ABUSE TRACKER

The former leader of a nonprofit urging Christians to vote their values has pleaded guilty to two felony counts of possession of child sex abuse material.

Jason Yates, former CEO of Fort Worth-based My Faith Votes, filed a guilty plea July 21 in McLeod County, Minnesota, to two felony counts of possession of pornography involving minors under 14. If the deal is accepted by the court, six additional counts of possession of child sex abuse material will be dismissed.

Conditions of the plea deal include supervised probation for up to five years, 240 days in jail, a psychosexual evaluation, no contact with females under the age of 14 and registration as a sex offender.

The court released Yates on his own recognizance, according to a court document signed July 22. It requires Yates not to have contact with females younger than 14 years old, not possess or use any…

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A home linked to a pastor featured in the Netflix docuseries “Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult” was raided Friday by federal agents in relation to an investigation into sex trafficking, money laundering and other accusations, according to authorities.

Property records show the home in the 7700 block of McGroarty Street in Tujunga is linked to multiple owners, including Robert Shinn, pastor of the Shekinah Church and the subject of a 2024 docuseries. He operates a talent agency that purportedly helps social media stars and TikTok dancers find jobs in Los Angeles.

Those featured in the docuseries call Shinn an abusive cult leader. They say he kept them away from their families by telling them that in order to be saved, they had to “die” to their loved ones who did not follow his teachings. He reportedly told them that if they were “godly” enough, they would also save…

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Hundreds of people are still traumatised as a result of abuse they suffered at the hands of a now-disgraced evangelical movement. Jon Ironmonger, who investigated the Jesus Army group prior to its closure five years ago, has been to meet the director of a new BBC documentary series telling its story.

At first glance, the Jesus Army seemed a “happy-clappy” church set in the Northamptonshire countryside, with two- or three thousand members, a gaudy military-style uniform, and a fleet of rainbow-coloured battle buses.

The reality was very different.

In 2016 I found myself embarking on a years-long journey to expose one of the UK’s most abusive cults.

There had been reports already about dubious practices and unexplained deaths, including that of a young man whose body was found on a railway track.

But months later, over tea at St Pancras Station, a woman who had fled the group as a…

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The News talked with experts who work with or study abuse survivors in evangelical Protestant churches.

Earlier this year, just shy of his Frisco megachurch’s 25th anniversary, lead pastor John McKinzie confronted one of the most challenging situations in his time as a pastor.

Related:Collin County megachurch says it terminated former pastor for alleged contact with minor

A former student pastor at Hope Fellowship disclosed to church leaders that he had inappropriate contact with a minor at a previous church, McKinzie said.

“What goes through your mind is — ‘Oh, my gosh, this is the worst thing that could ever happen,’” McKinzie told The Dallas Morning News.

Dallas-area churches like Hope Fellowship have been grappling with allegations of abuse with renewed urgency since June of last year. That’s when Cindy Clemishire publicly accused the pastor of Gateway, one of D-FW’s…

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The boy was just 6 years old when he alleges he was repeatedly pulled from class, groomed, secluded, and acts that describe rape were forced on him by a Kern County priest. That was in 1990. The abuse allegedly continued a decade later, when the plaintiff claims a different authority figure coerced him into performing similar acts, sometimes with his classmates.

Another minor – an altar boy – was allegedly molested on multiple occasions by a Fresno priest when he was between 6 and 10 years old in the 1960s.

And one woman, who was 11 at the time, alleges that, starting in the early 1970s, a Fresno priest groomed her and brought her candy and snacks before eventually allegedly committing acts of rape against her.

These claims are among a deluge of lawsuits – totaling 153 cases – filed against the Catholic Diocese of Fresno following the passage of…

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As the latest wave of headlines about the Jeffrey Epstein list surges through the news cycle, and the public feasts on their fascination with the juicy story of the powerful and rich hobnobbing with a mega rich sex offender, and the potential coverup by the many implicated, one might hope that we are focusing on the victims of these crimes. But we are not.

Or that we are finally reckoning with institutional child sexual abuse. But we’re not. Not even close. The focus remains on rich, powerful men—Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and political retribution—not the hundreds girls who were sexual abused and trafficked through this secret criminal enterprise.

We’re chasing a political spectacle, not substance. Again. The girls that were made available to the men on this list go largely unmentioned in story after story.

The headlines tell the story in the story. “DOJ Says There Is No…

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Police on Friday arrested 58-year-old William Jones, a former teacher at Elvaton Christian Academy in Millersville, and a pastor at Jessup Baptist Church.

The Anne Arundel County Police Department was first alerted to the incident on May 1 of this year, when a mother reported that her child had encountered inappropriate sexual behavior by a former teacher.

sexual abuse of a minor

Photo by: Anne Arundel County Police DepartmentBy: Amanda EngelPosted 12:27 PM, Jul 25, 2025 and last updated 5:28 PM, Jul 25, 2025

GAMBRILLS, Md. — Police on Friday arrested 58-year-old William Jones, a former teacher at Elvaton Christian Academy in Millersville, and a pastor at Jessup Baptist Church.

The Anne Arundel County Police Department was first alerted to the incident on May 1 of this year, when a mother reported that her child had encountered inappropriate sexual behavior by a former teacher.

Jones was…

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A pastor and former Christian school teacher was arrested Friday after child sex abuse claims were brought by five students, Anne Arundel County Police said.

What began as an investigation into one sex offense complaint at Elvaton Christian Academy in May has led to the arrest of former teacher William Auburn Jones early Friday morning. Since then, five students have come forward detailing instances of sexual abuse by Jones that happened at the school, Anne Arundel County Police spokesperson Marc Limansky said in an email.

Online court documents show Jones faces 21 charges, including four counts each of child sex abuse and third- and fourth-degree sex offense. He also faces eight counts of second-degree assault and one count of third-degree sex offense of a child younger than 14 years old.

Jones, 58, is being held without bond, and he didn’t have an attorney listed in online court documents at the…

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Former My Faith Votes CEO Jason Yates, a prominent conservative Christian activist, has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, months after his arrest.

According to court documents, Yates submitted a petition to enter a guilty plea on Monday with a district court in McLeod County, Minnesota.

Yates pleaded guilty to two of the eight felony counts of possession of child pornography that he had been charged with last year, in return for the dismissal of the other six counts.

“I now make no claim that I am innocent,” stated the form that Yates signed. “That in view of all above facts and considerations I wish to enter a plea of guilty.”

Additionally, the district court signed a form on Tuesday releasing Yates on his own recognizance under multiple conditions, including that he keep the court informed of his home address, avoid any contact with females under the age of 14,…

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A Catholic woman says a North Carolina diocese did not sufficiently address a priest’s alleged pattern of sexual and spiritual manipulation in the context of spiritual direction.

And while the priest has been banned from a Catholic university in Virginia over the allegations against him, he became last month a parish administrator in the Diocese of Raleigh.

The Diocese of Raleigh says the priest engaged in a consensual relationship between adults, but the woman says that Raleigh’s Bishop Luis Zarama has not taken seriously a very different account of the relationship.

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Fr. Steven Costello was ordained a priest as a member of the Legionaries of Christ in 2011. He was assigned to graduate work in the theology of the body at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Washington, DC, and was eventually appointed a professor of theological anthropology at Divine Mercy University, a Virginia graduate school of psychology sponsored…

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A month after being forced to resign from a Colorado megachurch for “inaccurate” statements about his knowledge of Robert Morris’s child sexual abuse, Brady Boyd has launched a new ministry—and is taking donations.

Boyd announced the ministry, called Psalm 68 Ministries, in a post to a private “Support Brady Boyd” Facebook group on Monday. The group was founded on June 21, soon after Boyd resigned as senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

According to Boyd’s post, Psalm 68 Ministries is named after “a Psalm that has been a life verse for us the past 36 years of marriage and ministry.”

Psalm 68:5-6 talks about God being a “father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,” Boyd wrote, “We want to complete our ministry careers caring for the people Jesus always sees but are often forgotten by society.”

This includes pastors “who have been wounded by the rigors of…

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A Catholic bishop in the Central African Republic (CAR) has denied accusations that he remained silent and was complicit in covering up an alleged sexual abuse case involving a diocesan priest.

In a statement released on July 16, Bishop Jesus Louis Molina of M’Baïki said he felt the need to clear the air after what he called “rumors, inaccurate information, distorted interpretations, and accusations” were leveled against him by Father Alain le Patrick Mokopame.

The priest had accused the bishop of silence and complicity in a sexual abuse case involving a priest. The accusation came shortly after Mokopame was removed from his post as vicar general of the diocese on July 13. It was a move that sparked public protests, with some Catholics demonstrating with saucepans during the celebration of the Eucharist, denouncing the bishop’s decision to replace the priest. A break-in also took place at the bishop’s residence.

Molina…

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Nearly two months after police escorted an NFL player from a West Side church, parishioners continue to ask questions about a priest’s behavior and if their pastor knew about it

CINCINNATI — Controversy continued at a Green Township church as Our Lady of the Visitation parishioners and other local Catholics gathered for a vigil outside the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s downtown office.

