ABUSE TRACKER

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

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

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

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

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

View Cache

Hundreds of recently filed sexual abuse lawsuits could lead to the bankruptcy of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, the diocese’s bishop said this week in a letter to the congregation.

The diocese’s financial predicament stems from a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations regarding child sexual abuse lawsuits. The law extended the age at which victims could file civil lawsuits over abuse to 40. It had been 26.

The law also opened a three-year window in which victims of any age could file lawsuits. The window closed on Dec. 31, 2022.

More than 200 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse were filed against the diocese as a result of the law, 80% of which stem from abuse that occurred in the 1980s or earlier.

By late 2022, more than 2,000 lawsuits had been filed against the Catholic Church statewide.

“To learn of this staggering…

View Cache

It is not enough to ask people who have suffered abuse for their forgiveness, Pope Francis said.

They also must be offered “concrete actions to repair the horrors they have suffered and to prevent them from happening again” as well as the truth, transparency, safe spaces, psychological support and protection, the pope said in a video message released by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network March 2.

“The church must serve as a model to help solve the issue and bring it to light in society and in families,” he said.

At the start of each month, the network posts a short video of the pope offering his specific prayer intention. For the month of March, the pope dedicated his prayer intention for the victims of abuse. Child Abuse Prevention Month is observed in April in the United States.

In his video message, the pope said, “In response to cases of…

View Cache

In his latest prayer video, Pope Francis dedicated the month of march to praying for victims of abuse, saying simply asking forgiveness is not enough, but the church must put victims first and avoid coverup.

In his video, released March 2, Pope Francis said that in response to abuse cases, specifically abuse committed by members and representatives of the church, “it’s not enough to ask for forgiveness.”

“Asking for forgiveness is necessary, but it is not enough. Asking for forgiveness is good for the victims, but they are the ones who have to be ‘at the center’ of everything,” he said, saying victims’ pain and psychological trauma can only heal “if they find answers – if there are concrete actions to repair the horrors they have suffered and to prevent them from happening again.”

Let us #PrayTogether for those who have suffered because of the wrongs done to them by members…

View Cache

In his prayer intention for March 2023, Pope Francis prays for victims of abuse, and says the Church must serve as a model of safeguarding and must offer safe spaces for victims.

“In response to cases of abuse, especially those committed by members of the Church, it is not enough to ask for forgiveness,” says Pope Francis in his video-message announcing his prayer intention for March 2023.

The Pope this month is praying in a special way for victims of abuse.

In his message, he insists that victims must be the protagonists of a response to abuse, saying that “their pain and psychological wounds can begin to heal if they find answers – if there are concrete actions to repair the horrors they have suffered and to prevent them from happening again.”

Pope Francis insists, too, that the Church cannot hide abuse, no matter where it occurs, but instead must…

View Cache

(For Immediate Release March 2, 2023) 

The Maryland General Assembly House Judiciary committee heard testimony from survivors of child sexual abuse in support of HB0001 – sponsored by Delegate C. T. Wilson –altering the definition of “sexual abuse” for purposes relating to civil actions for child sexual abuse to include any act that involves an adult allowing or encouraging a child to engage in certain activities; repealing the statute of limitations in certain civil actions relating to child sexual abuse; repealing a statute of repose for certain civil actions relating to child sexual abuse; providing for the retroactive application of the Act under certain circumstances; etc. This bill gives those who were previously barred by these archaic laws an opportunity to seek justice.

27 U.S. jurisdictions have window or revival laws now in place. We hope, with this hearing today, Maryland becomes that much closer to becoming…

View Cache

• In 2021 11 priests sent a letter to the highest reaches of the U.S. Catholic Church regarding the leadership of Bishop Richard Stika.
• “We do not wish, in hindsight, to be accused on remaining silent, or of not having done enough in the interests of justice and charity,” they wrote.
• Priests are known to speak mostly behind closed doors about church issues. This group, however, felt Stika was not responding to their requests and complaints. They felt they had no other recourse.

Long before the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville received an investigative visit from high-ranking church leaders, a group of priests sent a blistering letter about Bishop Richard Stika’s leadership to the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church in America, Knox News has learned.

The priests listed a series of concerns, including his handling of the allegations involving a church seminarian who has been accused of raping an…

View Cache

A Southeast Michigan priest is sentenced to at least three years in prison in connection with a clergy abuse investigation, Michigan Attorney General’s Office announced.

In October 2022, the Rev. Joseph “Jack” Baker, 61, was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct – sexual penetration with a person under 13. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to three to 15 years.

Baker, who had been a pastor at St. Perpetua Parish in Waterford since 2008, previously was a pastor at St. Mary Parish in Wayne, as well as an associate pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Dearborn and at St. Hugo of the Hills Parish in Bloomfield Hills.

Officials say the Archdiocese of Detroit received a report and sent it to the lead prosecutor on Attorney General Dana Nessel’s clergy abuse team.

The AG’s office seized 1.5 million paper documents and 3.5 million electronic documents through search warrants in October 2018,…

View Cache

A man who filed a 2019 lawsuit alleging he was sexually abused at a Downtown Albuquerque church has admitted that he misidentified a Jesuit priest he named as his abuser, resulting in the case’s dismissal, court records show.

A district judge tossed the suit in February after the plaintiff — identified as John Doe 124 — admitted last year he had misidentified the Rev. J. Patrick Hough as his abuser.

John Doe 124 made the admission in a claim he submitted in September to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for New Mexico in connection with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe bankruptcy case, 2nd Judicial District Judge Nancy Franchini wrote in the Feb. 21 order.

Abuse survivors in December approved a $121.5 million plan that called for payments to nearly 400 abuse claimants to settle the 4-year-old bankruptcy.

Franchini’s order clears the way for Hough to return to active ministry “as…

View Cache

Two states are currently considering legislation that amends mandatory reporter laws to force Catholic priests and other religious clergy to divulge information about sexual abuse, even when the priest learned of the abuse while hearing a confession.

Bills currently under consideration in the Washington and Vermont legislatures would make all clergy in the state mandatory reporters of sexual abuse and would remove so-called clergy-penitent privilege, which otherwise exempts religious ministers from reporting anything that is heard in confession.

The legislation, if passed, would most notably affect Catholic priests, who are prohibited from divulging anything they hear in confession. Catholic canon law stipulates that any priest who violates the “seal of confession” automatically incurs the penalty of excommunication.

Bishop Thomas Daly of the Diocese of Spokane, Washington, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that if the bill were enacted, priests and…

View Cache

Blowing the whistle on a cover-up of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo cost them not only their jobs, but their careers working for the church they loved.

But five years later, Siobhan M. O’Connor and the Rev. Ryszard S. Biernat have no regrets about providing a television reporter documents and audio recordings implicating then-Bishop Richard J. Malone in the mishandling of clergy sexual abuse allegations.

“It wasn’t easy to face the whole machine of church administration,” Biernat said in an interview last week. “I don’t like making people hate me but some people did after that. I didn’t take it lightly that I was going to make some enemies doing that.”

O’Connor, Malone’s former executive assistant, knew it would be hard to secure a new office job after she went on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and acknowledged that she was the key source for three WKBW-TV reports that led to protests…

View Cache

Case is latest in series where church seeks to capitalise on landmark ruling that a priest’s death meant church could not receive a fair trial

The Catholic church is attempting to use the death of a paedophile, who had been jailed for the abuse of 17 children, to shield itself from further civil claims from his survivors.

In recent months, the church has adopted an increasingly aggressive approach to survivors in cases where paedophile clergy have died. It has sought to capitalise on a recent decision in New South Wales’s highest court that ruled a priest’s death meant the church could not receive a fair trial in a claim brought by a woman known as GLJ.

The landmark ruling, which is being appealed in the high court, has prompted the church to seek permanent stays in a string of cases where clergy have died.

The latest involves a claim brought by…

View Cache

Legislation has advanced through the Washington state Senate to make members of the clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect — passing on a unanimous vote.

SB 5280, sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), would require clergy to report sexual abuse allegations to authorities. The lone exception is if the information was received amid clergy-penitent privilege, a nationally-recognized form of privileged communication that protects conversations between religious advisers and an advisee, which has sparked a statewide debate.

As the bill continues to move through the legislative process, legislators will argue whether to continue that exemption or amend the bill to close it.

