ABUSE TRACKER

A judge ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit against a now-closed Christian boarding school can move forward. The lawsuit claims that sexual abuse at the hands of Agape boarding school staff resulted in the death of a former student.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool issued a 23-page ruling that addressed counts of wrongful death as well as violations of federal law, brought forth by Kathleen Britt. Agape Boarding School staff and the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office both moved to dismiss all counts, which Harpool granted in part and denied in part.

Here’s what to know about both parties, the claims and what may happen next.

Who is the plaintiff, Kathleen Britt?

Britt, of Idaho, is the mother of Jason Britt, who attended Agape School in Stockton when he was 16 years old, according to court records. Jason Britt, she said, was an honor student who began to experiment…

View Cache

Judge rules against Christian board school

Lawsuit is “unprecedented” says attorney

Sheriff’s department staffers are also named as defendants

A judge has ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit against a Christian boarding school in Missouri can move forward, rebuffing officials at the now-shuttered facility and local law enforcement who sought to have the case tossed out.

The 23 page decision was issued by U. S. District Judge Doug Harpool earlier this month.

In October 2023, Kathleen Britt sued staffers at Agape School in Stockton and the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office, charging that her son Jason died after having been brutally gang-raped and emotionally abused at Agape.

Several employees of the facility and the sheriff’s department either committed, suspected or knew about Jason’s abuse but ignored or concealed it, according to the suit.

“This brave mother, whose precious son was severely abused, will…

View Cache

A church leader in the Florida Panhandle has been arrested and charged with possession of child sex abuse material, after investigators found videos of a girl on the man’s computer, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s office.

Frank Gough II, 64, of Shalimar, who serves as priest of the Anglican Church of the Resurrection in Shalimar was taken into custody on January 9. He was charged with 30 counts of possession of child sex abuse material, the sheriff’s department said.

Gough has served as priest of the church, which is affiliated with the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), since 2010, reported WTVY News 4.

Gough’s name does not appear on the church’s website, which shows 2008 as the most updated information. However, a  2017 social media post shows Gough affiliated with the church, and a 2019 video depicts Gough preaching…

View Cache

Editor’s note: The Catholic Church has spent billions of dollars settling claims from sexual abuse cases. National Catholic Reporter is investigating the costs to Catholics, parishes and the church in its new series “The Reckoning.” NCR’s investigative reports, including this series, are made possible in part through the generosity of Annette Lomont.

Years ago, during the height of scandals involving television evangelists, CNN’s Larry King interviewed famed evangelist Billy Graham. 

When King brought up the scandals, questioning how Christianity reconciles itself to what is seen in the news, Graham responded with a metaphor, saying that scandals are like airplanes that crash. Every day, airplanes take off and land safely about 100,000 times worldwide, with little media attention. However, if an airplane crashes, the story will lead the evening news and be on the front page of newspapers everywhere. Yet a plane that crashes does not nullify the…

View Cache

More and more frequently, reports surfaced about church leaders who have a history of sexually predatory behavior. Last week, headlines revealed that yet another church had placed a lifetime-registered child sex offender in a pastoral role, this time in Texas. News like this once seemed shocking. In today’s social climate, however, it feels almost routine.

Communities of faith are left to sort out the answers to pressing questions, starting with: Should churches allow individuals with such histories to assume leadership roles, even as volunteers?

Some argue that denying ministry roles due to past behavior equals a denial of the power of the Gospel to change sinners. Others insist that any deviation should result in a permanent ban from ministry of any kind. Where do we draw the line? How do we untangle the confusion?

One thing is certain — we cannot continue leaving this question unaddressed.

As you (and…

View Cache

The South Carolina supreme court has unanimously reversed a controversial decision by a scandal-scarred former circuit court judge – and upheld by the state’s court of appeals – which shielded the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston, S.C. from liability in a decades-old sexual abuse case.

The ruling – which could open the floodgates for sexual abuse lawsuits against the church – focuses on the Palmetto State’s interpretation of “charitable immunity,” a provision of British law which arose in the mid-nineteenth century and holds that non-profits are exempt from certain claims against them.

“The question in this case requires us to embark upon some legal time travel in search of the answer,” noted justice Garrison Hill in the unanimous opinion of the court. “We conclude South Carolina has never extended charitable immunity to cover intentional torts. We therefore reverse the decision of the court of appeals and…

View Cache

It was probably inevitable that American Catholics would eventually move on from the clergy sexual abuse crisis. But I’m still surprised that when they did, it wasn’t a matter of “scandal fatigue” as much as a conscious decision that sex abuse really wasn’t that big of a deal after all. That’s effectively what happened when a clear majority of Catholic voters—and nearly six in 10 white Catholic voters—went for serial sex pest Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in the presidential election last November. Catholic enthusiasm for Trump makes the Catholic cohort Trump’s most reliable religious voting bloc after white evangelicals and, given the strategic importance of the Catholic vote in swing states, Catholic votes made Trump the next president. The outcome of the presidential balloting also made sexual predation a feature of the nation’s preferred leadership model rather than a disqualification.

How is it that Catholics who professed to being…

View Cache

Editor’s note: The Catholic Church has spent billions of dollars settling claims from sexual abuse cases. National Catholic Reporter is investigating the costs to Catholics, parishes and the church in its new series “The Reckoning.” NCR’s investigative reports, including this series, are made possible in part through the generosity of Annette Lomont.

This is Part 2 of a two-part story on the sexual abuse settlement in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York. You can read Part 1 here.

PJ D’Amico said his “45-year ordeal” began the first time he was sexually abused by his priest. 

D’Amico was a sixth grader who worshiped with his family at St. Hugh of Lincoln Church in Huntington Station, New York. He said the pastor at St. Hugh of Lincoln, Fr. Alfred B. Soave, abused him repeatedly through the eighth grade, including on the day of his confirmation.

D’Amico, 57,…

View Cache

[See also the full text of the CARA data summary report.]

Over the past 20 years, the number of abuse allegations against Catholic clergy has dropped, according to a new report from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).

It also notes that over $5 billion has been paid in costs due to the abuse crisis in the U.S. Catholic Church.

In November 2004, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) commissioned CARA conduct an annual survey of all of the dioceses and eparchies whose bishops are members of the USCCB.

In a report issued on Wednesday, CARA said over the past 20 years, dioceses and religious communities have deemed a total of 16,276 allegations of abuse of minors by priests, deacons, and religious brothers as “credible.”

The report says about four in five of these allegations were deemed credible by dioceses and eparchies (13,331 or 82…

View Cache

A former altar boy of a Roman Catholic church in Passaic is seeking $50 million in a blistering lawsuit against a former friar and the church he served, claiming he was sexually abused and molested more than three decades ago.

The man, who is not named in the complaint, alleges abuse over 100 times between 1989 and 2003 by Friar Paul Daleo, who served as priest at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Passaic. The abuse purportedly started when the boy was 14 and a freshman at Lodi High School, and concluded when he was 17, when Daleo left the ministry, according to the suit, filed Tuesday in state Superior Court in Passaic County.

“Fr. Paul Daleo engaged in a calculated series of manipulation and grooming” of the teen for several years while the boy served as parishioner, altar boy and member of the youth ministry, the suit…

View Cache

[See also the full text of the CARA data summary report.]

Over two decades, Catholic dioceses, eparchies and men’s religious communities spent more than $5 billion on allegations of sexual abuse of minors, according to a new report released Wednesday (Jan. 15) by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

Between 2004 and 2023, three-fourths of the $5.025 billion reported was paid to abuse victims. Seventeen percent went to pay attorneys’ fees, 6% was in support for alleged abusers and 2% went toward other costs. On average, only 16% of the costs related to the allegations was borne by insurance companies.

The CARA report combined 20 annual surveys sent to dioceses and eparchies within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (which excludes some parts of the U.S., such as Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa), as well as U.S. religious communities belonging to the Conference…

View Cache

Missouri state Rep. Brian Seitz already has filed three bills this year pertaining to legislation in child sexual abuse cases. The proposed legislation aims to make it easier for survivors of child sexual abuse to seek justice for the crimes committed against them in the state.

Missouri has been at the center of a campaign for legal reforms in light of well-publicized cases at Kanakuk Kamps and other faith-based organizations.

HB-709, filed Jan. 2, proposes: “A nondisclosure agreement by any party to any child sexual abuse claim shall not be judicially enforceable in a dispute involving any CSA claims.”

If voted into law, the bill would prevent the misuse of nondisclosure agreements against abuse survivors who later wish to seek civil claims regarding the crimes committed against them. NDAs have posed issues for Missouri abuse survivors before. Notably, this has been an ongoing issue for survivors who experienced abuse at Kanakuk…

View Cache

Pope Francis says in his autobiography he received a ‘large white box’ relating to ‘difficult and painful situations’

Pope Francis has said he inherited a “large white box” full of documents related to various scandals faced by the Catholic church when he took over from his predecessor.

The pontiff makes the revelation in his much-anticipated autobiography, Spera (Hope), which is published on Tuesday.

