journey to Latin America and one of the longest of his pontificate, pastoral expectations and hopes for regional unity collide with a reality that advocacy organizations continue to highlight, the scandal of clerical sexual abuse remains unresolved in the countries he will visit.

The Vatican has announced private meetings with survivors, a gesture of closeness that the pontiff himself has already practiced on other trips. However, the release of new databases just before his arrival revives the underlying question, Why, after years of complaints, commissions and promises of zero tolerance, do new cases continue to emerge?

In Peru, the organization BishopAccountability.org published on November 5 a database of 77 clergy members, priests, brothers, seminarians and consecrated laypeople, publicly accused of sexual abuse of…

View Cache

Pope Leo XIV met privately Nov. 9 with five people abused by clergy or Church institutions in Argentina, listening individually to their experiences during an encounter that lasted more than an hour, the Holy See Press Office said.

The meeting took place before the pope traveled to the Catholic University of Argentina for an encounter with representatives of the world of work. Earlier in the day, he celebrated Mass at Buenos Aires’ Monumento de los Españoles before approximately 2.5 million people, according to local authorities.

The five survivors were presented by the local Church, the Vatican statement said.

“The pope spoke with each of them individually, listening to their accounts, the painful experiences they had endured, and their suggestions for strengthening paths toward healing within the Church,” the statement said.

Read this next: Pope Leo arrives in Argentina under the shadow of his predecessor

At the conclusion, Leo greeted the survivors…

View Cache

Pope Leo met with five victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Monday in Buenos Aires, the ​Vatican said, in the first of several expected meetings with survivors during ‌the pontiff’s 12-day trip to South America.

Leo, the first US-born pope, is on a three-country tour through November 17. He has met with survivors during several of his foreign visits, in an effort ​to help repair the Church’s standing after abuse scandals have tarnished its reputation.

The meeting ​on Monday lasted more than an hour, the Vatican said, with ⁠Leo listening to the survivors’ testimonies and reaffirming his commitment to strengthen the Church’s ​safeguarding efforts.

“The Pope spoke individually with each of them, listening to their words, their ​painful personal stories, and their proposals for strengthening paths of healing within the Church,” said a statement.

“To them, and through them to the other victims whom it…

View Cache

As Pope Leo continues his Latin America tour, SNAP Survivors Network and its partners in Argentina are demanding that the Catholic Church put concrete safeguards in place to prevent clerical abuse in Latin America.

“SNAP demands that the pope do more than simply offer empty platitudes to survivors,” said Angela Walker, SNAP’s Executive Director. “Survivors have lived with the trauma of their abuse often for decades, causing a lifetime of agony. They deserve justice and will need support throughout their lives to begin healing from the abuse they suffered by predatory priests and all clerical abusers.”

Specifically, Latin American survivors are calling for:

• The Catholic Church to implement a clear and effective safeguarding policy requiring the immediate removal from ministry of ALL clergy and religious personnel facing allegations of sexual abuse;
• Accountability and consequences for ALL members of the Church hierarchy who covered up these crimes and fostered…

View Cache

Pope Leo XIV met with survivors of clergy abuse on Monday during his visit to Argentina, a country that has been reckoning with the Catholic Church’s legacy of sex abuse and cover-up, including in cases in which the Argentine Pope Francis intervened.

The Vatican said Leo spent about an hour meeting individually, and then as a group, with five victims of abuse by clergy and “church institutions” who were chosen by the local church. The meeting took place before Leo left for an event at the Catholic University of Argentina.

Leo listened to their “painful stories and proposals to consolidate paths of healing in the church,” said a statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.

Acknowledging that there were other groups of victims who had wanted to meet with Leo, “the pope expressed his closeness and desire to reinforce paths of protection, of welcome and accompaniment in…

View Cache

The criticism was made in a judicial decision on defamation by the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, roughly the equivalent of the Church’s Supreme Court.

The Catholic Church’s highest appeals court has strongly condemned the practice of publishing online lists of priests “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of minors in a judicial decision published in a law journal last month.

The June 2025 decision — on an action for defamation — was made available in English in October through the canon law journal of St. Paul University in Ottawa and first reported by Catholic World Report.

It has become increasingly common for Catholic dioceses and religious orders, especially in the United States, to publish lists of clerics accused of the abuse of minors, apart from judicial processes to determine guilt. In some cases, the names of deceased clerics have also been included.

…

View Cache

Mangaluru women’s police station has registered a case against a church priest for allegedly sexually harassing a minor boy, the second complaint against him over allegations of sexually harassing minor children.

The latest case follows a complaint alleging that the priest sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy, who attended the church every Sunday for prayers, on May 13. Police registered the case under Section 75(2) of BNS and sections 8 and 12 of the Pocso Act and initiated an investigation.

Mangaluru South police station had earlier registered a case on Oct 15 under BNS Section 75(2) and sections 8 and 12 of the Pocso Act over the alleged sexual harassment of a 14-year-old boy. The accused was arrested and produced before the court on Oct 18 and remained in judicial custody until Oct 30. He is currently out on bail, while the case remains under investigation.

Further investigation into the…

View Cache

The Catholic Church is moving to strip Edward Gallagher of his priesthood, as fresh questions arise about his time on mission in Belize.

Bishop of Derry Michael Router has petitioned the Holy See to send the case directly to Pope Leo with a recommendation that Gallagher be immediately dismissed from the clerical state. It is the most serious penalty available under church law.

The bishop said the church cannot undo the harm caused, but has a responsibility to respond truthfully, justly and decisively. He said the diocese has cooperated fully with police and will continue to do so.

