ABUSE TRACKER

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has commissioned a study group to consider how “spiritual abuse” could be classified as a distinct and particular crime under canon law.

While spiritual abuse and the deployment of “false mysticism” is already recognized by the Church as a potential aggravating factor in other penal matters, it is not specifically listed as a crime which can be prosecuted in its own right in the Code of Canon Law.

Evidence from many cases suggests that a period of spiritual abuse can precede other forms of abuse, but often it can be seen as subjective or inconclusive when reported.

So could a delict of “spiritual abuse” actually make it into law — and if it does, how easy would it be to prosecute?

In a Nov. 22 audience with Pope Francis, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Cardinal Víctor…

View Cache

Facing a swath of scandals involving founders and other charismatic individuals who have committed abuse under the guise of false spiritual and mystical experiences, the Vatican is establishing a study group to more clearly define the crime in church law.

A communique signed Nov. 22 by Cardinal Argentinian Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), and approved by Pope Francis, addressed a longstanding dispute among canonists on the concept of “false mysticism.”

Traditionally, “false mysticism” has been considered a crime against the faith, under the competency of the DDF, but without a clearly defined legal standard.

Article 10 of the 1995 edition of the DDF’s Regulation, signed by then-prefect Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, states that the disciplinary section within the DDF “deals with crimes against the faith, as well as the most serious crimes, in the judgement…

View Cache

Bond reduction denied for ex-Central Texas Catholic priest indicted in sexual assault cases

A former Central Texas Catholic priest indicted in several sexual assault cases was denied a reduction of his $5.5 million bond on the same day the court learned he shares a child with one of his accusers.

Father Anthony Odiong was indicted in September on three counts of sexual assault in two separate indictments alleging he sexually assaulted two women.

In addition to the revelation of the child Odiong shares with one of the victims, the court also learned a lot more details about Odiong from detective Bradley DeLang, who uncovered more than 700,000 emails of conversations between Odiong and parishioners. The detective also obtained text messages, lab results and much more evidence.

DeLang said nine victims have come forward.

He alleges Odiong has a child with one of the victims in the United…

View Cache

New DNA evidence presented in court Tuesday revealed that former Waco Catholic priest Anthony Odiong is the biological father of a child conceived through an alleged sexual assault, according to the Waco Police Department.

The findings, described “with a certainty of [more than] 99.99%” by laboratory analysis, were presented at Odiong’s bond hearing in Waco where prosecutors also revealed that the child was born within the past year.

Odiong, 55, faces three McLennan County grand jury indictments for sex assault – one first-degree charge and two second-degree charges – and one pending potential indictment of possession of child porn, according to Waco PD. The Guardian, which has been following this case since February, said he faces a total of five charges of sex assault in the first degree and two more in the second degree in connection to three separate women.

Lead investigator…

View Cache

Revelation emerges at hearing for Anthony Odiong, 55, charged with several counts and held in Texas on $5.5m bail

A Roman Catholic priest with links to Texas and Louisiana who is facing criminal charges for allegedly abusing his position of authority within the church to pursue sex with vulnerable women fathered at least two children with victims of his behavior, authorities have alleged.

The stunning information about Anthony Odiong surfaced at a bail hearing on Tuesday in Waco, Texas, where prosecutors have charged him with several counts of sexually assaulting women to whom he ministered.

Odiong requested a reduction of the $5.5m bail on which he is being held in custody. But a judge denied that request after prosecutors established Odiong had communicated plans to flee to his native Nigeria if he were released – while simultaneously airing the most complete account yet about the alleged double life he had built.

Authorities are…

View Cache

The superintendent of a Wisconsin Catholic school system has been fired along with a high school principal after officials there reportedly found violations of diocesan safe environment protocols meant to protect children from sexual abuse. 

Kate Heim, the interim president of St. Francis Xavier Catholic School System in Appleton, Wisconsin, said in a letter to parents last week that Xavier High School Principal Mike Mauthe and St. Francis Xavier Catholic School System superintendent John Ravizza were both let go by the school system after an investigation by the diocese. 

In the letter, obtained by Fox affiliate WLUK-TV, Heim told parents that the Diocese of Green Bay Office of Safe Environment had received “a complaint” that initially led to Mauthe’s being put on administrative leave. 

After an investigation, Mauthe was found to have violated the diocese’s “Our Promise to Protect” safe environment policy. Mauthe was…

View Cache

After first threatening to excommunicate two Peruvian laypeople for filing criminal charges against a papal investigator, Pope Francis apparently met with the pair over the weekend and annulled their excommunication decree, though it remains unclear under what circumstances.

In a video published on social media Saturday, the pair, Giuliana Caccia and Sebastian Blanco, said “the Holy Father Francis received us in a private audience.”

“He gave us the opportunity to inform him of how the facts really were that brought us to this possible excommunication,” they said.

“With much joy, the Holy Father signed in his own handwriting a document in which this excommunication was annulled, revoked,” they said, adding the pope gave them a blessing and “encouraged us to keep going forward.”

Caccia and Blanco, who have actively discussed their case on social media despite an earlier request from the pope to refrain from public comment, said they would…

View Cache

Officials with the Diocese of Springfield announced Tuesday that a deceased priest has been added to a list of credibly accused clergy named in sexual abuse of minors, while two others also had additional incidents added to their files.

While two of the three spent time in Berkshire County churches, none of the reports alleged abuse during their local tenure. 

The late Rev. Ronald Lussier was added to the list based on findings by a diocesan Review Board, the diocese said in a statement. The board also noted an additional credibility finding of abuse against the late Rev. John Koonz and three more findings against the late Franciscan Rev. Placid Kaczorek.

Koonz, who served in parishes in Dalton, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge, and Kaczorek already had been published on the diocese’s list of credibly accused.

Lussier was ordained in 1952 and died in 2002, the diocese said in a statement.

…

View Cache

Parliamentary inquiry warns it may run out of time to work through backlog of cases due to significant hold ups and surge in applications

Abuse survivors are at serious risk of being denied justice from the church and other institutions because of extraordinary delays with the national redress scheme, a parliamentary inquiry has warned.

The delays to processing claims for redress are so significant that the inquiry has recommended the federal, state and territory governments agree to extend the life of the scheme, or risk “running out of time” to work through the backlog of cases.

The national redress scheme has been operating since 2018, one year after the royal commission’s damning final report, offering capped compensation and apologies to survivors of abuse in churches, orphanages, children’s homes, schools, sports clubs and other institutions.

But survivors’ groups and advocates have for years warned delays with the scheme were causing…

View Cache

When a bishop moves a Catholic priest often, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the priest is a predator. However, there seem to be few bishops who keep a predator priest in the same assignment for an extended period of time. And when a predator priest is transferred to a new assignment, he often ends up in a position with roughly the same or even greater access to kids. There’s plenty of evidence of these patterns – especially movements across diocesan and even national boundaries – when one looks at child molesting San Diego clerics.

International Movement of Priests

First, take a look at some of the countries from which several San Diego predator priests have come or are later transferred, especially AFTER a report of child sexual abuse is made against them.

• Ireland: Fr. Patrick J. Kearney, Fr. James Creaton, Fr. Thomas Moloney, Fr. Michael K. Higgins, Fr. Michael O’Connor, Fr. Patrick J. O’Keeffe, Fr. Malachy M. McGinn,…

View Cache

A man who previously volunteered as a coach at a Christian private school in Addis is now facing domestic battery charges in addition to prior accusations of indecent behavior.

He was previously arrested in June for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Records show Dennis Clinton Kennamer Jr., 39, of Brusly, was charged with domestic abuse with strangulation.

He was arrested by the Brusly Police Department in June on the charges of one count of computer aided solicitation of a minor, two counts of indecent behavior with juveniles, one count of molestation of a juvenile or a person with a physical or mental disability, and two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile.

Kennamer is accused of committing sexual acts with a 16-year-old girl between January and February 2024.

Arrest records state he used email to communicate with the teen.

The assistant chief of Brusly Police Department told…

View Cache

Rep. Ann Johnson filed legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits

Currently, in the state of Texas, survivors of child sexual abuse have 30 years from their 18th birthday to sue their perpetrators in civil court.

State Representative Ann Johnson, D-Houston, wants to eliminate that restrictive timeline and bring it in line with the criminal side, where there is no statute of limitations.

Rep. Johnson said it seemed like an easy fix, but it’s been anything but.

And she hopes H.B. 179 will at least get a hearing during the 89th legislative session that starts in January.

“This is now the third session in a row where we have offered this legislation. And I hope, for the first time, that we will get a hearing so that other Texans can hear from the victims who have suffered abuse at the hands of individuals, oftentimes that…

View Cache

Last chance for restitution!

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of California, has set a final deadline of FEBRUARY 3, 2025, for the Diocese of San Diego to receive claims from survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or others. This is your last chance for restitution. If you do not file a claim and the bankruptcy proceeds to its conclusion, you will be permanently barred from taking action against the Diocese.

