ABUSE TRACKER

When Tony Cutcher learned that I was investigating why he resigned from active ministry following a scandal in 2021, he did what few priests accused of improper behavior have ever done: An interview.

When Tony Cutcher learned that I was investigating why he resigned from active ministry following a scandal in 2021, he did what few priests accused of improper behavior have ever done: He sat down for an interview.

“My reputation is gone. The best I’m going to be able to do for the rest of my life is going to be some sort of low-level menial job — which I find frustrating, and I also think is sad,” Cutcher said during a June 7 interview. “Someone with my background, training and talents not being able to use them for the greater good because of these allegations.”

Cutcher asked the Archdiocese of Cincinnati if he could return to active…

Something fascinating is going on with Christa Brown’s memoir Baptistland.

I’ve been in book publishing for almost 30 years, a career that allowed me to see many sides of the publishing business. My last corporate role was as vice president and publisher of a major evangelical publisher owned by one of the “big five” publishers.

My time in publishing has paralleled the big change in recent decades — the digital revolution. When e-books first came on the scene, there was much hand-wringing that this new format would become the dominant one for book consumption. Publishers would lose significant revenue, retailers would go completely out of business, and even perhaps books would stop being read.

But none of that came true, not completely. The publishing business has changed a lot, but it’s still profitable. We still have physical retailers, although their numbers and market share are greatly reduced. And believe it or not,…

Spain’s Catholic bishops approved Tuesday a plan to compensate the victims of sexual abuse inside the Church whose alleged aggressors have died or whose possible crimes have been proscribed, an initiative the government and victims’ associations called lacking in real guarantees.

The Spanish Episcopal Conference did not provide an estimate on how many victims it could help. But last year the conference said it had found evidence of 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945 as part of its first public report after years of rejecting a comprehensive approach to investigating sexual abuse.

Seventy-five percent of the cases had occurred before 1990 and more than 60% of the offenders were dead, the conference said.

Last year a survey by Spain’s public Ombudsman office indicated that the total number of victims, including minors, could be much, much higher.

The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Argüello, said Tuesday in a…

The survivors committee and the Archdiocese of Baltimore continue to work together in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case toward the goals of compensating as many victims as possible equitably, allowing the archdiocese to continue its ministries and ensuring that policies and procedures are in place to prevent future incidences of child sexual abuse.

Paul Jan Zdunek, chairman of the survivors committee in the case, and Archbishop William E. Lori addressed local media July 8 to provide an update on the process, which began with the archdiocese filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 29, 2023. The first meeting between the archbishop and his team with members of the survivors’ committee was in December.

Zdunek said that the committee does not want to release the number of survivor claims until they have been reviewed. The claim filing deadline – known in bankruptcy court as the bar date – was May 31.

“This…

SNAP doubts sincerity: ‘We believe that the diocese is the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing’

The Archdiocese of Baltimore and abuse survivors are pledging cooperation through the bankruptcy process; however, some survivors feel left out of the process.

The archdiocese announced in September that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following numerous claims of child sex abuse by priests.

“Even though this process is tied to Chapter 11, it does not end the moral responsibility of the archdiocese to respond compassionately to those who have been harmed,” Baltimore Archbishop William Lori said.

The archbishop was joined Monday morning by Paul Jan Zdunek, who chairs the Creditors’ Committee of Survivors, for a news conference to say the archdiocese is working on procedures, mediation and prevention when it comes to abuse of children.

“We share the same goal of creating an environment, one that is rooted in…

A lack of clear understanding by school administrators about what constitutes grooming behavior was a key factor in the case of a former Baltimore County teacher who went on to teach at two Catholic schools despite a history of misconduct; that’s according to an investigative report from the Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education.

In 2022, Mark Planamente, 40, was charged with sexual solicitation of a minor. Last year, Planamente pleaded guilty to that charge and according to jail records is now serving a five-year sentence in Baltimore City Correctional Center. At the time of his arrest, Planamente was teaching at Sisters Academy of Baltimore, a Catholic school for late elementary and middle school girls in Southwest Baltimore.

He had previously served as a teacher at The Catholic High School of Baltimore and before that, in Baltimore County Public Schools. Planamente was found to…

Two speakers have pulled out of preaching at Gateway Church’s summer series following child sex abuse allegations against church founder Robert Morris. 

Joyce Meyer and Dr. Ben Carson were both scheduled to speak at the Dallas-area megachurch as part of a series titled “Let’s Dive In,” but have since cancelled. A source close to Meyer cited solidarity with abuse victims, and Carson said it was to allow for the church’s “healing process to take place.”

Morris resigned from the church’s top position on June 18, following Cindy Clemishire’s bombshell allegations she was sexually abused by Morris in 1982 when she was 12 years old. 

For multiple years, Meyer has been a regular speaker at Gateway Church, with the most recent message in May. A person close to Joyce Meyer Ministries shared anonymously late Monday night that Meyer has decided to stop teaching at Gateway Church in light of recent allegations against Morris.

“I…

French sales and distribution company Shellac will launch international sales for the upcoming Catholic Church sexual abuse documentary “The Deposition” at Locarno before releasing the film in France this October. Accompanying the announcement, Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer, seen above.

“The Deposition” is the story of a young boy named Emmanuel who, in 1993, told his parents that he was molested by a popular new priest in the village named Hubert. At the time, his parents chose to keep the boy’s allegations a secret.

Thirty years later, Emmanuel’s father, Robert, can no longer bear the guilt and confronts Hubert, who denies everything. Several months later, after speaking with a government-commissioned report on sexual violence within the Catholic Church, Emmanuel is encouraged to share his story with the authorities.

For over three hours, Emmanual shares his account with the local police, recording the entire encounter on his phone….

On the weekend of June 22-23, parishioners at St. Michael and St. Joseph parishes in Fall River, Massachusetts, were informed via a letter from Bishop Edgar da Cunha that their pastor, Fr. Jay Mello, was being put on leave for sexual misconduct allegations. The letter specified that no minors were involved and assured parishioners that he understood the gravity of the situation, writing, “This situation is distressing for all of us. Please know that my prayers are with all the faithful people of St. Michael and St. Joseph Parishes during this challenging time.”

Reports on the letter were shared by local news outlets, and a separate letter written by the superintendent of schools, Daniel Roy, was sent to parents of students who attend St. Michael’s parish school. This letter also assured recipients that no minors were involved. The letter…

A CATHOLIC priest and former youth leader facing ten counts of sexually abusing a child has been charged with attempting to interfere with a prosecution witness.

Piotr Antonio Glas (60) – who used to specialise in exorcisms – appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday [8 JULY] to face one count of perverting the course of justice.

Mr Glas was previously charged with offences that are said to have happened while he was in ministry in Jersey – eight counts of gross indecency with a child and two charges of indecent assault on a child.

The charges were deemed to be too serious for the Magistrate’s Court and have been sent to the Royal Court.

Mr Glas’s court appearance yesterday related to him contacting a third party and asking them to interfere with a prosecution witness.

Originally from Poland, Mr Glas is described on Wikipedia as a fundamentalist priest and former…

In short: 

Parishioners at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat came together with survivors of institutional child sexual abuse and their supporters on Saturday to re-tie ribbons to the fence.

Individuals have since targeted the fence and removed or cut the majority of the ribbons. 

What’s next? 

The Diocese of Ballarat and Loud Fence members will continue discussions on plans for a long-term memorial on cathedral grounds. 

Just days after parishioners, survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, and their supporters gathered in a show of solidarity to tie colourful ribbons to a Ballarat cathedral fence, the majority have been cut and removed.

The gathering took place on Saturday at St Patrick’s Cathedral in the regional Victorian city, west of Melbourne.

Three days later, the majority of the ribbons had been cut and removed from the fence in two separate targeted attacks.

The action has devastated Ballarat community members and church leaders,…

Bishop Christopher Saunders appeared in Australian court July 8 for a bail hearing, as the former bishop of the Diocese of Broome awaits trial on 28 criminal charges, including alleged sexual abuse.

Saunders, 74, attended court Monday in Broome, his former diocese, after prosecutors filed for a change to his bail conditions. 

In a hearing last month, prosecutors argued that the bishop’s bail conditions, which prohibit contact with alleged victims and witnesses, should be changed, to include additional possible witnesses to the case, and to bar the bishop from returning to Broome to prevent accidental encounters.

Magistrate Deen Potter ruled on that motion July 8, deciding that none of the extra names appearing on the potential witness list appeared “especially vulnerable,” and Saunders’ bail conditions would remain unchanged — with the judge even allowing for the possibility of accidental encounters between them and the bishop in the town.

