ABUSE TRACKER

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An effort to eliminate clergy privilege and force religious leaders to report child abuse to legal authorities was unable to get enough votes to make it out of committee Tuesday after days of backroom drama. 

Currently, only Guam, New Hampshire and West Virginia consider clergy mandated reporters and clergy-penitent privilege is waived in cases of suspected child abuse or neglect in those states. 

In Arizona (and everywhere else), clergy are not mandated reporters and suspected child abuse or neglect isn’t exempted from that, even if it is ongoing. And religious leaders cannot be forced to testify in court about abuse a parishoner confessed to committing. 

The effort has been spearheaded by Sen. Victoria Steele, D-Tucson, who introduced Senate Bill 1008 earlier this year…

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An anonymous plaintiff last week filed a lawsuit against former Albany bishop Howard Hubbard, alleging that Hubbard molested him in 1977, soon after his installation as bishop. 

The diocese of Albany confirmed to CNA on Wednesday that Hubbard will be investigated according to Vos estis lux mundi, the procedure for investigating abuse accusations against bishops that Pope Francis promulgated in May 2019. 

Also named in the suit are the diocese of Albany and St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Clifton Park, New York, north of the city. 

Bishop Hubbard led the diocese from March 1977 until 2014, and was succeeded by current bishop Edward Scharfenberger. 

The suit alleges that “in or about the summer of 1977,” when the alleged victim was 11 years old, Hubbard approached him in a storage room during a carnival being held at St. Edward parish, and sexually assaulted him. 

Under Vos estis, bishops accused of sexual…

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[Via Crux]

Pennsylvania lawmakers on Wednesday finished a new first round of approvals for a constitutional amendment giving victims of child sexual abuse the power to file what would otherwise be outdated claims, but it will be 2023 at the earliest before it takes effect.

The House voted 188 to 13 to approve the proposed constitutional amendment, which must pass both chambers in two consecutive two-year legislative sessions before going before voters as a referendum.

Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, said he was hopeful that lawmakers will also pass the window as regular legislation, as a state law would take effect more quickly while the slower constitutional amendment process continues.

He called it the first step in what he hopes will be a dual track process.

Supporters say a two-year “window” to file lawsuits over older claims of abuse is needed to give victims a path to justice, taking into account…

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A Fort Lauderdale police officer — a security officer at two Catholic schools — has been arrested on charges that he engaged in sexual chats online with an undercover detective who he believed was an underage girl.

Investigators say Louis James Walsh, 29, sent a photo of himself online and exposed his private parts, unaware that he was chatting with an undercover detective in Minnesota.

Broward sheriff’s detectives arrested Walsh at the Fort Lauderdale Police Department on Wednesday in conjunction with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a national law enforcement network that targets child abuse and exploitation.

Walsh also works special security details at Cardinal Gibbons High School and St. Anthony Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale. He is an assistant wrestling coach at Cardinal Gibbons.

Walsh — accused of sending one photo of his private parts on Monday and another on Tuesday — faces two counts of transmission…

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Rome – In a bid to curb the Vatican’s financial deficit amid coronavirus losses and an impending pension crisis, Pope Francis has ordered several pay cuts targeting clergy and higher-ups, but which appear to leave most regular lay employees largely unaffected.

In a March 24 motu proprio, meaning a piece of legislation issued on the pope’s own authority, Francis announced that in order to maintain “an economically sustainable future,” as of April 1, 2021, cardinals paid by the Holy See will receive a 10 percent pay cut. Other department superiors will be cut eight percent, and the salaries of clergy and religious will be cut by three percent.

In general, Vatican cardinals reportedly receive a monthly stipend in the neighborhood of $4,700 to $6,000, so the pay cut implies a reduction of $470 to $600.

According to the new law, these reductions do not apply if a person can demonstrate that…

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This has come up in a thread again, so I thought I would regale you with a piece I wrote now three years ago on the subject, but now with some updated tweaks.

This is a question that has been kicking around ever since the child sex abuse scandal involving the Catholic church came to the fore. In around 2010, loads of articles came out, citing some data, that the priesthood was broadly in line with national averages, some people claimed it was actually worse in Protestant churches/organisations, and many claiming (as a result) that this was not a Catholic problem per se, and that other denominations rate the same.

The reality could be, as Andrew Brown surmised, that the notoriety of the scandal and public perception might be skewed because of the institutional cover-up of the Catholic church. Or it could be…

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[Photo above: Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaks during an Aug. 14, 2018, press conference to announce the results of a grand jury investigation that revealed abuse of thousands of children by Catholic Church priests and lay people. Associated Press]

Abuse window vote could come in 2023

The state House on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation that would allow voters to decide whether to open a window for lawsuits by adult survivors of childhood sex abuse.

The measure wouldn’t, however, place the question on the ballot before 2023.

The move to amend the Constitution came after years of lobbying by survivors of priest abuse. The effort picked up steam in 2018 after a statewide grand jury revealed that church officials in six Catholic dioceses had covered up abuse by 300 priests.

The question had been on track to be on the ballot in May but the Department of…

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The Rhode Island Catholic church and the state’s insurance lobby are once again leading the charge against legislative efforts to extend the deadline for  lawsuits by victims of childhood sex abuse.

This year, the effort focuses on “time-barred” lawsuits against people and institutions who enabled and protected abusers by looking the other way or concealing their crimes. 

In written testimony, the chief lobbyist for the Providence Diocese, the Rev. Bernard Healey, voiced these “serious concerns” about the legislation headed for a House hearing on Wednesday night:

“It complicates and impedes the administration of justice … does little to protect victims, and subjects an institution that has made tremendous and demonstrable strides on the issues surrounding child sexual abuse to liability stemming from activity that occurred literally decades ago.”

“Guess what?” responded state Rep. Carol McEntee responded during a telephone interview on Wednesday. “These victims are still alive and they are still suffering and the church still lawyers up, like David and Goliath.” 

…

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Pope Francis has named a gay man to a commission that advises him on protecting children from pedophile priests.

Juan Carlos Cruz — a survivor of clerical sex abuse in Chile — was named to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The Associated Press on Wednesday reported nuns, laypeople, a bishop and a priest are among the commission’s other members.

Cruz on Wednesday told the Washington Blade during a telephone interview from Chile that Francis “decided he wanted me on the commission.”

“I’m very honored,” said Cruz. “I’m a survivor. I’m gay. I’m a lay person. I’m Catholic.”

Cruz is among the hundreds of people who a now-defrocked priest sexually abused in his parish in El Bosque, a wealthy neighborhood in the Chilean capital of Santiago over more than three decades.

Cruz and two other men — José Murillo and James Hamilton — in 2010 went public with their…

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[Includes two English-language videos: Germany’s Catholic Church: Too white and too eurocentric? (a profile and interview with Fr. Regamy Thillainathan of the Cologne archdiocese); and Report on abuse by Cologne Catholic clergymen released, an interview with correspondent Martin Gak.]

A system of “silence, secrecy and lack of oversight” led to a lack of compassion for the victims of sexual abuse by the clergy, a German cardinal has announced.

Archbishop of Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki said he bore some responsibility for the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the German Catholic Church and that there was an effort in the Cologne diocese to cover up cases of sexual abuse. He did not, however, offer to resign, saying such a move would be a short-lived symbolic step. He instead vowed to do “everything humanly possible” to prevent sexual abuse in the Church.

