ABUSE TRACKER

Sex abuse victims have urged the German president not to award an Order of Merit — equal to a knighthood — to Munich’s bishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

Catholic victims of sex abuse urged German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Saturday not to give one of the country’s top honors to Cardinal Reinhard Marx. 

The bishop of Munich served as chair of Germany’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference until 2020. Although outspoken for victims in recent years, Marx also stands accused of concealing cases, including a priest’s misuse of a woman employee and forcing her to abort a pregnancy in 1989.

He is now expected to receive Germany’s top Order of Merit with Star — what in Anglo-Saxon countries would be a knighthood — from Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Victims’ representative threatens to give back his own medal

A group of sex abuse victims say that honoring Marx in this way would render their efforts to shed light on church cover-ups “valueless” and…

View Cache

As part of its bankruptcy court filings, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, which oversees parishes across Long Island, has released a list of over 100 clergy accused of sexual abuse while serving in the diocese, including some who had not previously been identified. Eleven of the clergy on the list served on the South Fork from the late-1950s through as recently as 2000.

The list names priests who served at Most Holy Trinity in East Hampton, St. Andrew in Sag Harbor, St. Therese of Lisieux in Montauk, Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Southampton, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary in Bridgehampton, and the Villa Maria convent in Water Mill.

All 101 of them are men against whom a diocesan review board has determined that the allegations of abuse were credible, those “against whom an allegation of abuse was made” through an Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program,…

View Cache

The late Bishop John McGann and Msgr. Alan Placa had been prominent figures in the Catholic Church on Long Island, which is grappling with a still-unraveling sexual abuse scandal.

But neither is on a list of 101 clergy members accused of sexual abuse of minors that the diocese recently released, even though related lawsuits have been filed against both, according to attorneys for alleged abuse victims. The attorneys called the omission of the two, who held powerful posts in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, an example of what they claim is a continuing cover-up of wrongdoing in the church.

“Clearly, the Diocese of Rockville Centre should have listed Bishop McGann as being accused of sexual abuse on multiple occasions if it really cared about safety, accountability, healing and transparency,” said Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based lawyer who has filed three civil complaints on behalf of alleged sexual abuse victims of McGann.

…

View Cache

St. Therese Catholic Parish in Albuquerque’s North Valley was once the largest in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, with a holy shrine and tiled-roof church considered one of the finest ecclesiastical buildings in New Mexico.

These days, the parish on North Fourth is one of the smallest and struggles to make ends meet. It is behind on its property insurance and in debt to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, owing more than a year’s worth of Sunday collection plate assessments, according to its pastor.

Its usual fundraising efforts crippled by the COVID-19 virus, the parish has taken to holding green chile roasting events to pay bills.

But sacrifice it will, as one of more than 90 parishes grappling with the archdiocese’s request to help pay a universal settlement in its Chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganization.

“We have very minuscule savings at the Archdiocese Savings and Loan Program at the Catholic Center…

View Cache

St. Therese Catholic parish in Albuquerque knows too well the scourge of clergy sexual abuse.

Eight of the 79 priests and other clergy members on the archdiocese list of those “credibly accused” of molesting children worked at the North Valley parish over a 32-year period. The first priest was assigned in 1959, five years after the current church was built.

The eight included Jason Sigler, one of the few priests who worked in New Mexico who were criminally charged and who went to prison after being convicted of sexually abusing a minor.

Across the U.S., many survivors of clergy abuse served as altar boys in the church or belonged to parish youth groups when they were molested.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s website says it has adopted a “zero-tolerance” policy on clergy sexual abuse, and says there have been no substantiated cases involving diocesan priests since 2005.

Court records in…

View Cache

The Chennai police have arrested the priest of a church and three other relatives of a minor girl who was allegedly sexually abused by them. The arrests came almost 10 days after her mother, a playback singer, lodged a complaint.

Apart from the priest Henri (40), those arrested included the singer’s sister, the latter’s husband and the husband’s brother. While the police registered a case a week ago, the accused were picked up from a farmhouse in Tindivanam on Friday and remanded in judicial custody.

Police said that the singer left her daughter in her sister’s custody when the victim was just six as she had to relocate to Hyderabad. The girl, who is 15 years old now and studying at a private school, reportedly informed her mother recently about the abuse she was subjected to by her aunt, uncle and the priest Henri, when she was taken to the…

View Cache

Tireless work by the Michigan Attorney General’s clergy abuse investigation team has resulted in another successful plea agreement and will lead to prison for a former priest in the Upper Peninsula. 

Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal sexual conduct in Ontonagon County Thursday afternoon. 

As part of the offer, Jacobs was required to plead guilty to one count, and the highest charge, on each of the four cases he faced. This resulted in admission of guilt on three counts of CSC 1st degree and one count of CSC 2nd degree.  

Other aspects of the plea agreement include: 

• Jacobs will serve between eight and 15 years on each count, which will run concurrently; 
• Lifetime sex offender registration on the three counts of CSC 1st degree; 
• Tier II registration on the CSC 2nd degree charge; 
• All victims – those involved in the charged cases and those who came forward since – can speak at sentencing if they wish; 
• Sex offender counseling; and
• Lifetime electronic monitoring when released.  

“This plea agreement and subsequent prison time is the culmination of resolute work by our clergy abuse investigation…

View Cache

A former priest who left Michigan decades ago pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually abusing teens in the Upper Peninsula in the 1980s, the attorney general’s office said.

Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal sexual conduct in Ontonagon County and will serve at least eight years in prison before he’s eligible for parole, authorities said.

“This sentence will not erase the pain Mr. Jacobs inflicted on those who trusted him. But I hope our pursuit of justice can offer some sense of relief as their vulnerability led to this accountability,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

Jacobs is scheduled to make a similar plea deal in Dickinson County on May 3, Nessel said.

A message seeking comment from his attorney wasn’t immediately returned.

The Diocese of Marquette has said Jacobs was removed from ministry in 1988 and left the state. He was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when…

View Cache

A bill that could expand child sex abuse lawsuits in the state of Pennsylvania has received new support in the state legislature, signaling its possible passage after more than two years of unsuccessful efforts.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 951, lifts some sovereign immunity protections in child sex abuse cases for public schools and institutions. It creates a two-year window for lawsuits to be filed in old cases where the statute of limitations had already expired.

Survivors of abuse may sue their perpetrator or the institution that contributed to the abuse through negligence.

Democratic state Rep. Mark Rozzi, who says he was abused by a priest at age 13, introduced the bill. The state Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-3 on Wednesday to approve an amended form of the bill. Now that it has received new support, supporters are hopeful that the bill could pass the legislature.

The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Detroit will proceed with a “canonical disciplinary process” against a priest accused of the sexual abuse of a minor, after the Vatican declined to move forward with a canonical investigation. 

The priest, Fr. Eduard Perrone, was the pastor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Grotto) parish in Detroit. Perrone has not served in public ministry since 2019, after the accusation was made against him and the diocese conducted a preliminary investigation. He maintains his innocence. 

In an April 13 statement, the archdiocese explained that approximately two years ago, it began a canonical “preliminary investigation” of the allegations against the priest. After this review, the archdiocese forwarded the allegations to the Vatican. 

However, the archdiocese said that it could not take action in the case after the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) would not move forward with its investigation of Fr. Perrone. 

…

View Cache

The name the “Roger Kennedy Centre” has been removed from a hall at St Mary’s Catholic College, Gateshead, but the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Bill Wright, will not say why.

The diocesan refusal to explain its actions coincides with its call for public help – including through the Newcastle Herald – to plan a memorial to the victims and survivors of its sexually abusing clergy and teachers.

Monsignor Roger Kennedy, a long-serving priest at Gateshead, died in 1994.

Robert O’Toole, a co-founder of the Clergy Abused Network (CAN), said Kennedy stands accused of historical sexual abuse of both boys and girls.

“Monsignor Kennedy was at Muswellbrook, New Lambton, Kurri Kurri, Newcastle, Carrington and Gateshead,” Mr O’Toole said. “CAN is aware of allegations of abuse against Monsignor Kennedy in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.”

Mr O’Toole said he told Bishop Wright about the allegations in December.