Saunders was…

This week, we filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Seattle alleging for our client who was sexually abused by three adults at St. John Catholic School in the 1980s.

The survivor in the lawsuit, R.C., suffered sexual abuse by a priest, Father Edward Boyle, and his coaches, John Schade, and Terry McGrath from 1981 through 1985, while he was a student at St. John Catholic School in Seattle. Each of the alleged perpetrators worked at St. John in the 1970s and 1980s, and all have been previously accused of abusing children.

Father Boyle has faced accusations of sexual abuse for more than a decade. In 2005, an Everett man sued the Archdiocese of Seattle claiming that Boyle abused him for more than ten years, starting in 1956. Eleven years later, in 2016, the Archdiocese of Seattle identified Boyle as a priest who has been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

…

[See also the AG’s Petition and the Archdiocese of Seattle’s Opposition to the Petition. We provide brief excerpts of the amicus brief below. See also the full text.]

This amicus brief provides additional information to the Court as it considers the Washington Attorney General’s Petition to Enforce Investigative Subpoena.

There are conditions specific to Washington State and its three Catholic dioceses which create a special need for an investigation and report by the Attorney General. Many such investigations and reports have already been done elsewhere in the United States, often after disagreements about document production have been resolved. The record shows that the Archdiocese of Seattle’s own reviews of its documents have not yielded comparable results, and that other dioceses have recently shown more transparency. (pp. 1-2)

*

ISSUES ADDRESSED BY AMICUS

A. Whether AGO investigations are beneficial and depend on documents.

B. Whether the unique situation…

Andrea Skinner said in The Toronto Star that her stepfather sexually abused her at age 9, and that her mother stayed with him after she learned of it.

Andrea Robin Skinner, a daughter of the Canadian Nobel laureate Alice Munro, said her stepfather sexually abused her as a child — and that her mother knew about it, and chose to stay with him anyway.

Skinner, who is now an adult, detailed these accusations in an essay in The Toronto Star on Sunday. According to a separate article in The Toronto Star, Skinner went to the Ontario police, and in 2005, her stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, was charged with indecent assault against her. He pleaded guilty.

By then, he was 80 years old. He got a suspended sentence and probation for two years. Munro stayed with him until he died in 2013.

Because of her mother’s fame, Skinner…

The head of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the chair of a committee that represents survivors of sexual abuse vowed on Monday to work together to reach a fair and equitable settlement in the church’s bankruptcy case.

Archbishop William Lori and Paul Jan Zdunek, chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, held a joint news conference at the offices of Brown, Goldstein & Levy in Baltimore to provide an update on what’s happening in the case. They said they’re looking to move into mediation to reach agreements on the number of sexual abuse claims filed in the case, compensation for survivors, and policies and protocols to further protect children.

“We share a goal of creating an environment, one that’s rooted in mutual trust, and one that will enable us to work together constructively, and hopefully quickly, to come to an agreed-upon plan,” Lori said. “Today’s news conference…

[Includes statement by SNAP’s David Lorenz.]

Both the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the committee representing survivors of sex abuse said they have not gone through mediation just yet.

It’s not clear how much money survivors of the sex abuse scandal will receive. That could take another year.

“We are also here to make sure survivors are paid fairly and that children, most importantly, are protected going forward,” Paul Zdunek, chairman of the Survivors’ Committee, said.

The number of those who have filed claims against the archdiocese is more than 700. Archbishop William Lori said while the process has been painful, they would do their best to provide appropriate compensation.

“We will work constructively, with the committee and the mediation team to arrive at what the final settlement will be and we will do our best to provide appropriate compensation,” Lori said.

The archdiocese originally filed for bankruptcy in September 2023 amid…

The Archdiocese of St. John’s must pay over $104 million to 292 survivors of abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage during the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s or at the hands of archdiocesan clergy.

Individual settlements for successful claims range between $55,000 to $850,000. The average net claim award value is approximately $356,000 per plaintiff.

Globe Resolutions Inc., the mediation company appointed as claims officer, disallowed 65 applications. However, the denied claimants will have 45 days to file an appeal after they receive their official Notice of Determination. Meanwhile, 10 cases are still pending a decision.

Lawyer Geoff Budden, whose firm represented 219 of the 367 petitioners, has worked towards July 5, the date the settlements were published by court-appointed monitor Ernst & Young Inc., for nearly a quarter century. He told The Catholic Register that the aggregate sum of $104 million is “where I would expect almost 300 men with…

Baltimore Archbishop William Lori struck a unified tone with the chair of the committee representing sex abuse victims in the Catholic Church’s bankruptcy case at a news conference Monday, as both men acknowledged the number of survivors who filed claims is not yet known.

Lori and Paul Jan Zdunek, chair of the creditor’s committee of survivors, told reporters that they shared the goal of promoting an efficient bankruptcy process that ends with fair compensation for survivors, a detailed set of protocols to prevent future child abuse and an ability for the church to continue its mission.

“It is shared the goal of creating an environment rooted in mutual trust that permits us to work together constructively, and hopefully quickly, toward an agreed-upon plan,” Lori said. “Today’s news conference is also about a public declaration of our intention to work together on behalf of victim-survivors.”

The public show of unity comes…

[See also the background to this dispute.]

A contentious court hearing between two Virginia Beach Catholic school families whose relationship fell apart over child sex abuse allegations ended Monday with some misdemeanor charges filed against one family being dismissed and others upheld.

Monday’s hearing in Virginia Beach General District Court was held after Marin Jakawich filed criminal complaints against former friends Tim and Meredith Hatchell. The two families met several years ago through their children, all of whom attended St. John the Apostle Catholic School in Virginia Beach.

Even the nature of the two families’ relationship was at odds on Monday. While the Hatchells told Judge Sandra Menago they’d been so close that they’d routinely seen each other four to five days a week over the past four years, and presented photos of them on multiple vacations together, Jakawich referred to the Hatchells as “acquaintances.”

Both sides, however, agreed that…

The exact number of Catholic church abuse survivors remains unknown as claimants in the Archdiocese of Baltimore bankruptcy case are being vetted.

“That will eventually drive the rest of the process and inform the rest of the process,” Paul Jan Zdunek, chair of the creditor’s committee of survivors, said.

Zdunek and Archbishop William Lori held a press conference Monday to give an update on the case ahead of a mediation process.

“It’s not just the number. It represents so many people who have been harmed,” Archbishop Lori said. “Really, the aim is to help provide a path toward healing in their lives.”

The archbishop and a chairperson representing abuse victims say it’s too early to say how many have filed claims, as many of the hundreds still need to be vetted.

Archbishop Lori described the claims received as, “stories of abuse, the misuse of power, the stories…

Classic slasher movies are notorious for the plot twist in which the villain, believed to be dead, pops back up for one last stab of the knife or lunge of the chainsaw. The take-away is that just when you think the scary part is over, get ready for another jolt.

It’s a lesson which, in a different guise, chief Vatican prosecutor Alessandro Diddi is learning the hard way right now.

Last December, Diddi, the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice, finally won convictions in the celebrated “trial of the century,” a multi-headed hydra of a case that required a whopping two and half years – not to mention 69 witnesses, 85 court hearings, and millions of pages of files and documents – to end in guilty verdicts against Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight other defendants for various alleged financial crimes.

Granted, the verdicts remain on appeal, and granted, Diddi has faced…

When Pope Francis tapped Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández to head the Vatican’s doctrinal office on July 1, 2023, he wasn’t just naming his longtime Argentine theological adviser to one of the church’s most powerful roles. He was also reenvisioning how that department would operate in the modern world and attempting to ensure that his reforms might outlast his own papacy.

Accompanying the announcement of Fernández’s appointment in the Vatican’s daily bulletin was a letter articulating that as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, he should actively promote the work of theology and new ways of evangelization rather than replicating past “immoral methods” that sought to control or punish theologians.

“The text of the letter that the pope wrote to the new prefect is in some ways an epoch-making event,” Italian theologian Andrea Grillo told the National Catholic Reporter. “It marked the official…

Rome – The decision by the U.S. bishops conference to dramatically slash its staff for the department responsible for implementing some of Pope Francis’ top priorities has been called “very disappointing” and “somewhat duplicitous” by one of the pontiff’s newest archbishops in America.

“I am very disappointed,” said Archbishop Christopher Coyne of Hartford, Connecticut. He said he was surprised that less than two weeks after the U.S. bishops’ met for their annual spring assembly that the conference’s leadership decided to move forward with major layoffs in its social justice department.

