ABUSE TRACKER

It wasn’t long into my study of the sex abuse crisis in the Church that I realized that many or even most bishops customarily respond to a report about abuse 1) by feeling sorry for themselves that they have another mess on their hands; 2) by feeling sorry for the priest whose priesthood may be ruined; and 3) by trying to figure out how to get the victim to remain silent and go away. There is rarely, if ever, any true concern shown for the victim; sometimes counseling is offered but more often as a way to appease than to help the victim.

It can take decades for a victim even to begin to seek justice for the abuser. And most often it is done out of a concern to prevent the abuser from continuing to abuse. Victims long to put the abuse “behind them” (as much as that might be…

This is the second of a special two-part series marking the 20th anniversary of the passing of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (known as the Dallas Charter). Part 1 can be found here.

When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops passed the original Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in June 2002, it marked a beginning, not an end, to their efforts to safeguard children in the Church.

The charter’s 17 articles called on bishops and dioceses to reach out and try to help those who are victim-survivors of clerical sexual abuse of minors, to investigate all allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests or deacons, to report such allegations to civil authorities, and to remove from ministry any men with even one substantiated incident of sexual abuse of a minor. It led to the establishment of USCCB’s Secretariat for the Protection of…

• Fr Anthony White began abusing the 15-year-old boy between 1992 and 1993
• He was assistant priest at St John’s Church, Horsham at the time of the abuse
• Hove Crown Court said the victim was targeted after attending Mass in Horsham

A Catholic priest has been jailed for 10-and-a-half years for plying a teenage boy with drink and raping him.

Father Anthony White, of Cross-In-Hand, Heathfield, East Sussex, was sentenced at Hove Crown Court for sexual assault and two offences of indecent assault against the boy, who was aged 15 at the time.

The offences happened in 1992 and 1993 at the address where White was then living in Horsham while he was an assistant priest at St John’s Church.

A Sussex Police spokesman said the 64-year-old was charged after the victim came forward in 2020.

Detective Constable Yvonne Daddow said: ‘White got to know the boy when he and his family…

Today, Pope Francis named Bishop John P. Dolan, Auxiliary Bishop of San Diego to lead the Diocese of Phoenix Arizona. Dolan succeeds the retiring Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted who has led the diocese since 2003. Given the history of church leadership in Phoenix, there is much work ahead for Bishop-Elect Dolan.

For example, In 2008, after the diocese had spent several million dollars to settle about 20 lawsuits, Bishop Olmsted began an initiative to shield diocesan assets from further sex abuse claims by incorporating local parishes individually. Through his actions, Bishop Olmsted demonstrated that he cared more about the money his diocese brings in rather than the children and families his diocese serves. Bishop-Elect Dolan must work to invert this structure and put children, families, and survivors first.

Since his appointment in 2017, Bishop Dolan, who was ordained a priest for San Diego in…

The next bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix said Friday that he will strive to be open when it comes to investigations of sex abuse, though he said he’s not yet caught up on the status of abuse claims in a diocese that serves roughly 1.1 million Catholics.

“I honestly don’t know what has occurred here. But yes, the goal here obviously is to be as transparent as we know — not as possible but as we know, what we know,” Auxiliary Bishop John P. Dolan said at an introductory news conference.

The 60-year-old, who will be installed officially in August, will be only the fifth bishop in the diocese’s 52-year history. He has been auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of San Diego since April 2017.

Dolan will oversee 94 parishes, 23 missions, 29 elementary schools, several high schools, three universities and one seminary.

His appointment comes…

Bishop Franco Mulakkal will assume pastoral responsibilities months after being acquitted in the Kerala nun rape case.

Former Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal will return to pastoral duties months after the acquittal in the Kerala nun rape case. The Vatican has accepted a Kerala court’s decision acquitting him of rape charges.javascript:false

In September 2018, Pope Francis temporarily relieved the Bishop of his diocese’s responsibilities after he was questioned by Kerala police on rape charges levelled by the nun.

According to sources, during his visit to the Jalandhar diocese on Saturday, Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, informed the priests of the north Indian diocese that the Vatican had accepted the court’s decision on Bishop Franco.

The Apostolic Nuncio made this statement to a group of priests from the Jalandhar diocese in response to a question about the Vatican’s delay in accepting the Indian…

Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, on June 11 said the Vatican has accepted the Indian court decision about Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar.

The nuncio, who was on a two-day pastoral visit to Jalandhar, said this June 11 while addressing the priests of the diocese of Jalandhar.

The nuncio said Bishop Mulakkal is an Indian citizen and the Vatican goes by the decision of the local court.

“Accordingly, Bishop Franco [Mulakkal] is innocent and free of all charges. With regards to the future, it is not in my hands but with Rome. Let us wait for it patiently,” Archbishop Girelli told the priests.

The Vatican on September 20, 2018, accepted Bishop Mulakkal’s request to relieve him from his duties until the case was over. It then appointed Bishop Agnelo Gracias as the diocesan administrator.

On January 14 this year, a court in Kerala, southern India, acquitted…

The Vatican has accepted the verdict of an Indian court declaring the innocence of a bishop accused of raping a nun, according to the papal representative to the country, who added the bishop’s future “is not in my hands, but with Rome.”

Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli was speaking about Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar during a visit to the diocese, located in Punjab state.

Mulakkal was arrested on Sept. 21, 2018, in Kerala after a months-long investigation into the accusations of a nun claiming he raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. He has adamantly denied the accusation.

The nun is a member of the Punjab-based Missionaries of Jesus congregation, but said the attacks happened in Kuravilangad, the location of one of the order’s convents in Kerala, where the bishop was born.

On Sept. 20, 2018, Pope Francis temporarily relieved Mulakkal of his pastoral duties for the Diocese of Jalandhar,…

A withering report on sexual abuse and cover-up in the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.

A viral video in which a woman confronts her pastor at an independent Christian church for sexually preying on her when she was a teen.

A TV documentary exposing sex abuse of children in Amish and Mennonite communities.

You might call it #ChurchToo 2.0.

Survivors of sexual assault in church settings and their advocates have been calling on churches for years to admit the extent of abuse in their midst and to implement reforms. In 2017 that movement acquired the hashtag #ChurchToo, derived from the wider #MeToo movement, which called out sexual predators in many sectors of society.

In recent weeks #ChurchToo has seen an especially intense set of revelations across denominations and ministries, reaching vast audiences in headlines and on screen with a message that activists have long…

Robin Hadaway, a longtime expert on missions work, is keeping the focus on missionaries in his candidacy for president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The resident-turned-remote professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, now teaches his students almost full time from the California city of Oceanside.

As he prepares to attend the denomination’s annual meeting June 14-15 just an hour’s drive from his home, Hadaway knows attention will be on the recommendations of a sexual abuse task force following a lengthy report on the Executive Committee’s mishandling of abuse allegations.

“They seem reasonable and wise, what they are recommending,” he said of the task force, including its suggestion that a national staff person — “or maybe more than one person” — be hired to determine what church or other entity is appropriate to respond to abuse allegations.

But Hadaway, who stated he was “troubled and saddened”…

The announcement that Pope Francis chose to name San Diego bishop Robert McElroy a cardinal comes as a shock to many Catholics who were scandalized by McElroy’s willingness to give Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians.

However, it’s especially a shock to sex abuse victims, because of his record of covering up for predator priests.

In 2014, abuse victim Rachel Mastrogiacomo reported to San Diego diocesan officials that North American College alumnus Fr. Jacob Bertrand ritually raped her at her home in Dakota County, Minnesota when she was 24 years old. When Mastrogiacomo discovered that McElroy did not remove Bertrand from ministry despite his having confessed to the ritual rape, she said that she felt like a “faithful little sheep in the flock that could just be raped and thrown out.” 