Now, the Irish News reports that Gallagher is believed to have brought a teenage boy under 18 from a mission in Belize to Ireland to live with him. The Diocese of Derry says it had no knowledge of the arrangement and no record of it, adding that it would never have been…

View Cache

Cyprian Pinto, a Catholic priest in Mangaluru, was previously arrested in October following a complaint by another minor boy and was granted bail on October 29.

A second case has been registered against Father Cyprian Pinto, the parish priest of St Vincent Ferrer Church in Valencia, Mangaluru, over allegations of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy, the Mangaluru City Police said on November 9.

According to a press release issued by the Mangaluru City Police, the Mangaluru Women Police Station registered the case based on a complaint alleging that Pinto (65) sexually assaulted the boy on May 13, 2026. The boy regularly attended Sunday prayers at St Sebastian Church in Permannur village.

The investigation into the second case has been handed over to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Central Sub-Division, Mangaluru City.

Pinto was earlier booked by the Mangaluru South Police Station on October 15 following a complaint alleging sexual…

View Cache

The Arkansas Supreme Court has overturned precedent, ruling that lawmakers can allow childhood sexual abuse survivors to file civil lawsuits even after the original filing deadline has expired.

In an opinion issued Thursday, Nov. 5, the court reversed a lower court’s decision dismissing a lawsuit against James Darrell Nesmith, who is accused of sexually abusing four individuals as children between 1995 and 2007.

Three plaintiffs allege Nesmith, who was a pediatrician, abused them during medical visits. A fourth alleges he abused him at his home and at a church camp.

The lawsuit was initially dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. However, the Supreme Court ruled that Arkansas lawmakers have the authority to revive previously time-barred claims under the state’s Justice for Vulnerable Victims of Sex Abuse Act.

“And we now restore to the General Assembly its constitutional power to decide how long is too…

View Cache

A vote from nearly 900 child sexual abuse survivors who filed claims against the Buffalo Diocese worth nearly $327 million has passed.

The vote marks the end of the yearslong legal battle that is part of the diocese’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.

The diocese first filed for bankruptcy in February 2020. The process has been one of the longest settlement processes involving priest sexual abuse cases in the country. Throughout the process, the diocese has merged and closed dozens of churches throughout Western New York in order to

An allocator hired by the survivors committee will look through all proofs of claim and will allocate the amounts based on the severity of each individual claim.

The vote is set to be reported to a judge on Nov. 18 and lawyers from the diocese and creditors committee are working with insurance companies to finish paperwork, which they hope to have complete by…

View Cache

After nearly 7 years, sex abuse claimants approve $327M Buffalo Diocese settlement

Kevin Brun had mixed feelings when he recently returned his ballot approving the Buffalo Diocese’s $327 million plan to settle nearly 900 sex abuse claims and exit Chapter 11 proceedings that have dragged on for nearly seven years.

A decades-long diocese coverup of claims of priests and other employees molesting children began unraveling in 2018 with media reports of victims going public with their accounts of abuse, followed by the filing of hundreds of Child Victims Act lawsuits naming the diocese and parishes as defendants.

The Buffalo Diocese – like many other dioceses that had faced similar liability even earlier – filed for bankruptcy in response to the lawsuits, with church leaders saying it would be the fairest way to address all the claims.

Brun said his primary concern in the bankruptcy process was making sure Catholic leaders in Western…

View Cache

La organización BishopAccountability presentó una lista de 77 clérigos señalados por abuso sexual de menores en Perú y exigió que la Iglesia también sancione a quienes encubrieron estos delitos.

Activistas se congregaron el jueves en Lima para pedirle al papa León XIV que expulse a los abusadores sexuales de la Iglesia Católica, exigiendo justicia en un escándalo que se prolonga desde hace tiempo, antes de su gira por Latinoamérica esta semana.

La organización sin ánimo de lucro Bishop Accountability, con sede en Estados Unidos, celebró una rueda de prensa el jueves para presentar una lista de 77 clérigos “que han sido acusados públicamente de abusar sexualmente de menores” en Perú.

El viernes, el pontífice de 71 años dará inicio a una gira por Uruguay, Argentina y Perú, su patria de adopción, donde vivió durante casi dos décadas trabajando como misionero, párroco y obispo.

El Vaticano ha anunciado que Leo…

View Cache

Church authorities confirm that a canonical investigation was opened on October 17

The Diocese of Urgell has launched a canonical investigation into a priest following a complaint alleging sexual abuse of a person who was over the age of 18 at the time of the alleged incidents. 

Church authorities confirmed on Sunday, November 8, that the internal investigation was initiated on October 17, after the priest named in the complaint had been formally identified.

According to an official statement issued by the diocese, the complaint was submitted through a formal written notification. Once the priest’s identity had been established, the diocesan office responsible for handling sexual abuse allegations contacted the complainant and began the relevant procedures to establish the facts.

Investigation opened on October 17

The diocese stated that, on the same day the canonical proceedings were initiated, the complainant was informed of their right to pursue legal action before…

View Cache

Two years after a $323 million settlement with hundreds of Catholic clergy sex abuse victims on Long Island that mandated the release of secret church files, the documents still have not been made public.

Thousands of pages of confidential files dating back decades in the Diocese of Rockville Centre were supposed to be released under a bankruptcy settlement with about 600 victims, according to church officials and lawyers for victims. The papers are believed to contain details on hundreds of cases and how, advocates contend, church leaders covered them up.

The diocese told Newsday it has done its part and that nearly two years ago it handed over thousands of pages to a trust set up for the abuse victims. The documents were then supposed to be transferred to a college or university archive and made accessible to the public. That has not happened.