An independent report released last week showed 314 people…

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[Via KETK]

[Photo above: In this April 24, 2018 file photo, clergy sex abuse survivor and victim’s advocate Juan Carlos Cruz, from Chile, is interviewed by The Associated Press, outside the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square, in Rome, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Pope Francis on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 named Cruz, who helped uncover a clerical sex abuse scandal, to a Vatican commission which advises the pontiff on how to protect children from pedophile clergy. (AP Photo / Andrew Medichini, file)]

Pope Francis on Wednesday named a Chilean man who helped uncover a clerical sex abuse scandal to a Vatican commission that advises the pontiff on how to protect children from pedophile clergy.

The Vatican said Juan Carlos Cruz is the latest member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Other members of the panel include a bishop, priest, nuns and laypersons.

Cruz and other survivors of a prominent…

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Juan Carlos Cruz first to denounce predator priest Karadima

Pope Francis on Wednesday named a victim of clerical sex abuse in Chile to the Vatican’s panel for the protection of minors.

Juan Carlos Cruz, the first victim of notorious predator priest Fernanda Karadima to come forward, was appointed a member of the Pontifical Commission for Safeguarding Minors.

 In March 2019 a Santiago appeals court on ordered the Chilean Catholic Church to pay damages of 150,000 dollars each to three of Karadima’s victims including Cruz.

The other two were James Hamilton and and Jose’ Andres Murillo.

On September 28 2018 Pope Francis defrocked Karadima.

In February 2011, after several years of a Catholic canonical investigation, the Vatican found Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors and psychological abuse in Chile.

The case sparked a wider child-sex-abuse scandal that the Chilean Church has yet to fully recover from.

Many of the local faithful…

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A theologian has pointed the blame directly at the hierarchy and structure of the Catholic Church for abuse by priests.

Dr Tom Doyle, who is a priest, canon lawyer and addictions therapist, has given evidence to the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care in Auckland.

He said the so-called mystic aura of a priest had given him super human status.

Dr Doyle, who beamed in via an audio visual link from the United States, told the inquiry priests suffered from what he called clerical narcissism.

”It goes with the clerical faith, the clerical culture, because you are taught in the seminary that you are going to be above others who are lower people that have sex. You are going to be above them.”

Dr Doyle said rather than there being a few bad apples, the problem was the barrel itself – the church structure.

He said the reputation of the…

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When he was 17-year-old, Elissandro Nazare de Siqueira was trying to make a living for himself in São Paulo when he met Father Bartolomeu da Silva Paz, a priest known for his lively Masses and his charitable enterprises.

Siqueira is from Manaus, in Brazil’s Amazon region, and never finished school. He describes himself as shy, and at the time he met the priest was working in a cafeteria.

At first, he saw Paz as a savior, since the priest found him a small room in the house of one of his parishioners, and he became the handyman of the parish of Nossa Senhora de Monte Serrat.

Yet soon Siqueira claims an abusive relationship began: He said that in a secluded house owned by the parish, the priest got him drunk and raped him.

The alleged abuse would continue for three years, between 2014 and 2017. Siqueira claimed he continued to…

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A move to use an emergency provision to change the state Constitution to allow adult survivors of childhood sex abuse to sue their perpetrators and organizations that covered up for the predators seems to be stalled after Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward announced Monday there’s not enough support in her caucus for the move.

Ward, a Republican from Westmoreland County, said the effort to change the Constitution despite the bungling of a public notice requirement by the Department of State doesn’t amount to an emergency that would justify changing the Constitution immediately.

“After careful consideration, it has been determined by the majority that this matter does not meet the emergency status criteria and does not correct the failure by the Wolf administration,” she said.

The Senate on Monday began teeing up legislation that would rely on the normal process for amending the Constitution to open the window for lawsuits –…

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An advocacy group is calling on Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, to remove from ministry a pastor and parochial vicar at Our Lady Star of the Sea R.C. Church in Huguenot amid sex-abuse allegations.

The Rev. Thomas Devery, pastor of the large parish on the South Shore, acknowledged in a letter to parishioners dated March 18 that sex-abuse claims are pending against both him and the Rev. Basil Akut, a parochial vicar.

The pastor’s letter came days after the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a support group for victims of alleged abuse, issued a news release on March 15 claiming that Cardinal Dolan did not inform Sea parishioners about the allegations.

SNAP alleged that Fathers Devery and Akut were allowed to continue in ministry after claims were made against them.

“It seems to us that in the interest of…

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The Roman Catholic archbishop of the German city of Cologne said Tuesday that he made mistakes in past cases involving sexual abuse allegations against priests, although a report has cleared him of wrongdoing, but made clear he has no intention of resigning.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki was speaking after the release last week of a report he commissioned on church officials’ response to past abuse allegations. The findings have prompted the current archbishop of Hamburg to offer his resignation to Pope Francis, while three Cologne church officials, including two auxiliary bishops, were suspended.

The report found 75 cases in which eight high-ranking officials — including Woelki’s predecessor — neglected their duties to either follow up on, report or sanction cases of alleged abuse by clergy and lay church employees, and failed to take care of the victims.

It absolved Woelki himself of any neglect of his legal duty with respect…

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[Via Angelus of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.]

On Monday, the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ religious order published its latest report detailing what they have done and what they still need to do to repair the damage done and guarantee safe spaces for minors, from third-party investigations to mandatory formation seminars and revealing the names of priests found guilty of abuse.

The religious congregation continues to claim it is cleaning house, after a report released last year showed that the late Father Marcial Maciel Degolaldo, founder of the Legionaries, was far from being the only abusive priest in the movement.

Titled “Truth, Justice and Healing 2020 Annual Report,” the document looks into the implementation of two documents produced at last year’s annual chapter for the order: “Protect and heal” and “Conversion and reparation in relation to the sexual abuse of minors and safe environments.”

According to the Legion, in releasing…

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Four days before Michael Tierney died, the Vatican confirmed a decision to defrock the former Kansas City-area priest after finding him guilty of sexually abusing minors.

Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. has been notified that an appeal by Tierney to reverse the penalty of dismissal from the priesthood was resolved on Dec. 11, the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph announced on its website this month. Tierney died on Dec. 15 at age 76.

“A cover letter dated February 4, 2021, from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) arrived in the Office of the Bishop on February 22, 2021, notifying him of the decision,” the diocese said.

Tierney, who had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, appealed the CDF’s first decision.

“The second CDF tribunal met December 11, 2020, and upon review of Michael Tierney’s appeal, confirmed the decision of the first CDF tribunal court on both the determination of guilt as…

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The church opened its evidence on its handling of complaints at the Inquiry into abuse in care on Monday.

It said its response to redress has at times been ahead of Vatican guidelines.

The number of cases of abuse within the Catholic Church in New Zealand is in excess of 1100, but the Royal Commission said that is just a preliminary figure.

Counsel for the Commission Katherine Anderson said failure in record keeping from the 1950s impacts on the accuracy of the figures.

Cardinal John Dew told the Commission the church was saddened and ashamed by what has happened.

”Our hope is that this Commission will lead us and help us to be a better church and that is a church that this disgrace of abuse will be addressed, will cease and that our church will always be a church that gives life and hope. That is our mission as…

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[Via the Pantagraph.]

The Rev. Michael Pfleger intends to find other ways to work in the Auburn Gresham community as the Chicago Archdiocese continues to investigate allegations that he molested two brothers in the 1970s, Pfleger wrote in a recent letter to the community.

“I know that I cannot emotionally or spiritually continue to remain isolated in an apartment waiting for this board to do its job,” Pfleger, the pastor at St. Sabina Church, wrote. “While I hope and pray that the Review Board will work a little harder and more promptly to conclude their investigation, I will no longer wait in silence.

“Over the next days, I will seek other ways and opportunities to minister in the Auburn Gresham community and continue outreach while this process seemingly drags on.”

Cardinal Blase Cupich is requiring Pfleger, 71, to live away from the parish during an investigation into allegations that he…

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A man accused of setting a Florida church on fire last year is facing a federal hate crime charge, prosecutors announced Thursday.

