ABUSE TRACKER

Writing about my Christian faith has always seemed dangerous for some reason. Politics and economics seem less complicated and an easier link to the world around us.

Yet, it seems that the Christian Church has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in areas associated with education, tax reform, immigration and right-wing fringe politics.

When someone in the broader church does something completely counter to the teachings of Jesus, it is quite easy for a reporter to get a negative reaction from the reader. In the news recently, we learned about a pedophile priest and a school that would rather forfeit a football game than play a team with girls on it. The news media seems to perpetuate the belief that any conservative leader who somehow fails…

When I began writing a column for this newspaper, I was by no means its first Catholic columnist, but I was probably the first representative of conservative Catholicism, a partisan of both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, to write regularly for The Times’s opinion pages. This created an expectation — in my own mind, at least — that when I wrote about my own religion, it would be mostly as a defender of the faith, championing church teaching and papal authority to a readership inclined to a certain skepticism about both.

Instead, the major Catholic story of my early years as a columnist was the sex-abuse crisis, where there were ideological arguments about causes and cures, but far more to lament than to champion or defend. Then in 2013, Pope Benedict resigned, a decision that I firmly believe supernaturally jolted the entire world off its comfortable end-of-history…

The Vatican’s latest declaration bombshell, authored by one of the most senior clerics in the Roman Curia, has duped the international press and its readers alike into believing that the Catholic Church has softened its position on homosexuality. It hasn’t. 

In describing how sinners, who may be in a same-same relationship, may ask for a “spontaneous blessing” from a priest – a type of blessing that has never been denied to any, nor been given on a discriminatory basis – Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez in “Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings” has introduced nothing new.

Same-sex couples, as individual souls, may receive a blessing from a cleric. Their relationship may not. An important distinction.

To clarify the mess and misunderstanding, it must be explained what the endorsed blessings are and aren’t. 

Firstly, those “spontaneous” blessings which have been authorised. This summer, when I was among some 1.6…

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Over the past 20 years, religious organisations from the Catholic Church to Jehovah’s Witnesses have had a reckoning with cases of child sexual abuse. Many states have tried to tackle the abuse by making clergy mandatory reporters of abuse to officials, just like doctors, therapists and teachers are. However, more than 30 states in the United States do not require church officials to report knowledge or allegations of child abuse if the information is deemed privileged, specifically coming from confession or counselling. It means that abuse can all too often be hidden – and survivors are left without recourse or justice. Fault Lines investigates how state laws in the US can lead to child sexual abuse in religious communities going unpunished.

Senior Producer: Kavitha Chekuru Correspondent: Natasha Del Toro Director of Photography: Erik Ljung Editor: Leslie Atkins Executive Producer: Laila Al-Arian Production Manager: Anabelle Rojas Fact-checking: Abdulai…

This isn’t the first time an Arlington Catholic High School staff member has been accused of inappropriate conduct.

A teacher at Arlington Catholic High School has resigned amid allegations of “inappropriate contact” toward students, according to school officials. 

Writing to families and staff Tuesday, school administrators said the allegations came to light last week, according to a copy of the letter obtained by WCVB. 

“On Thursday, December 14, allegations were brought forward before school regarding inappropriate contact from a member of the teaching staff towards students,” the letter read. “The students had reported the activity to a teacher/teachers after school the previous day, and, as mandated reporters, they notified the administration.”

The school alerted Arlington police and the legal department at the Archdiocese of Boston, according to the letter. School leaders also launched an internal investigation, which remains ongoing.

The teacher was placed…

The pastor of a prominent Little Rock, Arkansas, church is under fire for not telling his congregation about an abusive former staffer, even after the person had been charged by police.

When leaders of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, found out in 2016 that a former church staffer had been accused of sexually abusing a child, they called the police and reported the information.

Then they went silent for seven years.

An assistant director of children’s ministry, Patrick Stephen Miller was arrested, charged with second-degree sexual assault and later convicted of a lesser offense, Immanuel Baptist pastor Steven Smith and other leaders never informed the congregation.

In early December, Smith finally explained the episode to Immanuel Baptist’s members, but only after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had reported on Miller’s attempts to have his court records sealed. Smith apologized for withholding information about the abuse and Miller’s conviction.

“I wish we had…

The pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, Steven Smith, told his congregation Sunday that he is willing to step down for failing to inform them that a former church official charged with guiding children had been credibly accused of abusing minors at the church.

“If at any point now [or] in the future, this church believes God’s anointing or call upon my service at Immanuel has been lifted, I will not resist the will of the church,” Smith, with his wife, Ashley, by his side, told congregants at the end of the 9 a.m. service in a statement that was not broadcast online by the church, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “Until then, we want to continue to press on in our mission to advance the kingdom.”