Francis became pope in 2013 after the shock resignation of Benedict XVI, a decision that meant the Argentinian was in the almost unprecedented position of being able to have an in-person handover when he started.

Shortly after his election as pope, he recalls in his book, he visited Benedict at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence south of Rome.

“He gave me a large white box,” Francis writes. “‘Everything is in here’, he told me. ‘Documents relating to the most difficult and painful situations. Cases of abuse,…

View Cache

Survivors and advocates of Nate’s Mission gathered outside a prayer service for incoming Archbishop Grob Monday night to hold a press conference and deliver a letter from Milwaukee clergy abuse victims to the newly promoted prelate.

After the press conference and before the prayer service began, Archdiocese of Milwaukee communication director Sandra Peterson threatened to have victims arrested, telling survivors they were not welcome at the prayer service and were forbidden from touching the steps of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

As Milwaukee-area Catholics entered the cathedral, two Milwaukee police officers were dispatched to form a barrier between victims and the prayer service.

Thankfully, survivors were able to safely deliver their letter to Bishop Grob, who cordially accepted the letter and promised to meet with Nate’s Mission soon.

In the letter, shown below, clergy abuse victims have prepared a list of priorities pertaining to clergy sexual abuse for Grob’s first 100 days in office.

…

View Cache

Clergy abuse survivors had a brief but friendly sidewalk discussion Monday night with the new archbishop of the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese. The survivors group Nate’s Mission is next hoping for much more conversation with Archbishop Jeffrey Grob — and a lot of documents from church files about past sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults in the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

The leaders of Nate’s Mission held a news conference outside the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in downtown Milwaukee, where Grob was due for a prayer service before Tuesday afternoon’s installation — an elaborate ceremony marking the change in leadership, in this case from Archbishop Jerome Listecki, who has retired.

Nate’s Mission Program Director Peter Isely says Listecki may have reached a $21 million settlement with hundreds of abuse victims a decade ago, at the end of a five-year bankruptcy case. But Isely says most survivors received only a few…

View Cache

A former priest has pleaded guilty to using an online chat service which discussed having sex with children.

Timothy Gardner, of Medhurst Way in Littlemore, Oxford, appeared at Newcastle Crown Court.

He admitted five charges including encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, three counts of failing to comply with notification requirements and one count of breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).

The 52-year-old, previously of Walker Road, Newcastle, was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on 14 March.

Gardner was a close associate of Bishop Robert Byrne, who resigned from the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, amid serious concerns over his handling of reports, in December 2022.

A report, from the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA), previously found because of the “inappropriate” association, Gardner had “unrestricted access” to a number of diocesan premises which had “presented a serious safeguarding risk”.

Earlier, the court…

View Cache

One weekend in early 1991, Jeff Taylor, the youth minister at a centuries-old church catering to Washington’s elite, invited a boy in his congregation to a religious retreat in Illinois. The 13-year-old from the Falls Church Episcopal in Northern Virginia felt flattered, he later recalled. He said he had admired Taylor, a married man with children, even if Taylor bothered him with questions about how often or whether he masturbated.

On their last night, the man said, he and Taylor stayed at someone’s home in suburban Chicago. Somehow, he said, the pair wound up sharing a bed. Then, Taylor — who years later would lead a Red Cross chapter in Georgia and a fundraising arm at the University of Cincinnati Foundation — fondled the middle-schoolerwith lotion in the middle of the night, the church youth group alumnus recalled.

“He kept saying, ‘You seem stressed out, you seem anxious,’” said…

View Cache

With just weeks until a third-party investigation of International House of Prayer-Kansas City (IHOPKC) is completed, the organization that commissioned it has come under fire for removing a trusted voice from  the Senior Advisory Team for the investigation. But after facing intense backlash from the abuse survivor community, the organization—Tikkun Global, a Messianic Jewish network—reversed course and today reinstated the removed advisory team member, Ron Cantor.

Cantor has publicly stood with survivors of alleged abuse by International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) Founder Mike Bickle. And last September, when months of negotiations for a mutually-acceptable investigation broke down between an Advocate Group for Bickle victims and current IHOPKC leaders, the Advocate Group asked Cantor and Tikkun for help.

Cantor was instrumental in finding a third-party to investigate the allegations that survivors found acceptable—Jim Holler of Firefly Investigations. Tikkun commissioned that investigation and has previously stated that Holler’s investigation…

View Cache

• Key Points
• Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Credentials Committee receives and evaluates reports against churches for abuse, a key accountability mechanism in denomination’s larger abuse reform efforts.
• Former East Tennessee worship pastor Preston Garner is suing for defamation over a SBC Credentials Committee inquiry into alleged abuse, causing job loss. Garner says allegations are baseless.
• TN Court of Appeals rejects SBC’s request to throw out the case, raising stakes of first-of-its-kind legal challenge to the credentials committee.

The Southern Baptist Convention cannot use a religious doctrine aimed at exempting churches from outside court review in a case that could have major consequences on a key abuse response measure, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled. 

The court made the ruling in the case of an East Tennessee minister who has quietly faced an abuse allegation and is now suing the SBC for defamation. 

Preston Garner argues Southern Baptist Convention officials recklessly handled a report of…

View Cache

A new trial date has been set for Johnny Hunt’s lawsuit against the Southern Baptist Convention in which he seeks more than $100 million for damages to his income, reputation and livelihood. That new date falls one week after the SBC annual meeting in June.

Hunt, who was 71 years old when his claim was filed, contends he would have continued to work for another 11 years for the SBC North American Mission Board where he claims to have been paid $610,000 annually. That’s $6.7 million in future income he claims he lost when he was forced to resign over a sex scandal.

He also claims he lost $3.96 million in future book sales and $3.85 million in future speaking fees. And he seeks $880,000 in other lost income, along with $45 million for reputational harm and $45 million for emotional distress.

Last fall, the SBC Executive Committee was authorized to make…

View Cache

Jury found him guilty of attempted sexual exploitation by a therapist and child enticement

A former Racine pastor convicted of child enticement was sentenced Monday to 11 years in prison.

Prosecutors argued Bernabe Leon-Alvarez used his position of power to inappropriately touch two teenage girls while he worked at a Racine church that is now closed.

A jury found him guilty of attempted sexual exploitation by a therapist and child enticement.

One of the victims spoke in court Monday.

“All I know is that what happened that day in the basement will forever be engrained in my mind and he will never know how he affected my life afterwards,” she said.

“The only thing I can say is that I’m sorry, and I feel a lot for you,” said Leon-Alvarez, through a Spanish translator.

Leon-Alvarez is in the United States illegally.

His attorney said Leon-Alvarez was to be placed in…

View Cache

A Living Word International Church pastor in Midland, who is accused of sex crimes with a child, will head to trial after declining a plea deal on Thursday, Jan. 9.

Previous coverage: 2 Midland church leaders arrested, charged with child sex crimes

“Is it your decision to accept or reject the plea offer from the prosecuting attorney’s office?” the judge asked.

“I’m rejecting it, sir,” James Randolph said.

Randolph was given the chance to plead guilty to lesser charges, which were three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. According to the judge, the deal carried a maximum punishment of up to 15 years in prison and required Randolph to register as a sex offender. Because Randolph rejected the offer, he could face up to life in prison.

As of Thursday, he will go to trial on six charges: two…

View Cache

The former pastor of a now-shuttered Calvary Chapel congregation in south-central Texas has been sentenced to two years in prison for possessing child sex abuse material.

On Tuesday, Judge Phil Grant of the 9th District Court of Texas sentenced Bruce Hollen, 63, to two years in state prison, according to court records. Hollen, who will be credited 24 days for time served, began serving his sentence the same day.

For several years, Hollen had been lead pastor of Calvary Chapel of The Woodlands in the north suburbs of Houston. As The Roys Report (TRR) previously reported, he had been arrested last May as part of a statewide sting operation focused on internet crimes against children.

Court records summarized in the report describe the images that Hollen possessed as “of girls between the ages of 9 and 12 years old, naked from the waist down . . . In some…

View Cache

How important is anonymity in a case involving sexual abuse? That question stands at the center of a debate roiling the legal world.

Celebrity legal proceedings may sometimes seem lopsided − with a well-known, A-lister on one end and a lesser-recognized name on the other.

Sometimes, the other side has no name at all. Opting instead for the common pseudonyms Jane or John Doe, anonymous accusers can further intensify that dynamic and are at the center of some of the largest legal stories of the past year. Unnamed plaintiffs have come forward to accuse several stars including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Garth Brooks, Jay-Z and Diplo of sexual abuse and harassment.

Entrenched in these cases is a sinister narrative about the alleged misuse of power to propagate sexual violence. But on the…

View Cache

The Vatican has appointed pontifical delegates to take charge of both the male and female branches of the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word, amid concerns that members continue to revere its founder, Fr. Carlos Buela, who was found guilty of sexually abusing seminarians.