Even though Mastrogiacomo filed a criminal complaint against Fr. Bertrand in April 2016, it was not until five months…

A woman testified Thursday that in the 1980s when she was 16 she arrived unannounced at her 18-year-old boyfriend’s apartment and found him and a priest lying in a bed partially clothed.

The 53-year-old woman, whose identity is being withheld to protect the identity of her former boyfriend, said in Macomb County Circuit Court that during her teens she and her boyfriend befriended Neil Kalina, who is on trial for molesting a different teen boy in the mid-1980s when he was at St. Kieran (Catholic) Church in Shelby Township.

Kalina, 66, is charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which is punishable by up to life in prison, and two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The jury could find him guilty of a less severe charge on each offense.

Kalina allegedly touched the genitals of the complaining…

[With videos]

Warning: The story below contains details of residential schools that may be upsetting. Canada’s Indian Residential School Survivors and Family Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419.

Willie Littlechild doesn’t remember blowing out candles or receiving any gifts on his birthday when he was a child. In fact, there was no acknowledgement of the day at all.

That is because Littlechild grew up in a residential school in central Alberta, Canada, and celebrating birthdays was forbidden there.

For the 14 years that he attended the school, Littlechild wasn’t even called by his name. Instead, he was given a number by the staff and Catholic clergy who ran the school – one of 139 across Canada where more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their families, communities and cultures.

But this year, on his 78th birthday, Littlechild received the gift he had long hoped for: an…

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: See the Southern Baptist Convention list and the report. See also Christa Brown’s website, the Baptist Accountability website, and the Houston Chronicle’s Abuse of Faith investigation.]

A report named hundreds of church leaders accused or found guilty of abusing children and says survivors were mistreated

America’s largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination is being roiled by a sexual abuse scandal that casts a harsh light on one of the most politically powerful religious groups in the country as well as renewing a focus on its racist past.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a collection of loosely affiliated member churches, boasting just under 15 million members, and is dominated by white members, who are usually deeply socially conservative. The convention has often been a powerful tool for rightwing organizing in recent years, especially on issues around abortion.

But the SBC is now so mired in scandal that one recent former…

Karnataka High Court allowed a victim, who was a minor when the alleged crime against her was committed, to be recalled for cross-examination in the trial court.

Bengaluru – The provision of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which prohibits child victims from being repeatedly called to testify in court, “gets diluted” once the victim crosses 18 years of age, the High Court of Karnataka has said.

It has, therefore, allowed a victim, who was a minor when the alleged crime against her was committed, to be recalled for cross-examination in the trial court.

The victim was 15 years of age in January 2019 when the alleged crime took place. When the alleged perpetuator of the crime filed the application for her recall for cross-examination on March 28, 2022, she had crossed 18 years of age, the HC said.

The mother of the victim had filed the complaint…

At age 68, he has spent nearly six decades trying to forget what happened to him in the classroom of his fifth-grade teacher, Arthur F. Werner, in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Union Free School District.

“It happened to me at least a dozen times that year,” recalled the man, one of 35 former Werner students who filed Child Victims Act lawsuits accusing Werner of molesting them in the school.

“We had this weird rule in the school that you couldn’t put your hands in your pockets. Every time Werner saw me reach toward one of my pockets, he’d call me up to the front of the room, in front of the whole class. He would literally sew my pants pockets shut,” the man told The Buffalo News in an interview. “While he did that, he would put his hand inside my pants, under the guise of protecting me from the…

As debate continues over the revelations of the 1995 Robert Sabga and 2021 Justice Judith Jones reports on abuse at children’s homes, and pending investigations by the police and Catholic Church, one survivor shares his story with Newsday.

A survivor of abuse at the St Dominic’s Children’s Home in Belmont, who left there in 1997, said his ability to relate and interact with people has been irrevocably altered by the abuse he suffered while growing up at the home. He now lives in the Netherlands where, as a gay man, he has been granted asylum status.

“I can’t form friendships. I get real irritated with people fast, I have a low span for stupidity. I don’t keep many friends, and who I keep as friends, if they cross me, I behave really badly. All of this is because of my background, what I’ve been through. I still rock myself to…

A serving Inishowen priest, the former principal of St Columb’s College in Derry, has confirmed he was aware of sex abuse allegations against a former vice-principal, as far back as 1993.

Raymond Gallagher was a teacher at St Columb’s College from 1953 to 1993. He died in 2007 at the age of 75.

In recent months, two former pupils have come forward to allege they were sexually abused by Gallagher while pupils at the school in the 1960s and 1970s.

Fr John Walsh, who is currently a curate in the Buncrana parish, was principal of St Columb’s from 1990 to 1999 and was in charge of the school when Gallagher left in 1993.

In today’s Sunday Independent, journalist Ciaran O’Neill is reporting, that comments made to the paper by Fr Walsh, appear to indicate those in charge of the school were aware of allegations around Gallagher, who…

Legislation is meant to nullify the Catholic Church’s court argument

The Louisiana Legislature approved Tuesday an update to a law it passed just last year that was supposed to make it easier for adult victims of childhood sex abuse to sue institutions such as the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts of America. 

The Louisiana House and Senate voted without objection to pass House Bill 402, by Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, which clarifies that victims of childhood abuse – no matter their current age – should have a chance to sue over their alleged mistreatment until 2024. 

The measure is slated to become law by the end of the month. Gov. John Bel Edwards could veto the measure, but has not indicated he intends to do so.

Lawmakers and advocates for sexual abuse victims initially said the legislation received pushback from insurance companies. Those who issued…

This summer churches in Waco and surrounding Central Texas suburbs and towns will offer Vacation Bible Schools, mission trips, church camps and other worthwhile and wholesome activities to our children. Those of us who grew up in such churches know their potential to set the trajectory of our lives. Who can forget Bible drills, campfire sing-a-longs, the pledge to the Christian flag, long bus rides to youth camp and backyard Bible clubs?

Parents sending their children and teens to church activities this summer expect that not only will their sons and daughters be provided religious instruction and spiritual formation but that they’ll be safe. This includes being safe from sexual predators.

Yet, on May 22, 2022, parishioners in the largest Protestant denomination in America were provided a scathing report by Guidepost Solutions that documents the systemic efforts by Southern Baptist executives to cover up sexual abuse of victims…

Dedicated officials are an inspiration to all by implementing the law and giving justice to victims in the Philippines

The wide extent of child sexual abuse is a shocking and embarrassing reality that no nation wants to admit to. This is why it is largely ignored and family reluctance to report child rape by a family member or neighbor allows more abuse and prevents children from getting justice.  

Laws are circumvented by duty bearers. Even police fail to pursue investigations and some are allegedly in cahoots with the suspects and create a technicality to have a case dismissed, defeating the purpose of the courts. Victims of rape and trafficking are left unprotected by social services and sent home without help or therapy in a protective home because there is almost none provided by government services. 

There are thousands of clinics and hospitals in the Philippines, yet almost no therapeutic homes to protect victims of…

Pope Francis on Friday spoke about the challenges facing families, including threats to human dignity such as pornography and surrogacy.

“We also talk about the scourge of pornography, which is now spread everywhere via the web,” the pope said at the Vatican on June 10.

“It should be denounced as a permanent attack on the dignity of men and women. It is not only a matter of protecting children — an urgent task of the authorities and all of us — but also of declaring pornography a threat to public health,” he told members of a family association network.

Quoting a 2017 speech he gave to a congress on child dignity online, the pope added that “it would be a serious illusion to think that a society in which abnormal consumption of sex on the web is rampant among adults is then capable of effectively protecting minors.”