Roughly 40 people met at noon on Tuesday. They held signs, prayed aloud, lit candles and sang to themes of “putting away falsehood,” “clergy tempted to protect reputation over truth” and “parishioners wounded by spiritual truth.”

“The ongoing struggle of getting transparency and accountability that seems to be never-ending,” said Kathy Weyer, a coordinator for Greater Cincinnati Voice of the Faithful. “We’ve gone through three different bishops now … and in all regards we continue to have a lack of openness to the laity about what’s going on in…

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A Juárez priest was sentenced to four years plus 10 months in prison after he was convicted of sexually abusing a young girl 12 years ago, the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office said.

Eliseo R.S. took advantage of his role as a member of the clergy to sexually abuse the child inside a Catholic church on the Juárez-Porvernir highway in on June 2, 2013, the state attorney general’s office said in a news release on Monday, July 21.

The girl reported she was sexually molested by the priest during confession before making her first Communion, reported the Diario de Juárez. The child told her mother, who didn’t believe her, but her sister did, confiding a similar thing had happened to her, the newspaper reported.

The case was carried out by the state prosecutors office specializing on gender-related crimes against women and the family. He will serve his sentence at…

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A new settlement has been reached between hundreds of survivors of sexual abuse and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester. 

The total $246 million settlement between the survivors and the diocese includes a $120 million payout from Continental Insurance Company, the final holdout insurer in the case, which was announced by attorneys. 

CNA previously claimed the diocese breached contract when it dropped out of a 2022 settlement, and therefore it was no longer responsible for contributing to the settlement. A judge dismissed that case and CNA appealed the decision. However, the insurer has now agreed to a $120 million payout after survivors voted down a $75 million offer last year.

It’s a major development in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, which began in 2019 after the Child Victims Act was signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The act allowed survivors of childhood sexual assault to take their abusers to…

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Pope Francis sought to reinvigorate a church deeply afflicted by the pain and tribulations caused by clergy sexual abuse.

A priest must embrace the call to minister on behalf of the gospel of Christ; it is a unique gift from God that is then experienced by the people of God as God’s gift to the faithful as they encounter God’s presence through the ministry of a priest.

Pope Francis led a church deeply afflicted by the pain and tribulations caused by clergy sexual abuse. This scandal left church leadership with a diminished moral presence among the faithful. As a result, Francis pointed to the need for better seminary formation that is rooted in the “four dimensions present in the person of the seminarian: human, intellectual, spiritual and pastoral.”

When Pope Francis addressed the seminary rectors and formators of Latin America in November 10, 2022, he reminded them of the significant…

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New Orleans — July 24, 2025 
This story was first published in The Guardian.

Pedro Arrupe, the late, former worldwide leader of the Jesuit religious order and a candidate for Catholic sainthood, acknowledged in records produced as part of a New Orleans court case that he was warned that one of the group’s aspiring priests had been accused of sexually abusing two minors and acknowledged making sexual advances on a third.

The man was ultimately ordained and there is no indication in records in the court case in Louisiana that Arrupe took steps to prevent him from becoming a priest. The man was later accused of abusing other minors he met through his ministry.

Arrupe’s involvement in the case of Donald Barkley Dickerson* — who died in 2016 at age 80 and two years later was View Cache

The new case in Atlacomulco, Mexico uncovers hurdles victims face. Instead of helping victims, State and Church protect predators.

Catholic Church’s and authority’s secrecy in Mexico hampers justice in diocese founded by Marcial Maciel’s cousin.

The latest arrest of a Catholic priest in Atlacomulco, Mexico, underscores the persistent opacity facing sexual abuse probes.

Late on Monday, Mexico City got news of yet another potential case of a Catholic priest accused of abusing underaged males under his care back in 2023.

The official information is not clear as to his status as priest, as the State Attorney’s office only identifies him by his given name as Mario, and there is no actual reference there to him being a priest in the diocese of Atlacomulco, little over 50 miles or 80 kilometers Northwest of Mexico City.

Identifying Mario as a priest has been a task developed by different local media. Spanish-language TV…

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Rochester, N.Y. — The Diocese of Rochester has reached a significant settlement with survivors of clergy sex abuse, marking a pivotal moment in its ongoing bankruptcy case.

The settlement, totaling $246 million, includes a $120 million agreement with Continental Insurance Company, a holdout insurer.

This settlement is a major development in the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, which began in 2019 following numerous lawsuits filed under the Child Victims Act.

The act allowed survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file claims that had previously been barred by the statute of limitations.

The committee representing the survivors negotiated the settlement, which aims to provide compensation and closure to those affected by the abuse.

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Calling it a momentous day, attorneys representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Rochester announced a new settlement Thursday.

Jeff Anderson & Associates reported a $120 million agreement between the survivors and the Diocese of Rochester. The payout comes from Continental Insurance Company (CNA), the final holdout insurer in the case.

Back in 2022, News 8 reported that more than 450 sexual abuse claims were filed in connection with the case against the Diocese — many of them in response to the Child Victims Act, which extended the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases. 

The Diocese filed for bankruptcy shortly after a 2019 New York law took effect, which allowed victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits regardless of when the abuse occurred.

by: Gio Battaglia

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ROANOKE, Va. (WSET) — Father George Zina, a priest at St. Elias Catholic Church Maronite Center in Roanoke, is named in a lawsuit that accuses him of sexually abusing a young boy in the early 2000s.

The lawsuit, filed in Orange County, Florida, by John Doe, is asking for compensation of $10 million in damages, filed against the Diocese of Orlando, Holy Family Catholic Church Orlando Inc. and St. Jude Maronite Catholic Church.

Jenny Rossman, a Lead Trial Attorney with Herman Law leading the suit, alleges that the abuse began when John Doe was just nine years old, working as an altar server at Holy Family Catholic Church under the priesthood of Zina.

This is a lawsuit that is against the institutions… We’re alleging that they were negligent. They failed to protect our client, John Doe, who was a child, a parishioner at the churches, and an altar server. They failed…

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy shared their stories in federal bankruptcy court today with Bishop Salvatore Matano in the gallery listening.

Just before the testimonials, lawyers announced the final part of the settlement – a last insurance company agreed to pay $120 million, raising the total payout to survivors to $246 million.

Everyone who spoke was an adult but they were children when they were abused and many showed photos of themselves before and after the abuse to reinforce it.

Just about every single person talked about lifelong damage.

Broken marriages.
Estranged children.
Substance abuse.
Isolation.
Arrests.
Suicide attempts.

Some talked about belief in God and forgiveness.

The first survivor to speak was Carol Dupre. She said in court “I remember feeling guilty about it. Guilt was the side effect of being a good little Catholic.”

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “What was it like to give your testimony?”

Carol Dupre, survivor…

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Survivors of sex abuse by Catholic priests are speaking out to make sure they can continue to share their stories in court.

It comes after the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy case continues to unfold.Advertisement

Survivors said the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s insurance companies filed an objection when the creditors committee asked to have more testimony from survivors in another bankruptcy hearing.

However, abuse survivors said it’s important for them to continue to testify to help people know the truth, and to help them heal.

Survivors testified during bankruptcy hearings in federal court last year, but the testimony was not included in the court record. It did give survivors a chance to tell the judge how the abuse impacted them.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a press conference outside the federal courthouse in Baltimore on Wednesday to share why they’re angry…

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Archbishop Giraud called the appointment of a priest convicted of rape as chancellor in another diocese ‘unacceptable.’

A French archbishop has publicly criticized the appointment of a priest convicted of rape as chancellor of the Archdiocese of Toulouse, calling the appointment was “unacceptable and untenable.”

Archbishop Hervé Giraud of the Diocese of Viviers criticized the appointment of Fr. Dominque Spina in the Toulouse archdiocese, which caused uproar among French Catholics earlier this month first in a social media post on July 21 and then again in an interview with the magazine La Vie, published the following day.

The archbishop said he was “appalled by this appointment,” and called his intervention over the decision of a brother bishop an expression of “fraternal correction.”

Toulouse’s Archbishop Guy de Kerimel, who made the appointment, has argued that Spina’s nomination as chancellor, despite a 2006 conviction for raping a 16 year-old, was an expression…

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The long-awaited church trial of Bishop Stewart Ruch, a leader in the Anglican Church in North America, is facing a crisis in the wake of the sudden resignation of a lawyer who represented the denomination in the proceedings. In a resignation letter dated July 19, the lawyer, C. Alan Runyan, wrote that “the trial process had been irreparably tainted.”

“I am sorry for the burden it places on you and on all those who seek a just resolution of these charges,” said Runyan in his letter to Archbishop Steve Wood, who heads the denomination. “Nevertheless, this is not simply something that can be casually overlooked for expediency’s sake.”

Wood notified ACNA members of the “significant and regrettable development” in an email Sunday evening. He also announced that he would begin the process of appointing a new prosecutor.