Mr O’Toole said he told Bishop…

View Cache

[Photo above: Fr. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church in Chicago, is seen in this 2015 file photo. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago asked the priest to step aside from ministry Jan. 5, after the Archdiocese of Chicago received an allegation he sexually abused a minor over 40 years ago. (CNS / Jim Young, Reuters)]

The Catholic Church’s struggle to eradicate the cancer of clergy sex abuse is on trial today. The community at St. Sabina church in Chicago is trying to obstruct the investigation of their much-beloved pastor Fr. Michael Pfleger on charges he sexually molested minors, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Once again this week, there was an organized effort through the St. Sabina website to employ inappropriate and intimidating tactics to put pressure on the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Independent Review Board (IRB) as the case of Father Michael…

View Cache

Cardinal Blase Cupich has lashed out at “intimidating tactics” by supporters of the Rev. Michael Pfleger.

Days after Chicago’s cardinal lashed out at “intimidating tactics” by supporters of the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the current pastor at St. Sabina’s church said he has instructed parishioners to express themselves “respectfully.”

Last week, Cardinal Blase Cupich blasted attempts to influence an investigation into Pfleger as “offensive and an injustice,” citing a coordinated effort to “flood the archdiocese’s phone lines dedicated to receiving calls from victims and civil authorities.”

Magwaza, who is filling in for Pfleger during the investigation, said he received the cardinal’s letter on April 13 and has since been telling parishioners to vouch for Pfleger by “respectfully and peacefully asking [the review board] to expedite the investigation.”

The St. Sabina website’s homepage has a link to Cupich’s letter and a message directing parishioners to write directly to…

View Cache

Wisconsin authorities will launch an investigation into the state’s Catholic dioceses and religious orders to determine how many clergy members have sexually assaulted children over the years.  

Attorney General Josh Kaul notified the state’s five dioceses as well as separate orders of Catholic priests that his office will review sexual abuse allegations against clergy and other faith leaders, according to a letter obtained by USA Today Network-Wisconsin. Wisconsin is home to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and dioceses in Madison, Green Bay, La Crosse and Superior.

“I agree with the many survivors of clergy abuse, and those who support and have advocated for them, that a review by our office is necessary to provide accountability and, ultimately, healing,” Kaul wrote. “I hope you will welcome that review.”

Kaul, a Democrat in his first term, invited representatives for the dioceses and orders to a meeting Monday to discuss next steps and indicated…

View Cache

Geoff Drew accused of raping altar boy 30 years ago

Green Township — The trial of Rev. Geoff Drew is scheduled to begin Monday, nearly 21 months after Cincinnati police officers arrested the Catholic priest for raping an altar boy decades ago.

The victim was 10 when Drew began sexually assaulting the child, according to charging documents in the case.

Drew, 59, is charged with 9 counts of rape. He faces life in prison, if convicted.

Drew is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center on $5 million cash bond.

According to charging documents, Drew raped the boy from 1988 to 1991 at St. Jude Catholic Church and school in Green Township.

At that time, Drew was the St. Jude music minister.

He became an ordained Catholic priest in 2004.

Drew assaulted the child in his church office during and after school, according to charging documents.

“It’s the opinion…

View Cache

A former Upper Peninsula priest pleaded guilty today to four counts of criminal sexual conduct, which will result in the harshest prison sentence thus far in the Michigan Attorney General’s clergy abuse investigation.

Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty in Ontonagon County on Thursday, April 22, to three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, the attorney general’s office announced. He was facing four separate sexual abuse cases and his plea agreement required that he plead guilty to the highest charge in each case.

Jacobs faces a fifth case in neighboring Dickinson County where a similar plea agreement is planned; that hearing is set for May 3.

The charges in the five cases involved alleged sexual assaults between 1981 and 1984 in Ontonagon County and in early 1984 in Dickinson County when Jacobs worked for the Catholic Diocese of Marquette….

View Cache

Editor’s note: This article has been modified from its original published version.

Tim Ballard, a previous employee of Jesuit Volunteers International, who came forward with rape accusations against former Loyola vice president the Rev. Ted Dziak, S.J. in an article released by nola.com April 18, told The Maroon he will never forget a call he received when he was abroad in June of 2005.

The call was from Dziak, a Jesuit priest and the man Ballard had worked closely with while mentoring students in Belize as a part of the service of Jesuit volunteers, the same man Ballard is alleging raped him during their time in Belize between 2004 and 2006.

As Ballard overlooked the Belizean ocean view and paced along a veranda listening to Dziak on the phone, Dziak told him he’d be returning to Belize after he’d already completed his three month contract and Ballard thought he was done. As…

View Cache

For the past 14 years Bishop Frank J. Dewane has held a Mass to petition for the Lord to heal and protect the victims of clerical abuse while giving the grace for all to act in helping end this scourge.

“Whatever procedure, educational announcement, commitment we make, or administrative mechanisms we put forward are all powerless compared to the strength of our prayers through our gathering at this Holy Sacrifice, at this Table of the Lord, asking the Lord to heal the victims of abuse,” Bishop Dewane stated.

The Bishop celebrated Mass April 16, 2021 at Epiphany Cathedral in Venice with the specific intention of praying for victims of child abuse. The Mass takes place annually in April, which is National Child Abuse Awareness Prevention Month, as Bishop leads the faithful in praying for an end to child abuse, and specifically the clerical abuse which has been a scourge on…

View Cache

[Via the Catholic Standard, Archdiocese of Washington]

Teresa Pitt Green, who as a child was sexually abused by Catholic priests, said she is convinced “there’s a lot more hope than people dare to feel.”

“If I can turn all the suffering and darkness of my life into a testimony that even in that place, Jesus was there and Jesus heals me, then that’s not such a bad way to use having been abused,” she said.

Pitt Green is co-founder of Spirit Fire, a Christian restorative justice initiative and fellowship of survivors of abuse in the Church.

People associated with Spirit Fire find healing by integrating their therapies with their efforts to grow in their relationship with God. They share wisdom, experience and faith with others seeking healing, growth and reconciliation.

They work with Church leaders to deepen pastoral care for survivors, their family members and all Catholics, including priests, deacons,…

View Cache

Vigilante parents dug under a preschool, searching for secret tunnels. The police swapped tips on identifying pagan symbols. A company that sells toothpaste and soap had to deny, repeatedly, that it was acting as an agent of Satan.

Early in the 1980s, baseless conspiracy theories about cults committing mass child abuse spread around the country. Talk shows and news programs fanned fears, and the authorities investigated hundreds of allegations. Even as cases slowly collapsed and skepticism prevailed, defendants went to prison, families were traumatized and millions of dollars were spent on prosecutions.

The phenomenon was so sprawling that, in its aftermath, it took on several names, like the ritual abuse scare or the day care panic. But one name has increasingly stuck: the satanic panic.

“The evidence wasn’t there, but the allegations of satanic ritual abuse never really went away,” said Ken Lanning, a former F.B.I….

View Cache

‘Sex, Lies and the Priesthood’ tells the story of the late Richard Sipe, who helped expose abuse.

In a scene in “Spotlight,” the Oscar-winning film about clerical sex abuse, Boston Globe reporters huddle around a speakerphone listening intently to the words of Richard Sipe, portrayed by actor Richard Jenkins.

Sipe, a former Benedictine monk renowned for his defense of clerical sex abuse victims, died at his home in La Jolla at age 85 on Aug. 8, 2018.

Sipe stunned the Globe reporters when he said 50 percent of American Catholic priests do not practice celibacy. He assumed that at least 6 percent of Boston priests were sexual predators.

He was wrong. The Globe uncovered nearly 100 priest predators in the Boston archdiocese, about 10 percent of its clergy.

The Globe series, relying heavily on Sipe’s research, won a Pulitzer Prize and led to Cardinal Bernard Law’s early retirement and transfer to Rome.

“Sex, Lies and the…

View Cache

University President Tania Tetlow sent out a statement via email this morning addressing a rape allegation against Rev. Ted Dziak, former VP for Mission and Identity at Loyola.

This statement comes after a Nola.com article that details accusations against Dziak, former Loyola priest, of rape and inappropriate conduct while on mission trips through Jesuit Volunteers International, an international volunteer program Dziak founded. The allegations did not occur during Dziak’s time at Loyola.

