ABUSE TRACKER

• Lawyer ads focused on Catholic Church abuse claims jumped in July and August
• Mass tort TV advertising overall down from 2020, X Ante says

(Reuters) – Television advertising by law firms seeking clients to pursue lawsuits against the Catholic Church surged ahead of an August deadline to bring decades-old child abuse claims under a landmark New York law, according to a new report.

More than 5,700 ads soliciting child abuse claims against Catholic Church dioceses aired in July and August, almost 900 more TV spots than the prior two months, mass tort advertising tracking firm X Ante said in a report released Thursday.

The report examined mass tort advertising nationwide by lawyers and referral services in July and August compared to May and June.

Spending on the church-related advertising jumped 55% to nearly $2 million during that period, making church child abuse claims the fourth most common topic for ads…

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A lawsuit filed this week alleges the Catholic Diocese of Nashville and St. Rose of Lima Church failed to protect a child from a staff member’s sexual abuse.

The suit claims that concerns about sexual misconduct were raised to the bishop of the diocese, the pastor of St. Rose and other officials for years, but no meaningful action was taken.

The alleged perpetrator, Michael D. Lewis, was indicted in June 2020 on felony sex crime charges. He will be facing trial for those charges in February. Lewis had been the church’s director of religions education.

“The allegations in this lawsuit raise disturbing questions about the Diocese of Nashville’s commitment to protect children from being terrorized by its employees,” Patrick A. Thronson, who is representing the plaintiff, said in a press release. “As the complaint alleges, the Diocese received numerous eyewitness reports of Lewis’s flagrantly inappropriate conduct, yet knowingly failed to act….

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A priest convicted of grooming a teenage girl to send him nude photos was the subject of a previous complaint that was covered up by the Tongan Catholic Church.

The victim’s aunt and an abuse survivors’ group said it showed the church should have prevented Sosefo Sateki Raass’ offending.

The Tongan church gave Raass a good character reference before he moved to Auckland, where he was convicted in 2019 of indecent communication with a person under 16 and subsequently quit the priesthood.

But a complaint had been lodged about Raass in 2006, and the head of the Tongan church, Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi, admitted there were repeated rumours about Raass’ behaviour.

The late Bishop of Tonga, John Foliaki, signed a statement of good character before Raass’ formal transfer to Auckland. But Mafi, who replaced Foliaki after Raass had left the kingdom, said he subsequently had several conversations with Auckland…

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The French Catholic Church has had an estimated 3,000 paedophiles in its ranks over the past 70 years, the head of an independent commission investigating the sex abuse scandal said in an interview published on Sunday.

The scandal in the French Church is the latest to hit the Roman Catholic Church, which has been rocked by sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.

The French commission is due to publish its findings on Tuesday, marking the culmination of 2-1/2 years of work, probing allegations of abuse going back to the 1950s.

“We have estimated the number (of paedophiles) as standing at 3,000, out of 115,000 priests and religious officials, going back to the 1950s,” commission head Jean-Marc Sauve told the Journal du Dimanche paper.

A spokesperson representing the French Catholic Bishops’ Conference declined to comment on Sauve’s remarks.

A Vatican spokesperson said it…

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Via RTE

Some 3,000 paedophiles have operated inside the French Catholic Church since 1950, the head of an independent commission investigating the scandal has said ahead of the release of its report.

The commission’s research uncovered between 2,900 and 3,200 paedophile priests or other members of the church, said Jean-Marc Sauve, adding that it was “a minimum estimate”.

The commission’s report is due to be released on Tuesday after two and a half years of research based on church, court and police archives, as well as interviews with witnesses.

Mr Sauve, a senior French civil servant, said the report, which runs to 2,500 pages, had attempted to quantify both the number of offenders and the number of victims.

It also looked into “the mechanisms, notably institutional and cultural ones” within the Church which allowed paedophiles to remain, and will offer 45 proposals.

The independent commission was set up in 2018…

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A Louisville priest convicted of abusing children has been released from prison.

Father Joseph Hemmerle was sentenced to nine years in prison for sexual abuse that happened in the 1970s.

The Louisville priest was denied parole several times but Friday, became eligible to be released into mandatory re-entry supervision.

He will be monitored by a parole officer but he isn’t required to register as a sex offender. Hemmerle remains a priest.

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France’s top bishop has warned an upcoming report on clerical sexual abuse will be “quite frightening” and the head of the independent commission investigating the scandal has admitted he had to seek psychological help after listening to victims’ testimonies.

Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, head of the episcopal conference, held five meetings with parishioners in his Reims archdiocese in Septemberto prepare them for the report of the extensive inquiry led by retired senior civil servant Jean-Marc Sauvé. 

“If for a while we thought we had been spared in France by this scourge, we had to face the facts: there are serious and numerous cases of abuse committed by priests,” the archbishop told one meeting.

“I’m afraid that, on 5 October, the report of the independent commission on sexual abuse in the Church will deliver quite frightening numbers,” he told another.

Sauvé estimated last March that his commission would find at least…

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The bishops’ coverups of priests raping children were bad enough. But who would have thought New Zealand’s Roman Catholic Church would devise a new strategy to conceal its coverups.

That appears to be the case based on evidence from the Royal Commission’s Phase 2 Hearing for faith-based abuse, regarding the Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS).

This suggests that the coverup of Catholic priests raping children is not really about child sexual abuse. In fact, the Catholic Church is not unique when it comes to its clergy raping children. But what makes it unique, and what gives those crimes such depth, is the Church’s power and authority.

Roman Catholicism has had the capacity to compel its victims and their families to collude in their own abuse and to keep its heinous crimes of priests raping children secret for decades. It is this system of hierarchical power that has…

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In early July, in the suburbs around my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, there were two domestic violence murders: a nurse and mother in her 30s and a 15-year-old whose mother was trying to escape abuse. The teenager played violin, and his allegedly murderous stepfather was a decorated ex-Marine and police officer. Both victims were regular people, killed by our epidemic of domestic violence.

The COVID-19 lockdown has caused a worldwide spike in violence against women, according to surveys around the world. Baltimore City experienced a 35% increase in domestic aggravated assaults from early 2020 to early 2021. While some consider the problem intractable and outside the purview of the Catholic Church, daily parish activities abound with lost opportunities to reshape the cultural and moral environment in which abuse flourishes. It was my experience of domestic violence, and the struggle to…

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The Sacramento Diocese has revealed new allegations of sexual abuse by priests. The list includes six new allegations against five former priests, some of whom were assigned to churches in the Northstate in the past.

These latest claims name five priests who had been previously accused of sexual misconduct against minors. Since the diocese revealed a list of accused priests in 2019, new victims have come forward alleging six additional instances of abuse involving five former priests.

The new entries result from the completion of the Independent Compensation Program. Under this program, which ran from September 2019 to the summer of 2021, individuals were able to seek compensation in a confidential process for claims of abuse by diocesan priests, regardless of when the abuse occurred, without going to court. The independent program administrators reviewed each claim and made a determination regarding an offer of settlement.

One new claim names  View Cache

A priest is being accused of sexually abusing a minor while he was the pastor at an Aspen church.

Archdiocese of Denver Vicar General Very Rev. R. Michael Dollins said in a letter to parishioners this week that it received an allegation that Fr. Michael O’Brien has been accused of sexually abusing a minor between 2004 and 2008 while he was a pastor at St. Mary’s in Aspen. He was the pastor at the church from 2002 to 2011.

The Aspen Police Department confirmed it’s actively investigating, but did not provide further details on the allegations.

Dollins said in the letter O’Brien “has resolutely denied these allegations.”

O’Brien is currently serving as pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in Julesburg. He has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

The organization Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests applauded the victim for coming forward. A victim advocate for SNAP…

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A lawsuit accuses the Catholic Diocese of Nashville of failing to protect a minor child from sexual abuse by an employee at a Murfreesboro church.