In a second announcement Monday morning, Wood said…

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In a series of now-deleted TikTok videos, a woman claimed she began an affair with a Detroit megachurch pastor when she was 22 and he was 47

Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, the longtime leader of one of Detroit’s most influential Black churches, acknowledged Monday night that he had “an inappropriate relationship” with a former church member, but he denies many of the explosive allegations she made in a series of now-deleted TikTok videos.

The former member, Melody Walker, said the relationship began in 2002 when she was 22 and Ellis was 47, and continued off and on until about 2018. She described the experience as painful and spiritually damaging, saying Ellis took advantage of her as a young single mother who had just moved to Detroit and had no family or support.

“When you’re 21 or 22 and you finally meet somebody that is a support…

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Bishop Jesús Ruiz Molina of the Catholic Diocese of Mbaïki in the Central African Republic (CAR) has denied accusations of silence and complicity in an anonymous allegation of sexual abuse involving a Diocesan Priest, describing the claims as false and calling for unity, reconciliation, and truth within the local Church.

Following recent changes in his Episcopal See, Bishop Molina removed Fr. Alain le Patrick Mokopame from his position as Vicar General. The latter subsequently accused the Bishop of silence and complicity in the abuse of an alleged minor.

In a statement issued on July 18, 2025, following what he describes as “rumors, inaccurate information, distorted interpretations, and accusations” against him, Bishop Molina offers clarifications surrounding the case and the recent removal of Fr. Mokopame from his position as Vicar General.

“Fr. Alain le Patrick MOKOPAME accuses me of removing him from his position due to my alleged silence and complicity in an anonymous…

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The remains of Bishop Eamonn Casey have been removed from the cathedral crypt and returned to his family

The Diocese of Galway has removed a former bishop’s remains from the diocesan cathedral over allegations of sexual abuse.

In a statement released July 19, the Diocese of Galway announced that the remains of Bishop Eamonn Casey had been recently removed from the crypt of the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas and returned to his family for private burial.

Casey led the diocese from 1976 until 1992, when he stepped down after it was revealed he had fathered a child with a distant cousin. He died in 2017. Prior to his death he was accused of sexual abuse of minors, including by his own neice.

Prior to the removal, a priest led prayers for the dead over Casey’s remains. This decision had the cooperation and support of…

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The remains of former Bishop Eamonn Casey of Galway, who resigned from office in 1992 after it was revealed he had fathered a child in 1974, have been removed from their burial place in Galway Cathedral in the wake of a number of allegations of child abuse that came to light in 2024.

He is the first Irish bishop to undergo such public censure. The move follows a yearlong consultation in the diocese in the west of Ireland.

Bishop Casey died on March 13, 2017, at age 89. He served as bishop of Galway 1976-1992 and as bishop of Kerry 1969-1976.

He was buried in the crypt of the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas in Galway in 2017 after a funeral Mass concelebrated by 11 bishops and 61 priests.

On July 19, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora, Father Diarmuid Hogan,…

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An Alabama Christian school teacher has been arrested for alleged sex misconduct with a female student, according to a statement from the Tuscaloosa County sheriff’s office.

Sarah Huggins Logan, 35, was arrested on Friday and charged with one count of a school employee engaging in a sex act, according to the statement. More charges are likely to come, it added.

North River Christian Academy, located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, confirmed that “a former employee” had been arrested by local law enforcement, according to its statement posted Friday on Facebook.

The school called the incident “heart-rending for all involved.”

Logan worked as a second-grade teacher at the Christian school, according to an archived staff webpage. The school teaches students in grades pre-K through 12th.

Logan, who was arrested just days after police learned of her alleged crime, no longer works at the…

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This is the second and final part of an investigation into how missionary workers sexually abused schoolchildren at Hillcrest School in Jos, Plateau State. The first is available here.

“We have amongst us the wounded.”

Finding closure for the gruelling decades of trauma for the survivors has been tough. It is not available on a silver platter. Thanks to a molester’s public confessions, the survivors started a movement to demand accountability, starting with a messaging for an independent investigation to dig into the old records of Hillcrest School in Jos, Plateau State, and that of its partner missionary agencies about previous sexual abuse complaints at the school.

James McDowell’s 2021 confession was not important enough to inspire some people to demand accountability and justice for the victims. Rather, comments like “stop ruining our memories”, “God forgives all things” and “let he who is without sin cast the…

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“We couldn’t do the journalism that we’re doing without ProJourn,” said InvestigateWest’s Wilson Criscione.

Update: On July 18, 2025, a federal judge in Washington issued an order blocking the state from enforcing a new law that would have required clergy members to report evidence of child abuse learned during confession.

In 2022, an investigation by the nonprofit newsroom InvestigateWest exposed how Jehovah’s Witnesses had covered up decades of sexual abuse in Washington state. 

The state’s laws pertaining to reporting child abuse, among the weakest in the country when it comes to clergy, had made it easier for the allegations to remain hidden. Following publication, the story prompted action from state lawmakers.

The news outlet’s investigation received free legal support from ProJourn, a program operated by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, in partnership with Microsoft, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,…

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DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – A former church youth leader from Decatur is accused of sexually abusing underage girls, and prosecutors say it’s been going on for over a decade. 

[Warning: Details contained in this story may be disturbing for readers]

Jonathan D. Lyon, 31, is accused of sexually abusing girls as young 12. 

He appeared in Macon County Circuit Court July 18 on three counts of criminal sexual abuse. 

The Decatur Police Department arrested Lyon on July 16 following an investigation that also included the Clinton Police Department. 

In 2023, an information report showed Facebook messages between Lyon and a friend at the time where Lyon admitting to sexually abusing underage girls. This came after an alleged victim contacted Lyon’s friend to warn him about his behavior.

The messages reportedly said:

• “Did you know your friend likes little girls?”
• “I bet you didn’t. He’s so good at acting normal and…

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The long-awaited church trial of Bishop Stewart Ruch, a leader in the Anglican Church in North America, is facing a crisis in the wake of the sudden resignation of a lawyer who represented the denomination in the proceedings. In a resignation letter dated July 19, the lawyer, C. Alan Runyan, wrote that “the trial process had been irreparably tainted.”

“I am sorry for the burden it places on you and on all those who seek a just resolution of these charges,” said Runyan in his letter to Archbishop Steve Wood, who heads the denomination. “Nevertheless, this is not simply something that can be casually overlooked for expediency’s sake.”

Wood notified ACNA members of the “significant and regrettable development” in an email Sunday evening. He also announced that he would begin the process of appointing a new prosecutor.

In a second announcement Monday morning, Wood said…

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The Archdiocese of Cologne has dismissed as “obviously baseless” a canonical complaint filed against Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki by German abuse survivors to Pope Leo XIV, calling the allegations unfounded and built on “false assumptions.”

The archdiocese’s response came after the “Betroffenenbeirat” (Affected Advisory Board) of the German Bishops’ Conference submitted a formal Church law complaint to Pope Leo XIV on Friday.

The complaint claimed the cardinal violated his pastoral duties regarding sexual abuse cases, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

“The accusations are obviously baseless and build — certainly unintentionally due to lack of better knowledge — on a series of false assumptions and claims,” the archdiocese stated in a response obtained by CNA Deutsch.

‘Retraumatizing’ for abuse survivors

The survivors’ advisory board said Woelki misled abuse victims about proper procedures and handled cases negligently. However, the archdiocese countered that recent investigations “were not conducted…

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A former Catholic priest, who is currently behind bars for historic child sex abuse, has pleaded guilty to further offences.

Dennis Finbow, who served the parishes of St Neots and Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, had pleaded guilty to 15 counts of indecent assault.

The abuse was against five victims – three females and two males – the majority of whom were under the age of 16 when they were abused by Finbow.

The offences took place between 1975 and 1992.

Finbow is currently serving a six-and-a-half year prison sentence for sexually abusing a young girl in the 1980s, while he was working in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough.

Between 1982 and 1985, Finbow would visit the family home of a young girl in Peterborough and go up to her bedroom, claiming that the girl’s mother sent him upstairs.

He would speak to her about becoming a woman, ask her to take her clothes off, and…

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A federal court blocked the law, which would have required clergy to report child abuse when shared in the confessional.

On July 18, a federal court blocked a law passed in Washington state that would have required clergy to report child abuse when shared in the confessional. Washington bishops had filed a lawsuit earlier this summer in Etienne v. Ferguson, claiming the law was “anti-Catholic” and violated religious liberty.

“For centuries, Catholic faithful around the world have sought reconciliation with God through the sacrament of confession,” says Jean Hill, executive director of the Washington State Catholic Conference, in a press release. “This ruling protects that sacred space and ensures that Washingtonians of all religious stripes can live out their beliefs in peace.”

The law was set to take effect on July 27. A coalition of Catholics, ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other faith groups in Washington state helped pass the bill.

The momentum behind the…

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Is a new Washington state law, which requires priests to report suspected child abuse or neglect, including information from confessions, an assault on the Catholic Church and thousands of years of religious doctrine and practice? That’s what the U.S. Justice Department says, asserting that it won’t sit “idly by when states mount attacks on the free exercise of religion.”

The law, which was set to go into effect at the end of July, states that members of the clergy must report suspected child abuse or neglect “at the first opportunity.” In mid-July, however, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to stop Washington from enforcing the portion of the law that critics says forces priests to break the confessional seal.