The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life announced Jan. 10 that Sr. Clara Echarte, F.I., and Bishop José Antonio Satué of Teruel y Albarracín, Spain, would serve as pontifical delegates of the female and male branches, with full powers of governance.

The decrees of appointment also impose a three-year moratorium on accepting new members for the religious institutes.

The announcement, issued Saturday, was signed by the new prefect of DICLSAL, Sr. Simona Brambilla, M.C., whom Francis named as the first female head of a Vatican department earlier this month.

The Religious Family of the Incarnate Word, founded in Argentina in 1984, consists of…

View Cache

Arkansas Senator David Wallace (R-District 19) and House sponsor, State Representative Jimmy Gazaway (R-District 31) filed a new bill Monday to protect the rights of more than 500 Arkansas survivors of child sexual abuse in Scouting.

Many of the former scouts have pending claims in the Boy Scouts Bankruptcy Settlement Trust.

The bill, SB13, is the third bill sponsored by Wallace and Gazaway in recent memory and it is designed to protect Arkansas children from sexual abuse and to protect the rights of survivors of sexual abuse.

The Justice for Vulnerable Victims of Sexual Abuse Act was signed into law, in 2021. Since then, there is no longer a statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse in Arkansas.

The Act also provided a two-year “lookback window” in recognition of the fact that many victims struggle to come forward with their abuse until far into adulthood.

During the “lookback window,” which ends on…

View Cache

Key Points

• Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Credentials Committee receives and evaluates reports against churches for abuse, a key accountability mechanism in denomination’s larger abuse reform efforts.
• Former East Tennessee worship pastor Preston Garner is suing for defamation over a SBC Credentials Committee inquiry into alleged abuse, causing job loss. Garner says allegations are baseless.
• TN Court of Appeals rejects SBC’s request to throw out the case, raising stakes of first-of-its-kind legal challenge to the credentials committee.

The Southern Baptist Convention cannot use a religious doctrine aimed at exempting churches from outside court review in a case that could have major consequences on a key abuse response measure, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled. 

The court made the ruling in the case of an East Tennessee minister who has quietly faced an abuse allegation and is now suing the SBC for defamation. 

Preston Garner argues Southern Baptist Convention officials recklessly handled a report…

View Cache

The judge in the Buffalo Diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case has appointed an additional mediator to speed up settlement negotiations among the diocese and its parishes, insurance companies and nearly 900 creditors who allege they were sexually abused by priests and other employees.

View Cache

Emmaus International, Emmaus France and the Abbé Pierre Foundation are releasing the third and final collection of testimonies from Groupe Egaé, which was tasked with collecting the statements of people who suffered sexual violence at the hands of Abbé Pierre.

The Movement wishes to thank each and every person who agreed to testify, some for the first time, about what they endured. Their courage is tremendous.

The conclusion of this task does not mean the end of the listening system, which will remain open but operate in another form as of February. Testimonies will continue to be strictly anonymous and confidential.

This final report is also an opportunity to take stock of the work carried out these past several months and all the testimonies received.

With the same transparency that the Movement has sought to demonstrate regarding these revelations, this report is freely available on the websites of our organisations….

View Cache

[See also the 19-page report.]

A third report published by the French independent firm Egaé, which Emmaus International commissioned to shed light on the actions of the once-renowned Capuchin priest, Abbé Pierre, revealed nine new accounts of sexual abuse by the priest who died in 2007.

A third independent report on Abbe Pierre, founder of Emmaus International, revealed new accusations of abuse against the late Capuchin priest, including the rape of a minor and incestuous sexual assault.

The investigation, which was commissioned by Emmaus International, established in 1949 to combat poverty and homelessness, was conducted by the Egaé firm, led by Caroline De Haas, a leading figure in France in the fight against sexist and sexual violence.

The report’s findings were transmitted via videoconference on January 13 to Emmaus representatives in 40 countries. The 19-page publication, which continues the first two Egaé reports on Abbé Pierre’s actions published in July…

View Cache

Dean’s sexuality and his close friendship with his ‘Giant’ costar is explored in the biography ‘Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean’

When James Dean became a massive movie star in 1955 with the back-to-back classics East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, he set a new standard for iconic masculinity. And while that brooding, dangerous-but-squishy-on-the-inside schtick made women swoon and cleared the way for the emergence of rock & roll teen idols like Elvis Presley, Dean, according to age-old Hollywood lore, was secretly gay.

His sexuality is explored in depth in Jason Colavito’s book Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean. The new biography covers the women and men who came in and out of Dean’s short life — including lovers like Liz Sheridan (best known as Jerry’s mother on the sitcom Seinfeld) and publicist Rogers Brackett and Hollywood rivals like Marlon Brando and Rock Hudson.

One of the…

View Cache

One of Pope Francis’ lasting reforms will be his reshaping of the papacy to embrace simplicity and humility, as seen in his decisions to live in a Vatican guesthouse and carry his own briefcase onto the papal plane.

With the release of a new autobiography Tuesday, titled “Hope,” Francis underlines this shift with a remarkable openness about his past mistakes and wrongdoings. They include as a young man getting into a fight with a fellow student who “even lost his senses” after hitting his head when thrown to the ground, and insisting that he still commits “errors and sins” today.

For a pope, who Catholic theology holds is “infallible” when teaching on faith and morals, it is even more striking.

“I feel I have a reputation I do not deserve, a public esteem of which I am not worthy,” writes Francis, who was recently awarded the highest civilian honor in the…

View Cache

It is the wound that never heals, the cloud that never lifts, the scandal that never quits.

More than 20 years after the Archdiocese of Boston achieved notoriety as the epicenter of the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, aftershocks are still coming. Last week, it was reported that a former Catholic chaplain at Brandeis University, who was celebrated for calling out Cardinal Bernard Law for his role in covering up abuse, now stands accused of the alleged sexual assault of a Brandeis student in a New York hotel room. The Rev. Walter H. Cuenin, a retired priest living in Virginia, was named in a civil lawsuit for allegedly sexually assaulting a student after the two traveled to Manhattan to attend a performance of the New York Philharmonic in December 2014. Cuenin, 79, denies the charges. Citing pending litigation, the archdiocese had no comment.

To…

View Cache

A former Catholic chaplain at Brandeis University who gained prominencewhen he called for Cardinal Bernard Law’s resignation two decades ago during the clergy abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese is being sued for the alleged sexual assault of a Brandeis student in a New York hotel room in December 2014, records show.

The Rev. Walter H. Cuenin, a retired priest living in Virginia, allegedly assaulted the 20-year-old student after the pair had traveled to Manhattan to attend a performance of the New York Philharmonic, according to a civil lawsuit the man’s lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, filed last week in New York Supreme Court.

Cuenin, 79, said in a brief phone interview last week that he “did not abuse” the student, nor did he have any sort of sexual contact with him.

“No contact at all,” said Cuenin, who said he lives…

View Cache

A church leader in Okaloosa County, Florida has been arrested and is facing several counts of possession of child pornography after a months-long investigation.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a tip back in May 2024 from Microsoft about sexual images believed to contain children being uploaded online by a Bing Image Search user. The NCMEC passed this tip along to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, who shortly thereafter began their investigation.

Information obtained from the tip and other findings ultimately led law enforcement to a home on 8th Street in Shalimar, owned by 64-year-old Frank Gough II. Gough has served since 2010 as Friar of Resurrection Anglican Church, also in Shalimar.

A multi-agency search warrant was conducted on Thursday, January 9, at Gough’s home by units from Internet Crimes Against Children, the OCSO Drug Task Force, and Homeland Security Investigation. During the search, law enforcement…

View Cache

Home secretary announces plans to implement key demand from Jay inquiry in England

Professionals who work with children will face criminal sanctions if they fail to report claims of child sexual abuse under a law to be introduced this year, Yvette Cooper has told MPs.

The home secretary has promised to implement a key demand from Prof Alexis Jay’s child sexual abuse inquiry after Keir Starmer turned down demands from Elon Musk and Kemi Badenoch for a new investigation into paedophile gangs.

The introduction of mandatory reporting in England would be included in the crime and policing bill expected to be introduced to parliament in the spring, Cooper told parliament.

“We will make it mandatory to report abuse, and we will put the measures in the crime and policing bill that will be put before parliament this spring, making it an offence, with professional and criminal sanctions, to fail to report or cover…

View Cache

Earlier this week Bishop Dominique Rey of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon announced his resignation three years early at the request of Pope Francis following an apostolic visitation of his diocese.

The 72-year-old bishop, who has served in Fréjus-Toulon since 2000, has been at odds with Rome in recent years, largely over the restriction of the Traditional Latin Mass and discernment to the priesthood and religious life of individuals who adhere to the so-called “Old Rite.”

An initial visitation of the Fréjus-Toulon diocese was conducted in 2022, resulting in the postponement of the diocese’s priestly ordinations, originally scheduled for the June 29 feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

Subsequently, a full apostolic visitation of the diocese began in 2023, and Bishop François Touvet was named coadjutor of Fréjus-Toulon, a position typically assigned to someone set to take over the post of bishop once the sitting prelate dies or resigns, and assumed…

View Cache

A former teacher at a Catholic high school in western Ohio has pleaded guilty to sex-related charges involving a former student.