“We’re going to have some tough conversations about the issue of clergy-penitent privilege here in the Legislature and find what’s possible for us to pass,” said Frame in a prepared statement. “This bill is already a major step forward for protecting children, and…

View Cache

Baker is former pastor of St. Perpetua in Waterford, crime happened years earlier at Wayne County church

A Catholic priest and former pastor found guilty last fall of raping a young boy nearly 20 years ago was sentenced to prison Wednesday —  while his attorney said he maintains his innocence and will appeal his conviction.

At his sentencing hearing in Wayne County’s 3rd Judicial Circuit Court, Joseph “Father Jack” Baker was ordered to spend 3-15 years in prison, with jail credit of 140 days, for first-degree criminal sexual conduct-sexual penetration of a person less than 13 years old.

Baker was pastor at St. Mary Catholic School in Wayne and his victim was a second-grader there when he was raped in the church sacristy in 2004. Both the victim and Baker were among those who testified at the trial last October, with Baker denying the allegation.

The Oakland Press is not…

View Cache

Bishop Jaime Soto says the diocese is committed to resolving the more than 200 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse and warns it could cause the diocese to go bankrupt.

Catholic Diocese of Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto is warning the diocese’s finances may be overwhelmed by the number of sexual abuse lawsuits it’s facing.

Soto posted the announcement Sunday with a video message ahead of an article in the March/April issue of Catholic Herald magazine about how the diocese is working to create safe spaces and atone for clergy sexual abuse.

In his announcement, Soto says there are more than 200 lawsuits against the diocese alleging sexual abuse of minors due to California law extending the statute of limitations (AB 218).

A judge of the Alameda County Court is overseeing a special proceeding regarding the claims in Sacramento and other dioceses in the region. Soto says he’s committing to…

View Cache

‘Because pastors do not report abuse, it allows abusers to keep on preying on vulnerable individuals,’ said advocate Abbi Nye.

If a member of the clergy suspects a child in the congregation has been abused, is the clergyperson legally required to report it?

In New York state, the answer is no. But some advocates, clergy and lawmakers think that should change.

This issue is at the heart the Child Abuse Reporting Expansion Act, a bill making its way through New York state Legislature that, if passed, would make clergy mandated reporters.

“CFCtoo is calling for CARE Act to be passed because we see it as a necessary first step toward making our communities and children safer,” said anti-abuse advocate Abbi Nye.

Nye is part of the advocacy group CFCtoo, a collective of former Christian Fellowship Center members. The CFC has five locations in New York’s North Country and has been  View Cache

As a pediatrician-turned-pastor, I believe reporting suspected child harm is our civic and Christian duty.

After entering the exam room to greet a 4-year-old patient, I couldn’t help but notice bruises on her arms. Black, blue, green, and yellow—each was in a different stage of healing. Injuries on the arms and legs are typical for young children as they run, grow, and play. But her bruising pattern resembled the imprint of a wire hanger.

While looking through her medical chart, I asked what had happened. The little girl sheepishly explained that she fell while playing hopscotch with her friends. Her stepfather nodded in approval, but red flags erupted in my mind. I continued with her well-child check as if not overly concerned. But as I examined her frail body, more bruising was evident on her torso, back, and thighs—where children do not typically get hurt.

“How did you get so…

View Cache

A bill that would require clergy members to report child abuse or neglect in Washington state has cleared the Senate.

The state Senate passed Senate Bill 5280 unanimously Tuesday.

Sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, the measure would require clergy to report sexual abuse allegations to authorities unless the information was received in a context protected by clergy-penitent privilege, such as a confessional setting.

Washington is one of only a handful of states in the U.S. that do not list clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect.

Frame has been open about being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. She said the abuse ended only after she told a teacher who was a mandatory reporter. The Associated Press does not publish the names of sexual abuse survivors without their consent.

“This subject is personally very important for me,” Frame said. “Mandatory reporters play an important role in protecting children,…

View Cache

Editor’s note: Today we revisit a post from November 2021 about efforts by a Jesuit priest and researcher to help the Catholic Church heal by making stories from abuse survivors a regular part of Church life.

Gerard McGlone, SJ, a Jesuit priest and researcher, believes all Catholics should regularly hear the stories of people who have experienced sexual abuse in the Church. 

He envisions a day when seminarians read, see, or hear the accounts of sexual abuse victim-survivors as part of their initial and ongoing formation. When leadership training for bishops and major superiors includes honest descriptions of survivors’ experiences. When parish bulletins feature a survivor story each week. And when pastoral council meetings and RCIA classes involve listening to short recordings from survivors, followed by brief reflection and prayer.

Trained as a clinical psychologist and now serving as a senior research fellow at the  View Cache

Lawyers for former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick filed a motion on Monday to dismiss the criminal charges against him.  McCarrick is accused of sexually assaulting a boy decades ago. His attorneys claim that the 92-year-old once-powerful American prelate has dementia and is not competent to stand trial.

McCarrick is the first current or former U.S. Catholic cardinal to face criminal charges for child sex offenses. He entered a not-guilty plea in the case in September 2021.

Our hearts ache for McCarrick’s victim and we stand in solidarity with him as this case drags on. We are glad that the prosecution is hiring its own expert to conduct a second opinion on competency. Like the lawyer representing this survivor, Mitchell Garabedian, we are suspicious of the incompetency claim. Regardless of the final decision in this case, we will always believe the testimony of…

View Cache

We are incredibly appreciative that Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Robert Taylor Jr. has decided to allow the public to see a redacted copy of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office report on the history of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. While this is a victory for transparency, we hope that at some point in the future, the entire report will become available.

Judge Taylor ordered that the names of those who had not been previously identified publicly and who were accused of abusing children, covering up abuse, silencing victims, or otherwise helping to hide and enable abuse, were to be redacted from the public report. The judge said that those 208 people were entitled to be notified they were in the report and given a chance to review the portion of the report that addresses their involvement.

As frustrating as it may be…

View Cache

The SEC fined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for failing to disclose its investments

A fund operated by the Mormon Church used a series of shell companies to hide billions of dollars of investments from the public over more than two decades, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said today.

Ensign Peak Advisors, a non-profit that manages investments for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was required to disclose its ownership of publicly-traded securities because its portfolio exceeded $100 million. Instead, to hide the scale of the Church’s holdings, Ensign Peak created shell companies around the United States and reported them as the real owners of those securities.

The SEC fined Ensign Peak $4 million and the Church $1 million in order to settle the charges. The total assets the organizations failed to disclose amounted to nearly $38 billion by…

View Cache

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a nonprofit entity that it controlled have been fined $5 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission over accusations that the religious institution failed to properly disclose its investment holdings.

In an order released Tuesday, the SEC alleged that the church illicitly hid its investments and their management behind multiple shell companies from 1997 to 2019. In doing so, it failed to disclose the size of the church’s equity portfolio to the SEC and the public.

The church was concerned that disclosure of the assets in the name of the nonprofit entity, called Ensign Peak Advisors, which manages the church’s investments, would lead to negative consequences in light of the size of the church’s portfolio, the SEC said.

The allegations of the illicit shell company structure first emerged in 2018, when a group formerly called MormonLeaks —…

View Cache

The Diocese of San Diego has rejected a lawsuit’s allegations that it restructured diocesan properties to hide assets from sexual abuse victims. The diocese said its restructuring was part of a 10-year effort to establish parishes as separate legal entities.

Irwin Zalkin, a San Diego lawyer who represents about 120 people who have filed sex abuse claims against the diocese, has alleged otherwise. He contends the property transfers were fraudulent and aimed to shield assets that could be used to compensate his clients and other sex abuse victims.

The 2019 legislation known as Assembly Bill 218 significantly extended the statute of limitations for sex abuse lawsuits. It also allowed a three-year retrospective legal window for legal claims that previously fell beyond the legal time limit.

The diocese faces 400 sexual abuse claims dating as far back as the 1940s. The diocese has said if it agreed to settle all the…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is facing insolvency following more than 200 lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of minors.

Bishop Jaime Soto said in a letter Sunday night addressing the civil claims and acknowledging the possible financial impact. The majority of the lawsuits predate the 1990s as state law extends the statute of limitations on these cases.

“A vital aspect of owning and atoning for the sins of the past is resolving claims brought forward by victim-survivors in a fair and responsible manner,” Soto wrote. “I have committed to this principle and attempt to live it in every case.”

The bishop admitted that in the face of a “staggering number” of claims, the “financial challenge is unlike anything we have faced before.

“I must consider what options are available to us, should the diocese become insolvent,” Soto said.

The civil claims are being managed by an…

View Cache

Lindsay Lundholm looked out over hundreds of people at the Utah State Capitol last year and felt a deep sense of healing. Abuse survivors, religious leaders and major party politicians were all gathered to rally for an end to a legal loophole that exempts religious clergy from being required to report child sexual abuse once it comes to their attention.

