ABUSE TRACKER

The mothers were said to be anesthetized or covered with sheets during childbirth and barred from ever setting eyes on their own babies

The Belgian Catholic Church is accused of taking at least 30,000 babies from unwed mothers and handing them off to adoptive parents in exchange for money over the course of three decades.

The Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws revealed the extent of the alleged scheme, which spanned from at least the 1950s into the 1980s.

Sent by their parents, the young women were in some cases anesthetized or covered with sheets during childbirth and were barred from ever setting eyes on their own babies, the paper reported.

During pregnancy, the mothers allegedly lived and worked in homes operated by nuns. Some victims said they had been subjected to sexual humiliation and violence, including forced sterilization.

The church allegedly never disclosed to the mothers that it…

Throughout the process, survivors have relived their darkest moments. But as they wait for the final report, question marks loom about whether transformative change will result.

This article is part of The Quarter Million, exploring the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care. Read the introduction here and the rest of the series here.

Content warning: This feature describes physical, sexual and emotional violence, child abuse and neglect. If this is difficult for you and you would like some help, these services offer support and information: Auckland specialist service Help, 0800 623 1700; specialist men’s service Male Survivors Aotearoa, 0800 044 334; and Snap (Survivors network of those abused by priests). Please take care.

“Hell on earth” is how one former pupil described Marylands School. Based in Christchurch and operated by the Catholic order of…

A man who claimed a paedophile priest subjected him to years of sexual and physical abuse at a Co Down school is to receive £500,000 in damages, the High Court heard today.

The settlement was reached in an action over alleged historical assaults by the late Fr Malachy Finnegan.

The plaintiff, who is not being named, sued the Diocese of Dromore and the Board of Governors at St Colman’s College in Newry.

Proceedings centred on alleged attacks on him over a five-year period while a pupil at the school during the 1980s.

A statement of claim said he was targeted and groomed by Finnegan for the purposes of an abusive sexual, physical and emotional relationship.

He was sexually assaulted in a series of locations, including the vestry, priests’ corridor and lounge, the nuns’ chapel and the President’s business office, according to court papers.

Finnegan also allegedly choked the plaintiff, punched…

Press Release: SNAP

Officials of the New Zealand Catholic Church “have failed to fulfil, and are not fulfilling their obligations to victims and survivors of clergy and religious sexual abuse under their redress scheme,” according to a new study on the New Zealand Catholic Church’s institutional response to clerical and religious sexual abuse.
 

The study published last week in Stimulus, a journal issued by Laidlaw College, New Zealand’s largest interdenominational theological tertiary institute, questions how the Catholic Church in New Zealand’s redress scheme Te Houhanga Rongo – A Path To Healing (APTH), has fared in light of its own criteria.

Conclusions based on independently verifiable evidence confirm that justice due to victims and survivors has not been delivered.

Outlined in the study were numerous examples of non-compliance with A Path to Healing’s principles and procedures by Church officials entrusted with implementing the APTH protocol.

Testimony of victims and survivors who…

A Taunton man who says he survived childhood sexual abuse by a former Taunton priest came forward publicly for the first time after years of anonymity and litigation to recount his trauma and discuss the settlement he recently reached with the Diocese of Fall River.

“I don’t want a child going through 40 years of spiritual turmoil and hell, feeling ashamed to seek out the help they need,” Daniel Lewis of Taunton said Wednesday. 

Lewis was standing near the former St. Paul’s Church on Tremont Street in Taunton — the property now is the unaffiliated Silver City Baptist Church — as he spoke about the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of the man who served as the church’s priest at that time, the Rev. Edward J. Byington.

Buried trauma for decades

In 1976, Lewis, age 12 at the…

Efforts continued throughout 2023 to tackle clerical sex crimes in the Catholic Church, with church or state reports being published in several European countries and the case of Father Marko Rupnik making numerous waves of headlines.

“There are very basic principles in crisis management that the church is finally learning to implement,” said Yago de la Cierva, communications professor who teaches at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and author of a book on crisis management for the church.

“One of them is: investigate what happened and report it to your stakeholders, they have the right to know, so prevention starts on truth,” the crisis expert told OSV News. “But even more important is taking care of victims. Their first need is not economic compensation nor vengeance, but information about what happened and why.”

In de la Cierva’s native Spain, the bishops’ conference pledged amends when a parliament-appointed…

On Oct. 31, Christian author and speaker Francis Chan and former International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) board member and pastor, Sam Storms, arrived at the home of their friend—embattled IHOPKC Founder Mike Bickle. Yet, instead of meeting with them, Bickle had a fellow preacher meet them at the door and turn them away, Storms said in an interview with The Roys Report (TRR).

Just three days prior to the planned meeting, several former IHOPKC top leaders had published a letter, accusing Bickle of clergy sexual abuse with multiple women over several decades. And as Storms explained in a call with The Roys Report (TRR), he and Chan were concerned about Bickle and wanted to speak with him face-to-face.

But when Chan and Storms arrived, charismatic preacher Chris Reed of Morningstar Ministries told them Bickle was in an important meeting and couldn’t meet, Storms said.

Storms added that Bickle told him separately…

The Michigan Supreme Court is expected to hear an appeal in a sexual assault case involving the Catholic Diocese of Lansing.

Attorney Ven Johnson held a press conference Tuesday morning as he said the court’s decision will set a legal precedent as it will reinterpret Michigan’s statute of limitations for sexual assaults involving those who were minors at the time of the assault.

Johnson’s client, Brian McLain, claims he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest in 1999 while he was a minor attending W.J. Maxey Boys Training School in Whitmore Lake. He is attempting to bring a lawsuit against the Diocese of Lansing, the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and Father Richard Lobert.

“Brian was working extensively with a therapist; that is when, if you will, the abuse and the causation, it is what the statute talks about,” said Johnson. “It is not just the assault, but it is the…

Two very different versions of Catholicism played out on a Tuesday in October.

In Rome, Pope Francis presided over an unprecedented synod on modernizing the church, inviting not only clergy, but lay people from around the world to discuss issues such as theordination of women, ministry to gay and transgender people, empowerment of Indigenous communities and the rights of the poor.

In New York, meanwhile, a Catholic millionaire from Orange County led an event that seemed a throwback to the church of the 1950s: Priests in ornate vestments marched down Broadway with a police escort, the Eucharist held aloft under a gilded canopy and accompanied by wafting incense, candle bearers and nuns in habits and waist-length veils.

“We can retake the culture of America,” declared Tim Busch, an Irvine lawyer and hotelier who organized the procession as part of a Catholic conference aimed at…

Today, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Maryland, Judge Michelle M. Harner ruled that the claims bar date for survivors in the Archdiocese of Baltimore Chapter 11 bankruptcy is May 31, 2024. This means survivors abused in the Archdiocese of Baltimore have until May 31, 2024, to take legal action and file a claim. The Archdiocese requested a bar date of February 26, 2024, while the survivors’ creditors committee requested a date of June 1, 2024.

“The Archdiocese wanted a February deadline for survivors to file claims in Baltimore,” said attorney Steve Boyd. “Such a quick date would have potentially silenced hundreds of survivors.”

On September 29, 2023, the Archdiocese of Baltimore filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. This decision by the bishop to conceal assets and hide the truth from the survivors who were sexually abused by clergy members assigned to the Archdiocese of Baltimore is unfortunate and predictable. Now, because…

On Monday, a federal bankruptcy court judge ruled that all sexual abuse claims against the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore must be filed by May 31, 2024, they will be forfeited forever.  The ruling sets May 31, 2024, as the “bar date,” or the very final day that anyone sexually abused and exploited by clergy, employees, and volunteers in the Archdiocese of Baltimore can seek accountability for what happened to them.

In late September 2023, the Baltimore Archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, days before a new Maryland law would have allowed survivors of abuse to file lawsuits against the Archdiocese regardless of when the abuse took place.

In April 2023, Maryland’s Attorney General, Anthony Brown, released a report of his office’s investigation into child sexual abuse allegations at the Archdiocese of Baltimore.  The report listed nearly 160 priests and clergy who were the subjects of sexual abuse…

An attorney is set to use the “Nassar bills” to argue why the Michigan legislature’s 2018 amendment to the statute of limitations should allow his client to sue the Catholic Diocese of Lansing for sexual assault.

Those Nassar bills come from the lessons the state learned from survivors of sexual abuse following former Olympic gymnastics and Michigan State University Dr. Larry Nassar’s sex abuse scandal, changing the statute of limitation laws to allow more time for victims to come forward.

One man’s accusation against the Catholic Diocese of Lansing is heading to the state Supreme Court to determine what Michigan’s statute of limitation laws will be.