The suit filed on Monday in Circuit Court in Nashville claims the diocese received multiple warnings from parishioners and employees at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church that Michael Lewis had an inappropriate relationship with the plaintiff, who filed the lawsuit under the pseudonym of Jane Doe. Doe says the abuse began in 2014 when she was 13 years old and continued until 2017, when her family cut off contact with Lewis for what the lawsuit says was his “controlling behavior.”

Several months before that, a parishioner who was also a licensed clinical psychologist had written to then-Bishop David Choby expressing concerns about the relationship between Lewis, then the church’s director of religious education, and the girl.

In response, Lewis was given a letter from…

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A Scots priest abused young altar boys in Liverpool – but was simply sent back home to Scotland after a parent made a complaint about him.

Father Thomas MacCarte allowed the boys to smoke cannabis and drink alcohol so he could sexually abuse them.

One of MaCarte’s victims thought the priest was “cool” for letting them hang out in his room, reports Liverpool Echo.

However, there was “another side” to MacCarte, from Glasgow, who preyed on children at Bishop Eton Monastery in Woolton Road, Liverpool.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how the pervert made one teenage boy watch gay porn, before performing a sex act on him twice.

However, when one victim’s dad complained about MacCarte to the church, the priest was simply moved away to Scotland.

MacCarte,…

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A task force created in 2019 to fight reports of alleged abuse in the Kansas Catholic Clergy is continuing the investigation into a Topeka priest for allegations of the sexual abuse of a child.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says its Catholic Clergy Task Force is currently investigating the allegations against the Topeka priest.

Father John Pilcher, of Topeka’s Mater Dei Parish, has been accused of sexual abuse against a minor.

The KBI said it formed the task force in 2019 after Attorney General Derek Schmidt asked it to investigate reports of abuse in the Kansas Catholic Clergy.

The KBI said every case is different and the time it takes to find answers depends on the number of interviews required and how much time has passed since the alleged crimes occurred.

Pilcher has been suspended pending the results of the…

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Parishioners at St. Mary Catholic Church were notified Saturday that a former priest has been accused of sexually abusing a minor between 2004 and 2008, according to the Archdiocese of Denver.

Rev. Michael O’Brien — who left St. Mary in mid-2011 — was immediately placed on administrative leave from his duties as pastor in the eastern Colorado towns of Julesburg and Crook, according to a letter to St. Mary’s parishioners dated Saturday, and an archdiocese spokesman said Wednesday. The allegation was immediately reported to Aspen police according to archdiocese policies meant to ensure transparency with members of the church.

“(Father) O’Brien has resolutely denied these allegations,” according to the letter signed by Vicar General Very Rev. Randy Dollins. “Prior to this, the Archdiocese of Denver has never received an allegation against (Father) O’Brien.”

O’Brien served as pastor at St. Mary in Aspen from May 2002 to June 2011, Mark Haas,…

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[Via ABC News]

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Catholic bishop of Brooklyn, weeks after a Vatican investigation cleared him of sexual abuse allegations

Pope Francis on Wednesday accepted the resignation of the Catholic bishop of Brooklyn, Nicholas DiMarzio, weeks after a Vatican investigation cleared him of sexual abuse allegations, and appointed a native New Yorker to replace him.

DiMarzio is 77, two years beyond the normal retirement age for bishops. Francis accepted his resignation and appointed Bishop Robert Brennan of Columbus, Ohio, to take over in Brooklyn, the Vatican said.

On Sept. 1, the New York church announced that the Vatican had closed its case against DiMarzio after an investigation concluded that the allegations against him didn’t have “the semblance of truth.” Two men had separately claimed DiMarzio abused them a half century ago, when he was a priest in New Jersey.

DiMarzio denied the allegations. The…

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[Includes three-minute audio clip]

Garabedian represents two accusers who claim Bishop DiMarzio sexually abused them. He says that the Bishop’s retirement doesn’t impact the civil lawsuits they have against him.

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An advocate and survivor of sexual abuse now works with a national organization that brings attention to the issue.

Michael McDonnell is the communications manager at SNAP, or survivors network of those abused by priest. He knows how it feels to be a victim.

“I disclosed my abuse at the age of 35 but that was after two failed marriages, loss of jobs, many life events. I never wanted to talk about this I never wanted to let this out,” McDonnell said.

McDonnell says he was abused between the ages of 11 and 13 by two members of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. One of those priests was jailed in July of 2020 for another case of abuse and the other is no longer serving as a priest. McDonnell says he turned to alcohol, taking his first sip at 12 years old.

“I disclosed my abuse at the age of 35…

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A horrific paedophile priest could go out of his mind with rage, a potential new witness wants to tell a murder inquest.

A new witness who suffered at the hands of a paedophile priest wants to give evidence in an inquest into the bookshop murder of Thornbury mum Maria James.

The man wants to tell the Coroners Court about abuse he suffered at the hands of Father Thomas O’Keeffe, who is a person of interest in Mrs James’ brutal murder.

Mrs James’s body was found stabbed 68 times in the bedroom behind her High Street bookshop on June 17, 1980.

A new witness who suffered at the hands of a paedophile priest wants to give evidence in an inquest into the bookshop murder of Thornbury mum Maria James.

The man wants to tell the Coroners Court about abuse he suffered at the hands of Father Thomas O’Keeffe, who is a…

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Former Manchester Bishop John B. McCormack, whose years as head of the New Hampshire church were plagued by the priest-abuse sex scandal, was laid to rest Tuesday in a ceremony witnessed by hundreds.

The 1 1/2-hour ceremony included dozens of priests clad in white vestments and 11 bishops, including Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of McCormack’s native Boston. McCormack died Sept. 21 at the age of 86.

His open casket was at the front of the church, just below the altar where he held sway for 13 years.

The lifelong friend of McCormack who eulogized him said he and fellow priests ministered in the dark times of the priest sexual abuse scandal.

“Like so many priests and bishops, Bishop John came slowly to realize what had happened,” said the Rev. John MacInnis, pastor at St. John and St. Thomas churches in Peabody, Mass. But McCormack eventually acknowledged the scandal and…

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After Columbia City priest and Bishop Dwenger chaplain Father David Huneck resigned after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor, an organization that supports victims has voiced its concerns — and it has pleaded with the Catholic Diocese to hold true to its promise of cooperating with authorities.

Perhaps the biggest concern expressed by Michael McDonnell, the communications director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), is how churches have historically handled sexual abuse scandals.

“The Church has shown that they cannot police themselves, and they have enabled these predators to continue on because they don’t want the scandal, they want to protect and preserve their reputation,” said McDonnell. “They have never cleaned up the wreckage of the past. Therefore, they’re not going to move forward, this issue is not going away.”

McDonnell said he unfortunately wasn’t surprised to hear the news of Bishop Dwenger and…

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[Via WXIN-TV in Indianapolis. Includes two videos of Bishop Kevin Rhoades speaking to the press.]

Bishop Kevin Rhoades said Tuesday afternoon he said shocked and troubled by accusations of sexual misconduct against a diocese priest that surfaced this week, but he was committed to “purifying the Church of this scourge.”

Father David Huneck is accused of sexually abusing two people, including a minor, according to Rhoades. No specific details about the alleged abuse were released, but the diocese said it was told about the matter Sept. 19.

Huneck, who served as pastor of Saint Paul of the Cross Catholic Church in Columbia City and as chaplain at Bishop Dwenger High School, has resigned from both posts and been suspended from all public priestly ministry by the diocese.

He has not been charged with any crimes. The Whitley County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the allegations.

During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Bishop…

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A 2011 report found 35 allegations made against 10 priests in the Diocese of Dromore.

A Catholic diocese in Northern Ireland is establishing a redress scheme for survivors of sexual abuse by priests in the diocese.