Michael McKenna, 62, of Enon, Ohio, pleaded guilty in Clark County Common Pleas Court to two counts of sexual battery, both third-degree felonies. He originally was charged with six counts, court records show.

An indictment shows McKenna is accused of committing the offenses between January 2017 and May 2018, when the victim was a student at Catholic Central High School in Springfield. McKenna, who was a social studies teacher and football coach, was fired in March after he was indicted.

McKenna could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison and fined up to $20,000. As part of his plea deal, he will be classified as a Tier III sex offender.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 3.

View Cache

A former Oxnard priest was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail in connection with sex offenses against two youths in Los Angeles County but avoided state prison, officials said.

Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara pleaded no contest to sodomy with a person under age 16 and a lewd act with a child age 14 or 15, according to court records. The first offense applies when the perpetrator is over age 21 and the second if the perpetrator is at least 10 years older than the child.

Besides jail, he received a suspended term of three years in state prison and five years of formal probation and is required to undergo counseling for sexual compulsions for a year.

The 39-year-old man will serve the jail term concurrently with a one-year sentence in Ventura County for possession of child pornography, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Legal officials in Los Angeles County…

View Cache

The only solution for the Southern Baptist Convention to solve its sexual abuse problem is to dismantle the denomination entirely, according to Boz Tchividjian, one of the nation’s best-known attorneys representing abuse survivors.

“They tried to put some Band-Aids on it, and they were more concerned about public perception than anything else. When a denomination cares more about public perception than a person, they’ve lost focus of who Jesus is and they’re not going to care about the abused people.”

This is true partially because of the way the SBC is organized — with autonomous churches — “but in addition to that there hasn’t been the focus of litigation on the SBC itself,” he said. “It’s mostly been litigation on SBC churches.

“I can tell you the day a court holds that the SBC itself can be held liable for the abuse that occurs within a church or within one of…

View Cache

The lead pastor of the multi-campus Hope Fellowship in Texas, John McKinzie, has announced the firing of one of the megachurch’s student pastors, Jerry Nickerson, after he voluntarily confessed to engaging in “inappropriate contact with a minor” 10 years ago.

Nickerson served as the student pastor of Hope Fellowship’s Frisco West Campus.

McKinzie made the announcement to church members in an email to members on Wednesday, and published by abuse survivor advocate Amy Smith on her website Watchkeep.

“On Monday, the Frisco West Student Pastor, Jerry Nickerson, voluntarily disclosed inappropriate contact with a minor from when he was an adult volunteer youth leader at a previous church 10 years ago,” McKinzie wrote.

“This incident occurred before his time at Hope Fellowship, and we had no prior knowledge of this situation or any allegations against him. It became known to us on Monday…

View Cache

A new biography reveals James Dean confided in Elizabeth Taylor about his childhood abuse by a priest

Los Angeles: So, there’s this new biography out about James Dean, and it’s got some pretty shocking stuff. Apparently, he opened up to Elizabeth Taylor about being abused by a priest when he was a kid.

They were filming “Giant” together, and during those late-night chats, Dean shared some heavy stuff. He told Taylor that his childhood minister, likely Reverend James DeWeerd, had molested him. It really hit him hard, and you can tell it affected him deeply.

But here’s the twist: as he talked more about his life, Taylor got the feeling he was also hinting at his sexuality. It’s like he was trying to share more than just the abuse; he was opening up about who he really was.

This isn’t the first time people have speculated about Dean’s sexuality or…

View Cache

A lawyer for abuse survivors has accused San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of “endangering kids” by allegedly refusing to release the names of credibly accused priests — charges the archdiocese strongly denies, citing its compliance with the church’s norms for handling clerical abuse.

Attorney Jeff Anderson held a Jan. 6 press conference outside the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, claiming that Archbishop Cordileone had promised to issue such a list three years earlier, but had not done so.

Anderson — who represents several survivors associated with the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, according to the archdiocese — said Archbishop Cordileone and his predecessors had “kept secret for decades” about “credibly accused offenders” and “predators.”

In a Jan. 6 statement provided to OSV News, the Archdiocese of San Francisco said, without naming Anderson directly, that the press conference had included “several unfounded personal…

View Cache

Abuse in care survivors are calling on the government to announce its long-awaited plans for redress.

Lead response Minister Erica Stanford last month announced a $150,000 payment for a small number of survivors tortured at the Lake Alice child and adolescent unit.

But survivors of abuse in other settings says the time has come for the government to announce meaningful redress for all survivors and victims.

Joan Bellingham suffered burns, memory loss and bouts of blindness as a result of more than 200 electric shocks given in the misguided hopes of curing her homosexuality.

She believed her abuse amounted to torture.

The time had come for the government to outline its plans for redress for abuse survivors, Bellingham said.

“It’s dragged on for long enough and I know there’s a lot of people out there who feel they can’t take much more,” she said.

“It really has come to the point…

View Cache

There are so many things to be said about the appointment of Cardinal McElroy to be the next Archbishop of Washington, DC that you could break those things down into different categories.

There is, first, the politics category. That is, politics seems to be the sole motivation for the appointment. According to the Pillar, Pope Francis initially resisted appointing McElroy but was persuaded to do so by Cardinal Cupich’s entirely political reasons for wanting McElroy in Washington.

Predictable consequences of the McElroy appointment to Washington: 1) He will be a prominent critic of the Trump administration. 2) He will be criticized himself in turn, because of his ties to “Uncle Ted” McCarrick. His criticism of the White House may or may not damage Trump. But the criticism of McElroy will undoubtedly damage the credibility of the Catholic hierarchy.

Exactly right. My impression is that the incoming Trump Administration is, if anything, greatly…

View Cache

Megyn Kelly is impressive when you consider that she’s been able to create an entire career just from being mad at stuff. She is like the Rumplestiltskin of irritation — turning cranky thoughts into gold — or a blond Andy Rooney with consequences. From the idea of Santa Claus being Black to fighting with Jane Fonda for the right to ask a woman about her plastic surgery, the archives are stuffed with the things that Kelly does not enjoy. (She did, however, like Real Housewife Luann de Lesseps’s Diana Ross blackface costume enough to defend it on air.)

Conclave, the Golden Globe-winning drama about the election of a new pope, just happens to be the latest thing Kelly hates.

“Just made the huge mistake of watching the much-celebrated Conclave & it is the most disgusting anti-Catholic film I have seen in a long time. Shame on Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci & John Lithgow for…

View Cache

Since Cardinal Robert W. McElroy’s Jan. 6 appointment to the Archdiocese of Washington, church watchers have interpreted the move as a papal endorsement of the prelate’s outspoken support for the poor and those on the margins, including those who identify as LGBTQ+, as well for the church’s teaching on immigration at the start of a presidential administration that has called for mass deportations.

While many celebrate his more progressive vision, Cardinal McElroy also has attracted vocal critics of the theological underpinnings of some of his arguments, including on reception of the Eucharist, leading a fellow bishop in 2023 to publicly question whether a cardinal defending such arguments might be guilty of heresy. He has also been accused of mishandling information related to clergy sexual abuse allegations.

Cardinal McElroy, however, does not shy away from controversy. Twenty years ago, then-Msgr. McElroy entered into the stormy national debate on what would become…

View Cache

A study by the University of Zurich in 2023 into sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland provided clear estimates of the scale of crimes committed within the institution, prompting church leaders to act. This week, SRF reported on measures the church plans to introduce to combat these crimes. One is psychological testing aimed at identifying potential perpetrators of abuse before they are recruited.

The tests aim to identify problematic personalities at an early stage of the recruitment process. Preparations began in June, and the psychologist who helped develop the system shared his insights with SRF.

In addition to verifiying whether an individual has the necessary personal and intellectual aptitude, the tests aim to identify behavioural risk factors. People who are very bossy or dominant, easily offended and who don’t tolerate differences or opinion can be problematic. An individual’s sexual development and the way they establish intimate relationships…

View Cache

A former Shelby Township priest was resentenced to seven to 15 years after the appeals court determined there was a technical error in the initial sentencing, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.

Neil Kalina, who was a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church, was convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2022. He was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old in 1984. Kalina was arrested in 2019 in Littlerock, California.

He was one of 11 clergymen who were charged by Attorney General Dana Nessel’s clergy abuse investigation team.

In April 2024, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed Kalina’s conviction but ordered resentencing because “improper consideration of acquitted conduct had impacted the calculation of Kalina’s incarceration term,” according to a news release. The court remanded the case to the trial court for resentencing.

“While this case has been prolonged, I hope that after 40 years, the victim…

View Cache

A Kentucky worship leader associated with Ken Ham’s Creation Museum in northern Kentucky is in jail after confessing to sexually abusing a teenager for several years, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office said.