“This is one of the first times that the Michigan Supreme Court, or any Supreme Court from across the country, is going to be hearing a case with a new statute of limitation that takes into consideration the delay childhood trauma has in these…

The Michigan Supreme Court is taking up an appeal involving the Diocese of Lansing that will create a legal precedent for future sexual assault cases in the state, particularly concerning the time limit for victims who were minors at the time of the assaults.

Brian McLain says he was sexually abused as a minor in 1999 by a Roman Catholic priest, Father Richard Lobert, while at the W.J. Maxey Boys Training School in Whitmore Lake.

“I had spoken with him about something I had done as a juvenile, and I wanted to repent for it. And he ultimately used that against me and, on numerous occasions, used it against me to have him do things to him sexually,” McLain said.

He didn’t speak to anyone about it until decades later, unpacking the trauma with his therapist.

Wanting some accountability, McLain is trying to sue the Diocese of Lansing,…

Arguments expected to be heard by the Michigan Supreme Court could determine how the state’s statute of limitations are used within future sexual assault cases involving minors.

Back in 1999, as he attended W.J. Maxey Boys Training School in Whitmore Lake, Brian McLain said he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest, according to attorney Ven Johnson.

“I was attending mass on a weekly basis and the priest, after he would have his mass, would have confession which was ultimately what was supposed to be going on,” McLain said.

According to McLain, he had talked with Father Richard Lobert about something that he had done as a juvenile and wanted to repent, but Lobert ultimately used that against him.

“On numerous occasions, used it against me to do things to him sexually,” McLain said. “I totally, totally went into a depression and I isolated myself for the next couple…

Cardinal Angelo Becciu retains the use of a palatial grace-and-favor apartment in Vatican City, despite being convicted of numerous financial crimes. 

Becciu has been resident for years in an apartment on the top floor of the Palazzo del Santo Uffizio, the extraterritorial building adjacent to St. Peter’s square which also houses the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. 

Becciu previously served as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, before being asked to resign by the pope in 2020, following the preliminary results of a criminal investigation into his conduct as sostituto at the Secretariat of State.

Sources close to the Vatican City state’s governorate have told The Pillar that, despite changes in Vatican policy issued by Pope Francis earlier this year, Cardinal Becciu is not paying market rates for the property but instead only a nominal monthly rent, in line with privileges customarily extended to senior curial officials.

…

In his first major media appearance since being convicted of financial crimes by a Vatican tribunal and sentenced to five and a half years in prison, Cardinal Angelo Becciu told an Italian TV host Monday that “I want to shout to the world that I’m innocent.”

“I’m going to do everything I can, everything to demonstrate my innocence through the legal system and in every way possible,” Becciu said, speaking on the program Cinque Minuti (“Five Minutes”), hosted by Bruno Vespa, one of the country’s most renowned television journalists.

“I want to shout to the world that I’m innocent,” Becciu said. “I absolutely did not commit any of the crimes of which I’ve been accused.”

With regard to the complex London property deal at the heart of the recent Vatican trial, Becciu appeared to suggest that primary responsibility rested with Italian Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, who headed an administrative office within the Secretariat…

An Omaha minister was arrested last week and is being held without bail on allegations that he repeatedly sexually abused a young boy over a period of three years.

Tre’Shawn Abram, 26, was arrested Friday on three counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

An arrest affidavit for Abram says he is associated with several churches in the Omaha area. The abuse allegedly occurred when the victim was between 10 and 13 years old and Abram was between 23 and 26 years old.

Abram appeared in jail court Friday and was denied bail. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing and will face trial in district court.

The charges are not Abram’s first allegations of sexual misconduct. In 2019, Abram was charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child after a 15-year-old girl alleged that Abram had sexually assaulted…

The documentary ‘Godvergeten,’ which aired on VRT and later on RTBF, has sent shockwaves through the public, particularly in Flanders.

The film features first-hand accounts of victims who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the Church, prompting widespread anger and leading to the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry commission.

Public Outrage and Inquiry Commission

The testimonies in the documentary have sparked significant public outcry. The raw and harrowing accounts of abuse have left viewers aghast and seeking justice for the victims. The response has been so strong that it has led to the formation of a parliamentary inquiry commission to probe into the allegations.

Adding fuel to the fire, revelations surfaced last week that a considerable network of child trafficking was run by Catholic institutions from the end of World War II until the 1980s. In a shocking expose, it was revealed that children were forcibly taken from their…

The Catholic Church sold around 30,000 children to adoptive parents without their mother’s consent or knowledge, new testimonies reported by Het Laatste Nieuws reveal.

Created just after World War Two, institutions run by nuns took in underage girls and pregnant unmarried women until the late 1980s. These women were subjected to unpaid labour, humiliating conditions, and in some cases, sexual abuse.

During childbirth, some women were given general anaesthetic while others had to wear a mask – all ways to prevent mothers from seeing their child, who were immediately separated after birth. Some women were even sterilised. Others were forced to sign a document renouncing their child or were told the child was stillborn.

The children were then sold for large sums – between 10,000 and 30,000 Belgian francs (roughly between €250 and €750), sometimes much more – to adoptive families.

Unkept or destroyed files are now making reunion processes…

The Archdiocese of Baltimore will add a form to its website for people to fill out sexual abuse claims against the church.

In court Monday, the archdiocese confirmed a judge gave a May 31 deadline for victims and survivors to file an abuse claim.

The judge is setting a deadline because the archdiocese is going through bankruptcy proceedings.

Parishes, pastors, school presidents and other officials within the archdiocese will be required to notify people with ads on television, print media and social media.

Survivors have until May 31 to file a claim in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case. After that, civil sexual abuse claims against it will be permanently barred.

BALTIMORE — A federal bankruptcy judge started the clock on Monday for sexual abuse survivors seeking damages from the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, setting a date of May 31, 2024, for claims to be filed.

The deadline is a compromise between the Feb. 26 date the archdiocese requested and the June 1 date proposed by the survivors, who are represented by a “creditors committee” — a group of seven survivors selected to represent what are expected to be hundreds of others with abuse claims.

The archdiocese includes about 480,000 Catholics in Baltimore and Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard and Washington counties.

The archdiocese is now mandated by the court to widely advertise the deadline, after which civil sexual abuse claims…

Early this year, a retired phys ed teacher left her ranch house in Easthampton and drove down the interstate to tell her story of clergy abuse.

It wasn’t Nancy A. Dunn’s first time before the Springfield Diocese’s review board, which meets in the red-brick Maguire Pastoral Center to hear allegations of clergy misconduct.

But it was her last.

The board later informed Dunn she needn’t have come back. Why? The diocese had already written her a six-figure check, she says she was told, to compensate her for a North Adams priest’s misconduct in the 1990s.

Dunn still had questions.

She wanted to know whether the Rev. Warren Savage had been held accountable, as the diocese had said he would, for engaging in a year-long sexual relationship with her nearly three decades ago. Savage remains in active ministry at Westfield State University.

“My intention was never to destroy this man; it…

The Vatican has decided to shut down a Slovenian-based female religious community founded by a controversial ex-Jesuit artist accused by some women of spiritual, psychological and sexual abuses.

The archdiocese of Ljubljana, Slovenia said in a statement Friday that the Loyola Community would have one year to implement the Oct.20 decree ordering its dissolution. The reason given was because of “serious problems concerning the exercise of authority and the way of living together.”

The dissolution of the community was the latest chapter in the saga of the Rev. Marko Rupnik, a once-famous Jesuit artist and preacher whose mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world.

He had founded the Loyola Community in the 1980s with a nun. But recently, former members of the community came forward to say he had spiritually, sexually and psychologically abused them. In 2020, he was declared excommunicated by the Vatican for committing View Cache

‘I join you in the prayer to guide those regarding your appeal,’ Gregory Aymond of New Orleans wrote to priest given life sentence

As he reached the end of his 41-year life, Kevin Portier had endured child rape at the hands of a southern Louisiana Catholic priest for whom he had served as an altar boy; a highly publicized trial that sent the clergyman to prison for the rest of his days; and the trauma associated with those experiences.

But one of Portier’s harshest ordeals came within his final two years alive. Representatives of the church that he had been raised to believe in approached him at his home, at his job and at a relative’s funeral to ask him to lend his support to efforts to secure an early release for his rapist, Robert Melancon.

“I don’t know what the real deal is,” Portier wrote in a fall 2017 email…

This database shows individuals who have been accused of child sexual abuse or misconduct and have ties to Maryland and the Catholic Church. It includes a combination of 155 names from the Maryland “Attorney General’s Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore,” 47 from the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s list and 107 new names researched by reporters at The Baltimore Sun. Names from the lists of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and the Archdiocese of Washington are also labeled.