“We were led to believe that it would continue to be a vibrant part of the conference,” Coyne told the National Catholic Reporter on June 29. “At no point was any discussion made or talked about in terms of significant employee cuts. … It comes across as being somewhat duplicitous in terms of what was actually…

[A useful three-minute video summary of the $104 million compensation package, with clips of an interview with the attorney who represented 92 of the 292 claimants. The claimants will receive an average of $356K, with a base of $55K and a high of $850K. Most claimants were abused at the Mount Cashel Orphanage, run by the Irish Christian Brothers, with others abused at parishes and schools in the Archdiocese of St. John’s. When the archdiocese was found liable for the abuse in 2021, it filed for bankruptcy, but has been able to put together only $40 million by selling off church properties. The hope is that insurance and additional sales will cover the difference. The video also shows images of the orphanage and video of its demolition.]

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s has been ordered to pay more than. $100 million to victims of abuse. Lawyer Bob Buckingham…

The proposal comes amid cases of doctors accused of sexual abuse and the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal.

A bill that would expand the scope of certain sexual offenses under Massachusetts law perpetrated by a health care provider or a member of the clergy is making its way through Beacon Hill.

The bill also would add rape of a patient or client by a health care provider, indecent assault and battery on vulnerable persons in law enforcement custody, and indecent assault and battery on a patient or client by a health care provider to definitions related to sexual offenders.

The Massachusetts House approved the bill last week.

The proposal comes amid cases of doctors accused of sexual abuse and the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal.

The bill would establish that anybody who holds themselves out to be a health care provider or clergy member, and who commits an indecent assault and battery…

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a pharma case could have major effects on a New York diocese’s negotiations for bankruptcy and clergy sex abuse settlements.

The Rochester Beacon reported that the Diocese of Rochester filed for bankruptcy nearly five years ago in response to New York’s Child Victims Act, which removed the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse cases for two years. 

The Act resulted in roughly 485 claims in the Diocese’s bankruptcy from people who maintained they were sexually abused by clergy or other Church officials when they were children.

Since filing for bankruptcy, the Diocese has been involved in years of negotiations and discussions to settle the child sex abuse claims, but a June 27 U.S. Supreme Court case that blocked OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan could affect how the Diocese proceeds with its own bankruptcy reorganization plans to…

The Prime Minister is defending the government’s attitude towards survivors of abuse, as it emerges one of his ministers did not read a report into the abuse of a group of survivors he met.

Christopher Luxon fronted media in Ashburton on Friday, where he conceded he had not yet read the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care.

In his defence, Luxon only received that report last week.

The same cannot be said of Doocey, who was late last year sent a copy of the Royal Commission’s interim report into the systemic abuse of the Brothers of St John of God in Christchurch from the 1950s until the 1990s.

The report, titled Stolen Lives, Marked Souls, was released publicly in August last year.

RNZ has learned Doocey, one of the ministers with responsibility for assessing the Royal Commission’s recommendations, was then sent the…

Signs of the times. The Viganò phenomenon highlights a significant post-Vatican II rift within Catholicism. While Viganò’s conspiracy theories are troubling, the main concern is the silent schism of disengagement and potential backlash against synodal decisions.

Will there be a Viganò schism? Surely not a schism like the ones in the handbooks of Church history. But news that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had summoned Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to answer to charges of schism reveals something of this Catholic moment and Catholic culture.

From 2011-2016, the Italian archbishop served as apostolic nuncio to the United States, and in August 2018, he accused Pope Francis of abuse cover-up in an attempt to overthrow his papacy. Since then, he has released a series of increasingly extreme statements about the pope, the Vatican, and the authority of the Second Vatican Council from undisclosed locations and via the internet….

The Roman Catholic Church has been ordered to pay settlements totalling $104 million to 292 survivors of historical abuse in Newfoundland and Labrador, including those at the now infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s.

The decision Friday was met with relief, hurt and even grief by survivors who’ve endured a decades-long fight for justice, said lawyer Geoff Budden. His firm represents more than 200 survivors of abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage from the 1940s to the early 1960s.

“Some get validation from this,” he said in an interview. “They are happy that they were believed, that their claims were accepted and they’re going to receive compensation … but it triggers. It brings back memories, and it’s a struggle.”

And the fight is not over, he said: the church doesn’t have enough money to pay the settlements.

The totals published Friday include claims from Mount Cashel and other…

The Vatican on Friday excommunicated its former ambassador to Washington after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable outcome for Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. The conservative had became one of Pope Francis ‘ most ardent critics and a symbol of the polarized Catholic Church in the United States and beyond.

While once enjoying support in the Vatican and U.S. church hierarchies, the Italian archbishop alienated many as he developed a fringe following while delving deeper into conspiracy theories on everything — from the coronavirus pandemic to what he called the “Great Reset” and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Vatican’s doctrine office announced the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday and informed Vigano of its decision on Friday.

It cited Vigano’s public “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him, and of the legitimacy…

A French bishop has put off any decision on whether to remove mosaics by an ex-Jesuit artist accused of abusing women, saying that they will stay for now on the Lourdes shrine but that eventually they should be removed

A French bishop has put off any decision on whether to remove mosaics by an ex-Jesuit artist accused of abusing women, saying that they’ll stay for now on the Lourdes shrine but that eventually they should be removed.

The mosaics will no longer be lit up each night during the evening prayer, Lourdes Bishop Jean-Marc Micas said in a statement Tuesday. But he told the French Catholic daily La Croix that he had decided not to remove them now because he didn’t want to “tear the church apart.”

“My deep, formed, intimate conviction is that they will one day need to be removed: they prevent Lourdes from reaching all the people for…

The court found sexual abuse was perpetrated by priests and other church officials at the orphanage starting in 1940 and continued over the course of several decades.

The Catholic Church is to pay 104 million Canadian dollars ($76 million) to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse from eastern Canada, according to a statement released Friday.

In 2020 the Archdiocese of St. John was found liable for one of Canada’s largest child sex abuse scandals, at Mount Cashel Orphanage, a now-defunct boy’s orphanage in Newfoundland and Labrador province.

The court found sexual abuse was perpetrated by priests and other church officials at the orphanage starting in 1940 and continued over the course of several decades.

A total of 292 victims will receive payouts ranging from 55,000 to 850,000 Canadian dollars, according to the report seen by AFP.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young has been tapped as a third-party intermediary to determine…

The abuse crisis at The Meeting House church is so bad, they literally cannot meet anymore out of fear of what may happen

You know your church is having problems when you tell your congregation that upcoming services have to be canceled because no insurance providers will work with you because of all the sexual abuse, and that means all in-person interactions have to be put on pause.

That’s the actual I-shit-you-not situation going down at The Meeting House, one of the largest and most influential churches in Ontario, which billed itself as “a church for people who aren’t into church” (the theological equivalent of girls saying they’re not like other girls). It appealed to a lot of people tired of traditional churches, including lots of young people, and rapidly became one of the largest vessels in the province for spreading Christianity.

The church was led by Bruxy Cavey, who took…

Luke Cunningham, a former youth pastor at four Texas churches who was arrested June 19 by United States marshals, now faces a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for alleged international and interstate sex trafficking.

The investigation concerns allegations he sexually abused students on out-of-state and international mission trips while he served on staff at a Lubbock megachurch.

BNG reported and independently verified FBI involvement on June 27 but withheld this specific information to protect the identity of potential victims and preserve the investigation’s integrity.

In a bond hearing July 1, Lubbock County prosecutors revealed details of Cunningham’s alleged abusive behavior. Several local media organizations reported this information, including Lubbock NBC affiliate KCBD.

Prosecutors argued Cunningham is a violent offender who slapped and choked his victims into unconsciousness.

Prosecutors argued Cunningham is a violent offender who slapped and choked his victims into unconsciousness. They also claimed he is a manipulator and serial…

A former Lexington pastor is facing multiple sexual-related offenses after allegedly having sex with a minor for over one year, according to court documents. Zachary King, 47, is facing charges of first-degree rape, third-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, third-degree sodomy, first-degree sexual abuse and procuring or promoting the use of a minor by electronic means, according to court records. Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office confirmed King was a former executive pastor of LexCity Church.

King’s arrest citation says resigned after being confronted by church staff in reference to allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a minor. King consented to an interview with a detective and admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old minor beginning in January 2023 and lasting until April 2024. The sexual encounters happened at his home, the minor’s home and at the former pastor’s church, according to court documents. King’s arrest citation didn’t say specifically where he was…

Four Gateway Church elders, including Robert Morris’s son, have temporarily stepped down from their positions with the Dallas megachurch.

Gateway Church founder Robert Morris resigned from the church’s top position on June 18, following Cindy Clemishire’s bombshell allegations she was sexually abused by Morris in 1982 when she was 12 years old. 