Family networks, schools, and…

Pope Francis told priests and bishops from the Italian island of Sicily on Thursday to be strong moral guides, and to update their art and vestments in conformity with Church reforms.

“In Sicily, people still look to priests as spiritual and moral guides, people who can also help to improve the civil and social life of the island, to support the family, and to be a reference for growing young people. High and demanding is the Sicilian people’s expectation of priests,” the Pope said during a June 9 meeting at the Vatican.

In improvised comments during his speech, Pope Francis also addressed a topic that he said “worries” him: the progress of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly relating to the liturgy.

“I don’t know, because I don’t go to Mass in Sicily and I don’t know how the Sicilian priests preach, whether they preach as was suggested in…

Church leaders in Italy are currently conducting a national synod process, at the behest of Pope Francis, in tandem with the pope’s universal Synod of Bishops on Synodality.

Among other things, the Italian bishops’ national synod, set to conclude in 2025, is aimed at assessing the challenges the country faces in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and providing an up-to-date evaluation of the general state of the church in Italy.

Pope Francis had been pushing the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) to launch the national synod ever since a 2015 visit to Florence for a major CEI conference. He told ecclesial leaders that the church must rid itself of “stale and repetitive” structures, and be closer to the poor and disadvantaged.

Among the various challenges the Italian bishops will have to grapple with as their national synod process moves forward is a growing apathy toward the church, and religion generally,…

Authorities in Wisconsin have jailed a father-son pair of former United Pentecostal Church pastors on dozens of charges related to child sexual assault. The arrests came after an investigation that spanned five states, according to a sheriff’s department press release.

Travis Lee Huse, 42, and his father, Scott L. Huse, 64, remain in the Langlade County (Wisconsin) Jail as of Monday, jail records show. The Langlade County Sheriff’s Office accuses the men of sexually assaulting children while the father and son were involved with Apostolic Worship Center and the former Evergreen Christian Academy.

Authorities say the church and school were in Elton, an unincorporated village about 15 miles from the Langlade County seat. The Roys Report didn’t immediately hear back after leaving a message at the church’s number.

Travis Huse faces 31 counts of child sexual assault, child…

Transparency about abuse is also essential. Learning from past mistakes will help keep more children from becoming abuse victims.

Too many institutions that have children under their care do not do enough to ensure they are protected from sexual abuse, as we were reminded by the recent report by Robert Herguth of the Sun-Times’ Watchdogs team.

Last month, the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago settled a case of alleged sexual abuse for $750,000, without admitting wrongdoing. Such settlements, in one institution after another, are a warning the nation has further to go than some people might realize to fully protect children.

According to records that emerged from the lawsuit against the Episcopal Diocese, the office of Bishop Frank Griswold knew as early as 1987 that priest Richard Kearney might have molested children at Saint Bride’s Episcopal Church in Oregon, a half hour from Rockford, but did nothing. Griswold is…

America’s largest Protestant denomination covered up a sexual abuse problem for decades.

A new report summarizing an independent investigation into the history of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) details decades of gaslighting and cover-ups.

The SBC is a collection of loosely affiliated member churches, boasting just under 15 million members. It has no firm, established hierarchy; it doesn’t even have a central headquarters. In theory, individual churches can preach or believe whatever they want, but the larger “convention” can remove member churches that don’t toe certain lines. Representatives of these churches meet each year at an annual event — also called a convention. At the 2021 convention, member churches voted to conduct an internal investigation of sexual abuse within the church.

Complaints about sexual abuse and sexual assault on the part of pastors were sent to higher-ups who then kept those accusations quiet. Though the…

A nearly 300-page report detailing years of sexual abuse and its cover-up within the Southern Baptist Convention from ministers was released in May. 

The report, a result of a seven-month investigation by Guidepost Solutions, detailed a credible allegation of sexual assault against former SBC President Johnny Hunt one month after his term ended in 2010 and how high-ranking staff maintained a list with the names of ministers accused of sexual misconduct but did nothing about it. 

SBC published a list of accused abusive ministers on May 26. The listed included Jason Cooper, former pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Rayville and Victor Mitchell, former pastor of Old Mount Olive Baptist Church in Oak Ridge. Both were convicted in August 2009 of indecent behavior with a juvenile and oral sexual battery. 

Michael Wood, lead pastor of the First West Church, referred to the report as “heartbreaking” and “infuriating” in a prepared…

In 2019, Houston Chronicle journalist Robert Downen helped break the story about sexual abuse within the SBC. That led the church to commission its own independent study, which suggested a coverup.

TRANSCRIPT

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. A sexual abuse scandal has shaken up the Southern Baptist Church. A report issued just over a week ago confirmed that survivors who came forward alleging they were sexually abused by church leaders, ministers, workers and volunteers were ignored or silenced by church leadership and often disparaged. Meanwhile, the church kept a secret list of over 700 offenders. The list was even kept secret from most of the church’s leaders. This new report was commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention in response to a series of articles investigating widespread sexual abuse in the church.

The series titled “Abuse Of Faith” was published in 2019 after a six-month investigation by a…

Last month an explosive report was released detailing the massive amount of abuse and cover up of abuse that has taken place within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)  over the past two decades. This was the largest investigation undertaken in the denomination’s history and the troubling report details what many abuse survivors had been speaking out about for years. Now, armed with the new report, they are continuing to amplify the call for more transparency and accountability within the denomination. 

Among those who is continuing to raise her voice is Ashley Easter, an abuse survivor, author, and advocate who uses her platform to empower other survivors of abuse. RLC editor, Rebekah Barber, recently spoke to Easter about the explosive report and what work is needed to be done to ensure that pastor predators are held accountable and survivors are able to receive a sense of justice, whatever that may look…

The 20th anniversary of the U.S. bishops’ passage of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” is “not a time of celebration, but a time of continued vigilance and determination,” said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“In these 20 years, we have greatly benefited from listening to and working with survivors of abuse. We are grateful for their courage in sharing their stories and for helping the church strive to create a culture of protection and healing,” Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a June 9 statement.

The witness of survivors “has led directly to meaningful reform in the church and to a greater awareness of sexual abuse in the wider world. For past survivors and future children, it is imperative that we remain vigilant,” the archbishop said.

The charter was originally approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in June 2002…

A Roman Catholic priest in Germany was found dead a day after he was questioned and suspended as part of an investigation into abuse allegations, church officials said Friday.

The Diocese of Limburg said in a statement that the head of its seminary was found dead Thursday. It didn’t provide details on his cause of death but said the priest, whom it didn’t identify, had held roles of responsibility within the diocese for several years.

The diocese said that the priest’s death “hits us hard, causes consternation and bewilderment, and raises many questions.”

“He had been heard in a personal interview on Wednesday, June 8, regarding allegations of inappropriate behavior, as required by the relevant church regulations,” the diocese said. “Bishop Georg Baetzing subsequently released him from all offices in order to be able to examine and clarify the accusations.”

The diocese added that its sympathy was with the the…

Anne Barrett Doyle of the group BishopAccountability.org recently wrote a thoughtful article on how Pope Francis’ major law to hold bishops and religious superiors accountable for abuse they commit or cover-up, Vos Estis Lux Mundi (“You Are the Light of the World”), is not working.

That article caused me to reflect on the long-standing, unsuccessful efforts in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to hold its former archbishop, John Nienstedt, accountable for alleged personal sexual misconduct and a failed cover-up involving abuse by another priest under his supervision.

These efforts have both pre-dated and post-dated Vos Estis, which went into effect on June 1, 2019, so it is with much disappointment that nothing has been resolved to hold Nienstedt accountable. It represents a real-life example of why Vos Estis is not working and needs serious reform.