The newly compiled section lists those with ties to Maryland but who are not included in either the Attorney General’s report or the Baltimore archdiocese list. The master list is derived from a broader set of names compiled by an aggregator who independently kept track of over 800 individuals. View The Sun’s process and methodology at the end of this page.

This table is searchable by title, name and tie to Maryland. Each row expands when clicked…

For the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, a cardinal has been sentenced to prison by a Vatican court.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the most senior Catholic Church official ever to stand trial before a Vatican criminal court, has been convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail.

The Italian prelate’s lawyer, Fabio Viglione, told reporters in the courtroom on Saturday that he would appeal, saying his client was innocent.

Becciu, 75, who lives in the Vatican, was expected to remain free for the time being.

In all, 10 defendants were accused of crimes including fraud, abuse of office and money laundering. All had denied wrongdoing.

Becciu, like most of the other defendants, was convicted on some counts and acquitted of others. Only one was acquitted of all charges.

London building sold for $153m loss

Becciu, a former adviser to Pope Francis…

The Bishop of Raphoe has said he is ‘deeply saddened and ashamed’ by the sexual abuse of a minor carried out by a former County Donegal priest.

At Donegal Circuit Court yesterday, Eamonn Crossan pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of a minor in the 1990s.

He was a priest in the Diocese of Raphoe from 1976 and was removed from the ministry in 1998 following an earlier complaint for which he served time in prison for.

Bishop McGuckian said he was “deeply saddened and ashamed that an innocent child had to endure such abuse, especially at the hands of a priest who was in a position of sacred trust”.

In a statement issued after Crossan’s court appearance, Bishop McGuckian said, “No words of mine can atone for the suffering caused to an innocent person and to his family and yet I want to apologise most sincerely.

“If anyone else…

Spain’s Catholic Church confirmed Sunday that it had received an audit into child sex abuse by members of the clergy that it commissioned nearly two years ago from a private law firm.

“The Episcopal Conference has received the report of the law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo. This report is being studied for its integration into the work of the Conference and will be published in its entirety in the near future,” a brief CEE statement said.

The Church had in February 2022 commissioned Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo with looking into child abuse by both clergy and lay figures, with the firm saying it would probably take a year, though its report was later delayed.

On October 27, the conclusions of Spain’s first-ever official investigation into such abuses were published, with the expert panel estimating that more than 200,000 minors had been abused by clergy since 1940.

Adding in abuses by lay…

Hours after Cardinal Angelo Becciu was convicted in a Vatican City courtroom on multiple counts of embezzlement, the prelate’s lawyers said the cardinal will appeal — calling the trial against Becciu a “proven machination” against an innocent man.

“After 86 hearings, there is profound bitterness to acknowledge that Cardinal Becciu’s total innocence was not proclaimed by [judicial] sentence, despite all the accusations proving to be completely unfounded,” Becciu’s attorneys, Maria Concetta Marzo and Fabio Viglione, said in a statement Dec. 16.

Their statement came soon after Becciu was sentenced to serve more than five years in prison for three instances of embezzlement — one having to do with a Vatican property deal, another connected to a woman who styled herself Becciu’s “private spy,” and third coming closer to home: Becciu’s decision to transfer Vatican funds to bank accounts belonging to his brother.

“Although the ruling saddens us deeply, we have…

This page is about settlement amounts in sex abuse civil lawsuits. We look at jury awards and settlement compensation in other sex abuse lawsuits, including 2023-2022 verdicts and reported settlements.  Our sex abuse lawyers handle these cases in all 50 states.

UPDATES:

December 11, 2023: Two former students are suing Sarah Lawrence College, claiming the institution failed to protect them from a manipulative individual who established cult-like relationships with them. This person, who had just been released from prison, moved into his daughter’s dormitory at Sarah Lawrence and began to exploit her friends and roommates. He was convicted of charges including racketeering, forced labor, and sex trafficking, having coerced some into prostitution and financial exploitation over several years. The plaintiffs, including a sister of one of the students, argue that the college is partly responsible for their ordeal, as it did not intervene despite the man’s obvious and prolonged presence on…

The long-running Vatican finance trial ended Saturday with a guilty verdict for Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, along with convictions for several other former Vatican officials and businessmen who worked with the Vatican.

Judge Giuseppe Pignatone read out the highly anticipated verdicts Dec. 16 against 14 defendants — 10 individuals and four companies — who faced 49 charges. 

The 10 individuals received the following verdicts, according to a statement from the Tribunal of Vatican City State:

Cardinal Becciu, a former Substitute (Sostituto) of the Secretariat of State, received a sentence of five years and six months, a fine of 8,000 euros (around $8,700), and perpetual disqualification from holding public office. His lawyers said he would appeal the verdict.

Enrico Crasso, a financial consultant to the Vatican Secretariat of State, was given a seven-year sentence, a fine of 10,000 euros (roughly $10,900), and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.

Cecilia Marogna, a self-styled security…

Along with local counsel, Caleb J. Aponte, I have had the privilege to work with several individuals who have reported being abused and traumatized while being a part of the IHOPKC community. I can assure you that this group wants the full truth to surface with the hope that those who have perpetrated abuse will be exposed and held accountable and that the system which fostered such a harmful environment will be genuinely transformed. Tragically, the actions of IHOPKC and its current leadership seemingly demonstrate a very different agenda. 

As many may know, IHOPKC initially engaged a law firm to conduct what it touted as an “independent investigation” in relation to sexual misconduct allegations against Mike Bickle. At no time were any of the reported victims, or those who have publicly advocated on their behalf, ever been consulted by IHOPKC regarding the identity and/or qualifications of the “third-party” investigator nor…

The Vatican has ordered a religious community co-founded by the mosaic artist and former Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik to dissolve by October next year after it found “serious problems” related to its governance.

The Archdiocese of Ljubljana in Slovenia, where the community was co-founded by Rupnik and Sr. Ivanka Hosta in the mid-1980s, announced the Vatican’s decision Dec. 15.

It said that the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DICLSAL), which oversees religious communities, had issued a decree Oct. 20 giving the Loyola Community a year to dissolve.

The archdiocese said that the dicastery took the step “because of serious problems concerning the exercise of authority and the way of life together.”

The decree was presented to community members, both in-person and online, at a Dec. 14 meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, with papal delegate Msgr. Amedeo Cencini and his collaborators Sr. Marisa Adami and Msgr….

There are many ways in which the Catholic Church of 2023, now more than 10 years into Pope Francis’ papacy, looks very different from the Catholic Church of 2013.

A church prone to secret investigations of theologians and unjustified crackdowns on Catholic sisters has become a proponent of the open door and a “culture of encounter.” A church where Synods of Bishops had become so predetermined that most prelates, quite literally, slept through the proceedings has become one of parrhesia, and of no subject being left off the table. 

And a church once left with little to say to the wider political realm now leads the charge globally to save humanity from itself, and the coming world of “debris, desolation and filth” caused by our shameful exploitation of the planet.

But this year…

A Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5½ years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the first cardinal ever prosecuted by the Vatican criminal court, was absolved of several other charges and his nine co-defendants received a mixed outcome of some guilty verdicts and many acquittals of the nearly 50 charges brought against them during a 2½ year trial.

Becciu’s lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said he respected the sentence but would appeal.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi said the outcome “showed we were correct.”

The trial focused on the Vatican secretariat of state’s 350 million euro investment in developing a former Harrod’s warehouse into luxury apartments. Prosecutors alleged Vatican monsignors and brokers fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of…

Verdicts are expected Saturday for a cardinal and nine other defendants in the most complicated financial trial in the Vatican’s modern history: a case featuring a Hollywood-worthy cast of characters, unseemly revelations about the Holy See and questions about Pope Francis ’ own role in the deals.

The trial had initially been seen as a showcase for Francis’ reforms and his willingness to crack down on alleged financial misdeeds in the Vatican, which long had a reputation as an offshore tax haven.

But after 2 1/2 years of hearings, no real smoking gun emerged to support the prosecution’s hypothesis of a grand conspiracy to defraud the pope of millions of euros (dollars) in charitable donations.

Even if some convictions are handed down, the overall impression is that the “trial of the century” turned into something of a Pandora’s box of unintended revelations about Vatican…

In the long-awaited denouement of the Vatican’s “trial of the century,” which has been seen widely as a litmus test of Pope Francis’s press for reform, a Vatican tribunal Saturday sentenced Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu to five years and six months in prison for his role in various financial crimes.

Becciu was also fined roughly $8,700 and permanently barred from holding any public office in the Vatican City State. An attorney representing Becciu immediately indicated plans for an appeal.