Tetlow claims Loyola only recently found out about the allegations after being contacted by a reporter for comment. The university is not aware of any allegations against Dziak during his time at Loyola, according to Tetlow.

Dziak left Loyola in the summer of 2020 after a year-long, faith-based sabbatical, according to former Loyola Maroon articles.

In the Nola.com article, Tim Ballard, 40, detailed accusations that Dziak raped him on a volunteer mission in…

View Cache

A Chicago priest has been asked to step away from ministry following a report of minor sex abuse from over 35 years ago.

In a letter to members of the Christ the King parish and school, Cardinal Blase Cupich said the archdiocese received a minor sex abuse allegation involving Rev. Lawrence Sullivan.

Sullivan has agreed to cooperate with the request and will live away from the parish, the archdiocese said.

Rev. James Mezydlo will serve as the temporary administrator of Christ the King Parish and will attend to the needs of the parish and school.

The archdiocese said the report alleges that Sullivan sexually assaulted a minor 36 years ago when he was 18. They did not specify if he was involved in ministry at that time or not.

Sullivan has been at Christ the King, which is located in Beverly, for the past six years, according to his biography.

…

View Cache

[Includes Twitter video clip of David Clohessy speaking about the experience for a survivor of coming forward.]

Holding signs like “Split hairs or protect kids” outside of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, members and supporters of a group of clergy sexual abuse survivors urged Springfield Catholic Bishop Thomas John Paprocki Wednesday to include five more names on the diocese’s list of “credibly accused” priests.

All five of the accused served at parishes or studied in the Springfield diocese, which includes 28 counties in central Illinois.

Four of the priests who have had accusations made against them are deceased, confirmed David Clohessy, a spokesman and former executive director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

The Springfield diocese “credibly accused” list includes “cases of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy in this diocese as disclosed in our voluntary review with the…

View Cache

Interview by Adam Van Brimmer

The following is an excerpt from a “Difference Makers” podcast interview with Bishop Stephen Parkes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah. Comments have been condensed in the interest of space. Full episodes are available at SavannahNow.com/podcasts or through mobile device podcast apps by searching “Savannah Difference Makers”.

Question: You are one of two priests — bishops actually — in your family, as your brother leads the Diocese of St. Petersburg. Are we to assume that you grew up in a devout home? 

Stephen Parkes: “Growing up, faith was always important. That said, I’ve often thought that we were not a particularly devotional family. We prayed before meals. We went to mass on Sunday. I had the opportunity to go to Catholic school from first grade through eighth grade. But otherwise, our family was into many different things, many different activities. Church was always important. Church was always a priority. And…

View Cache

[See also the decision and the original indictment.

The 10th Circuit upheld a federal grand jury’s conviction of a former priest on seven counts of sexual abuse against a 10-year-old boy dating back to the 90s.

Arthur Perrault, a former Roman Catholic priest who served at several parishes in Albuquerque, New Mexico, fled the country in 1992 to Canada and then Morocco after learning of a local reporter’s investigation into allegations that Perrault sexually abused young boys.

“After a two-week sojourn in Canada, Perrault made a new life in Morocco — a country, as it so happens, that doesn’t share an extradition treaty with the United States,” wrote Circuit Judge Gregory Phillips, a Barack Obama nominee, in the 58-page decision.

Following a federal grand jury in 2017 that charged Perrault with six counts of aggravated sexual abuse and a count of abusive sexual contact with a minor…

View Cache

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a former Roman Catholic priest’s convictions and 30-year prison sentence in a New Mexico case centered on sexual abuse of an altar boy at a veterans cemetery and military base.

A 58-page decision by the three judges on a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied Arthur Perrault’s appeal, saying they were convinced Perrault “received a fundamentally fair trial in compliance with his constitutional rights.”

Perrault had fled the United States decades before he was returned from Morocco after being indicted in 2017.

Perrault was convicted in April 2019 of six counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact with a minor under 12. He maintained his innocence during his October 2019 sentencing.

Formerly a pastor at an Albuquerque parish and a chaplain at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, Perrault was accused of sexually abusing a boy…

View Cache

The Diocese of Syracuse will hold a Mass for Healing on April 29 after nearly 400 sex abuse claims involving the diocese have been filed.

“One victim of sexual abuse is too many,” said an April 19 letter from Bishop Douglas Lucia of Syracuse to his diocese. “And so, to see the number ‘371’ is particularly disheartening and of the greatest concern for me because of the damage done both directly and collaterally,” he said of the 371 claims that had been filed under the state’s Child Victims Act.

Lucia said that he is renewing his commitment and that of the Diocese of Syracuse to assist survivors of sexual abuse with their healing. 

“We seek to make amends for the wrong and sinful behavior perpetrated against you and cannot apologize enough for the failure to protect you from your abusers,” said the bishop. 

New York’s Child Victims Act created a…

View Cache

In the wake of reports on how clergy sex abuse was handled, laypeople in Cologne Archdiocese want more of a say

[Via Union of Catholic Asian News]

Catholic laypeople in the Archdiocese of Cologne have called for a local synod to address the ongoing crisis in Germany’s most populous diocese.

“We must make every effort to reestablish a genuine dialogue between the cardinal, senior members of the diocesan leadership and the grassroots of the church,” said Tim-O. Kurzbach, president of the Cologne archdiocesan council of Catholics.

However, the German Catholic news agency KNA reported a spokeswoman for the archdiocese said that, under church law, a local synod would not allow the broad participation of the faithful that currently exists in the diocesan “Pastoral Way Forward.”

“In contrast to a diocesan synod — which is a kind of advisory body of selected laypeople and priests — the approach of the Way Forward…

View Cache

Victims of child sexual abuse are deeply wounded by such abuse and the Catholic Church needs to be “more compassionate and caring” toward those victims, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory said at an April 21 Mass in observance of National Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention Awareness Month.

“Many who are victims (of sexual abuse) are people who carry a great wound, and we as their brothers and sisters in Christ need to be reminded that we need to be part of the compassion that Christ wishes to extend to them and their families and loved ones,” Cardinal Gregory said.

Cardinal Gregory celebrated the noon Mass in the Archdiocese of Washington’s Pastoral Center’s St. Ursula Chapel. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, attendance was limited and the Mass was livestreamed.

Sexual abuse and assault victims “carry a wound that is serious and has been life changing for them,” Cardinal Gregory said. “Let…

View Cache

For the first time, prominent Republican state senators on Wednesday put their support behind legislation in Pennsylvania to change the law to allow now-adult victims of child sexual abuse to sue the perpetrators or institutions that did not prevent it when it happened years or decades ago.

The vote, 11-3, in the Senate Judiciary Committee comes after years of damning investigations into child sexual abuse by clergy in Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses and signals that the legislation may have enough Republican support to pass the full state Senate.

Similar legislation passed the House earlier this month and Democrats — including Gov. Tom Wolf, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro and practically all of the party’s members of the Legislature — have backed the effort.

“Today’s vote brings these brave survivors the closest they have been to having their day in court,” Shapiro said in a statement.

Many childhood…

View Cache

Seven men filed a lawsuit last week against St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe, alleging school officials failed to prevent three staff members – all Christian Brothers – from sexually abusing them while they were students decades ago.

The lawsuit filed in 1st Judicial District Court alleges Brothers Andrew Abdon, Louis Brousseau and Tom McConnell abused students while working for the school as teachers and athletics coaches between 1953 and 1980. All three had already been listed on the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s credibly accused list.

The suit also names the school’s parent organization, Brothers of the Christian Schools, as a defendant in the case. Attorney Bill Keeler, who is representing the victims, said that’s because the Brothers supplied the teachers who abused students to the school.

“While these men have each filed a claim in the Archdiocese bankruptcy, the Christian Brothers must also be held accountable for allowing…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Independent Review Board that assists with child protection efforts released the fourth annual reports from the archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection and the review board. 

Archbishop William E. Lori initiated the reports in 2019, with reports from fiscal/reporting years 2017 and 2018 released within months of each other. Since then, the reports have been issued annually.

The latest report, which covers the reporting year from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, notes that the archdiocese was again, as every year, found by outside auditors to be in full compliance with standards set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and its accompanying norms, as well as updates to those policies.