Michael Howard, 36, is charged with 40 counts first-degree sexual abuse and 40 counts of third-degree sodomy, according to the sheriff’s office. He remains held in the Boone County jail on $250,000 bail.

Howard “made admissions regarding his ‘three-to-four year’ relationship,” the sheriff’s office said. He is accused of abusing the male for four years, beginning in 2019 when the alleged victim was 15 years old and worked for Howard. The sheriff’s office said that’s when Howard began sending the then-teenager sexual messages.

Howard is listed on social media as part of TrueSong, the resident artist of the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, founded by Answers in…

View Cache

A federal judge on Wednesday ended a lawsuit from a woman who alleged that priests of a religious order sexually abused her as a child during retreats in Maine in the 1950s.

The plaintiff, named as Jane Doe in court documents, brought the suit against the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate Eastern Province in 2022 claiming she suffers from severe mental and emotional injuries from the abuse.

Doe was 4 years old in 1955 when she was placed in the custody of St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Fall River, Massachusetts, where she remained until she was 8, according to court documents.

During that time, Doe said, the “Grey Nuns” of the orphanage and Oblates priests would bring Doe and other orphans to retreat homes in Augusta, Bucksport, and Bar Harbor, under the pretense of singing and dancing for the priests in religious performances. There priests performed sexual acts on the children….

View Cache

A lawyer for abuse survivors has accused San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of “endangering kids” by allegedly refusing to release the names of credibly accused priests — charges the archdiocese strongly denies, citing its compliance with the church’s norms for handling clerical abuse.

Attorney Jeff Anderson held a Jan. 6 press conference outside the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, claiming that Archbishop Cordileone had promised to issue such a list three years earlier, but had not done so.

Anderson — who represents several survivors associated with the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, according to the archdiocese — said Archbishop Cordileone and his predecessors had “kept secret for decades” about “credibly accused offenders” and “predators.”

In a Jan. 6 statement provided to OSV News, the Archdiocese of San Francisco said, without naming Anderson directly, that the press conference had included “several unfounded…

View Cache

Rep. Mikie Sherrill called POLITICO’s reporting “deeply disturbing” — and state lawmakers planned to discuss taking action.

Lawmakers and victim advocates are calling for Seton Hall University’s president to resign after POLITICO revealed he was named in an internal report on sexual abuse allegations more than five years ago. They also want the Catholic university to release the findings as a measure of transparency and accountability.

A 2019 memo detailing the internal investigation, viewed by POLITICO, did not accuse the new president, Monsignor Joseph Reilly, of abuse. But it said he knew of sexual abuse allegations that he did not report. Investigators recommended, pursuant to a responsive action plan the school’s governing body adopted, Reilly be removed as a seminary leader and member of university boards.

Instead, he took a yearlong sabbatical, returned as a vice provost and, in November, formally became…

View Cache

A former teacher at a Catholic high school in western Ohio has pleaded guilty to sex-related charges involving a former student.

Michael McKenna, 62, of Enon, Ohio, pleaded guilty in Clark County Common Pleas Court to two counts of sexual battery, both third-degree felonies. He originally was charged with six counts, court records show.

An indictment shows McKenna is accused of committing the offenses between January 2017 and May 2018, when the victim was a student at Catholic Central High School in Springfield. McKenna, who was a social studies teacher and football coach, was fired in March after he was indicted.

McKenna could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison and fined up to $20,000. As part of his plea deal, he will be classified as a Tier III sex offender.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb….

View Cache

Mount Clemens, Mich. – A former Shelby Township priest has been resentenced for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old in 1984.

Neil Kalina was convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2022 and was sentenced to 7-15 years behind bars. The Court of Appeals ordered a resentencing in 2024 due to a technical error, claiming the consideration of acquitted conduct had impacted the calculation of his sentencing.

On Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, Kalina was resentenced to 7-15 years in prison.

Kalina was a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township from 1982-85. He was arrested in California in 2019.

View Cache

Project stems from arguments made by survivor groups that many victims not covered by other inquiries

Victims of abuse within faith-based organisations and settings are being asked to tell their stories for a government-backed oral history project.

The study stems from broader discussions with survivor groups that argued there were many victims not covered by the major inquiry into institutional abuse or potential ones into mother and baby homes and the Magdalene Laundries.

While the focus beyond the institutions has tended towards the Catholic Church, its schools and parishes, the project organisers are reaching out across all faiths and settings, said Professor Tim Chapman, who will lead the study.

This includes any groups under the direction of a religious leader or organisation, Mr Chapman added. This may include the Loyal Orders, he said.

He cited the examples of two people he met recently, one a Catholic woman victimised in her…

View Cache

[See also the text of the complaint.]

A Boston-area Catholic priest who pushed for the ouster of the powerful Bernard Cardinal Law in a church abuse scandal now faces his own allegations of sexual misconduct, a new lawsuit claims.

Father Walter Cuenin is accused of forcing a 20-year-old male Brandeis University student to have oral sex with him in a Manhattan hotel room a decade ago on a trip to the Big Apple, the Manhattan legal filing said.

The priest rose to prominence more than two decades ago when he helped lead a group of nearly 60 Catholic pastors calling for Law’s resignation after a bombshell investigation exposed systemic coverup of widespread sexual abuse within the church.

“Father Cuenin apparently forgot to look in the mirror when he called upon disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law to resign amid the clergy sexual abuse crisis in Boston,” said Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer for…

View Cache

[See also the text of the court decision.]

The Archdiocese of St. John’s has lost its legal effort to compel its insurance company to help cover some of its mammoth $105-million settlement with nearly 300 clergy sexual abuse survivors.

Justice Peter Brown of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador ruled late last month that the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s (RCEC) did not divulge instances of sexual abuse when it applied for and renewed its policy with Guardian Insurance from 1980 to 1985. A failure to disclose invalidated the contract. 

Archbishop Peter Hundt informed The Catholic Register via email on Jan. 6 that the archdiocese is “presently reviewing the decision with our advisors.”

Time will tell what actions this court loss will engender. It has now been over three years since the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in December 2021. This action was taken in response to the Newfoundland…

View Cache

With one notable exception, news stories on the death of Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, did not fail to mention that he was a convicted sex offender. Only Reuters, the British news wire, failed to mention it. Initially, the American news wire, the Associated Press, failed to mention it as well, but it corrected itself in later editions. Reuters did not.

The media outlets that did the best job on reporting Yarrow’s abuse of a minor were Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Now some might say that it could be that Reuters has little interest in reporting on sexual abuse. But that is not the case. From May 2021 to December 2024, the British news agency ran nearly 300 stories on the Catholic Church and abuse, even though it was given very little to report on: most offending priests are either dead or have…

View Cache

Survivors of clergy sexual misconduct who have yet to file charges against the state’s largest religious denomination have until April 4 to seek compensation under the church’s push for Chapter 11 financial protection.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge has set an April 4 deadline for people to report past clergy sexual abuse if they want compensation as part of the Vermont Roman Catholic Diocese’s court efforts to reorganize its depleting finances.

The state’s largest religious denomination filed for Chapter 11 financial protection last fall after facing a new wave of lawsuits alleging priest misconduct as far back as 1950. Burlington-based Judge Heather Cooper considers the more than 30 claimants in those unresolved cases to be among the church’s biggest creditors. But to ensure the court isn’t missing anyone, Cooper has called for public notices that alert others about the proceedings.

“If you were sexually abused by any person connected with the diocese,…

View Cache

Coping has entered into its second decade in existence, having reached its tenth birthday on December 2024. 

In many ways, the project I set out with has failed, but why? Simply because the Pope has yet to speak about us, his priests’ children. Despite repeated attempts at encouraging openness on behalf of the Holy See toward us, we, their own children, remain, an embarrassment to them, and I, an irritant, to them. So in this regard, the church has failed us, their children, yet again. It seems they haven’t the courage to face us, referring to us as “mistakes” and “dirty laundry.”

In excess of 200,000 people have come to Coping since its inception and many positive things have happened across the 10 years including the establishment of the Irish guidelines, discovery of the secret Vatican guidelines for priests not to mention the countless people who have been helped out…

View Cache

New allegations emerged linking Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz to an abuse scandal when he was secretary to Cardinal Karol Wojtyła in the Archdiocese of Krakow in the 1970s.

Catholic commentators urged the Polish Church to set up an independent commission on historic sexual abuse by its clergy, after Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, the retired former secretary to John Paul II, was accused of complicity in a paedophile scandal.

“Years of neglect and obfuscation by its hierarchy in these matters have made the Church completely unreliable as an institution capable of cleansing itself,” said Tomasz Terlikowski, a journal editor and TV director.

“This case reminds us that nothing has been concluded, and that real shocks still lie ahead for the Polish Church as more bishops and priests are named, including those once considered icons.”