A federal grand jury in Orlando returned an indictment Wednesday against Steven Shields, 24, of Dunnellon, according to court records. He’s charged with using fire to commit a felony and intentionally damaging religious property, a hate crime charge that falls under the Church Arson Prevention Act.

He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the hate crime and a mandatory minimum of 10 years if convicted of the fire charge. He also faces state arson and burglary charges.

According to the indictment, Shields intentionally set fire last July to the Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Ocala, about 80 miles (about 130 kilometers) north of Orlando.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said last year that Shields plowed a minivan through the church’s front door, doused…

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The canonization of Pope John Paul II in 2014 was unprecedented for its rapidity and the context in which it occurred.  At his funeral in April 2005, there were banners and shouts proclaiming Santo Subito! (Saint now).  Even before his death, Wall St. Journal columnist Peggy Noonan called him John Paul the Great.

The last years of John Paul’s life were characterized by declining health and fewer public appearances.  He was ailing as the international sexual abuse crisis was continuing to gain momentum and threaten his papacy.

Almost a decade prior to his death, the Marcial Maciel was gaining momentum and notoriety.  Maciel, a priest with prolific fundraising capacity and a personal favorite of the Polish pope had been dogged by rumors of liaisons with women, abuse of boys, and questionable financial dealings.  In 1997, a group of nine men went public with accusations that they had been abused as youths and…

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A court in Timor-Leste has been forced to postpone resuming the sexual abuse trial of an American former priest due to the imposition of a lockdown following a surge in Covid-19 infections in the tiny predominantly Catholic country.

The trial of Richard Daschbach, 84, was originally scheduled to resume on March 22.

“With the lockdown, the court has had to postpone further hearings because there is no means of transportation either by air or sea,” said Julio Nunes, secretary of the District Court in Oecusse, a small coastal enclave of Timor-Leste surrounded on three sides by Indonesia and located 200 kilometers west of the capital Dili.

As a result, not everyone can get to the court in Oecusse as many of those involved in the trial, including the defendant, are in Dili, he told UCA News on March 21.

Timor-Leste government has imposed lockdowns in the cities of Dili, Baucau and Viqueque…

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[Includes a brief video report, “Catholic Church denied appeal in Mount Cashel orphanage abuse case,” dated January 14, 2021, which shows rare footage of the orphanage, including its demolition, and short interviews with two survivors.]

Roman Catholic parishes in the St. John’s area will be undergoing significant restructuring in the months ahead as the archdiocese works to resolve the harm caused to victims of abuse at Mount Cashel orphanage, parishioners learned on the weekend.

“Over the coming weeks you may expect to see some properties listed on the real estate market,” read an email update from St. John’s Archbishop Peter Hundt.

“There may also be discussions at the parish level around potential changes that may come…We are still very much in an information gathering stage and when decisions are made we will communicate those directly.”

The letter was read both in live masses on Saturday and Sunday, as well as…

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The former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has been accused of sexually abusing a child decades ago in a lawsuit filed last week, the seventh time the retired bishop has been named as an abuser in a lawsuit filed under New York’s Child Victims Act.

The lawsuit filed anonymously by a man who is now in his 50s alleges that retired bishop Howard Hubbard abused the plaintiff in 1977 when he was 11, the Times Union of Albany reports.

The complaint claims Hubbard approached the 11-year-old at a church carnival, told the boy to accompany him to the rectory and molested him there.

“At that age, you just don’t know. You don’t know how to deal with it. And I’ve done a lot of reflecting over the years trying to understand — was this my fault?” the plaintiff said in an interview with…

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nce again, Maryland lawmakers are ready to turn aside calls to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sex abuse in the state.

The leading advocate for this change has been Del. C.T. Wilson, a survivor himself who introduced the bill for the third time this year. Early in March, though, he withdrew the House proposal, citing the bill’s chances in the Senate and attacks from opponents on survivors’ stories.

“To my fellow survivors, I am not abandoning you,” he said in a statement released by his office. “Know that I see you, I hear you and I continue to stand with you. You will never be alone in this fight.”

So the focus in Annapolis for the session turned to the Senate, where Sen. Sarah Elfreth, D-Annapolis, co-sponsored legislation from Sen. Shelly Hettleman, D-Baltimore County. It’s the first time there’s been a companion bill to Wilson’s measure in the…

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A priest at a Brighton-area church has been placed on leave pending the outcome of an investigation by the Michigan Office of the Attorney General.

In an email to parishioners Friday, it was announced that Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing had placed the Reverend Shaun Lowery, Pastor of St. Mary Magdalen Church in Brighton Township, on ministerial leave. The Diocese of Lansing says they are fully cooperating with the Attorney General’s investigation. 

The Diocese of Lansing told church members that they expect all diocesan employees, clergy, and volunteers to, “exemplify the moral teachings of Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church in their personal and professional life” and then referenced the Diocesan Code of Conduct. The communication then provided anyone wishing to report misconduct an opportunity to do so. 

While the nature of the investigation has not been disclosed, the church email did state that if anyone had a reason to suspect physical, sexual or emotional…

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Patrick Wattigny, a former priest at a Slidell church, has been formally charged with molestation of juvenile, District Attorney Warren Montgomery announced on Thursday, March 18.

Wattigny, 63, the former pastor of St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church and chaplain at Pope John Paul II High School, both in Slidell, is accused of molesting a teenager, then 15, between June 1, 2013, and August 31, 2014.

Wattigny was arrested in October of 2020.

Investigators say Wattigny started grooming the victim, who was 15 at the time, through general conversation, which led to telephone and text message conversations and eventually in-person visits, at which time the acts of molestation occurred on at least four different occasions. investigators said.

Some of those instances occurred in the church rectory.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans released a statement saying,

“We acknowledge the charges filed against Travis Clark and Patrick Wattigny by the St. Tammany…

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The school’s president, a friend of President Biden, has been placed on leave

Victim advocates Friday called on Santa Clara University to release more details of the allegations of impropriety against Santa Clara University President Rev. Kevin O’Brien, who was placed on leave Thursday pending an investigation.

The Catholic university’s board Thursday said only that it was informed that the Jesuit Provincial Office “recently received accounts that Father O’Brien exhibited behaviors in adult settings, consisting primarily of conversations, which may be inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries.”

Tracey Primrose, spokeswoman for the Jesuits West Province, which along with the university is overseeing the investigation, said Thursday that confidentiality practices prevent her from saying more, including whether the allegations involved sex abuse.

But that lack of information, while intended to protect O’Brien during the inquiry, was also fueling speculation. SNAP, the Survivors Network, said Friday the university…

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The morning of March 18, the chair of Santa Clara University’s Board of Trustees, John M. Sobrato ’83, sent the following message to the campus community. 

Dear Santa Clara University Community,

I write to you with an important update. I have been informed by the Provincial of the USA West Province that the Jesuit Provincial Office recently received accounts that Father O’Brien exhibited behaviors in adult settings, consisting primarily of conversations, which may be inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries. An independent investigation into these accounts is being conducted on behalf of the USA West Province and the conclusions of the Province’s process will be shared with the Santa Clara University Board of Trustees. Father O’Brien was placed on leave from his position as University President for the duration of the investigation by the USA West Province consistent with its protocols. He has agreed to cooperate fully with the investigation…

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The president of a Jesuit university in the Bay Area is under investigation for “alleged misconduct and comments.” We call on university officials to be more transparent regarding the allegations so as to encourage others who may have experienced similar misconduct to come forward.