The head of the trust, Alan Halperin, a Manhattan-based attorney, did not respond to multiple emails…

View Cache

A former Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young boy at Gilman School in Baltimore more than four decades ago.

Laurence LaPointe, an 81-year-old man from Putnam, Connecticut, admitted in Baltimore City Circuit Court on Nov. 4, 2026, to a fourth-degree sex offense and common-law assault after an investigation by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. Judge Charles H. Dorsey III sentenced LaPointe to three years in prison, fully suspended and five years of supervised probation.

The probation order requires LaPointe to have no direct contact with minors under 18, prohibits him from working or volunteering in any educational setting with children, bars him from contacting the victim and mandates a psychosexual evaluation with any treatment recommended.

During the mid-1970s, LaPointe was a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Norwich assigned as a chaplain and religion teacher at Gilman School. The court heard that LaPointe met…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of New York and lawyers representing the 1,300 people who said they were sexually abused by its clergy and lay leaders formally agreed to an $800 million settlement on Thursday, bringing years of litigation to a close.

The agreement was finalized in the days after both the archdiocese and plaintiffs agreed to a framework for the deal. In a letter to the archdiocese — which includes Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and a handful of Hudson Valley communities — that was shared with The New York Times, Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks said that “it has always been our desire to bring a fair and just resolution for victim-survivors, and to promote healing and reconciliation among those who have been hurt.”

“We believe that this global settlement achieves that goal,” he continued.

Under the terms of the settlement, the 1,300 people who said they were abused would…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of New York and plaintiffs representing nearly 1,300 survivors of sex abuse from priests and lay personnel have finalized a settlement. Under terms of the deal, the archdiocese for the first time must maintain a public data base of clergy who have been credibly accused of sex abuse.

After more than a decade of litigation, the Archdiocese of New York and lawyers representing nearly 1,300 survivors of clergy sex abuse have finalized an $804.25 million settlement.

“Under the completed settlement, survivors have the option to receive an expedited settlement payment or proceed through an individualized allocation process that evaluates and scores their claims based on the abuse and harm they endured,” said the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, which represented plaintiffs in the class action that included 1,298 victims. The quick pay settlement is for $250,000.

The law firm said that under terms of the deal, for…

View Cache

[Includes a link to a video message by Archbishop James Checchio. That video message is also available on YouTube here.]

On Friday (Nov. 6), the Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a list of 27 names it deems credibly accused of abuse. In a video statement, Archbishop James Checchio says publishing the list is part of an effort toward transparency.

“I’m the new archbishop you know that I’ve not been here a year even but I’m the new archbishop and it’s my job and I pledge that we certainly will do everything possible to not allow these things to continue or ever happen again in our church,” said Archbishop James Checchio of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Aaron Hebert is among hundreds of claimants who are still waiting for their payment from last year’s $305 million bankruptcy deal with the archdiocese to settle a wave of previous clergy abuse claims….

View Cache

[See also a PDF of Archbishop Checchio’s letter.]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The sexual abuse crisis in our beloved Church has been devastating. I have seen it unfold in the media since I was a young man and it has been painful to hear about. We cannot undo the actions of the past, as much as I wish we could, and the only way forward is to be truthful about the offenses and errors of the past, as horrific as they were, fully cooperate with our civil authorities to investigate any accusations and continue to act with vigilance today. I also renew my commitment to seeking forgiveness and healing along with the assurance of safe environments for children in this archdiocese. I continue to urge any who have been abused by clergy to come forward, as brave survivors before you have done.

I want to assure you…

View Cache

The additions bring the Archdiocese’s list to 106 names, as LSU prepares to host a public archive of clergy abuse records.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has added 27 more priests to its list of clergy credibly accused of sexually abusing children, the biggest update to the list since it was first made public in 2018. 

The additions include 10 clergy members who served directly in the New Orleans Archdiocese and 17 others who belonged to religious orders or other dioceses but were accused of abuse while working in the New Orleans area. 

Two of the most notable additions are priests previously exposed by WWL Investigative Reporter David Hammer and Ramon Antonio Vargas, WWL’s reporting partner at The Guardian: Father Paul Hart, a former chaplain at Brother Martin High School, and Father Joseph deWater, whom WWL tracked down in the Netherlands for an exclusive interview that included two of…

View Cache

Guardian Insurance sought records to prove church knew of abuse prior to policy

The former insurance company for the Catholic church in Newfoundland has abandoned a court action that sought to compel a therapy centre for priests to turn over records after it was revealed they destroyed them more than 20 years ago.

Lawyers for Guardian Insurance believed the Southdown Institute’s records could show the Diocese of Grand Falls knew about abusive priests before entering into an insurance policy in the 1980s. That evidence could be used in a separate court action, where the insurer is seeking to avoid covering the church’s liability to abuse survivors.

Guardian was looking for documentation on one priest in particular — Father Leonard Joseph Kelly — who was sent to Southdown in 1970 under a cloud of suspicion after unspecified incidents in the rural community of Baie Verte.

The institute was able to confirm…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has added 27 priests to its list of clergy members credibly accused of child sexual abuse, the single-biggest release of new names since the original disclosures in 2018 and a sign of how the local Roman Catholic Church’s bankruptcy unearthed additional instances of abuse from decades ago. 

All of the priests added to the list are deceased. A review of the new names, which was released by the archdiocese on Friday, shows that the abuse spanned several decades, in some instances as recently as the 1990s, and occurred across the region in large urban and suburban parishes as well as small, rural communities. 