You can find the forms for filing a claim at this link.

Do not let this opportunity slip away! File your claim before FEBRUARY 3, 2025.

View Cache

Nearly 30 former members of a Peru-based women’s lay group who have lodged allegations of psychological, emotional and sexual abuse have asked the pope to suppress the spiritual family they belonged to, and to help them obtain just compensation.

In the letter, the former members of the Marian Community of Reconciliation (MCR) said, “With deep respect and hope, we turn to you as a group of ex-members of the Marian Community of Reconciliation (MCR), a community born from the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.”

“We turn to you to share our experiences and to ask for your guidance and support in the search for justice and healing,” they said.

The MCR, established in 1991, is one of four entities founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, including its male branch, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a group of nuns called the Servants of the Plan of God (SPD), and an ecclesial movement called the Christian…

View Cache

Recently, I saw the movie, “Small Things Like These,” about Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. There is a pivotal scene when the mother superior stuffs a Christmas card with cash and gives it to the protagonist for his wife. The unsubtle message conveyed is that it’s recompense for his silence about an abuse event he had just witnessed.

That scene came to mind when I read the diocesan response to questions raised recently by News 5 Cleveland WEWS-TV regarding Cleveland Bishop Edward Malesic’s handling of specific abuse-related cases, including in Cleveland. In my view, there is an unsettling defensive tone in the response.

Reform advocates estimate that U.S. Catholic dioceses have paid $5 billion in settlements, including a recent Los Angeles diocesan agreement to pay out $880 million. Many of the settlements are confidential, so the laity are completely in the…

View Cache

Pope Francis has asked the Vatican to study whether the Catholic Church should classify “spiritual abuse” as a new crime in order to address cases where priests use purported mystical experiences as a pretext for harming others.

A statement from the Vatican’s doctrinal office announcing the move did not name any specific cases of such abuse, but the Vatican has had to deal with several in recent years.

Cardinal Victor Fernandez, the Church’s lead doctrinal official, met with Francis to discuss the proposal for a new crime of spiritual abuse on Nov. 22, according to the statement. The pope directed Fernandez to work with another Vatican office to consider the issue, it said.

The release quoted from new Vatican norms, approved in May, on evaluating alleged supernatural events, saying it was “morally grave” to use purported spiritual experiences to exert control over others.

One high-profile case involving accusations of abuse…

View Cache

When I saw this lede on a Reuters news story this week, my sense of déjà vu was overwhelming:

A former top Vatican official who dealt with clergy sexual abuse issues joined victims on Monday in urging Pope Francis to enact a zero-tolerance law throughout the global Catholic church so any cleric found guilty of abuse would be removed from ministry.

Really?! Are we really still talking about “zero tolerance” for abuse at this late date? Maybe the Reuters report misrepresented the talk by Father Hans Zollner, who heads a program at the Gregorian University on curbing abuse. Maybe the term “zero tolerance” has simply become a shorthand expression, intended to cover all sorts of efforts to protect children.

”Zero tolerance” was the policy the US bishop endorsed during their Dallas meeting in 2002. “Zero tolerance” is the approach that Pope Francis demanded when speaking to reporters in…

View Cache

[In the podcast audio, the discussion of sexual abuse begins at minute 54.]

This week I talked with Fr. Chris Kellerman SJ about his excellent and challenging book, “All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church.” In our conversation he presents a brief history of the Church’s involvement with, and teachings about, slavery. Fr. Chris also responds to still repeated misconceptions and revisionist histories about the Church’s participation in the slave trade. Finally, we talk about how this relates to the priest abuse crisis and how confronting the evils in the Church impacts our own faith.

Listen to the episode here: https://www.catholicthirdspace.com/p/7-fr-chris-kellerman-sj-slavery-and

Also, I apologize for the audio quality of this episode, I didn’t realize I was using the wrong microphone until after the recording was over.

Fr. Chris Kellerman, SJ, is Secretary of Justice and Ecology for the Jesuit Conference…

View Cache

Francis called for a “safer and more compassionate Church” that will provide “comfort and assistance” to victims with “justice, healing, and reconciliation.”

Pope Francis insists on support for victims of sexual abuse committed within the Church, in a message published earlier this month, on November 13, 2024. The occasion for his note was a European conference promoting the fight against pedophilia, organized in Rome by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM). 

The event, which took place from November 13 to 15, brought together ecclesiastical leaders and authorities responsible for the protection of minors in dioceses and religious congregations from more than 20 European countries.

Various members of the PCPM — the Vatican structure founded in 2014 to promote the fight against sexual abuse in the Church — spoke, including to present the commission’s first annual report, published on October 29.

Effective…

View Cache

A St. Jude relic traversing the United States came to a stop this week, while the priest organizing the tour faces an Illinois police investigation over alleged inappropriate conduct involving children.

The priest, Fr. Carlos Martins, is well-known for ”The Exorcist Files,” a 2023 podcast series featuring dramatic audio portrayals of allegedly demonic encounters Martins claims to have experienced in ministry as an exorcist.

According to a statement from Queen of the Apostles parish in Joliet, Illinois, Martin was accused Thursday of an unspecified “incident” involving students which prompted Fr. Michael Lane, parish moderator, to contact the police. 

Martins “was confronted with the information,” Lane wrote, and “we informed the priest that he must depart from our parish and our diocese.”

While Lane’s statement did not provide details about the allegations, the parish priest aimed to assure parishioners that “all involved in this incident are safe.” 

“A police investigation is still…

View Cache

[Click here to see video.]

1 Wide of the press conference room

2. Close of the Ending Clergy Abuse logo projected on screen

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Denise Buchanan, Ending Clergy Abuse founding member and human rights consultant:

++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS OVERLAID BY SHOT 4-6++

“We are in a pivotal moment where we can change the trajectory of the lives of children in the church and throughout society. Church can take a leadership role. Because of the lack of care and trauma I experienced in childhood, because of the clergy sex abuse I experienced, I was never able to have children. So I carry with me a photo of my one-year-old self as a constant reminder of why this work is important. No child should ever experience sexual violence, especially in the church. It is in our hands to make sure no one does.”

4. Banner…

View Cache

A lawsuit was announced Thursday, accusing Fordham University and the Archdiocese of New York of turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse of minors in the 1970s.

The lawsuit focuses on several Fordham priests. The alleged victims were not college students, but minors living in the Bronx when they say they were approached by Father John Joseph McCarthy, who was at the university until 1992, but has since died.

Their attorneys say McCarthy used Fordham’s facilities to lure the group of young boys onto campus, where he lived.

Alleged victim details an encounter

CBS News New York’s Doug Williams spoke to one of the alleged victims. 

“One time, I went to his place and [we were] talking and things like that. One time, at like 12 o’clock in the morning he wakes me up, telling me me to take off my clothes in front of…

View Cache

A letter issued to parishioners at three central Illinois churches by Bishop Thomas John Paprocki with the Diocese of Springfield details the reasons behind a Taylorville priest’s resignation.  In the letter dated Nov. 17, Paprocki states Father Piotr Kosk resigned amid revelations of a years-long sexual relationship and illegal drug use with Deacon Stefan Kaniewski, a seminarian with the diocese.

Both men acknowledged their actions were incompatible with their responsibilities in the church, and Kaniewski has requested to leave his clerical duties, according to Paprocki. Prior to accepting Kosk’s resignation, the bishop initiated an investigation to look into the matter as well as possible financial misconduct. “Based on the gravity and nature of the preliminary findings and the respective responses of Deacon Kaniewski and Father Kosk after being confronted with the findings, this canonical process will likely lead to strict penalties and sanctions as well as my petition to the Holy See…

View Cache

Anne Manne. Crimes of the Cross: The Anglican Paedophile Network of Newcastle, Its Protectors and the Man Who Fought for Justice. Black Inc, 2024.  

Crimes of the Cross is an important book for Anglicans to read. It is also a difficult book to read. It discusses the horrific and weighty issues of child sexual abuse in Anglican churches, and so it is at times confronting, at times disturbing and at times enraging. It is also conflicting, as many will personally know, or be acquainted with those who know, pivotal people described in this book. So not all Anglicans will be able to read this book, but many should.  

It is an important book for Anglicans because a central practice of our faith is to confess our sins and failings. Also central to the Anglican tradition is seeking to love and bless our communities, particularly the young and the vulnerable. If Anglicans are…

View Cache

Lawyers who have for years supported survivors of church-related abuse are calling for an external independent review to examine the Church of England’s conduct in the case of a convicted sex offender who was allowed to continue working at Liverpool Cathedral.

Former vicar Canon John Roberts who is 89, was jailed in 2020 for nine counts of indecent and sexual assault committed against three victims in the 1980s, 2000s and 2010s. He was also ordered to sign onto the Sex Offenders Register for life.