Terlikowski’s was among the many reacting to allegations linking Cardinal Dziwisz, 85, to sexual misconduct while he served under…

View Cache

Back in 2018 during the “Summer of Shame,” the successor to (Cardinal) McCarrick was Donald Wuerl. The latter claimed he knew nothing of McCarrick’s crimes crying to heaven, but many were skeptical, and with good reason. He initially denied knowledge, and then admitted he did, in fact, know.

After the Vatican assured us that they would speedily get to the bottom of the McCarrick scandal, a man aligned with McCarrick and his agenda was appointed in 2019: Wilton Gregory, shortly thereafter Cardinal.

The next year, the McCarrick report was released by the Vatican in 2020. Vatican News reported that Cardinal Wilton Gregory praised the report as a “step forward in accountability.” The defendants in the case were allowed investigate their own innocence. Turns out they were innocent!

So let’s review: the Vatican is exposed by Archbishop Viganò as corrupt with McCarrick. Then the Vatican appoints a new successor who praises the report…

View Cache

Attorneys representing alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego on Tuesday criticized Pope Francis’ appointment of Cardinal Robert W. McElroy.

The bishop of San Diego is set to become the new Archbishop of Washington, D.C.

McElroy, 70, will succeed retiring Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory in March. Until a new bishop is named, an administrator will oversee the San Diego diocese on an interim basis, local church officials said.

He was named bishop of San Diego in 2015 and elevated to cardinal in 2022.

Critics accused McElroy of being an institutional defender of sex abuse in the Catholic Church and said and his appointment will continue bringing scandal to the beleaguered D.C. archdiocese.

“Cardinal McElroy has been attacked by conservatives in the Catholic Church and the political right for his progressive views. This ignores the fact that he has been anything but progressive when…

View Cache

An ex-priest allegedly caught trying to procure a 14-year-old boy for sex online in a police sting a week before Christmas left court wearing an Akubra-style hat and face mask.

Guy Norman Hartcher, a 78-year-old retired Vincentian priest, was arrested outside a South Asian minimart in Pendle Hill in western Sydney in late December after allegedly sending indecent material to a police officer posing as a teen.

He’s also been accused of trying to procure sex from the fictitious 14-year-old.

The alleged crimes took place between December 16 and December 23 when he was arrested, according to court documents.

Hartcher left Burwood Local Court on Wednesday wearing a white face mask and dark hat after his first appearance.

His solicitor Greg Walsh did not oppose an adjournment sought by prosecutors and the matter will return to court on March 5.

Hartcher did not answer questions as he pushed his way through waiting…

View Cache

Critics argue that Cardinal McElroy has been an institutional defender of sex abuse in the Catholic Church

Attorneys representing alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego Tuesday criticized Pope Francis’ appointment of Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, bishop of San Diego, to become the new Archbishop of Washington, D.C.

McElroy, 70, will succeed retiring Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory in March. Until a new bishop is named, a Diocesan administrator will oversee the San Diego diocese on an interim basis, according to the Diocese of San Diego.

McElroy was named bishop of San Diego in 2015 and elevated to cardinal in 2022.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the Catholic community in our nation’s capital and for the confidence His Holiness has placed in me, but I have truly loved the last ten years I’ve spent…

View Cache

Cardinal Robert McElroy, the bishop of San Diego who has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the hierarchy under Pope Francis, has been named the Archbishop of Washington, DC, succeeding Cardinal Wilton Gregory, whose resignation was accepted by the pope.

While any faithful Catholic will be dismayed by this news, it should come as no surprise. McElroy was always destined to leave San Diego for a more influential diocese. The very fact that the bishop of a suffragan diocese was made a Cardinal—while being under a metropolitan archbishop (Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez) who wasn’t himself a Cardinal—was unprecedented. He was clearly being groomed for greater pastures. The irony, however, is that McElroy’s appointment doesn’t increase McElroy’s influence as much as it diminishes the importance of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC.

Recall the recent history of this archdiocese. This century began with Theodore McCarrick being named the archbishop of Washington, DC in November…

View Cache

An influential Latino pastor in Arizona has been accused of hiding a camera in the women’s bathroom at his church and charged with felony voyeurism, according to Maricopa County Superior Court records.

Arturo Laguna Camas was arrested in Nov. 2024 and charged with four counts of unlawful recording, according to 12 News. He was later indicted on voyeurism charges, class 5 felonies, AZFamilyNews  reported.

Camas is the pastor of a small Latino immigrant church, the Casa de Adoracion, in Phoenix.

A message left for church officials after hours was not returned and the church’s Facebook page has been deactivated. The church is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ denomination.

Police reportedly were responding to a domestic violence call at a home on Nov. 11, 2024, when they learned that a camera had been found in…

View Cache

An investigation that started following a report from a student’s father, has led to a teacher being arrested on multiple charges.

The report to Montrose Police Department over on-going, inappropriate communications between a teacher and student at Colorado West Christian School was received December 31.

Lisa Thyre, 44, was arrested on January 3 on an arrest warrant following the investigation into the alleged activities between Thyre and a teenage student at the school.

Thyre was booked into the Montrose County Jail on the following felony charges and held on a $10,000 bond: Unlawful electronic sexual communications (persuade to meet); unlawful sexual communications (expose or touch); conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence; and tampering with physical evidence.

Police detectives are continuing their investigation to determine if there are additional witnesses, or information related to this case. Administrators with Colorado West Christian School are cooperating fully with law enforcement officials in…

View Cache

[This article is a substantially updated version of an article with the same title that we included in Abuse Tracker yesterday.]

McElroy, known for a pastoral approach to migrants and the LGBTQ+ community, will lead an archdiocese still bruised by a sexual abuse and mismanagement scandal.

The Vatican on Monday named one of the leading liberal prelates in the United States to run the prominent Washington-area archdiocese, sending to the nation’s capital, as a second Trump administration begins, a cleric known for a pastoral approach to migrants and for the “radical inclusion” of the LGBTQ+ community.

That approach came throughprominently as San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy made his first appearance after the announcement. Speaking at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, the new archbishop delivered a message of unity and gratitude.

He thanked Pope Francis, celebrated African Americans as “so foundational” to his new archdiocese and addressed…

View Cache

Abuse survivors and their attorneys are pressuring the Archdiocese of San Francisco for more transparency, which remains the only Roman Catholic diocese in California that has not released an internal list of priests suspected of sexually abusing minors

Blasting Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for his steadfast refusal to release a list of suspected abusers within the ranks of San Francisco clergy, abuse survivors and their attorneys publicly named living priests who they say abused them for years.

One of the priests, Reverend Lawrence Finegan, was named in a 2022 lawsuit filed by Sandra Oldfield, who alleges she was sexually abused as a teenager by Finegan. Oldfield is named as Jane Doe in the complaint but recently decided to go public with her story in hopes of pressuring the Archdiocese to be more transparent about decades of accusations of sexual abuse by priests.

Oldfield was joined by her attorneys, advocates, and other…

View Cache

New peer says issue of children and religious institutions is at centre of public debate

A Catholic expert on social care appointed a life peer in the New Year Honours believes “we have never listened properly to children.”

“That is the heart of the problem of abuse and much else,” Gerard Lemos, who is the Chair of English Heritage, told The Tablet.

Lemos launched his book Childhood and Contemporary Catholicism in November in Rome 24 hours before Justin Welby resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury after a crisis triggered by his mishandling of the abuser John Smyth,

“The issue of children and religious institutions is once more at the forefront of public debate,” said Lemos, who is Chair of National Savings & Investments (NS&I), and Chair of London Institute of Banking and Finance.

He told The Tablet: “Sometime after I enter the Lords in February parliament will debate assisted dying. On grounds of conscience and…

View Cache

A pair of priests who have been accused of molestation have since disappeared from the San Francisco Archdiocese’s list of priests in good standing. Attorneys representing people accusing the clergy of sexual abuse when they were children say they believe the priests were quietly removed from ministry in response to the allegations against them.

“I think they’re feeling heat,” said Jennifer Stein, an attorney representing one of the alleged victims who filed a lawsuit in 2022 accusing Rev. Lawrence J. Finegan of sexual abuse. “They’re feeling the pressure of having perpetrators on their good standing list with known allegations that have been public, and publicly available, for years, and in this case, for decades.”

Stein’s client, Sandra Oldfield, notified the archdiocese of the allegation around 1990, she said. She went to the police in 2002.

But Finegan’s name was on a list called “Priests and Deacons with Faculties (approved for…

View Cache

Pope Francis has tapped Cardinal Robert McElroy as the new archbishop of Washington, D.C., appointing one of his top U.S. allies, one of the American church’s most forceful defenders of migrants and a sharp critic of Donald Trump’s first administration just days before Trump takes office a second time.

McElroy of San Diego will succeed retiring Cardinal Wilton Gregory, 77, who has led the Washington Archdiocese since 2019, where he became the city’s first African American archbishop. In 2020, Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals, making him the first Black U.S. cardinal. 

News of the appointment was first reported, including by the National Catholic Reporter, on Jan. 5. Official confirmation was published in the Vatican’s daily bulletin on Jan. 6.