Smith told the congregation that a former member of the church staff, Patrick Stephen Miller,…

My mom loved Christmas so much, she would sometimes leave the tree up until April.

She dyed a sheet blue for the sky behind the crèche and made a star of tin foil. The cradle would stay empty until Christmas morning; when we tumbled downstairs, the baby would be in his place, and the house would smell of roasting turkey.

Mom always took it personally if you didn’t wear red or green on Christmas, and she signed all the presents “Love, Baby Jesus,” “Love, Virgin Mary” or “Love, St. Joseph.”

(My brother Kevin was always upset that Joseph got short shrift, disappearing from the Bible; why wasn’t he around to boast about Jesus turning water into wine?)

We went to midnight Mass back then, and it was magical, despite some boys wearing Washington Redskins bathrobes as they carried presents down the aisle for Baby Jesus.

In 2005, when my mom…

It never fails. Virtually every time anyone takes a closer look at a church’s ‘credibly accused’ abuser list, more new names emerge, names that the institution (whether a diocese or a religious order) has conveniently left off its list. It could be researchers like us at Horowitz Law. It could be a group like BishopAccountability.org (an archive organization) or SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (a support group.) It could be a prosecutor, grand jury, or attorney general. Or it could be a news outlet, as is the case here. It doesn’t matter. Virtually every single time somebody puts forth some effort and spends some time on Google, names turn up that SHOULD be but are NOT on the official church sex offender list.

So before we go further, let us express our deep gratitude to those who work diligently to warn others about child molesting…

International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) Spokesman Eric Volz tonight announced that IHOPKC is “formally and permanently” separating from its founder Mike Bickle due to a level of confirmed “inappropriate behavior.”

Volz also announced that IHOPKC Executive Director Stuart Greaves has resigned his position both on staff and on IHOPKC’s board. Temporarily assuming the executive director position will be Kurt Fuller, a military general and a member of IHOPKC’s executive committee, who took over management of the crisis at IHOPKC on Sunday, Volz said.

The crisis at IHOPKC stems from allegations Bickle sexually abused multiple women over several decades.

On Nov. 30, The Roys Report (TRR) published an article with an exclusive interview with an alleged victim of Bickle’s who claimed Bickle used prophecy to sexually abuse her. Bickle responded by admitting to “inappropriate behavior 20 years ago,” but denying the “more intense sexual activities some are suggesting.”

Yet tonight, Volz said,…

The Gabriel Byrne who sits for this interview has long since left behind the actor who suffered a panic attack after the successful screening of The Usual Suspects at Cannes in 1995. Terrified, he crawled into his hotel bed in Nice for several days. He is no longer the man who was sexually abused by the Christian Brothers as a child and, soon after, at age 11, by a Catholic priest at the seminary he attended in Liverpool. Nor is he the man who battled alcoholism for decades. He likely achieved peace after writing his second volume of memoirs, Walking with Ghosts (2020), which he adapted as a one-man show for the theater, and faced all his problems.

Now, at 73, Byrne leads a placid life in Maine. The Dubliner travels from the East Coast to shoot and promote films such as Dance First, a flawed biopic of writer Samuel Beckett’s life. But at least its…

A South Korean religious sect leader whose sex crimes were featured in the popular Netflix series “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” earlier this year was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Friday, court officials said.

The Daejeon District Court in central South Korea said that it handed the prison term to Jeong Myeong-seok after convicting him of sexual violence against three of his female followers from 2018-2021.

Jeong, 78, is leader of the Christian Gospel Mission in South Korea, which is also known as Jesus Morning Star, or JMS.

A court statement said that Jeong’s convicted crimes include “quasi-rape” and “quasi-imitative rape,” which court officials said meant illicit sexual intercourse with a person who was unconscious or unable to resist.

The court refused to provide details of Jeong’s convicted sexual crimes.

Dozens of Jeong’s supporters gathered near the court, shouted slogans and raised placards that say…

Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic Lay Apostolate committed to promoting transparency in Church operations, has published its 2023 diocesan financial and governance transparency reports. This year marks the seventh year VOTF has reviewed all USCCB dioceses for their online financial transparency and the second year VOTF has studied their online governance transparency, as reflected by lay involvement in Diocesan Finance Councils. The overall results of both studies continue to be positive, report authors said, but much could be improved.

VOTF’s 2023 diocesan financial and governance transparency reviews of all 176 dioceses* comprising the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was conducted during the summer of 2023 by independent reviewers. The reports are “Measuring and Ranking Diocesan Online Financial Transparency: 2023 Report,” and “Lay Involvement in Church Governance Through the Diocesan Finance Council: 2023 Report.” These and all previous VOTF reports on diocesan online financial and governance transparency can be…

“Local church autonomy” is a Baptist distinctive selectively used.