Lundholm, one of the rally’s organizers, recalled telling the crowd how, growing up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Idaho, she told her bishop about her painful abuse only to see it go unreported.

Unearthing the trauma wasn’t easy, but back in August she hoped reforms could be forthcoming so others would not face what she did.

“There was really a lot of momentum,” said Lundholm, now a teacher in northern Utah. “Everyone we were talking to was like, ‘This is a no brainer….

View Cache

Lawmakers have proposed several bills this session that would end the clergy exception for reporting child abuse, but with less than a week before the Utah Legislature adjourns, none have been granted a public hearing.

When asked why the bills — all of which were publicly released before the legislative session began in January — have yet to come up for discussion, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said he doesn’t want to force clergy to choose between breaking a tenet of their faith or breaking state law.

“I think they have the First Amendment right of religious protections, and I don’t think I want to put clergy in a spot where they have to be excommunicated or thrown in jail. Those are the options and I don’t think that’s right,” he said.RELATED

• Should a member of the clergy be required to report sex abuse? A…

View Cache

It is not a group anyone wants to join. The Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is made up of people who have experienced clergy sexual abuse during their childhoods. The group was first introduced to me as a support for my husband, who is a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest that occurred when he was 5-years-old. My husband participates in a peer group, and we have attended two national SNAP conferences.

People would stand up and say what happened to them — how old they were, how long the abuse continued, whether they were believed if they told others. They were tearful, they were angry, but they were not silent. I was just astonished. I also am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, though the crimes against me were not committed by a clergy member, and it never occurred to me that I could be…

View Cache

Eastview Christian Church Senior Pastor Mike Baker resigned Saturday amid a review of allegations of an “abusive power dynamic and coverup by church leadership in 2016.”

The senior pastor of one of Bloomington-Normal’s largest churches has resigned amid allegations of an “abusive power dynamic and coverup by church leadership,” church officials said. The pastor, Mike Baker, said the allegations are “completely not true.”

The controversy spilled into public view Sunday, when Eastview’s elders – a group of seven church leaders – addressed church members and shared a lengthy statement on the church’s website. They acknowledged allegations of unspecified abuse dating back to 2016 when Mike Baker’s adult son left his position at Eastview. Mike Baker resigned Saturday after reaching an “impasse” with the elders about how to deal with the situation, the elders said.

Barton Shaw, chairman of the elder board, told church members Sunday…

View Cache

Two megachurches—one in Arizona and one in Illinois—are being rocked by allegations they allowed a pastor guilty of clergy sexual abuse to re-enter the ministry—and offend again.

The Arizona megachurch—Central Christian Church (CCC), which has five locations in the Phoenix area— announced the termination of Lead Student Pastor and Associate Preaching Pastor Caleb Baker at a church service posted on Feb. 13. According to CCC Lead Pastor Cal Jernigan, Baker had been involved in a six-month-long “extramarital relationship” with a church employee, and the church had fired both Baker and the employee.

“It did not come out by confession; they were discovered,” Jernigan told his congregation.  “I, and the other leaders of this church, cannot turn a blind eye to this and act as if this didn’t happen or that somehow we didn’t know, we didn’t find out.”

However, both CCC and Baker’s former megachurch in Illinois— View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is facing insolvency following more than 200 lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of minors, Bishop Jaime Soto said in a letter Sunday night addressing the civil claims and acknowledging the possible financial impact.

The majority of the lawsuits predate the 1990s as state law extends the statute of limitations on these cases.

“A vital aspect of owning and atoning for the sins of the past is resolving claims brought forward by victim-survivors in a fair and responsible manner,” Soto wrote. “I have committed to this principle and attempt to live it in every case.”

The bishop admitted that in the face of a “staggering number” of claims, the “financial challenge is unlike anything we have faced before.

“I must consider what options are available to us, should the diocese become insolvent,” Soto said.

The civil claims are being managed…

View Cache

Senate President Stuart Adams told reporters religious organizations “do a great job” in handling abuse confessions.

In the wake of an Associated Press investigation into a case of child sex abuse by a Latter-day Saint father in Arizona, three Utah lawmakers put forward bills that would, in some capacity, require clergy — or give them permission — to report abuse to law enforcement. Why have none of them been debated by the Legislature?

“I think they have a First Amendment right, I believe there’s protections, and I don’t think I want to put a clergy in a spot where they have to be excommunicated or go to jail,” Senate President Stuart Adams told reporters Monday. “And those are the options and I don’t think that’s right.”

While two bills to address clergy reporting have been put forward by Democrats in the House and remain in its Rules Committee,  View Cache

Le cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard avait reconnu dans un courrier s’être “conduit de façon répréhensible avec une jeune fille de 14 ans”. Le parquet de Marseille avait ouvert en novembre une enquête préliminaire pour “agression sexuelle aggravée”.

L’enquête pour “agression sexuelle aggravée” visant Jean-Pierre Ricard, l’ancien archevêque de Bordeaux et ancien président de la Conférence des évêques de France, a été classée sans suite vendredi 24 février pour prescription, a appris franceinfo auprès du parquet de Marseille.

Le 7 novembre 2022, trois ans après avoir démissionné de sa charge pastorale d’archevêque de Bordeaux pour raison d’âge et avoir commencé une retraite dans un presbytère des Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Jean-Pierre Ricard avait annoncé dans une lettre à la hiérarchie catholique “se mettre à la disposition de la justice” en reconnaissant avoir “commis des actes répréhensibles” sur une adolescente de 14 ans il y a 35 ans.

Le parquet de Marseille avait alors ordonné une enquête préliminaire pour “agression sexuelle…

View Cache

BOSTON (AP) — Lawyers for former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick filed a motion Monday to dismiss a case charging him with sexually assaulting a boy decades ago, saying the 92-year-old once-powerful American prelate has dementia and is not competent to stand trial.

McCarrick pleaded not guilty in September 2021 in the Massachusetts case that alleges the priest sexually abused the boy at a wedding reception at Wellesley College in June 1974. He is the only U.S. Catholic cardinal, current or former, ever to be criminally charged with child sex crimes.

His attorneys said in their motion to dismiss that McCarrick was examined by a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who concluded the former cardinal suffers from dementia, likely due to Alzheimer’s disease.

“While he has a limited understanding of the criminal proceedings against him, his progressive and irreparable cognitive deficits render…

View Cache

Prosecutors are challenging the medical report claiming former cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial on charges he sexually abused a teen in the 1970s.

McCarrick’s legal team filed the report Feb. 27 in Massachusetts’ Dedham District Court based on a medical evaluation that found McCarrick, 92, is suffering from impaired cognition. That report is now impounded by the court.

Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Lisa Beatty said the state will now bring in its own expert to evaluate McCarrick to determine if he can go to trial. The schedule for the state’s evaluation is not currently set, but both sides will be back in court in April for a status conference. Any eventual ruling on McCarrick’s motion to be declared incompetent is not likely for months.

McCarrick was not in court for the hearing. It was reported last year he lives in a Missouri treatment center for priests.

…

View Cache

The Diocese of Toledo recently added three names to its list of diocesan clergy members who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. All three were deceased prior to the allegations. 

The new additions are priests Richard Miller and Frank Nieset and deacon Bernabe Romo.

Father Miller was ordained in 1950 and served at nine diocesan parishes before retiring in 1997. He died in 2009.

Father Nieset was ordained in 1956 and served at 13 parishes, schools, and other institutions before retiring in 1995. He took sick leave in 1982 and a leave of absence in 1994. He died in 2015.

Deacon Romo was assigned to St. James Parish in Toledo’s Old South End from 1980 to 2005, before moving to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. He retired in 2006 and died in 2019. The Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ list of credibly accused clergy does not list any accused deacons.

St. James merged…

View Cache

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Robert Taylor Jr. ruled Feb. 24 that a redacted version of the Maryland Attorney General Office’s report on child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore must be released publicly.

The judge ordered the attorney general’s office to redact more than 200 names from the report and submit it to the court by mid-March.

“Ever-aware of the pain endured by survivors of child sexual abuse, the archdiocese once again offers its sincere apologies to the victim-survivors who were harmed by a minister of the church and who were harmed by those who failed to protect them and who failed to respond to them with care and compassion,” said Christian Kendzierski, archdiocesan spokesman.

He made the remarks in a written Feb. 24 statement issued in response to Taylor’s ruling.