The report details efforts in education, employee and volunteer screening, reporting of allegations and outreach…

View Cache

If we wanted to name the 21st century movie with the best ensemble cast, we could make a strong argument for 2008’s Doubt. In addition to Meryl Streep and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, both playing characters that rank among the richest and most complex of their careers, there was Amy Adams. She was still early in her path to stardom, but this role served as a perfect bridge between the sunny ingénues she specialized in at the time of Enchanted and the severity that would define her later roles. Topping it all off, Viola Davis, then a theater actress unknown to mainstream audiences, appeared for eight minutes in one of the all-time greatest performances with barely any screentime. All four actors earned Oscar nominations.

There was a reason Doubt, specifically, was the film to bring together such a firestorm of acting talent. An adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s Tony-winning…

View Cache

When you think of risky and hazardous careers, reporting the news might not top your list, but there’s more danger involved than you may think. Journalists obtain the facts on the important stories affecting our lives, and it doesn’t always come easily. It’s important to remember some of the most horrific scandals only came to light as a result of the hard-working women and men who make up our newsrooms. 

This is the central idea behind 2015’s Spotlight, an Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The film features an extremely talented group of actors, including the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Michael Keaton, playing the journalists who uncovered a history of abuse within the Catholic Church. It’s difficult subject matter, especially when it focuses on the victims, but it shows the constant struggle between the power of journalism and the influence of the Catholic Church. 

Thankfully, you…

View Cache

A former substitute teacher at Oconto Falls High School was sentenced to two years in prison for engaging in a sexual relationship with a student she coached.

Brynn Larsen, 31, will then serve five years on extended supervision, Judge Michael T. Judge decided.

“There’s no question in my mind that you abused your position of trust and authority as a teacher …,” Judge said Tuesday during sentencing. “There’s no way to say it other than that, and for that, there has to be a consequence.”

Larsen, an Oconto Falls native who was a star athlete at the school, worked there as a substitute teacher with the Oconto Falls School District from 2013 to 2018, and as an assistant coach for the volleyball team.

Acting on an anonymous tip, Oconto Falls police investigated whether Larsen and a then 15-year-old girl were involved in a sexual relationship in May 2014. The student and Larsen denied…

View Cache

A federal judge has blocked an effort by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester to shield the identity of priests accused of sexual abuse during its bankruptcy procedure, after the Democrat and Chronicle objected to the practice.

Gannett Co. Inc., the parent corporation of the Rochester newspaper, filed a motion to intervene in the diocese’s bankruptcy proceeding “in order to enforce the public’s right of access.” 

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2019, saying it could not afford to pay the compensation being demanded in a flood of new civil suits alleging sexual abuse by its priests in past decades. Hundreds of claims have been filed against the diocese as part of the bankruptcy process.

In February, the diocese asked the court to keep the names of alleged abusers named in those claims sealed from public view. 

“While the Diocese has no intention of concealing the…

View Cache

Hotel owner and elder school both make a play for Immaculate Heart property

Perched in the city’s eastern foothills, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Retreat and Conference Center sits in near silence. The coronavirus stopped most activities on the property that’s cradled by the Carmelite monastery, a residential neighborhood of expensive adobes and Museum Hill.

But behind the scenes in recent months, at least two buyers made offers to buy the retreat and conference center property from the struggling Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and a bidding war appears to be taking shape.

The owner of a company based in Austin, Texas, says he has a purchase agreement with the archdiocese to buy the property and turn it into a hotel with a restaurant and bar, which has set off concerns among current tenants and neighbors about noise, a change of pace in the area and proposed rezoning that would be…

View Cache

A former Vermont resident has filed a civil lawsuit in Windsor County Superior Court, alleging the Weston Priory and the Jesuits religious order were negligent in allowing him to be sexually abused as a teenager in about 1970.

Michael Veitch, 66, of New York said he was 15 when priest James Talbot molested him during a visit to the priory, according to claims first reported in 2018.

Talbot, convicted three years ago of sexually abusing a boy in Maine, recently was released from prison. The registered sex offender, now in his 80s, was jailed earlier on another conviction and has settled lawsuits with more than a dozen other plaintiffs, according to media reports.

Veitch attorney Jessica Arbour, noting Vermont’s recent elimination of its statute of limitations on such allegations, said her client “is grateful for the chance to call those who wronged him to account now.”

View Cache

Survivors of sexual abuse by priests, teachers and others rallied outside the Capitol in Harrisburg on Monday, calling for legislation that would create a window in the statute of limitations, allowing lawsuits over long-ago sexual abuse by clergy and others.

Chanting, “No window, no justice,” the group rallied in support of legislation that recently passed the House of Representatives and is pending in the state Senate. It would create a two-year window in the statute of limitations, which normally would prohibit lawsuits to within a few years of a victim becoming an adult.

Many of those who reported abuse by trusted adults said that due to the trauma, it took them years or decades to reach the point where they could seek justice.

Those at the rally have spoken of years of frustration as previous proposals have faltered. A similar measure, which would have created a window by amending the…

View Cache

[Via National Catholic Reporter]

Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner presided over a farewell Mass to the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, April 15, two days after Pope Francis accepted the bishop’s resignation from pastoral governance of the northeast Minnesota diocese.

As requested by the pope, Hoeppner, 71, resigned April 13 following a 20-month investigation into allegations that he mishandled allegations of clergy sexual abuse.

That investigation was the first of a standing U.S. bishop under Pope Francis’ 2019 legislative document “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the light of the world”), which provided universal means for holding bishops and other church leaders accountable for actions in addressing abuse claims, following the abuse scandal of Theodore McCarrick, a former U.S. cardinal.

As metropolitan archbishop of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis oversaw the investigation, which was carried out by a team of experts in…

View Cache

A longtime Baltimore priest has been suspended from ministry after an investigation by police into allegations that he sexually abused a minor in Carroll County starting in about 1989.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has removed the authority of Rev. Martin H. Demek, the pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Bolton Hill, to function as a priest after investigators with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office conducted an inquiry into a report that he sexually abused a minor at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Manchester, where Demek served as pastor from 1987 to 1996.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case, according to Cpl. Jon Light, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, but the archdiocese announced the disciplinary measures after beginning its own investigation late last week.

The alleged victim was 11 at the time of the first reported incident, and multiple incidents allegedly took place, according to a…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Baltimore removed Fr. Martin Demek, pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Baltimore, after it received an allegation of sexual abuse involving an 11-year-old child.

The Archdiocese says it received the allegation earlier this year. The abuse allegedly began in 1989 and allegedly happened multiple times. The Archdiocese says the sexual abuse apparently happened at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Manchester, Maryland.

The Archdiocese says its policy is to suspend Fr. Demek pending a full investigation.

The Archdiocese says it notified the Carroll County Sheriff’s office immediately after receiving the allegation. The sheriff’s office requested that the Archdiocese refrain from investigating on its own until the office gave it permission. The Archdiocese received permission from the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office earlier this week.

Fr. Demek was ordained a priest in 1975. He served as Associate Pastor at Our Lady Queen of Peace (1975-1980), St .Thomas Aquinas (1980-1984),…

View Cache

Bishop Michel Dubost, after running Lyon archdiocese between the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and the appointment of new Archbishop Olivier de Germay, will take on another clerical sexual abuse controversy as the new apostolic administrator of Cayenne diocese in French Guiana. 

Dubost, 78, will temporarily lead the diocese while a canonical inquiry investigates a dispute between retired Bishop Emmanuel Lafont and an illegal  Haitian immigrant who accuses him of sexual abuse. The bishop flatly denied the charge and accused the immigrant of robbery.  

Lafont, who had headed Cayenne diocese since 2004, handed in his resignation last October on his 75th birthday and Pope Francis took the rare step of promptly accepting it. The Cayenne public prosecutor had opened its civil inquiry into the dispute the previous week. 

The Haitian accuses Lafont, a Paris-born and Rome-educated social activist who was previously posted as a priest and then seminary vice-rector in South Africa,…

View Cache

A St. Louis-based group of child sexual abuse survivors and their supporters is calling on the new bishop of the Belleville Diocese to add four names to its publicly available list of accused priests.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, said they found four men who spent time in the Belleville Diocese as they searched the internet for abuse allegations against priests with local ties.