The victims came forward in 2018 to say Roberts had abused them – one had been sexually assaulted as a boy in the 1980s by Roberts while he worked as a vicar in the Woolton area, one was a child in the early 2000s, and one was in adult in the 2010s.

Following publicity around his case, another male came forward to report he too had been victim…

View Cache

Three Mandan Catholic school officials who were charged in criminal cases that were later dismissed assert in recently filed documents that potential damage to their professional reputations — and the school — is sufficient grounds for a judge to order case records sealed from public view.

Those assertions were made in affidavits filed by Christine and David Fleischacker and Thomas Hoopes. All three were charged with failing to act as mandatory reporters in connection with alleged sexual assaults made by a male student against female students at the School of the Holy Family during a period beginning in 2020 and ending in 2023.During that period, David Fleischacker was the school’s principal, Hoppes served as assistant principal and Christine Fleischacker was the school’s director of science, according to an affidavit. Charges against them ultimately were dismissed in favor of them attending training on reporting abuse to the proper authorities, which is required…

View Cache

Four priests have had their licence to practise suspended by the Church of England as it continues to deal with the fallout from a damning review into safeguarding failings. 

The Diocese of London has withdrawn permission to officiate (PTO) pending investigation from Hugh Palmer, former rector at All Soul’s Church, Langham Place in London, and Christianity Explored founder Rico Tice, The Telegraph reports.

Sue Colman, associate minister at St Leonard’s Church in Oakley, Hampshire, has also had her PTO suspended pending investigation, while in the Diocese of Gloucester the licence of Cheltenham-based pastor Nick Stott has been withdrawn. 

The measures have been taken following the publication of the Makin Review which accused the Church of England of carrying out a “cover-up” of horrific abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, the late organiser of Iwerne Christian youth camps. 

The report led to the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but there have been calls for more clergy to go…

View Cache

As bankruptcy proceedings continue for the Diocese of Buffalo, survivors of clergy abuse who are suing the Diocese in state court are celebrating a legal victory in federal court.

Their lawsuits that date back to 2020, can move forward, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court Western District of New York, Judge Carl L. Bucki.

There are 17 “test cases” that are among hundreds that were filed in state court as a result of the Child Victims Act. The Diocese asked its federal bankruptcy court judge to keep those cases on hold for further mediation.

But Judge Bucki wrote in his 16-page decision “(T)he parties have had ample opportunity to work for a resolution. With each passing day, the lack of settlement suggests the need to try a different approach. Litigated disputes are often settled on the courthouse steps. By pushing litigants closer to a trial of tort claims, we hope that…

View Cache

A 91-year-old man was booked into jail after reports of years-long abuse involving several children at Shawnee First Church of Nazarene.

Dinnel contacted News 4 Thursday night and said he called the Department of Human Services around 2016 after hearing two girls discuss the allegations.

Parents of one of the alleged victims, records show, called police.

It would be around eight years later before the case would come back into light with officials.

Records stated that Dinnel also contacted his lead pastor at the time, Mike Meeks, and that Meaks said they were not allowed to report it because it wasn’t their church. However, it stated that Dinnel still put in an anonymous report to DHS.

Court records show that Dinnel was allegedly threatened that he might not have a job if it was reported further. He told police he believes there aren’t any emails discussing the situation because the…

View Cache

Disturbing allegations are coming to light surrounding a South Bend pastor who was arrested over the weekend and officially charged this week.

WNDU 16 News Now is learning 36-year-old Geoffrey Carter is in the St. Joseph County Jail on multiple charges, including child exploitation, possession of child pornography, sexual battery, child seduction and voyeurism-using a camera.

According to court paperwork, the 17-year-old unnamed victim filed a police report earlier this month against Carter. A few days later, the victim revealed to Mishawaka police investigators they were staying with Carter at his Mishawaka home.

The victim claimed they were awakened on Halloween morning after feeling someone rubbing their leg and “squeezing” their buttocks. They said they turned around and saw Carter in the bedroom, pulling his pants up and quickly hiding his phone. They also reportedly observed a camera flash. The victim also indicated later seeing a video of Carter masturbating…

View Cache

It’s a case attorneys say dates back to the 1970s. Children ages 10 to 15 were the alleged targets of sexual abuse by multiple priests at Fordham University.

A lawsuit against Fordham University claims former priests’ sexually abused minors on campus grounds.

It’s a case attorneys say dates back to the 1970s. Children ages 10 to 15 were the alleged targets of sexual abuse by multiple priests at Fordham University.

Lawyers from the Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley law firm, say they have three clients who fell victim to abuse by John Joseph McCarthy. They tell News 12 he would lure children near the school with fun activities and candy. One of the accusers says the abuse happened in his early teens at sleepovers with the priest and other kids. He says McCarthy told them it was about manhood.

News 12 asked attorneys if they believed Fordham University was aware…

View Cache

An Ontario law firm is seeking information about the movements and activities of a Catholic priest who was convicted of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy before he died.

Father Leo Charron was a parish priest in the Emeryville area from 1957 to 1958, in Windsor from 1959 to the mid-1960s and in the Pain Court and Stoney Point areas thereafter.

According to media reports, Charron was convicted in 1993 of indecent assault and gross indecency involving a 12-year-old boy and was sent to jail for four months.

“There’s a level of difficulty when you’re dealing with historical matters decades ago, finding people, tracking down information and memories,” said lawyer Rob Talach.

The request for information was put out on social media by Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers – based in London, Ont.

According to the firm, a current lawsuit alleging further abuse during Charron’s time in Stoney Point in the 1980s…

View Cache

Hugh Palmer and three others have permission to officiate withdrawn following Makin Report

A former chaplain to the late Queen is among four priests who have had their licences suspended by the Church following a damning abuse report.

The Diocese of London has withdrawn permission to officiate (PTO) from three clergy pending an investigation into their involvement in the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, while the Diocese of Gloucester said it had suspended the PTO of Rev Nick Stott, a priest from Cheltenham.

Smyth, a barrister who led Christian youth camps in Dorset known as the Iwerne Camps in the 1970s and 1980s, abused up to 130 boys across three countries before his death in 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa.

A PTO is a licence granted by a Bishop allowing clergy to conduct services and perform ministerial duties. Their removal marks a formal escalation in the Church’s response to…

View Cache

Dennis Finbow, who once served as a priest in the Diocese of East Anglia, has had his clerical status and rights as a Catholic priest removed by Pope Francis, following his conviction last year for three historic (non-recent) child sexual abuse offences.

Bishop Peter Collins said: “As I promised when Dennis Finbow was convicted and jailed last March, the Diocese has followed the process of canon law outlined in our policies and procedures and can announce that he has now been laicised, which means that his clerical status and rights as a Catholic priest have been removed by His Holiness Pope Francis.

“We wish to reiterate our willingness to listen and support anyone affected by abuse and all victims of child sexual abuse are in my prayers. We would encourage any victim of child sexual abuse perpetrated within the Catholic Church context to make contact either directly through our Safeguarding…

View Cache

In January 2017, Suzy Lamb, then-Daystar TV co-host and daughter-in-law of Daystar founders Marcus and Joni Lamb, claims she was sexually assaulted at Daystar by an unlicensed chiropractor her in-laws had hired.

But when her husband, then-Director of Operations Jonathan Lamb, told his parents about it, they buried the assault, both Jonathan and Suzy told The Roys Report (TRR) in an exclusive interview.

According to the couple, Marcus and Joni maintained a culture of secrecy and protection at the large Christian broadcasting network with more than 100 stations worldwide and an annual revenue of around $100 million.

The couple say they submitted to this culture for more than a decade. But as TRR reported yesterday, Jonathan and Suzy have gone public with their experience at Daystar, specifically Marcus and Joni’s alleged cover-up of their daughter’s sexual assault by a male family member.

Suzy did not talk about her own sexual assault in our first interview….

View Cache

2 On Your Side’s Pete Gallivan says he wants others to feel empowered.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — As we continue to follow the fallout of the crisis in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese, we find ourselves in the unusual position of telling the story of one of our own.

Over the last six years, we’ve brought you many stories about sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

But 2 On Your Side’s Pete Gallivan has never read those stories when they appear on your screen. That’s because Pete, when he was an 11-year-old altar server, says he was abused by a monsignor in Buffalo who he trusted.

Until recently, he never told anyone about his claim of abuse. But his lawsuit is one of more than a dozen test cases expected to move forward if a judge lifts a stay on the lawsuits to move them ahead in…

View Cache

Sklba once called practice of returning abuser priests to ministry an “experiment”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11-21-2024

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced today that Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Richard J. Sklba has died.

Appointed an auxiliary bishop under the leadership of Archbishop Rembert Weakland, Sklba was Weakland’s right-hand man when it came to handling cases of rape and sexual abuse of children in the Milwaukee archdiocese. Weakland referred to Sklba as his “main go-to guy” in cases of sexual abuse in a 2008 desposition.