“As we said publicly last year,” Kendzierski continued, “we respect the court’s decisions in this matter and will…

View Cache

The Sacramento Diocese is facing possible bankruptcy after a staggering number of lawsuits were filed alleging sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The alleged events go back decades.

Dorothy Small is a survivor, an advocate, and, through it all, still an ardent practicing Catholic.

“The most important asset in the institution are its people,” Small says. “I’m for God and I am for what it stands for. But even God is being abused. Because they represent God himself. And that doesn’t work.”

Small, who herself is a survivor of abuse at the hands of a clergy member, now volunteers her time as an advocate with the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, to help those who are just finding the courage to come forward. 

“If they have to liquidate assets, so be it,” says Small of the various Dioceses being hit with multiple lawsuits. “But provide immediate protection…

View Cache

Attorneys representing former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick are seeking the dismissal of the case of child abuse against him, saying the 92-year-old isn’t competent to face trial because he suffers from dementia.

McCarrick, who was the archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000 and the bishop of Metuchen earlier in the 1980s, has pleaded not guilty in the 2021 Massachusetts case against him that alleges he abused a teenage boy at a 1974 wedding at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

McCarrick is the only Catholic cardinal in the United States ever to face child sex abuse charges.

His lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the criminal case, asserting that although McCarrick remains “intelligent and articulate,” his dementia and the resulting decline in his memory make him incapable of “assisting in his defense,” they wrote in their motion.

They cited an examination by a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at…

View Cache

Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 92, filed a motion in a Massachusetts court claiming he is “legally incompetent” to stand trial for sex abuse charges, citing “significant, worsening, and irreversible dementia.”

McCarrick is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14 relating to allegations that he sexually abused the teenager who was a family friend at a wedding ceremony in the 1970s at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. 

McCarrick, laicized by Pope Francis in 2019, held one of the highest offices in the Catholic Church and has been accused of serially abusing his priestly authority by sexually abusing minors and seminarians.

The state of Massachusetts told CNA that it wants an opportunity to examine McCarrick’s competency to stand trial.

McCarrick’s motion to dismiss the charges comes about a month after his legal team said a neurological exam of him was…

View Cache

Five years after allegations of child sex abuse against then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick first surfaced and rocked the U.S. Catholic Church, attorneys for McCarrick, 92, said Monday that he’s no longer mentally competent to stand trial and that the charges should be dismissed.

McCarrick was for decades one of the country’s most connected and powerful Catholic leaders. Now, many Catholics view him as an emblem of a rotten old-boy network in which the people at the top never face justice for their role in crimes involving sexual abuse by clergy.

The three counts of indecent assault and battery, based on allegations that McCarrick molested a 16-year-old family friend at a Wellesley College wedding reception in 1974, are the only criminal charges he faces. Fourteen minors and at least five adults — clergy and seminarians — have accused the former D.C. archbishop of sexual misconduct, according to the abuse-tallying site  View Cache

An old idiom is cited in the bible and often used in common conversation, especially when referring to sexual abuse. The phrase “fall from grace” is defined in the dictionary (in Christian belief) as descending from a state of divine favor into sin. It literally means to sin, yet people often use it as an excuse to lessen the crime, hoping the abuser will rise back up. How about we all agree to stop using the word ‘fall’ or ‘fell’ when discussing sexual abuse? Predators don’t FALL for their victims or FALL from grace; they abuse.  

Journalists should especially avoid those terms. Those words are used in two ways when discussing abuse. Both are very harmful and misleading. First, in the context of kids victimized by clergy, we often see phrases like “the accused minister’s fall from grace.” (If you go to BishopAccountability.org and enter this…

View Cache

A group of five demonstrators gathered on Sunday morning in support of abuse victims in the Chickasha community. 

The group’s spokesperson, Christopher Coutts, said the group gathered in support of victims from all walks of life who have been abused.

“We are here today to stand for victims of all kinds, whether it be mental abuse, physical abuse or sexual abuse. We do not care your identify, your age, your race, your sex, your beliefs, your politics,” Coutts said. “It is simply that the citizens of our town deserve better than to be abused in any way shape or form. It is unacceptable in any way for any member of our community to be treated in this way and for others to think it is alright.” 

The demonstrators stood across the street from New Life Christian Church. Last week, the former senior pastor, Matthew Reiber, was charged with three counts…

View Cache

Donald Trump’s former Catholic priest religious adviser and head of anti-abortion group Priests for Life has been hit with multiple sexual misconduct accusations, according to reports by the Catholic media outlet The Pillar and the Daily Beast.

Vehement anti-abortionist Frank Pavone was ousted from the priesthood — defrocked — by the Vatican in December after he repeatedly disobeyed orders from his bishop to stop posting unspecified “blasphemous” messages on social media. He often posted incendiary political messages, and posted videos of an aborted fetus on an altar.

Now at least four women have reportedly accused Pavone of sexual misconduct.

The complaints concern “inappropriate workplace” behavior, dating from 1999 to 2018, and allegedly included non-consensual touching, lewd suggestions and unwanted sexual advance, according to The Pillar and the Beast. One of the women who accused Pavone of…

View Cache

The Society of Jesus said Feb. 21 it had received 15 credible accusations of abuse against Father Marko Rupnik and would be taking steps to begin an internal procedure against the Jesuit priest and artist.

The process could result in disciplinary actions up to and including the 68-year-old Rupnik’s expulsion from the Jesuit order.

In the Feb. 21 declaration, Rupnik’s superior, Father Johan Verschueren, said, “I feel it is my duty to deal seriously with this case and others like it that have arisen and are arising, out of respect for, and in protection of, truth and justice for all parties involved.”

To other restrictions on the priest’s public ministry, Verschueren added a ban on public artistic endeavors.

But the Jesuit order has admitted to knowing of abuse accusations against Rupnik for years, not only since alleged victims went public in early December 2022.

Here’s a timeline of known facts…

View Cache

The school’s code of conduct instructs students to ‘abstain from biblically immoral practices’, including ‘sexual sins’

Patriarchal churches that teach women should “submit” to men are creating a culture where abuse can thrive, experts say.

A News Corp Australia podcast has alleged that some female students at Hillsong College, part of Hillsong Church, were taught to “submit” sexually to their husbands, which one former student described as “kind of a rape culture”.

The podcast also alleges students are quizzed about their “sexual sins” when they start and declared “unsafe” if they admit to having sex or watching pornography.

The college’s code of conduct instructs students to “abstain from biblically immoral practices” including drunkenness, profane language, occult practices and “sexual sins”.

Students are not allowed to date in their first semester and after that they have to seek permission. Relationships with people not at the college should be “prayerfully considered” and discussed…

View Cache

Pope Francis said Saturday that Vatican trials for cases of grave financial mismanagement have become unavoidable in recent years.

“The problem is not the trials, but the facts and conduct that determine them and make them painfully necessary,” the pope told a group of Vatican magistrates on Feb. 25.

“In fact,” he added, “such behaviors by members of the Church seriously harm its effectiveness in reflecting divine light.”

Pope Francis addressed the Vatican’s recent legal disputes in a speech to members of the city state’s tribunals for the opening of its 94th judicial year.

The Vatican is in the midst of a trial to prosecute 10 people, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, on charges related to the institution’s finances. The trial, which began in July 2021, is expected to conclude before the end of the year.

The trial centers on the Secretariat of State’s purchase of a London building, a controversial…

View Cache

Pope Francis said Feb. 25 that financial misconduct by Vatican personnel harms the church’s mission and scandalizes the faithful, doubling down on the need for trials in the tiny city state to find justice.

Francis made the comments during an address to prosecutors, judges and employees of the Vatican City State’s civil and criminal tribunal at the start of the judicial year. The tribunal has seen its caseload grow significantly in recent years as the Vatican enforces new financial standards and accountability, most recently with an ongoing trial into the Holy See’s investment in a London property.

Defense lawyers for some of the 10 defendants have flagged shortcomings in the Vatican’s unique legal system over the course of the trial, arguing that the rights of the defense haven’t been respected. Francis didn’t refer to the London case specifically, but he warned against focusing on the nitty-gritty of the Vatican’s legal…

View Cache

Two teenage girls have narrated how they were allegedly sexually and physically abused by a pastor, who happens be their biological father, for years.