I first wrote about the need for the church to complete a full and fair investigation…

The fifth bishop of Phoenix will take the place of Bishop Thomas Olmsted after he reached the “age limit” for bishops, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix said.

The 52-year-old Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix will be getting a new bishop in San Diego Auxiliary Bishop John Dolan, a press release from Pope Francis said.

Dolan will be taking over for Bishop Thomas Olmsted, 75, after he reached the “age limit” for bishops. Olmsted’s replacement will oversee the Phoenix Diocese’s 94 parishes, 23 missions, 29 elementary schools, seven high schools, three universities, and one seminary.

“I am truly grateful to God for Bishop Thomas Olmsted and Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo Nevares who have warmly welcomed me to the Diocese of Phoenix,” Dolan said. “Please pray for all three of us as we journey together on mission in Christ!”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) had more…

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse gathered with supporters June 4 to mark an important anniversary and, even more importantly, to reenergize their solidarity.

It was 20 years ago that the Boston Globe exposed the cover-up of predatory priests by the Boston Archdiocese, journalism that earned a Pulitzer Prize and inspired the Oscar-winning film, “Spotlight.”

At one point during the program, an NCR front page from 1985 appeared on the screen at the front of the room. The headline above the Page 1 editorial read: “Priest child abuse cases victimizing families; bishops lack policy response.”

I admit to having something to do with the display of that page, not to diminish the extraordinary work of the Globe and its courageous sources but to underline the longevity of the scandal and to reflect NCR’s 37-year commitment to bringing it to light.

That June 7, 1985, issue included Jason…

Six novices were dismissed last June from the California novitiate of a small religious order, just weeks after they reported that their novice master touched several of them inappropriately without their consent, and engaged in manipulation and other conduct which caused them “serious harm.”

Their dismissal came after an internal investigation cleared the novice master of wrongdoing. But investigators did not interview any of the novices before rejecting their claims, the Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception confirmed to The Pillar. 

An attorney for the community told The Pillar that the men did not specifically request to be interviewed when they reported their allegations, and that such interviews were not necessary to resolve their misconduct claims. 

The former novices say the process was unjust, and that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, in which the novitiate was located, should have done more to assist them when they alleged misconduct. After questions from The Pillar, the…

According to one of the Catholic Church’s foremost experts on clerical sexual abuse prevention, by ignoring the voice of the victims “we are excluding the voice of Jesus who speaks to us through them.”

German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, President of the Institute of Anthropology-Interdisciplinary Studies on Protection and Human Dignity (IADC) of the Pontifical Gregorian University was speaking at a daylong “conversation” held on Thursday in Madrid, Spain, organized by the publishing house PPC.

During his presentation, Zollner, who is also a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, said that Christians need to “open our eyes, ears and mouth when we see something that could be abuse, we all have the responsibility to form ourselves, to inform ourselves and to push our communities to act.”

“People affected by abuse in the Church want, above all, to be recognized as victims, and that the bishops acknowledge…

A prominent figure in Singapore’s Catholic community was sentenced to jail last month for sex offences against two teenage boys.

During investigations, it emerged that the man’s sexual misconduct was first uncovered in 2009 by leaders of a religious order of which he was a member.

But it took years before it was reported to the police and for him to be charged and sentenced.

The man, now in his 60s, cannot be named due to a court order that prohibits the publication of any information that could lead to identification of the victims.

The gag order covers the offender’s designation, appointment, the school he was linked to, and the name of his Catholic order.

Here is a timeline of events related to the case:

2005 TO 2006: SEX OFFENCES AGAINST VICTIM V2

The man came to know the first victim, identified as V2 in court documents, between 2003 and…

Pope Francis on Friday named San Diego Auxiliary Bishop John P. Dolan to lead the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona.

Dolan, 60, succeeds Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, whose resignation was accepted on June 10, after turning 75, the usual age of retirement for bishops.

Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. and the diocese serves 1.2 million Catholics.

Dolan, a strong Spanish-speaker, has been an auxiliary bishop in San Diego, a diocese of almost 1.4 million Catholics, since 2017, serving under Cardinal-designate Robert McElroy.

Dolan grew up in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego as one of nine children. He was ordained a priest of the diocese in 1989. He was a parish priest for 27 years before he was appointed as auxiliary bishop.

He has served as vicar general and moderator of the curia. As vicar for clergy, he…

Abusers included people who worked for a diocese or parish but not schools

An independent audit of more than 80 years of files involving nine Quebec Catholic dioceses found at least 87 abusers among church personnel, according to a summary of findings released Wednesday.

Retired Superior Court justice André Denis reviewed archived files of 6,809 people employed between 1940 and 2021 and uncovered 87 employees who were the subjects of confirmed or well-founded sex abuse allegations involving minors or vulnerable adults.

Denis says his mandate was twofold: first, to root out people accused of abuse who were still working for the church, and second, to offer the church a historical portrait of how many employees faced credible allegations. He says fewer than five of the 87 people were still working for the church by the time he finished his review.

“They’re counted on the fingers on one hand, but those who…

[Via The Advertiser]

A former altar boy sexually abused by Victorian priest Desmond Gannon has been awarded nearly $2 million in damages in a civil case against Melbourne’s archbishop.

The sex abuse survivor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, brought the case against Peter Comensoli, claiming the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne was vicariously liable for his abuse.

The victim said he felt like he was dead after Gannon first assaulted him – that the priest had murdered him and the little boy he used to be was gone forever.

He later contemplated suicide and abused alcohol as a way to numb his pain.

Gannon assaulted the victim on three occasions between 1968 and 1970 while the child was an altar boy and a pupil at a Catholic primary school in regional Victoria.

The former priest was sentenced for those crimes in 2009.

On one occasion, Gannon drove the boy…

Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who was sentenced in March to four and a half years in prison for sexually abusing two seminarians in Argentina, has requested through his lawyer that the sentence be served under house arrest in a local monastery, due to the prelate’s health problems.

Zanchetta’s lawyer, Darío Palmier, is seeking the change so the bishop emeritus of Orán doesn’t have to remain in Prison Unit 3.

Zanchetta was first taken to St. Vincent de Paul Hospital for hypertension. After treating him he was returned to jail; but he later was sent to a private clinic, according to Salta Radio Ciudad Online.

“He’s hospitalized, we’re treating him. Recently he had to make an in- person visit to the doctor for hypertension symptoms, he has a serious case of kidney disease. It‘s a disease related to his venous system, it was diagnosed in Rome,” the lawyer told Salta 12, as…

Eric Dejaeger was released from prison in May to serve the rest of his sentence in the community

The statutory release of a defrocked priest who sexually abused children in Igloolik, Nunavut, received a sharp response from the federal minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations.

On Thursday, Minister Marc Miller told reporters he believes people like Eric Dejaeger “should rot in jail.”

Dejaeger, now 75, was convicted in 2015 of 32 counts of sexually abusing people in Igloolik, many of them children.

He was granted release in mid-May to serve the rest of his sentence in the community under several conditions. Statutory release is offered to most prisoners after they have completed two-thirds of their time, but the Parole Board of Canada can deny release if it believes the offender is likely to commit crimes including sexual abuse of children.

“In a democracy such as ours, it’s actually a good thing that people like me don’t…

A former priest and top aide to Santiago’s archbishop was found guilty on Wednesday of repeated sexual abuse and rape, the result of 2018 scandal that ensnared multiple high-ranking members of the Chilean Catholic Church.

The prosecutor’s office said on Twitter that it had secured the conviction of former priest Oscar Munoz, “for crimes of repeated rape, sexual abuse and repeated sexual abuse of those who were minor victims.”

Munoz’s case was one of the most high-profile in a wave of sex abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church after Pope Francis visited Chile in 2018. The scandal led to the departure of the archbishop of Santiago and other priests accused of carrying out or covering up abuses against minors.