Father Kevin O’Brien, the president of Santa Clara University, has been placed on leave while an investigation into his alleged misconduct is underway. While we appreciate that action has been taken by the Santa Clara board of trustees, we think that the vague statement released by the university does no favors to either the university community or the alleged victims. In January, Fr. O’Brien presided over the inauguration of President Joe Biden.

This is not the first time that a high-ranking Jesuit official has been accused of misconduct. Notable examples include Bishop Gordon Bennet, who resigned as…

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TO THE QUESTION PROPOSED: 
Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?

RESPONSE:
Negative.

Explanatory Note

In some ecclesial contexts, plans and proposals for blessings of unions of persons of the same sex are being advanced. Such projects are not infrequently motivated by a sincere desire to welcome and accompany homosexual persons, to whom are proposed paths of growth in faith, “so that those who manifest a homosexual orientation can receive the assistance they need to understand and fully carry out God’s will in their lives”[1].

On such paths, listening to the word of God, prayer, participation in ecclesial liturgical actions and the exercise of charity can play an important role in sustaining the commitment to read one’s own history and to adhere with freedom and responsibility to one’s baptismal call, because “God loves every person and the Church does the same”[2],…

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Former president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, has written to the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland appealing to him to “acknowledge the hurt” caused by the recent CDF document on blessing same sex unions.

In her correspondence to Archbishop Eamon Martin, seen by The Tablet, the former head of state describes the language in the two-page Responsum on the blessing of the unions of persons of the same sex as “gratuitously cruel in the extreme”.

Her correspondence to Archbishop Martin is accompanied by a letter she has written to The Tablet criticising the contents of the CDF’s document and Pope Francis.

Admitting that she did not expect the answer to the dubium to be positive, “I am not that naïve”, Professor McAleese adds that she did not, however, anticipate the “unbearably vicious language which can only have brought more heartache to our gay children and to us their families”.

“Heartache and hurt…

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Document on same-sex blessings shows that Pope Francis ‘toes the old hard line’

Former president Mary McAleese has criticised Pope Francis as a populist who raises expectations only to dash them, following a Vatican document published on Monday which sustained a ban on same-sex blessings.

She described the document, approved by the pope, as “withering”.

About Francis himself, Ms McAleese said his “chummy words to the press often quite reasonably raise hopes of church reform which are subsequently almost invariably dashed by firm restatements of unchanged church teaching”.

While raising hopes, “he is the pope who toes the old hard line”, she said.

She has also written to Ireland’s Catholic bishops asking that they challenge language used about gay people in the document, published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). She asked “if there is even one among you willing to acknowledge publicly that the language used in…

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A former Catholic bishop in Albany has been accused of molesting an 11-year-old boy at a carnival more than 40 years ago, according to new court papers.

It’s the seventh such lawsuit leveling allegations against retired Bishop Howard Hubbard.

Hubbard’s latest accuser — now an adult who filed suit anonymously — was volunteering at a carnival fundraiser for the Clifton Park church St. Edward’s in the summer of 1977 when he was sexually abused, says the Albany Supreme Court lawsuit filed last week.

The accuser — who came from a devout Catholic family — went to get cups from a storage room when Hubbard told him to join him in the rectory, the court papers allege.

Hubbard, who was wearing his priestly garb, then “sexually assaulted and abused” the boy, the documents say.

Hubbard, in a statement issued to The Post through a spokeswoman Friday, denied the allegation.

“I pray for…

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The Cologne abuse report has cleared Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of failing to do his duty when handling cases of priestly sexual abuse but has found other senior churchmen in the Cologne archdiocese to be guilty 

After months of turmoil in the Cologne archdiocese due to Cardinal Woelki’s refusal to publish a first abuse report he had commissioned with a Munich law firm, the second report he commissioned with a law firm in Cologne was punctually published yesterday.

The 800-page report, which examines 236 archdiocesan abuse case files between 1976 and 2018, clears Woelki himself of neglecting to do his duty in the handling of priestly abuse cases but finds several senior churchmen guilty.

“We found a system that favoured hushing up abuse,” Björn Gerke, the head of the Cologne law firm responsible for the second report, told domradio.de (this morning, 19 March). “The state the files were in was disastrous. They…

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Via Irish Times

Lawyer says he found over 200 abusers and over 300 victims, mostly boys under the age of 14

A team of German lawyers said on Thursday they had found no evidence that a former Archbishop of Cologne had breached his duty in his handling of sexual abuse cases over decades, but they criticised and named several other senior church officials.

In an 800-page report into the handling of abuse cases in the archdiocese of Cologne between 1975 and 2018, criminal lawyer Bjoern Gercke said he had found more than 200 abusers and more than 300 victims, mostly boys under the age of 14.

Among those named in the report as having breached their duty to deal with reports of abuse were the Archbishop of Hamburg Stefan Hesse and Joachim Meisner, who died in 2017 and was Rainer Maria Woelki’s predecessor as archbishop of Cologne. Archbishop Hesse did not immediately…

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Via RTÉ

An independent study commissioned by the Catholic Church uncovered hundreds of cases of sexual violence allegedly committed by clergy and laymen in Germany’s top diocese. 

The 800-page report on the Cologne diocese found 202 alleged perpetrators of sexual assault and 314 victims between 1975 and 2018, Bjoern Gercke, a lawyer mandated by the Church, told reporters.

“More than half of the victims were children under the age of 14,” Mr Gercke said.

However, the investigation cleared Cologne’s Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki of breach of duty over the abuse.

He had faced months of protests for refusing to allow the publication of an earlier study on abuse committed by priests in his diocese.

He had justified his decision by citing a right to privacy of the alleged perpetrators accused in the report, carried out by a Munich law firm, and what he called a lack of independence on the part of some researchers.

His approach…

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A Glouster woman filed a $1 million civil lawsuit against Glouster’s Holy Cross Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Steubenville and its bishop for negligence following her reported sexual abuse by a since-dismissed priest that she experienced as a minor.

Attorneys representing the defendants are calling for the suit’s dismissal, according to Athens County Common Pleas Court documents.

The plaintiff, who is referred to in the suit pseudonymously as “J.W.,” was a parishioner at Holy Cross in Glouster, one of two parishes of ex-priest Henry Christopher Foxhoven. During that time, the suit contends, she was “groomed for sexual abuse … in open view of parishioners of Holy Cross and agents and employees of the Diocese.”

In November of 2018, Foxhoven was sentenced in Athens County Common Pleas Court to a dozen years in prison, with no option for judicial release on three counts of sexual battery. Foxhoven is also…

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[Photo above: A carnival float depicting a sleeping Cardinal, reading ’11 years of relentless processing of cases of abuse’ is set in front of the Cologne Cathedral to protest against the Catholic Church in Cologne, Germany, Thursday, March 18, 2021. Faced with accusations of trying to cover up sexual violence in Germany’s most powerful Roman Catholic diocese, the archbishop of Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki publishes an independent investigation. (AP Photo / Martin Meissner)]

A report commissioned by Germany’s Cologne archdiocese on church officials’ handling of past cases of sexual abuse found 75 cases in which high-ranking officials neglected their duties. The findings on Thursday prompted the archbishop of Hamburg to offer his resignation to Pope Francis.

The report commissioned by Cologne’s archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, absolved Woelki himself of any neglect of duty with respect to abuse victims.

However, Woelki’s late predecessor, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, was accused of…

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In an interview with CNA Deutsch on March 18, the Archbishop of Cologne talked about the publication of the expert report that he had commissioned.

It is probably the most comprehensive and transparent study ever commissioned by a German institution on the subject of sexualized violence against minors: The publication of the 800-page, independent Gercke Report today, March 18, is intended to clarify roles and responsibilities in the Archdiocese of Cologne. It was commissioned by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne since 2014. 