The Justice Department intervened in the case, brought by the Catholic bishops of Washington.

In a press release, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon stated that “laws that explicitly target…

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• Eight lawsuits allege sexual abuse of children by priests in New Mexico and Texas from the 1960s to 1990s.
• The lawsuits name the Dioceses of Las Cruces and El Paso, along with several New Mexico churches, as defendants.
• The El Paso Diocese says it is aware of the lawsuits and cannot comment on pending litigation, but emphasizes its commitment to Safe Environment protocols.

Victims of alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests from the 1960s to 1990s filed lawsuits against the Diocese of El Paso and the Diocese of Las Cruces.

Eight separate lawsuits were filed July 14 in New Mexico’s Third Judicial District alleging sexual abuse of children between the ages of 3 and 15 years old, lawyers at the Davis Kelin Law Firm said.

None of the priests named in the lawsuit are alive. One of the incidents occurred nearly 62 years ago.

“We are shocked by the number of victims and the ages…

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Editor’s Note: Reader’s discretion is advised as this article contains explicit sexual assault descriptions.

Now 58, Daniel Robinson attended Hillcrest Schools in 1980 and again between 1982 and 1984. In 1980, he was in the 8th grade. He schooled there because his dad was a missionary with Serving In Mission USA, a funding mission for the multi-mission-run school founded in Jos, Plateau State, in 1942.

MALE PRINCIPAL ABUSING A BOY

In the second quarter of 1980, Daniel was involved in an altercation during an Industrial Art class handled by Parlane, a teacher. Parlane referred the issue to James McDowell, the school principal at the time. Over the incident, he was directed to report to McDowell in his office for several days. During those days, the male principal sexually abused him.

“He then stood behind me as I sat in a chair and proceeded to grill me at length…

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While Trump’s MAGA crowd splits about the call for making public the Epstein Files, which are about dead and once convicted child abuser Jeffrey Epstein, a close friend of Donald Trump from 1989 to 2004, Washington State, where I was born and raised, just became the seventh state to pass legislation requiring the clergy to report to police any knowledge they have about child sex abuse within 48 hours. (The other states that already had such a law are New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, and West Virginia.)

Catholic Church Should Abolish Confessional

This raises the issue about the Roman Catholic Church’s practice of having a confessional. Its clergy members hear confessions from parishioners, and the Church requires that all confessional content be kept secret no matter what is. The Church has always argued that if the clergy is required to report to police confessed crimes, parishioners would…

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Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” meets readers at the intersection of faith and news. Click to join nearly 10,000 subscribers who get this column delivered straight to their inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr.

(ANALYSIS) Pastor, theologian and author John MacArthur made a major impact on Matthew Dowling’s life and ministry.

“Dr. MacArthur was the first preacher I heard who demonstrated expository preaching and carefully unfolding Scripture verse by verse and allowing the text to speak for itself,” said Dowling, a minister in Plymouth, Michigan. “This approach impacted not only how I preach but how I read and trust God’s Word.”

MacArthur’s books shaped Dowling, too.

“‘The Gospel According to Jesus’ challenged me to think biblically about the nature of discipleship and salvation,” Dowling said. “Because I used to be an evolutionist and a scientist before my ministry career, his book View Cache

Law firm Slater and Gordon is urging witnesses to alleged historical child sexual abuse at St Michael’s Regional High School in Wagga Wagga to come forward with any information that may assist survivors of the alleged abuse.

Slater and Gordon Associate in Abuse Law, Deema Dermelkonian, said the firm had commenced proceedings on behalf of one 52-year-old male client and one 40-year-old male client regarding their alleged sexual abuse perpetrated by a former male teacher at St Michael’s.

“We currently hold instructions from two separate clients who allege they suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a male teacher, with the 52-year-old’s alleged abuse occurring in 1984 and the 40-year-old’s alleged abuse occurring in 1999,” she said.

“These clients were in just Year 7 when the alleged abuse began, and it has had a devastating impact on their lives,” Ms Dermelkonian said.

St Michael’s Regional High School was a Catholic…

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ROME – Three months after the formal suppression of all branches of a Peru-based lay group, victims are both celebrating some significant victories, while also lamenting the slow pace of ecclesial justice, and the lack of institutional communication about the case.

The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a Peru-based lay group founded by layman Luis Fernando Figari and consisting of a branch of consecrated men, two branches of consecrated women, and an ecclesial movement, was suppressed by Pope Francis earlier this year, shortly before his death.

Francis made the rare decision to suppress the entire spiritual family after launching an in-depth investigation in July 2023, led by his top investigators, Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, both officials of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Among the swath of abuses uncovered in each of the branches were the physical, psychological, spiritual and even sexual abuse of members,…

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The Friday Pillar Post

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

Happy Friday, friends,

And a very happy feast of St. Camillus de Lellis to you. Camillus was the founder of the Camillian order in service to the sick.

Born in the Kingdom of Naples in 1550, the future saint appears to have been raised mostly by his father, who was himself a professional soldier serving, as best I can tell, if not the highest bidder then at least more than one master.

Camillus followed him into the family business and developed a penchant for what is often described as “riotous living,” and who doesn’t fancy a bit of that now and again?

But by the time his regiment disbanded, Camillus was carrying a chronic leg wound and a serious gambling problem. In the end, he sought casual work as a laborer…

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(OSV News) — A Byzantine Catholic bishop has prohibited Catholic social media influencer and apologist Alex Jurado from eparchy events pending an investigation, after allegations emerged online accusing Jurado of inappropriate conduct toward a minor teenage girl several years ago. Jurado has publicly denied the allegation and affirmed he is cooperating with an investigation.

Bishop Artur Bubnevych of the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix issued a July 16 statement to that eparchy’s clergy — a copy of which OSV News has obtained — advising that Jurado, “a regular attendee at one of our parishes” known for his “Voice of Reason” social media channel, was prohibited from “activity or involvement … occurring in any facilities of, or events being sponsored by the Eparchy of Phoenix until further notice.”

“We will cooperate fully with any authorized investigations which may occur in this matter,” wrote the bishop. “We wish…

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Shadow of Hope examines the People of Hope, a fringe religious group that thrived in North Jersey from the late 1970s to the early ’90s.

It’s Sunday, October 27, 1985, in Berkeley Heights. The usual suburban sounds of birds chirping and neighbors chatting are drowned out by a chorus of some 200 protestors at Little Flower Church. The demonstrators’ grievance: Their township and parish are being infiltrated by what they view as a cult.

The organization in question, People of Hope, thrived in North Jersey from the late 1970s to the early ’90s. What started as a charismatic prayer group became the subject of abuse allegations and national news headlines.

Karen Ann Coburn was a Cranford teenager whose mother was briefly involved with the organization in its early days. In her recent podcast, Shadow of Hope, the writer attempts to bring this cryptic piece of Jersey history to light. “I had been…

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Investigators are still seeking the masterminds behind the fraud.

Two men from Bulgaria were given jail sentences this week for helping to launder 61 million euros (around $67 million) from a Catholic charitable organization in Luxembourg to bank accounts in Spain.

On July 15, a court in Luxembourg gave both men sentences of 18 months in prison, with 15 months suspended. The court also ordered them to pay 3,000 euro fines (roughly $3,500), after they reached a deal with public prosecutors and cooperated in the investigation.

The two men agreed to a plea bargain over their participation in a months-long money-laundering scheme targeting Caritas Luxembourg, which plunged the organization into crisis and led to its restructuring.

Caritas Luxembourg may have lost the 61 million euros due to “fake president fraud,” in which a fraudster impersonates a senior figure in a corporation and demands an urgent payment from an employee to an account…

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Washington moved to close a dangerous loophole. Now there’s a constitutional showdown pitting religious freedoms against the duty to protect children

On Friday morning, May 2, 2025, supporters of Washington Senate Bill 5375 were ushered through the massive concrete arches, and up the grand staircases of the Washington State Capitol — the veins of Alaskan Tokeen marble guiding them past oil portraits and century-old busts — to the governor’s conference room on the second floor. 

Inside, amid the dark wood paneling and gleaming seal of the state, Washington’s new Governor and former Attorney General Bob Ferguson addressed the small crowd of advocates, lawmakers, and child abuse survivors who had gathered behind him. 

“I’m a Catholic as some of you know. I’m aware of my upbringing,” he said, before adding plainly: “For me this is very clear legislation and important legislation.”

Ferguson uncapped a blue felt-tip Paper Mate and, with the stroke…

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The Department of Justice had lent its support to Catholic leaders who said the new law would force them to choose between prison and excommunication

[See also the text of Judge David G. Estudillo’s order.]

A federal judge has ruled that Catholic priests in Washington state cannot be required to report child abuse or neglect they learn about through confession after the Trump administration intervened in their favor.

Three Roman Catholic bishops had sued the state government over a new law — SB 5375 — that would extend mandatory abuse reporting rules to the sacrament of confession despite the Church’s absolute ban on revealing such secrets.