The scheme is to provide financial redress, as well as offer a personal apology, counselling, and pastoral support for survivors and victims of abuse by any church representative in the diocese, where a 2011 report found 35 allegations made against 10 priests.

The Diocese of Dromore, which includes parts of Antrim, Down and Armagh, said it “apologises unreservedly” for the hurt and damage caused by any priest or church representative acting under its authority.

“The Diocese of Dromore finds such behaviour towards children and vulnerable people abhorrent, inexcusable and indefensible,” it said in a statement.

“Having met with a number of survivors, and having examined the various existing legal claims against the diocese, Archbishop…

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The Rev. John Pilcher, pastor of Topeka’s Mater Dei Catholic Parish, has been suspended from the public exercise of priestly ministry after being accused of sexually abusing a minor, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas announced Monday.

“Father Pilcher denies the allegation and is cooperating fully,” the archdiocese said in a news release. “He will remain on leave until the investigation is concluded and the archdiocesan Independent Review Board has reviewed the case and made a recommendation to Archbishop Joseph Naumann regarding the matter.”

Law enforcement was also notified, the archdiocese said.

An announcement about the allegation was made at all Masses this past weekend at Mater Dei Parish, the archdiocese said. That parish was created in 2006 by the merger of Holy Name Catholic Church, 911 S.W. Clay, and Assumption Catholic Church at 204 S.W. 8th Ave.

The archdiocese takes all allegations of misconduct by church personnel very seriously and works…

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A Fort Wayne Catholic priest has resigned from his duties following an allegation he sexually abused a minor.

According to a statement from the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, on Sept. 19, the diocese was made aware of an allegation that Father David Huneck was engaging in “sexual and other misconduct, including that with a minor.” No specific details about the alleged abuse were released.

Huneck had served as pastor of Saint Paul of the Cross Catholic Church in Columbia City, and as chaplain of Bishop Dwenger High School in Fort Wayne.

According to a post on the Diocese of Fort Wayne South Bend website Huneck is a Fort Wayne native.

The post went on to say that Huneck’s call to the priesthood began with the positive example of other priests including a priest at Bishop Dwenger High School. He has his master’s degree from Mount St. Mary’s University in…

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The pastor of a Catholic parish in Topeka has been suspended from his public duties after being accused of sexually abusing a minor, the archdiocese for northeast Kansas announced Monday.

The Rev. John Pilcher of Mater Dei parish denies the allegation and is fully cooperating, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said. He will remain on leave until an investigation is complete and an independent review board has made a recommendation to Archbishop Joseph Naumann, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

The archdiocese said that law enforcement was notified and announcement about the allegation made at all weekend Masses.

The parish includes two churches, Assumption across the street north of the Statehouse and Holy Name in central Topeka. They once were in separate parishes that merged in 2006.

The archdiocese said anyone with knowledge about the case regarding Pilcher or about any other misconduct should contact civil…

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A woman who has accused a former Lismore priest of sexually abusing her in 1968 has been allowed to have her case heard in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Key points:

• The Supreme Court allows the trial to proceed against the Diocese of Lismore
• A woman has accused the Church of knowing Fr Clarence Anderson sexually abused children
• The court says the amount of documented evidence shows a fair trial can be held despite Anderson’s death in 1996

The Diocese of Lismore had applied for a permanent stay of proceedings, but that has been refused by Justice Stephen Campbell.

Solicitor Sam Tierney, who is representing the alleged victim, said it was a significant outcome.

“The issue of permanent staying of these types of civil matters is becoming an increasingly common method which is being used by defendants to defeat these types of claims,” he said.

“In this particular case, the judge has found that the circumstances where…

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Former Bishop Howard J. Hubbard has been accused of misrepresenting the Albany diocese’s handling of sexual abuse cases, including making “at least one outright lie,” in an Aug. 13 op-ed in the Times Union in which he sought to explain the religious organization’s cover-up of the abuse. 

Attorneys for individuals who have filed sexual abuse claims against the diocese have made the accusation against Hubbard in recent court filings, and are asking a judge to unseal key portions of the former bishop’s testimony in April, when he was deposed in private for four days as part of pre-trial proceeding involving dozens of cases filed under the state’s Child Victims Act.

In March — a month before Hubbard was deposed — the attorneys in the case had agreed to a stipulation that would allow the transcript of his deposition to remain sealed under a protective order.

Jeffrey R. Anderson and Cynthia S….

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The coronial inquest into the unsolved murder of Melbourne woman Maria James has homed in on two suspects — a Catholic priest and a convicted killer.

Key points:

• Former detective Ron Iddles told the inquest Father Anthony Bongiorno had the motive, means and opportunity to murder Maria James
• The brother of Vicki Cleary, who was killed by Peter Keogh, said police did not follow up on tip-offs naming Keogh in connection to Ms James’s murder
• An expert exhibit tracker said the loss of crucial exhibits from the scene of the crime still keeps him up at night

Out of the six persons of interest, testimony at the inquest this past week focused on Father Anthony Bongiorno and on Peter Keogh, a man responsible for the killing of another Melbourne woman.

But as testimony is heard about the two men and their potential connection to the 1980 murder of Ms James, there are…

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Victims of child sex abuse in Pennsylvania are still waiting for leaders in Harrisburg to act after the Department of State failed to get an amendment on the ballot. That amendment would’ve given them a chance to take their abuser to court.

Unfortunately moving on a ballot amendment, while not out of the question, is the long play because it would take at least two years to get it before voters. That’s why many advocates and legislators are pushing for House Bill 951 to get a vote in the Senate.

That bill is currently stuck on the desk of Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward who has declined to advance it, citing constitutional questions about the retroactive window.

“I have been a supporter of this bill since the beginning and this movement from the beginning,” said State Sen. Maria Collett. “It would really allow victims of child abuse to get justice…

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A former student filed a childhood sexual abuse lawsuit against the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District on Thursday, alleging that the district was negligent in hiring a teacher who sexually assaulted him. 

The lawsuit was filed by former student James McDaniel, who is accusing the district of completing “inadequate pre-employment background checks” before hiring former teacher Michael Cardoza. Mr. Cardoza was a teacher at Santa Maria and Pioneer Valley High Schools from 1997 to 2006 and was convicted in 2008 of sexually abusing Mr. McDaniel. 

The lawsuit accuses the district of “knowingly” fostering a “pervasive and hostile environment that utterly disregarded the rights and safety of young students.” As a result, Mr. McDaniel is demanding a trial by jury and damages exceeding $25,000. 

“Even after all these years, I still live with the pain of the sexual abuse I suffered at the hands of Michael Cardoza,” Mr. McDaniel…

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“I blame Larry Nassar,” the Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles told assembled senators on Sept. 15, “but I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse.”

Ms. Biles was one of four gymnastics champions who gave searing testimony about the F.B.I.’s gross mishandling of the investigation of Larry Nassar, a former gymnastics team doctor convicted on multiple counts of sexually abusing young women in his charge. A U.S. Department of Justice review, published by the Office of the Inspector General this July, found that F.B.I. agents delayed commencing an investigation, neglected to interview key witnesses and failed to notify state law enforcement officials. The F.B.I.’s inaction, the report noted, left Mr. Nassar free to continue working with girls and young women and thus to assault at least 70 athletes who might have been spared if federal agents had done their jobs.

Speaking before the Senate…

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Victims of clergy abuse were proportionately the smallest group providing input for a recent task force report on how the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield can better handle claims of sexual misconduct.

A total of 11 abuse survivors participated in three, 90-minute focus groups held online this winter, a form of response selected by the task force. In contrast, an online survey asking lay people for feedback drew 492 respondents, while a phone survey of clergy involved 83 priests.