Kevin Grove, Steve Dulin, Gayland Lawshe, and Pastor James Morris volunteered to take a temporary leave of absence, according to a June 28 statement on Gateway Church’s website.

The move follows the recommendation by Haynes & Boone, the law firm investigating the Morris allegations, that any elder with a potential conflict of interest step down temporarily. The recommendation applies to any elder related to Morris and elders who were on the Board from 2005 to 2007.

This is the time period when Clemishire says she reached out to Robert Morris and at least one Gateway elder about the…

Mistakes and political fights have long delayed an amendment to give sexual abuse survivors a chance to sue the perpetrators. Now, the effort might fail again.

A long-awaited constitutional amendment that would give survivors of childhood sexual abuse a chance to sue their abusers will not be on the November ballot unless lawmakers advance it in the next month.

Members of the divided legislature remain deadlocked. They broadly agree that voters should be given an opportunity to consider such a proposal, but are divided on how to advance it.

Democrats who control the state House want to send to voters a single question about opening the lawsuit window, while Republican leaders say the abuse amendment should be advanced alongside other GOP priorities, including an expanded voter ID requirement.

The issue has been before the body for nearly two decades and came tantalizingly close to reaching voters several years ago only…

Church told to pay $104 million for abuse in N.L.

The Roman Catholic Church has been ordered to pay settlements totalling $104 million to 292 survivors of historical abuse in Newfoundland and Labrador, including those at the now infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s.

The decision Friday was met with relief, hurt and even grief by survivors who’ve endured a decades-long fight for justice, said lawyer Geoff Budden. His firm represents more than 200 survivors of abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage from the 1940s to the early 1960s.

“Some get validation from this,” he said in an interview. “They are happy that they were believed, that their claims were accepted and they’re going to receive compensation … but it triggers. It brings back memories, and it’s a struggle.”

And the fight is not over, he said: the church doesn’t have enough money to pay the settlements.

The…

Settlement figure is more than double what church has raised so far through property sales

A third-party insolvency monitor has put forward a sum of $104 million to pay the victims of sexual abuse by Newfoundland and Labrador clerics, but it’s not certain how much money will actually flow to hundreds of claimants. 

A four-page document filed with Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court by George Kinsman, a senior vice-president of Ernst & Young, puts the net claim award at $104,074,667. 

Among the 367 claims filed, 292 have already been accepted, while 65 were disallowed and 10 are considered pending. 

The document says the average payment to a claimant is $356,417. 

The document, released Friday, is the latest step in a saga that started in 1987 with charges against one priest and would expand to a series of scandals that closed the Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s and recently forced…

The diocese of Trier reports on the status of the processing and prevention of sexual abuse. There are some interesting figures.

Sexual abuse – Diocese of Trier pays almost 500,000 euros to victims

The Diocese of Trier paid nearly 500,000 Euro in compensation for victims of sexual abuse last year. According to the “Annual Report 2023 Prevention – Intervention – Reconciliation” presented in Trier, there were 26 requests for recognition of suffering granted. Among them were several so-called hard cases, where victims each received sums of 50,000 Euro or more.

Since the revelation of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in 2010, the Diocese of Trier has paid out a total of 2.7 million Euro in compensation. The report, the second of its kind in the Diocese of Trier, also lists therapy costs for victims: These amounted to a total of approximately 143,000 Euro, of which almost…

Twin cities, Ciudad Juárez and El Paso share the pain brought by clergy sexual abuse, but their bishops’ responses are vastly different.

Although twinned by their location, the Roman Catholic dioceses of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez offer contrasting and contradictory responses to clergy sexual abuse.

In El Paso, bishop Mark Seitz published a list of clergy abusers, publicly apologized, and has compensated victims, while José Guadalupe Torres Campos harasses the victims in Ciudad Juárez.

hat Ciudad Juárez and El Paso are united by something more than the common history of the founding and the separation that came after the war of 1846-8, does not prevent their citizens from being aware of the many differences between the twin sister cities at the border.

The differences do not end or begin with language, currency, the way of measuring distances or temperatures. They can be seen dramatically in the stories of clergy…

A bill that would expand the scope of certain sexual offenses under Massachusetts law perpetrated by a health care provider or a member of the clergy is making its way through Beacon Hill.

The bill also would add rape of a patient or client by a health care provider, indecent assault and battery on vulnerable persons in law enforcement custody, and indecent assault and battery on a patient or client by a health care provider to definitions related to sexual offenders.

The Massachusetts House approved the bill last week.

The proposal comes amid cases of doctors accused of sexual abuse and the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal.

The bill would establish that anybody who holds themselves out to be a health care provider or clergy member, and who commits an indecent assault and battery on a patient, client or individual during diagnosis, counseling, or treatment could be punished by imprisonment for…

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has been declared excommunicated for schism by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Vatican dicastery, however, opted not to remove him from the clerical state, though canon law does not exclude that penalty.

The decision had been widely expected after the former nuncio to the United States refused to participate in the trial against him, saying that he “did not recognize the authority” of the dicastery or its prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, or Pope Francis.

The archbishop has stated that he does not recognize the legitimacy of Pope Francis and said, “I reject and condemn the scandals, errors and heresies of Jorge Mario Bergoglio,” adding, “with this ‘Bergoglian church,’ no Catholic worthy of the name can be in communion.”

The dicastery had summoned Archbishop Viganò to present himself or submit a defense on June 20 and said he had the right to appoint…

ROME (AP) — The Vatican has excommunicated its former ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable end for the firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis ‘ most ardent critics and a symbol of the polarized Catholic Church in the U.S. and beyond.

The Vatican’s doctrine office imposed the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday and informed Vigano of its decision Friday, a press statement said.

It cited Vigano’s “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”

The Vatican excommunication means that Vigano is formally outside the church, and cannot celebrate or receive its sacraments, for having committed one of the gravest crimes in canon law: schism. A schism occurs when someone…

In a rare trial, the Vatican acted against Carlo Maria Viganò, a former ambassador to the U.S. and one of Pope Francis’s most vociferous internal critics.

ROME — The Vatican on Friday excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, exacting a severe punishment on the most vociferous internal critic of Pope Francis for refusing to recognize the authority of the pope and liberal reforms made by the Roman Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Such drastic steps are exceedingly rare in the church and illustrated the extent to which Viganò — the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States — is perceived to have crossed a line. He has called on the pope to resign and excoriated him in harsh terms, including calling him “a servant of Satan.”

Viganò’s punishment suggests that Francis, who has faced conservative criticism since early in his papacy, may be losing patience with…

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the disgraced former papal nuncio to the United States who questioned the legitimacy of Pope Francis and the authority of the Second Vatican Council, has been found guilty of schism and excommunicated, the Vatican announced on July 5.

“His public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council are well known,” stated a Vatican bulletin that announced the ruling.

The decision of Viganò’s excommunication was widely expected following the archbishop’s June 20 announcement that he had been charged with schism by the Dicastery for the Doctrine for the Faith and that he would not be cooperating with the Vatican penal process.

At the time, Viganò said he would not comply with the…

The Vatican doctrine office announced Friday that it had found Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò guilty of the canonical crime of schism and declared his automatic excommunication.

A July 5 statement from the Holy See press office said that the verdict of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) was reached on Thursday and communicated to the former papal nuncio to the United States Friday.

The statement said: “On 4 July 2024, the congress of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith met to conclude the extrajudicial penal process referred to in canon 1720 CIC against the Most Reverend Carlo Maria Viganò, titular Archbishop of Ulpiana, accused of the reserved delict of schism (canons 751 and 1364 CIC; art. 2 SST).”

“His public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and…

The Vatican has officially excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith announced Friday.

Viganò was found guilty of the canonical crime, or delict, of schism, or the refusal to submit to the pope or the communion of the Church, at the conclusion of the Vatican’s extrajudicial penal process on July 4.

The Vatican’s doctrine office announced the “latae sententiae” excommunication (automatic excommunication) on July 5, citing Viganò’s “public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”

The former papal nuncio to the United States is now excommunicated, the most serious penalty a baptized person can incur, which consists of being placed outside the communion of the faithful of the Catholic…

Zachary King, pastor at multiple megachurches including LexCity in Kentucky has been charged with rape and sexual abuse of a minor.

The 47-year-old was arrested on Monday.

According to the office of Attorney General of Kentucky, Russell Coleman, King was booked in the Fayette County Detention Center and charged with several offences including rape, sexual assault and procuring or promoting use of minor by electronic means. 

King has reportedly resigned from Lexington City Church after members confronted him about the allegations.

At his arraignment on Tuesday, despite his lawyer asking for a $50,000 bond for his release the judge ordered it be $250,000 which he will have to pay 10% of.