Thousands of pages of documents related to sexual abuse and its institutional concealment show that Sklba played a central role in transferring dozens of known sex offenders to new parishes without informing congregations, law enforcement, or the public. These documents were released in 2014 as part of the Milwaukee archdiocese’s 2011 bankruptcy.

Under Sklba’s direct oversight, documents show that at least 23 priests with confirmed histories…

View Cache

CZESTOCHOWA, Poland (OSV News) — Five years after the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church made national headlines in Poland, victims of abuse met with Polish bishops at the fringes of the plenary meeting of the bishops’ conference — the first such official meeting of survivors with the bishops’ body.

“I feel that it was a meeting with a capital ‘M,’ that is, a meeting where both sides are ready to hear each other. We indeed had a sense of being heard,” said a woman known by the pseudonym of Toska Szewczyk, one of the initiators of the meeting. “There were comments from the bishops such as ‘I already understand more why this is so important to you,’ or ‘We have indeed done what we need to do so far, but not necessarily all that we can.’ Apologies were also made several times,” she said.

“Both sides worked very hard”…

View Cache

Spain’s ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo, urged the state and the Catholic Church to work together to compensate victims of sexual abuse by clergy—something the church hierarchy has so far refused to do.

“I consider it essential that for the sake of the victims [of sexual abuse], the church and the state adopt common commitments,” Ángel Gabilondo, Spain’s ombudsman, said.

Addressing the Congress of Deputies November 21, Gabilondo presented the findings of an independent commission of inquiry into clerical sexual abuse.

The report, coordinated by the Spanish ombudsman, was made public in October 2023. It estimated that 200,000 minors had been victims of sexual assault by Catholic clergy in Spain since 1940, with that figure rising to 400,000 when including assaults by lay workers affiliated with the church.

[Further reading: Catholic bishops in Spain contest figures in sex abuse report]

It is necessary to “prioritize reparations for the victims over any ideological or…

View Cache

The founders of the Hallow prayer app say their advertising relationship with controversial actor Russell Brand is meant to invite non-Catholics to an experience of prayer — and that if the actor is charged with sexual assault, the company will reevaluate its advertisements on his podcast. 

Brand, 49, is a British actor, podcast host, and media personality who has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and physical and emotional abuse, for alleged acts said to have taken place between 2006 and 2013. Brand denies the allegations, arguing that any sexual encounters involving the alleged victims were consensual.

In recent months, Brand has begun speaking publicly about adopting Christian spirituality. In April, the actor was baptized in Britain’s River Thames by British survival television star Bear Grylls, and has since posted on Instagram photos of himself performing a baptism in an unspecified river. 

British prosecutors said this month they are…

View Cache

Leaders of conservative networks respond to the criticisms in Makin review

THE Makin review of the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth and its cover-up requires not only repentance and lament, but also “culture-changing action”, the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) said this week.

The review, which found that “powerful evangelical clergy” had covered up the abuse (motivated in part, it suggests, by a desire to “protect the wider reputation of Conservative Evangelicalism”) lists among those who knew of the abuse former leaders of many of the powerhouses of the conservative Evangelical constituency in England. They include All Souls’, Langham Place; St Ebbe’s, Oxford; St Aldate’s, Oxford; and the Round Church (now St Andrew the Great), Cambridge.

On Tuesday, the diocese of Gloucester confirmed that permission to officiate (PTO) had been removed from the Revd Hugh Palmer, a former Rector of All Souls’, while a safeguarding review was conducted. His PTO in London diocese has…

View Cache

As I opened the doors of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Bolton Hill last Sunday, I thought about eternal life.

Not an eternal life of the soul, but the ways in which our words and actions echo long after our deaths.

We tell the stories of the departed and pass along their wisdom. We move through buildings they constructed. We climb stairs their feet rubbed smooth.

There are places that become a part of us, and places where a part of us of will always remain.

Corpus Christi, one of dozens of Baltimore-area Catholic parishes set to close at the end of the month, is that kind of place for my family. My paternal grandfather and most of his eight siblings attended the school associated with the church from first through eighth grade, making the 15-minute trek from their Mount Vernon rowhouse in all sorts of…

View Cache

The most recent case of alleged child sexual abuse by a Catholic priest is detailed in a court filing that indicts Fr. Serlito Villar of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Poblacion, Alegria, Cebu, for lascivious conduct toward and rape of an 11-year-old boy.

The indictment, filed in Regional Trial Court Branch 62 in Oslob, Cebu, by the no-nonsense and determined Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Julius Torreon Ompad, backed up by Provincial Prosecutor Ludivico Vistal Cutaran, listed five counts of rape with sexual assault and one count of lascivious conduct.

According to the victim’s testimony, these acts of violent sexual assault allegedly took place over two years in the church rectory, before and after serving in Masses. Four of the alleged heinous crimes were committed between Feb. 12, 2022, and April 27, 2023. Another was committed at Cuestas Resort in Malabago village, according to the indictment, which reads like a handbook of…

View Cache

Key Points:

• A survivor of sexual abuse is suing the Nashville Diocese and St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Murfreesboro over response to allegations against former St. Rose educator Michael Lewis.
• In February 2022, a judge sentenced Lewis to 20 years in prison in a separate criminal case over the same allegations behind the ongoing civil suit against the diocese and St. Rose.
• The civil case could go to trial in yet another key development following other major revelations about different instances of abuse within the Nashville Diocese.

[To see the remainder of this article, click here.]

View Cache

I am waiting for the Maine Supreme Court to decide a case about sexual abuse and the statute of limitations [SOL].1 Statutes of limitations are rules that explain when the courts are open or closed to victims of abuse. I am particularly interested in the implications of that court’s decision for Catholic institutions, which have long practiced and hidden the sexual abuse of children in Maine.

For a long time, across the country short SOLs kept many abuse survivors from having their day in court. States are finally opening their courts to victims of abuse, recognizing that it does not make sense to give a child a year or two to file the suit and then close the courts to him or her forever.2

Maine expanded its statute of limitations in the 1990s for child sex abuse cases.3 Today, there is no criminal SOL for misdemeanor or felony sexual…

View Cache

The abuse of children by Catholic clergy has a long history in the State of Maine.

The Beginning

Some initial news about Catholic Maine abuse was released when the Maine Supreme Court ordered it. In Blethen Maine Newspapers v. Maine, 871 A.2d 523 (Me. 2005), the Supreme Court of Maine ordered the release of the allegations of sexual abuse by deceased priests. Names of some living individuals could be redacted to keep the balance between state needs and individual privacy balanced. In response to Blethen Maine Newspapers, in 2005 the Maine attorney general released a list of 21 dead priests who had been accused of abuse.1 The allegations included two diocesan priests, two Jesuits, two Dominican priests, and one Dominican brother. Statements from victims were also included in the reports. The abusers’ names, released May 27, 2005, were Charles Bigelin, Henry Boltz, William Cahill S.J., Herve Carrier, Ralph Corbeil, John Crozier, John Curran, Armand…

View Cache

Spain’s ombudsman on Thursday urged the country’s Catholic Church to compensate victims of sexual abuse committed on the institution’s watch.

Unlike in other nations, clerical abuse allegations have only recently started to gain traction in Spain, once a deeply Catholic country which has become increasingly secular.

Figures published last year in the first-ever official report on child sexual abuse within the Church in Spain estimated that more than 400,000 minors had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy and other lay people since 1940.

Spain’s leftist government approved a plan in April to implement the report’s recommendations, including the creation of a state compensation fund for victims.

But the southern European country’s Catholic Church has ruled out taking part in such a fund if it was only for compensating victims of ecclesiastical abuse and not victims of sexual abuse in any setting.

“I consider it essential that,…

View Cache

Lo and behold, Matt Gaetz is a Southern Baptist.

So too is Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who is trying to deep-six the House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz — a report that is said to include evidence about Gaetz’s sexual abuse of a 17-year-old girl and his illicit drug use.

“She was a high school student and there were witnesses,” said the lawyer representing the girl.

We’ve seen this story again and again in Baptistland.

I feel overwhelmed by the grief of it, and yet it’s a familiar grief.

For decades, Southern Baptists have been turning a blind eye to sexual abuse allegations against their pastors.

Now they’re turning a blind to sexual abuse allegations against Gaetz, the man nominated to be U.S. attorney general, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

The patterns repeat. Southern Baptists are effectively carrying the impunity of their faith group into the federal government.

Johnson says it would be a…

View Cache

Seven lawsuits were filed in recent weeks against the Diocese of Lafayette by people alleging they were sexually abused by clergy when they were children, the latest wave of lawsuits since a June court ruling giving abuse victims more time to seek restitution.