Chilean authorities also launched a wide-ranging investigation and raided multiple bishoprics. Munoz was one of the first priests to be imprisoned from the scandal.

Munoz turned himself into ecclesiastical authorities…

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne has been ordered to pay $1.9 million in damages to a former altar boy who was sexually abused by Victorian priest Desmond Gannon.

The victim brought the case against Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli, claiming the city’s Catholic Archdiocese was negligent and vicariously liable for the abuse, which occurred between 1968 and 1970.

Gannon assaulted the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on three occasions when he was a student at a Catholic primary school in regional Victoria.

The Supreme Court of Victoria heard that on one occasion in 1968, Gannon drove the victim along a country road to a clearing before sexually abusing and raping him. The victim said he was terrified at the time that Gannon would kill him.

A further case of abuse occurred when the victim was in church preparing to serve as an altar boy. The court heard that…

More than 20 years since the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigative team exposed the scope of Catholic clergy sexual abuse and institutional cover-up in the Archdiocese of Boston, attorney Mitchell Garabedian said abuse survivors are still teaching the church “how to be moral.”

“None of this could be done without your strength,” Garabedian said during a June 4 conference in Quincy, sponsored by several nonprofits that advocate for abuse survivors and accountability in the church.

Titled “Pivot to the Future: Marking 20 Years of Confronting Clergy Sex Abuse,” the conference attracted dozens of survivors, their loved ones, advocates and others who gathered in person and via Zoom to listen to keynote talks, presentations and panel discussions that reflected on two decades of scandals and what the future may hold for the crisis and potential reforms.

David Clohessy, the former longtime director of the Survivors Network of those Abused…

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops established the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (and the accompanying Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons) in June 2002. This is one of a series of articles by the Catholic Review to mark the 20th anniversary of the Charter and its impact on safe environments within the church.

Reports from the archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection and the Independent Review Board indicate that the archdiocese continues its efforts to educate about safe environments for young people and to screen clergy, employees and volunteers to determine suitability for ministry.

This is the fifth year for which such reports have been issued. The reports cover the reporting year from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

Archbishop William E. Lori initiated the reports in 2019, with summaries from fiscal years…

A former janitor at a Catholic church in Maywood who is suing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, alleging she was forced to quit in 2019 after an associate pastor groped her in the rectory and tried to coerce her into his bed, describes the incident in detail in new court papers.

The Long Beach woman worked as a custodian at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, the grounds of which include a school and a rectory that housed the living areas and offices of Pastor Dario Miranda and Associate Pastor Primitivo Gonzalez, the suit filed in December of 2020 states.

On the morning of July 30, 2019, the plaintiff says she was directed to clean the parish rectory, including Gonzalez’s private living space. She was normally assigned to maintain only the school and church, but the employee who normally maintained the rectory was absent that day, the suit says.

The…

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention knew about clergy sex abuse cases — lots of them — and they consciously chose to take no action. For years.

This chilling reality now has been documented by the independent investigatory report of Guidepost Solutions, released two weeks ago.

In nauseating detail, the report revealed longstanding patterns of secrecy and grotesquery in the SBC Executive Committee’s handling of sexual abuse. It also exposed lies, cruelty, “mafia-esque intimidation” tactics, and ethical abdications that went beyond the bounds of human decency.

As many of Baptist News Global readers will know, I’ve been shouting for years about these horrific patterns. But lest any imagine that I take joy in this vindication, let me be clear: I do not.

The vindication goes hand in hand with grief because I am aware of the unfathomable human cost of what it has taken to bring this truth to light. Countless lives have been decimated.

…

Editor’s Note: This week we revisit a post from August 2021 about two women who worked for the Church and bravely decided to expose information about sexual abusers in their dioceses.

As the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church has unfolded, some people employed by the Church have made the choice to publicize previously secret information about sexual abuse and cover-up in their local dioceses.

When Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced in April 2021 the start of a statewide investigation of sexual abuse by religious leaders in the Catholic Church and other faith traditions, he not only invited victim-survivors to make anonymous reports through a dedicated website and phone line, but he also took the unusual step of encouraging people with inside information about their church’s response to abuse to make anonymous reports as well.

“Any little bit of information is helpful and helps us understand and…

Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who is serving a sentence of four years and six months in prison for sexually abusing two seminarians, left prison to be hospitalized in a private clinic, reportedly due to high blood pressure.

In mid-April, the former bishop of Oran, in the northern Argentine province Salta, had requested house arrest due to alleged health problems. The court has yet to rule on this request.

However, on Friday, he was hospitalized in a private clinic, at the order of his personal doctor.

Zanchetta’s new lawyer, Dario Palmier, said that the prelate has hypertension and has a “very delicate kidney disease. It is a disease related to his venous system. He got the diagnosis in Rome.”

“The truth is that he could collapse at any moment,” he told local newspaper Salta/12.

The lawyer also said that more than a month ago, Zanchetta’s defense team requested that the bishop emeritus…

A Catholic diocese in Germany said Tuesday that a former priest has been convicted in a church trial of sexually abusing a minor over several years almost three decades ago.

The man, who wasn’t identified, was ordered to pay 10% of his income to a charitable organization that helps victims of abuse, the diocese of Limburg said.

While financial payouts have been included in confidential settlements between the church and victims of abuse, the announcement of a financial penalty against a priest as a result of a canonical investigation is unusual.

The male victim had filed a complaint about the abuse in 2018 following the publication of a study into sexual abuse within the church.

German prosecutors declined to open an investigation because the alleged crimes had passed the 20-year statute of limitations, but church authorities launched a probe.

The crimes were committed between 1986 and 1993 in the Limburg…

A defrocked Oblate priest who was convicted of dozens of horrendous sexual crimes against Inuit children has been granted parole.

Eric Dejaeger, 75, was sentenced to 19 years for crimes committed between 1978 and 1982 in the Nunavut community of Igloolik, where he was a missionary. The offences included indecent assault, unlawful confinement, buggery, unlawful sexual intercourse and bestiality.

He pleaded guilty to eight counts and was convicted of another 24 on children mostly between the ages of eight and 12. The details were so appalling the judge’s sentencing came with a content warning.

“You were in a position of great trust in relation to the victims, which you used to groom and silence them,” said the decision from the Parole Board of Canada.

“You also used physical violence and caused serious physical injuries to some of the victims. The victims suffered devastating and ongoing emotional and psychological harm.”

His…

The former pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue in East Memphis faces allegations he molested several boys in the nineties.

“Well, in 2019, some guys came forward making some allegations against a former pastor. And it was really concerning to us. And so we communicated with the church about these allegations, and we worked with those guys, extended counseling to them,” said Pastor Matt Miller, the current pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church.

A Shelby County judge initially ruled that the statute of limitations applied and struck down the lawsuit. A higher court has now ruled the statute of limitations does not apply since, according to court documents, the church worked to hide the crimes.

“I wasn’t here when those allegations were made before,” said Miller. “I only know what happened three years ago when we started to care for those guys, and we really sought to be transparent in…

Appellate court found the church synod covered up records and did nothing to stop the abuse

A Tennessee appellate court is allowing three men allegedly raped as children by a Presbyterian pastor in Memphis more than two decades ago to sue the church and its governing body for allegedly covering up the crimes with a “whitewash” investigation kept hidden for years.

In an opinion made public Friday, the Tennessee Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit the men filed against Woodland Presbyterian Church and its two ruling authorities, the Presbyterian of the Mid-South Inc. and the Synod of Living Waters Presbyterian Church, in 2020.