As evidence, consider Al Mohler’s position on Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., 25 years ago when then-President Bill Clinton was a member there. Mohler, relatively new as president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., declared the Arkansas congregation should “church” Clinton because of his improper relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

A Baptist Press story published on Sept. 11, 1998, and written by none-other than Russell Moore — who at the time was working as Mohler’s apologist — said this:

Church discipline according to the New Testament, Mohler explained, aims toward the goal of restoration, not retribution. A church member’s sin, Mohler said, is not the problem of only the erring individual, but is in fact “a matter of accountability of the whole congregation.” He said a failure to exercise church discipline would demonstrate “a very superficial view…

The International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) is disputing an allegation that IHOPKC Executive Director Stuart Greaves pressured a woman not to go to police about an alleged rape.

The allegation, dating from 2014, was included in an article The Roys Report (TRR) published last month. TRR reported a woman claimed that Greaves questioned her account in several meetings with her and didn’t provide care. The woman also said Greaves pressured her not to report the matter to police, saying police wouldn’t believe her, and it would only result in bad press for IHOPKC.

TRR’s policy is not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault unless they request it. For this article, the woman asked that we refer to her as “Veronica.”

To dispute Veronica’s story, IHOPKC released screenshots of portions of an email thread from 2018—four years after the alleged rape.

TRR asked for the complete thread, but a statement…

The Vatican’s chief prosecutor has appealed a court verdict that largely dismantled his theory of a grand conspiracy to defraud the Holy See of millions of euros but found a cardinal guilty of embezzlement.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi filed his appeal this week of the three-judge tribunal’s decision in a complicated financial trial that aired the Vatican’s dirty laundry and tested its peculiar legal system.

While the headline from the Dec. 16 verdict focused on Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s 5½-year sentence for embezzlement, the meat of the ruling made clear that the judges rejected most of Diddi’s 487-page indictment.

Diddi had accused Becciu and nine other people of dozens of counts of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion, corruption, abuse of office and witness tampering in connection with the Vatican’s bungled investment in a London property.

He sought prison terms of up…

A bishop has ignited a debate by refusing to pay compensation to victims of sexual abuse, concerning cases that occurred within the context of the Catholic Church. This decision contradicts the expectations of many involved parties and victims’ associations, which demand appropriate compensation and recognition of the victims’ suffering. The situation sheds light on the ongoing challenges the Catholic Church faces in addressing cases of sexual abuse and supporting its victims.

Hans Joachim Ihrenberger, a victim of sexual abuse by a priest, is supposed to receive 150,000 euros in compensation. However, the responsible bishop has blocked the decision. Ihrenberger was sexually abused as a communion child by a priest, leading to severe mental and physical problems. A commission appointed by the church recommended the payment, but the bishop rejected the decision.

Independent Commission’s Decision Overruled

The UKA, an independent commission for recognition services, was established by the German Catholic bishops…

A former Catholic priest who worked across West Yorkshire is facing 10 allegations of child abuse dating back more than 40 years.

Father Patrick Smythe appeared from custody via video link at Leeds Crown Court this afternoon where he denied all of charges and will stand trial next year.

They include nine counts of indecent assault and one of indecency dating between 1976 and 1989. There are four alleged victims who were young boys at the time.

Smythe, who was a priest with the Diocese of Leeds, spoke during the short hearing only to confirm his date of birth, and then repeated “not guilty” after each of the charges were read out.

Spain’s Catholic Church said Thursday that an audit it had ordered into child sexual abuse by priests had found significantly fewer cases than an independent commission appointed by parliament.

At least 2,056 minors were victims of sexual abuse, according to an audit based on lawsuits filed against members of the clergy. It was however “obvious that the number is higher”, said the Spanish Episcopal Conference, which groups Spain’s leading bishops. The audit was prepared by the law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo.

The figures from the audit are far lower than those cited in the independent commission published in October. It found that more than 200,000 were estimated to have been sexually abused in Spain by the Roman Catholic clergy since 1940.

That report did not however give a specific figure.

Instead, it extrapolated from a poll of over 8,000 people, which found that 0.6 percent of Spain’s adult population of…

The deadline to submit a claim of sexual abuse against the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Halifax and the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of the Yarmouth has now passed.  

From Dec. 14, 2022, to Dec. 14, 2023, the call was sent out across the Halifax-Yarmouth archdiocese for victims of abuse by diocesan priests from April 14, 1954, to March 31, 2020, to file their declaration and potentially receive compensation. This window opened exactly a month after the archdiocese settled the class action suit for $10 million.

“While the class action suit is a constant reminder of the damage and great hurt that has been inflicted on individuals by members of the clergy, it is necessary to provide an opportunity for justice and healing for all victims,” wrote Archbishop Brian Dunn in a November 2022 statement. “It is a hard thing to do but it is the right thing to…

SÃO PAULO, Brazil – Chile has suffered one of the most anguished clerical sexual abuse crises anywhere in the Catholic world, which makes the recent choice of a new Archbishop of Santiago by Pope Francis unquestionably a watershed moment for the Latin American nation.