Four of the seven lawsuits were filed in November, one on Nov. 12, in 15th Judicial District Court in Lafayette. Three others were filed Oct. 29.

One of the lawsuits, while not specifically naming him, appears to refer to alleged abuse by the former Rev. Gilbert Gauthe, believed to be the first priest in the United States to be openly accused and prosecuted for child sexual abuse. He served various church parishes in the Acadiana area. The lawsuit states that the defendant is living in San Leon, Texas, the last reported residence of Gauthe.

There are currently about 20 lawsuits pending against the Diocese of…

View Cache

The investigation was announced by then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal after the Vatican released a list of nearly 200 New Jersey clergy it said were “credibly accused” of abuse.

Six years after it promised a full investigation into the issue of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General has still not released its results.

The investigation was announced by then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal after the Vatican released a list of nearly 200 New Jersey clergy it said were “credibly accused” of abuse. The list included former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the highest-ranking U.S. church official to face such accusations. The McCarrick case was the subject of a recent episode of News 12’s docuseries, “Crime Files.”

Greg Gianforcaro, an attorney who has represented numerous clergy abuse survivors, notes that a similar investigation by the Pennsylvania attorney general was completed in just two years. He wonders…

View Cache

Signs of the times. The abuse crisis in the church continues unabated, with alarming news becoming the “new normal.” While progress is made in safeguarding, much remains to be done, including implementing a zero-tolerance policy and understanding the deep, ongoing consequences of abuse.

One of the most important news reports in the global and “ecumenical” history of the church abuse crisis received little attention in our ecclesial conversations. On November 12, Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury unexpectedly announced his resignation following the publication of the “Makin Report” and its revelations on the handling of John Smyth’s abuse of boys and young men in the 1970s and 1980s. The search will start soon to replace Welby, who is head of the Diocese of Canterbury, Primate of All England, a member of the House of Lords, and the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

We have barely paid attention to…

View Cache

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – An international group led by a Canadian is in Rome this week to push the Catholic Church to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on abuse by clergy.

Newfoundlander Gemma Hickey is the board president of non-profit Ending Clergy Abuse, which is advocating for the church to adopt widespread rules requiring any priest or deacon found guilty of sexual abuse to be removed permanently from ministry.

Hickey and other group members met today with officials from the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, which is the department of the main governing body of the Catholic Church concerned with canonical law.

[PHOTO: Gemma Hickey poses for a photo in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov.17, 2021. An international group led by a Canadian is in Rome this week to push the Catholic Church to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for clergy abuse. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin]

Hickey says they discussed changes proposed by Ending…

View Cache

Duane Gray says the priest at his Connecticut parish began sexually abusing him around 1974, when he was 12 years old. He told his parents, but they didn’t believe it and beat him repeatedly. Then they kicked him out of the house when he was about 16, and he found himself living in the woods.

Gray, 62, came forward publicly Tuesday to tell his story in the hopes it would allow some healing for himself and other victims of clergy sexual abuse. Last month, he said he reached a six-figure settlement with the Archdiocese of Hartford over his claims about the Rev. Daniel McSheffery, who died in 2014.

“Being able to talk about it, being able to have a resolution in my case meant everything,” Gray said during a video conference with his lawyer and reporters. “It would help me greatly, personally, if we can just stop one case from…

View Cache

Fr. Stephen M. Kiesle of the Diocese of Oakland, California, was convicted of lewd conduct for tying up and sexually abusing boys and was later sent to prison for abusing a girl. In 2023, he pleaded no contest to killing a pedestrian while driving drunk.

Fr. Mark Kristy of the Diocese of Sacramento was convicted of molesting a girl under 14 for three years and in 2022 was sentenced to a year in jail. For most of the last decade, he lived in Napa County.

Fr. Jean-Pierre Bongila of the San Francisco Archdiocese was sued for reportedly sexually abusing a girl. Church officials purportedly “cleared” him and he now works at a Catholic college in Minnesota.

Fr. John S. Crews of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, California, resigned in 2013 after he reportedly abused a boy. In 2022,…

View Cache

A father is suing the prominent Texas megachurch, First Baptist Church Dallas, for allegedly mishandling his son’s sexual abuse in 2022.

The father alleges in the lawsuit that their now 16-year-old son was sexually abused by an older student on a church youth mission trip in 2022. The family said church leaders bullied, shamed, and intimidated their son with “extreme and outrageous” conduct in response to a report of the sexual abuse, according to the lawsuit.

Along with the church, pastors Ryland Whitehorn and Alan Lynch are named as defendants in the suit. Whitehorn and Lynch are listed on the First Baptist Dallas staff page as of Monday afternoon.

First Baptist, currently led by Dr. Robert Jeffress, is a powerhouse church in Texas with 16,000 members, according to its website. Throughout the years, Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Donald…

View Cache

The alleged offense was committed in 2004 when the man was not employed with the archdiocese

The Singapore Archdiocese has suspended an employee facing legal action for molesting a 12-year-old girl 20 years ago, when he was not working with the archdiocese.

In a Nov. 19 statement, the archdiocese said that 57-year-old Zebedee Rex Fernando was removed from employment, the Straits Times reported on Nov. 20.

“Given the serious nature of the charge, Mr. Rex Fernando has been suspended from his employment until this matter is concluded,” an archdiocesan spokesperson said.

The offense was allegedly committed in 2004. The archdiocese stated that Fernando informed his workplace superiors about the court case on Nov. 11.

Fernando was handed the molestation charge on Nov 14, but court documents did not disclose why it took 20 years for him to be hauled to court over the alleged offense, the Straits Times reported.

In November 2022, Fernando was appointed…

View Cache

[Click here to go to the portion of this article that pertains to the Catholic abuse crisis.]

..

Pillar subscribers can listen to Ed read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR

Happy Friday friends,

Before we get started, a reminder up front for all friends in the DMV: we’ll be making a live episode of The Pillar Podcast  in Washington next week — we’ll be at Royal Sands Social Club on Thursday, November 14, from 7pm. 

Come as you are, bring friends, and let’s have a great time.

See you there!

It’s the day after the day after the day after the night before and, from at least where I am sitting, a lot of people are still “processing” the result of the presidential election. 

For what it’s worth, my abiding takeaway from it all is this: 

While I have been telling anyone who asked me all year that I thought…

View Cache

It would protect children and eliminate a ‘two-tier system,’ ensuring safety for all, not just in the US

A watchdog group in the United States is applauding calls to make “zero tolerance” for clerical abuse the rule for the worldwide Catholic Church.

“The Vatican approved this norm once; they can do it again, this time for every country,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, in a statement released Nov. 18.

Earlier that day, safeguarding experts released a joint proposal in Rome advocating a change in church law that would extend the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ protocol of permanently removing from ministry credibly accused priests or deacons.

The norm, established in 2002 alongside the USCCB’s “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” with the Vatican’s permission, at present only applies to the Catholic Church in the U.S.

The proposal to extend the norm through a change in…

View Cache

The policy, which permanently removes priests for a single act of sexual abuse, is currently limited to the US.

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse called on the Vatican on Monday to extend the zero-tolerance policy adopted by the US Catholic Church in 2002 to apply to the global church, insisting that children worldwide deserve protection for predator priests. 

The US standard was implemented during the peak of the abuse scandal in the country, and mandates that any priest found guilty of a single act of sexual abuse — whether admitted or proven under church law — be permanently removed from ministry. 

Adopted by US bishops to restore credibility after Boston’s abuse scandal was exposed by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight series, the policy has since stood as one of the strictest in the Catholic Church.

Known as the “one strike and you’re out” rule, the policy is seen by some as…

View Cache

“Any clergy member who is determined to be credibly accused of sexual misconduct with a minor is permanently removed from ministry.

A former priest has been fired from his job as a religious teacher at a Brooklyn preparatory school after past allegations of sexually abusing minors were brought to light.

The Diocese of Brooklyn shared the conclusion of their investigation into Michael Melendez on Friday. Melendez was suspended from his position at St. Francis Preparatory High School at the onset of his investigation, but was terminated “effective immediately” when the Diocese found three separate allegations against Melendez to be credible.

“The Diocese takes all allegations of sexual misconduct with minors seriously and has instituted significant programs to prevent sexual abuse and protect children,” said a spokesperson for the Diocese of Brooklyn.

“The Diocese abides by the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children which includes a zero…

View Cache

The report into child abuser John Smyth has been described by the Bishop of Salisbury as being “like a horror movie”.

The Right Reverend Stephen Lake told the BBC: “The trouble is it’s not fiction, it’s real, and very real every day for victims and survivors.”

Justin Welby resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury after facing rising pressure to stand down over his failure to report Smyth, who abused boys he met at Christian camps.

The Bishop told the BBC that whoever takes over from Mr Welby needs to make sure that safeguarding is “front and centre”.