The men, now in their 30s, were among several boys alleged to have been raped by then-Woodland pastor James B. “Jim” Stanford during “sleepovers” at his church-owned home in the 1990s, according to court records. They sought help from the…

One week before Southern Baptists gather to respond to a damning independent investigation of sexual abuse problems, the lead story on the denomination’s news site is about “controversy” created by Guidepost Solutions tweeting support for Pride month.

Guidepost is the firm hired to conduct the investigation into the SBC Executive Committee mandated by messengers to last year’s SBC annual meeting. It is not a faith-based organization but is a for-profit corporation with specific expertise in large-scale corporate reviews.

Nevertheless, some anti-gay Southern Baptists expressed alarm over a single tweet from the Guidepost corporate account at the beginning of June, which is known nationally as Gay Pride Month.

On June 6 Guidepost tweeted its commitment “to strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion” as an organization that welcomes employees to “bring their authentic selves to work.” It called the company “an ally to our LGBTQ+ community.” The tweet was accompanied by the image of a…

Bruxy Cavey, who was forced to resign from one of Canada’s largest churches earlier this year, has been arrested and charged with sexual assault. A court appearance is scheduled for June 27. Police say more people may have been victimized and encourage them to come forward.

Cavey, 57, had been a pastor at The Meeting House Church in Toronto for 25 years. In late 2021, after learning of sexual misconduct allegations against him, the church placed him on leave and conducted an independent investigation.

The Meeting House, which has hired a victim advocate, is holding a community gathering tonight. The event is for worship and prayer, a “brief Q&A,” and talk of “charting our next steps together.”

Bruxy Cavey Had Apologized for an ‘Extramarital Affair’

In March 2022, Meeting House leaders shared the results of a third-party investigation. It revealed an “extended” sexual relationship between Pastor Bruxy…

Police in Hamilton, Ontario, confirmed the alleged victim was an adult female but did not say whether it was the same woman who came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Cavey late last year.

Police in the Canadian city of Hamilton have charged the disgraced former pastor of one of the country’s largest churches with sexual assault.

Bruxy Cavey, who grew The Meeting House into a megachurch with 20 campuses across the province of Ontario, was charged with one count of sexual assault on May 31. Cavey, 57, was asked to resign from the church in March after an independent investigator found he had a years-long sexual relationship with a member of his church who had sought counseling.

Police in Hamilton confirmed the alleged victim was an adult female but did not say whether it was the same woman who came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Cavey late last…

One year after the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office announced a new initiative to investigate clergy abuse, a group of survivors says Attorney General Josh Kaul has failed them. But the AG’s office says they are making progress on prosecuting church leaders.

Hope is what Peter Isely, an abuse survivor and Director of Nate’s Mission, felt one year ago as he stood alongside AG Kaul as he announced the new initiative to investigate clergy abuse crimes.

“I know how difficult its going to be for many of you to come forward again. I want you to know this time its different,” said Isely back in April 2021 as he encouraged survivors to come forward and report abuse to the AG’s office.

Fast forward to Tuesday, that hope has turned into frustration.

“He made promises about this and presented what he was going to do for people…

Survivors of sexual abuse by clergy and faith leaders called on Attorney General Josh Kaul and the Department of Justice to do more in their investigation into abuse cases.

The DOJ launched the Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative in April 2021, and have since received more than 200 reports of abuse from victims.

Officials most recently charged a pastor with sexual assault of a child in Douglas County.

This Tuesday, a group met outside the State Capitol to express their wavering trust in the investigation.

“There needs to be an investigation that follows the evidence wherever it leads,” said James Egan, the chairman of the Archangel Foundation. “The Attorney General needs to coordinate with the local district attorneys to subpoena documents from the Catholic Church and to obtain the evidence that the Catholic Church still is holding onto.”

Advocates also want more investigations into sexual abuse…

Wisconsin survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church gathered at the State Capitol Tuesday to give their “report card” on Attorney General Josh Kaul’s statewide clergy abuse investigation.

One year ago to the day, Wisconsin Catholic Bishops refused to cooperate with the investigation. On Tuesday, survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates — including residential school survivors and members of the Menominee tribe — spoke up to say they are still waiting for investigations to start.

“On my reservation in Kashina, Wisconsin, we do have graves there,” Lorraine Shooter said. “We do have graves and we do have horrific stories and we do have stories of the priests and the nuns killing our children.”

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse say the investigations are moving too slowly.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has received more than 200 reports of clergy abuse by more than 150 individuals to date.

A former Roman Catholic priest who served at several Rhode Island parishes has been indicted on a charge of sexually assaulting a juvenile about 40 years ago, the state attorney general’s office said Monday.

Kevin Fisette, 66, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on a charge of first-degree sexual assault, authorities said.

The alleged assault on a boy occurred in Burrillville, Rhode Island between Jan. 1, 1981, and Dec. 31, 1982 when Fisette was serving as a deacon at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Hopkinton and as a chaplain at Rhode Island Hospital, officials said.

Fisette, who currently lives in Killingly, Connecticut, was ordained in November 1981.

A message was left with Fisette’s attorney.

He is already on the Diocese of Providence’s list of clergy credibly accused of abuse and was removed from ministry in 2009, which means he cannot act as a priest or present himself as one.

…

Fourth indictment stemming from comprehensive review of clergy child sexual abuse allegations

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha and Colonel Darnell S. Weaver announced that the Statewide Grand Jury has returned an indictment charging a former priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence with sexually assaulting a juvenile male victim between 1981 and 1982, stemming from an ongoing investigation by the Office of the Attorney General and the Rhode Island State Police into clergy child sexual abuse in Rhode Island.

On May 25, 2022, the Statewide Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Kevin Fisette (age 66) of Dayville, Connecticut with one count of first-degree sexual assault.

The defendant is scheduled to be arraigned on June 8, 2022, in Providence County Superior Court.

As alleged in the indictment, the charge against the defendant stems from an assault that took place in the town of Burrillville between January 1, 1981, and…

[Includes video.]

A review of hundreds of thousands of pages of records in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence files has resulted in a criminal case against a priest, marking the fourth time in the past two years a member of the clergy has been charged as a result of the ongoing investigation.

A grand jury indicted 66-year-old Kevin Fisette of Dayville, Connecticut, with one count of first-degree sexual assault. He faces arraignment Wednesday.

The case goes back to Burrillville in 1981 and 1982, when Fisette is accused of sexually assaulting a boy. At the time, Fisette was working as chaplain at Rhode Island Hospital. He was also deacon at Our Lady of Victory in Hopkinton.

“We’re going to continue to bring those cases where we believe we can prove them,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said of the ongoing review, which his office is pursuing in partnership…

The Diocese of Springfield released its findings after allegations of inappropriate behavior with minors by a co-founder of New Spirit Inc.

According to Springfield Diocese spokesperson Mark Dupont, in July of 2021 the Diocese of Springfield first learned about a 2018 complaint against Barry Kingston alleging he engaged in inappropriate behavior with minors at New Spirit Inc.’s summer camp weeks at Camp Holy Cross in 2007.

Dupont told 22News during the intake with the diocesan Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance, it was further alleged that this individual had brought their concerns to New Spirit, Inc. leadership in 2018, but no action was undertaken nor was this reported to the proper authorities.

After learning of the complaint, all New Spirit Inc. activities were suspended. The diocese informed the Northwestern District Attorney’s office and the Office of Safe Environment and Victim Services will have a separate investigation into these allegations. 

The Review Board…

[Includes video.]

East Tennesseans gathered to stand with survivors of reported clergy abuse outside of St. Mary’s Church in Gatlinburg and at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart on Sunday.

A priest at St. Mary’s, Father Antony Punnackal, was accused of and admitted to sexual battery by one of the Spanish-speaking congregators, according to court documents obtained by WVLT News.