In December 2018, the archdiocese commissioned the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl to examine relevant personnel files from 1975 onwards to determine “which personal, systemic or structural deficits were responsible in the past for incidents of sexual abuse being covered up or not being punished consistently.”

After lawyers advising the archdiocese raised concerns about “methodological deficiencies” in the law firm’s study, Woelki commissioned Cologne-based criminal law…

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Via Macau Business Media

The Catholic Church has been shaken by a string of child sex abuse scandals. The latest is a report released on Thursday which uncovered hundreds of cases allegedly committed by clergy and laymen in Germany’s top diocese.

Here are some high-profile cases around the world:

– United States –

In February 2019 Pope Francis defrocked a former cardinal in a first for the Roman Catholic church over accusations American Theodore McCarrick, 88, sexually assaulted a teenager 50 years ago.

A grand jury investigation into dioceses in Pennsylvania in 2018 threw light on sexual assault, systematically covered up by the Church by “over 300 predator priests”. More than 1,000 child victims were cited.

US Cardinal Donald Wuerl, accused over a cover-up, resigned.

Between 1950 and 2016 the US Catholic Church received 18,500 complaints against 6,700 members of the clergy, according to the site bishop-accountability.org.

Several senior church…

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Via Perth Now

A former Catholic priest who has served time for sexual offences against young girls has now been found not guilty of charges of historical abuse against a schoolboy.

Neville Joseph Creen, 80, denied indecently abusing the teenager in Mount Isa, northwest Queensland, where he served as a priest in the 1970s.

The alleged victim, who cannot be identified, first met Creen after his father was killed in a mining accident, crown prosecutor Katrina Overell told the Brisbane District Court.

Creen was accused of summoning the boy to his office and rubbing his thigh and groin on four separate occasions in 1974 and 1975. However, Judge Ian Dearden said much of the evidence was unreliable and self-contradictory.

“Although I’m prepared to accept that the complainant is seeking to give a narrative of events he believed occurred to him in 1974 and 1975 … that narrative is completely unreliable,…

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A former Catholic priest previously jailed for molesting young girls during his time as a clergyman in rural Queensland has been found not guilty of further child sexual assault allegations.

Neville Joseph Creen, 80, was acquitted of four charges in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday after being accused of inappropriately touching a boy, who was aged 13 and 14 at the time of the allegations.

In his judgment after a multi-day trial, Judge Ian Dearden described the complainant’s evidence as “inconsistent” and described him as “completely and utterly unreliable”.

Creen was previously convicted of molesting young girls while serving as a priest in Mount Isa, in north-west Queensland, from 1973 to 1981.

In September 2003, he was sentenced to three years’ jail after pleading guilty to 34 counts of indecent dealing with 20 girls aged between four and 13.

In November 2004, Creen pleaded guilty to a further six…

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The archbishop of Hamburg offered his resignation and the cardinal of Cologne suspended two senior officials over failures to report accusations of clerical sexual abuse.

Berlin – A Roman Catholic archbishop in Germany offered his resignation and two other high-ranking officials were suspended in the wake of a report that found decades of “systematic cover-up” in the church’s handling of accusations of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy members.

The 800-page report, examining the years 1975 to 2018 at the Archdiocese of Cologne, was released on Thursday after five months of intense investigation. It was critical of the actions of Stefan Hesse, who had worked at the Archdiocese of Cologne and is now the archbishop of Hamburg.

Archbishop Hesse said he would offer to step down. “To prevent damage to the office, of the archbishop or the Diocese of Hamburg, I am offering Pope Francis my resignation and ask…

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A much-anticipated report on the handling of abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Cologne exonerates Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki but incriminates Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse and Cologne Auxiliary Bishop Dominik Schwaderlapp.

The report by the law firm Gercke Wollschläger accuses Cardinal Woelki’s predecessors, the deceased Cardinals Joseph Höffner (1906-1987) and Joachim Meisner (1933-2017), of many breaches of duty in the handling of abuse cases — in terms of state and church law as well as in terms of the church’s self-understanding, the German Catholic news agency KNA reported.

The report also incriminates the former vicar general, Father Norbert Feldhoff, and the head of the Cologne church court, Father Günter Assenmacher, who is accused of having given inaccurate legal information in two cases.

In an immediate reaction to the findings, Cardinal Woelki relieved Bishop Schwaderlapp and Father Assenmacher of their duties, KNA reported. Bishop Schwaderlapp subsequently offered his resignation to Pope…

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Via National Catholic Register

A long-awaited report published on Thursday raised serious concerns about Archbishop Heße’s handling of several cases during his time in Cologne.

A German Catholic archbishop announced on Thursday that he was offering his resignation to Pope Francis and requesting “immediate release” from all duties.

Archbishop Stefan Heße of Hamburg made his brief declaration live on YouTube March 18, saying: “I am of the firm conviction that taking responsibility is part of our duty to actively deal with this dark chapter in the best possible way and to move towards a better future for everyone, first and foremost for the victims themselves.”

“I have never participated in any cover-up. Nevertheless, I am willing to bear my share of responsibility for the failure of the system,” Archbishop Heße said.

The archbishop was in charge of pastoral personnel in the Archdiocese of Cologne from 2006 to 2012. He served as vicar…

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State lawmakers are running out of time to reconfirm their commitment to holding child molesters accountable.

They can do it if they pull together, stop bickering and think of the victims instead of themselves.

Lawmakers are scrambling to resurrect a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would open a two-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to retroactively sue their attackers, along with organizations that covered up the abuse, such as the Catholic church.

The effort was driven by a scathing 2018 grand jury report. It disclosed accusations of more than 1,000 Pennsylvania children being sexually abused by hundreds of priests over seven decades.

Lawmakers previously approved a referendum to ask voters whether they wanted to amend the Constitution to allow lawsuits. The referendum was supposed to be on the May primary ballot.

But it was botched by the Department…

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The trial in East Timor of Richard Daschbach, a US former priest accused of child abuse, which had been due to resume next Monday at a court in the exclave of of Oecusse, has been postponed until 24 May, a senior judicial source has told Lusa.

The president of the Court of Appeal, Deolindo dos Santos, confirmed the postponement to Lusa, explaining that it had been requested by defence lawyers, citing constraints due to the health cordon set up in the country’s capital, where Daschbach is under house arrest.

The rules of the health cordon require anyone who wants to travel to present a negative result of a tests for the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, and that holding the trial required the travel to Oecusse of one of the judges of the panel, the translator, several lawyers involved, members of the public prosecutor’s office and other parties.

“An application…

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[Google translation is followed by the German text.]

When dealing with allegations of abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne, Cardinal Meisner and Archbishop Heße in particular are said to have violated duties. A new report comes to this conclusion. Cardinal Woelki, on the other hand, is exonerated.

After months of debate, an expert opinion on the handling of cases of abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne was presented. It burdens the current Archbishop of Hamburg Stefan Heße, Cologne Auxiliary Bishop Dominikus Schwaderlapp and the former Cologne Vicar General Norbert Feldhoff. You are said to have violated obligations in dealing with the allegations of abuse.

Most of the breaches of duty, however, found the report in the case of Cardinal Joachim Meisner, who died in 2017. A third of all determined breaches of duty, namely 24, said criminal lawyer Björn Gercke when presenting his report. Heße are therefore accused of eleven breaches of duty. Most of these are…

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[Google translation is followed by the German text.]

The Cologne Archbishop Woelki is not accused of any breach of duty in the new abuse report. However, the Archbishop of Hamburg, Stefan Heße, is heavily burdened.