Three of the men appear on lists of accused priests in other states. The fourth man admitted to a Belleville News-Democrat reporter 15 years ago that he had abused children in other states.

“They belong on the (Belleville Diocese) website, plain and simple,” said David Clohessy, the volunteer Missouri director for SNAP.

Monsignor John Myler, a spokesman for the Belleville Diocese, said Bishop Michael McGovern will consider updating the diocese’s…

View Cache

The Bishop of Raphoe has confirmed that a retired priest of the diocese has been charged with assaulting two minors between 1972 and 1975.

It is understood the 85-year-old retired priest has been released on bail after he was charged with 26 counts of indecent assault.

In a statement, Bishop Alan McGuckian says the diocese has been cooperating fully with Gardai and Tusla regarding the case.

He added that they are committed to assisting and supporting anyone who has been a victim of clerical abuse in seeking justice.

As this is an active case, the Bishop says no further comment will be made.

The statement concluded by advising anyone who wishes to report a concern, or complaint of child abuse, either current or historical to do so by contacting the Designated Liaison Person for the diocese or the statutory authorities; Tusla and Gardaí National Protective Services Bureau and in an…

View Cache

Leslie Woodcook Tentler’s American Catholics: A History sails between the Scylla of over-generalization and the Charybdis of perpetually getting lost amidst minor themes. Tentler admirably assigns the people and events she chronicles their appropriate significance, which is a lot harder to do than a non-historian might suppose.

Tentler also indicates in the title that she intends to focus not only on the institution of Catholicism, but on the people who populate that institution, peppering her thematic chapters with short biographical profiles of Catholics who epitomize the themes. The book starts with a sketch of Jesuit Fr. Eusebio Kino, the great Jesuit missionary of the Southwest. A reader might pass over a dry recitation of the religio-cultural atmosphere on the frontier of the Counter-Reformation Church, but in Kino we see the heightened concern for discipline and education of the clergy bearing fruit in vigorous, selfless missionary work.

Tentler then…

View Cache

A 37-year-old Wellesley woman was arraigned on Friday on charges of repeatedly raping a student she met while she was a teacher at a Hudson middle school, prosecutors said.

Caitlin Harding was indicted by a Middlesex grand jury on March 18 on one count of rape of a child by force, three counts of aggravated rape of a child and five counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office.

The defendant allegedly assaulted the girl, who was 13 then, multiple times over the course of several months in 2010, the DA’s Office said.

Harding was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court on Friday and released on personal recognizance on the conditions that she have no direct or indirect contact with the alleged victim or witnesses, have no unsupervised contact with children under 18 and not work or volunteer with children…

View Cache

CRESTWOOD — In the 1950s, the Archdiocese of St. Louis was on the move, trying to catch up with a flock migrating out of the city in droves. New churches were in demand, particularly in south St. Louis County.

The Rev. Vincent J. Duggan, a former 2nd Marine Division chaplain in the South Pacific during World War II, was called in from a tiny parish in Montgomery County, Missouri, to help. His assignment: transform a farm in the 8800 block of Pardee Road into Our Lady of Providence.

With the help of a group of nuns Duggan recruited from Indiana, the church and school quickly became the spiritual home for hundreds of families. Duggan would stay more than two decades, earning high praise from his congregation, according to an extensive online history of the church that champions each milestone.

To this day, Our Lady of Providence is still active. But…

View Cache

A trio of survivors of sexual abuse are inviting the Catholic Church — from parishioners in the pews to the bishops who lead dioceses — to join them on their journey toward healing and reconciliation.

The invitation from Mike Hoffman, who chairs the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Hope and Healing Committee, Mark Williams, a special adviser to Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, and a deacon in the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois who asked to remain anonymous is meant to help the wider church heal as well.

And that means hearing their stories and those of other sexual abuse victims-survivors, they told Catholic News Service in mid-April, which is Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

It’s their belief that by hearing those stories, Catholics will be touched and begin to realize that churchwide healing from the wounds of abuse is a long process, as their…

View Cache

Father Christopher Ciomek, pastor of St. Peter Damian Parish in northwest suburban Bartlett, has been removed from ministry as the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago investigations allegations of child sex abuse dating back 30 years.

“It is with great difficulty that I write to share news about your pastor, Father Christopher Ciomek. In keeping with our child protection policies, I have asked Father Ciomek to step aside from ministry following receipt by the Archdiocese of allegations of sexual abuse of a minor approximately 30 years ago. Allegations are claims that have not been proven as true or false. Therefore, guilt or innocence should not be assumed,” Cardinal Blase Cupich said in a letter to the parish.

According to Ciomek’s biography on the church’s website, he was born in Poland, has been a priest since 1998, starting as a full-time associate pastor at St. Monica Parish in Chicago. He’s also served at St. Theresa Parish in…

View Cache

April 12, 2021

Dear Saint Peter Damian Parish Family, 

It is with great difficulty that I write to share news about your pastor, Father Christopher Ciomek. In keeping with our child protection policies, I have asked Father Ciomek to step aside from ministry following receipt by the Archdiocese of allegations of sexual abuse of a minor approximately 30 years ago. Allegations are claims that have not been proven as true or false. Therefore, guilt or innocence should not be assumed.  

I have further directed Father Ciomek to live away from the parish while the matter is investigated, and he is fully cooperating with this direction. Father Curtis Lambert will serve as temporary administrator of Saint Peter Damian Parish. Father Lambert presently resides in retirement at Saint Peter Damian and, as an experienced pastor, will attend to the needs of the parish community. 

Moreover, as is required by our child protection…

View Cache

There are accusations of abuse against a Catholic priest at a parish in Bartlett.

The Chicago Archdiocese released a letter late Saturday afternoon saying that Cardinal Blase Cupich has asked Father Christopher Ciomek of Saint Peter Damian Parish to step aside following allegations of sexual abuse of a minor approximately 30 years ago.

The Archdiocese said Ciomek has also been directed to live away from the parish while the matter is investigated, and he is fully cooperating.

Church leaders said the allegations were reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Cook County State’s Attorney.

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Seattle has reached settlements totaling just over $1.3 million for four cases involving allegations of sexual abuse against three priests and a youth minister.

The three priests were included on the archdiocese’s “List of Clergy and Religious Brothers and Sisters for Whom Allegations of Sexual Abuse of a Minor Have Been Admitted, Establish or Determined to be Credible” when the list was originally published in January 2016.

On March 6, the archdiocese reached a settlement in a case involving an allegation of sexual abuse by Father Patrick Desmond McMahon in the mid-1970s. McMahon served as pastor at St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Port Townsend from 1973 to 1985. McMahon was put on administrative leave when an individual brought forward an allegation of sexual abuse. He was put on permanent prayer and penance, removing him from service. Later he was returned to the lay…

View Cache

 A Bilgrimage Biography

Ruth Elizabeth Krall, MSN, PhDNote: Since 2015 my friend William D. Lindsey (Bill) has published my work on his blog Bilgrimage. At this time, the blog is inactive, so I have decided to pull together my various posts so that future researchers and academics can find them in one place.  I have arranged this bibliography so that more recent entries follow earlier ones.  

Krall, R. E.  (January 3, 2021).  Persephone’s Journey into the Underworld: Lessons for Our Time.  

Krall, R. E. (December 12, 2020).  A Meditation: The Third Sunday in Advent.  

Lindsey, William.  (December 1, 2020).  Ruth Krall’s Study Course: Black Lives Matter.  

Krall, R. E. (March 2, 2020).  Ruth Krall on the Coronovirus: “If We Fail to Adequately Care for Those Who Cannot Care for Themselves, the Door Will Open to Threaten Us All.”  

Krall, R. E. (February 5,…

View Cache

A Vatican investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of minors by a Detroit-area priest has reached its conclusion, with the Holy See declining to pursue a canonical case, the Archdiocese of Detroit said April 13.

Two years ago, the archdiocese referred the allegations against Fr. Eduard Perrone, pastor of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Grotto) Parish, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “which has the sole authority in the Catholic Church to issue a determination in such cases,” the archdiocese said.