One of the victims, Michael Boyd, said he was abused while serving as an altar boy and hoped that sharing his story would help others know what went on behind closed doors and encourage other victims to come forward.

“The things that happened here in Knoxville, unfortunately, are similar to things I think happened across the country and areas that have happened to young people,” Boyd said. “I’ve seen a lot of patterns. It was really organized, and it was really disturbing.”

The second demonstration location, the Cathedral…

Other churchmen named as members of the congregation include the Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, and the Bronx-born Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope Francis on Wednesday named Cardinal Blase Cupich as a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The archbishop of Chicago’s appointment was announced by the Holy See press office on June 1.

In 2021, Cardinal Cupich welcomed the publication of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes, restricting celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass.

Other churchmen named as members of the congregation include the Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, and the Bronx-born Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Archbishop Di Noia also welcomed the…

Examination of People of Praise comes as supreme court seems poised to reverse Roe v Wade

The founder of the People of Praise, a secretive charismatic Christian group that counts supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett as a member, was described in a sworn affidavit filed in the 1990s as exerting almost total control over one of the group’s female members, including making all decisions about her finances and dating relationships.

The court documents also described alleged instances of a sexualized atmosphere in the home of the founder, Kevin Ranaghan, and his wife, Dorothy Ranaghan.

The description of the Ranaghans and accusations involving their intimate behavior were contained in a 1993 proceeding in which a woman, Cynthia Carnick, said that she did not want her five minor children to have visitations with their father, John Roger Carnick, who was then a member of the People of Praise, in the Ranaghan household…

A former Mount Isa victim of sexual abuse has started a new awareness campaign called “Loud Fences” in the Catholic Diocese of Townsville.

Kathleen Walsh said she started the first loud ribbon fence started at the Cathedral Catholic Church in Townsville with similar plans for Mount Isa.

“Mount Isa was ravaged by child sex abuse especially by peadophile priest Neville Creen with 22 criminal convictions,” Ms Walsh said.

“Yesterday (Sunday) the first 22 ribbons were tied to the fence for the 22 criminal conviction victims and this weekend coming people plan to grow the Loud fence at the cathedral and every Catholic church in Townsville and Mount Isa.”

Kathleen Walsh, now 57, was the 22nd criminal conviction for Creen.

Neville Joseph Creen, then aged 80 plead guilty to all child sex abuse charges in regards Kathleen, from when she was 11-16 years old at St Joseph’s Primary.

H View Cache

[Includes 13-minute video]

Last year, when archeologists detected what they believed to be 200 unmarked graves at an old school in Canada, it brought new attention to one of the most shameful chapters of that nation’s history. Starting in the 1880’s and for much of the 20th century, more than 150,000 children from hundreds of indigenous communities across Canada were forcibly taken from their parents by the government and sent to what were called Residential Schools. Funded by the state and run by churches, they were designed to assimilate and Christianize indigenous children by ripping them from their parents, their culture, and their community. The children were often referred to as savages and forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their traditions. As we first reported earlier this year, many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands of children never made it home.

The last of Canada’s 139 residential schools for…

The gag order in the case involving a member of a Catholic order who sexually abused two boys was not intended to protect the offender or the particular Catholic Order.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers said in a statement on Monday (June 6) that it applied for the gag order to protect the identity of the victims.

“It was not in any way sought to protect the interests of the accused person, or of the Catholic Order involved.

“The gag order covered the identity of the accused because, based on the facts and circumstances of the case, the identification of the accused was likely to lead to the identification of the victims,” said the AGC.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore on Sunday night (June 5) said that it had requested the AGC partially lift the gag order, so the identity of the offender, the religious order and details of…

Pope Francis added fuel to rumors about the future of his pontificate by announcing he would visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013.

Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced speculation that the 85-year-old Francis might be planning to follow in Benedict’s footsteps, given his increased mobility problems that have forced him to use a wheelchair for the last month.

Those rumors gained steam last week when Francis announced a consistory to create 21 new cardinals scheduled for Aug. 27. Sixteen of those cardinals are under age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect Francis’ successor.

Once they are added to the ranks of princes of the church, Francis will have stacked the College of Cardinals with 83 of the…

When the Vatican announced Pope Francis would travel to L’Aquila in central Italy Aug. 28 to open a seven-centuries-old celebration of forgiveness, people on social media began speculating that the pope would resign.

The 85-year-old pope will make his morning trip to L’Aquila just one day after a scheduled consistory to create 21 new cardinals and the day before a two-day meeting with the cardinals to discuss the reform of the Roman Curia, one of the main projects of his papacy.

Included in the trip, the Vatican said June 4, is a Mass in the square outside the medieval Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio on the edge of town. The basilica is the burial place of St. Celestine V, a 13th-century pope who abdicated just a few months after his election.

When then-Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2009, he placed the long woolen pallium he had worn during his…

The Catholic Church had requested a partial lifting of the gag order so as to identify the man convicted of committing unlawful sexual acts with two teenage boys.

The man, who The Straits Times understands is not a priest, is in his 60s.

In a statement late on Sunday (June 5), the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore said it had requested the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) partially lift the gag order, so the identity of the offender, the religious order and details of the offender’s subsequent treatment and postings can be made known.

“The AGC informed that they had carefully considered our request but were unable to accede to it,” said the Catholic Church.

The man, who was arrested in January this year, had pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily having carnal intercourse against the order of nature and one charge under the Children and Young Persons Act.

He committed the…

Catholic Archdiocese emphasises importance of adhering to protocols to protect young

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore has asked the Religious Order (which though Catholic, is separately governed), for more information on the case involving the abuse of minors around 2005-2007 by a member of that Order. The offender was recently convicted and sentenced in court.

Concurrently, for greater accountability and transparency in the matter, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore requested the Attorney General’s Chambers (“AGC”) to partially lift the Gag Order on the case, in relation to the identity of the offender, the name of the order, and details of the offender’s subsequent treatment and postings. The AGC informed that they had carefully considered our request but were unable to accede to it.

In the interests of providing as much information as possible, within the boundaries of the Gag Order, we enclose a statement from the Religious Order.

…

JUDGEMENT DAY

One of the most controversial cardinals in the history of the Catholic church’s clerical sex abuse saga has died. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who served as secretary of state under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, died after battling COVID-related pneumonia, according to the Holy See Press office. He was 94. Sodano famously angered abuse survivors when he called widespread claims of sex abuse by priests “petty gossip.” In 2005, he asked then U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to intervene in an investigation of a priest accused of pedophilia in Kentucky (which she declined). He also blocked the investigation into Father Marcial Maciel, the pedophile, womanizing, drug addict founder of the disgraced Legion of Christ order who died in 2008, and whose crimes were exposed by Daily Beast contributor Jason Berry. After John Paul II died, his successor Pope Benedict removed Sodano after he tried to…

Catholic bishops in Italy say their investigation of clergy sex abuse will be independent, but its scope will be limited and based solely on the Church’s archives

“We have nothing to fear from telling the truth.”

That was Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s message to the Catholic bishops of Italy as he encouraged them to shed light on the past regarding clergy sex abuse.

The Boston cardinal, who is also the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, addressed the bishops on May 23 at the opening session of their plenary assembly.

The message seems to have been heard, but also received with great caution.

In its final statement on the last day of the assembly, the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) announced two measures of transparency on the issue of abuse.

The first is the publication of a “national report on prevention activities and on the abuse cases reported…

Just days before his long-awaited trial was set to start, La Luz del Mundo leader Naason Joaquin Garcia pleaded guilty Friday to sexually abusing girls from his congregation, a stunning reversal for a man who followers believe is an “apostle” appointed by God.