“We were disheartened that we did not have more and that we did not have more time to get more voices and we also felt incredibly grateful about how much was shared,” said Jenny Coleman, a licensed mental health counselor and director of the organization Stop It Now! that was hired by the diocese to recruit survivors for the focus groups.

“We know each person had an…

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A bipartisan group of lawmakers is reviving an effort to protect children from sexual exploitation by reintroducing a bill that would prohibit charging minors with prostitution. 

Gaining momentum has been a challenge for the proposal, as some elected officials have previously raised concerns that it would legalize prostitution or that it could lead to increased targeting of minors for sex trafficking. The bill’s authors stressed during a public hearing on Thursday that neither of those things is true. They also noted that each time the proposal — known as a “safe harbor” law — is reintroduced, it garners more support.

“Right now, if children fear they’re going to go into the criminal justice system, they’re not going to feel willing to reveal their (trafficking) perpetrators for fear of punishment,” said Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills. “We need to protect them, get them to protective social services so they…

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Editor’s Note: This essay is adapted from a recent letter to the priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago, which was also shared with the priests of the Archdiocese of Washington.

On Dec. 19, 1969, I prostrated myself for the Litany of the Saints in front of the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica before my ordination. Shivering from the cold of the unheated church, I had no idea what would transpire over the next 52 years. Despite my own failures — and there were more than enough of them — my time of priestly ministry has been an incalculable blessing. I can readily say a great “Amen” to it all.

When I fast-forward to 2021, I experience a church and priesthood facing enormous challenges. Although comparisons are always tricky, I think it is safe to say that today’s priests stand before many unprecedented challenges. These challenges stem from our…

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Archbishop Filippo Santoro of Taranto, Italy, will temporarily assume the governance of the association “in order to safeguard its charism and preserve the unity of the members,” the Vatican announced Sept. 24.

Pope Francis appointed Friday a special delegate to oversee Memores Domini, the lay consecrated branch of the Communion and Liberation movement.

Archbishop Filippo Santoro of Taranto, Italy, will temporarily assume the governance of the association “in order to safeguard its charism and preserve the unity of the members,” the Vatican announced Sept. 24.

In addition, the Vatican Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life maintains its appointment of Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda as the pontifical assistant for canonical matters relating to Memores Domini.

Father Ghirlanda, a specialist in canon law, was previously appointed by the dicastery in June 2020 to guide the revision of the association’s statutes.

Father Luigi Giussani, Communion and Liberation’s late founder, helped to establish the…

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Berlin – Pope Francis has decided to leave in office a prominent German archbishop who faced criticism for his handling of the church’s sexual abuse scandal, but the pontiff also gave the cleric a “spiritual timeout” of several months after he made “major errors” of communication, the Vatican said Friday.

The pope “is counting on” the archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the Vatican said in a statement. “But at the same time it is clear that the archbishop and the archdiocese need a time for a pause, renewal and reconciliation.”

That, it said, prompted Francis to grant Woelki’s request for a break that will run from mid-October to the beginning of March.

Woelki has become a deeply divisive figure in the German church.

A report commissioned by the archbishop and issued in March found 75 cases in which eight high-ranking officials — including Woelki’s late predecessor — neglected…

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Rome – A few days ago, I and some other journos were engaging in some shoptalk when a veteran reporter, who’s not a Vatican specialist, posed a “food for thought” question. Could any of us think of any global leader in recent memory, outside a totalitarian regime, who’s received such consistently adoring press coverage as Pope Francis?

None of us could … Obama, maybe, at the beginning, but not as constantly over a long span of time.

From the outset, Pope Francis has had a killer narrative. He’s seen as a maverick shaking up a hidebound institution, a progressive challenging a conservative establishment, and a spontaneous, shoot-from-the-hip leader in one of the world’s most über-cautious environments in the Vatican.

More than anything else, the narrative works because it comes with built-in dramatic tension: Francis is also seen as a hero surrounded by villains and enemies, a pernicious “old guard,” determined…

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Rome – Australian Cardinal George Pell has again spoken out about his attempted reform efforts of the Holy See’s finances while he was still head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, saying he underestimated those who resisted his decisions.

“I underestimated the ingenuity and resilience of the opponents of reform,” Pell said during a Sept. 23 webinar organized by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, adding, “they didn’t like change, they didn’t understand what was being proposed.”

There was also “certainly opposition from people linked to corruption,” he said, although he did not give names.

Asked if he would have done things differently in hindsight, Pell said he believes “we made a major mistake when the auditors were fired, and when Libero Milone was sacked.”

Although he said he never approved of these measures, “perhaps I should have pushed farther on that.”

In 2013 Pell was…

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AFN national chief wants concrete actions from Catholic Church

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has issued a public apology to Indigenous people in Canada for the suffering endured at residential schools, but the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) says the church needs to follow up with “concrete actions.”

Addressing the “Indigenous peoples of this land,” the bishops issued a statement today saying that they “acknowledge the suffering experienced in Canada’s Indian Residential Schools.”

“Many Catholic religious communities and dioceses participated in this system, which led to the suppression of Indigenous languages, culture and spirituality, failing to respect the rich history, traditions and wisdom of Indigenous peoples,” the statement said.

“We acknowledge the grave abuses that were committed by some members of our Catholic community; physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, cultural and sexual.”

The statement also “sorrowfully acknowledges” the lingering trauma suffered by former residential school students and their families.

“The…

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Beginning Oct. 1, unlicensed religious boarding schools in Missouri must notify the state they are operating as part of an attempt to address possible abuse and neglect at the often shadowy facilities.

Under a series of emergency rules filed this week by the Missouri Department of Social Services, the schools also will have to begin fingerprinting employees in order for the state to determine if workers are sex offenders or have other criminal records.

“The background checks are being conducted to help ensure that certain individuals who are associated with these facilities do not have a record of criminal conduct or substantiated incidents of child abuse or neglect which may pose a risk to the children served at these facilities,” the new rule says.

The filing of the rules is the latest step in a series of actions by state lawmakers and local law enforcement…

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Francis said the Vatican is conducting a study, given the growing number of abuse cases in Catholic lay and religious movements.

Pope Francis condemned recent instances of abuse of power within Catholic movements and organizations, reminding leaders that “to govern is to serve,” during a gathering at the Vatican on Friday (Sept. 16).

Speaking to delegates of Catholic lay and religious movements at the Vatican, Francis said the root of the abuse that has plagued these institutions is always misuse of power. “In these years, the Holy See has had to frequently intervene by starting difficult processes of renewal,” he said.

The delegates were invited to the Vatican for a meeting on “The responsibility of Government in lay organizations: an ecclesial service,” organized by the Vatican department charged with overseeing laity, family and life.

Catholic movements are groups within the church that help lay and religious people seek a closer…

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Having reviewed the results of the apostolic visit to the German archdiocese of Cologne concerning the handling of abuse cases, the Pope accepts Cardinal Woelki’s request to have a break. At the same time, the Holy Father rejected the resignation of two auxiliary bishops of Cologne.

Pope Francis has accepted the request of Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, to spend “a spiritual time outside the diocese” from mid-October until the beginning of Lent next year, but reiterating that he continues to count on him. This was made known in a statement from the Apostolic Nunciature in Germany released by the Archdiocese of Cologne and the German Bishops’ Conference.

The communiqué refers to the Holy Father’s decisions, which came about after taking “careful note” of the results of the apostolic visit to the archdiocese made by Cardinal Archbishop Anders Arborelius of Stockholm and Bishop Johannes van den Hende…

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Pope Francis has ruled that Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki should remain in charge of Germany’s Cologne archdiocese after a Vatican investigation into his handling of abuse cases, the Holy See announced on Friday.

The Vatican said on Sept. 24 that the pope had asked the 65-year-old cardinal to continue leading the archdiocese in western Germany after a period of leave, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

The statement explained that the investigation had found no evidence that Woelki acted unlawfully in relation to abuse cases.