Local news site Lex18.com reported that King confessed in an interview with Coleman’s office that he “engaged in a sexual relationship with a minor over the course of the last year and a half”, adding that it had begun when she was 15 in January 2023 and…

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a pharma case could have major effects on a New York diocese’s negotiations for bankruptcy and clergy sex abuse settlements.

The Rochester Beacon reported that the Diocese of Rochester filed for bankruptcy nearly five years ago in response to New York’s Child Victims Act, which removed the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse cases for two years. 

The Act resulted in roughly 485 claims in the Diocese’s bankruptcy filed by people who maintain they were sexually abused by clergy or other Church officials when they were children.

Since filing for bankruptcy, the Diocese has been involved in years of negotiations and discussions to settle the child sex abuse claims, but a June 27 U.S. Supreme Court case that blocked OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan could affect how the Diocese proceeds with its own bankruptcy reorganization plans…

The changes come as the denomination prepares to welcome a new presiding bishop with a history of bringing abuse to light.

As it elected Bishop Sean Rowe its new presiding bishop at last week’s General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, the Episcopal Church adopted more than 20 resolutions related to Title IV, a section of the church bylaws that governs its response to allegations against clergy of abuse or misconduct.

Over the past year, a spate of public Title IV cases prompted concerns about the complexity and effectiveness of the denomination’s approach to clergy discipline, particularly in cases involving bishops’ decisions or misconduct of their own. Less than two weeks before General Convention, the denomination disclosed that three of the five presiding bishop nominees had faced current or prior Title IV complaints. (Rowe was one of the two nominees not listed in the disclosure.)

“There’s been a lot of activity and action of…

The Archbishop of Canterbury has withdrawn an award given to Soul Survivor founder Mike Pilavachi after an investigation upheld safeguarding concerns.

Pilavachi received the Archbishop’s Lambeth Award in 2020 in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to evangelism and discipleship amongst young people in the United Kingdom”.

The Soul Survivor movement was founded by Pilavachi in 1993 and reached thousands of young people each year with its summer music festivals. 

Giving the award four years ago, Archbishop Justin Welby said Pilavachi had “shaped a spirituality and discipleship for generations of young people in which the primacy of worship, evangelism, provision for the poor, ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit and a love for scripture are non-negotiable”.

“This award for evangelism recognises that, above all, Soul Survivor has been the place where tens of thousands of young people have found faith. What is more, Mike has exercised this ministry with exemplary…

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications are digesting a robust rebuke by the Pope’s key point-man on clerical sexual abuse, the steely Irish American Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley OFM Cap.

Last week, the head of the Vatican’s communications department Paolo Ruffini strongly defended the continued use by his office of the art work of Jesuit artist Marko Rupnik who has been accused of appalling crimes of abuse against adult females.  His case is being investigated by the Vatican’s DDF.  The use of the art is highly contentious given victims say it’s a continuation of the abuse and a reminder of it.

In what seasoned PR professionals could only describe as a car crash intervention, Mr Ruffini told journalists that discontinuing the use of Fr Rupnik’s art of the Holy See’s website “is not a Christian response”.

“As Christian[s], we are asked not to judge,” he said, asking the journalists: “Do you…

The Catholic leader responsible for a world-famous and much beloved Marian healing shrine in France has ordered measures to lower the visibility of mosaic artwork by an accused serial rapist, but has stopped short — for the time being — of ordering the removal of the art.

Father Marko Rupnik is accused of abusing dozens of victims — most of them women religious — over several decades, much of which he spent in Rome at the Centro Aletti art institute he founded in the early 1990s.

Rupnik’s accusers say the removal of Rupnik’s art from places of worship is necessary because the abuse they suffered was part of Rupnik’s “creative” artistic process, making the art particularly ill-suited to sacred space.

Other victims of sexual abuse say the presence of art bearing the signature of a notorious abuser — especially one who escaped justice for so long as Rupnik did —…

The former Jesuit priest is under Vatican investigation after having been accused by women of spiritual and sexual abuse

As the commission discerning whether Father Marko Rupnik’s mosaics stay or go from the facade of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in the French sanctuary of Lourdes completed its work, no definitive decision was reached.

For now, the mosaics will stay, the sanctuary announced July 2, but “it will eventually be necessary” to remove them, the bishop of Lourdes told La Croix.

At the same time, artwork by the priest, who is under Vatican investigation after having been accused by between 20 and 40 women of spiritual and sexual abuse, with accusations made public in 2022, is still being installed around the world.

In France, the commission on the Rupnik art was established in 2023 by Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes and included a prosecutor, a…

While opinions divide on the future of the works of mosaic priest Marko Rupnik, accused of sexual abuse, columnist Katie Prejean recounts what she did with a work by the artist she purchased by mistake.

I accidentally bought a piece of Marko Rupnik art while in Rome last month.

I saw a lovely Divine Mercy medal in a gift shop right by my hotel, and priced at only eight euro, it seemed like a steal. I’ve long had a devotion to the Divine Mercy, I did not have a medal to wear on the chain around my neck, and I thought it’d be appropriate to add one while on this trip to Rome for the World Meeting of Human Fraternity.

An hour later, as I was adding the medal to my chain, I took it out of the small display box and realized, to my horror, that on the back of…

Bishop Advocates for Removal of Marko Rupnik’s Art in Lourdes Amid Abuse Allegations

In response to allegations of abuse against the artist Marko Rupnik, the Bishop of Lourdes has expressed a personal stance favoring the removal of Rupnik’s mosaics from the revered sanctuary. This perspective aims to respect and support the victims of the alleged abuses by the former Jesuit.

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of the Diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes released a statement on July 2, 2024, highlighting the sensitive issue of retaining Rupnik’s artwork, which is prominently displayed at the entrance of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.

The bishop underscored the pain and trauma that these mosaics evoke for the victims, citing that many have voiced their distress over the artworks’ continued presence.

In the statement, Bishop Micas recounted the formation of a commission between May and October of the previous year. This commission, comprising abuse…

Earlier today, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of the Diocese of Tarbes et Lourdes issued a statement announcing that after months of consultation he has reached the decision to take down the mosaics designed by former Jesuit and alleged abuser Fr. Marko Rupnik that appear at the entrance of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Lourdes. Since revelations about allegations against Rupnik for perpetrating sexual abuse — against as many as two dozen women — became public in late 2022, Catholics have debated what to do regarding his artwork, which is displayed in many prominent churches and shrines around the world.

Many observers looked to Lourdes to make the “first move,” and today they did, although Bishop Micas did not set a timetable for the removal of the art, and indicated that his arrival at the decision was the beginning of a process. As a “first step,”…

FAIRFIELD, Connecticut – As the Catholic leader responsible for a world-famous and much beloved Marian healing shrine in France continues to seek consensus over the removal of artwork by an accused serial abuser, two Catholic institutions in the U.S. state of Connecticut are among the scores of Church organizations faced with the question: What to do with the art produced by Father Marko Rupnik and his Centro Aletti art studio in Rome?

Rupnik is accused of psychologically, spiritually, and sexually abusing dozens of victims—most of them women religious—over some thirty years, many of which he spent in Rome at the Centro Aletti art institute he founded with the blessing of Pope St. John Paul II in the early 1990s.

Shrines and chapels and other sacred spaces from Lourdes to Springfield Lakes, Australia—and more than two hundred other places in between, including the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican—have over the past thirty years availed themselves…

[Watch video.]

A Newshub investigation into historic allegations of abuse at a Catholic-run orphanage in Upper Hutt has led to revelations the church has already upheld a separate complaint against one of the priests accused. 

The church is currently investigating Steve Carvell’s complaint that alleges he was abused when he was 7-year-old by two priests at St Joseph’s Orphanage in the 1970s. 

Newshub has learned another complaint about Father Noel Donoghue went to the church in 2006 and was investigated. 

And now a third person has come forward alleging he too was abused by Donoghue. 

It was two grainy black-and-white images of Father Noel Donoghue broadcast on Newshub in March which immediately triggered a strong reaction from a man who Newshub has agreed not to identify.  

“Yeah, that horrifies me,” he told Newshub looking at the historical photo of Donoghue.   

“It sent a shiver up my spine, because as…

The pastor of a Kentucky megachurch was arrested Monday for rape and sexual abuse of a minor, according to a press release from the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office.

Zachary King, 47, served as the executive pastor at LexCity Church in Lexington, Kentucky, the Attorney General’s Office said. He resigned from the church, after being confronted by church staff regarding allegations that he had an inappropriate relationship with a minor, according to an arrest citation obtained by Lex 18 News and other news sites.