Becciu, 75, was already the first cardinal ever to stand trial on criminal charges before a Vatican civil court, and he now becomes the first ever to be convicted and sentenced. Prosecutors had asked for seven years and three months of prison time for the cardinal.

From 2011 to 2018 Becciu held the all-important position of sostituto, or “substitute,” in the Secretariat of State, making him effectively the pope’s chief of staff,…

The attorney general’s office is using a technicality to scuttle Child Victims Act claims filed against the state

State Attorney General Letitia James claims to believe women who say they were sexually abused or harassed. But that belief doesn’t extend, apparently, to a woman who says she was repeatedly abused as a child at the state School for the Blind in Genesee County.

The attorney general’s office tried to get that claim, filed under the Child Victims Act, thrown out of court on a technicality. 

James’ office did the same to hundreds of other claimants, including two women who said they were raped by a counselor at a state-run center for kids in Rockland County. As reported by my colleague Brendan J. Lyons, it’s all part of what’s being called the attorney general’s “scorched-earth approach to Child Victims Act cases” filed against state-run institutions. 

What happened to the…

A new memorial stone in Yakima’s Calvary Catholic Cemetery is meant to prompt “quiet reflection and prayer” for clergy sex abuse victims. 

It also has generated criticism from statewide victims’ advocates and a demand to update the list of diocesan sex offenders.

Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson dedicated the monument, which honors the Catholic Church’s St. Maria Goretti, during a brief ceremony on All Souls Day, the church’s Nov. 2 celebration honoring and praying for faithful Catholics who have died.

The granite memorial, on the south end of the diocesan cemetery’s clergy circle where 25 priests and one bishop are buried, includes an icon of the saint and a prayer for healing for all victims of abuse in the Diocese of Yakima, the United States, and throughout the world, the diocese said in a news release.

“While not specifically addressing abuse by clergy, its placement in the Priests Plot at Calvary…

Kurt Rupprecht was elated last spring when the Maryland attorney general’s office went public with its report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. But it left the Harford County victims’ advocate, a survivor of childhood sexual assault, wanting more.

The “Attorney General’s Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore” was just that: though it listed 156 clergy and staff who abused more than 600 children over eight decades, it covered only the church’s Baltimore jurisdiction, the largest of the three in the state. It did not address the Archdiocese of Washington, a territory that includes the Maryland suburbs of the nation’s capital and southern Maryland, or the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, which includes Maryland’s Eastern Shore counties.

“People who don’t follow this story closely may think of the attorney general’s report as ‘The Maryland Report.’ But it’s not,” says Rupprecht, 53, who was abused in 1979…

A once-powerful cardinal and nine other people learn their fates Saturday when a Vatican tribunal hands down verdicts in a complicated financial trial that has aired the tiny city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

At the start of the hearing, Judge Giuseppe Pignatone praised prosecutors and defense attorneys alike for their professionalism in what he acknowledged was a “certainly unusual” trial for the Vatican in terms of its complexity. He stressed that the tribunal had tried, “within the limits … of the legal framework in force” to guarantee ample space for both sides to present their case, and in particular the defense.

The three-judge panel then went into closed consultations pending a late afternoon reading of the verdicts in the converted courtroom in the Vatican Museums, where the two sides have sparred for 2½ years over the details of a money-losing investment in a  View Cache

A Catholic diocese in England says a BBC report alleging that nobody has been held to account for ignored child-grooming concerns is “significantly inaccurate.”

The Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) published a report in June 2023 that found Bishop Robert Byrne of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle put vulnerable people at risk by ignoring professional advice.

The CSSA found that Byrne – who took office in 2019 – promoted a priest he knew was suspected of grooming schoolboys and had an inappropriate close friendship with a convicted pedophile, Father Timothy Gardner, who was on the sex offenders register.

The BBC’s Dec. 12 report noted the CSSA also said Canon Michael McCoy, the Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle who killed himself in 2021 after an investigation into historical allegations was launched, displayed a “clear pattern of grooming behavior over the years” and there was an “abundance of warning…

North Carolina Pastor Joshua Wester, chair of the denomination’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, agreed about the importance of transparency. “Especially if we’re talking about something that involves minors, disclosing it to the congregation provides the opportunity for parents and other guardians to follow up with their own children to ensure or find out if anything has taken place,” he said. “That’s a critical opportunity you don’t want to deny to parents for the sake of their own children.”

Resources are available for congregations, said Christa Neal, chair of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention’s Sexual Abuse and Resource Team. “We really want to shine light into this very dark area,” she said. “The next time a church finds themselves in this situation, I hope churches reach out” to our team.

Abuse Survivors Express Concern About Patterns of Enabling

After Pastor Smith revealed details about…

A group that advocates for people who have been abused by priests says the Catholic Church is denying survivor complaints.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) Aotearoa has been trying to work with a new bishop in Palmerston North about providing support for survivors of sexual abuse, including a woman who was historically abused by a priest in Waikato.

SNAP’s leader Christopher Longhurst said Bishop John Adams had stopped communicating with them.

But Adams said he was still open to working with the group.

Longhurst said the survivor wanted someone from the church as a support, so SNAP contacted Adams.

The group asked Adams via email to display one of its posters in the diocese and encouraged him to look at its website.

Longhurst said Adams replied to say he had looked at SNAP’s Facebook page and had seen some angry comments.

Adams, in an email viewed…

Yesterday, December 14, 2023, Fr. Amedeo Cencini FCC as papal delegate and his colleague S. Marisa Adami SFF and Fr. Victor Pope OFM. The decree of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life was presented to the Sisters of the Community of Loyola who came to the Archdiocese and to those who were connected online.

Given that the Loyola Community had its general house in Rome, the Dicastery handed the matter over to the Diocese of Rome. A commissioner was appointed who, after several conversations with all the sisters, wrote a final report, which was sent to the dicastery in September 2022 through the Apostolic Nunciature. On October 20, 2023, he issued a decree on the dissolution of the Loyola Community due to serious problems concerning the exercise of authority and the way of living together.

The dicastery determined that the decree must be implemented…

The Vatican has decided to shut down the religious community of sisters co-founded by accused abuser Father Marko Rupnik, the Slovenian Archdiocese of Ljubljana announced Friday.

Sisters from the Loyola Community were presented with a decree on Dec. 14 from the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on the dissolution of their community “due to serious problems concerning the exercise of authority and the way of living together,” the archdiocese said.

According to the Dec. 15 statement, the dissolution of the community must take place within one year. The Vatican decree ordering the dissolution of the Loyola Community was issued on Oct. 20.

Rupnik co-founded the Loyola Community with Sister Ivanka Hosta in Ljubljana, Slovenia, more than three decades ago. The priest and mosaic artist was removed from the Jesuits in June after having been accused of spiritual, psychological,…

#MeToo showed us the impact of our shared voices. But six years later, too many workers are prohibited from telling their stories of workplace sexual harassment.

• Six years after #MeToo went viral, significant state legislation has gone into law, with 25 states plus D.C. passing over 80 anti-harassment bills.
• Bipartisan action from the federal government led to President Biden signing both the Speak Out Act, to address predatory nondisclosure agreements; and the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Harassment Act, to restore the ability of workers to take their employers to court—both in 2022.
• As reported by the National Women’s Law Center, this legislative progress is welcome, but there is more work to be done.
• Women of color, trans women, and women with disabilities experience disproportional abuse and are the most likely to be harmed by NDAs.

In 2006, the activist, consultant and leading voice against sexual assault Tarana Burke founded the…

2023 has been a good year for child sex abuse (CSA) statute of limitations (SOL) reform, but not a banner year.  Here’s a quick rundown of the SOL picture right now.

In 2023, as you can see in our SOL Tracker, 15 states lengthened criminal and civil CSA SOLs and/or revived expired civil claims.  CHILD USA and CHILD USAdvocacy’s biggest achievement was Maryland, yes, Maryland, which passed a permanent window that means the victims of child sex abuse should not have to face SOL barriers in their cases anymore.  The bill is up for constitutional challenge in 2024, and CHILD USA will be supporting the cases with our highly successful amicus briefing.  

Maine eliminated the charitable immunity caps, and its permanent window is now being considered by the Supreme Court of Maine.   The North Carolina window was upheld in several lower courts on its way up to the North Carolina…

A Nebraska priest has died after being attacked in the rectory of his parish in the early morning before he was to celebrate Mass for the Second Sunday of Advent.

Fr. Stephen Gutgsell was found “suffering from injuries sustained during an assault” Dec. 10 at the rectory of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, where he served as pastoral administrator.