“Nevertheless, Cardinal Woelki has also made major mistakes in his approach to the issue of coming to terms with abuse overall, especially at the level of communication,” it said.

“This has contributed significantly to a crisis of confidence in the archdiocese that has disturbed many of the faithful.”

The Holy See noted that the pope and Woelki had “a long…

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Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne will take a “spiritual sabbatical” after a Vatican investigation found he did nothing illegal in his handling of clerical sex abuse allegations, but he did contribute to a “crisis of trust” in his archdiocese.

The German bishops’ conference announced Sept. 24 that Pope Francis had “a long conversation” with Cardinal Woelki earlier in September and agreed with the cardinal’s request to take a break from mid-October until March 1 because it was “obvious that the cardinal and the archdiocese need a time of pause, renewal and reconciliation.”

Cologne Auxiliary Bishop Rolf Steinhäuser will serve as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese and will lead “a spiritual process of reconciliation and renewal,” the statement said.

In May, Pope Francis ordered an apostolic visitation of the Cologne Archdiocese “to obtain a comprehensive picture of the complex pastoral situation” there and to investigate how accusations of clerical sexual…

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A Vatican report found no evidence of abuse coverup by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki but suspended him for six months for “grave mistakes” in communication and approach.

Pope Francis has accepted a request from German Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki for a six-month break from his duties as archbishop of the Diocese of Cologne in order to deal with his “grave mistakes” in handling the sexual abuse cases.

A statement released by the Holy See on Friday said there is no indication that Woelki acted unlawfully in dealing with cases of sexual abuse, but it said that the cardinal failed in terms of communication and approach, which contributed to “a crisis of confidence” among Catholics that “has disturbed many believers.”

The Archdiocese of Cologne, the largest and richest diocese in Germany, has been at the center of a crisis in the German church over bishops’ accountability for clerical abuse scandals.

In…

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The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis has refused to accept the resignation of a German archbishop widely criticized for his handling of church sex abuse allegations, instead issuing a “spiritual timeout.”

The Holy See said Francis met with Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, last week for a “long conversation,” regarding “major mistakes in his approach to the issue of coming to terms with abuse overall, especially at the level of communication,” the Catholic News Agency reported.

“This has contributed significantly to a crisis of confidence in the archdiocese that has disturbed many of the faithful,” the Vatican added.

The statement also said the pope “is counting on” Woelki and recognized “his loyalty to the Holy See and his concern for the unity of the Church.”

“At the same time, it is obvious that the archbishop and the archdiocese need a time of pause, renewal and reconciliation,” the Vatican said,…

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WARNING: The following story contains details some readers may find disturbing.

The Catholic Bishops of Canada today expressed profound remorse, and apologized for the suffering experienced in Canada’s Indian Residential Schools.

The apology was issued at the end of their annual Plenary meeting. Below is the full statement:

Statement of Apology by the Catholic Bishops of Canada to the Indigenous Peoples of This Land

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), after months of regular meetings and conversation with Indigenous leaders at the national and local level, has completed its annual Plenary Assembly meeting, with this year’s major focus being on healing and reconciliation. At the end of this annual Plenary meeting, and informed by many conversations with First Nations, Métis and Inuit organizations, the Bishops have collectively issued the following statement:

We, the Catholic Bishops of Canada, gathered in Plenary this week, take this opportunity to affirm to you,…

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The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on Friday officially apologized for their role in the country’s notorious residential school system for the first time, after refusing to do so for years despite public pressure.

In a statement issued on Friday, the organization expressed “profound remorse” and apologized unequivocally along with all Catholic entities that were directly involved in the operation of the schools.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops is the national assembly of bishops in Canada, formally recognized by the Catholic Church and part of a global network of conferences.

Starting in 1831 and as recently as 1996, Canada’s residential school system forcibly separated indigenous children from their families, subjecting them to malnourishment and physical and sexual abuse in what the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called “cultural genocide.”

Survivors who spoke with Reuters recalled perpetual hunger and haunting loneliness, with schools run under the threat and…

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Catholic bishops in Canada apologized Friday “unequivocally” to Indigenous peoples for the suffering endured in residential schools, just as Pope Francis prepares to meet with Indigenous leaders at the Vatican later this fall.

The institutions held children taken from families across the nation. From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their Native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.

The Catholic bishops in Canada are promising to provide documents that may help “memorialize” students buried in unmarked graves, work on getting the Pope to visit Canada, and raise money to help fund initiatives recommended by local Indigenous partners.

The church has been heavily criticized for…

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Church tried to stop a woman from suing, despite its own records showing it knew the priest was a paedophile

The Catholic church tried to stop a survivor suing it over the childhood abuse she suffered at the hands of a parish priest in northern New South Wales, despite its own records showing it knew the man was a paedophile but did nothing other than move him from parish to parish.

On Friday, the NSW supreme court rejected the Catholic church’s request for a permanent stay of proceedings brought by a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted in 1968, when she was 14, by Father Clarence Anderson, a priest with the Lismore diocese.

The church had argued it could not possibly have a fair trial and that the case was “unjustifiably oppressive” due to the passage of time and the deaths of the priest and clergy with knowledge of the…

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Retired Roman Catholic Bishop John McCormack, who faced criticism for his role in Boston’s clergy sex abuse scandal and led New Hampshire’s diocese during its own reckoning, has died.

McCormack, 86, died Tuesday at Mount Carmel Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Manchester, according to the Diocese of Manchester. He had served as the diocese’s ninth bishop for 13 years before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

McCormack’s tenure as the leader of New Hampshire’s 310,000 Catholics started in 1998 and turned tumultuous in early 2002 when the sex abuse scandal erupted in Boston. Victims and grassroots Catholic groups called on him to resign, citing his former position as a top aide to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, where he was in charge of investigating allegations of sexual misconduct by priests.

That same year, McCormack averted unprecedented criminal charges against the New Hampshire diocese by agreeing that it had harmed…

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John B. McCormack, the retired Roman Catholic Bishop for New Hampshire who admitted to protecting the identities of priests accused of sexually abusing children, has died, the Diocese of Manchester, N.H., confirmed in a Facebook post Wednesday.

McCormack died Tuesday at Mount Carmel Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Manchester, the diocese said. He was 86.

The leader of New Hampshire’s Catholics from 1998 to 2011, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75, McCormack became the state’s ninth bishop after serving as a top aide to Cardinal Bernard Law for the Boston Archdiocese in the 1990s.

In 2002, after a Globe Spotlight report revealed how the church had for decades gone to great lengths to protect clergy members who sexually assaulted children, McCormack faced growing calls for his resignation as the top Catholic in New Hampshire.

While serving the church in Boston, Law…

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Francis’ decision to refuse Hesse’s offer and to reinstate him as archbishop has been met with negative reactions.

In a decision that has been met with sharp criticism from lay Catholics, abuse victims’ associations and the secular press, Pope Francis has refused to accept Archbishop Stefan Hesse’s resignation, and reinstated him as Archbishop of Hamburg.

Archbishop Hesse of Hamburg offered to resign for his mishandling of 11 cases of clerical sexual abuse while he was personnel manager and vicar general of Cologne (2003-2014). The Pope’s decision to reinstate him as Archbishop of Hamburg was announced by the German nunciature on 15 September. Francis granted Hesse leave of absence at the end of March leaving Hamburg without an archbishop for almost six months although canon law prescribes a three-month deadline for the acceptance or not of an offer of resignation.

He was glad that a “period of uncertainty” for the archdiocese of…

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Edward Janiak, a retired Roman Catholic bishop from Poland punished this year by the Vatican for the alleged cover-up of sex abuse of minors by other priests, has died. He was 69.