According to LinkedIn, King previously served as a campus pastor at Metropolitan Baptist Church (The MET) in Houston and as a youth pastor and Central Team Leader at Lifechurch.tv, developing and training youth staff.

The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to LexCity Church for comment and further information but did not hear back prior to…

Father Marko Rupnik’s mosaics will not be immediately removed from the facade of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Lourdes (France), but it will eventually be necessary to do it, the Bishop of Lourdes said. Meanwhile, the artwork will no longer be highlighted.

A year and a half ago, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Lourdes initiated a reflection group to consider the fate of the mosaics in the Basilica of the Rosary at the heart of the Marian sanctuary.

Should this monumental work by priest-artist Father Marko Rupnik, now accused by several women of multiple sexual abuses, be removed or retained?

In this exclusive interview with La Croix‘s Heloïse de Neuville, Bishop Micas revealed his deep conviction and reflected on the long discernment process that led him to an intermediate solution at this stage.

La Croix: From May to October 2023, as Bishop of Lourdes, you launched a reflection group to…

The decision by the Diocese of Lourdes to stop highlighting the works of Slovenian artist Father Marko Rupnik that adorn the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes was praised by women victims July 3. However, they are calling for additional measures.

Women accusing Slovenian priest and mosaic artist Father Marko Rupnik of sexual assault applauded the July 3 decision by the Diocese of Tarbes-Lourdes to no longer illuminate his works adorning the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes while demanding for more action.

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes-Lourdes announced that the mosaics of the famed Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in southwest France, created by Father Rupnik, would “no longer be highlighted,” pending a definitive solution. Until now, the mosaics were featured in “light shows during the Marian procession that gathered pilgrims every evening,” the bishop explained.

In a letter, the Italian lawyer for the five accusers, Laura Sgro, welcomed…

The bishop of Lourdes said Tuesday that he personally believes that the Marian shrine’s mosaics by alleged abuser Father Marko Rupnik should be removed but is holding off on making a final decision on the mosaics’ fate in the face of “strong opposition.”

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes issued a statement on July 2 explaining that more time is needed “to discern what should be done,” as his belief that Rupnik’s mosaics should be torn down “would not be sufficiently understood” and “would add even more division and violence” at this moment. 

For now, as a “first step,” the French bishop has decided that Rupnik’s mosaics will no longer be lit up at night during the Lourdes’ nightly candlelight rosary processions with pilgrims.

The Lourdes bishop’s announcement comes less than two weeks after he met with Pope Francis in a private audience at the Vatican on…

A French bishop has put off any decision on whether to remove mosaics by an ex-Jesuit artist accused of abusing women, saying that they’ll stay for now on the Lourdes shrine but that eventually they should be removed.

The mosaics will no longer be lit up each night during the evening prayer, Lourdes Bishop Jean-Marc Micas said in a statement Tuesday. But he told the French Catholic daily La Croix that he had decided not to remove them now because he didn’t want to “tear the church apart.”

“My deep, formed, intimate conviction is that they will one day need to be removed: they prevent Lourdes from reaching all the people for whom the sanctuary’s message is intended,” Micas was quoted as saying. “But I have decided not to remove them immediately, given the passions and violence the subject incites.”

The Rev. Marko Rupnik has been accused by over 20 women of…

Father Bouchard is no longer on administrative leave and his good name will be restored

NEWS RELEASE
July 1, 2024

Contact: Dennis Biviano, PR & Media Specialist, (330) 744-8451, ext. 320; dbiviano@youngstowndiocese.org

The Very Reverend William Lawrence, Provincial Superior of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, has reported to the Diocese of Youngstown that an Independent Review Board found no sufficient evidence to proceed with criminal action in the matter of accusations against Father Denis Bouchard.

Father Bouchard, the former pastor of Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish, was placed on leave in 2018 after a man accused Bouchard of sexual abuse when he was a child. The jury rendered a verdict in Father Bouchard’s favor on the claims for civil assault, civil battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The investigation is now closed, Father Bouchard is no longer on administrative leave and his good name is restored. Father Bouchard will return…

YOUNGSTOWN − A Catholic priest under investigation since 2018 has been cleared of accusations of sexual abuse.

The Very Rev. William Lawrence, provincial superior of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, has reported to the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown that an independent review board found no sufficient evidence to proceed with criminal action in the matter of accusations against the Rev. Denis Bouchard.

A former pastor of Queen of the Holy Rosary parish in Vienna, Ohio, Bouchard was placed on leave in 2018 after a man accused Bouchard of sexual abuse when he was a child.

The board rendered a verdict in Bouchard’s favor on the claims for civil assault, civil battery andintentional infliction of emotional distress.

The investigation is now closed and Bouchard is no longer on administrative leave. He will return to his provincial headquarters and receive a new assignment.

(ANALYSIS) When members of the Society of Jesus gather at Borgo Santo Spirito, their headquarters near the Vatican, they worship surrounded by the relics of Jesuit saints and works of sacred art.

This includes the work of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, who the Jesuits expelled in June 2023 after long investigations into allegations that he sexually and emotionally abused as many as 30 women in religious orders. The Vatican excommunicated the Slovenian priest in 2020 — but quickly withdrew that judgment.

Some abuse, according to alleged victims, took place while nuns were serving as models for Rupnik’s art.

The question the Vatican should answer, according to the leader of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, is whether it’s time to remove Rupnik’s art from Vatican websites and publications, as well as holy sanctuaries.

“We must avoid sending a message that the Holy See is oblivious to the psychological…

VATICAN CITY, July 3 (Reuters) – The sanctuary of Lourdes, one of the world’s most popular Catholic pilgrimage sites, will not for the moment remove mosaics made by a prominent Slovenian Jesuit priest accused of sexual abuse, the local bishop said in an interview.

Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, whose mosaics adorn about 200 churches and chapels around world as well as the Vatican, has been accused of sexual and psychological abuse by about 20 people, mostlyformer nuns.

Rupnik has not commented on the allegations. The Jesuits last year called them “very highly” credible and expelled him. Both the order, to which Pope Francis belongs, and the Vatican have launched internal investigations.

The Rupnik mosaics adorning the facade of Lourdes’ Rosary Basilica “will one day need to be removed”, Lourdes Bishop Jean-Marc Micas said in an interview with French Catholic newspaper La Croix published on Tuesday.

The mosaics “prevent Lourdes from…

Seven Native American tribes in Arizona and New Mexico should soon receive official notice explaining how tribal members who are clergy sex abuse survivors can file claims against the Franciscan Province of St. Barbara in its Chapter 11 case now wending its way through U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The province, through its civil entity the Franciscan Friars of California, Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection Dec. 31, 2023, exactly one year after California’s most recent “lookback window” for filing sex abuse claims closed. The province, which covers the western U.S., was facing 94 new abuse claims, most filed in California, Franciscan Fr. David Gaa, the provincial minister, stated in a court filing Jan. 8.

“To date, 59 current or former friars associated with the Debtor have been accused of childhood sexual abuse in the states of Arizona, California, Idaho, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington,”…

An Indigenous image of Jesus Christ by an acclaimed iconographer has been removed from a New Mexico church for unspecified reasons, days after the U.S. bishops approved a pastoral framework for Indigenous ministry.

Painted by Franciscan Friar Robert Lentz, “Apache Christ” is an 8-foot icon depicting Jesus as a Mescalero holy man, with the inscription in Apache “giver of life.” Since 1989 it had hung behind the altar of the church under a crucifix.

This image and a painting of Apache dancers by the late Apache artist Gervase Peso were taken down from the interior walls of St. Joseph Apache Mission in Mescalero, New Mexico, sometime during the evening of June 26 and the early morning hours of June 27.

The parish is located on the lands of the Mescalero Apache Tribe.

The discovery was made by parish staff and volunteers as they opened the church for use in catechetical…

As accusations of sexual abuse have mounted against Slovenian Father Marko Rupnik, his art has come under a microscope, and recently attentive observers noted a curiosity – the face of the artist himself, along with two of his closest friends and allies, appears in an obscure section of perhaps his most famous work.

Rupnik’s giant mosaic in the Vatican’s Redemptoris Mater Chapel, sometimes dubbed the “Sistine Chapel” of the late Pope John Paul II, according to an inscription above the door, was installed by the Rupnik-founded, Rome-based Centro Aletti in 1999, and blends eastern and western motifs in depicting the history of salvation.

Rupnik, 69, whose famed murals adorn chapels and cathedrals around the world, including inside the Vatican and at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, is accused of sexually abusing at least 30 adult women, many of them nuns belonging to the Loyola Community he helped found in his native Slovenia…

Robert Morris, former senior pastor of the prominent nondenominational Gateway Church headquartered in Southlake, Texas, resigned two weeks ago after Cindy Clemishire accused him of molesting her for four years, beginning when she was 12. The case has prompted calls for reforms not only in the church but at the state Capitol.