Last month the U.S. Department of Justice backed them up, arguing the law “deprives Catholic priests of their fundamental right to freely exercise their religious beliefs, as guaranteed under the First Amendment”.

On Friday U.S. district judge David G….

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Excavation begins at the Bon Secours institution where Catherine Corless exposed the burials of nearly 800 children in a septic tank

The rain fell with a mournful intent last Monday morning, soaking the semi-detached houses in the Dublin Road estate, as the first diggers rolled into position behind sealed gates. In this quiet corner of Tuam, Co Galway, once famous as a sacred monastic town and now the reluctant custodian of one of Ireland’s darkest secrets, the excavation of a mass grave had begun.

The name of the settlement, Tuaim in Irish, means “burial place”. This apparently refers to a Bronze Age burial site, but this is not the burial site for which this town is now known. Instead, it has become synonymous with a more recent, more haunting burial: a disused septic tank on the grounds of a former mother and baby home, holding the remains of nearly 800 children…

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Excavation of almost 800 bodies from the former mother and baby home has proven divisive, but the infants deserve Christian burials

British MPs passed a law last month to decriminalise women in England and Wales who terminate their pregnancies after 24 weeks, potentially up to full term.

The landslide vote in the House of Commons was prompted by cases such as that of Nicola Packer, who was prosecuted for taking medication to induce an abortion at 26 weeks.

Packer, now 45, claimed she thought she was only six weeks pregnant when she took the medication in 2020, after which her stillborn baby was delivered. She was acquitted in May.

I’m using the word “baby” rather than “foetus”, uncomfortable as some may find that language, because nobody in the UK ever dreamt of referring to the 23-week gestation baby that nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of attempting to murder as a foetus.

Letby…

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Federal Court temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the law that required clergy report child abuse by breaking the seal of confession.

A federal judge has halted a Washington state law that required Catholic priests to break the seal of confession.

The law that was passed in May, and was slated to go into effect on July 27, mandated that clergy must report child abuse or neglect when it was disclosed to them during confession.

“There is no question that SB 5375 burdens Plaintiffs’ free exercise of religion,” wrote Judge David G. Estudillo.

When clergy learn about child abuse or neglect in confession, the law “places them in the position of either complying with the requirements of their faith or violating the law,” the ruling said. The court also ruled that the state was “unable to explain why the language in [section 1-B] of the bill doubled down on singling…

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[See also the text of Judge David G. Estudillo’s order.]

The Trump administration secured a victory for the confidentiality of the confessional booth as a federal judge temporarily blocked a recently-enacted anti-child abuse statute in Washington state.

In a 25-page order, U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo, a Joe Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction that keeps mandatory reporting legislation passed this year from going into effect. Absent the court’s order, SB 5375 would have become operative on July 27.

The law requires “any member of the clergy” who “has reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect” to “report such incident, or cause a report to be made, to the proper law enforcement agency.” This directive updates a pre-existing law that applies to a large swathe of job titles like social workers, school personnel, nurses, law enforcement officers, psychologists,…

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 The Catholic Diocese of El Paso provided a statement to KTSM following eight new lawsuits filed within the Third Judicial District in the State of New Mexico against them, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, and other parishes within the region.

The statement reads as follows:

“At current the diocese has been made aware of the aforementioned lawsuits and cannot comment on any pending litigation. The Diocese of El Paso works very diligently to cooperate with all parties involved when cases like this are brought forward. The diocese takes all matters of abuse as grave and serious situations and will work to ensure that justice is served.

“The diocese has worked to implement and train clergy, employees, and volunteers on best practices of Safe Environment. All who work in any ministry as a member of the clergy, employee, or volunteer within the diocese must have undergone and passed a…

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[See also the lawsuits:

• Jane Doe 208 v El Paso Diocese
• Jane Doe 214 v El Paso Diocese
• John Doe 207 v Las Cruces Diocese
• John Doe 209 v El Paso and Las Cruces Dioceses
• John Doe 210 v El Paso Diocese
• John Doe 211 v El Paso Diocese
• John Doe 212 v El Paso Diocese
• John Doe 213 v Las Cruces Diocese]

Davis Kelin Law Firm, LLC and Huffman Wallace & Monagle, have filed eight lawsuits in the Third Judicial District in New Mexico against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces and the Catholic Diocese of El Paso.

They also filed against: Our Lady of Health in Las Cruces, Our Lady of Purification in Dona Ana, Immaculate Conception in Alamogordo, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mesilla Park, St. Anthony in Anthony, and St. Eleanor in Ruidoso “for sexual abuse committed by priests against young children while…

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This story contains allegations of sexual abuse including sexual abuse against children. The Sexual Assault Center provides free counseling, advocate services and forensic exams at their SAFE Clinic for anyone age 16 and older. Our Kids provides services to children from ages 1 – 16. To reach the 24/7 crisis line, please call the Sexual Assault Center at 1-800-879-1999 or contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.

A former Franklin priest accused of sexual misconduct against minors has pleaded guilty to eight charges in Williamson County Court and has been sentenced to seven years in state prison.

Juan Carlos Garcia-Mendoza, 32, was in court July 14 and admitted to four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, two counts of sexual battery, one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child and one count of aggravated sexual battery.

Garcia-Mendoza, first ordained in 2020 at St. Rose of Lima in Murfreesboro and assigned to St….

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A federal judge on Friday blocked a Washington state law requiring Catholic priests to report suspected child abuse or neglect, including any information they learn from sacramental confession, raising concerns about religious liberty.

The law, Senate Bill 5375, was slated to go into effect on July 27, but was blocked Friday after Judge David Estudillo of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted a preliminary injunction.

The preliminary injunction blocks the state from enforcing the law against all Catholic priests who fall “directly under the administration of” the three archbishops listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The three archbishops include Paul Etienne of Seattle, Thomas Daly of Spokane, and Joseph Tyson of Yakima, effectively covering all Catholic priests in the state.

“For centuries, Catholic faithful around the world have sought reconciliation with God through the sacrament of…

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A federal judge has blocked a new mandate for members of clergy to report suspected child abuse or neglect from taking effect next week.

The law, adopted during the 2025 legislative session, has sparked a federal lawsuit, an investigation by the Department of Justice over claims of anti-Catholic bias and vows by Catholic leadership in Seattle and Spokane that their congregations would not fully abide by the requirement.

The law was set to take effect on July 27.

“For centuries, Catholic faithful around the world have sought reconciliation with God through the sacrament of confession,” Jean Hill, executive director of the Washington State Catholic Conference, said in a statement Friday. “This ruling protects that sacred space and ensures that Washingtonians of all religious stripes can live out their beliefs in peace.”

A representative for Gov. Bob Ferguson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday morning.

The ruling…

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WASHINGTON — A federal judge blocked Washington state Friday from enforcing a law that would require Catholic priests to report child abuse — even when disclosed in a confessional — or face nearly a year of jail time.

US District Chief Judge David G. Estudillo in Tacoma stayed the law that threatened clergy with a $5,000 fine and up to 364 days in prison for not disclosing child abuse and neglect heard during confessions.

The legislation, SB 5375, was signed by Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson in May and would have taken effect July 27.

A federal judge blocked Washington state on Friday from enforcing a law that would require Catholic priests to report child abuse — even when disclosed in a confessional — or face nearly a year of jail time.Emanuele Capoferri – stock.adobe.com

In a 25-page order, Estudillo — appointed to the federal bench by President Joe…

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Three Catholic bishops sued, arguing the mandate infringes on religious freedoms. A federal judge agreed, granting an injunction on Friday.

Catholic priests in Washington cannot be required to report child abuse or neglect they learn of in confession, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge David G. Estudillo granted a preliminary injunction sought by three Catholic bishops, temporarily blocking enforcement of a controversial element in a new state law set to take effect July 27. 

Estudillo ruled that requiring disclosure of information priests hear in the confessional infringes on their First Amendment right to practice religion and will force them to violate their sacred vows or face punishment by the state.

The decision means clergy will be added to the state’s roster of professions that must report to law enforcement when they have “reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect.”

But…

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Their recent report, circulated among Church leaders and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, outlines a pattern in which accused priests are frequently suspended, named publicly, or otherwise penalized before an investigation concludes—sometimes even without sufficient preliminary evidence

A growing chorus of Catholic priests across the United States is raising concerns over what they see as a widening gap between Church law and its implementation, particularly regarding the treatment of clergy accused of misconduct. The tension centers on whether canon law is being applied consistently and fairly—or selectively bypassed in the name of institutional transparency.

At the heart of the matter is the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP), a national group of clergy formed in 2011. This year, the AUSCP has taken the unusual step of appealing directly to the Vatican, urging the Holy See to reinforce adherence to due process and canonical protections for priests. Their request was…

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Babies were buried, without coffins, one on top of the other in the 9ft-deep chamber of a septic tank in Tuam, Galway

The bodies of hundreds of infants who died in an Irish mother and baby home are to be recovered from a septic tank where they have lain hidden in an unmarked grave for decades.