The Kalisz diocese where Janiak had served as bishop said he died Thursday. No cause or place of death was given in the statement that was posted on Poland’s Episcopate’s website.

The Vatican said in March it was punishing Janiak for the alleged cover-up of sexual abuse of minors by priests who were under his authority.

He was ordered to move out of the diocese and banned from any public celebrations. He was also ordered to make a contribution to a fund helping victims of clerical abuse.

Janiak retired last year as his case was being investigated.

A documentary released in 2020, “Playing Hide and Seek,” exposed two cases of alleged pedophile priests that Janiak handled, first as…

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Perth, Ont., victims say impact of sexual abuse will be lifelong

WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.

A young woman and her family have had to move out of their eastern Ontario town after the woman’s teacher groomed and sexually abused her, and now the family is suing the school board for millions.

That is one of two separate civil lawsuits filed by two victims of former teacher Jeff Peters.

“It was unbearable to be in that community with all the triggers and reminders,” said lawyer Elizabeth Grace, who represents one of the victims. 

“The survivor and her family should not be the ones leaving, but the reality is their lives were too difficult to remain in Perth. They had to leave. It’s a tragedy.”

The two lawsuits name Peters and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario as defendants and each claim millions of dollars in damages.

Former…

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A federal judge dismissed some of the biggest unsettled lawsuits over Ohio State’s failure to stop decades-old sexual abuse by now-deceased team doctor Richard Strauss, saying Wednesday it’s indisputable Strauss abused hundreds of young men but agreeing with OSU’s argument that the legal window for such claims had passed.

“For decades, many at Ohio State tasked with protecting and training students and young athletes instead turned a blind eye to Strauss’s exploitation,” U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson wrote in one ruling. “From 1979 to 2018, Ohio State utterly failed these victims. Plaintiffs beseech this Court to hold Ohio State accountable, but today, the legal system also fails Plaintiffs.”

The matter isn’t done. Strauss-related lawsuits against OSU filed this year by dozens of other plaintiffs appeared to still be pending, with no dismissal or other new rulings appearing on those dockets as of late Wednesday. And lawyers for the 200-plus…

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A Federal judge Wednesday dismissed hundreds of pending lawsuits against Ohio State University, (OSU) in cases related to a former OSU sports team doctor Richard Strauss, who had sexually molested young male athletes and other students for twenty years.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson of the Southern District of Ohio wrote;

‘It is beyond dispute that Plaintiffs, as well as hundreds of other former students, suffered unspeakable sexual abuse by Strauss. It is also true that many Plaintiffs and other students complained of Strauss’s abuse over the years and yet medical doctors, athletic directors, head and assistant coaches, athletic trainers, and program directors failed to protect these victims from Strauss’s predation.”

According to Judge Watson he dismissed the cases because the statute of limitations for criminal rape cases in Ohio is 20 years to report for criminal prosecution or otherwise have legal proceedings initiated.

“If there…

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Australian cardinal maintains he’s not a climate change denier, but skeptical of solutions

Australian Cardinal George Pell said Sept. 23 he “never really approved” of Pope Benedict XVI’s shocking decision in 2013 to resign the papacy.

Pell, who was the prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy from 2014 to 2019 and a member of Pope Francis’ advisory Council of Cardinals from 2013 to 2018, said that among the recent popes — John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis — he was closest to Benedict.

Pell described John Paul II as “one of the greatest popes in history, of course,” and praised Benedict’s “prodigious intellect,” adding that “I knew him better than all of the other two popes.” 

The cardinal’s remarks came during a webinar as part of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross’ “The Church Up Close” virtual series targeted…

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After years of planning, Vatican approval and listening sessions, the first of two Plenary Council assemblies will be held

As part of the listening and dialogue phase of the Australian Catholic Church’s Plenary Council, 220,000 Australians answered the question, “What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?”

In 2015, Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge was asking himself something similar. Australia was in the midst of a government-mandated investigation into sexual abuse in the church. Australian Catholics were leaving the church.

The Brisbane archbishop was at the Vatican, attending the Synod of Bishops on the family. It was there he had an idea that “seemed to me at the time and still seems to me the work of the Holy Spirit.”

“For the first time — certainly at a Roman synod — I saw discernment in action,” Archbishop Coleridge wrote earlier this year….

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A Florida man now in his late 50s has filed a lawsuit alleging that house parents at the Children’s Home in Winston-Salem sexually abused him for several years, starting in 1969 when he was 7 years old.

This is the sixth lawsuit filed in Mecklenburg Superior Court against what was formerly known as the Children’s Home and the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, which operated the Children’s Home at the time the alleged sexual abuse took place. In 2017, the Children’s Home merged with the Crossnore School and is now known as the Crossnore School & Children’s Home.

The allegations center on a married couple who worked as house parents at the Anna Haines Cottage at the Children’s Home — Bruce Jackson “Jack” Biggs and Beatrice Biggs — from 1966 to 1975. The couple was never criminally charged, and Jack Biggs died in 2015. Beatrice Biggs,…

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A Delaware judge on Tuesday began a key hearing that could determine whether the Boy Scouts of America can emerge from bankruptcy later this year with a reorganization plan that would compensate thousands of men who say they were sexually abused as children.

The Boy Scouts, based in Irving, Texas, sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020, seeking to halt hundreds of individual lawsuits and create a fund for men who say they were molested as children by scoutmasters and others. Although the organization was facing 275 lawsuits at the time, it’s now facing some 82,500 sexual abuse claims in the bankruptcy case.

Judge Laura Selber Silverstein convened the hearing to consider whether a disclosure statement outlining the latest reorganization plan contains sufficient details to ensure that abuse claimants and other creditors can make informed decisions on whether to accept or reject it.

Silverstein must approve the disclosure statement before the…

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A report on Knoxville’s Bishop Rick Stika is under review at the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, months after multiple allegations of administrative and personal misconduct triggered an investigation into Stika’s leadership.   

Vatican sources tell The Pillar that a Vatican-ordered investigation was conducted over the summer, and that a decision is expected soon on whether Stika will remain in ministry as diocesan bishop.   

Among other things, Stika is accused of sidelining an investigator appointed to scrutinize allegations of sexual assault and misconduct committed by a former diocesan seminarian, with whom the bishop is alleged to have an inappropriately close relationship. 

The bishop told The Pillar in April that the charge against him was “fake news.” And last month, while Stika remained under investigation, he took the former seminarian on a vacation — a 10-day road trip along with Cardinal Justin Rigali.

An investigation into Stika’s leadership was ordered in May, and conducted by Archbishop Joseph…

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Bishop John B. McCormack, the former head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, has died at age 86.

McCormack died Tuesday at Mount Carmel Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, according to an announcement on the diocese’s website.

The statement said McCormack was “called to his rest” on the eve of the anniversary of his 1998 installation as bishop of Manchester.

“Almighty and eternal God, grant eternal rest to your departed servant, John, and may he enter into the eternal gladness of your kingdom. Amen,” the statement said.

McCormack retired in 2011.

Bishop John McCormack 1935-2021 Diocese of Manchester

Before he was appointed as New Hampshire’s ninth bishop by then-Pope John Paul II, McCormack had served as an auxiliary bishop in Boston.

In his administrative role…

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Anthony Pilla, who served as Bishop of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese from 1980 until 2006, died Tuesday morning at his home. He was 88.

Pilla was born in Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood and graduated from John Carroll University. His tenure as Cleveland’s Bishop, which began when his predecessor James Hickey was named Archbishop of Washington, spanned the mayoralties of George Voinovich, Michael R. White and Jane Campbell in Cleveland. He resigned in 2006 after open-bypass heart surgery and the cumulative stress and grief of the national sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

Though Pilla eventually established a lay review board and procedures for the reporting of abuse and the removal of abusive priests, those actions came only after years of diocesan neglect in Northeast Ohio. The vast scale of the abuse, and the pain and distrust it created in millions of Catholics, didn’t seem to dawn on Pilla until…

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After two days of meetings, the details for an abuse investigation remain unresolved.