Bishop Lake said there have been huge changes over the past few years in the Church of England, but that “we need to make sure that whoever leads us has this [safeguarding] front and centre”.

“My focus is on the report itself and what we need to be doing for the victims and survivors as a…

View Cache

Hope.

That’s the word that was on everyone’s lips — from the bishop’s homily to speeches outside the church — during a special Mass and dedication ceremony blessing the new healing garden introduced at Our Lady of Refuge Church in Long Beach on Nov. 17.

The Mass and garden were devoted to those who have suffered any kind of abuse, but especially ones that occurred within the Catholic Church.

Auxiliary Bishop Marc Trudeau said that while trauma occurs in the world — including sexual abuse — the goal of everyone’s journey is heaven, and God is there by our side every step of the way, no matter how painful.

“The remedy is hope,” Trudeau said in his homily.

“It’s my job to inspire some hope,” said Dr. Heather Banis, coordinator for the archdiocese’s Victims Assistance Ministry. “I think for a lot of people who were harmed, there’s…

View Cache

New administrative cuts in the Archdiocese of New York, stemming from sex abuse payouts dating back decades, include the closure of its Office of Black Ministry (OBM), multiple sources have confirmed.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has served as archbishop since 2009, published a letter on Nov. 8 noting that the archdiocese has begun a “restructuring of its pastoral offices.”

“[This] has, unfortunately, resulted in regrettable lay-offs for some workers at the Cardinal Cooke Building of the Catholic Center and elsewhere around the archdiocese… I am grateful for the service of all those whose positions are being eliminated.”

The affected pastoral offices were unspecified in Dolan’s letter, which was sent out via Flocknote and has not been released to the general public. A source in the archdiocese, however, noted that the OBM is among them, though few details have been provided.Read full document:DocumentDolan letter.pdf

…

View Cache

ROME (AP) — Survivors of clergy sexual abuse urged the Vatican on Monday to expand its zero-tolerance policy that it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002 to the rest of the world, arguing that children everywhere should be protected from predator priests.

The U.S. norms, adopted at the height of the abuse scandal there, say a priest will be permanently removed from church ministry based on even a single act of sexual abuse that is either admitted to or established under church law.

That “one strike and you’re out” policy in the U.S. has long stood out as the toughest in the church. It is held up by some as the gold standard, by others as excessive and by still others as imperfect but better than most. It was adopted by U.S. bishops as they scrambled to try to regain credibility following the revelations of abuse and cover-up…

View Cache

VATICAN CITY, Nov 18 (Reuters) – A former top Vatican official who dealt with clergy sexual abuse issues joined victims on Monday in urging Pope Francis to enact a zero-tolerance law throughout the global Catholic church so any cleric found guilty of abuse would be removed from ministry.

Rev. Hans Zollner, a German Jesuit priest who resigned in frustration from the pope’s clergy abuse commission in 2022, was part of a press conference in Rome with Ending Clergy Abuse, an international group of victims.

They called on Francis to take a zero-tolerance law adopted by U.S. Catholic bishops in 2002 and apply it to the entire 1.4-billion-member Church.

Zollner, who heads a centre for the study of abuse at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, said the Church needed “a change of knowledge, a change of attitude, a change of mentality (that is) much more than what has been done so far”.

…

View Cache

Archbishop Justin Welby, the Primate of the Anglican Communion, announced his resignation November 12, just days after the publication of a report criticizing his handling of a case involving the sexual abuse of minors.

With his position deemed “untenable” by many of his peers, Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, head of the Church of England and Primate of the Anglican Communion announced his resignation November 12.

This decision comes barely a week after the release of the Makin report, an independent investigation that revealed cover-ups by senior Church of England officials regarding abuses committed between the 1970s and 2010 by John Smyth on at least 115 boys and young men during Christian summer camps. Smyth, an Anglican lawyer and committed layman, was described in the report as “arguably the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.”

While the report found it “unlikely” that Welby had…

View Cache

It’s difficult to face the fact that those who call themselves Christian can abuse, and hard to believe anyone thought silence was the right response

It has been an unprecedented 10 days for the Church of England. The Makin report into abuse by John Smyth, barrister and Church lay reader, was leaked and landed a week ahead of its scheduled date, but still more than four years behind the original timetable.

Much of the content is familiar to anyone who read Andrew Graystone’s 2021 book Bleeding for Jesus. Justin Welby had been at the same Iwerne Trust Christian camps for boys as Smyth, sometimes at the same time, and seems to have heard rumours well before 2013, when he became officially aware of the abuse. His response was to announce that he had taken advice, and would not resign as archbishop of Canterbury; then, less than a week later, he did.

…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of New York is laying off workers — and says more staff may have to go — to help pay for the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal.

The cash-strapped Church already previously announced the sale of the archdiocese’s Cardinal Cooke headquarters building in Midtown.

“Such decisions are never easy, but the current financial crunch the archdiocese faces, and the upcoming move to our new offices in 2025, make this the appropriate time to make some tough decisions,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote in a letter to archdiocese faithful this month in announcing the layoffs.

The pink slips are going to 18 staffers, or about 4% of the work force involved in the archdiocese’s administration, and will save more than $1.5 million as officials focus more resources on parishes, according to the Church and Catholic media.

“Our goal in all of this is to ensure that we are responding as…

View Cache

ROME – Nearly 25 years after the explosion of clerical abuse scandals in the United States spurred a new “zero tolerance” attitude and almost six years after Pope Francis’s global safeguarding summit and the issuance of a swath of new norms, the question arises: Has any of it been effective?

Members of the pope’s safeguarding commission in presenting their first annual global report on safeguarding efforts around the world Oct. 29 were optimistic, arguing that in the 12 years since its establishment, despite a deeply entrenched culture at times resistant to change, progress was being made.

However, the case of Carlos (a false name), who alleges that he was sexually abused by a priest and spiritual advisor in Toledo from the age of 14-16, raises serious questions about just how effective these measures have been, especially in the application to concrete cases.

These questions intensified after Pope Francis on Nov….

View Cache

• In rare agreement, victims & top papal advisor push for ‘global one strike’ rule
• Right now, only the U.S. church permanently removes abusive clerics
• In all other countries, abusive priests can be and are put back in parishes

For Immediate Release by BishopAccountability.org- November 18

A watchdog group that tracks the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church is endorsing the “one strike and you’re out” proposal that is being released today by an unusual coalition of survivors and church insiders.

BishopAccountability.org announced its support for the proposal being unveiled in Rome this morning by Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), the world’s leading network of clergy abuse survivors, and Fr. Hans Zollner, the Church’s top anti-abuse expert and head of a safeguarding institute at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

ECA and Zollner are jointly demanding that Pope Francis adopt, on a world-wide basis, the so-called “zero tolerance” norm that the Vatican approved…

View Cache

The Church of England faced further turmoil last night after the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell was urged to resign over his handling of abuse cases.

The demand comes after the CofE’s leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, was forced to quit last week over a cover-up in a child abuse scandal.

Archbishop Cottrell, the CofE’s second most senior figure, is accused of ‘ignoring’ 11 separate complaints, some involving leading figures in the Church, including bishops.

In a devastating intervention, Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, who led an independent body probing abuse in the CofE, said she had repeatedly raised concerns with Archbishop Cottrell, 66, but argued he left victims ‘in the wilderness’. She claims in an interview with The Mail on Sunday that she had a similar response from Mr Welby, 68.

She said: ‘I sat down with both archbishops and poured my heart out, saying we need help. It…

View Cache

72-year-old educator for Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board faces multiple charges over sex abuse allegations involving two students at a school in Blind River

A 72-year-old teacher for the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board has reportedly been terminated after being charged with sexually abusing two students at a school in Blind River. 

Donald Trudeau is facing two counts of sexual interference and two counts of sexual assault on a person under 16 years of age after being charged by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Oct. 15, according to a news release from East Algoma OPP issued Thursday.  

An investigation revealed the sexual assaults allegedly took place between September 2023 and Oct. 15. None of the allegations have been tested in court and the accused is considered innocent unless proven guilty.

Mississauga First Nation (MFN) took to social media Thursday, advising community members that it is aware of the charges laid against the…

View Cache

Several U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday encouraged the church to boldly share Vatican teachings on a range of hot-button issues, including the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and gender-affirming surgery.

The prelates acknowledged theirs is often a countercultural view.

“We have been too apologetic for too long,” said Bishop Robert Barron, a media-savvy cleric who leads the Winona-Rochester diocese in Minnesota. “And we shouldn’t be cowed by the celebrities and so on in the culture who are preaching something that’s deeply problematic.”

The remarks came during the bishops’ annual fall meeting and a presentation on a Vatican declaration released in April. “Dignitas Infinita,” or “Infinite Dignity,” clarifies church teaching that promotes the dignity of all people and the protection of life from its earliest stages through death.