Several well-known priests were named who spent years working with children in the city’s Catholic schools, including: Monsignor Henry Bezou, a longtime pastor at St. Francis Xavier in Old Metairie and the Archdiocesan School Superintendent from 1943 to 1968;…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has released an updated list of priests and other clergy who have been removed from ministry due to credible claims of child sexual abuse.

A letter from Archbishop James Checchio released Friday states that the report has been released on the Archdiocese’s website in compliance with the bankruptcy settlement involving abuse survivors.

With the release of the updated report, Checchio states that “no clergyman with a credible claim of abuse remains in ministry in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.”

According to the letter, the report contains the publication of names of archdiocesan clergy accused of child sexual abuse, stating the update “contains the names of clergy, all of whom are deceased, who were accused of sexual abuse, and after the allegations have been reviewed, it has been determined that there is sufficient information to make their accusation public.”

The report also…

View Cache

The institute did not answer questions about the priest’s status in the Church

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter has declined to disclose details about the laicization process for a priest convicted in 2023 of downloading and storing thousands of files containing child sexual abuse material.

James Jackson is serving a six-year federal prison term, and was laicized in January 2025, according to a March report from the Rhode Island attorney general’s office. The laicization has not yet been widely reported.

—
Jackson, 71, was in September 2023 sentenced to six years in federal prison, after he pleaded guilty three months earlier to a felony count of receiving child sex abuse material.

The priest had accepted a plea deal in which prosecutors agreed to drop possession of child pornography charges in exchange for his guilty plea to receiving child pornography, according to federal database records and the Providence Journal.

He initially…

View Cache

The Maryland attorney general’s office said Father Laurence LaPointe admitted to abusing a boy at Gilman School.

A Catholic priest has admitted to sexually abusing a boy in Baltimore in the mid-1970s, authorities said this week.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said Father Laurence LaPointe, 81, admitted to the abuse after an investigation led by the attorney general’s office.

The prosecutor’s office said in a release that LaPointe pleaded guilty on Nov. 4 to a fourth-degree sex offense and common-law assault.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Charles Dorsey III sentenced the priest to three years in prison, which the judge immediately suspended; LaPointe was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation.

Among the terms of his probation is the stipulation that LaPointe “have no direct contact with minors under the age of 18” and that he “not volunteer or work in any educational setting involving…

View Cache

A Catholic school substitute teacher from Annandale was sentenced Friday in Fairfax County for sexually abusing a child.

An Annandale man who served as a substitute teacher and youth sports coach at St. Michael’s Catholic School was sentenced Friday to nearly 13 years in prison for sexually abusing a young child, according to Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.

Eric Williams, 52, received a 40-year prison sentence, with all but 12 years and 11 months suspended, after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated sexual battery and two counts of object sexual penetration.

The defendant’s name, Annandale residence and Feb. 27, 2025, arrest date match information released last year by the Catholic Diocese of Arlington about Dr. Eric Sean Williams, a longtime substitute teacher and volunteer at St. Michael’s Catholic School.

Former Substitute Teacher And Youth Sports Coach

In a statement issued following the February 2025…

View Cache

The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult linked to the deaths of more than 400 people was sentenced on Friday to 200 years in prison for the murders of 191 people.

The High Court in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa issued the sentence for Pastor Paul Mackenzie. He was convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult after he ordered his followers to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus.

Mackenzie is also facing terrorism and manslaughter charges for the more than 200 other victims, as well as child abuse and torture charges in two other courts.

Justice Diana Kavedza said that Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, bore the “primary criminal culpability” for relocating his followers to a remote location and ordering them to fast to death.

Mackenzie was charged with the murders alongside 28 of his followers, including guards who enforced his fasting directives…

View Cache

All charges against the defendants in the Pawleys Island Community Church and Academy case have been dismissed, according to defense attorney Erin Bailey.

This includes Pastor Don Williams, his wife Ginny Williams, school director Niki Howard and the director of operations and missions, Michael Anthony Fields. All were arrested in connection with this case. Registered sex offender Warren Perry was also released from jail.

Perry is the individual at the center of the case and a registered sex offender following his 2023 guilty plea to sexual exploitation of a minor.

The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office released a statement to the community following the dismissal of charges.

“As your Sheriff, I understand the concerns and questions surrounding what comes next after charges against the defendants in the Pawleys Island Community Church/Pawleys Island Christian Academy case were dismissed by a magistrate during a preliminary hearing today in Georgetown County,” Sheriff Carter Weaver…

View Cache

Judge Richard Wetzel delivered a verdict Friday in the sexual assault trial of Gary “Tom” Keesee Jr., following testimony from three women who accused him of sexually assaulting them when they were children.

Keesee Jr. has been found guilty on all counts including, 11 counts of rape, 11 counts of gross sexual imposition, and 5 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

• Count 1 rape guilty
• Count 2 rape guilty
• Count 3 rape guilty
• Count 4 rape guilty
• Count 5 rape guilty
• Count 6 gross sexual imposition guilty
• Count 7 gross sexual imposition guilty
• Count 8 gross sexual imposition guilty
• Count 9 gross sexual imposition guilty
• Count 10 gross sexual imposition guilty
• Count 11 gross sexual imposition guilty
• Count 12 rape guilty
• Count 13 rape guilty
• Count 14 rape guilty
• Count 15 rape guilty
• Count 16 rape guilty
• Count 17 rape guilty
• Count…

View Cache

Authorities say an Oklahoma City pastor has been convicted for multiple crimes including human trafficking and lewd acts with a minor.