As excavation work starts at the mass grave, which is thought to contain the bodies of 796 babies, it is hoped it will be possible to identify some of the remains before they are given a proper burial,

The painstaking process, expected to last two years, comes more than 10 years after historian Catherine Corless first uncovered the shocking secrets of St Mary’s mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway.

In 2014, she found there were no burial records for hundreds of infants and…

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A team of 18 archaeologists, anthropologists, and forensic scientists have begun excavating an old septic tank this week at the former St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home run by the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam, County Galway, western Ireland, now the site of a housing development.

Over the next two years, according to The Irish Times, an excavating machine will go through the site in search of remains for 796 children allegedly buried, in the words of the Bon Secours Sisters “in a disrespectful and unacceptable way” between 1925 and 1960.

The Bon Secours Sisters have released a statement apologizing for the treatment of the deceased babies, and their mothers during that time.

The goal of the excavation is to find, analyze, identify, and provide a decent burial for the children’s remains — many of them newborns.

To identify them, DNA samples have been collected from more than 80 relatives who were…

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Afull excavation began July 14 at a site near a former mother-and-baby home in the west of Ireland, believed to be the final resting place of up to 800 infants.

The infants died in the home — run on behalf of the Irish government by the Sisters of Bon Secours — during a period from 1925 to 1961. St. Mary’s in Tuam, Irish County Galway, had been established along with a network of other such institutions at the request of the new government after independence in 1922 as a refuge for unmarried pregnant women and their children.

The issue is a controversial and emotive one, with some claiming the high death rate at the home is an indication that the children were neglected by the sisters while others argue that the infant mortality rate was also high in the wider Irish society at the time due to poverty and prior to the…

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Tacoma WA – Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the type of legal ruling that was issued against Washington’s mandatory reporter law.

County prosecutors in Washington state have agreed not to enforce a state law requiring clergy to report child abuse or neglect, if they learned about it in confession. That’s according to a stipulation document filed in the case. 

Catholic leaders claim the law violates their First Amendment right to free exercise of religion by requiring that they break the seal of confession, which is grounds for immediate excommunication in the Catholic Church.

There is still an ongoing request for a judge to file an injunction before the law’s effective date, on July 27. If a judge does grant that, it would stop the law from taking effect at the state level. 

Previously, anything a clergy member learned through confession was considered…

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The El Paso and Las Cruces catholic dioceses are facing lawsuits over the alleged sexual abuse of children.

On Thursday, two law firms said they filed eight new lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, the Catholic Diocese of El Paso and several borderland churches regarding priests that allegedly committed sexual abuse against kids, ages ranging from 3 to 15.

The lawsuit alleges child sexual abuse by the following priests:

• Monsignor Albert Chavez
• Father David Holley
• Father Emilio Roure
• Father Wilfrid Diamond
• Monsignor Gonzalo Morales
• Father Bernard Bissonnette
• Father Joaquin Resma

The churches listed in the lawsuit are:

• Our Lady of Health in Las Cruces
• Our Lady of Purification in Dona Ana County
• Immaculate Conception in Alamogordo
• Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mesilla Park
• St. Anthony in Anthony, New Mexico
• St. Eleanor in Ruidoso

The lawsuit is spearheaded by Davis Kelin Law Firm, LLC and Huffman Wallace & Monagle, LLC (HWM).

“We are shocked by the number…

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This week, New Mexico attorneys filed eight lawsuits against Catholic leadership in Las Cruces and El Paso, alleging priests in Southern New Mexico parishes committed sexual abuse against young children ranging in ages from 3 to 15 between 1956 to 1990.

The law firms of Davis Kelin Law Firm and Huffman Wallace & Monagle filed the civil lawsuits in the Third Judicial District courts against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces and the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, seeking damages for the “intentional, malicious, wilful, deliberate, wanton and/or reckless disregard for the harmful consequences.”

New Mexico has been described as an “epicenter of Catholic sexual abuse in the United States,” recording dozens of instances of abuse of children, and also hosted Servants of the Paraclete Center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, which was said to offer for treatment for priests who sexually abused dozens of…

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A Roanoke priest has been accused in a Florida lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy in the early 2000s. Father George Zina is currently a priest at St. Elias Catholic Church Maronite Center in Roanoke.

This lawsuit was filed in Orange County, Florida, earlier this month by a John Doe against the Diocese of Orlando and two Orange County churches, Holy Family Catholic Church and Saint Jude Maronite Catholic Church.

The lawsuit is seeking $10 million in damages. Zina is not a defendant in the lawsuit. It accuses the Diocese and churches of negligence for failing to prevent the alleged sexual abuse.

“We believe that the Diocese and these churches were negligent. Meaning that they knew or should’ve known that Zina was unsafe and they failed to protect our client, who was a parishioner and a child,” said Jenny Rossman, trial attorney for Herman Law, which is representing the plaintiff…

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A French priest, idolized for serving the poor, also victimized children. Pope Leo should take note.

Just below my window in Paris, a tidy shop does a lively business selling stylish secondhand goods — clothing and books, toys and trinkets — with proceeds going to help France’s destitute and homeless.

The outlet, and scores like it, is part of a philanthropic enterprise founded by a priest known as Abbé Pierre, regarded for decades as an almost sacred figure in France, a paragon on par with Mother Teresa.

The paragon has become a posthumous pariah and a symbol of what should be Pope Leo XIV’s most critical priority: addressing the depthless disgrace of priestly sexual abuse, the scandal from which the Catholic church has failed to extricate itself a quarter century after it erupted.

Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, was a singular figure in France who prompted a moral awakening to…

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Msgr. Carlo Alberto Capella, a former Vatican diplomat who was convicted of distributing and possessing child pornography, continues to work at the Vatican Secretariat of State as one of several clerks, a report says.

OSV News reached out to the Vatican press office July 14 for a comment on the Italian monsignor’s continued employment and also sought comment from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. OSV News is awaiting a response, as neither has issued a statement.

The news of the continued employment of Msgr. Capella, who was sentenced to a five-year prison term in 2018, was first reported by the Spanish conservative news site InfoVaticana on July 12.

Abuse Victims’ Advocate: ‘Decision Irresponsible and Arrogant’

“The Ssecretariat’s decision to re-employ a priest convicted of distributing and possessing child sex abuse images was irresponsible and arrogant,” Anne Barret Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog group that tracks abuse…

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Anational group of U.S. Catholic priests has urged the Vatican to safeguard the due process rights of accused clergy. The group faulted bishops for allegedly violating canon law in disciplining some priests cited for misconduct.

The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests, formed outside of Chicago in 2011, asked Pope Leo XIV earlier this month to encourage churchwide obedience to canon law, which holds that accused persons are assumed innocent until facts demonstrate otherwise and that religious superiors “must start a judicial or administrative procedure” to discipline priests.

Since his installation as the first Augustinian pontiff in May, Leo, a canon lawyer by training, has repeatedly urged a “firm and decisive” response from church leaders in clergy sex abuse cases while facing questions about his own handling of abuse allegations in Chicago and Peru. 

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[See also the Etienne v. Ferguson lawsuit.]

The Catholic bishops of Washington state and several priests were in federal court Monday (July 14) asking the court for a preliminary injunction to temporarily block a clergy mandatory-reporting law that will go into effect on July 27. 

The injunction would allow the court case Etienne v. Ferguson go to full trial, while keeping confessional privileges at status quo if a decision to their case is not made before July 27.

The Catholic Church — across the Archdiocese of Seattle and the Dioceses of Yakima and Spokane — said in a press release they already require priests to report child abuse and neglect to law enforcement and other state authorities. The only exception would be if the information is learned during the sacrament of confession. 

Consequences of the new law

Washington’s new law imposes penalties of…

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In short:

A law firm is planning to launch a class action in the Supreme Court of Tasmania against the Christian Brothers, over alleged “serious physical abuse” of students at Hobart’s St Virgil’s College in the 1970s and 80s.

During a civil trial in the Supreme Court in Hobart in March, former students gave evidence about alleged harsh corporal punishment.

What’s next?

Lawyer Angela Sdrinis says she hopes to launch the action by early next year.

When Simon* was a student at a Catholic boys’ school in Hobart in the 1970s, he says the school was run in an “archaic, cruel” manner.

He said one of the teachers had a name for the strap that he would use to hit students.

“He used to call it Horace, and he used to have a little rhyme he used to recite as he strapped you,” Simon said.

“It used to be: ‘Horace…

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Father Herman Porter, who died in 1986, joins the list of the Diocese of Rockford Priests against whom a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor has been reported.

Details of the abuse have not been released. In February, diocese officials updated their list of priests who have credible sexual abuse of a minor allegations against them, adding Porter’s name.

The list has been posted and made available on the diocesan website since 2018.

The Diocese of Rockford, on Feb. 17, 2025, updated its list of priests against whom a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor has been reported. The update was made to include the name of the late Father Herman Porter.

Father Porter was ordained in 1947 and served the Rockford Diocese as pastor of St. Therese of Jesus Church of Aurora, 1970-1979; administrator of St. Ann Church in Warren, 1967-1968; associate…

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President Donald Trump is desperately trying to divert attention away from his decision to cover up the Epstein files. Good luck. Whatever his role in the Epstein child sex trafficking universe, the cover-up is a separate issue, as the Catholic bishops could tell him. The fundamental problem is this country doesn’t like institutions—whether government, church, university, school, or sport—that cover up child sex abuse.