It is alleged that the clergyman started sexually abusing the elder daughter from 2018 to 2023. According to a statement the minors recorded with the police, the pastor reportedly abused the younger daughter from 2016 to 2018. The teenagers were aged 12 and 13 when the pastor allegedly started sexually abusing them. One of the teenage girls is said to have approached her mother and told her that she was contemplating committing suicide as she could not handle the sexual and physical abuse allegedly by her father, who doubles as a pastor. In the statement, one of the teenage girls detailed how the accused would invite her into his bedroom every morning where he would allegedly hug, kiss and touch her indecently, before proceedings to sexually…

View Cache

The Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota had its lead pastor, Michael Gatlin, give his resignation yesterday after his son, another pastor at the church had allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.  

One month ago the church released a statement advising its congregation and the public of the issue. 

Jackson Gatlin, Michael’s son, was suspended as Vineyard’s young adult and online community pastor after the allegation was brought to light. One of the victim’s statements shared that these events occurred several years ago and were sexual in nature.

The church’s Special Committee made an announcement during the church service yesterday stating Michael and Brenda Gatlin might have known about it and chose not to act. 

Two separate parties are investigating all of the allegations at this time, including the local police as well as a company called Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE). The latter was hired by the church to do its…

View Cache

A national-level group of Catholic women in India has expressed distress about Bishop Franco Mulakkal visiting Pope Francis in the Vatican.

The “Sisters in Solidarity” on February 21 wrote to the Pope that they were distressed to read about Bishop Mulakkal’s February 8 meeting with the pontiff. They said they read in an Indian newspaper dated February 15 that the Pope was “glad to hear that (Bishop Mulakkal) had won the case and consoled him for his suffering.”

Kochurani Abraham, a feminist theologian and a group member, told Matters India February 25 that they could deliver the letter to the Pope’s office and concerned dicasteries only on February 24 through a Rome-based priest. Copies of the letter were also sent to the apostolic nuncio in New Delhi and Church leaders in India, Abraham said.

The letter apprised the Pope that the rape case involving Bishop Mulakkal is not over as…

View Cache

The cardinal admitted last November to behaving ‘in a reprehensible way’ toward a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago.

French prosecutors announced Saturday that Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard will not face criminal charges after he admitted to abusing a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago.

Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens told AFP that “the case was closed due to the statute of limitations.”

Ricard, the president of the French bishops’ conference from 2001 to 2007, publicly acknowledged Nov. 7 that he had behaved “in a reprehensible way” toward the girl when he was a pastor in the Archdiocese of Marseille in the late 1980s.

On Nov. 11, the Vatican said that Ricard would be subject to an “investigatio praevia,” or preliminary investigation, following the admission. The Vatican probe is believed to be ongoing.

According to his official Vatican biography, the cardinal is a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department…

View Cache

There’s only one thing Southern Baptist Convention conservatives get more upset about than women serving as pastors: The slightest affirmation of LGBTQ persons.

This truth was borne out in the SBC over the last week as leaders sought to put out a three-alarm fire sparked by decisions made at the SBC Executive Committee. The denomination’s largest church was expelled because it allows women to serve as pastors, and a secular company that cares for its LGBTQ employees was selected to do more work on sexual abuse reform.

Thus, in the current moment, the threefold cord of sexuality, gender and abuse is not easily broken in the SBC. Instead, it’s the talk of the town.

For starters, understand that virtually everyone in SBC leadership is against LGBTQ inclusion or affirmation. The homophobia is so strong that last year a respected former president of the convention was lambasted merely for expressing affirmation of a…

View Cache

A judge concluded the children were victims of “parental alienation,” which continues to influence family courts despite being rejected by mainstream scientific groups, and authorized police to use “reasonable force” to remove them from their mother.

This story describes in detail the sexual abuse of children.

Two siblings in Utah have barricaded themselves in a bedroom at their mother’s home in defiance of a judge’s order to return to the custody of their father, despite state child welfare investigators determining that he had sexually abused the children.

The judge has authorized police to use “reasonable force” — including entry into locked rooms — against Brynlee Larson, 12, and Ty Larson, 15. Ty has spent the last month livestreaming on TikTok to call attention to their case.

The showdown is the fallout from the latest family court battle over “parental alienation” — a disputed psychological theory in which one parent is…

View Cache

How should faithful Catholics respond to the Pavone Affair, and second, what should Frank Pavone himself do or not do?

The laicization of and sexual harassment charges against Frank Pavone have deeply disturbed faithful pro-life Catholics. Online discussions include armchair analyses of what his religious superiors and the Board of Priests for Life should have done. Some people want to know why these charges are coming up at this particular time. Still others want to know why the Vatican is singling out Pavone for discipline while ignoring other problematic priests. 

Without dismissing these legitimate questions, I would like to focus on two questions. First, how should faithful Catholics respond to the Pavone Affair, and second, what should Frank Pavone himself do or not do?  

But first, let’s recap the facts known to the public as of this writing. 

On December 17, 2022, it was reported that Pavone had been dismissed from the…

View Cache

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Aotearoa says the Catholic Church in New Zealand is still failing to properly respond to credible allegations of clerical and religious child sexual abuse.

SNAP says no explanation is given to survivors on how decisions are made when their complaint is not accepted, nor what the standard of proof is for complaints to be credible. They also claim the decision process lacks transparency.

SNAP survivors say witnesses whom they nominated to obtain relative evidence were never contacted and supporting evidential information was never gathered by the church’s investigators.

SNAP believes an overly conservative and excessively high standard on the “balance of probabilities” is being applied to survivor evidence.

Survivors believe that this is deliberately done to ensure no compensation is paid, and the Church as an institution is protected.

This is despite Catholic Church leaders in New Zealand publicly apologizing…

View Cache

[Via KJZZ]

Several plans to change state law on clergy reporting of child sex abuse, including one that would remove the “clergy exemption,” seem dead at the Utah State Capitol — though two child abuse victims, one of them a rabbi, urged the measures get a hearing in the waning days of the legislative session.

“In terms of the sex abuse that I endured, I think it gives me perspective on what we’re talking about,” said Rabbi Avremi Zippel, “of the long-term impact of this sort of behavior.”

Zippel’s former nanny was convicted of sexually abusing him when he was a boy.

“It’s my hope they get a hearing,” he said of the bills, adding he supports ending the exemption for clergy, even if the abuse is learned in confessions. “From my perspective as a faith leader, there is nothing more sacred than the life of a child.“

Deondra Brown…

View Cache

[See also the full text of Associate Judge Robert Taylor’s order.]

With an order Friday from the courts, Marylanders are bracing for the release of an investigation into the history of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The secrecy around the report could be lifted as soon as next month.

Attorneys had argued over the issue for months in confidential proceedings. Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert Taylor Jr. concluded Friday he would allow redactions and release the report to the public. His 32-page decision brings new insights into the fight that’s happened behind closed doors.

Here’s what to expect from the 456-page investigation.

Will the report name names?

That’s a question on the minds of sexual abuse survivors, their advocates and attorneys. These men and women have pointed to a culture of silence in the church that has allowed abuse to continue and…

View Cache

The lid on the Buffalo Diocese’s long-held secrets about clergy molesters was pried open in 2018 when a Catholic priest admitted he had sexually abused dozens of boys.

Five years later, despite promises to do right by abuse victims, the diocese has not paid a penny in damages to an estimated 900 people who filed claims alleging they were sexually abused by priests or other diocese employees. Despite pledges of greater transparency, the diocese has yet to make public internal documents on its handling of abuse cases. And no one connected with the diocese has been charged with any crimes related to child sex abuse or its cover-up in the past five years.

“It seems to me that nothing has changed,” said Michael F. Whalen Jr., who held a news conference on Feb. 27, 2018, to tell the public that the Rev. Norbert Orsolits had abused…

View Cache

[Via Catholic Review]

If the goal of a “synodal” church is to have all the baptized recognize their responsibility for the life and mission of the Catholic community, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet said that necessarily means taking a new look at priesthood.

The cardinal, outgoing prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, organized an international conference on the theology of priesthood in February 2022, which drew some 500 priests, religious and theologians to the Vatican.

Yet one year later, he and other conference organizers said that coming to grips with the clerical abuse crisis and trying to promote a real understanding of the vocation of all the baptized — priests or laity — is an exercise that cannot be limited to priests and theologians.

To that end, the Vatican presented a two-volume book, “For a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood,” cataloguing the conference’s articles and providing complementary academic documents that contextualize…

View Cache

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Robert Taylor Jr. ruled Feb. 24 that a redacted version of the Maryland Attorney General Office’s report on child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore must be released publicly.

The judge ordered the attorney general’s office to redact more than 200 names from the report and submit it to the court by mid-March.