In March of 2025, agents with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics received information that a pastor was trafficking members of his church in Oklahoma City.

Agents interviewed several victims and found evidence that 41-year-old Elmer Baca Flores would force his victims to quit their jobs and would isolate the victims from their families. Officials say Flores would require his victims to move into his church, which was located inside Flores’ home.

“Victims told our agents they were forced to work for Flores without compensation, and he would threaten them with physical harm if they attempted to leave, claiming he was a member of the violent gang, MS-13. And Flores used his influence as a pastor to spiritually coerce the victims by targeting their religious convictions. One victim told agents…

View Cache

Dallas police say former Catholic priest Richard Brown admitted to sexually molesting as many as 50 children during his time in the Dallas Diocese in the 1980s and ’90s before the law caught up to him. 

Brown was arrested in 2020, released to a Missouri treatment facility for pedophile priests, and currently awaits trial. His case may be the last chance local authorities have to hold a former Dallas priest accountable for alleged child sexual abuse that occurred decades ago; abuse that was uncovered by Dallas police detectives in the investigation they began in 2018. 

Criminal prosecutions of Catholic clergy are a rarity, but some of the worst predatory priests in the church’s long record of child sex abuse ended their lengthy careers in Texas. The following men all were arrested and charged with a crime, with differing outcomes. Some received long sentences, some short. Others died in prison…

View Cache

A Philadelphia pastor has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to child sex exploitation. Bryan Jackson, 42, is alleged to have worked in coordination with another Philadelphia pastor. 

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

Jackson had been serving as a pastor at Garden of Prayer Church of God in Christ (GOP COGIC). He was arrested in June alongside Isaiah Banks, former senior pastor of Second Pilgrim Baptist Church.

RELATED: Russell Brand Found Guilty of Rape and 3 Counts of Sexual Assault

Banks, 30, is accused of grooming children to solicit explicit images from the victims. Banks is accused of then sharing those images with Jackson. 

Jackson is accused of soliciting explicit images directly from one child by posing online as an older girl.

Jackson was previously arrested for…

View Cache

A settlement plan might be moving forward for the hundreds of clergy abuse survivors in the Catholic Diocese.

A settlement plan may be moving forward for the hundreds of clergy abuse survivors in the Catholic Diocese.

2 On Your Side sought details on the actual payment amount process while the overall settlement may still be a work-in-progress.

In June, reporters heard from a panel of representatives for the over 850 clergy abuse survivors in the Buffalo Diocese as they waited for a vote by those survivors on the settlement plan.

That vote tally turned out like this, according to Attorney Steve Boyd, who represents many of the people who filed claims: “We needed a two-thirds majority of the voters. We got over 99 percent so just an overwhelming approval vote.”

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Chief Judge Carl Bucki will be officially informed of that vote at another…

View Cache

A US-based clergy abuse watchdog on Thursday called for the creation of a truth commission in Peru to investigate sexual abuse in ​the Catholic Church, on the eve of a visit by Pope Leo ‌to South America where the Vatican says he will meet abuse survivors.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks Catholic clergy abuse allegations worldwide, accused Peru’s Church hierarchy of secrecy and ​of failing to adequately confront allegations of abuse.

“The stubborn secrecy of Peruvian ​Church leaders puts children at risk, deprives victims of validation, and prevents ⁠civil authorities from identifying and prosecuting the complicit,” Barrett Doyle said at a ​press conference in Lima.

Representatives of the Archdiocese of Lima and the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, ​which represents the country’s Catholic bishops, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Peru’s Church has faced a series of abuse scandals in recent years, most prominently involving Sodalitium…

View Cache

US-based nonprofit Bishop Accountability held a press conference Thursday to present a list of 77 clergy ‘who have been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors’ in Peru.

Activists gathered in Lima Thursday to call on Pope Leo XIV to expel sexual abusers from the Catholic church, demanding justice in a long-running scandal, ahead of his Latin America tour this week.

US-based nonprofit Bishop Accountability held a press conference Thursday to present a list of 77 clergy “who have been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors” in Peru.

On Friday, the 71-year-old pontiff kicks off a tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, his adopted homeland where he lived for nearly two decades working as a missionary, parish priest and a bishop.

The Vatican has announced that Leo will meet with abuse victims during the trip, without offering specifics of the plans.

“What the pope can do at this moment to put…

View Cache

US-based organisation Bishop Accountability on Thursday presented in Lima a list of 77 members of Peru’s Catholic clergy publicly accused of sexually abusing minors, days before Pope Leo XIV, who lived in the country for more than two decades, begins his tour of South America. Victims and the organisation called on the pontiff to take concrete steps, including setting up a truth commission.

The list, published on the website of the organisation, which documents sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church, includes priests, brothers, seminarians and consecrated laypeople who have worked in Peruvian parishes and schools, as well as Church officials accused of allegedly covering up complaints. It is based mainly on the book Den of abusers or safe Church?, published this year by Reinaldo Nann, a former bishop of Caravelí in southern Peru who has left the priesthood. Those on the list have been publicly accused; not all have…

View Cache

Un grupo activista sobre denuncias de abusos en la Iglesia católica publicó el jueves una base de datos de 77 religiosos acusados de abusar sexualmente de menores en Perú y exhortó a León XIV a exigir a los líderes católicos locales la publicación del universo total de acusados en sus filas para prevenir futuros abusos.

El pedido se realiza un día antes del inicio de la primera gira de León XIV a Sudamérica, donde visitará Uruguay, Argentina y Perú entre el 6 y 16 de noviembre. El Vaticano ha indicado, sin dar detalles, que León se reunirá con víctimas de abusos durante su viaje sudamericano.