We have been here before. There have been impassioned demands for the release of Catholic clergy sex abuse files across the country since the 2002 Boston Globe’s Spotlight report on clergy sex abuse in the Boston Archdiocese. The series was followed by some searing disclosures and file releases, but to this day the bishops have continued to fight in the courts and public square to keep as many of their secrets as possible in locked filing cabinets. Over twenty years have passed, but the demands for…

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As many of our readers know, I officiate a lot of funerals. In addition to nearly 17 years as pastor with responsibilities for such things, I officiate pick-up funerals for families who do not have a church or a minister. Thus, I have been to and led hundreds of funerals.

It is rare for anyone to stand up at a funeral and speak ill of the dead — unless maybe in jest. But sometimes truth must be told that is hard to hear. I’ve been to those funerals, too. Ones where family members stood and said, “He was difficult and distant” or “He worked more than he spent time with family.” Painful truths, to be sure.

But sometimes, when a public figure dies who has harmed many people, the truth needs to be told anyway.

You may recall that when Paul Pressler died, his family hid his death and his funeral…

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Fr. Juan Carlos Garcia, a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Nashville, pleaded guilty Monday to multiple sex crimes. The charges involved both children and adults. In response, SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, observed that cases like this show that the sexual abuse scandal in the Church is not just a thing of the past.

We commend the young victim who reported to Catholic officials in 2023 that Fr. Garcia had engaged in “improper touching.” It is because of their courage that this cleric has been convicted and appears to be on track to be removed completely from ministry.

Fr. Garcia was only ordained in 2020. While we recognize that there is not yet a surefire way to identify sexual predators, we call on the Diocese of Nashville to be fully transparent about whether any red flags were reported prior to 2023 – especially…

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A Lima priest accused of sexual misconduct requested laicization last week, after The Pillar reported charges that the Lima archdiocese mishandled the allegations against him, in a process that some alleged amounted to a cover-up for a priest close to Lima’s Cardinal Carlos Castillo.

And while Castillo, 75, has faced significant criticism over his leadership of the archdiocese in recent weeks, the cardinal pushed back last week, telling Catholics that he enjoys the confidence of Pope Leo XIV, and expects to remain in office for five more years.

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The Pillar broke the news last month that the Archdiocese of Lima was accused of mishandling an investigation into Fr. Nilton Zárate Rengifo, who was accused of harassing a religious sister, solicitation in the confessional, and attempted absolution of an accomplice in a sexual sin, but had not been subject to a formal canonical process.

After the allegations against Zárate broke, the priest…

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The Benedictine community at Keizersberg Abbey in Leuven, Belgium, has been temporarily dissolved following allegations of abusive behavior among adults, according to an official declaration released by the head of the Sublacense-Cassinese Benedictine Congregation.

Abbot President Ignasi M. Fossas, OSB, announced sweeping disciplinary measures affecting multiple monasteries in the Flemish-Dutch province, including the suspension of community life at Keizersberg Abbey and the temporary prohibition of public ministry for several monks. 

“The archdiocese is not publishing any statement on Keizersberg,” the press office said in response to a request from CNA, referring to the abbey’s comprehensive statement.

In his declaration, Fossas announced an extraordinary canonical visitation of all monasteries in the Flemish-Dutch province, including Dendermonde, Affligem, Steenbrugge, and Doetinchem/Slangenburg. The comprehensive review aims to verify the situation of each community and ensure effective governance structures.

“The work of the visitation may continue for several months,” Fossas stated in the official document…

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Alex Jurado, a popular Catholic apologist known for his social media ministry Voice of Reason, is denying allegations in a bombshell report that he sexually groomed an underage teenage girl when he was 21 years old.

The Protestant website Protestia on Monday published a report alleging that “whistleblowers within the Catholic community” had revealed sexually explicit texts Jurado, now 28, allegedly sent to a girl possibly as young as 14 years old.

The website shared screenshots of the alleged conversations between Jurado and the young girl. The site further alleged that Jurado had sent “sexually explicit messages” to several other women. 

Jurado sharply denied the allegations on Tuesday. The influencer said in a statement on his Instagram page that the claims were untrue and that he is “voluntarily cooperating in an investigation that will allow the truth to come to light.” 

“​​[T]he accusation that I was having an…

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A man who told his sisters they would be doing him a favour to have sex with him as he was going to become a priest and had sexual urges has been jailed for eight years.

Richard Brennan (64) previously of Rathfarnham, now living in the United States, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 24 counts against his three sisters, including 18 of indecent assault and six charges of rape.

He entered the guilty pleas after each of the three women had given evidence before a jury and before the final woman was about to be cross-examined.

He pleaded guilty to four sample charges of indecent assault and four rape charges against Paula Faye on dates between January 1978 and December 1981 when she was aged between 13 and 17 years old.

Brennan also pleaded guilty to 13 sample incidences of indecent assault and two charges of rape…

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A former Franklin priest has pleaded guilty as charged to several child sex abuse charges.

According to Williamson County District Attorney General Stacey B. Edmonson, Juan Carlos Garcia Mendoza came to a guilty plea agreement and will serve seven years in federal prison.

In 2024, the Williamson County Grand Jury indicted Garcia Mendoza on a count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, one count of aggravated sexual battery, four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and two counts of sexual battery.

Following his indictment, he was removed from his position as an associate pastor at St. Philip Catholic Church.

Court documents show Garcia Mendoza cannot have contact with the victims and will relinquish his role as a priest within the Roman Catholic Church. Once released from prison, he must register as a sex offender and be placed on community supervision for…

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A former principal of St. Joseph Catholic School in Salem and vice principal of Regis St. Mary Catholic School in Stayton was charged July 15 with sexually abusing a minor while he was employed at Regis.

Christopher Seibert, 56, was arrested July 14 after a Marion County grand jury indicted him on four counts of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of second-degree unlawful sexual penetration.

Seibert is accused of sexually abusing a girl who was under age 14 between April 2021 and April 2023. The indictment alleges he unlawfully and knowingly subjected her to sexual contact or penetration on at least five occasions.

Deputy District Attorney Caitlin Spencer said at the arraignment that Seibert would pull the student out of class, take her to his office and put his hand under her skirt or blouse.

After the last incident, in which Spencer alleged that Seibert penetrated the girl, she…

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Editor’s Note: This week, John Bellocchio, a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of the late Theodore McCarrick as a young teenager in Hackensack, New Jersey, forwarded me an email he received from the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. The official who sent the email apparently forgot to delete multiple emails between diocesan personnel (including the bishop) exposing their unfiltered comments about him and their suspicions about his intentions. I invited John to write a reflection on his experiences working with the Catholic hierarchy as a survivor, and he responded with a strong challenge to Church leadership. — ML

Dismissed and Insulted: The Cost of Speaking Up

Coming forward as a survivor is never easy. But nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced when I recently reached out to the Diocese of Metuchen. I contacted them respectfully, seeking dialogue and transparency. What I received…

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A priest in the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, will serve seven years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of sex abuse.

Father Juan Carlos Garcia-Mendoza was indicted last year on several counts of sexual battery and other crimes, some of which involved children and some adults. The priest was charged with eight crimes in February 2024 and two more in June of that year.

The Diocese of Nashville said in the Nashville Catholic this week that Garcia had pleaded guilty to the February charges. Those crimes include “continuous sexual abuse of a child,” aggravated sexual battery, and “sexual battery by an authority figure.” 

In addition to the prison sentence, the priest will be listed in the state sex offender registry.

The diocese also indicated that he would be removed from the priesthood. Garcia “agreed not to contest laicization from the priesthood,” the statement said.

…

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Catholic bishops and priests in Washington are challenging a new state law that requires clergy to break the seal of confession to report possible child sex abuse.

The bill, signed by Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Catholic, in early May, mandates that clergy inform authorities of suspected sex abuse cases, including alleged abuse discussed during the sacrament of reconciliation, or confession. 

Backing the three Catholic dioceses in the state, the Justice Department sued Washington state in late June for launching “attacks on the free exercise of religion” and stated that “anti-Catholic” laws violating the confidentiality of confession are unconstitutional. Several Orthodox churches have joined the lawsuit as well. The hearing took place July 14. 

Supporters of the law have a different view. Mary Dispenza, a former Catholic nun and a current member of the Survivors Network of those…

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Access to the entire site is now closed off to the public, with 24-hour security also in place

A full forensic excavation on the site of the former mother and baby institution in Tuam, Co Galway, began on Monday morning.

This process will focus on recovering and analysing human remains from the site and will also involve a memorialisation of the deceased.

Ground was broken on the project just after 10.30am, and the excavation expected to take around two years to complete.

“Access to the entire site is now closed off to the public and it is also concealed from view,” the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam confirmed.

There will be a 24-hour security presence at the site, with a 2.4 metre high fence also in place.