According to a Dec. 10 press release from the Washington County Sheriff Mike Robinson, the county’s 911 emergency dispatch received an emergency call Dec. 10 at approximately 5:05 a.m. reporting an attempted break-in at the rectory. According to the statement, deputies arrived within six minutes and found a Black male inside the residence with the injured priest.

Gutgsell was transported to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, where he succumbed to his injuries.

The suspect was taken into custody and transferred to the…

A former Marblehead Episcopal priest, Boy Scout leader and assistant headmaster at Tower School is set to go on trial this summer for allegedly raping a 12-year-old Marblehead boy whom he took across state lines to a Boy Scout camp in New Hampshire in 1976.

On Aug. 18, a New Hampshire grand jury indicted Richard Losch, 89, on a charge of aggravated felonious assault. His alleged victim, who asked to be identified as Jack to protect his and his family’s privacy, spoke to the Current recently.

“I am coming forward in order to give Losch’s other victims the opportunity to seek justice and healing,” Jack said.

Losch now lives in Livingston, Alabama, where he has worked at two churches for years. 

Contacted by the Current, Losch said, “On the advice of my attorney, I have no comment to make other than that the charge is totally false, and I deny all allegations of…

In the months since Maryland eliminated the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims, more than 100 victims have filed a slew of lawsuits alleging horrific treatment inside the state’s youth detention facilities.

State lawmakers passed the Child Victims Act with the Catholic Church clergy abuse scandal in mind after a scathing investigative report revealed the scope of the problem within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which filed for bankruptcy to protect its assets from the impending wave of lawsuits.

With claims against the diocese now relegated to bankruptcy court, an unexpected spotlight has settled on the state’s juvenile justice system.

At least 50 plaintiffs sued the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services in early October, when the new law took effect. Rather than effectively rehabilitating at-risk youth, the department “locks them inside a cage to become the prey of sadistic staff whom they cannot escape,” according…

Pair were earlier blocked from suing over abuse they claim they suffered from alleged prolific paedophile priest David Joseph Perrett

Two abuse survivors have won the first major challenge to the Catholic church’s use of permanent stays since a high court decision in October.

Earlier this year, two survivors, one of whom is dying, were blocked from suing the Armidale diocese over abuse they allege they suffered from alleged prolific paedophile priest David Joseph Perrett.

The two men, both Indigenous, alleged they were abused during camping trips from an Aboriginal mission in the mid-1970s.

Police investigated their allegations and found enough evidence to charge Perrett, but he died in 2020 while awaiting trial for more than 100 offences relating to the abuse of almost 40 young children.

His death also prompted the church to seek and obtain a permanent stay – or a permanent halt to proceedings – which stopped the…

Archdiocese of San Francisco says priest is proven innocent via an independent review board

A lawsuit filed in Alameda County in March alleges Redwood City pastor Fr. David Ghiorso, who works at St. Matthias Parish and St. Charles Parish in San Carlos, sexually assaulted, harassed, abused, and molested a child while he was in the custody of the Catholic Charities CYO of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

However, the Archdiocese of San Francisco claims Ghiorso is innocent and asserts that any allegations by media coverage have damaged Ghiorso’s reputation and those of other priests.

While Ghiorso’s civil case is still open, with his next civil hearing scheduled for Dec. 20, the Archbishop allowed Ghiorso to return to work after being cleared by the Archdiocesan Independent Review Board, said Peter Marlow, Archdiocese of San Francisco communications director.

In response to a KQED article published in November, Marlow said it was an “unjust…

The word awake signifies a change, a new awareness of one’s surroundings. Sara Larson’s awakening came in 2018, following the Pennsylvania grand jury report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and the revelations of then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s long history of abuse. She says the news left her and other Catholics she knew in the Milwaukee area “concerned and hurt and frustrated, and wondering what we could do to help.” In March 2019, a group of people began meeting in Ms. Larson’s living room to discuss ways to respond. They called the group Awake, and it didn’t take them long to settle on an answer.

That August, Awake made its first, formal, public act: an apology in the form of an open letter to survivors of abuse. Ms. Larson says that the group decided to issue the letter because “many apologies that have been given by church leaders feel inadequate.” Awake, she…

A Roman Catholic priest who admitted to a federal judge earlier this year that he downloaded and stored thousands of images of child sexual abuse was sentenced to six years in federal prison.

The investigation into the Rev. James W. Jackson, 68, a former Rhode Island priest assigned to St. Mary’s Church in Providence, began in September 2021.

An East Providence detective identified an IP address assigned to the rectory at St. Mary’s Church that was being utilized to share files of child sexual abuse material, prosecutors said.

A court-authorized search of a computer and digital device located in a church rectory bedroom utilized by Jackson discovered images and videos of child sexual abuse.

A forensic audit of the devices subsequently identified over 12,000 images and 1,300 videos of child sexual abuse, according to Zachary Cunha, U.S. attorney for Rhode Island.

Email and phone messages were left with a lawyer…

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu walked the short distance from his apartment in Vatican City to the residence of Pope Francis, expecting to discuss his work overseeing the canonization of saints. 

The Italian cardinal was a star, even mentioned as a potential future pope. Twenty minutes later, he emerged from the 2020 meeting with a very different status—that of an accused criminal. Vatican magistrates alleged Becciu had embezzled more than $100,000 through a nonprofit group run by his brother. Francis told Becciu to resign his Vatican post. 

Since the summer of 2021, the 75-year-old Becciu has been on trial for embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering. He is the first cardinal to be tried in Vatican City’s criminal court, and prosecutors are seeking a sentence of more than seven years in prison. Becciu has denied any wrongdoing. 

Nine others, including former Vatican officials and outsiders, face charges in…

United States Attorney Zachary Cunha said that a former Catholic priest assigned to St. Mary’s Church in Providence was sentenced for downloading and storing thousands of images of child sexual abuse material.

68-year-old Father James Ward Jackson was charged with receipt of child pornography.

The  Rhode Island State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force found that Jackson had a computer at the rectory which contained over 12,000 images and 1,300 videos of child sexual abuse material in September 2021.

Jackson was then released awaiting trial into the custody of his sister in Kansas.

In June 2022, police identified the IP address of the residence Jackson was staying at as having downloaded child sexual abuse material.

The Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force seized a portable computer and an external hard drive and found evidence that numerous files with names indicative of child sexual abuse material had been deleted.

…

Rev. Goedert, a survivor of the Andrea Doria shipwreck, said in a 2007 deposition that he knew 25 priests had broken the law over the years by abusing children but never alerted police.

[See also the text of Goedert’s deposition with document exhibits.]

The Rev. Raymond Goedert, a renowned church official who had many titles and later drew scrutiny over allegedly covering up priest sexual abuse allegations in the Chicago area, died Saturday.

He was 96.

The Rev. Goedert rose to prominence in the Catholic Church community upon his ordination in 1952, eventually rising to auxiliary bishop in 1991 and serving as vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago from 1995 until his retirement in 2003.

“He served the archdiocese in a variety of roles: as pastor, notary, vicar general and as administrator of the archdiocese after Cardinal Bernardin died,” Cardinal Blase Cupich said in a statement. “A friend…

A former Southern Baptist children’s minister accused of child sexual abuse has asked an Arkansas court to seal his record, an effort critics say would hinder other potential victims from coming forward.

Meanwhile, the Southern Baptist church where he last served had been hailed by its well-known pastor as a place free of any potential abuse. Now, the legal counsel for both sides are members of that same church. And the pastor is in hot water for not informing the congregation of the allegations.

The case involves Patrick Stephen Miller, 37, who was charged with second-degree sexual assault and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor harassment in January 2022. He was given a one-year suspended sentence, with 19 days credit for time already served, and wasn’t required to register as a sex offender, according to court documents.

However, Miller remains under investigation as a second victim now has come forward….

Another month, another scandal. That seems to be the case these days with former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. 

It’s also the case when we talk about Vatican life in the tense era of Pope Francis. World without end. Amen.

The most-recent drama in Rome involves Luca Casarini, who recently took part in the Synod on Synodality as a special nominee of Pope Francis. 

Here is the key for religion-news consumers: The problem isn’t that the mainstream press has done a poor job covering this case — it’s that mainstream journalists haven’t covered it at all. This fits into a recent trend in which important and, for many, troubling stories about Catholic debates, scandals and divisions are simply ignored by leaders in elite newsrooms.