Members of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee agreed to spend $1.6 million to fund an outside review into how the committee has handled claims of sexual abuse over the past two decades.

But after two days of intense meetings and passionate debate, the committee remained divided on whether to waive attorney-client privilege as part of the investigation. 

Rolland Slade, chairman of the Executive Committee, said committee members made progress on setting up the investigation. He and other officers of the committee plan to meet with the independent task force that will oversee the investigation to hammer out final details over the next week.

“We are not done yet,” said Slade, pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, California, on Tuesday (Sept. 21) at the conclusion of the meetings. “But we all now grasp the urgency….

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Leaders are still debating whether to hand over privileged materials as survivors and the majority of their own denomination have requested.

Months after the Southern Baptist Convention voted for a third-party investigation into how its Executive Committee responded to abuse allegations, leaders failed to adopt the convention’s terms for the process, deferring to ongoing negotiations between leaders and a sexual abuse task force.

The two-day proceedings in Nashville highlighted growing turmoil in the nation’s largest Protestant body and disappointed victims who had held out hope the convention would adopt a thorough outside review to address its missteps.

Still up for debate is whether the Executive Committee (EC) will comply with the convention’s directive to waive attorney-client privilege to allow investigators to obtain relevant documents from EC members and staff.

The majority of the EC voted against doing so, with several citing the “fiduciary duty” to protect the entity and the…

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The founder of Hillsong Church, Brian Houston, has announced his decision to step down from the board ahead of a court case into what he knew about his father’s abuse.

The announcement comes not long after charges were brought against him for allegedly concealing knowledge of sexual abuse perpetrated by his late father, Frank Houston.

Brian Houston, who denies the charges, will remain in post as Hillsong’s senior pastor.

The 67-year-old confirmed his resignation from the board in an email to Hillsong members on Friday, PEOPLE magazine reports.

“I also wanted to let you know that I’ve made a decision to step aside from my role on the Hillsong Church boards that oversee the governance of our operations,” he wrote.

“I did this so that these boards can function to their fullest capacity during this season. This doesn’t change my role as Global Senior Pastor. I thought it…

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Kudos to The Buffalo News for publishing Michael Taheri’s Sept. 8 Another Voice article giving options to and describing how Bishop Michael W. Fisher can demonstrate “genuine remorse” over what seems to be endless revelations of priestly abuse. Western New York residents should take to heart what Taheri, a daily communicant and Eucharistic minister, has to say.

One of Taheri’s options for Fisher, a very good one, is that he offer every church asset including the diocese’ churches to the victims of abuse. But after reading of the obstinate reluctance for even basic forthright truthfulness from church leaders for so many years, this option will probably be greeted as a “non-starter” in clerical circles.

May I suggest an easier option and “starter” than Taheri’s towards the path of genuine remorse: ask the bishop to use the plain and simple word that the rest of the population uses to describe the…

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Survivors of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania want justice, no more or no less. They have long deserved it, but continue to face more roadblocks than they should.

Adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse deserve a vote in the state Senate on whether they will be granted a window of time to file civil lawsuits against their abusers.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, said there are no plans to move legislation to allow survivors of child sex abuse to sue organizations that cover-up for child predators. Ward said the legislation is unconstitutional.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who rallied with abuse survivors in Harrisburg, disagrees.

He called Ward’s blockage “pathetic,” arguing Senate leaders won’t push legislation forward due to pressure from lobbyists and the insurance industry.

Proposed legislation would open a two-year window to sue even if the statute of limitations had expired in their case. Earlier this year, a…

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Both the Church and society in Poland were unprepared to face the crisis caused by the sexual abuse of minors. Negative reactions prevailed at first. In the last few years, thanks to journalists and clear direction from the Holy See, the Church in Poland has learned how to create an integrated structure for the protection of minors and the support of victims.

The Church in Poland entered the 21st century feeling proud of itself, enjoying the success it had achieved. These sentiments were motivated by Poland’s past and more recent history. Up until 1918, the Polish state had vanished, being divided up by neighboring powers for a good 123 years. For the Polish people, the Catholic Church had been a bulwark of freedom and had contributed toward the survival of the nation’s language, culture, and even its hope for independence. Heroic deeds performed by many Catholic priests and lay faithful…

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As the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors holds a safeguarding conference in Warsaw, a well-known survivor of clerical sexual abuse urges the Church to deal with the emergency of clerical sexual abuse.

“When we don’t believe survivors, when we don’t have agile processes, and deal with it with justice, people are really traumatized, and people are dying because of this.”

Juan Carlos Cruz, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM), offered that wake-up call in an interview with Vatican News.

Mr. Cruz is a well-known survivor of clerical sexual abuse of minors from Chile who suffered at the hands of the late Fernando Karadima (the Chilean priest was defrocked in September 2018 and died in July 2021).

Pope Francis appointed Mr. Cruz as a member of the PCPM in March of this year.

One of his first tasks in this new role has…

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The recent protest by four Catholic nuns in Kerala against anti-Muslim remarks is of a piece with their long fight against sexual abuse by priests

Poverty, chastity and obedience. These are the three vows a Catholic nun takes when she enters the convent. Priests also take similar vows. But what happens when everything nuns have dedicated their lives to is turned on its head and they are forced to break their vows?

Last week, four nuns Anupama Kelamangalathuveliyil, Alphy Pallasseril, Ancitta Urumbil and Josephine Viloonickal from Kottayam in Kerala walked out of a prayer service at St Francis Mission Home, accusing the priest, Rajeev, of hate speech against Muslims. The priest, they said, had spoken of “narcotic jihad” and “love jihad”, and had also asked the congregation to boycott Muslim businesses. Sr Anupama said she was shocked: “Christ has taught us to love not spread communalism.”

In 2019, these four…

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Cardinal Seán O’Malley told a safeguarding summit this week that “the wrongs done to God’s people must be corrected.”

Preaching at Mass on Sept. 20 at a conference in Warsaw, Poland, the archbishop of Boston called for an end to clerical abuse and cover-ups.

“We are gathered here because so many of our brothers and sisters have suffered at the hands of abusive clergy who have perpetrated evil acts by using their office to abuse others or to cover up such abuse. And many times, those who have suffered have been rejected in their suffering when they spoke out,” he said.

“This cannot be what Jesus wants of his Church; this cannot be the Church of a loving and reconciling God. Abuse and its cover up must stop and the wrongs done to God’s people must be corrected.”

O’Malley, the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors,…

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In the charge sheet, the police accused Radhey Shyam, Kuldeep Singh, Salim Ahmad and Laxmi Narayan of rape, wrongful confinement, murder, destruction of evidence.

A nine-year old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered near the Delhi cantonment area on August 2 died due to “suffocation” during the sexual assault, Delhi Police told court. The accused, priest Radhe Shyam had sexually assaulted the minor girl before as well, the police further said in the chargesheet adding that the search history of the accused’s mobile revealed that he had accessed more than 1300 porn websites, indicating his addiction to the same.

In the charge sheet, the police accused Radhey Shyam, Kuldeep Singh, Salim Ahmad and Laxmi Narayan of rape, wrongful confinement, murder, destruction of evidence, and under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act, saying that there was sufficient…

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A Catholic priest in Kentucky is set to be released from prison after serving nearly four years for sexual abuse that happened in the 1970s.

R. Joseph Hemmerle testified at his 2016 trial in Meade County that he would sometimes apply calamine lotion to the genitals of children at a church summer camp, with their permission. He was found guilty of one count of indecent or immoral practices with a child under 15.