Yet a watershed in what sense is a matter of debate.

Admirers suggest that new Archbishop Fernando Chomalí Garib, who took office Dec. 16, is just the man to lead the rennovation of the Chilean church, an adept user of social media and a prelate committed to dialogue. Critics, however, say he’s part of the problem rather than the solution, as he allegedly covered up abuse cases in the past.

Now 66, Chomalí obtained a degree in civil engineering in 1981 and three years later entered the seminary, being ordained a priest in 1991. He completed a Ph.D. in Sacred Theology in Rome in 1994.

Since…

After decades of battling debilitating depression, Brian McLain says he made a crucial connection in his late 30s as to why he was in pain for so long: His priest had molested him as a teenager.

To the chagrin of the Catholic Church, 41-year-old McLain is now suing over his childhood trauma, and the Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to hear his case.

In a legal feud that could open the door to scores of new clergy abuse lawsuits, McLain is testing for the first time a revised 2018 law that gives adult victims a retroactive right to sue for sex abuse they endured as minors. Here’s what has changed:

Under the old statute of limitations, Michigan sexual assault victims could file civil lawsuits for up to three years after the abuse occurred. But under the new law, passed in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal, victims are now allowed…

An investigation commissioned by the Spanish Catholic Church into child sexual abuse by members of the clergy and non-clerical staff has so far identified 1,383 complaints and 2,056 victims, an audit of the inquiry showed on Thursday.

The Spanish Church has been grappling with an abuse scandal since a 2021 investigation by El Pais newspaper uncovered more than 1,200 alleged cases. It follows similar scandals involving the Catholic Church in a number of countries, including the United States, Ireland and France.

The results of the audit of the ongoing investigation, pulled together by Cremades law firm, were included in a more than 1,000-page report the Church published on Thursday.

The Spanish Bishops’ Conference estimated around 1,000 cases of abuse after cross-referencing various reports, which it said showed that some cases may have been taken stock of several times, but acknowledged there were many unreported cases yet.

“The data contained in…

The 2023 report by the Yellowhead Institute found that no calls to action were completed this year. It says that if Canada continues at this pace, it will not finish the work until 2081.

Canada has been so slow to carry out recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that an Indigenous-led think tank says it has decided to stop publishing an annual report tracking its progress.

“That hope, as those who have followed us on this journey may have noticed, has begun to diminish in the fifth year of this project.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission spent years investigating and documenting the history, and lasting harms, of church-operated, government-funded residential schools that more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend, often far away from their families and communities.

Thousands suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse and the Winnipeg-based National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says more than 4,000…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finegan also allegedly choked the…

St. Michael’s Church in Marblehead held a listening session following its usual Sunday morning service last weekend after news of a charge of aggravated felonious assault against former priest Richard Losch was first reported in the Marblehead Current.

Losch, a former priest at St. Michael’s Church, will be going on trial in summer 2024 after being accused of assaulting a 13-year-old Marblehead boy in the 1970s.

Losch, 89, also a former Boy Scout leader in town and assistant headmaster at Tower School, was indicted back on Aug. 18 by a Grafton County, N.H. grand jury. According to the Current’s report, Losch took four boys, including the victim, who asked to be identified as “Jack,” to the Indian Pond Boy Scout Reservation, located in Piermont, N.H.

Losch, according to Jack, had groomed boys at the Tower School, as well as the Boy Scouts. He allegedly began with telling inappropriate stories, including ones that involved…

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

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

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

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

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

The church allegedly never disclosed to the mothers that it…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finnegan also allegedly choked the plaintiff, punched…

Press Release: SNAP

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

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

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

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

Testimony of victims and survivors who…

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

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

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

Buried trauma for decades

In 1976, Lewis, age 12 at the…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Storms added that Bickle told him separately…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Public Outrage and Inquiry Commission

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unkept or destroyed files are now making reunion processes…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But it was her last.

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

Dunn still had questions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

London building sold for $153m loss

Becciu, a former adviser to Pope Francis…

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

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

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

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

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

“If anyone else…

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

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

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

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

Adding in abuses by lay…

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

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

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

“Although the ruling saddens us deeply, we have…

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

UPDATES:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cecilia Marogna, a self-styled security…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But this year…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What happened to the…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Abuse Survivors Express Concern About Patterns of Enabling

After Pastor Smith revealed details about…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adams, in an email viewed…

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

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

The dicastery determined that the decree must be implemented…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The suspect was taken into custody and transferred to the…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Email and phone messages were left with a lawyer…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

He was 96.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Over the years, the alarming number of…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However,…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m sorry at a level I’ve…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jackson…

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

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