The Catholic press, however, has been on this latest story, especially newsrooms with Rome-based bureaus and reporters. This is what noted Vatican journalist John Allen…

Sacramento, per capita, may have seen more of its child molesting predator priests cross national boundaries than any other US diocese. Just when we thought more information would be revealed about these mobile clerics, approximately a whopping 250 abuse and cover-up lawsuits filed against the diocese bumped into an unforeseen obstacle. The Sacramento Catholic officials decided to take shelter in the bankruptcy courts, providing them with an avenue for keeping their dark secrets under wraps. That’s right; the Sacramento Diocese officially announced its filing for bankruptcy protection after months of mulling it over joining dozens of others that have been financially battered by sexual abuse lawsuits. Let’s take a deep dive into the unnerving truth that has unfolded over the years in the Sacramento Diocese.

Interesting Facts about the Sacramento Clergy Sex Crimes & Cover-Ups

Over the years, the alarming number of…

The Diocese of Sacramento, California, has announced it will file for bankruptcy by March in an effort to resolve more than 250 sexual abuse lawsuits filed under a three-year California lookback window.

Bishop Jaime Soto announced the news Dec. 9, saying in a letter to diocesan faithful that he had made the decision following “careful consideration and consultation.”

“Without such a reorganization process, it is likely that not all the abuse victim-survivors would receive a fair consideration of their claim,” he said in his letter. “The funds available to settle claims could be depleted by the first few cases addressed, leaving those that follow with little or no compensation.”

In a letter to the faithful this March, Soto had warned that a “staggering number of claims” filed under California’s AB 218 — which commenced on Jan. 1, 2020 and expired Dec. 31, 2022 — stood to “overwhelm” the diocese, presenting…

Amid hundreds of lawsuits accusing clergy of sexual abuse, the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento announced on Saturday it intends to file for bankruptcy.

Bishop Jaime Soto said he believes it is the most transparent, fair and respectful way to address all the claims.

“It’s a very dark legacy in our history, and we have to respond for that,” Bishop Soto said. “And I have to, as bishop, I have to try to make amends for that.”

The Diocese of Sacramento said it faces more than 250 lawsuits claiming sexual abuse by clergy or other church staff. It said a court would oversee the distribution of assets, dividing things up as equitably as possible amongst survivors under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code.

Otherwise, the Diocese said, funds would be exhausted with the first cases that go to trial, leaving the rest of the survivors with nothing.

However,…

It’s unclear if the judgment against the Cohoes Memorial Hospital, which closed in 1986 amid a bankruptcy, will ever be paid

A state Supreme Court justice has awarded a $3.75 million judgment against the now-closed Cohoes Memorial Hospital in a Child Victims Act case filed by Gary Greenberg, a former Albany County legislator and state Senate candidate who was sexually abused there in 1967 by an employee, according to court records.

The sexual abuse of Greenberg took place when, as a young boy, he went with his mother to the hospital to visit his father, who had been admitted for treatment for more than a week.

Louis Van Wie, an accused serial child molester who would be sentenced to prison in 1997 for his conviction on unrelated sodomy and sexual abuse charges, had convinced Greenberg’s parents to let him take the boy on a tour of the hospital. Van Wie…

All of the charges relate to the same victim and occurred at various locations in Donegal

Eamonn Crossan appeared at Donegal Circuit Court facing a total of 96 sex-related charges.

The 72-year-old was due to stand trial before a judge and jury.

However, just moments before a jury was due to be sworn in for his trial, Crossan’s legal team informed Judge John Aylmer there could be progress in the case.

After a short adjournment, it was indicated that Crossan was pleading guilty to a total of nine sample charges ranging from indecent assault to sexual assault.

All of the charges relate to the same victim and occurred at various locations in Donegal between various dates in the 1980s and 1990s.

Crossan is currently on remand in the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise for these charges.

He previously served three years with the final 12 months suspended for similar offences after being…

Eamonn Crossan appeared at Donegal Circuit Court facing a total of 96 sex-related charges.

A FORMER DONEGAL parish priest has pleaded guilty to a raft of sex abuse charges against a young boy.

Eamonn Crossan appeared at Donegal Circuit Court facing a total of 96 sex-related charges.

The 72-year-old was due to stand trial before a judge and jury.

However, just moments before a jury was due to be sworn in for his trial, Crossan’s legal team informed Judge John Aylmer there could be progress in the case.

After a short adjournment, it was indicated that Crossan was pleading guilty to a total of nine sample charges ranging from indecent assault to sexual assault.

All of the charges relate to the same victim and occurred at various locations in Donegal between various dates in the 1980s and 1990s.

Crossan is currently on remand in the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise for…

In a plea for a sentence of five years on child pornography charges, Fr. James Jackson told a federal judge that he accepted responsibility for his crimes and was sorry, and that he had been sexually abused himself as a minor.

The priest also sent to the court an August letter to members of his religious community, in which he apologized for his “vile sin.”

“The vile sin into which I fell, and for which I am guilty, has caused immeasurable harm,” Jackson explained in a handwritten letter dated Aug. 6, and reportedly sent to his religious provincial superior and other members of his religious community. 

“I have sinned against God, children, you, friends and family, former students and former parishioners and many others besides,” the priest wrote. “I cannot repair this damage, but I must try. I hope you will accept this apology.”

“I’m sorry at a level I’ve…

“Our holding is also consistent with rulings by other courts that have considered whether Catholic dioceses, including the Archdiocese, are subject to personal jurisdiction because of alleged sexual abuses committed by priests,” Judge Robert J. Gilson said. “Like this case, those cases depended on the specific jurisdictional facts involved.”

In two published opinions, the Appellate Division reached opposing conclusions in deciding whether personal jurisdiction existed for dioceses named as defendants in claims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests.

In D.T. v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the plaintiff alleged that he was sexually abused by a former Catholic priest, Michael McCarthy, in New Jersey in 1971 when he was 14 years old. At that time, McCarthy was a priest and teacher in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which is named as a defendant in the case. D.T.’s claims against the archdiocese were dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction because no facts established…

The bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento, California, announced on Saturday that “after careful consideration and consultation” the diocese will be filing for bankruptcy amid a slate of over 250 clergy abuse lawsuits.

Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto said in a Saturday statement that Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the “only respectful, transparent, and fair way to address the substantial number of claims” and “sustain the sanctifying, teaching, and charitable work” of the diocese.

The diocese, which has 102 parishes serving over 1 million faithful, will likely file for bankruptcy in March 2024, according to the bishop.

Soto said the decision to file for bankruptcy is part of the diocese’s “journey of atonement and renewal” in the wake of the hundreds of clergy abuses coming to light.

“I remain steadfast in my belief that I must continue to atone for the horrible sin of clergy sexual abuse,”…

Facing more than 250 claims of abuse by clergy and others, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is planning to declare bankruptcy in March.

In a letter distributed in parishes over the weekend, Bishop Jaime Soto wrote, in part:

“It is now clear to me that a court-supervised re-organization is the only respectful, transparent and fair way to address the over 250 claims by those who have been abused by clergy and other members of the church.”

The diocese says almost half the claims involved allegations from the 1970s or earlier, more than 80% involved allegations from the 1980s or earlier, and six claims allege abuse that occurred after the reforms and improved safeguards enacted in 2002.

Bishop Soto goes on to say, “I remain steadfast in my belief that I must continue to atone for the horrible sin of clergy sexual abuse. The sickening evil that was perpetrated upon…

New court documents reveal that Traditional Latin Mass priest Father James Jackson, who pleaded guilty to a federal child pornography charge in June, told authorities he was sexually abused as a child.

Additionally, a statement from his sister filed with the court said that Jackson engaged in a life of drugs, alcohol, and “sexual wildness” as a young person.

Jackson signed a plea agreement in June admitting to a single charge of receipt of child pornography, while prosecutors moved to dismiss a second count of possession of child pornography. That agreement isn’t official until the judge accepts it at sentencing, which is set for Dec. 13 at 1 p.m. in Providence, Rhode Island, in the U.S. District Court.

News of his arrest in October 2021 shocked many of his friends, supporters, and former parishioners, with many who saw Jackson as a holy priest rushing to his defense. 

Jackson…

Text of a talk given to the Latin Mass Society in London on November 24th, 2023. Mr. Sire’s audio of this talk can be heard here.

When Joseph Shaw proposed this talk to me in early September, I suggested the title “Pope Francis: how much lower can we sink?”, but the fact is that since then we have been overtaken by events. Over the past eleven years we have all seen Pope Francis’s pontificate in a trajectory of accelerating descent into more and more overt betrayal of Catholic doctrine, but I must say I did not foresee the Gadarene rush we have seen just within the last three months. If we want to assess the very grave events that are happening around us, we need to try and understand the man we now have sitting on the throne of Peter. So before I comment on recent developments I would like…

Attorney general’s office has challenged dozens of claims in which alleged victims can’t recall specific dates, places where abuse occurred

A potential flaw in the legislation that created New York’s Child Victims Act has led to legal turmoil in hundreds of cases filed by alleged sexual abuse victims in the Court of Claims, where the state attorney general’s office has waged a fierce effort to have many of the lawsuits that were filed against New York agencies dismissed.