Over the last decade, McElroy has become one of the most vocal champions of Pope Francis’ pastoral agenda among the U.S. hierarchy. He has frequently echoed…

View Cache

Pope Francis has appointed San Diego’s Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, 70, as the new archbishop of Washington. The Vatican announced the appointment at noon today, Jan. 6, the feast of the Epiphany.

Cardinal McElroy succeeds Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, who has served as chief pastor of the Washington archdiocese since April 2019 and whose resignation the pope accepted two years after he reached the retirement age of 75. The cardinal turned 77 on Dec. 7, 2024.

Pope Francis’ decision to appoint Cardinal McElroy came as no surprise in Rome where he has long been seen as the U.S. bishop best qualified to lead the archdiocese in the nation’s capital at this delicate moment in the history of both the United States and the world. The migration question has become a major concern and wars are being waged in the Holy Land and Ukraine. The United States is deeply involved in…

View Cache

The appointment of Cardinal Robert McElroy as the eighth archbishop of Washington, D.C., demonstrates the degree to which Pope Francis understands the situation of the church in the U.S. The pope found the man best suited to meet this moment both in the life of the church and the life of the nation.

To the capital of a deeply polarized nation, the pope has sent the only U.S. bishop who could be considered a scholar of American political history and its intersection with Catholic theology. 

For a flavor of McElroy’s unique combination of intellectual and pastoral depth, consider this speech he gave at a migration conference held in the weeks after Trump’s victory in 2016. He said that “there is a profound sickness in the soul in American political life. This sickness tears at the fabric of our nation’s unity, undermining the core democratic consensus that is the…

View Cache

(OSV News) — Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego has been appointed the next archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, following Pope Francis’ acceptance of the resignation of Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, the first African American cardinal, the Vatican announced Jan. 6.

The see city is home to the White House, Congress, Supreme Court and a multitude of embassies, nonprofits, think tanks and lobbying groups seeking to sway the levers of American power.

Canon law required Cardinal Gregory, 77, to submit his resignation to the pope when the cardinal turned 75, which was Dec. 7, 2022. The Vatican announced the news of Cardinal Gregory’s retirement and Cardinal McElroy’s appointment two weeks before the second inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in Washington.

The 70-year-old Cardinal McElroy — a San Francisco native who pursued degrees at Harvard and Stanford before his 1980 priestly ordination — was appointed as bishop of the…

View Cache

LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Following is a chronology of major events during Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby‘s 11-year tenure as leader of the Church of England and spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican community. Welby, 69, resigned in November over an abuse scandal and was expected to wind up his duties by Monday.

2012

NOVEMBER – Welby, who was then the bishop of Durham, was named as the new Archbishop of Canterbury after Queen Elizabeth II, supreme governor of the Church, nominated him.

2013

MARCH – Welby’s enthronement at Canterbury Cathedral marked several firsts: one of the chaplains who led him to the cathedral was the first woman to hold the post, and he became the first archbishop to be enthroned by a female cleric.

JULY – Welby, a former oil executive, pledged to put now-defunct payday lender Wonga out of existence, throwing his support behind not-for-profit credit unions.

2014

FEBRUARY…

View Cache

LONDON (AP) — Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby ’s tenure officially ends Monday, two months after he resigned following an inquiry that found he failed to tell police about serial abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

Welby, the head of Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, will lay down his bishop’s crozier – a ceremonial long staff – in a symbolic act that marks the end of his ministry. Most of his official functions will be delegated to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, as the church embarks on the lengthy process of selecting a new leader.

Welby had announced in November that he would resign after an independent investigation into the late John Smyth, a prominent attorney who the inquiry said sexually, psychologically and physically abused about 30 boys and young men in the United Kingdom…

View Cache

By the end of Monday, Justin Welby will have symbolically laid down his ceremonial staff and relinquished his role as Archbishop of Canterbury.

After spending little time in public since his resignation, Mr Welby is expected to spend his final day leading the Church of England privately at his London base of Lambeth Palace.

His duties will then mainly pass to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, until a permanent successor is appointed, a process that is expected to take several months.

It comes as many important changes are being debated by the Church, including on safeguarding – the issue linked to Mr Welby’s resignation and one that has led to questions about Mr Cottrell.

On Monday, the feast of Epiphany in the Christian calendar, Mr Welby will attend two services at Lambeth Palace, a Eucharist at lunchtime and Evensong later in the day.

Though his office has not disclosed…

View Cache

Justin Welby is spending his final day as Archbishop of Canterbury, as he prepares to step down over failures in handling a Church of England abuse scandal.

Almost two months after announcing his resignation, he will officially quit the role today.

It follows an independent review which concluded barrister and Christian camp leader John Smyth – thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church – might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported him to police in 2013.

The Archbishop has made few public appearances since mid-November, and did not give the traditional Christmas Day sermon from Canterbury Cathedral.

While in his initial resignation statement on November 12 he said he was stepping down ‘in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse’, he had to issue an apology later that month following his final speech in the House of Lords.

On…

View Cache

The Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota, and its parent organization, Vineyard USA, have been named in nine civil lawsuits alongside Jackson Gatlin, a former young adult and online community pastor at The Vineyard Church who accepted a plea deal in November for criminal sexual conduct with a child.

Gatlin, 36, was charged in 2023 with sexually abusing five teenage girls but pleaded guilty to only one count of sexual assault. On four other counts, he entered an Alford plea where he admitted there is sufficient evidence to find him guilty during a trial but maintained his innocence. He will likely spend at least 13 years in prison and have to register as a sex offender when his sentence is complete.

Also named in the civil lawsuits are Gatlin’s parents, Fox 21 reports. His father, Michael Gatlin, was a senior pastor at The Vineyard Church,…

View Cache

Lindsey Whiteside, a former youth minister with Getwell Church in Hernando, Mississippi, is now facing 30 years in prison after she was charged with having sex with an underage girl under her guardianship.

Church officials did not respond to calls for comment from The Christian Post on Friday, but court documents cited by Action News 5 allege that Whiteside, 26, knowingly had sex with the minor between May 14 and Nov. 6, 2024.

“We can confirm that the December Grand Jury of DeSoto County has indicted Lindsey Whiteside on the charge of sexual battery of a minor child by a person of trust or authority,” DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton said in a statement. “Prior to this indictment, Lindsey Whiteside served as a youth ministry leader and basketball coach—positions that carry a profound responsibility to protect and guide others.”

Church members told Action…

View Cache

McElroy, known for a pastoral approach to migrants and the LGBTQ+ community, will lead an archdiocese still bruised by a sexual abuse and mismanagement scandal.

The Vatican named one of the United States’ leading liberal Catholic prelates Monday to run the prominent D.C.-area archdiocese, sending to the nation’s capital as a second Trump administration begins a cleric known for a pastoral approach to migrants and for the “radical inclusion” of the LGBTQ+ community.

San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy, who has led a diocese that runs the length of California’s southern border with Mexico for a decade, will take over an archdiocese still bruised by a major sexual abuse and mismanagement scandal that broke in 2018.

McElroy, who holds a political science doctorate from Stanford University, is considered by some Catholics to be a leading intellectual closely aligned with Pope Francis — and, by others, too direct at times on secular…

View Cache

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Monday named Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego as the archbishop of Washington, tapping one of his most progressively like-minded allies to head the Catholic Church in the U.S. capital at the start of the second Trump Administration.

McElroy, 70, replaces Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who at 77 is two years beyond the normal retirement age for bishops.

The Vatican announced the appointment in a statement Monday.

Francis has long had his eye on McElroy, making him bishop of San Diego in 2015 and then elevating him as a cardinal in 2022.

McElroy has been one of a minority of U.S. bishops harshly criticizing the campaign to exclude Catholic politicians who support abortion rights from Communion, a campaign Francis has publicly criticized by insisting that bishops must be pastors, not politicians.

He has also questioned why the U.S. bishops’ conference, which has leaned conservative in its…

View Cache

The appointment of Robert W. McElroy is a signal of the pope’s priorities, two weeks before Donald J. Trump’s term begins.

Pope Francis on Monday named Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, bishop of San Diego, to be the next Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, moving one of his most vocal allies on immigration to one of the most prominent posts in the American church.

The move, announced in the Vatican’s daily bulletin, comes at a critical moment two weeks before President-elect Donald J. Trump is inaugurated and sends a signal about Pope Francis’ priorities. Many powerful American Catholics, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, have aligned themselves with Mr. Trump’s efforts against immigration and abortion.

Cardinal McElroy, 70, is a longtime supporter of the pope’s pastoral agenda, and is known for regularly speaking out on the inclusion of migrants, women and L.G.B.T.Q. people in the Catholic church and in the United…

View Cache

Based on the story of Myriam, the Mexican nun who bravely denounced sexual abuse, Breaking the silence is a gift to our readers.

Although Breaking the Silence includes three previously published texts on sexual abuse from Los Ángeles Press, it also features two new chapters and an unpublished introduction.

Breaking the silence is a bilingual, English-Spanish electronic book reporting on Myriam’s case while summarizing information about one of the most specific forms of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, the abuse of nuns by priests.