En conferencia de prensa, Anne Barrett Doyle, codirectora de BishopAccountability.org con sede en Estados Unidos, dijo que el pedido también ayudará a las víctimas “a sanar” y recordó que en Estados Unidos los obispos y líderes religiosos han publicado listas de religiosos sobre…

View Cache

La lista muestra retratos, nombres y datos sobre sus agresiones sexuales a menores

La organización estadounidense Bishop Accountability presentó una base de datos con denuncias contra 77 religiosos señalados por presuntos abusos sexuales a menores de edad en Perú. Ante la próxima visita del papa León XIV al país sudamericano, el grupo activista pidió cambios en la Iglesia católica para evitar nuevos casos y garantizar justicia a las víctimas.

Durante una rueda de prensa, Anne Barrett Doyle, codirectora de la organización, explicó que la plataforma digital reúne información sobre sacerdotes, hermanos religiosos y laicos consagrados que han desarrollado actividades en la Iglesia peruana y que enfrentan señalamientos por este tipo de agresiones.

Desde este jueves, el sitio web de Bishop Accountability permite consultar perfiles de los religiosos denunciados, así como las fechas y detalles de los presuntos abusos. También incluye información sobre las respuestas de las autoridades eclesiásticas y las…

View Cache

La organización estadounidense Bishop Accountability, que se ocupa de recopilar casos de abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes, presentó este jueves una serie de denuncias contra 77 sacerdotes de Perú por presuntos abusos sexuales a menores de edad en las últimas décadas, y pidieron al papa León XIV, quien en menos de una semana visita el país andino, que haga cambios drásticos en la Iglesia.

La codirectora de la organización, Anne Barrett Doyle, expuso en una rueda de prensa que, gracias a una nueva base de datos en línea desarrollada en Estados Unidos, se han reunido denuncias contra más de 70 sacerdotes, hermanos religiosos y laicos consagrados que han desarrollado actividades en la Iglesia peruana.

Desde este jueves, la página web de Bishop Accountability muestra decenas de perfiles de sacerdotes peruanos y sus denuncias de presuntos abusos a menores, correspondientes a la fecha, detalles de lo ocurrido y la respuesta y…

View Cache

La presentación coincidirá con la próxima visita del pontífice al país y pondrá el foco en los reclamos de sobrevivientes por mayor transparencia, sanciones a responsables de encubrimiento y reparación para las víctimas

Una organización internacional de investigación con sede en Estados Unidos presentará en Lima una nueva base de datos pública que reúne denuncias contra más de 70 integrantes del clero católico que desarrollaron actividades en Perú, entre sacerdotes, religiosos y laicos consagrados.

La iniciativa se dará a conocer este jueves 5 de noviembre, seis días antes de la llegada al país del papa León XIV, quien se reunirá con denunciantes durante su gira, en una muestra de su “voluntad de expresar cercanía a quienes han sufrido y siguen sufriendo a causa de esta violencia”.

La plataforma, elaborada por BishopAccountability.org, incluye resúmenes de los casos y enlaces a cientos de documentos y fuentes relacionados con…

View Cache

Trois semaines après son opération d’un cancer du poumon, le pape arrive en Amérique latine, plus grande région catholique du monde, ce vendredi 6 novembre 2026. Trois pays sont au programme de sa tournée qui s’achèvera le 17 novembre : l’Uruguay, l’Argentine et le Pérou, où Léon XIV, 71 ans, a vécu près de vingt ans.

Cela fait des années que le chef de l’Église catholique ne s’était pas rendu dans ces trois pays d’Amérique latine. Jean-Paul II est le dernier pape à s’être rendu en Uruguay et en Argentine, à la fin des années 1980. Les Argentins ont attendu, en vain, « leur » pape François qui s’est rendu en Amérique latine, notamment au Pérou en 2018, qui sera aussi au programme de la tournée de Léon XIV, mais jamais en terre argentine. L’actuel chef de l’Église catholique, lui, n’envisageait pas de se rendre sur le continent sans rentrer chez lui. Il passera…

View Cache

La organización Bishop Accountability reúne acusaciones contra sacerdotes y otros miembros del clero. La visita del pontífice peruano reaviva las demandas de las víctimas por justicia y cambios dentro de la institución

EL PAÍS puso en marcha en 2018 una investigación de la pederastia en la Iglesia española y tiene una base de datos actualizada con todos los casos conocidos. Si conoce algún caso que no haya visto la luz, nos puede escribir a: abusos@elpais.es. Si es un caso en América Latina, la dirección es: abusosamerica@elpais.es.

A pocos días de que el papa León XIV inicie su gira por América Latina, una lista de 77 miembros del clero católico peruano acusados públicamente de abusar sexualmente de menores vuelve a colocar sobre la mesa una de las heridas más profundas que la Iglesia todavía no ha podido curar. Sacerdotes, hermanos, seminaristas y laicos consagrados aparecen en una…

View Cache

Three weeks after lung cancer surgery, Pope Leo XIV is embarking on the longest and farthest trip of his pontificate: A12-day, three-nation tour of Latin America that carries more personal and historic weight than any of his voyages to date.

The U.S.-born Leo is returning home to Peru, where the former Robert Prevost lived for two decades as a missionary priest and learned to be the pastor he is today. Leo holds Peruvian citizenship and is so attached to Peru’s people he gave them a shoutout in Spanish from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on the night of his election.