A central focus of the state’s litigation strategy has been to assert that in the Court of Claims — where litigation targeting state-affiliated individuals or entities is adjudicated — the rules require a claimant to provide the date and location of when and where an incident is alleged to have taken place.

Those rules, part of the Court of Claims Act, outline the specific criteria that must be met for someone…

Audio recordings obtained by The Associated Press provide an unprecedented look at the methods the Mormon church uses to keep child sexual abuse cases secret.

[This 50-minute audio report with transcript provides remarkable background for Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims, by Michael Rezendes and Jason Dearen, Associated Press (December 4, 2023), previously blogged on Abuse Tracker.]

In this week’s episode, produced in collaboration with The Associated Press, secret audio recordings expose a legal playbook used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that keeps evidence of sex abuse out of reach of authorities.

AP reporters Michael Rezendes and Jason Dearen investigate the case of a former Mormon bishop, John Goodrich, who was accused of sexually abusing his daughter Chelsea. 

The story opens in Hailey, Idaho, with Chelsea Goodrich and her mother, Lorraine, locked in discussions with the director…

Attorneys for several men who say members of the clergy in the Archdiocese of Washington sexually abused them in Maryland decades ago defended on Friday the new law that allowed them to sue the Catholic Church: The Child Victims Act.

The filings from plaintiffs’ lawyers respond to a legal challenge from the Washington diocese last month, with the church’s attorneys arguing Maryland’s child victims law is unconstitutional, and that the men’s lawsuits, filed in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, should be dismissed as a result.

Archdiocese attorneys contend the legislature granted defendants immunity from child sex abuse lawsuits after the victim turns 38, when it expanded the statute of limitations to that age in 2017. They argue their legal protection stems from a rare provision in the law known as a statute of repose, which created “vested rights” that lawmakers cannot simply change.

Lawyers for the victims in the lawsuits disagree.

…

Two lawsuits from Acadiana will affect the outcomes of other clergy sex abuse cases in Louisiana.

This week, the Louisiana Supreme Court announced it will hear arguments in a civil case against the Diocese of Lafayette and St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville. In the lawsuit, six plaintiffs allege they were molested by Father Kenneth Morvant decades ago when they were between the ages of 8 and 14. 

The issue going before the Supreme Court is a 2021 law that created a three-year ‘lookback’ window. The law gives survivors of sexual abuse up until June 14, 2024 to file civil lawsuits, regardless of when the alleged abuse occurred. Previously, survivors had until they turned 28 years old to file such claims. 

“The issue before the Louisiana Supreme Court is whether the newly-enacted legislation applies to the cases, and whether it’s constitutional,” said attorney Cle’ Simon, who represents…

There are more than 250 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy or other church staff, according to officials. They are planning to file in March of 2024.

The Diocese of Sacramento announced Saturday that it will file Chapter 11 bankruptcy next year following hundreds of sexual abuse allegations and lawsuits. 

“It is now clear to me that this is the only way available to me to resolve these claims as fairly as possible,” said Bishop Jaime Soto in a statement. “There are many victim-survivors awaiting compensation for the reprehensible sins committed against them.”

In 2015, Dorothy Small says she was abused by a priest within the Diocese and it’s taken years for her to overcome the trauma. She settled her case in 2019 through mediation but is concerned about this bankruptcy announcement, claiming it will seal documents containing survivor stories from the public.

“That does not benefit society,…

SACRAMENTO – The Diocese of Sacramento will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after more than 250 lawsuits claiming sexual abuse by clergy and other staff, Bishop Jaime Soto said on Saturday.

Soto said the diocese intends to seek Chapter 11 protection by March 2024.

“There are many victim-survivors awaiting compensation for the reprehensible sins committed against them,” Soto said in a statement to his parishioners. “The diocese faces more than 250 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy or other church staff. The reorganization process will allow me to equitably respond to the large number of those who are victim-survivors of abuse.”

Under Chapter 11 protection, a court would oversee how available assets would be distributed to fulfill claims against the diocese. Victim-survivors would be represented in a court-supervised proceeding, the diocese said.

A fund would be created to distribute to all victims, the diocese said.

“Without such a…

Church will be positioned to continue mission that greatly benefits community

The Archdiocese of Baltimore recently announced its decision to file for Chapter 11 reorganization under the U.S. bankruptcy code. The filing is in response to numerous anticipated lawsuits stemming from historic and previously time-barred cases of child sexual abuse. The lawsuits can go forward under a recent change in Maryland law.

Much has been written and said about this decision, and my views about it are informed by my role as a volunteer member of the board of advisors that oversees the church’s handling of its financial resources and as a retired, longtime financial executive in the banking and professional sports fields.

Clearly, there was no other choice that would allow the Archdiocese to both provide equitable financial compensation to survivors of abuse who bravely have come forward to report the evil they suffered and for the…

Hundreds of Swiss churchgoers have left the Catholic Church following revelations of sexual abuse.

The wave of departures is particularly strong in central Switzerland and Basel. In French-speaking Switzerland too, the number of departures has increased since mid-September, but at a lower level.

All the indications are that the “losses” in the Roman Catholic Church, which were already very pronounced in the record years of 2021 and 2022, have continued this year, even though the definitive figures drawn up annually by the Swiss Institute for Pastoral Sociology (SPI) have not yet been published.

“By 2023, we are heading for an increase in the number of departures for both the Catholic and Reformed churches,” Urs Winter, project manager at the SPI, told Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA.

Last year, some 34,600 people left the Catholic Church in Switzerland.

Data collected in the cantons by Keystone-ATS show an acceleration in departures since the…

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento announced Saturday that it is filing for bankruptcy protection, joining dozens of others that have been financially battered by sexual abuse lawsuits.

“After much prayer and careful consideration, it is now clear to me that this is the only way available to me to resolve these claims as fairly as possible,” Bishop Jaime Soto said in a statement posted to the diocese website. “There are many victim-survivors awaiting compensation for the reprehensible sins committed against them.

“The diocese faces more than 250 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy or other church staff. The reorganization process will allow me to equitably respond to the large number of those who are victim-survivors of abuse.”

The decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which is expected to occur in March, means “a court would oversee the distribution of available assets to satisfy claims…

1994: Nancy Dunn of North Adams, 34, a parishioner at Notre Dame du Sacre-Coeur parish, meets the Rev. Warren Savage, who had been assigned to oversee a merger of local parishes. Dunn says she enters into spiritual counseling with Savage. In at least three sessions, that counseling includes discussion of her struggle with the belief that she was a lesbian.

November 1995: Dunn and Savage begin a sexual relationship that lasts until September 1996 with more than two dozen sexual encounters.

Nov. 6, 1996: A psychotherapist in Amherst, Carla Brennan, calls the Springfield diocese to report that Dunn, a client, is alleging misconduct by one of its priests. That report finds its way to the Commission to Investigate Improper Conduct of Diocesan Personnel, as the panel was then known.

June 16, 1997: The diocesan commission meets with Dunn and Brennan in Springfield. It hears Dunn recount…

Over the past 14 years, a Northampton therapist has been helping a client, Nancy A. Dunn of Easthampton, contend with fallout from a year-long sexual relationship with a priest.

In 2020, wanting more answers, Dunn got back in touch with the Springfield diocese. She did so 23 years after a misconduct board upheld her claim that a parish priest, the Rev. Warren Savage, drew her into a sexual relationship.

Before 2020, therapy focused on the past.

Since then, according to Dunn and her therapist, Nancy Knudsen, a main topic in counseling has been anguish over the diocese’s response to her requests for information.

“There are two betrayals here, one by Warren Savage and the other by the church itself in its handling of this matter, both when it first happened and now,” said Knudsen, a psychotherapist who directs the Couple and Family Institute of New…

Early this year, a retired phys ed teacher left her ranch house in Easthampton and drove down the interstate to tell her story of clergy abuse.

It wasn’t Nancy A. Dunn’s first time before the Springfield Diocese’s review board, which meets in the red-brick Maguire Pastoral Center to hear allegations of clergy misconduct.

But it was her last.

The board later informed Dunn she needn’t have come back. Why? The diocese had already written her a six-figure check, she says she was told, to compensate her for a priest’s misconduct in the 1990s.

Dunn still had questions.

She wanted to know whether the Rev. Warren Savage had been held accountable, as the diocese had said he would, for engaging in a year-long sexual relationship with her nearly three decades ago. Savage remains in active ministry at Westfield State University.

“My intention was never to destroy this man, it was to…

Stephen Kiesle changed his plea to no contest and surrendered to law enforcement Friday.