“The CDF has informed the Archdiocese that — without ruling on the merits of the allegations against Fr. Perrone — it has decided not to proceed in this particular case,” a statement from the archdiocese’s communications department said. “Therefore, no further action can be taken in this case under church law.”

In its communication to the archdiocese, the congregation acknowledged that while its investigation into…

View Cache

Jane Doe never attended Mount Cashel Orphanage, but she knows the second-hand impact all too well. 

Nightmares from the dark years her husband John spent there in the 1950s continue to rouse him in the night and for over 20 years she’s been there to comfort him back to sleep. After all that time, John, whose identity is protected for legal purposes, hasn’t fully been able to open up to her about what happened to him at the infamous boys’ orphanage that has become synonymous with sexual and physical abuse.

The couple met in Utah and now live in Idaho, over 6,600 kilometres away from the now demolished orphanage in St. John’s, Newfoundland. As a young man, John moved to the United States hoping to leave that dark past behind him. At 79, he keeps the memories from his four years there as an adolescent from 1954-58 tucked deep down…

View Cache

Victims and relatives complain defence lawyers for two nuns and several other women are stalling trial into historic child sex abuse at Próvolo Institute in Mendoza Province.

Victims and relatives have called for an “end to delays” in the trial of two nuns and seven other women accused of complicity in the sexual abuse of deaf children at the Antonio Próvolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in Mendoza Province, which was postponed last week due to a case of coronavirus.

The second trial in this case, which has shaken up the Catholic Church in the homeland of Pope Francis and which has already seen two priests sentenced to 40-year prison terms in 2019, was postponed last Monday for a fortnight when the defence lawyers pleaded that one of them is in isolation due to Covid-19.

“The defence lawyers of the nuns have been playing their little tricks for…

View Cache

To date, Colorado’s Catholic church has paid out more than $7 million to victims of priest abuse

A state-led investigation into child sex abuse by Catholic priests in Colorado in 2019 discovered 52 priests were responsible for sexually assaulting 212 children between the 1950s and 1999.

Now, one of the victims is telling a story of healing after he reached a settlement with the church.

“I never thought I would come out of the darkness,” said Troy Gallegos, a Denver man who kept his story a secret for more than four decades. “I’m still trying to climb out of there.”

Gallegos was a lead altar boy at Saint Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Denver. He said he kept the secret out of fear and out of respect for his mother’s visible position with the Denver Archdiocese.

“I used to hate to go to school because it was right next to the…

View Cache

When Pope Francis abolished the “pontifical secret” covering the church’s judicial handling of cases of the sexual abuse of minors, it was hailed as a major step forward in promoting greater transparency and accountability.

At first glance, it means victims and witnesses are free to discuss a case and, even though Vatican officials are still obliged to maintain confidentiality, it “shall not prevent the fulfillment of the obligations laid down in all places by civil laws,” the amended law said.

But an additional consequence of this landmark change, enacted in mid-December 2019, will be its potential to provide much-needed practical training and multidisciplinary studies for those involved in the handling of abuse cases.

The faculty of canon law at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University recently announced it is offering a new diploma in penal jurisprudence — an “innovative” yearlong course designed to give canon law graduates practical skills and guidance in…

View Cache

Former Winona pastor Rick Iglesias’ legal defense against sexual abuse charges suffered a setback earlier this month when a judge ruled testimony from Iglesias’ former boss and senior pastor may be used in the case.

Iglesias, 66, was charged in 2019 with repeatedly sexually abusing a minor from 2010 to 2012 when Iglesias was a pastor at Pleasant Valley Church in Winona.

In one of the case’s most significant events to date, defense attorney Kurt Knuesel petitioned the court to suppress testimony from Dr. Kurt Bjorklund. Bjorklund was a minister at a church in Pennsylvania where Iglesias worked in 2019. Bjorklund was Iglesias’ supervisor, the two were old friends from seminary, and Knuesel wrote, Bjorklund was Iglesias’ “only spiritual superior in the church.” In summer 2019, Iglesias asked to meet Bjorklund at his house, reportedly disclosed that he had committed a sexual crime against a minor, and resigned from his…

View Cache

Parents at St. John the Baptist School in Hamilton County, Ohio expressed concern this week about former Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Binzer, who resigned and apologized last year after failing to report concerns about a priest to the archbishop, being assigned to pastor two churches associated with the school. 

The archdiocese has so far responded to the concerns by saying that Bishop Binzer’s role, if any, at the school has not yet been determined, and the archdiocese is listening to concerns from parents and parishioners. 

Bishop Binzer resigned last year as auxiliary bishop after failing to report to the archbishop allegations of inappropriate conduct on the part of a Cincinnati priest. 

Bishop Binzer was earlier this month named pastor of the Corpus Christi and St. John Neumann Pastoral Region, which includes two Catholic churches in Hamilton County. 

Parents say those two parishes feed into the nearby St. John the Baptist School.

…

View Cache

Once again, a news story has broken about a serially abusive Church staffer who has been left off lists of perpetrators in multiple states, replete with weak excuses from Catholic officials attempting to explain away their lack of transparency. This is yet another example of why the only openness we can truly count on in cases of clergy sex crimes is that afforded to the public through grand jury investigations, interventions by attorneys general, and reports to police and prosecutors.

In this case, Deacon James Griffith was known to be an abuser as early as 1988, when he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child in Louisville, KY. Despite that conviction, Deacon Griffith – a member of the Passionist Order – was moved first to the Houston area, then San Antonio, Orlando, the suburbs of Chicago, and finally to metropolitan Detroit.  Despite working in these five places,…

View Cache

DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law Thursday ending the statute of limitations for civil sex abuse cases.

The bill removes the current six-year limitation on bringing a civil claim based on sexual misconduct. It applies to any incidents that happen on or after January 1, 2022.

The legislation defines sexual misconduct and removes restrictions that limit victims’ ability to file a civil action or recover damages.

The bipartisan bill was signed as survivors of sexual assault spoke out about how this bill will change lives.

Polis said he hopes this bill will help heal many people who weren’t able to seek immediate relief.

View Cache

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood on Friday held off on issuing a ruling that could lead to either the inclusion or exclusion of the assets of Catholic parishes and schools to help compensate 281 Guam clergy sex abuse claimants.

The matter is tied to the Archdiocese of Agana’s more-than-2-year-old bankruptcy case.

Mediation so far has not resulted in a plan agreeable to all parties to get the archdiocese out of bankruptcy. There remain lingering questions about the extent of the archdiocese’s assets and insurance coverage, among other things.

Tydingco-Gatewood on Friday heard three hours of opposing arguments on the motion for partial summary judgment that the committee representing clergy sex abuse claimants and other creditors filed in 2019.

The question is whether 33 Catholic parishes and schools are separate entities that can hold property, including beneficial interest in a trust, independent of the archdiocese, or the debtor.

If the…

View Cache

Franciscan University has provided the following statement after former Franciscan University priest, David R. Morrier, allegedly convinced a student he was counseling that having sex with him was necessary for mental health treatment purposes.

“The University has cooperated and will continue to cooperate fully with authorities concerning the conduct of Father David Morrier who entered a plea of not guilty during his arraignment today for a very serious crime.

We are aware of the pain so many people have experienced from criminal sexual misconduct committed by some in the Church and continue to offer atonement and prayers of healing for those victims. The University wants a just outcome. These charges are being dealt with in the court system where they belong. Franciscan University will not be commenting further on this case while it is still ongoing.

Sexual assault is not only a crime but a serious sin, and when Franciscan University receives sexual misconduct…

View Cache

KEY POINTS

• David Morrier was a priest at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio when he allegedly raped the student
• He convinced the victim that engaging in sexual acts would help with her mental health issues, officials say
• Loretto-based Franciscan Friars said Morrier was dismissed in 2015 for allegations of sexual misconduct

A former priest from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio pleaded not guilty in court Wednesday to allegations that he raped a student from November 2010 to spring 2013.

David Morrier, 59, who was a friar of the Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance, entered a not guilty plea to one count of rape and two counts of sexual battery before a Jefferson County, Ohio, grand jury, WTRF reported. The charges stemmed from a complaint reported in 2018 to the Catholic Diocese of Steubenville by the alleged victim. 