“The goal is to apply the lessons of ‘Dignitas Infinita’ to our American society,” said Barron, who praised the declaration for its “distinctively…

View Cache

The Archbishop of Canterbury was first informed about John Smyth’s abuse in 2013.

Members of the clergy are choosing not to call out senior Church of England leaders over the John Smyth abuse scandal because of “a culture of silence and fear”, a bishop has alleged.

In an interview on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Bishop of Newcastle Dr Helen-Ann Hartley said her fellow bishops may also be staying silent as they are thinking about their own career prospects, after the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

Mr Welby announced his resignation this week after the independent Makin Review concluded that the most prolific abuser associated with the Church of England, John Smyth, might have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally alerted authorities in 2013.

Ms Hartley had previously called for the archbishop to step down, saying his position had become “untenable” after the…

View Cache

Editor’s note: This article contains descriptions of abuse towards women that may be triggering.Ireland is no stranger to tragedy: victimized by famine, recession, torn apart by the Troubles (a period captured in FX’s Say Nothing), and more. But the film Small Things Like These has ripped the bandage off an Irish wound that was first inflicted in the 18th century, an excruciating film about a reprehensible system designed by the Catholic Church to torture and slut-shame women, masquerading as charity: the Magdalene Laundries. Only the film captures a fictional moment in the history of the Magdalene Laundries, a mere glimpse, a snapshot, into their long, shameful, and true-life history.

The Magdalene Laundries of ‘Small Things Like These’ Turned from Rehabilitation to Damnation

Tim Mielants also discuses adapting such a sensitive and important story.

The laundries were borne out of the Magdalene Movement in…

View Cache

Former prime minister Julia Gillard has called on Australia’s attorneys-general to urgently consider how to deliver justice to survivors of child abuse after the High Court ruled that a Catholic diocese was not liable for the historical sexual abuse of a young boy in Victoria.

Gillard, who in 2012 established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, said she was “deeply concerned” about the High Court ruling.

View Cache

Celebrated anti-poverty and homelessness campaigner Abbé Pierre was voted France’s most popular person for many years, but sexual abuse accusations have shattered the activist priest’s crusading legacy

Saint or demon? Hero or criminal? Friend of the poorest or their ultimate nightmare? France is in shock as it realises that the founder of Emmaüs was a sexual predator.

Born to a wealthy bourgeois Catholic family in Lyon, the birth name of Abbé Pierre (1912-2007) was Henri Grouès. 

He began doing charity work with the Catholic church as a child, and in 1931 he joined the Capuchin Order, giving up his inheritance to charity and taking vows of poverty and chastity. 

As a monk in the Monastery of Crest, he was called Frère Philippe. He became a priest in 1938 but had to leave the monastery in 1939 due to a severe lung infection. 

He became the curate of the cathedral in…

View Cache

Monsignor Charles A. Klauder, who made St. John the Baptist Church in the Town of Tonawanda one of the largest parishes in Western New York, liked to remark that he walked in the footsteps of John Neumann “all my life – in Philadelphia and at St. John’s.”

Neumann served as first resident pastor of St. John the Baptist before becoming bishop of Philadelphia, organizing the first parochial school system in the United States and doing so much charitable work that he would be canonized a saint in 1977.

As a young man in Philadelphia, Klauder used to pray at Neumann’s tomb, and after being ordained to the priesthood in 1918, he sought to pick up at St. John’s where Neumann had left off.

Klauder’s 45 years at St. John the Baptist are one of the lengthiest pastorates in Buffalo Diocese history, and he died in 1972 as a revered figure who…

View Cache

A North Texas family filed a lawsuit against the church Nov. 11 after they say an older boy sexually abused their son on a mission trip, court documents state. A North Texas father is suing First Baptist Dallas for negligence over allegations that his teenage son was sexually abused by an older boy on a summer mission trip in July 2022, court documents state. The lawsuit was filed in Dallas County on Nov. 11. The plaintiff is bringing suit on behalf of his son and is asking for more than $1 million in damages.

View Cache

In Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, a memorial dedicated to victims of sexual abuse within the Church was unveiled on Saturday, marking the first such initiative in Flanders. Situated in the garden of the church, the monument acknowledges the pain of victims and aims to symbolise hope and resilience.

The monument, created by local artist Jorgen Missotten, consists of two split boulders, representing the trauma endured by victims. “They signify the pain and violence inflicted on the victims,” explained Mayor Jan Desmeth (N-VA). Growing between the stones is a Ginkgo Biloba tree, chosen for its resilience after surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. “It’s a symbol that, despite suffering, there is always hope,” Desmeth added.

The memorial was prompted by concerns from survivors in the community who feared their experiences were being forgotten during the repurposing of local churches. “Several victims approached us, expressing that the changes to these spaces felt like erasing history,”…

View Cache

Judge Orders Diocese to Disclose Unredacted Records Allegedly Documenting Knowledge of Former Priest’s Abuse History

Herman Law has achieved a significant legal milestone in ongoing lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. Since 2019, Herman Law has represented multiple survivors in cases that allege Father Romano Ferraro, a former priest within the Diocese, committed repeated acts of sexual abuse against minors.

Throughout these proceedings, the Diocese of Brooklyn has resisted releasing complete, unredacted documentation regarding their employment of Father Ferraro and their awareness of his alleged history of abuse. The limited records provided by the Diocese have been heavily redacted, prompting extensive legal challenges by Herman Law to gain access to the full scope of information.

In a pivotal development, the Honorable Judge Kraus recently ruled in favor of Herman Law, ordering the Diocese of Brooklyn to produce the complete, unredacted files by November 18, 2024. This order goes beyond similar previous rulings by including an automatic sanction: if the Diocese fails…

View Cache

A Catholic priest on Chicago’s South Side has been reinstated after no evidence supporting allegations of sexual abuse made against him last week was found.

Archbishop Cardinal Blase J. Cupich sent letters to Our Lady at St. Germaine, St. Gerald, St. Cajetan, St. John Fisher, St. John Neumann, St. Gianna and St. Barnabas parishes informing them of his decision to reinstate Fr. Martin Marren after he was temporarily removed from ministry.

Last week, officials said the Department of Child and Family Services opened an investigation against Marren amid allegations of alleged sexual abuse of a minor.

The Archdiocese Office for the Protection of Children and Youth presented their findings and the results of their own investigation to its Independent Review Board (IRB) on Saturday, according to officials.

The IRB found no reasonable cause to believe Marren sexually abused a minor and recommended the file be closed and he be returned…

View Cache

One factor forever complicating Vatican analysis is the proliferation of prefabricated scripts which various constituencies yearn to apply to events, rather than allowing those events to speak for themselves.

Recently, the curious case of ex-priest Ariel Alberto Príncipi – at least it seems his laicization will stick this time, though it’s hard to be truly sure – offers a good reminder of the point.

In 2023, an Argentine tribunal found Príncipi guilty of sexual abuse and ordered him dismissed from the clerical state, a verdict upheld on appeal. His laicization was then reversed this September by an edict from Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the number two official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, only to be reinstated just days later by another decree from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), reminding everyone that it has exclusive jurisdiction over abuse cases.

To say the least, these public…

View Cache

Shock waves triggered by archbishop’s resignation are culmination of years of simmering rage among churchgoers and survivors of abuse

As the faithful give thanks to God in England’s 16,500 parish churches on Sunday, beneath the comforting ritual of prayers and hymns will run a strong undercurrent of shame, anger, sadness and dread.

The Church of England is facing its biggest crisis in modern times, and there is no clear pathway to recovery. The archbishop of Canterbury has been forced to resign, other senior figures are facing calls to quit and the church is reeling from its shameful failures over a prolific and sadistic child abuser.

A 253-page report detailing the appalling brutality of the late barrister John Smyth, repeated cover-ups and omissions by church figures, and the lifelong trauma suffered by victims has triggered an “existential crisis” for the C of E, according to Linda Woodhead, professor of moral and social theology…

View Cache

Herman Law has achieved a significant legal milestone in ongoing lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. Since 2019, Herman Law has represented multiple survivors in cases that allege Father Romano Ferraro, a former priest within the Diocese, committed repeated acts of sexual abuse against minors.

Throughout these proceedings, the Diocese of Brooklyn has resisted releasing complete, unredacted documentation regarding their employment of Father Ferraro and their awareness of his alleged history of abuse. The limited records provided by the Diocese have been heavily redacted, prompting extensive legal challenges by Herman Law to gain access to the full scope of information.

In a pivotal development, the Honorable Judge Kraus recently ruled in favor of Herman Law, ordering the Diocese of Brooklyn to produce the complete, unredacted files by November 18, 2024. This order goes beyond similar previous rulings by including an automatic sanction: if the Diocese fails to comply, the Court will strike their Answers, conclusively establishing their liability and barring any defenses that could limit…

View Cache

Well, Holy God: My Life as an Irish, Catholic, Agnostic Correspondent

Patsy McGarry

304 pages; Merrion Press

The longtime Irish Times religious affairs correspondent Patsy McGarry is a conscience of Ireland. In Well, Holy God, McGarry writes of many topics, notably three decades of sex abuse cover-ups and state investigations, staining the careers of bishops and cardinals, elevating survivors as national figures, jolting the sense of Irish identity.