“These measures are necessary to ensure the site’s forensic integrity and to enable us to carry out the works to…

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Experts are searching for the remains of hundreds of children who died at the institution run by Catholic nuns until 1961, including bodies disposed of in septic tanks.

Excavators broke ground on Monday in western Ireland to search for the bodies of hundreds of babies and young children, some of them discarded in septic tanks, who died at a home for unwed mothers that was managed by Catholic nuns from 1925 to 1961.

The circumstances of the children’s short lives, the treatment of the mothers and the decades of secrecy surrounding the deaths have been recognized widely as a profound moral stain on the Irish government, which funded the institution, and the Catholic Church, which managed it.

About half of the children, estimated to number about 800 in all, died before their first birthdays.

“Some of the families have been really seeking answers to these questions for many years,” Daniel MacSweeney, who…

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When Annette McKay’s first grandson was born, she thought her mother, Maggie O’Connor, would be over the moon. She had become a great-grandmother.

Instead, McKay found her sobbing unconsolably outside her home, crying: “It’s the baby, the baby.”

McKay reassured her 70-year-old mother that her great-grandson was healthy. But O’Connor wasn’t talking about him.

“Not your baby, my baby,” O’Connor said, revealing a secret she had buried for decades. Her first child, Mary Margaret, died in June 1943, at just 6 months old.

It was the first and only time that O’Connor spoke about Mary Margaret, or her experience in St. Mary’s Home – a so-called mother and baby home in the town of Tuam, in western Ireland’s County Galway.

The Tuam institution was one of dozens of “homes” where pregnant girls and unmarried women were sent to give birth in secret for much of the 20th century….

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The law ignited a battle between the state and the Catholic Church over whether designating clergy as mandatory reporters limits the free exercise of religion.

A federal judge indicated Monday that he will likely issue a preliminary injunction against Washington’s law designating members of the clergy as mandatory reporters of sex abuse. 

Without an injunction, the law will take effect on July 27. The legislation has received major pushback from Catholic leaders, who claim they are unfairly singled out and would be unconstitutionally required to act against their beliefs should the law be allowed to stand. 

Judge David Estudillo with the U.S. District Court of Western Washington did not issue an official ruling Monday, but said he was leaning toward granting the injunction. His decision is expected to come down before the law’s effective date. 

SB 5375, which was signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in May, adds…

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The full excavation of a mass grave of babies and young children at Tuam in County Galway is under way.

The exhumations will be carried out at the site of an institution for unmarried mothers, which operated between 1925 and 1961.

The story came to international attention 11 years ago, after amateur historian Catherine Corless discovered there were death certificates for 796 babies and children who were in the institution, but no burial records.

In 2017, investigators found what they described as “significant quantities of human remains” at the site.

The bodies were in underground chambers in a disused sewage system.

The institution, which was known as St Mary’s mother-and-baby home, was run by Catholic religious order the Bon Secours Sisters and owned by Galway County Council.

Experts from Colombia, Spain, the UK, Canada, Australia and the United States have joined Irish specialists to take part in the unprecedented…

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The excavation that began on the site of the mother and baby home yesterday is making history in a double sense

Ireland often seems surreal. But it is also, if I may be permitted to coin a word, subreal. We share the island, not just with what is above ground but what it under it. Our reality is not just experienced – it is exhumed. As Seamus Heaney put it in Bogland, it keeps “striking/ Inwards and downwards,/ Every layer they strip/Seems camped on before”.

The subsoil of the grounds of the former Bons Secours Mother and Baby home in Tuam is described as a “yellow-grey silty gritty layer”. And it is being stripped now, down to where, between 1925 and 1961, perhaps 796 tiny human beings were stuffed in a disused sewage system. This non-resting place is, as the technical report published in 2017 has it, “an elongated structure, comprising…

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A priest in training and religious educator is facing multiple child pornography charges, according to DeSoto County Sheriff Thomas Tuggle.

Louisiana native Jonathan Nguyen-Voung, 24, was taken into custody without incident July 10 at his place of work at Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Olive Branch, the sheriff said.

In a press conference July 11, Tuggle announced the arrest of Nguyen-Voung, who was charged with multiple felonies which include possession of child pornography, accessing and distributing child pornography. Tuggle said forensic experts discovered a device actively downloading explicit material when the search warrant on the suspect’s Nesbit residence was executed.

“We take all crime seriously, especially crimes committed against our children,” Tuggle said. “We will be relentless in our pursuit of these predators.”

Nguyen-Voung is being held at DeSoto County’s jail without bond.

The arrest is part of a wider investigation into crimes against children in DeSoto County dubbed…

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After their only scheduled mass of the week at noon on Sunday, members of Ascension Parish battled the high heat and rolling thunder in the distance to attend a meeting for all parishioners at the Polish Falcons Pavilion in their parking lot.

Former Ascension Parish Trustee, Bill Brach, and Mary Pruski, a volunteer at Save Our Buffalo Churches, brought the large group in attendance up to date on what has been happening since last September.

Since being removed as Trustee of Ascension Parish by the Buffalo Diocese last October, Brach and his wife Nancy along with several others have helped organize and prepare appeals to prevent the closing of their church on Sumner and Swan streets in the City of Batavia. The announcement for closure was made by the Buffalo Diocese last September.

The group has since opened a 501(C)(3), created a Facebook page called Friends of Ascension, Link to…

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Archbishop Thibault Verny of Chambéry, France, made international headlines as he succeeded one of the most acclaimed figures of church safeguarding in the world, Cardinal Sean O’Malley — retired archbishop of Boston — in his role as president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM). 

Verny, 59, may be new to the universal church, yet he is a well-known figure in France and a bishop remembered for his firm stand against abusers in the Catholic Church. 

Verny had been a member of PCPM since 2022. At the same time, in France, he had been president of the Council for the Prevention and Fight Against Pedophilia, within the French bishops’ conference. After a full term on the body, on July 1, he was succeeded by Bishop Gérard Le Stang of Amiens.

Stéphane de Navacelle, a well-respected Parisian lawyer and member of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, know by its French acronym…

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[See also the lawsuit.]

Catholic News Agency reports State Supreme Court in Erie County has issued a temporary halt on payments the Buffalo Catholic Diocese has required of parishes in order to fund its clergy abuse settlement amid a Vatican-moderated dispute over parish mergers.

The lawsuit, filed last Tuesday by nine parishes including Holy Apostles Church in Jamestown, sought the injunction prior to tomorrow’s deadline. That deadline is now on hold until August 6.

All of the churches named in the lawsuit were set to be merged with other area parishes under the diocese’s restructuring plan.

The mergers are on hold while the Vatican looks at appeals seeking to prevent them.

Catholic News Agency reports the Diocese, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020 amid the large number of abuse claims, announced last month that its parishes would be required to pay up to 80% of their “unrestricted cash” by…

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The Archbishop of Toulouse appointed a priest who served a prison sentence for raping a minor as diocesan chancellor and episcopal delegate for marriage.

Archbishop Guy de Kerimel said that by appointing Fr Dominique Spina to the post he had “chosen the path of mercy”.

In 2006, Spina was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student while serving as his spiritual director in the 1990s at Notre-Dame de Bétharram school at Lestelle-Bétharram, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of south-west France.

In a statement last week to Agence France-Presse, Archbishop de Kerimel said: “It is true that Fr Spina served a five-year prison sentence, including one year suspended, for very serious acts that took place nearly 30 years ago”.

He added that the Church had “nothing to reproach this priest for in the last 30 years”. The post was administrative, he continued, adding that Spina “no longer” exercised “pastoral responsibility, other than celebrating the Eucharist,…

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Parishioners are now trying to block the Diocese of Buffalo from using their churches’ funds toward the $150 million settlement to sex abuse survivors.

Parishioners from five churches filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent church leaders from paying the diocese.   

Those parishioners attend Blessed Sacrament in the town of Tonawanda, Our Lady of Peace in Clarence, Saint Bernadette’s in Orchard Park, St. Aloysius Gonzaga in Cheektowaga and St. John XXIII in West Seneca.

Last month, the diocese ordered these churches to give 80% of their unrestricted cash to help pay the settlement. They were previously told they had until July 15 to do so.  

In court documents, attorneys claim these churches would have to suspend several community programs like day care services and food pantries if they lost that money. Some churches even claim they’d have to cease operations…

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Core groups from five Catholic parishes have filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Buffalo to block payments that would go toward the diocese’s $150 million settlement with more than 800 survivors of sexual abuse.

The diocese has asked affiliate parishes to contribute between 10 to 80 percent of their unrestricted cash and investments, with the highest percentage applied to parishes scheduled to close or merge under the Road to Renewal program.

All five parishes involved in the lawsuit — Blessed Sacrament in Tonawanda, Our Lady of Peace in Clarence, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga in Cheektowaga, Saint John 23rd in West Seneca, and Saint Bernadette in Orchard Park — are slated to merge with other parishes under the diocese’s restructuring plan. But they’re all fighting to stay open.

“It’s sad that we have to do this, I mean, I don’t want to fight the church,” said Eugene Hanitz, who has been…

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