Jefferson County Prosecutor Jane…

View Cache

Q: Dear Rabbi Gellman, I really enjoy reading your God Squad column. I am a Christian, but boy do I have questions.

I do believe in God, although I don’t think we really understand God. At least I don’t. I wonder how or why a perfect God could have created such imperfect people. We don’t take care of our planet; we are not kind to animals or even each other. People can be awful. Greed and vanity run amok. I do know that people can sometimes be wonderful too.

I see organized religion as somewhat of a construct to control the masses. Scandals rock the Catholic Church. I knew a pastor with a small Baptist Church who left his wife and son and ran off with another woman. He also left his church behind. But he wants to tell me how to keep my house in order? That one made…

View Cache

Is it just our impression or does the Camden Catholic diocese have a greater problem with clergy sex crimes and cover ups than most dioceses?

That’s of course hard to determine and fundamentally unfair.

The phrase “more than most” is vague, especially given that there are about 180 Catholic dioceses across the United States.

A better metric to consider is this: How does the rate of clergy sex abuse in the Diocese of Camden compare to dioceses of about the same size?

And using this scale, indeed, our hunch that there are more child molesting clerics in Camden than other places seems to be right.

According to BishopAccountability.org and Catholic-Hierarchy.org, the Camden diocese has a Catholic population of 458,000.

So Camden is just a little BIGGER than the San Francisco archdiocese (425,000 Catholics), the Paterson NJ diocese (420,000 Catholics), the Rockford IL diocese (420,000 Catholics) and

Camden has 68 publicly…

View Cache

Father Paul Breau died last June at the age of 89

The death of a former Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting boys won’t affect a lawsuit against him and the church. 

Moncton lawyer Brian Murphy said the case against Father Paul Breau will go ahead because it also names the Catholic Archdiocese of Moncton. 

“We consider that the diocese is responsible for the actions of the various priests who have been sued … so it really doesn’t make much difference at all in the case going forward,” he said when reached by phone Thursday.  

Breau, the former chaplain at the University of Moncton, died in June at the age of 89, reported Radio-Canada. He was buried in Notre-Dame-du-Calvaire cemetery in Dieppe.

He was one of three former priests named in a series of lawsuits by roughly 30 plaintiffs. 

Murphy represents nine of those plaintiffs — all men who say they…

View Cache

Colorado’s governor has signed SB 73 into law, an important piece of legislation that will protect future children from abuse and provide more current victims with a pathway to justice. We applaud this development and appreciate the many survivors who shared their stories, testified in support of this reform, and worked tirelessly with their legislative allies to get this needed bill passed.

Even though SB 73 only helps survivors whose statute of limitations has not run by January 1, 2022, when this bill takes effect, as well as future sexual assault victims, this reform demonstrates that the Colorado legislature recognizes the seriousness of this public health crisis. We are grateful that they are willing to do what they can to better protect the vulnerable and confront those who hide and enable sexual predators.

It is a fact that current and past civil statutes have protected the wrong individuals and institutions…

View Cache

Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law Thursday and it’ll take effect Jan. 1, 2022

With a few simple strokes of his pen, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law Thursday something that was decades in the making: removing the statute of limitations for survivors of sexual abuse to sue — no matter how much time has passed.

Senate Bill 21-073 was sent to the governor on April 8 and the law will take effect Jan. 1, 2022. It doesn’t apply retroactively, so victims whose statute of limitations have already expired will not be able to sue their abusers in civil court.

The law will apply for any civil case where:

• the statute of limitations hasn’t yet expired;
• the abuse happened in Colorado; and
• the abuse could be considered a felony or Class 1 misdemeanor if it was a criminal case.

The governor noted he was signing the bill during Child…

View Cache

Beginning on January 1, 2022, survivors of childhood sex abuse and other types of sexual misconduct will be able to hold their perpetrators accountable in Colorado’s legal system, no matter how much time has elapsed since the offense.

Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday signed Senate Bill 73, which removes the restrictive statute of limitations placed on victims to file civil lawsuits against their perpetrators or institutions — like employers or youth programs — that are implicated in the misconduct. Enactment of the legislation comes 15 years after an intense lobbying effort killed a similar attempt at increasing the length of time survivors had to sue for their injuries.

“Victims deserve justice whenever they choose to seek it. Outdated laws won’t be able to stop them anymore,” said Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City, one of the bill’s sponsors. The other House of Representatives sponsor, Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta, called…

View Cache

Another motion hearing was heard today in Guam District court in the long-running clergy sex abuse civil case.

The church first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2019. It was forced to sell off assets such as the former Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona to help pay for more than 200 claims filed against local Catholic clergy for alleged abuse that dates back decades. Today Archdiocese of Agana Attorney Ford El-Saesser argued to exclude other church assets from any claims settlement.

“We believe that the parishes are not part of the bankruptcy property, the bankruptcy estate as it’s called, and I think you’ve all heard the arguments and reported on them,” he said. “So I don’t really want to get into a discussion especially since while we’re really just waiting on the judge’s decision. And we’ll be able to answer the questions then, thanks.”

The church has been in…

View Cache

A Cincinnati bishop who resigned after failing to report misconduct accusations involving a priest he supervised will soon get a new job as pastor of two parishes.

The Rev. Joseph Binzer, who resigned as the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s auxiliary bishop more than a year ago, is set to take over as pastor on July 1 at Corpus Christi and St. John Neumann parishes in Springfield Township north of Cincinnati.

Some parishioners and lay Catholic groups are outraged by the move, saying Binzer can’t be trusted to lead families or to protect children at the two parishes.

“It feels like the archdiocese is slapping us in the face,” said Teresa Dinwiddie-Herrmann, a leader of Concerned Catholics Cincinnati. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Binzer resigned his post as auxiliary bishop in 2019 after acknowledging he failed to report accusations of inappropriate behavior with children involving the Rev. Geoff Drew, who…

View Cache

France’s highest court has cleared Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of charges that he covered up the sexual abuse of children by another priest.

After a yearslong legal saga, on Wednesday French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was cleared of charges of covering up the abuse of minors.

Agreeing with a verdict from a court of appeal, the Court of Cassation’s ruling has brought an end to the legal procedure against Barbarin and will prevent further cases from being filed.

Barbarin, 70, had been accused of shielding the now-defrocked priest, Bernard Preynat, who has acknowledged abusing more than 75 boys over a period of decades.

What did the court say about the case?

The case once against brought the Roman Catholic Church under scrutiny for how it deals with pedophile priests.

The court ruled that Barbarin was not obliged to report the abuse as the victims had reached adulthood and were socially integrated, without illness or…

View Cache

Bishop Michael Hoeppner, who has resigned as Bishop of Crookston after being accused of mishandling cases of priests accused of sexual misconduct, apologized Tuesday for his failures at governing the diocese.

“The Church describes the ministry of a diocesan bishop as teaching, sanctifying and governing. It has been a joy and a blessing for me to have served as your bishop for the past 13+ years. I apologize to you, as I have apologized to our Holy Father, for my failures in governing as bishop,” Bishop Hoeppner wrote in an April 13 letter to the faithful of the Diocese of Crookston.

The resignation of Bishop Hoeppner had been accepted earlier that day.

Bishop Hoeppner, 71, was the first U.S. bishop to be investigated under Vos estis lux mundi, Pope Francis’ 2019 norms on investigating bishops accused of mishandling or obstructing allegations of clerical sexual abuse.

The bishop is reported to have…

View Cache

Parents of young children at a private Catholic school say they are infuriated and may withdraw their students after the Archdiocese of Cincinnati assigned a former high-ranking bishop who resigned in the fallout over a priest charged with raping an altar boy to be the pastor at two churches affiliated with their school.

“We are outraged. We are being ignored and our children’s safety is not being considered at all,” said Kim McRoberts, whose 11-year-old daughter is in the fifth grade at St. John The Baptist School on Dry Ridge Road in Colerain Township.

Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Joseph Binzer was assigned effective July 1 to oversee Corpus Christi Catholic Church off Springdale Road in Mt. Healthy and St. John Neumann Catholic Church located on Mill Road in Springfield Township, the archdiocese confirmed to FOX19 NOW earlier this week,

Parents say those two parishes and a third one, St. John The…

View Cache

Seven former students and one parent traveled from across the country to testify Wednesday before a Missouri Senate committee about abuse inside Missouri’s Christian boarding schools.