Immediately after the presentation of an expert opinion on the handling of cases of abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne , Archbishop  Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki drew personal consequences: on Thursday he released his auxiliary bishop Dominikus Schwaderlapp and the head of the Archbishop’s Court, Official Günter Assenmacher, from their duties with immediate effect due to breaches of duty Offices. Hamburg’s Archbishop Stefan Heße, who was previously the head of personnel in Cologne, is also heavily burdened by the report. The experts accuse him of 11 breaches of duty.

In the case of Archbishop Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki of Cologne , Gercke and his team do not see any breaches of duty in dealing with cases of abuse. This is in agreement…

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[Google translation is followed by the German text.]

Cardinal Woelki releases the responsible persons named in the report

Independent study on dealing with sexualised violence in the Archdiocese of Cologne presented

At a press conference, Kerstin Stirner presented the “Independent study on dealing with sexual violence in the Archdiocese of Cologne” commissioned by Archbishop Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki. The report covers the period from 1975 to 2018 and examines 236 file processes in detail with the aim of identifying any existing deficits and legal violations as well as those responsible as specifically as possible.

As a first reaction, Cardinal Woelki temporarily released the named persons from their duties: Auxiliary Bishop Dr. Dominikus Schwaderlapp and Official Dr. Günter Assenmacher.

As Cardinal Woelki had announced several times in advance, his main concern in coming to terms with the work was to create clarity and – as far as possible – justice for those affected by…

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[Google translation is followed by the German text.]

Accreditation to view the reports

From Thursday, March 25, 2021, there will be the opportunity to view both the expert opinion of the Gercke & Wollschläger law firm and the Munich expert opinion of the Westpfahl – Spilker – Wastl law firm in the Maternushaus in Cologne . Anyone interested can register for a viewing.

The registration is only valid for you personally and is not transferable. The registration form can be found at the bottom of this page.

Place and dates

Viewing is possible from Thursday, March 25th up to and including Thursday, April 1st, 2021 . A period of up to  1.5 hours is possible for viewing . The report is not available for download, but can only be viewed in person at

Maternushaus
Kardinal-Frings-Str. 1-3
50668 Cologne

The following time slots are available:

• 09:00 to 10:30
• 11:30 am to 1:00 pm
• 14:00 to 15:30
• 16:30 to 18:00
• 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

In each time window, up to 10 places are available at the same time…

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Christchurch’s Anglican Diocese allowed clergy to continue in their duties despite being aware of allegations of abuse against them, an inquiry has heard.

Bishop Peter Carrell, giving evidence at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care on Thursday, said he was aware of 13 reports of abuse that had involved the Diocese, ranging from verbal harassment to rape.

This does not include abuse complaints against former Christchurch priest Rob McCullough from the 1970s and 80s, which were settled financially in 2003.

In relation to the 13 reports Carrell was aware of, he said the approach to the claims varied. In many instances he was not able to determine how the allegations were dealt with at the time due to poor record keeping.

“There have been historic instances where a perpetrator’s [church] licence or permission to officiate (PTO) was endorsed despite the Diocese’s knowledge of the allegations of abuse….

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Australian Associated Press

• Former Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing schoolboy pleads innocence
• Neville Joseph Creen denies indecently abusing teenager in Mount Isa in 1970s 
• The former priest told police the teenager had the ‘wrong bloke’

A former Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a schoolboy at a remote parish almost 50 years ago told police the teenager had the ‘wrong bloke’, a court has heard.

Neville Joseph Creen, 80, denies indecently abusing the teenager in Mount Isa, northwest Queensland, where he served as a priest in the 1970s.  

Asked about the allegations in 2018, Creen told officers he had ‘never, ever touched the boy’, calling it a ‘gross injustice’ that he had been accused.

‘This is repulsive,’ Creen told detectives in the interview played to the Brisbane District Court on Thursday.

‘I think he’s got the wrong bloke.

‘It could be (the victim was referring to someone else) … Whether it…

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A former Vatican altar boy has testified that an older seminarian would come into his bed at night to perform a sexual act on him in the Vatican’s youth seminary, saying his initial shock gave way to resignation because he feared being sent home.

Accuser L.G. testified for the first time Wednesday in the Vatican’s criminal courtroom, in the first-ever case to go to trial alleging sexual abuse within the Vatican walls — among the altar boys who serve at papal Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Rev. Gabriele Martinelli is accused of abusing his authority as a more senior seminarian to force L.G. into “carnal acts” of sodomy and masturbation, using violence and threats, from 2007-2012. The former rector of the seminary, the Rev. Enrico Radice, is charged with having helped Martinelli avoid investigators by discrediting L.G.’s allegations as baseless.

Martinelli has denied he molested L.G., saying the allegations…

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Polish prosecutors say they have received allegations that four senior churchmen broke the law by failing to report a complaint that a priest allegedly sexually abused a minor.

National Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Ewa Bialik confirmed to The Associated Press Wednesday that the formal notification was received this month from a new state commission that reviews whether reports of pedophilia should be reported to prosecutors.

She said the allegations were passed on to prosecutors in Krakow, who have authority over the area where the developments took place.

It was not immediately clear whether an investigation would be opened. If it is, and should charges be pressed, they would carry a potential sentence of up to three years in prison.

The allegations concern abuse by a village priest in the 1980s of a man who was then a minor. In the 1990s, the alleged victim informed the local bishop but said there…

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A criminologist who was commissioned by the German bishops to investigate clergy abuse cases has alleged that the cardinal intervened to undermine his investigation.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx has rejected as “baseless” accusations he prevented a full disclosure of information regarding clergy sex-abuse cases in his diocese a decade ago — similar to accusations he himself has made against Cardinal Rainer Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne.

The charges were made against Cardinal Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising, by German criminologist Christian Pfeiffer, whom the German bishops commissioned in 2011 to investigate a major study of abuse in the Church in Germany. That study was published in 2018.

Last month, Pfeiffer repeated strident criticisms he had made to Bavarian newspaper Merkurin February 2020 regarding his investigation, saying that he and his research colleagues were unable to obtain some key information they were promised, in particular relating to any bishops who…

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Many people first met Gemma Hoskins through her appearance on “The Keepers,” a 2017 Emmy-nominated Netflix docuseries, that focused on the death of Sister Cathy Cesnik and cases of sexual abuse at Archbishop Keough High School.

Hoskins is out with a memoir that offers her theory of what happened to Cesnik. WBAL-TV 11 News spoke with Hoskins about why she wrote it.

Hoskins has made it her life’s work to find out what happened to Cesnik, a popular Archbishop Keough High School teacher. Hoskin’s efforts, along with other students, became the focus of “The Keepers.”

Cesnick was found dead in a Lansdowne dump in 1970, months after she disappeared.

In her book “Keeping On,” Hoskins talks about her own work as a teacher, experiences that shaped her and offers a theory of what happened to Cesnick.

“I believe that is was a police officer and I shared his picture with…

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Victims say it’s also vital to show what was — or wasn’t — done about their actions

Roman Catholic Church officials in Saskatoon are promising to publish a report this spring naming all abusive priests and staff going back to 1933.

Saskatoon would be just the second jurisdiction in Canada to release names of abusive priests. A partial list was published by the Vancouver diocese in 2019. In the U.S., the vast majority of churches chose — or were forced by the courts — to make their lists public more than a decade ago.

The Saskatoon report will list the priests involved in public court cases, but also the ones contained in the church’s internal records, said Brenda Fitzgerald, a member of the historical review committee for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon.

Fitzgerald said it will also show who knew about the abuse and how it was handled.

“There is no doubt it is going to evaluate if past historical decisions were appropriate. And actually,…

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Now that Gov. Cuomo has been accused of being a serial predator, he is insisting that his due process rights be respected. Yet when it came to accused priests, Cuomo sang a different tune. 