“All churches, all religions, are essentially tribal,” McGarry writes in this self-searching narrative. “At their best they act as a repository for the higher moral and spiritual values of their tribe, which they carry from generation to generation.”

At worst, the tribal psyche concealed a criminal sexual underground of clerics abusing youths and religious sisters tyrannizing girls in reform schools, two searing narratives that arose in the 1990s, thanks to documentaries on state television, and investigative reporting…

View Cache

Local religious institutions, counties fighting similar lawsuits

A jury needed only an hour on Oct. 31 to find Green Chimneys liable for the sexual abuse of a girl by one of its employees in the late 1960s. Four days later, the residential and therapy center for children with special needs, which has campuses in Brewster and Carmel, settled with the plaintiff for an undisclosed amount.

The case was the first of more than two dozen lawsuits filed in 2020 and 2021 against local institutions to reach trial under the state’s Child Victims Act. Enacted in 2019, the law gave adults a two-year window to begin civil actions for alleged sex crimes in which the statute of limitations had expired.

The lawsuits include at least five against the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and its residential St. Basil Academy in Philipstown and at least nine against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of…

View Cache

72-year-old educator for Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board faces multiple charges over sex abuse allegations involving two students at a school in Blind River

A 72-year-old teacher for the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board has reportedly been terminated after being charged with sexually abusing two students at a school in Blind River. 

Donald Trudeau is facing two counts of sexual interference and two counts of sexual assault on a person under 16 years of age after being charged by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Oct. 15, according to a news release from East Algoma OPP issued Thursday.  

An investigation revealed the sexual assaults allegedly took place between September 2023 and Oct. 15. None of the allegations have been tested in court and the accused is considered innocent unless proven guilty.

Mississauga First Nation (MFN) took to social media Thursday, advising community members that it is aware of the charges laid against the…

View Cache

IN a shocking scandal that is likely to send tremors through Zimbabwe’s Catholic community, St Ignatius College in Chishawasha is embroiled in devastating allegations of sodomy and sexual abuse.

At the centre of the controversy is the late Father Brian Porter, a respected member of the clergy, whose alleged actions have left former students and victims at the learning institution reeling.

The allegations, which have sparked widespread outrage and demands for accountability, raise profound questions about the safety and well-being of students in Zimbabwe’s educational institutions, especially in Catholic-led schools.

Porter was a longstanding Jesuit missionary in Zimbabwe, and a regular visitor to Jesuit missions.

He died on July 8 aged 90.

Investigations by NewsDay Weekender unearthed that Porter’s victims since the early 1970s have formed a group titled Justice, Healing and Closure (JHC) as they seek compensation from the catholic organisation.

The victims have since approached authorities at St…

View Cache

In short:

There are calls for law reform after a High Court ruling this week that the Catholic Church is not vicariously liable for the actions of a priest who allegedly sexually abused a five-year-old in 1971.

The court ruled that a priest is not an employee of a church, and therefore the institution is not liable to compensate their victims.

What’s next?

Lawyers and advocates say they will take up the issue with all states and territories.

Dead in the water is how one lawyer described the future of vicarious liability claims over institutional child sex abuse, after this week’s controversial High Court ruling that a priest is not an employee of the church.

For many survivors and their supporters, the ruling came as a shock and it prompted calls for governments around the country to step up and change the law.

Vicarious liability is the responsibility you have for…

View Cache

Leading British Catholics have urged their church to avoid involvement in the resignation of the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, who quit Nov. 12 after being implicated in a large-scale abuse cover-up.

“This drama won’t make a vast difference to the many people who already view Christianity negatively — they’ll merely see it as confirming what they already thought,” said Timothy Guile, chairman of the English Catholic History Association.

“While it will hugely damage confidence across the Anglican Communion, it shouldn’t affect the Catholic Church, which should avoid becoming embroiled in any way,” he said.

The Catholic historian was reacting to the resignation of Archbishop Justin Welby, the 105th archbishop of Canterbury, following report findings he was complicit in ignoring crimes by one of his church’s worst known abusers.

In an OSV News interview, Guile said Archbishop Welby’s departure would “seriously undermine” the Anglican church’s hierarchy, which was already “enormously pressured”…

View Cache

Parents are demanding school board resignations in a district that agreed last spring to a $3.5 million sex abuse settlement.

St. Helens School District closed all schools and offices Friday, after two teachers were arrested for alleged sexual assault against students. The school closure comes two days after a raucous school board meeting, in which parents demanded the superintendent and school board members step down.

Earlier this week, St. Helens, Oregon, police arrested teachers Eric Stearns, who was still on staff, and Mark Collins, who had retired recently from his career teaching math at St. Helens High School. Stearns is facing seven counts of second-degree sex abuse and one count of third-degree sex abuse involving six different students. Stearns is listed on the high school’s web site as the choir teacher.

According to the indictment filed in Columbia County court, Stearns began his pattern of criminal sexual abuse…

View Cache

The St. Helens School District announced late Thursday that all schools and offices would be closed Friday “to address recent events impacting our school community and prioritize the safety and well-being of our students and staff.”

The closure follows the arrests Tuesday of a St. Helens High School teacher and a retired St. Helens High teacher on allegations of child sex abuse. On Thursday, students protested outside the school, where one of the accused men had been allowed to continue teaching while under police investigation, KGW Channel 8 reported.

All Friday evening events are canceled as well. School district officials said they expect schools to reopen Monday.

In 2019, a St. Helens High teacher was convicted of sexually abusing a student on the track team. That teacher had received his first reprimand for inappropriate behavior with female students…

View Cache

Kenyan President William Ruto’s administration looked unsettled by a statement by the influential Catholic bishops on Thursday criticising its tax policies, human rights violations and corruption.

The 26 bishops, under their lobby group the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), voiced concerns about a State-sponsored campaign of abductions, enforced disappearances and torture of persons linked to the youth-led anti-tax protests in June and July that forced the President to withdraw this year’s Finance Bill and disband his Cabinet.

They also condemned what they termed ‘a culture of lies’ among the country’s ruling elite, citing a number of Dr Ruto’s unfulfilled election campaign promises slightly over two years since he took office in September 2022.

Their statement immediately drew frantic reactions from senior administration figures, including the President, issuing statements to counter the scathing attack by the clergy.

“I want to urge everybody, including the clergy, that even as we engage…

View Cache

Succession: Justin Welby will reach the retirement age of 70 in January 2026. An experienced commentator on church affairs argues that two issues will dominate the selection of his successor: sex and money

When former Archbishop Rowan Williams announced in March 2012 that he was standing down as Archbishop of Canterbury, bookmakers started taking bets on his successor. Bishop John Sentamu, then Archbishop of York, was the clear favourite, with the Bishops of London, Liverpool and Bradford among others in the running. One of the frontrunners said to me: “You mustn’t believe the stories in the press about bishops jockeying for position. It’s more like a group of men sitting around a table, passing a revolver from one to another, knowing that one of them is going to get the bullet.”

On 7 November 2012, both Ladbrokes and William Hill suddenly suspended betting on the new archbishop. They had noticed…

View Cache

The Church of England, the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, was left reeling on Nov. 12 after the unprecedented decision Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to resign.

Welby had at first seemed reluctant to accept what was apparent to nearly everybody else who has been following the decades-long saga of sadistic abuser John Smyth — that he would have to go. It came to a head last week with the publication of a long-awaited and damning report into the abuse and the church’s attempt over many years to cover it up.

Welby, who is cited repeatedly in the review, failed to report the abuse by Smyth when he first became aware of it in 2013 and failed to fulfill initial promises to meet survivors. Smyth abused as many as 130 boys and young men. He moved to Zimbabwe and South Africa, where the abuse continued until…

View Cache

Australia’s High Court Rules Catholic Church Not Liable Abuse Case

In a landmark ruling, the High Court of Australia has unanimously determined that the Catholic Church cannot be held «vicariously liable» for alleged sexual abuse by a priest in 1971. The decision, handed down on Wednesday, November 13, overturns a previous ruling by the Supreme Court of Victoria, which had held the Diocese of Ballarat liable for sexual assaults committed by one of its priests.

Central to the High Court’s decision was the issue of whether a church could bear indirect responsibility in the absence of an employment relationship between the priest and the diocese. The High Court found that vicarious liability typically applies to employer-employee relationships, and Victoria’s laws regarding institutional responsibility for abuse cases did not provide a foundation for extending such liability to the church in this case.

This ruling comes as a setback for DP, a…

View Cache