After hearing about years of abuse, Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, lashed out at the owners and staff leaders of unlicensed schools accused of abuse.

“These aren’t people of faith that are running these. These are evil monsters, and they’re counterfeits of true Christianity,” Brattin said during the 90-minute hearing. “To hear this sort of abuse, I think of Christ when he spoke of harming these little ones — it is better for them to be thrown in the deepest sea than to harm one.

“And to think that these facilities hide beneath the religious aspect of it. Government is instituted by God to be that justice arm. And we are to protect those kids no matter where they’re at. So we’ve got to do…

View Cache

As stated by Jeff Anderson, the Resignation of former Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner of the Diocese of Crookston is because of:

• It happened because of the courage of the survivors, including Ron Vasek, who stood up and made their voices heard.
• It happened because litigation initiated by the survivors allowed excavation of secret documents.
• It happened because Hoeppner and top officials were forced to testify under oath.
• It happened because the courthouse doors were open to survivors under the Minnesota Child Victims Act.
• It happened because light brings heat and heat brings change.

(Saint Paul, MN) – A 2017 lawsuit brought by attorney Jeff Anderson of Jeff Anderson & Associates on behalf of courageous survivor, Ron Vasek, resulted in the investigation and ultimate removal of former Bishop of the Crookston diocese, Michael J. Hoeppner.  Hoeppner was one of two bishops in the United States initially investigated and ultimately forced to resign under the Vatican’s…

View Cache

In September of 2019, it was announced that a Minnesota bishop was placed under investigation for covering up cases of clergy abuse. Today, he resigned before the results of that investigation were made public.

We are glad that one less diocese in the US is led by a prelate who put their reputation over the protection of children. We would have preferred, however, if Catholic officials in the Vatican had moved to fire Bishop Michael Hoeppner instead of asking for his resignation. While the result is the same, we feel that a stronger message would have been sent by ousting Bishop Hoeppner instead of asking him to leave, as there is a difference in forcing someone out versus asking them to remove themselves of their own accord.

We hope that the results of the investigation will still be released and that the Vatican will not use this…

View Cache

(This is the April 2021 “What I Have Seen and Heard” column by Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, for the Catholic Standard and Spanish-language El Pregonero newspapers and websites of the Archdiocese of Washington.)

Organized religions have experienced an obvious and steady decline in membership and active participation over the past generation. Statistical numbers from Gallup, Pew Research Center, and CARA (the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate) now confirm what religious leadership has already recognized. This reality has certainly been exacerbated with the global pandemic. The impact has touched every religious community – some more intensely than others – and no faith tradition has been impervious to these changes.

The statistical studies describe declines in a number of assorted categories, which are not always identical.  Some investigations focus on a loss in formal registration numbers or religious affiliation or membership at a specific church congregation, synagogue…

View Cache

Bishops in the news this week point to a question important but unaddressed by the Apostolic See and U.S. Catholic leaders: What should happen next for bishops forced to leave office after failures in administrative leadership and governance? 

Should they be formally deposed? Are they expected to ride off into the sunset? Is there some role for them in the Church? Are they supposed to be “cancelled?”

The question is especially vexing for bishops who have been permitted to resign, rather than being formally removed for some clearly stated misdeeds.

Unless the Holy See addresses that question, differing sets of expectations will lead inevitably to frustration among practicing Catholics about what such bishops are doing, and how other Catholic leaders have seemed to respond.

And those problems will not soon go away.

On Tuesday, the Holy See announced the resignation of Bishop Michael Hoeppner of Crookston, Minnesota. Hoeppner’s resignation followed…

View Cache

After resigning under a cloud of suspicion, the former Bishop of Crookston, Mn., Michael J. Hoeppner, will preside over his own “farewell” Mass at the cathedral on Thursday.

Pillar Catholic reported late Tuesday that the liturgy is billed as a “Mass of Thanksgiving” in a memo that went to Crookston priests, and that the Apostolic Administrator appointed for Crookston, 78-year-old Bishop Richard Pates (emeritus of Des Moines, Iowa) will concelebrate.

The statement from the Press Office of the Holy See announcing Bishop Hoeppner’s resignation gave no reason, but a statement posted to the website of the Crookston diocese on Tuesday said that Pope Francis “asked for, and has now accepted” Bishop Hoeppner’s resignation “after an extensive investigation.”

That investigation – three, in the event, or one investigation in three stages – fell to the Archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis, Bernard Hebda, as the metropolitan archbishop in charge of the ecclesiastical province to which…

View Cache

Three priests associated with a minor seminary located in the Vatican testified that they neither witnessed nor were informed of suspected cases of sexual abuse occurring at the school.

Taking the stand at the Vatican City State criminal court April 14, the three priests affiliated with the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary also cast doubt on the testimony of Kamil Jarzembowski, a former student who said he witnessed “dozens” of instances of abuse at the minor seminary.

Jarzembowski, the first former student to speak publicly of abuse at the seminary, told the court March 26 he saw Father Gabriele Martinelli, who at the time was a student at the seminary, enter the dormitory room he shared with L.G., the student Martinelli is accused of abusing.

The abuse was said to have occurred between 2007 and 2012. Although both were under the age of 18 when the abuse was said to have…

View Cache

To help foster a wider discussion on work that still must be done to safeguard minors and vulnerable people in the Catholic Church, a canon law journal published a series of talks by experts regarding accountability, transparency and confidentiality in the handling of abuse allegations.

The talks were part of a seminar in December 2019 sponsored by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to address the topics as well as the seal of confession and the pontifical secret.

The “Periodica” journal of the faculty of canon law at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University published the talks at the end of 2020.

Among the suggestions for improvements, Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, adjunct secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said more could be done in supporting the rights of victims.

Pope Francis’ “Vos estis lux mundi” provides for the first time “a universal law that states…

View Cache

COMMENTARY: Since the unanimous judgment, four major developments occurred.

One of the striking sights of Holy Week 2021 was Cardinal George Pell, a head taller than most of his fellow prelates, clearly visible at the papal liturgies.

It was during Holy Week 2020 that his long criminal ordeal came to an end, freed from more than 400 days in solitary confinement, exonerated of sexual abuse by a unanimous judgment of Australia’s High Court.

In the intervening year, there have been four major developments in Cardinal Pell’s story. 

The most significant is the publication of the first volume of Prison Journal, the daily diary that Cardinal Pell wrote while incarcerated. With a spirit remarkably free of bitterness or self-pity, the cardinal recalls how his world shrank to his cell, “seven to eight metres long, more than two meters wide on the side of the opaque window.”

Confined day and night, save for…

View Cache

A former Roman Catholic priest working as a psychologist in Rhode Island was arrested Wednesday on a warrant that accuses him of sexually abusing children in California, authorities said. 

Christopher Cunningham was captured by the Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force at a house in Newport, according to a news release. 

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced that Cunningham had been charged with sexually assaulting four boys at two different parishes dating back more than two decades. 

He faces 12 felony counts of lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14, according to Gascon’s office.

“The victims were innocent children who have spent most of their lives with the trauma caused by the abuse alleged in this case,” Gascón said. “My office is committed to holding accountable anyone who abuses and takes advantage of our children, especially when they hold a position of trust.” 

Cunningham, who is accused of multiple counts of lewd…

View Cache

A former Catholic priest has been charged with sexually assaulting four children in Los Angeles County while serving at churches in Palmdale and Redondo Beach in the late 1990s and early 2000s, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Christopher John Cunningham, 58, was charged with 12 counts of committing lewd acts upon a minor, according to a news release issued by the L.A. County district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors allege that Cunningham sexually assaulted an 11-year-old boy on two occasions between 1995 and 1997 while serving as a priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Palmdale. Cunningham also molested another boy at the child’s home between 1996 and 1998, according to the district attorney’s office.

After being reassigned to Saint Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church in Redondo Beach, prosecutors say, Cunningham sexually abused a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy repeatedly between 1998 and 2001.

“The victims were innocent children who have spent most of…

View Cache