Leo is also going to Argentina, the home of his predecessor, Pope Francis, to whom Leo owes his pontificate. It will be a homecoming of sorts there, too, since Francis never returned to Argentina after his 2013 election, leaving a complicated legacy that Leo will now have to navigate.

…

View Cache

A new agreement in New York is only the latest that Catholic dioceses have reached since the early 2000s with people who say they were victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The Archdiocese of New York has finalized an agreement to pay more than $800 million settling claims from 1,300 people who said they had been sexually abused by its clergy members and lay leaders.

The agreement, formalized on Thursday, ends a yearslong negotiation. Each plaintiff will have the option of receiving a lump-sum payment of at least $250,000 from the Roman Catholic archdiocese, or possibly a larger payout after a review of their claims.

But the settlement in New York is only the latest since the early 2000s between dioceses around the country and people who say they were victims of clergy sexual abuse. In some states, new cases keep coming: Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the…

View Cache

JOINT STATEMENT OF COUNSEL

*Please note that contents herein may be triggering or difficult for individuals who have experienced sexual abuse in a faith-based institution. Please proceed with care.  

This Joint Statement is issued with our clients’ authorization and in good faith to address matters of substantial public safety concern, including sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, survivor safety, and institutional accountability. Our purpose is to give voice to those we represent and promote the protection and well-being of others who may be at risk. We remain committed to pursuing our clients’ claims through appropriate legal channels while respecting the rights of all parties involved.

We represent four women who have allegations of clergy sexual abuse and/or child sexual abuse against an individual, Steve Thomason, who was a North Point Ministries (“NPM”) and/or North Point Community Church (“NPCC”) representative. Horrendous acts were perpetrated by Steve Thomason against our clients during…

View Cache

A former Arizona youth pastor has been arrested on a charge of sexual contact with a minor.

Richard Scott Felton, 57, was arrested Oct. 20. The parents of the alleged victim came forward with accusations in September, local media reported.

Felton once served as youth pastor at First Southern Baptist Church of Kingman, Ariz., but has not been on the premises since his resignation in 2024, said Pastor John Ramos. The accused was already on staff as youth pastor when Ramos arrived as pastor in 2020, but transitioned to church administrator in 2021.

Ramos told Baptist Press that while Felton was employed at the church, he passed all background checks required for both staff members and volunteer leaders at the church. The alleged abuse took place more than two years ago, Ramos said.

“When we became aware of the situation, as mandatory reporters, we immediately contacted the Kingman Police Department…

View Cache

A former Catholic priest plead guilty and was sentenced on Wednesday for the sexual abuse of a minor in the mid-1970s at Gilman School.

According to a release from the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, Laurence LaPointe, 81, plead guilty to fourth-degree sex offense and common-law assault. He was sentenced to three years, all suspended, and five years of supervised probation.

LaPointe was temporarily assigned to the school as a chaplain and religious teacher at the time and invited the victim, a middle school student, to his on-campus apartment to play chess between 1967 and 1977.

It was at that apartment where LaPointe assaulted the victim during a game of “strip chess,” and instructed him to not tell anyone about it.

The victim was in court for the plea, and spoke of the struggles he had with coming forward and sharing about the abuse.

“Today, finally, after nearly fifty…

View Cache

Bobby Miller was released after posting a $25,000 secured bond. In his release order, the court cited his lack of criminal history and “longstanding community ties.”

A former pastor of Sparta United Methodist Church has been charged with five felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to court records.

Bobby Randall Miller, of Roaring Gap, was arrested Monday. He is charged with three counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, Alleghany County court records show.

His arrest warrant accuses him of possessing material showing minors engaged in sexual activity. According to the warrant, the material involves at least two children: a girl between the ages of 12 and 15 and a boy between the ages of 6 and 10.

Under North Carolina law, third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor involves possessing such material. Second-degree involves recording, distributing…

View Cache

Bryan Jackson, 42, is one of two clergymen who were charged in June with targeting minors to obtain photos and videos.

A pastor at a Pentecostal church in North Philadelphia pleaded guilty Wednesday to posing as a woman online and coaxing minors to send him sexually explicit photos and videos, federal prosecutors said.

Bryan Jackson, 42, was one of two Philadelphia clergymen charged in June with conspiring to groom minors and solicit sexual images from them. Jackson had been serving as a senior pastor at Garden of Prayer Church of God in Christ. He and Isaiah Banks, a former senior pastor at the Second Pilgrim Baptist Church in Francisville, allegedly teamed up to share photos and videos produced by one of the children. 

The investigation started in April, when authorities received a report from the Philadelphia Department of Human Services concerning Banks’ alleged contact with a child….

View Cache

United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Bryan Jackson, 42, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty before United States District Judge Joel H. Slomsky yesterday afternoon to conspiracy to manufacture child pornography, manufacture and attempted manufacture of child pornography, and receipt of child pornography, charges arising from his and a co-conspirator’s sexual exploitation of an underage boy.

The defendant was arrested on a criminal complaint and warrant in June of this year and charged by information in September. With today’s plea, he has waived prosecution by indictment.

As detailed in court filings and statements, Jackson and the co-conspirator enticed and directed Minor 1, who was under the age of 18, to photograph and video record himself engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

As further detailed, the defendant and his co-conspirator deceived Minor 1 into believing that he was communicating with an older girl, in order to induce Minor 1…

View Cache

A former student at Roselle Catholic High School has sued the Archdiocese of Newark and the school, claiming she was repeatedly sexually abused by a Roselle Catholic teacher who later served time in prison for abusing girls at another Catholic school.

The woman, who is now 26, alleges the abuse started around 2018, when she was 17, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Essex County.