Back in September 2024, the legal team supporting a Mexican nun, a victim of repeated sexual abuse, provided me with the electronic case file detailing her harrowing experience, as it stood then. Reading the file was a profoundly distressing experience.

Although I had previously encountered judicial narratives linked to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, Myriam’s story shocked me deeply. The repeated abuse she endured—not by one but several…

View Cache

Appointing new archbishop of Canterbury likely to take months after Welby’s resignation over abuse scandal

Justin Welby will relinquish his role as archbishop of Canterbury at midnight on Monday, formally starting the firing gun in the search for a new de facto leader of the Church of England and the global Anglican church.

The process is expected to take months, with the name of the new archbishop unlikely to be announced until the autumn.

Welby quit over failures to take effective action against a sadistic serial abuser. An independent review concluded that John Smyth, an eminent barrister and Christian camp leader who abused as many as 130 boys and young men over five decades, might have been brought to justice had Welby formally reported him to police in 2013.

The unprecedented resignation of the most senior cleric in the C of E has plunged the church into a crisis, with no clear…

View Cache

The Kentucky Supreme Court has upheld the sentences of two Hopkinsville woman who were convicted in the abuse of children at the First United Methodist Church Daycare in 2018.

According to the Office of Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, the abuse was first reported in 2018 with when 27-year-old Allison Simpson—who was the primary teacher in the daycare—would regularly throw children down onto the floor when she was upset with the child, and would ‘pat’ the child so roughly that it made co-workers believe she was beating them. They reported the instances to parents, who in turn contacted the Hopkinsville Police Department.

An investigation began, and after reviewing roughly 1,000 hours of footage, police arrested both Simpson at 57-year-old Nina Morgan, who also worked in the nursery. Ultimately, the two were convicted in 2022, with Simpson sentenced to serve a 20-year prison sentence and Morgan sentenced to one-year.

Both appealed…

View Cache

ACCORDING to his official website, the Most Revd and Rt Hon Stephen Cottrell, the ninety-eighth Archbishop of York and second-in-command of the Church of England, has a track record in evangelism. In 1998, as the Diocesan Missioner and Bishop’s Chaplain for Evangelism in the Diocese of Wakefield, he joined Springboard, which was the Archbishop of York and Canterbury’s team for evangelism. To connect with the unsaved masses, he adopted nearby Huddersfield Town as his football team, while maintaining loyalty to his original, southern favourite Spurs.

Evangelism is the endeavour through which Christians communicate the good news of God, namely his indiscriminate and everlasting love for humanity. It is the sort of endeavour which makes churches grow, something that the Church of England, whose declining attendance figures suggest extinction within forty years, desperately needs to get right. The Church, whose congregations are overwhelmingly elderly, needs to attract children and young people…

View Cache

An abuse survivors’ network has endorsed one survivor’s decision to reject his King’s Service Medal, citing the Government’s “failure” to do “justice by faith-based survivors”.

Mike Ledingham, 74, was named in the 2025 New Year Honours on Tuesday for services to survivors of abuse in care – one of several survivors recognised.

Ledingham, who primarily lives in Maketū, Bay of Plenty, announced on social media on Tuesday night he could not accept the honour.

He told NZME he rejected the appointment because he believed faith-based abuse survivors were being “sent back” to the institutions that abused them to ask for redress.

“I don’t think that’s right … Where is the integrity in sending victims back to their abuser or the abusing organisation to somehow get redress?”

In response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in care, the Government is planning a new single redress system for survivors this year.

…

View Cache

Members of the Clergy of the Catholic Diocese of Man in Ivory Coast have expressed their regrets over the fallout with their Local Ordinary that resulted in the 27 December 2024 appointment of Jean-Pierre Cardinal Kutwa as Apostolic Administrator “Sede plena” of the Ivorian Episcopal See.

In a statement issued on December 31, the Catholic Priests acknowledge with “regrets” the “unfortunate situation” of Man Diocese following their fallout with Bishop Gaspard Béby Gnéba and reach out to the people of God in the Diocese for forgiveness.

The appointment of Cardinal Kutwa, the Archbishop emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, followed a fallout between Bishop Gnéba and his Clergy over the former’s directives to the faithful to denounce the latter’s infidelity to their Priestly vocation and ministry. 

“Any lay faithful who knows that a Priest is not faithful to his celibacy, that he has a wife or a child, that he has committed…

View Cache

A private Catholic school in San Diego is at risk of closing and parents are rallying to keep its doors open.

Saint Katharine Drexel Academy, a private Catholic school in San Diego, is at risk of closing at the end of the school year unless it raises $500,000 and increases enrollment by 30 students by the end of January. 

On Oct. 18, the Catholic Diocese of San Diego informed parents that the school could no longer cover its budget deficit, leaving the SKDA community scrambling to save their institution.

The school, which opened six years ago with 150 students, has seen a sharp decline in enrollment, now standing at just 95 students as of Christmas Break. 

“We certainly have less financial flexibility, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s an enrollment problem,” Kevin Eckery a spokesperson for the diocese said. 

While declining enrollment is the primary issue,…

View Cache

Allegations of sexual abuse against children within churches across the globe reveal a disturbing pattern that spans decades and continents. Reports from 18 countries have surfaced, highlighting thousands of cases where children, including boys, were victimized by clergy and other church officials. Many survivors do not come forward until later in life, often after the age of 50, when the opportunity for justice is limited due to the passage of time and the aging or death of the perpetrators.

Church institutions are often accused of suppressing these cases, silencing victims, and shielding accused clergy members. Instead of facing consequences, many accused priests are reassigned to different locations, where their actions often remain hidden from the public eye. In some cases, the institutions offer public apologies or financial settlements to address the fallout from scandals, but critics argue that these measures do little to prevent future abuse.

Historical data points to systemic abuse dating…

View Cache

Landmark ruling highlights disclosure in insurance claims

Guardian Insurance has secured a significant legal victory in a case involving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s, Newfoundland, with a court ruling that the insurer is not obligated to cover settlements for historical sexual abuse claims.

According to a report from the International Comparative Legal Guides (ICLG), the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court declared a policy issued in the 1980s void due to the archdiocese’s failure to disclose known incidents of sexual abuse by clergy, which was deemed “fraudulent misrepresentation.”

The decision, issued by Justice Peter Browne in late December 2024, adds further financial strain to the archdiocese, which has been under bankruptcy protection since 2021. The church has been liquidating assets to meet $104 million in settlement obligations, managing to raise just $44 million to date.

Non-disclosure of abuse

Central to the court’s findings was evidence that the Roman Catholic…

View Cache

Hundreds of people who say they suffered physical or sexual abuse at two state-run reform schools in Florida are in line to receive tens of thousands of dollars in restitution from the state, after Florida lawmakers formally apologized for the horrors they endured as children more than 50 years ago.

At its peak in the Jim Crow 1960s, 500 boys were housed at what is now known as the Dozier School for Boys, most of them for minor offenses such as petty theft, truancy or running away from home. Orphaned and abandoned children were also sent to the school, which was open for more than a century.

In recent years, hundreds of men have come forward to recount brutal beatings, sexual assaults, deaths and disappearances at the notorious school in the panhandle town of Marianna. Nearly 100 boys died between 1900 and 1973 at Dozier, some of them from gunshot wounds or…

View Cache

During a classroom discussion, a teacher at Elms College asked students to assess the credibility of two sexual assault lawsuits filed against another student, the college and college administrators, according to amended complaints filed in federal court.

The lawsuits, filed in October 2024, were amended earlier this week. The amended complaints describe how the cases were discussed in a sociology class taught in November by Kathleen Angco-Vieweg, then an adjunct professor at the Chicopee, Massachusetts, college.

Angco-Vieweg passed out copies of the lawsuits and asked members of the class if they knew the identities of the students who allege they were sexually assaulted by student Cody McCann, according to the filings.

“The class then included a breakout session, where the class was broken up into groups, and the groups were ordered to read copies of the Complaint and discuss whether they believed the Plaintiff’s version of the events – whether…

View Cache

Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 children and adolescents from the fundamentalist Jewish sect Lev Tahor in southeastern Guatemala on Friday following allegations of child abuse, including rape, prosecutors said.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

The rescue operation in the agricultural municipality of Oratorio, 78 kilometers (48.47 miles) southeast of Guatemala City, highlights ongoing concerns over the controversial practices of the Lev Tahor sect, which has faced similar allegations in the past.

KEY QUOTE

“Based on the statements of the complainants, the evidence obtained, and the medical examinations, it was possible to establish that there are forms of human trafficking against these minors, such as forced marriage, abuse, and related crimes,” Nancy Paiz, a prosecutor at Guatemala’s Prosecutor’s Office Against Human Trafficking, said at a press conference.

CONTEXT

The Lev Tahor community, founded in 1988 in Israel, practice an austere form of Judaism with interpretations of Jewish law that includes long prayer sessions and…

View Cache