“These actions demand public exposure, should never be tolerated, and any person who harms a child should and must be held accountable,” said Texas state Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Fort Worth Republican whose district neighbors Southlake, on Monday. “I will continue to speak the truth regardless of who it affects, and I will continue to advocate for legislation that protects children from abuse.”

State Rep. Jeff Leach, a conservative Christian who chairs the powerful Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee, told the political newsletter Quorum Report that he plans to hold hearings and…

A Catholic school teacher who abused a student ate dinner at her victim’s home to gain the trust of the teenager’s family.

Victorian woman Michelle Grant, 62, was sentenced to six months in prison for the shocking abuse of the St Columba’s College Essendon pupil in the early 1990s.

On one occasion, during a ‘sleep over’, Grant and the student watched what the County Court heard was a ‘lesbian movie’ and kissed on the couch.

The art and textiles teacher then copied the scenes of the film and sexually abused the teenager, the Herald Sun reported. 

Grant taught at the school from the 1980s until she was fired in 2022, groomed the girl from the age of 14 and wrote letters telling her she loved her.

As their ‘intimacy grew’, the teacher, who was married at the time, drew the victim who was nude and told a ‘web of…

Former Montreal priest and convicted sex offender Brian Boucher remains unrepentant as he prepares to leave prison this month, says the bishop instrumental is bringing him to justice.

While he was denied parole at his June 25 parole board hearing — according to the board report, parole was denied because Boucher refuses to admit to the crimes for which he was sentenced — Boucher is eligible for statutory release in July as he has served two-thirds of his eight-year sentence.

Boucher, 62, was convicted in March 2019 of sexually abusing two teenage boys while a priest in Montreal.

Sault Ste. Marie Bishop Thomas Dowd told The Catholic Register that Boucher “categorically denied that his original crimes ever happened.” Dowd, who while serving as auxiliary bishop in Montreal, attended the former priest’s parole board hearing.

Dowd recounted that when Boucher was asked why he had pled guilty, he replied, “I was advised to do…

Archbishop Etienne argues in court brief that the state has no right to investigate sexual abuse or financial mismanagement  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 1, 2024

Earlier this afternoon, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle submitted his opposition to Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s petition to compel the archdiocese to cooperate with the AGO’s subpoenas demanding abuse-related documents from Washington State’s three Catholic dioceses.

The AGO filed subpoenas on the basis of the Charitable Trust Act (CTA), which gives the Washington State Attorney General the authority to “facilitate public supervision” of public charitable trusts…and to clarify and implement the powers and duties of the attorney general.” Ferguson argues that criminal activity is not a protected activity under the CTA.

Archbishop Etienne argues that Attorney General Ferguson has no authority to investigate any part of the functioning of the Catholic Church – even when their patterns and practices include concealing and enabling sexual…

When I first learned that Father Marko Rupnik had been credibly accused of serial sexual abuse, in particular of religious sisters, it took me several days to process the news. Years before, I had been in formation for religious life myself and had read his book on discernment. It had a significant impact on my own understanding of hearing God’s voice.

The thought that this priest, with his easily recognizable mosaics that cover churches and chapels in the United States, Lourdes, Rome and throughout the world, had been using his position of spiritual power to abuse women was crushing.

The Vatican has been slow to take action in the case of Father Marko Rupnik. Initially, they said that they could not do anything because of the statute of limitations, although Pope Francis eventually removed that obstacle. Then, the Jesuits expelled Rupnik from their order, citing “disobedience,” but he was welcomed…

Father Denis Bouchard, the former pastor off Queen of the Holy Parish, was placed on leave in 2018 after a man accused Bouchard of sexual abuse when he was a child. 

A priest from Vienna that was accused of sexually abusing a man while he was a child has been reinstated.

This comes after an independent review board found no sufficient evidence to proceed with criminal action against Father Denis Bouchard, according to a news release from the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown.

Bouchard, the former pastor off Queen of the Holy Parish, was placed on leave in 2018 after a man accused Bouchard of sexual abuse when he was a child. 

In a civil suit that was filed in 2019, a jury sided with Bouchard on claims of civil assault, civil battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the accuser.

However they did not find that Bouchard was defamed by…

As the Archdiocese of New York and its insurance company, Chubb, battle over who is responsible for millions in potential payouts to survivors of clergy sexual abuse, a new group has entered the picture.

Announcing its presence in November with a full page ad in The New York Times, the Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation, which describes itself as an “alliance of survivors of child abuse and their advocates committed to ensuring that survivors receive the restitution that they deserve,” called on Chubb to stop fighting its responsibility in court and said its behavior was “callous.”

But in letters obtained by the New York Daily News, Chubb says it is, in fact, the archdiocese that’s being callous — all but accusing the coalition of being in cahoots with the archdiocese amid efforts to pressure the insurer to pay up.

Both the Archdiocese of New York and the coalition deny…

The latest Catholic commotion is over the Vatican’s promotion of an accused abuser priest’s art.

Not long ago, the Vatican’s chief spokesman told 350 media professionals that Vatican media would still use art by Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, 69, currently under investigation for accusations of abusing women religious.

Paolo Ruffini, 67, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, defended the official use of art by the accused serial rapist at the annual meeting of the Catholic Media Association in Atlanta. In Rupnik’s  defense and by comparison, Ruffini asked the roomful of media professionals, “What about Caravaggio?”

What about him?

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a philandering reprobate who produced stunning art. By an extraordinary use of light and dark, his paintings present a realistic view of what it means to be human, drawing the viewer into the deep human emotions he so realistically portrayed.

After killing a rich gangster, Ranuccio…

Just one day after the news that hundreds of thousands of Catholics left the Church in Germany in 2023, the Vatican met with representatives of the German Synodal Way to discuss the controversial plans for a permanent synodal council.

The meeting on Friday resulted in Rome demanding the Germans change the name of the body and agree it cannot have authority over — or be equal to — the bishops’ conference, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

The gathering came at a critical time: According to the official statistics released by the German Bishops’ Conference on Thursday, more than 400,000 people officially left the Church in 2023.

While this represents a decrease from the 522,000 departures in 2022, the trend remains alarming for Church leaders and Catholics alike.

Currently, there are 20,345,872 Catholics registered in Germany. If trends persist, the number…

Having nothing in particular against the Latin Mass, and no real opinion on the Norvus Ordo (beyond believing it could be vastly improved with the inclusion of a melodic and singable “Gloria” over the truly awful vernacular versions served up in these parts), I leave the debate on Extraordinary or Ordinary liturgical forms for others. For me, all Masses are good; may their numbers increase and may others fight about it and leave me to my prayers, devotions and faith-based interests and outreaches, Amen.

That said, the words “diabolical disorientation” have lately been a distraction.

I’d heard the phrase uttered years ago, by someone using the prophecies of Fatima to argue with me about the validity of the Second Vatican Council and the “new Mass.” His arguments, though passionate, did not persuade, but the alliterative phrase struck me as something worth remembering, especially as the world began a full-on embrace…

A former youth pastor has been charged with assaulting a minor as part of a state investigation into clergy and faith leader abuse in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice said in a release that James Lane, 52, was charged with one count of repeated sexual assault of a child for incidents dating back to 2002 and 2003. An arrest warrant for Lane has been issued.

Lane, of Colorado, was a youth pastor at the Faith Reformed Church in Wisconsin Rapids at the time, a part of the Alliance of Reformed Churches.

The assaults occurred when the victim was 14 and 15 years old, according to the complaint. He once assaulted her in a car while driving her home and other times in his office.

When investigators interviewed Lane, he said he had a “relationship” with a girl in the youth group that got “inappropriate,” the complaint says. He recalled…

• Unlike the debate regarding clergy sexual abuse in California, on the other side of the fence, in the Mexican Californias, there is a deceitful tranquility.
• It is not that Mexico is free from clergy sexual abuse; it is that neither the Church, nor the government are willing to go deep into the issue.
• Despite the alleged existence of a “lay State” in Mexico, churches are under no pressure to report clergy sexual abuse much less to compensate the victims of it.

Last week Los Ángeles Press published a story on the wave of bankruptcies after the clergy sexual abuse crisis in California. On the surface, having half of the Roman Catholic dioceses in that state seeking the protection of Chapter 11, tells a story of turmoil.

But looks can be deceiving. As that story, linked immediately after the next paragraph stresses, the bankruptcies are from cases going back to the 20th…

ROME – Almost three decades after her death, Saint Teresa of Kolkata, commonly and affectionately referred to as “Mother Teresa,” remains an international icon of charity and among the most beloved figures in the world, probably the Catholic Church’s most celebrated 20th century personality who wasn’t a pope.