Christian Kendzierski, archdiocesan spokesman, responded to the ruling in a written Feb. 24 statement:

“Ever-aware of the pain endured by survivors of child sexual abuse, the archdiocese once again offers its sincere apologies to the victim-survivors who were harmed by a minister of the church and who were harmed by those who failed to protect them and who failed to respond to them with care and compassion,” Kendzierski said. 

“As we said publicly last year,” he continued, “we respect the court’s decisions in this matter and will continue to cooperate with the…

View Cache

A redacted version of the Maryland attorney general’s report into child sexual abuse at the Archdiocese of Baltimore can be released, a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge ruled Friday.

| LINKS: Read the motion | Memorandum and order | Read the archbishop’s response 

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown released a statement Friday afternoon, saying: “We are pleased with the court’s order today permitting the interim release of a redacted version of the attorney general’s report on the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The office will move expeditiously to comply with the court’s order and prepare a redacted copy of the report to be released upon review and approval by the court.”

Details of the attorney general’s four-year, 456-page investigation weren’t initially made public because much of the material was obtained through a grand jury. Then-Attorney General Brian Frosh sought the court’s permission in November 2022 to waive the grand jury…

View Cache

House Speaker Mark Rozzi received applause Friday in the Capitol Rotunda from a large gathering of Democratic colleagues after the legislature took a major step toward his decade-long promise to deliver justice for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The Berks County Democrat, a victim of clergy sex abuse as an adolescent, said, “I want to say to all the victims and survivors out there that we have your backs. We will support you.”

The news conference followed a House special session where the chamber approved two measures with bipartisan support to provide a two-year retroactive window for previously time-barred abuse victims to file civil lawsuits against their abuser and any institution, including public school districts, that covered it up.

One measure would accomplish the goal through a constitutional amendment that requires voter ratification and the other achieves it through the regular law-making process.

View Cache

Victims would be able to sue over otherwise outdated claims of child sexual abuse under two pieces of legislation passed Friday by the Pennsylvania House, but it’s unclear whether the state Senate will take them up.

The legislation to temporarily waive the statute of limitations for sex abuse crimes had been on the verge of going before voters for the final OK two years ago, when state officials bungled the required advertising of the previous version.

The House voted Friday 161-40 to send the Senate a constitutional amendment that, if senators go along with it, could go before voters for final approval as soon as November. Separately, they also voted 134-67 to make the change as regular legislation that would take effect immediately if passed by the Senate and signed by the governor.

It was a major accomplishment for House Speaker Mark Rozzi, a Berks County Democrat  View Cache

Today, the Pennsylvania House concluded its special session after passing a dual path for victims of childhood sexual assault. Both bills passed would open a two-year civil window for victims to sue abusers and institutions that covered the abuse.  

The window is the only remaining recommendation from the 2018 Grand Jury Report after its two-year investigation into widespread sexual abuse of children within six dioceses of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. 

The dual path consists of two approaches: a constitutional amendment and a statutory bill. Both received bipartisan support on their third and final consideration this morning. 

“To all the victims and survivors out there, we have your backs,” said House Speaker Mark Rozzi (D-Berks), sponsor of House Bill 2, the statutory bill. 

Rozzi is a survivor of clergy abuse when he was 13 years old. He shared his story and experience on the House floor before his bill received a vote,…

View Cache

Jean-Pierre Ricard, a 78-year-old retired bishop, was taken into custody on February 2, and told investigators he had ‘kissed’ and ‘caressed’ a 13-year-old girl.

French prosecutors said on Saturday, February 25, they had closed an investigation into sexual assault charges against a cardinal as the statute of limitations had passed.

The probe was launched in November last year after Jean-Pierre Ricard, a retired bishop made a cardinal by pope Benedict XVI in 2006, admitted in public he had “behaved in a reprehensible way” towards a young girl 35 years ago.

Read more Article réservé à nos abonnés Portuguese Catholic Church shaken by report of 5,000 child-victims of sexual abuse

The 78-year-old was taken into custody on February 2 and told investigators he had “kissed” the girl, who he said was about 13 years old. He said he had also embraced her and “caressed her over her clothes,” but “there…

View Cache

Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, is accused of abusing women for decades – even while many Catholics considered him a living saint. How does L’Arche move forward?

When Laura Giddings first shared the news of L’Arche founder Jean Vanier’s abuse with her community in Tacoma, Washington, she felt a mixture of embarrassment, anger, and resentment at having to be the bearer of such a painful message.

It was 2020, less than a year after Vanier’s death at the age of 90, and an independent inquiry commissioned by L’Arche had concluded that the man seen then by many as a spiritual giant sexually abused six women between 1970 and 2005.

A winner of the Templeton Prize and recipient of the French Legion of Honor, the Canadian Catholic was synonymous with L’Arche, a network of 154 communities in 38 countries welcoming people with intellectual disabilities.

For Giddings, the executive director of L’Arche Tahoma…

View Cache

The inquiries follow complaints to the papal nuncio, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, about the diocese and Bishop Robert Byrne.

Bishop Robert Byrne CO resigned in December 2022, saying that “discernment has caused me to recognise that I now feel unable to continue serving the people of the diocese in the way that I would wish”. Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales/Mazur

The Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle is in turmoil after four inquiries, including one by the Vatican, have been launched into what happened there during the tenure of its former bishop, Robert Byrne.

Archbishop Malcom McMahon of Liverpool, who has taken over as administrator of Hexham and Newcastle, has been asked by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, to report on what led to the resignation of Byrne who quit in December, citing that the burdens of office were “too great a burden”.

The Vatican review and the other inquiries…

View Cache

Sexual abuse task forces have been on the move in the Southern Baptist Convention.

In Nashville this week, denomination leaders got a status update on a planned database of credibly accused church workers. And in late 2022, the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s own task force made recommendations available to the roughly 3,000 churches that form it.

But one challenge remains clear: Southern Baptist Convention leaders said they have basically no authority to ensure churches proactively move to prevent sexual abuse or respond appropriately if and when abuse gets reported.

Under current mandates, leaders said they can study the sexual abuse problem and develop practical tools and resources for churches to draw on. But in their highly decentralized Baptist denomination, the rest, they said, is up to the local church.

The Southern Baptist Convention, despite long-shrinking ranks, remains the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. It has faced close scrutiny in recent years as…

View Cache

A teenage boy stood in a courtroom Friday and confronted the youth minister who sexually assaulted him and other boys.

The boy, identified as Victim No. 1 in court, told Keenan Hord he didn’t feel any hatred toward him — only indifference.

Hord, dressed in white and black jail clothing, stood nearby but didn’t look at the teen.

Hord, 33, of Centerton was a youth minister at Bentonville First Baptist Church.

He pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual assault; three counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child; and sexual indecency with a child. Ryan Jewell and Ben Catterlin, Hord’s attorneys, reached a plea agreement with Joshua Robinson, senior deputy prosecutor, to resolve the case.

Hord admitted to sexually assaulting the boys and possessing photographs or videos of nude boys.

Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren sentenced Hord to 6o years in the…

View Cache

On Friday (Feb. 24), SBC President Bart Barber took to Twitter to respond to criticism regarding the latest developments in the process to reform the denomination in light of systemic failures to appropriately respond to allegations of clergy sex abuse. 

Earlier this week, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF) announced that the services of Guidepost Solutions had been retained for the construction of a “Ministry Check” website, which will catalog SBC pastors and leaders who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. 

The announcement was met with a mixture of affirmation and bitter criticism. 

Guidepost Solutions is the organization that the Executive Committee had previously hired to conduct a lengthy investigation into how it handled sexual abuse allegations brought to its attention between the years 2000 and 2021.

The investigation and subsequent report, which was published in May 2022, revealed that the SBC Executive Committee had…

View Cache

One of Rabbi Efraim Tessler’s victims describes how it all happened: The private lessons, touching, accusations, dependence – and the agreement involving the rabbi’s son, deputy minister Yaakov Tessler, to buy his silence

Aryeh has trouble counting the number of times he’s been sexually assaulted. It happened so many times and with such frequency that there is no point trying, he said. For a year and a half it was routine, part of normal weekday happenings at the Damesek Eliezer Vizhnitz Yeshiva in Jerusalem. The serial attacker was the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Efraim Tessler.

“He would walk around the study hall in the morning and tell me ‘come up’ or ask me to wake him up in the afternoon because he slept in a bed in the office,” Aryeh (a pseudonym to maintain his anonymity) told Haaretz. “He would undress, I would cause him to ejaculate and immediately…

View Cache

Jean-Baptiste De Franssu told the Vatican court last week that he had “no other choice” but to refer the London deal for investigation.