Cuomo has a different standard for himself. When asked this week about the charges against him, he said, “You can allege something, might be true, might not be true. You may have misperceived, there may be other facts.” 

If this is his best defense, the man is in trouble. Nevertheless, what he said was accurate. Not all allegations are true. Misperceptions are not uncommon. There may be other facts that have yet to surface. That’s why the accused, including him, are entitled to due process.

However, when it came to allegations against priests—for offenses alleged to have happened decades earlier—Cuomo showed no respect for their due process rights. He was happy to sign legislation that gave rapacious lawyers…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon is among the first nationwide to announce it will release a report listing abusive priests and staff going back decades.

A local committee is expected to release the list in late spring. This means Saskatoon would be the second jurisdiction in the country to release such a list, following Vancouver.

The Saskatoon list is expected to name those priests who were involved in public court cases and those who were mentioned in the internal records of churches.

Brenda FitzGerald is a member of the historical review committee for the diocese.

She and 10 laypeople from all walks of life have been going over cases of abuse for over two years.

She’s from Newfoundland and says she lived a block away from the infamous orphanage at the heart of one of the first major cases of abuse in the Catholic Church at Mount Cashel.

FitzGerald…

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Time is running out for those who want their child sexual abuse claim against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse to be considered during bankruptcy proceedings.

The Northern District of New York has established a deadline of is April 15, 2021 for filing proofs of claim in the diocese’s Chapter 11 reorganization.

Claims will have to be filed on that day by 11:59 p.m..

If claimants do not file a timely proof of claim, they may forfeit their right to vote on any plan of reorganization and to share in any distributions made to creditors in connection with the diocese’s Chapter 11 case.

For information on filing a claim, go here or call 855-329-4244.

The Diocese of Syracuse filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in June of last year following dozens of lawsuits being filed against the Diocese as a result of the New York Child…

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A Polish Cardinal, who was heavily linked to scandal involving the disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, now faces jail time for allegedly ignoring claims of sexual abuse. This is welcome news and we firmly believe that the only way to end the culture of sexual abuse within the church is to root out and punish those men responsible for ignoring allegations and propagating a culture of silence and deceit.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz could face up to three years in jail for his role in covering up cases of clergy abuse by failing to report allegations to police. This is an important step forward in the fight to protect children and the vulnerable from sexual abuse. In our view, one of the main reasons that clergy sexual abuse remains a rampant problem worldwide is because of the church’s playbook for handling abuse. As described by A.G. Josh Shapiro…

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A recent investigation alleging two then-employees at Gilman School sexually assaulted boys over several decades is the latest example of why Maryland needs to remove age limits for survivors to file lawsuits, some state legislators and advocates say.

A report commissioned by the school and obtained by The Baltimore Sun concluded that two staff members — Dr. Martin Meloy and Thomas Offutt — abused at least 20 students between them, with allegations against Meloy from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and Offutt dating to the 1950s.

Neither Offutt nor Meloy was prosecuted, according to the report and Maryland court records. Meloy died in 2015. Offutt did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Baltimore Sun.

Gilman is the most recent Maryland institution to conclude that some of its staff sexually abused children in its care. In 2019, the Baltimore law firm Kramon & Graham found that  View Cache

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Sex abuse victims still have a shot at justice even after their statute of limitations has run out. Pennsylvania lawmakers are working on an emergency constitutional amendment this week.

The amendment would correct the Wolf Administration’s failure to properly advertise the original amendment.

But is a clerical error an amendment-worthy emergency? Critics say no. Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks), a clergy sex abuse survivor, says otherwise.

“I have known many victims of childhood sex abuse who have committed suicide, who have become alcoholics who have become drug addicts. This is a serious threat to our commonwealth,” Rozzi said.

And a threat to the amendment, according to Rozzi, is language inserted by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to remove sovereign immunity. Lisa Baker is the chair of the state Senate judiciary committee.

“We clarified that if you’re a teacher at parochial school or teacher at public school you’ll be treated…

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State agencies question police inaction in probe against orphanage founder accused of molesting boys

Two state agencies in Indonesia have accused police in West Java of dragging their feet in a sexual abuse case involving a “Catholic brother”.

The case was first reported to local police in September 2019 by three boys living at the Kencana Bejana Rohani orphanage in the city of Depok.

They accused orphanage founder Lukas Lucky Ngalngola, also known as Brother Angelo, of abusing them.

Ngalngola claims to be a member of the Blessed Sacrament Missionaries of Charity (BSMC), an obscure order based in the Philippines.

He was arrested by police following the report but was released three months later after investigators failed to complete a report for prosecutors to bring the case to court, claiming that they could not find the whereabouts of the boys to get additional statements requested by prosecutors.

The case was…

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A former Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a schoolboy at a remote parish almost 50 years ago told police the teenager had the “wrong bloke”, a court has heard.

Neville Joseph Creen, 80, denies indecently abusing the teenager in Mount Isa, northwest Queensland, where he served as a priest in the 1970s.

The alleged victim, who cannot be identified, had just lost his father in a mining accident when he first met Father Creen, crown prosecutor Katrina Overell has told a Brisbane court.

He remembers Creen being at his home when he first learned his father would never be coming home.

Creen allegedly put an arm around the teenager’s shoulders before promising to see him when he started high school.

The alleged victim remembers Creen seeking him out in the schoolyard on his first day, reminding him they had met before.

“He asked (the victim) to accompany him to…

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The Methodist pastor in Fiji alleged to have sexually assaulted 14 boys has been questioned and released by police.

The pastor was accused of sexually assaulting the boys while serving on an outer island between 2018 and this year.

Police said the case file had been sent to the force’s Divisional Crime Officer Eastern for further inquiries.

This was not the first time a member of the clergy in Fiji had been accused of sexually abusing women and children.

In December, a judge found a pastor guilty for raping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl from his church.

The pastor was convicted of three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.

For the offence of sexual assault committed on 21 March, 2019, in Nausori, the court found he had unlawfully and indecently assaulted the complainant by kissing her and fondling her breast.

On the rape charge, the court…

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A civil complaint filed in Albuquerque alleges a former Las Cruces Catholic priest sexually abused a teenage girl in the 1970s.

The Rev. Jesus Goni was a pastor at St. Genevieve’s Catholic Church at the time of the alleged incident.

The plaintiff, who is identified as Jane Doe 43 in the lawsuit, accuses Goni of ordering her into his office in approximately May 1970 and inappropriately touching her. She was about 14 years old at the time. She was brought up to obey priests and did not think she would be believed if she told anyone what had been done to her, the lawsuit stated, and kept the incident secret “for many years.”

This is believed to be the first accusation of sexual abuse against Goni. According to the St. Genevieve’s website, Goni became an assistant pastor in 1965 and head pastor in 1970. It appears that he left the…

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The National Commission for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults of the Costa Rican Bishops’ Conference released a statement in response to the alleged cover up of the sexual abuse of a former student at the Calasanz Catholic school.

According to the local newspaper La Nación, a 21-year-old woman surnamed Cruz Carrillo made the accusation on social media that two of her male classmates sexually abused her in 2016.

The young woman’s decision to bring this complaint to light five years later was due to photographs and posters that began to circulate in the women’s bathrooms at the school, exposing similar cases, La Nación reported.

Cruz Carrillo spoke with the local newspaper and stated that “she and her family were pressured and manipulated by the then director of the institution, a priest from the Dominican Republic, as well as by the psychologists, for them to not file a criminal…

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Six weeks after the Wolf administration revealed that a clerical error had derailed a years-long  effort to help survivors of child sex abuse, Pennsylvania state lawmakers are invoking a seldom-used legislative power to salvage it.