A notorious former East Bay priest who was accused of sexually abusing dozens of kids is back in jail, but not for the abuse cases.

Stephen Kiesle appeared in Contra Costa County court Friday to change his plea to no contest for driving drunk and killing his Rossmoor Walnut Creek neighbor. Kiesle was sentenced to six years and eight months in state prison.

Last year, prosecutors said Kiesle was drunk when he ran over and killed Curtis Gunn, who was walking with his wife on a sidewalk in Rossmoor.

In court, Gunn’s wife gave a tearful victim impact statement saying “Kiesle made a choice to drink that night. Today he has chosen his prison term.”

Kiesle previously served time for sexually abusing a young girl while he was…

He is charged with one count each of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, first-degree rape and theft of $500 or more.

An Orleans Parish judge on Thursday set a March 25 trial date for Lawrence Hecker, the 92-year-old retired New Orleans priest accused of raping and kidnapping a teenager nearly 50 years ago.

Hecker, who served in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, allegedly confessed in 1999 to church leaders that he had molested several teenagers over a span of 15 years, according to an investigation The Guardian published in June. The archdiocese allowed him to stay in the church.

An indictment charges Hecker with assaulting only one teenager. Hecker faces counts of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, first-degree rape and theft of $500 or more. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in September.

Criminal District Court Judge Benedict Willard set bail…

In response to class action lawsuit, the Washington Archdiocese is seeking to overturn Maryland’s Child Victims Act

A Maryland man behind a class action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Washington said the assault he endured as a child by a priest caused decades of substance abuse, shame and depression.

“From age 15 until I was 40 … I used alcohol to cope with the pain, but all that did was turn me into an alcoholic,” said the man identified in court filings under the pseudonym “Richard Roe.”

Roe is one of three men named in the filing, which asserts the archdiocese did little to prevent and protect them from abuse when they were children in the church.

He sat down with the News4 I-Team after the Archdiocese of Washington filed a legal challenge last month to the Child Victims Act…

[See video.]

Lawrence Hecker, 92, pled not guilty to the charges on Sept. 13. Hecker’s trial date is set for March 25, 2024.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has abruptly dismissed the Rev. Anthony Odiong from St. Anthony of Padua Church in Luling and filed a report with a law enforcement agency about the clergyman.

Odiong’s exit came shortly after Nov. 26 Mass, during which he made disparaging remarks about LGBTQ+ people.

Archdiocese officials on Thursday didn’t disclose any details about what they reported to law enforcement, although they did say it was related to the reasons that Odiong was asked to leave the church. Officials said their “concerns” about Odiong didn’t involve the abuse of minors or a member of the St. Anthony Parish.

But Odiong is facing allegations of abusive behavior. A woman who has known the priest since 2007 has accused him of years of controlling, manipulative and lewd behavior that included sexual and financial abuse, said her attorney, Kristi Schubert.

The woman filed allegations in U.S. Bankruptcy Court as…

Under murky circumstances, a Louisiana Catholic priest has been abruptly removed from his position by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Church officials have filed a police report against the Rev. Anthony Odiong, according to nola.com, though authorities declined to give further details.

“These concerns do not include the abuse of minors nor to our knowledge involve anyone in this (church),” reads a statement from archdiocese officials to The Guardian.

In 2019, a woman who viewed Odiong as a “spiritual adviser” came forward to allege years of financial and sexual abuse at his hand. According to the Guardian, Odiong is accused of forcing the woman to perform sexual acts — threatening to “place a curse on her head” if she refused — and stealing thousands of dollars from her.

Call logs reviewed by the Guardian confirm that the…

The RVC Diocese, which includes Our Lady of Peace and St. Raymond, attempts to settle abuse case

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre has made what it says is its “best and final proposal” toward a settlement with the more the 600 people who accused the church of child sexual abuse.

In question is the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the diocese filed three years ago, with church officials saying they are willing to amend its reorganization plan to compensate those victims through a $200 million fund the church would set up.

This particular offer isn’t new. In fact, it was made last February, entitling victims to a minimum cash payment of $100,000 for some lawsuits, while others would receive an immediate cash payment of $50,000.

The proposed payout is the largest settlement offer made in any diocesan case to date, according to church spokesman, Sean Dolan — both on…

Police investigation of Anthony Odiong began Wednesday after 2019 complaint to archdiocese spurred little action

A recently dismissed south-east Louisiana Catholic priest is under law enforcement investigation after facing allegations of clerical misconduct with multiple women as well as claims of financial improprieties, according to officials.

The archdiocese of New Orleans on Wednesday reported Anthony Odiong in connection with at least one of those complaints to the sheriff’s office of St Charles parish, Louisiana, the agency confirmed.

That complaint came from a woman who first contacted authorities in 2019 and accused Odiong of sexual and financial abuse while he was serving as her spiritual adviser for years.

Sheriff’s officials said that they immediately contacted an attorney for the woman and requested an interview. The woman’s attorney, Kristi Schubert, said her client wasn’t immediately available to speak with investigators Wednesday after her initial report produced little action, but she…

The long battle to bring a former Catholic priest to justice for his sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy in Madeira has finally ended, with a court in Madeira finding Anastácio Alves guilty on all counts, and condemning him to six years and six months in jail. As reports today explain, this was the 3rd time Anastácio Alves had been cited for child sexual abuse while working as a priest – but the only time witnesses agreed to come forwards. The trial went ahead ‘behind closed doors’.

Former priest Anastácio Alves was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, with an effective sentence, for committing four crimes of sexual abuse of a child and one crime of sexual acts with a teenager. It is also prohibited from having guardianship of minors and exercising a profession that involves living with minors for the next seven years. The ruling was announced this afternoon, at the Funchal court (Building 2000).

The defendant allegedly abused a minor and the crimes occurred between 2015 and 2016, at the victim’s grandmother’s house, when the former priest, who was posted to a parish in Paris, was traveling to Madeira for vacation.

Anastácio Alves awaited trial in freedom. However, at the end of reading the ruling, the Public Prosecutor’s Office asked for the coercive measures to be tightened and for his preventive detention, given that he had already worked abroad (France and Switzerland) and…

Julgamento teve início em 12 de outubro, após um adiamento devido à greve dos funcionários judiciais, tendo decorrido à porta fechada por determinação do coletivo de juízes

O ex-padre madeirense Anastácio Alves foi esta quinta-feira condenado a seis anos e seis meses de prisão efetiva por quatro crimes de abuso sexual de crianças e um crime de atos sexuais com adolescente pelo Tribunal da Comarca da Madeira.

“O tribunal decidiu, em cúmulo jurídico, aplicar ao arguido uma pena única de seis anos e seis meses de prisão”, anunciou a presidente do coletivo de juízes, Carla Meneses.

O julgamento teve início em 12 de outubro, após um adiamento devido à greve dos funcionários judiciais, tendo decorrido à porta fechada por determinação do coletivo de juízes.

Após a primeira sessão do julgamento, o advogado de defesa, Miguel dos Santos Pereira, indicou que Anastácio Alves respondeu “a tudo o que lhe foi perguntado”…

Los Angeles (CNN) — On Monday, the US Supreme Court grappled with one of the highest-profile bankruptcy cases the court has taken on in decades.

The case hinges on the legality of OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma’s multibillion-dollar bankruptcy plan ­— which would have the Sackler family, who once owned the pharmaceutical giant, personally pay up to $6 billion to victims of the opioid crisis, including state governments, local governments, Native American tribes and individuals, in exchange for the family’s legal immunity from future civil lawsuits. The deal would also mean the family would not have to admit any guilt or wrongdoing related to allegations that the Sacklers were complicit in aggressively marketing OxyContin and downplaying its highly addictive properties.

But the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in this case may affect much more than the Sackler family’s fortune. Third-party releases, the provision that would allow the Sacklers to be shielded from additional civil…

A Louisiana Catholic priest’s sudden dismissal from the church where he had been a popular pastor for the last several years has set off a fresh scandal in the embattled New Orleans archdiocese, the second-oldest in the US.

As they tell it, local church leaders rescinded Anthony Odiong’s invitation to serve as a cleric in the region due to unspecified “concerns … about [his] ministry prior” to his arrival in the archdiocese – “and quite possibly during his time” there. As a result, the New Orleans archbishop, Gregory Aymond, told Odiong’s bishop in Nigeria to recall him to his home diocese “as soon as possible to address these concerns”, officials said in a statement.

The statement did not mention whether those concerns stemmed from Aymond’s receipt in 2019 of a detailed complaint against Odiong of years-long sexual and financial abuse from a woman who viewed the clergyman as her spiritual adviser –…