Named Time’s “Person of the Year” in 1975, Mother Teresa also founded a religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, which has become one of the Catholic Church’s most celebrated institutions, almost universally hailed for its service to the “poorest of the poor.”

Yet despite the society’s international fame, some former members have recounted a shadow side. They describe an internal culture at times marked by abuse and neglect, characterized by what they call a personalistic and pre-Vatican II style of leadership.

These former members, some of whom left decades ago and others who exited more recently, assert the order occasionally exhibits dynamics sadly…

Calls to remove the artwork of alleged abuser Father Marko Rupnik are growing — and clerical abuse survivors told OSV News the issue speaks volumes about how the church views them and their pain.

On June 28, letters were sent to bishops throughout the world by five women alleging abuse by Father Rupnik, describing the retention of the ex-Jesuit’s works in churches and shrines as “inappropriate” and wounding to victims. The priest was expelled from the Jesuits for disobedience in 2023 after the order compiled a 150-page dossier of credible accusations against him, believed to involve between 20 to 40 women.

In a separate June 26 communication, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told the dicasteries of the Vatican Curia that Father Rupnik is currently under Vatican investigation and entitled to the presumption of innocence. However, he made clear that…

Balash will serve as pro tem administrator effective immediately until Sept. 9.

The Catholic Diocese has announced the Very Reverend Micael D. Balash will temporarily replace Father Michael Swierz at Saint Patrick’s in Hubbard amid investigations into Swierz’s past.

Effective immediately, Balash will serve as pro tem administrator until Sept. 9. This is in addition to his responsibilities as Vicar for the Clergy and Religious Services, director for the Office of Worship and sacramental minister at Trumbull North Parishes.

A native of Hubbard, Balash went to St. Patrick School and Hubbard High School. He later earned his master’s in Divinity and master of arts in Biblical Studies at St. Mary’s of the West in Cincinnati.

He was ordained in 1987.

After Sept. 9, Reverend John Rovnak will become the parish’s administrator. Rovnak currently serves as the parochial vicar at Holy Family Parish in Poland and Saint Paul Parish in New Middletown.

Rovnak…

“We believed in our case. I want to recognize the victim’s courage to come into court to testify, and we respect the jurors’ verdict.”

A Cap Cod priest who was accused of two counts of rape between 2005 and 2008 has been found not guilty by a Barnstable Superior Court jury.

The priest, Mark Hession, served as the parish priest for Our Lady of Victory in Centerville from 2000 to 2014, according to The Cap Cod Times.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges on the 2021 indictment, including one count of assault and battery on a child under 14, alleged to have happened in 2002, according to the paper.

On the assault and battery charge, the jury couldn’t reach a verdict last week, according to reports. Judge Mark C. Gildea declared a mistrial, according to the news publication.

The jury deliberated for five days…

I was surprised to see Chesterfield, Missouri, mentioned as I scrolled through my social media.

I was even more surprised to see that they were in the news because a Catholic parish there was supposedly organizing an armed militia. And the whole story, or at least what we know of it right now, is even more complicated than that.

Yesterday on X/Twitter, Laura Burkhardt, a Missouri resident and a volunteer for Moms Demand Action, tweeted out a thread about a very odd advertisement that appeared in the bulletin for Ascension Catholic Parish in Chesterfield, Missouri. The thread starts off with two screenshots. The first is the cover of the bulletin, an ordinary church bulletin like every one I’ve ever seen. The bulletin boasts that the parish is 100 years old and they have an adoration chapel where the Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed every afternoon. Seems like a nice…

A Florida pastor was arrested and charged with four counts of possession of child pornography on Friday (June 21). Jonathan Elwing, now-formerly of Palm View First Baptist Church in Palmetto, Florida, resigned from the church before being taken into custody. 

Elwing was arrested after an investigation revealed that he allegedly used cryptocurrency to purchase child sex abuse material. Law enforcement executed a search warrant on Friday at the church and Elwing’s home and found child sex abuse material on Elwing’s phone.

In response to the shocking news, Larry Bianchi, the chair of Palm View’s deacon board, told WWSB that “the people of the church are the church.”

“The pastor may be the front man, he may be the leader of the church—and we need a new one,” Bianchi said. “But Palm View Baptist Church will go on because of the strength of the congregation.”

The congregation is affiliated…

The scandal over a famous ex-Jesuit artist who is accused of psychologically, spiritually and sexually abusing adult women came to a head Friday after some of his alleged victims and the Pope’s own anti-abuse adviser asked for his artworks not to be promoted or displayed.

The separate initiatives underscored how the case of Rev Marko Rupnik, whose mosaics grace some of the Catholic Church’s most-visited shrines and sanctuaries, continues to cause a headache for the Vatican and Pope Francis, who as a Jesuit himself has been drawn into the scandal.

Early Friday, five women who say they were abused by Rupnik sent letters to Catholic bishops around the world asking them to remove his mosaics from their churches, saying their continued display in places of worship was “inappropriate” and retraumatising to victims.

Separately, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the Pope’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, sent his own letter…

The Capuchin Franciscan made his mark effectively responding to a sexual abuse scandal in Boston that had worldwide repercussions.

Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, the Archbishop of Boston, turns 80 on June 29 and is therefore no longer able to vote in a papal conclave.

Yet the cardinal continues in key roles five years past the mandatory retirement age of bishops, a sign of Pope Francis’ esteem for the Capuchin Franciscan.

In addition to heading one of the United States’ most significant archdioceses, Cardinal O’Malley is president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which has been meeting since May 2014, and is an original member of the Council of Cardinals, an influential body formed in 2013 to advise Pope Francis on the reform of the Roman Curia and other matters.

A public letter

O’Malley, who appears in public wearing the brown robe of his Capuchin…

The Victorian regional city has endorsed a design for a memorial to survivors of sexual violence, and to recognise historic abuse by Catholic clergy

Ballarat is a city of grand churches. Even without the ribbons of survivors tied on the fences, it’s difficult to drive past them without thinking of the past atrocities that, to many, they have come to represent.

Although it is not fair to survivors to describe it as a thing of the past. They’re part of a lingering wound, open and bare, susceptible to becoming infected if left untreated.

We have not all been directly affected. But even those of us lucky to be free of the personal experience of it feel this trauma reverberating through the town.

So how do we treat such a deep laceration?

This week, the City of Ballarat unanimously endorsed the designs for a memorial park in Ballarat for victims of sexual violence….

On the annual celebration of the International Day of the African Child (DAC), which was belatedly marked in South Sudan on June 26, the Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in the country has emphasized the need to pay keen attention to the safeguarding of minors. 

In his message for the event marked annually on June 16, Fr. Santo Gaba urged citizens to report all cases of suspected child abuse as a way of promoting the rights of children. 

“The Church must see that children are safe because the children are the future of the Church,” Fr. Gaba said in his Wednesday, June 26 message.

He added, “The Catholic Church and the leaders in South Sudan should ensure that children’s dignity and their rights to a dignified life and bodily integrity (are) respected, nurtured and safeguarded.”

The member of the Clergy of South Sudan’s Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio (CDTY) recognized children as…

American Catholicism marked a quiet milestone yesterday, as Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston turned 80 years old on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. It’s apt that his birthday coincides with the annual celebration of the great apostles of Rome, because it’s arguable that no other U.S. prelate has ever come quite as close to becoming the Bishop of Rome himself as the now-octogenarian Capuchin.

Having turned 80, O’Malley now is no longer eligible to participate in the conclave that will elect the next pope, and almost certainly off the board as a contender. Eleven years ago, however, there was a serious possibility that had the candidacy of the then-Cardinal of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, stalled, many electors might have turned to O’Malley.

According to some reconstructions, O’Malley had as many as ten votes on the first ballot in the 2013 conclave. While his name disappeared as it…

The Diocese of Fall River announced that it has launched an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by the Rev. Jay Mello, pastor of St. Michael’s Church on Essex Street and St. Joseph’s Church on North Main Street. 

Mello is also pastor of St. Michael’s School, a pre-kindergarten to Grade 8 Catholic school on Essex Street, and serves on the School Committee for the Greater Fall River Vocational School District. He serves as chaplain for the Fall River Police Department. 

In a letter written by Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, he noted that Mello has denied the allegations.

Learn more about the investigation, here.

Diocese investigation:Fall River priest placed on leave over allegations of ‘sexual misconduct’: What we know

Attorney says Father Jay Mello has other sexual abuse victims

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented multiple victims of clergy sexual abuse, claimed that in 2013 the Rev….