The president of a major Vatican Bank told a courtroom Thursday that he reported a suspicious Vatican property deal to investigators, even while senior Vatican officials offered him “protection” to help the deal go through.

Jean-Baptiste De Franssu is president of the Institute for Works of Religion, a Vatican City bank. Amid a sprawling Vatican City criminal trial, De Franssu answered questions Feb. 16 about the Secretariat of State’s 2018 acquisition of a London building at 60 Sloane Ave.

The banker told judges that in 2019, the Vatican Secretariat of State submitted a loan application to his bank – commonly called the IOR – in order to refinance a mortgage it had taken from a Swiss bank when it bought the London building.

De Franssu told judges…

View Cache

A convicted killer and rapist revered by millions as a religious guru has temporarily walked free from jail in India for the fourth time in 12 months, angering activists who say it sets a dangerous precedent in a country grappling with violence against women.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, head of the spiritual organization Dera Sacha Sauda, was released for 40 days on January 21 and is expected to remain free until early March, Sanjeev Verma, a senior official from the city of Rohtak, in the northern state of Haryana, confirmed to CNN on Wednesday.

In 2017, Singh was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his followers. Two years later, he received a life term for the murder of a journalist who exposed the sexual abuse of women within his group.

Singh was previously granted temporary leave from prison in February, June and October last…

View Cache

[See also the text of the lawsuit.]

The Zalkin Law Firm P.C. has filed a 479-page lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Diego a Corporation Sole ( the Diocese) and every Catholic Parish in San Diego, alleging that in September of 2019, the Catholic Diocese of San Diego fraudulently transferred assets to separate parish corporations it created to avoid paying settlements or judgments in potentially hundreds of lawsuits, when the California legislature had just passed a bill opening a three year window to allow older victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits against their perpetrators and institutions like the Diocese.

In a February 9, 2023 letter to parishioners Bishop Robert Cardinal McElroy states “‘The parish assets have been held in recent years by individual parish corporations, and before that they were held by the Diocese in trust for each particular parish community.”

“The statement by Bishop…

View Cache

[See also the full text of Associate Judge Robert Taylor’s order.]

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office will be allowed to release much of its 456-page investigation into the history of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore as soon as next month, a city judge ruled Friday.

The report will be redacted to shield the identities of some people who are accused of committing sexual abuse or helping to cover it up, Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert Taylor Jr. decided.

Those people will have the opportunity to review the portions of the report that name them and object to the release of that information because the grand jury investigation did not offer them a chance to defend themselves against the claims.

The people who must be notified include: those who are accused in the report of abuse, covering up abuse, silencing abuse victims or participating in the transfer of…

View Cache

Saying “the need for disclosure outweighs the need for secrecy,” a Baltimore judge has ordered the release of a redacted version of the grand jury investigation into a history of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Circuit Judge Robert Taylor Jr.’s order, signed Friday, said he will hear arguments on whether to release the entire report at a later date.

The report could be released as soon as next month, but the judge must first approve an attorney general’s list of those individuals affected by its public release, and those individuals must be notified. They include priests accused of abuse, and those who hid abuse, enabled it or assisted in a cover up. The list must be presented to the judge on or before March 13.

“Keeping this report from the public is an injustice,” Taylor wrote. “The only form of justice that may now be available is…

View Cache

A Baltimore judge has ordered the public release of a heavily redacted version of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office report detailing the history of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Circuit Judge Robert Taylor issued his written ruling Friday, directing the attorney general’s office to redact 208 names from the report so it can be released sometime in March.

“Keeping this report from the public is an injustice,” Taylor wrote.

Former Attorney General Brian Frosh’s office finished its report in mid-November, and asked the court’s permission to make public its investigative findings on how 158 priests and other church employees sexually abused and tortured at least 600 people, with examples of abuse going back at least eight decades. The report also shows how the church, in that time period, sought to cover up the abuses and, in some cases, enabled them.

The…

View Cache

‘I was told at the orphanage I’d amount to nothing, but I defied them,’ says survivor

The railway tracks ahead of him seemed endless but they offered a human connection for a 16-year-old alone in the woods outside of St. John’s in the 1950s.

Each step he took was one more away from the horrors of the sexual and physical abuse he had endured at Mount Cashel Orphanage — the “holy hell” he had run away from just hours earlier.

When darkness started to close in that first night along the lonely rail line, John (not his real name, which cannot be published due to a court-imposed ban), who is now 80, says that at the time he knew he would rather risk death alone in the woods over one he felt certain would come to him if he stayed at the orphanage any longer.

“I had it in my…

View Cache

A 57-year-old priest has been found dead this week, 500 kms from home, following a complaint made by the family of a “vulnerable” man. José António Gonçalves ran a parish in Évora. His body was discovered not far from his car on Tuesday in Terras de Bouro. Say reports: “This was the first formal complaint against the priest, there being no record in the diocesan archives or witness statements made to the Independent Commission which studied abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church” – and released its damning report very recently. The commission meantime (now no longer active) has called for another structure to be set up so that any further abuses within the Church can be properly dealt with.

View Cache

I have interviewed dozens of clergy abuse victims. And as they lay out the grooming behaviors of their abusers, a clear pattern has always been evident. Yet until recently, when I read the testimony, published in The Pillar, of a woman who was groomed by Frank Pavone over 20 years ago, I never realized that I had also experienced some of the same boundary violations by his hand. Recently, another woman has come forward with similar allegations. My story is not the same as the other brave women who have stepped forward and shared that they were sexually harassed by Mr. Pavone, a former priest who was laicized by the Vatican in December 2022 for “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience” of his bishop.

But in hindsight, I see that I experienced grooming and inappropriate behavior that I now wish someone had spoken out against.

I…

View Cache

[Via Malaysia Herald]

A few months ago, a book with an eloquent title was published: Heillose Macht — literally, “Power empty of salvation.” Many priests and laypersons, both Church employees and volunteers, relate here the abuse of power that they have personally suffered in the Catholic Church, which they have experienced “as a place of despotism and humiliation”.

Numerous reactions to these accounts show that they are talking about something with which many people in the Church are familiar — but something they don’t dare to talk about except in a “safe space”. The stories are about the abuse of power, about contempt for persons, about a lack of respect in the Church. Such experiences are not limited to the German-speaking area, but occur everywhere in the world, as I myself know from my involvement in international projects and worldwide networks.

Something is fundamentally wrong if people need safe spaces…

View Cache

The Catholic religious order that runs Marmion Academy in Aurora is acknowledging for the first time that one of its members had “established allegations” of child sex abuse in the 1970s and remained at the school for years.

During that time, Brother Jerome Skaja was accused of more sexual misconduct involving minors.

The Benedictines long hid the fact that Skaja, who died in 2016, had been accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a Marmion student in the 1980s, as the Chicago Sun-Times reported in October — and also that they reached a secret financial settlement with the accuser when he threatened to sue when he turned 18.

In December, the Rev. John Brahill, a Marmion leader, said the order planned to post its first public list of “established offenders,” as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has done and as many other Catholic religious orders have. Now,…

View Cache

[Via Los Angeles Times; see also a video of the news conference.]

A sweeping lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court accuses the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego of a scheme to fraudulently transfer hundreds of properties to avoid potentially large payouts stemming from a new wave of lawsuits alleging abuse by clergy members.

The suit was filed on Tuesday, less than two weeks after the diocese held a news conference warning it might have to file bankruptcy for the second time since 2007, because of the threat from potentially large payouts to approximately 400 people who have sued alleging they were abused years ago.

The latest lawsuit said that the diocese transferred 291 properties into real estate holding companies in late 2019, just after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that opened a three-year window for people who claimed they were victims of past sexual abuse to file…

View Cache

The Diocese of Buffalo has received a child sexual abuse complaint regarding a retired priest in the diocese. As a result, Bishop Michael W. Fisher has placed Father Joseph Vatter on administrative leave as an investigation continues. Prior to being placed on leave, Father Vatter was occasionally celebrating Masses at various diocesan churches.

Please note that this administrative leave is for the purpose of investigation and does not imply any determination as to the truth or falsity of the complaint. 

If you have any information specific to clerical sexual abuse you would like to share, please contact Jackie Joy, victim assistance coordinator for the diocese, who may be reached at 716-895-3010.

View Cache

A Buffalo Diocese priest has been put on leave over an allegation that he sexually abused a child, the diocese announced Thursday.  

The Rev. Joseph E. Vatter, 71, who retired in 2022 as pastor of St. Paul Parish in Kenmore but continued to occasionally celebrate Mass at various churches, will be on leave while the diocese investigates the allegation.