Hemmerle is set to be released on Oct. 1, according to the state Department of Corrections. He will be on probation for six to eight months.

The victim who testified against Hemmerle said the priest, now 79, should not go free.

”I’m concerned this guy is getting out,” Michael Norris told WAVE-TV in Louisville. “He can show up next door and you won’t have a clue who this man is. Your children can get…

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Bids began rolling in Tuesday as the Archdiocese of Santa Fe launched its first online auction of properties to raise money for a settlement in a federal bankruptcy case prompted by hundreds of claims of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

The archdiocese wants to generate funds through the online auction — as well as insurance, donations and other property sales — to settle a case with about 385 people who have alleged abuse, with some claims dating back decades.

About 140 properties are up for sale in Valencia, Sandoval and Bernalillo counties, most of which are small and vacant parcels donated to the archdiocese. Some parcels will be bundled for the sale.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, one Valencia County parcel had a bid of only $250, while another in Bernalillo County was up to $188,000.

The current auction will conclude next week. Additional properties in 15 other counties…

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A conference on the safeguarding of minors and vulnerable persons taking place in Warsaw, Poland, highlights the Church’s efforts to to protect its vulnerable members. Prof. Paweł Wiliński reflects on the need to ensure abuse victims’ rights to information, representation, protection and compensation.

A 4-day conference organized by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors aims to help the Church in her reflections and response to the crisis of the abuse of minors and vulnerable persons.

The event, themed “Our Common Mission of Safeguarding God’s Children”, is being held on 19 – 22 September in the Polish capital of Warsaw. It gathers Catholic representatives from across Central and Eastern Europe, as well as experts who work in the field of child and youth protection.Listen to our interview with Prof. Paweł Wiliński

Need for a system of protection

Prof. Paweł Wiliński is one of the participants at the safeguarding conference. He…

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The German bishops’ plenary assembly began with urgent appeals for church reform and a reminder to heed admonitions from Pope Francis.

Bishop Georg Bätzing, conference president, called on all bishops to embrace radical change, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA. He said visible changes were needed soon in the Synodal Path German church reform project, which could be a “door opener” for the worldwide synodal process launched by the pope.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the pope’s ambassador to Germany, repeatedly urged the bishops to preserve the unity of the church and to follow the pope’s directives.

At the start of the Sept. 20-23 assembly, Catholic reform groups and women’s associations held demonstrations demanding rapid and fundamental reforms, warning that this was the only way for the church to restore its credibility.

Bishop Bätzing called on his fellow bishops to agree radical changes are needed in the way they work…

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A recently reinstated Lake Zurich priest who was accused of sexually abusing minors 25 years ago while he was assigned to Maryville Academy in Des Plaines is again sidelined after “additional information” has come to light, the Archdiocese of Chicago said.

The Rev. David Ryan was expected to return to the Roman Catholic parish this weekend, but the new information caused a delay in Ryan’s return “while it is thoroughly investigated,” according to a letter from Cardinal Blase Cupich that was released Thursday.

“Father Ryan has assured us that he will cooperate fully as he understands that we must take every allegation seriously in accordance with our child protection policies,” the letter said.

Cupich added in the letter that he shared the disappointment at the news, “especially” since Ryan was to come back this weekend.

“But, I ask your patience once again as we fulfill our obligation to keep the…

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Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, a Cleveland native who helped start a national dialogue on the role of the church in the city and guided Northeast Ohio Catholics through more than a quarter century, died Tuesday.

Pilla, who was bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland from 1981 until his retirement in 2006, died at his home, the diocese confirmed in a statement. He was 88.

In a statement, the diocese’s current Bishop Edward C. Malesic remembered Pilla as a “very warm, kind-hearted and deeply faithful shepherd.”

“He was generous with his time and sharing his knowledge and concern for the diocese with me,” Malesic said in his statement. “As a leader in the national Church, Bishop Pilla was an inspiration and example to me throughout my priesthood and in my years as a bishop. I felt so welcomed by him when I came to the Diocese of Cleveland, a Church that…

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Daniel Philpott, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, and Katharina Westerhorstmann, a professor of theology at Franciscan University, will host a public lecture and a day-long consultation session at Notre Dame on Thursday and Friday (Sept. 23 and 24), examining the Church’s sex abuse crisis and the lessons that may be derived from national truth and reconciliation processes for healing and restoration.

The initiative, “The Truth Will Make You Free: What Promise Do National Truth and Reconciliation Processes Offer for the Catholic Church’s Response to the Sexual Abuse Crisis?” is funded by Notre Dame’s Church Sexual Abuse Crisis Research Grant Program and stems from the 2019-20 Notre Dame Forum, “‘Rebuild My Church:’ Crisis and Response.” 

On Friday, Philpott and Westerhorstmann will bring together approximately 25 participants — including church leaders, representatives of survivor groups, experts on national truth and reconciliation processes, theologians, psychologists and legal experts — to generate…

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Higher charges were filed by a district attorney almost a year after the alleged act

A former Catholic priest accused of performing sexual acts on an altar in Pearl River, Louisiana, has been charged with a higher offence of obscenity for the September 2020 encounter, according to a report.

Travis John Clark, aged 38, was a pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church when he allegedly had a threesome on the altar with Mindy Lynn Dixon, 42, and Melissa Kamon Cheng, 29, who were wearing corsets and high heels.

Mr Clark, Ms Dixon and Ms Cheng were charged with obscenity by St Tammy Parish Sheriffs Office in Pearl River, before a district attorney dropped the charges in favour of institutional vandalism, a lesser charge, in March 2021.

All three pleaded not guilty to charges of “knowingly vandalising, defacing, or otherwise damaging property and causing damage valued at over $500…

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Former residents of Burlington’s shuttered St. Joseph’s Orphanage are voicing frustration with Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese as they push the state’s largest religious denomination to pay for counseling after their mistreatment decades ago.

“The diocese has done as little as possible to help with our healing goals,” said Michael Ryan, who lived at the orphanage as a child. “They need to provide restitution for their sins of the past.”

A group of 18 former residents gathered Thursday at a reunion that’s part of a restorative justice process, which the orphanage’s former owners at the diocese and operators at the Montreal-based Sisters of Providence have yet to join.

“The church demands atonement from its faithful,” former resident Katelin Hoffman said, “but hypocritically, it is avoiding atonement for its own sins.”

The St. Joseph’s Orphanage Restorative Inquiry came in response to last year’s conclusion of a government investigation of past problems at the facility,…

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The Rev. Marshall Blalock feels the weight of his new responsibility.

The South Carolina pastor serves as vice chair of a recently formed Southern Baptist Convention task force charged with overseeing an investigation into how a top denominational committee handled sex abuse allegations, a review that comes years into the SBC’s public reckoning with the scandal.

Blalock thinks the work of the task force, set into motion in June by a vote of Southern Baptists at a national gathering, could be a foundational part of how the SBC addresses the issue in the future.

“If the task force does what the convention’s asked us to do, if the Executive Committee responds favorably, I think we’re making huge first steps toward really setting the future toward preventing and appropriately responding to and caring for sexual abuse survivors,” Blalock said.

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by…

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Three more lawsuits were filed Thursday against the Diocese of Metuchen alleging sexual abuse against adults and children by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Rev. John Butler and Brother Regis Moccia.

And because Butler and Moccia, who have both died, were not listed on Diocese of Metuchen’s list of sexually abusive clergy, one of the attorneys filing the lawsuits pleaded with Bishop James F. Checchio to release the names of all clergy offenders, including those whose names have never been made public.

“We urge you, release those names of those secret settlements of those offenders that you have now made. The public needs to know, and the survivors need to know who are still suffering in silence sometimes believing they are the only ones, deserve to know while they have time to act. Do it today,” said attorney Jeffrey R. Anderson.

Anderson said he believes there are more than 15 names that should be…

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