Originally facing 36 charges, Garcia at the last minute took a plea deal that called for him to admit to three counts, the state attorney general’s office announced Friday: two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15 years old.

“Today’s conviction sends a clear message that sexual exploitation is never acceptable in California. We will hold you accountable if you break the law,” Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said in a news release issued late Friday afternoon.

Garcia, he said, abused his authority to “take advantage of children,” while relying on his underlings “to groom…

Until now I haven’t said anything about the report on sexual abuse and its coverup in the Southern Baptist Convention. (If you don’t follow religion news, or if all your attention has been on the mass shootings, here’s a summary from the Associated Press.)

I haven’t said anything because I didn’t have anything to say that would be of interest to readers of this blog that wasn’t just a repetition of what others have already said. And while I’m not opposed to schadenfreude, I’m a little reluctant to go there in this case. Not because I have any love for the SBC (I don’t) but because the Pagan, polytheist, and witchcraft communities’ hands aren’t clean either. This isn’t a Baptist problem or a Catholic problem, it’s a human problem exacerbated by religion.

An old proverb says “a wise person learns…

Bobi Gephart hadn’t planned to go to church that Sunday — not to the worship service where the pastor intended to make a confession about the oppressive secret she had carried for so long.

But she quickly changed her mind, realizing she couldn’t trust the pastor – the man she says began sexually preying on her as a teenager – to share the whole truth.

Gephart hurried to New Life Christian Church & World Outreach in Warsaw, Indiana, arriving mid-service, and made sure her story was told.

Nearly a million viewers have witnessed what happened next in that May 22 confrontation, captured on video and posted on Facebook.

John B. Lowe II, the congregation’s longtime pastor, confessed on stage to “adultery” 20 years earlier. “I sinned,” he said, acknowledging he never previously admitted it publicly “to protect myself.”

Bobi and her husband, Nate Gephart, who had been watching from the…

Two years before long-standing rumors about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick leapt into headlines worldwide, America’s most outspoken activist on clergy sexual abuse, Richard Sipe, met with his local bishop — San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy.

“It was clear to me during our last meeting in your office, although cordial, that you had no interest in any further personal contact,” wrote the now-late Sipe, a former Benedictine priest who then worked for the Seton Psychiatric Institute in Baltimore. While church officials asked him to report to McElroy, “your office made it clear that you have no time in your schedule either now or ‘in the foreseeable future’ to have the meeting that they suggested.”

Sipe’s 2016 letter to the San Diego bishop was later posted online and is frequently cited as an example of the bishop ignoring warnings about the now-defrocked McCarrick, who often boasted about his clout as a Vatican kingmaker….

As the financially struggling Boy Scouts sell off a number of campgrounds, conservationists, government officials and others are scrambling to find ways to preserve them as open space.

A $2.6 billion proposed bankruptcy settlement designed to pay thousands of victims of child sexual abuse has added pressure to an organization beset by years of declining enrollment, and the Scouts and their local councils have been cashing in on their extensive holdings, including properties where some of the abuse took place. Developers have bought up some. Preservation groups hope others can be protected and some legislators have taken notice.

“I am emphasizing to my colleagues that there is a clear urgency here,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who thinks there may be federal funds available to buy Scout properties. “We have no time to waste.”

For over a century the Scouts and their local councils have acquired…

Naasón Joaquín García, the leader of Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo, who had been facing child rape and other charges, admitted just days before trial that he sexually abused three girls, California state prosecutors said.

García, 53, pleaded guilty Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15. He had faced jury selection Monday in his trial on charges that included child rape and human trafficking to produce child pornography.

Garcia, leader of a church founded by his grandfather that has 5 million worldwide followers, was considered the “apostle” of Jesus Christ who could lead worshippers to salvation. Prosecutors said he wielded his spiritual influence to have sex with several female followers.

“García used his power to take advantage of children,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “He…

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has paid $78.465 million of a total of more than $81 million awarded to 438 victims of sexual abuse by archdiocesan clergy under the Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program (IRRP) that released its final report Thursday, June 2.

(Read the full report here.)

The program was begun by the archdiocese three and a half years ago as a way of offering monetary compensation to victims of past abuse but which would be run independent of archdiocesan influence.

It was governed by the Independent Oversight Committee (IOC), a three-member panel consisting of retired federal judge Lawrence F. Stengel, former Philadelphia prosecutor Kelley B. Hodge and lawyer Charles Scheeler. The three signed the final report.

The IRRP was administered by Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille S. Biros, a team that has run similar programs in multiple U.S. dioceses. They include the archdioceses of New…

The average payment to victims is also much less than in recent diocesan bankruptcy settlements.

Under a reparations program for victims of sexual abuse launched in 2018, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia has paid $78.5 million on 438 claims — far less than the $126 million estimated two years ago, according to a final report released Thursday.

The average payment for Philadelphia victims — $179,224 — is also much less than the average in recent bankruptcy settlements in states where the statute of limitations — the length of time to bring suits — was lifted.

The much smaller Diocese of Camden in April agreed to pay $87.5 million to about 300 individuals, an average of $291,667. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe last month agreed to pay $121.5 million, or an average of $324,000, to 375 individuals.

The…

North Carolina lawyer Joe Knott said the SBC should focus on fighting sin rather than addressing issues like abuse.

In fiery comments to an online meeting Thursday (June 2), a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee warned that taking steps to prevent abuse in churches would lead to ruin.

“I am terrified that we are breaching our long-standing position of being a voluntary association of independent churches, when we start telling churches that they should do this or do that to protect children or women,” Joe Knott, a North Carolina attorney and longtime committee member, warned.

When those efforts fail, Knott continued, that will lead to lawsuits.

“I guarantee you women and children are going to be victimized no matter how much — and that is going to make us potentially targets of great class-action lawsuits, which could be the end of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Knott added.

…

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Task Force has issued a series of responses to the recent Guidepost Solutions investigation that range from suggestions to two action items to be considered by messengers to the SBC annual meeting this summer.

The task force response falls far short of the hopes of abuse survivors and their advocates, who believed this could be a moment for immediate and significant reform.

“I don’t give much credence to suggestions and requests because they are toothless,” abuse survivor and advocate Christa Brown told Religion News Service. “They are kicking the can down the road.”

The two specific recommendations are to create an Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force that will operate for three years and to create a “Ministry Check” website and process “for maintaining a record of pastors, denominational workers, ministry employees and volunteers who have at any time been credibly accused of sexual abuse.”

The new…

The Framework for Motions for the second assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia has been released to members, signaling the beginning of the end of the plenary journey with a call to “undertake the necessary work to rebuild confidence in the probity and trustworthiness of the Catholic community in this country.”

The document, released June 1, includes 30 motions that will be considered during the assembly, which is set for July 3-9 in Sydney. The framework emerged from four years of national conversation on the Church in Australia.

The Plenary Council is somewhat like a national synod, but can issue decrees that, once approved by the Vatican, are binding on the Church in that country.

In a statement released by the Australian bishops’ conference, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, Plenary Council president, said the framework “will form the backbone of our reflection, discussion and decision when we gather.”

…

A Southern Baptist task force has asked the denomination to set up a “Ministry Check” website to track abusive pastors, church employees and volunteers, and to spend millions on reforms to prevent abuse. Most of the suggested reforms are voluntary and some could involve years of study and preparation, prompting a skeptical response from some abuse survivors and advocates.

Other suggested reforms, released on Wednesday, include hiring a national staff person who would receive reports of abuse and forward them to church leaders for a response; increasing training for churches; doing background checks on the trustees who oversee Southern Baptist entities; and encouraging state conventions to consider hiring staff to respond to abuse allegations.

The requests are part of a series of recommendations from the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse task force, which oversaw a recent investigation into how leaders in the 13.7 million-member…