Roselle Catholic High School directed NJ.com’s inquiry to the Archdiocese of Newark, which declined to comment on the suit on the school’s behalf.

“It would be inappropriate for us to comment on a matter in litigation,” a spokeswoman for the archdiocese said.

The suit says the Archdiocese of Newark was aware or should have been aware that Carlos Franco-Leon, now 49, resigned from his position as a teacher and volleyball coach at Morris Catholic High School after being accused of…

View Cache

ABC57 News Anchor and Investigative Reporter Brian Conybeare sat down with clergy sex abuse victims, survivors, and families impacted by the actions of Rev. David Porterfield, C.S.C. at the University of Notre Dame.

Their allegations against Porterfield were confirmed in the May 2026 report to the university by Helen Cantwell, the outside attorney hired by Notre Dame to investigate. The families shared their stories and documents proving university officials knew about Porterfield’s sex abuse since the early 1980s.

Despite multiple “credible allegations” from the very students the priest was supposed to help guide and protect, Porterfield served as dorm rector, assistant rector, and V.P. of Admissions at Notre Dame. He was also allowed to remain part of the university campus and greater South Bend communities for decades.

You can read the full 2026 Cantwell report online.

You can view Notre Dame’s May…

View Cache

Standing on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in May 2025, Pope Leo XIV addressed Catholics around the world with a message of peace and a call for Christians to “journey together toward the homeland that God has prepared for us.”

Prior to his election, he served in Rome for roughly two years as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Yet, during his first speech, his thoughts were not far from the place he called home for over two decades.

“And if you also allow me a brief word, a greeting to everyone and in particular to my beloved Diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people has accompanied its bishop, shared its faith and given so much, so much, to continue being a faithful Church of Jesus Christ,” the pope said. 

The final leg of Pope Leo’s three-country tour in Latin America will take the American-born pontiff to…

View Cache

When Pope Leo XIV arrives in Argentina Nov. 8, he will become the first pope to set foot in the country in nearly four decades — and the first to encounter a nation still wrestling with the legacy of the Argentine who preceded him.

Pope Francis remained deeply loved by many Argentines, particularly for his closeness to the poor. But he also became entangled in the country’s political divisions, criticized from the right as Peronist and from other sectors for positions they considered conservative. His decision never to return home during his 12-year pontificate remained a source of disappointment and speculation.

Pope Leo will arrive in a country that Archbishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva of Buenos Aires recently described as “a wounded Argentina, a divided Argentina,” marked for decades by poverty, intolerance and the political fracture Argentines call la grieta, or “the rift.”

But the four-day visit…

View Cache

Media Contacts
press@oag.maryland.gov
410-576-7009

​

Defendant Sentenced for Sexually Abusing Young Boy at the Gilman School in the city of Baltimore in the mid-1970s

Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today announced the guilty plea and sentencing of Laurence LaPointe, 81, of Putnam, Connecticut, for sexually abusing a young boy in the mid-1970s at Gilman School in the city of Baltimore. The investigation was led by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General.  

On November 4, 2026, LaPointe pleaded guilty before the Honorable Charles H. Dorsey III in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City to one count of Fourth-Degree Sex Offense and one count of Common-Law Assault. Judge Dorsey sentenced LaPointe to three years of incarceration, all suspended, and five years of supervised probation. The conditions of supervised probation include that he have no direct contact with minors under the age of 18, not volunteer or work in any educational setting involving…

View Cache

A former Gilman School chaplain and teacher will spend up to five years on supervised probation after admitting Wednesday to sexually abusing a student during the 1970s.

The Rev. Laurence LaPointe, 81, of Putnam, Connecticut, pleaded guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court to fourth-degree sex offense and assault. Between 1976 and 1977, prosecutors reported, he victimized a boy in his early teens after inviting him back to a campus apartment.

The survivor, now 63, said in court he was not part of the popular crowdin middle school and held different interests than his peers.

LaPointe, he said, profoundly betrayed his trust and committed “an act of perverse sexual abuse.” He said he’s thought about what happened at least once per month for almost 50 years, comparing it to a worm in his brain.

When Gilman School sent out a letter in 2021 detailing…

View Cache

Using a victim’s trauma as a political weapon is the most vicious and immoral strategy I have ever seen in any election in this country. Last week, the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy, admitted that he had authorized a campaign video featuring the elderly mother of his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton. In the ad, Dr. Acton’s mother, from whom she has been estranged for 50 years, calls her daughter a “liar,” particularly for what she has said about “her past.” Though this is not directly mentioned in the ad, Dr. Acton’s “past” includes the sexual abuse Dr. Acton’s stepfather allegedly perpetrated against her when she was a child— allegations that resulted in the man’s indictment for rape (he fled the state before his trial) and Dr. Acton’s mother losing custody of Dr. Acton and her brother.   

The suggestion that Dr. Acton is a liar and,…

View Cache

Daukes was an outgoing 10-year-old when he met boys’ club leader John Phillips. As an adult, he lived through years of chaos and self-sabotage, while repressing his experiences. Then he found out his brother had been abused by Phillips too

In early 2020, Johnny Daukes found an old storage box in his loft with a big black folder inside marked Toxic Hazard. It was stuffed with old sheets of paper: every song he’d written, starting as a teenager, just a boy with a guitar, then for Fin, his 90s indie band, and then his five solo albums.

By that time in his life, Daukes was 55 and deep in turmoil. He and his younger brother were working with the Metropolitan police to build a criminal case against the man who had sexually abused them both as children. Every case of historical abuse can disrupt a family, but this one was…

View Cache