If the plan that lawmakers put in motion on Monday succeeds, Pennsylvania voters will be asked during the May 18 primary election to ratify an emergency amendment to the state constitution allowing child sex abuse victims to sue perpetrators in decades-old cases.

If it fails, voters will have to wait at least two years before they can weigh in.

The margin for error is slim. To invoke the emergency powers, the House and Senate will need two-thirds agreement on a measure that has eluded action for years. 

A Senate vote scheduled for Monday was delayed as of press time. But a committee vote in the House indicates that lawmakers can reach the two-thirds threshold.

On…

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A former Catholic priest has denied sexually abusing a teenage schoolboy almost 50 years ago while stationed at a remote northwest Queensland parish.

Neville Joseph Creen, 80, pleaded not guilty to four historical counts of indecent and sexual abuse of the teenager in Mt Isa, where he served as a priest in the 1970s.

The alleged victim, who cannot be identified, had just lost his father in a mining accident when he first met Father Creen, crown prosecutor Katrina Overell said in her opening in Brisbane District Court.

He remembers church members being at his home when he first learned his father would never be coming home.

Creen was allegedly one of those men from the church sent to comfort the family and allegedly put an arm around the teenager’s shoulders before promising to see him when he started high school.

When the teen started high school, he remembers Creen…

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His church is no longer ‘in friendly cooperation’ with the denomination that found it ‘knowingly employs as pastor a man convicted of statutory rape.’

A Tennessee pastor who confessed two decades ago to statutory rape has resigned after his church was recently removed from the Southern Baptist Convention for hiring him.

Pastor Randy Leming Jr., who served at Antioch Baptist Church in Sevierville, announced his resignation on Feb. 28, the Baptist and Reflector reported on Thursday (March 11).

The Baptist and Reflector, a publication of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, said Leming had been with the church since 2014.

The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, meeting in February, determined that the church was no longer “in friendly cooperation” with the denomination because “the church knowingly employs as pastor a man convicted of statutory rape.”

The SBC voted in 2019 to amend its constitution to make sexual abuse one…

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A Polish cardinal, former secretary to St. John Paul II, could face jail time after a Polish state commission accused him of ignoring sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

Poland’s State Commission on Pedophilia said it would initiate procedures against bishops “for not notifying law enforcement authorities, despite their knowledge that minors were being harmed by their subordinates.”

Meanwhile, the TVN-24 channel published a leaked letter naming Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, retired archbishop of Krakow, and three bishops from the suffragan Diocese of Bielsko-Zywiec, and said all could face three years in jail for failure to report “credible information” about crimes.

Dziwisz, who served as the Polish pope’s secretary for 39 years, was accused in a November 2020 TVN-24 documentary of ignoring abuse complaints after becoming archbishop of Krakow in 2005.

The cardinal dismissed the claims in a TV interview, citing his four decades of “service to the church, pope and Poland,” but said…

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Research into childhood sexual abuse is clear that most victims take decades to come forward due to myriad factors including shame, self-blame, and fear of reprisal. That is why the Michigan teenager who has filed a lawsuit regarding the sexual abuse he experienced in 2010 at a Lapeer-area Catholic school is so courageous. Due to his bravery and willingness to come forward, we believe others may be spared the pain of childhood sexual abuse.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff was a student at Bishop Kelley Catholic School in Lapeer, MI, where he was raped by Fr. Aloysius “Al” Volskis. Making matters worse is the fact that Fr. Volskis was reported to the police and Catholic officials in “early 2011.” Despite this report, Fr. Volskis was allowed to remain in the rectory until July 2011, when he fled the US and presumably returned to Eastern Europe. We worry…

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Anyone who wants to file a claim seeking damages for clergy sex abuse against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse must do so by midnight on April 15.

The diocese issued a reminder of that deadline, known as the “bar date,” in a news release Sunday. The deadline was initially set in November 2020 by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Margaret Cangilos- Ruiz.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Northern District of New York in June 2020. That move immediately shifted all abuse claims from state court to bankruptcy court.

At the time, there were more than 100 claims of abuse against the Syracuse diocese. The bankruptcy filing came just days after 38 people filed Child Victims Act lawsuits against the church.

Under the judge’s order, those with claims must file them by April 15 or risk losing their rights…

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Divine Word congregation scotches rumors that Richard Daschbach could be reinstated after sex abuse trial

The superior of the Society of the Divine Word congregation in Timor-Leste has moved to scotch rumors that ex-priest and self-confessed pedophile Richard Daschbach, who is currently on trial for sexual abuse, will be reinstated.

In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by UCA News on March 13, Father Yohanes Suban Gapun also expressed sympathy for the former American priest’s victims who were abused at the Topu Honis shelter that he founded in Oecussi, a small coastal enclave of Timor-Leste located 200 kilometers west of the capital Dili.

He faces 14 charges of sexual abuse of children under the age of 14, child pornography and domestic violence. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

“We … want to state emphatically that based on his admission of the heinous crime of abusing minors…

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The gist of a meeting on a late February weeknight at St. Joseph Parish in Babylon, New York, is probably familiar to many Catholic churches across the country, as Fr. Jason Grisafi, the pastor, discussed how St. Joseph could meet its expenses in light of steadily declining contributions, a drop exacerbated during the last year by COVID-19.

The meeting, however, was remarkable, given St. Joseph’s recent history. For one, it was livestreamed and a video of it was posted on the parish’s website, which also contained St. Joseph’s latest financial report.

That transparency stands in stark contrast to the alleged opacity that marked the tenure of the previous pastor, Fr. Charles Mangano, who has moved on to a new assignment but has left behind unanswered questions about his financial stewardship at St. Joseph.

For a variety of reasons, very few parishioners are willing to discuss what…

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Eight years ago today, Pope Francis emerged on the balcony of St. Peter’s Square for the first time, clad not in the red ermine cape and new red loafers prepared for the next pope, but in a simple white cassock and his old black orthopedic shoes.

His simple apparel set the tone for what would become a whirlwind papacy including 52 papal trips, six major documents, three synods and thousands of speeches and homilies aimed at shifting the church toward simplicity, collegiality and care for the poor and outcast.

While much ink has been spilled by Vatican watchers interpreting how the pope’s writings and structural changes will shape the church for years to come, Pope Francis’ gestures may do even more to define his legacy.

Long after “Amoris Laetitia” and “Laudato Si’” have faded into history, people will remember the images of this South American pope warmly embracing a man…

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Analysis – Public hearings provide a valuable window to see the work of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. But what’s happening behind closed doors will almost certainly have the more enduring effect on the ultimate political outcome of the costly exercise.

This week the commission resumes its historical examination of faith-based institutions managed by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, and, in particular over the coming few days, the Salvation Army.

William Booth, the Methodist minister who established the Salvation Army in the late 1800s, used to talk about the power of a punchy sermon to dangle listening sinners over the fires of hell. Over the coming days, the boot might be on the other foot.

The latest hearings began with Gerry Walker, the denomination’s chief secretary who has tendered an apology to former wards while also outlining the Salvation Army’s policies for retrospectively dealing with these…

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Father Vincent Duggan ordained in 1940; died in 1984

The Archdiocese of St. Louis has added the name of a deceased priest to its list of clergy who have had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

Father Vincent Duggan was added to the list of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Because Father Duggan was accused after his death, his name will be added to that section of the list. He was ordained in 1940 and died in 1984.

The updated list of clergy with substantiated claims of abuse is available online at archstl.org/list. Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski sent a letter to parishes in the archdiocese where Father Duggan had served in ministry, and an announcement will be made in those parish bulletins.

The archdiocese’s list is accurate to the best of officials’ knowledge; however, the archdiocese will add names of any additional clergy who…

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