Diocese officials declined Thursday to disclose when the alleged incident occurred, but said they had notified the Erie County District Attorney’s Office about the allegation.

In September, a Rochester area man, Robert Kapal, told The Buffalo News that Vatter had abused him when he was a 9-year-old altar boy at St. Christopher Church in the Town of Tonawanda in 1980. 

Diocesan records obtained by The News show the church in 2004 received an abuse complaint about Vatter, but the diocese determined in 2005 that there was “no basis” to the…

View Cache

The Vatican has been dismissed from a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by an alleged victim of disgraced former archbishop Anthony Apuron.

The Guam District Court found that the Holy See is absolved of certain responsibilities by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

But the 35-page decision and order does provide explicit details of the allegations against the now-defrocked Apuron.

The Holy See, also commonly referred to as the Vatican, was one of several Catholic Church defendants in the lawsuit, which alleged that it was aware of numerous similar sexual abuse acts by then-Archbishop Apuron, and should share in the responsibility.

But Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood granted the Holy See’s motion to dismiss citing among other things, lack of subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction under the foreign sovereign immunities act.

The order with prejudice means the Vatican can’t be sued again for damages by the plaintiff. But contained in the court…

View Cache

A proposal to do away with clergy exemptions for reporting child abuse and neglect got a first look Wednesday from a Vermont Senate committee. 

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee took no action on the bill, S.16, after listening to several witnesses speak about it. The senators said they wanted to hear from more witnesses, including constitutional scholars.

Vermont law says members of the clergy are obligated to report abuse and neglect, but the law adds exemptions for what they learn while hearing a confession or acting as a spiritual adviser.

According to current law, the exemptions include information received in a communication that is:

• Made to a member of the clergy acting in the capacity of a spiritual adviser.
• Intended by the parties to be confidential at the time of the communication.
• Intended to be an act of contrition or matter of conscience.
• Required to be confidential by religious law, doctrine…

View Cache

A lawsuit was announced Wednesday alleging the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego fraudulently transferred real estate to dummy corporations in order to avoid paying out pending legal settlements to hundreds of victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The suit alleges that due to the impending passage of a bill that extended the statute of limitations for alleged sex abuse victims to file lawsuits, the diocese transferred at least 291 real estate parcels to its parishes in a bid to conceal assets. The suit, which seeks to undo those transfers, states the total assessed value of the transferred property exceeds $450 million.

The lawsuit follows an announcement from the diocese that “the staggering legal costs” of hundreds of sex abuse lawsuits it faces could force it to file for bankruptcy.

Earlier this month, Cardinal Robert McElroy wrote in a letter to parishioners that most of the diocese’s assets were “depleted” due…

View Cache

The suit, which seeks to undo those transfers, states the total assessed value of the transferred property exceeds $450 million.

A lawsuit was announced Wednesday alleging the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego fraudulently transferred real estate to dummy corporations in order to avoid paying out legal settlements to hundreds of victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The suit alleges that due to the impending passage of a bill that extended the statute of limitations for alleged sex abuse victims to file lawsuits, the diocese transferred at least 291 real estate parcels to its parishes in a bid to conceal assets. The suit, which seeks to undo those transfers, states the total assessed value of the transferred property exceeds $450 million.

The lawsuit follows an announcement from the diocese earlier in February that “the staggering legal costs” of hundreds of sex abuse lawsuits it faces could…

View Cache

Plaintiffs’ attorneys say 1500 new lawsuits have been filed against the Roman Catholic Church in Northern CA alone. The Investigative Unit has independently reviewed nearly 700 of them.

An NBC Bay Area analysis of nearly 700 lawsuits filed against Catholic institutions across Northern California over the past three years suggests the church’s child sexual abuse scandal in the region is significantly worse than the public previously knew.

More than 200 of the clergy and lay employees of the Catholic Church named in the wave of lawsuits have never been publicly accused of being sexually abusive towards children and teenagers until now, NBC Bay Area’s investigation found. Some of the newly accused continue to work as priests.

Other alleged perpetrators named in the civil filings have faced previous accusations but now face new claims, some of them dozens.

NBC Bay Area is in the process of reaching out to those accused…

View Cache

The lawsuit claims the Diocese transferred its properties so that those assets weren’t reachable by its creditors, namely survivors of sexual abuse.

A new lawsuit claims that the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego transferred ownership of 291 real estate holdings and parcels across San Diego and Imperial counties to parish corporations in order to conceal the Diocese’s true assets to avoid paying settlements of suits brought by survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court by The Zalkin Law Firm on behalf of more than 100 plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused by Catholic priests or employees of the Diocese in either San Diego or Imperial county, claims the Diocese began to transfer its property after the passage of Assembly Bill 218. That California law, passed in 2019, significantly extended the statute of limitations for survivors of childhood sexual assault to file…

View Cache

A convicted killer and rapist revered by millions as a religious guru has temporarily walked free from jail in India for the fourth time in 12 months, angering activists who say it sets a dangerous precedent in a country grappling with violence against women.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, head of the spiritual organization Dera Sacha Sauda, was released for 40 days on January 21 and is expected to remain free until early March, Sanjeev Verma, a senior official from the city of Rohtak, in the northern state of Haryana, confirmed to CNN on Wednesday.

In 2017, Singh was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his followers. Two years later, he received a life term for the murder of a journalist who exposed the sexual abuse of women within his group.

Singh was previously granted temporary leave from prison in February, June and October last…

View Cache

A former youth minister from Anna has been locked up for the rest of his life after being convicted for producing child pornography at multiple locations, including at a church.

Federal investigators got onto the trail of 49-year old Chad Michael Rider of Anna while they were investigating a Denison man for child pornography offenses.

The Homeland Security agents were able to trace illicit videos back to the Denison Church of the Nazarene, where Rider was a youth minister.

There on a hard drive in the church, they found videos of Rider and the other man, identified as David Pettigrew, setting up cameras to film children who were bathing at the church. More videos were found of Rider recording children at two other residences.

“One of the sacred safe havens for children is the church and all it stands for.  Yet Rider and his conspirators purposefully used it as a lure…

View Cache

Christian-majority East Nusa Tenggara province is the largest hub of human trafficking, campaigners says

Indonesian Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo has called on Catholics to fight the scourge of human trafficking during the upcoming Season of Lent.

Hardjoatmodjo termed human trafficking as “one of the greatest crimes against humanity, which directly contradicts the ideals of the common good” in a pastoral letter issued ahead of Lent that begins on Feb. 22.

“Our poorest, most vulnerable and disabled sisters, as well as women of all ages and children, migrants, refugees and our sisters who come from disharmonious families, are very vulnerable to being exploited by human trafficking practices,” the prelate stated in the letter read throughout the archdiocese Sunday Mass on Feb. 19.

He wanted Catholics to fight the crime and said poverty causes many to become victims of human trafficking.

“Help our less fortunate brothers and sisters,” the cardinal said.

…

View Cache

Jean-Baptiste De Franssu told the Vatican court last week that he had “no other choice” but to refer the London deal for investigation.

The president of a major Vatican Bank told a courtroom Thursday that he reported a suspicious Vatican property deal to investigators, even while senior Vatican officials offered him “protection” to help the deal go through.

Jean-Baptiste De Franssu is president of the Institute for Works of Religion, a Vatican City bank. Amid a sprawling Vatican City criminal trial, De Franssu answered questions Feb. 16 about the Secretariat of State’s 2018 acquisition of a London building at 60 Sloane Ave.

The banker told judges that in 2019, the Vatican Secretariat of State submitted a loan application to his bank – commonly called the IOR – in order to refinance a mortgage it had taken from a Swiss bank when it bought the London building.

De Franssu told judges…

View Cache

A former Methodist pastor, scheduled to stand trial next week on charges that he sexually abused three boys, is considering a judge’s offer of three to four years in state prison if he pleads guilty by Thursday.

Russell W. Davis, 70, of Seabrook, New Hampshire, who until 2015 was a church-licensed but not ordained pastor for the United Methodist Church, was first charged in 2018 after one of the boys went to Newbury police with an account of years of sexual abuse.

But eight years earlier, in 2010, another boy had also reported that Davis had been abusing him since he was 11. Due to the boy’s emotional state, police did not pursue that case at the time, prosecutor Kate MacDougall said in court Tuesday.

Both boys came from what a prosecutor said on Tuesday were unstable and difficult living situations that “made them vulnerable.” Both were brought to the…

View Cache