ABUSE TRACKER

Two sisters told an Australian court Wednesday that being sexually abused by their Jewish school’s principal broke their ability to trust and was painful to remember.

Malka Leifer was convicted of rape and other crimes in the Victoria state County Court in April after years of fighting her extradition from Israel. She watched intently on a video link from prison but didn’t visibly react as the two sisters read victim impact statements at her sentencing hearing.

Dassi Erlich, 35, was positioned in the courtroom specifically so she and Leifer could see other as she spoke about the impact of the abuse, as both Erlich and Leifer had requested.

Erlich said she was 16 when Leifer told her: “I love you like a mother.”

“I trusted her completely,” Erlich said. “The insidious nature of her sexual abuse has fractured my ability to trust forever.”

Elly Sapper, 34, later told…

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The Louisiana Supreme Court on Tuesday sidestepped a ruling on the constitutionality of legislation that gives victims of childhood sexual abuse a renewed chance to file lawsuits after the usual time limits for such suits have expired.

The ruling had been highly anticipated by advocates for abuse victims, who had hoped the state’s highest court would uphold the constitutionality of legislation passed in 2021 and revised in 2022.

The legislation was passed by lawmakers under the theory that fear and stigma might have kept victims from revealing the abuse as children and into adulthood. Lawmakers debated it against the backdrop of ongoing global revelations of sex abuse of children by clergy.

The Louisiana legislation gives victims until mid-2024 to file such lawsuits if they missed deadlines to file in existing law.

Kathryn Robb, executive director of Child USAdvocacy, a national nonprofit agency that advocates for better child protection laws, decried…

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Editor’s note: The Pillar’s editors, being sometimes incompetent at using their thumbs on their phone screens, mistakenly sent this report by email to all Pillar subscribers. Being committed not to inundate your inbox unexpectedly, and having done so anyway, we deeply regret the error.

Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth was in a Texas courtroom Tuesday, arguing that a civil court has no jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit filed by Carmelite nuns in the diocese, who argue that the bishop defamed them, invaded their privacy, and stole information from their electronic devices when the bishop seized them during a canonical investigation earlier this year.

During a hearing in Tarrant County’s 67th District Court, the Fort Worth diocese’s legal team played a tape of more than 30 minutes, in which Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach could be heard being questioned by Bishop Olson, conceding that while she had an inappropriate sexual relationship with…

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Shortly after his resignation was announced Tuesday morning, Bishop Rick Stika told a Knoxville, Tennessee reporter that he had been sexually assaulted by a priest when he was a teenager. 

In addition to his comments June 27, the bishop named his alleged abuser in a Facebook exchange last week, in which he also told another alleged survivor of clerical sexual assault “you need to move on.”

“I’ve never covered up sexual abuse. I myself was a victim of sexual abuse when I was a freshman in high school, by a priest, and look at me,” Stika told Jared Austin of WVLT-TV. 

“I did the therapy, and I’m quite honest and open with it, so I see both sides of it. And no matter what anyone says, I would never tolerate sexual abuse of a minor or a vulnerable adult,” the bishop added.

Stika had not until recently made public any…

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Bolivian prosecutors are investigating 35 members of the Catholic Church after more than a dozen victims accused them of sexual abuse, authorities said Tuesday.

The statement comes as the country is reeling from confessions of abuse that were found in the personal diary of a Spanish priest who died in Bolivia in 2009 after decades of service there.

“At present, 35 people are accused and under investigation,” Daniela Caceres, a department head at the Bolivian attorney general’s office, told a press conference. 

“We have 17 people, identified victims, but out of respect and as a precaution for the protection of the victims, we are not going to give specific details,” she added. 

Prosecutors opened an investigation following a report by the Spanish daily El Pais in April about the late Spanish priest Alfonso Pedrajas, whose diary indicated that he had abused more than 80 minors in Bolivia, where he had…

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More than half a million people formally left the Catholic Church in Germany last year, significantly higher than the previous record as the church wrestles with a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy and with calls for far-reaching reform.

The German Bishops’ Conference said Wednesday that 522,821 left the church last year, up from 359,338 in 2021, the previous record. That compared with just 1,447 people joining the Catholic Church, around the same as the previous year.

The departures left the number of Catholic Church members in Germany at nearly 20.94 million, just under a quarter of the population.

In Germany, people who are formally members of a church pay a so-called “church tax” that helps finance it in addition to the regular taxes the rest of the population pay. If they register their departure with local authorities, they no longer have to pay that. There are some exemptions for…

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Exclusive interview with Prior General François-Xavier Cazali after report reveals nearly 170 people were abused in the worldwide religious community over the past 35 years

The Brothers of Saint John, a worldwide apostolic religious institute founded in 1975 in France, has issued a damning report on the sexual and spiritual abuse committed by its late founder and more than 70 other members.

“To Understand and to Heal”, a historical, theological and psychological study of the community’s aberrations over the past 35 years, was released on June 26.

It reveals that 72 brothers – including Marie-Dominique Philippe, the French Dominican priest who founded the community –committed abuse between 1975-2022, out of the 871 who made profession in the congregation.

The report says some 167 members were victims of the abuse.

Though originally a French foundation, the Brothers of Saint John now have 40 priories in 21 countries around the world –…

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The Church must put an end to the idolatry that leads some people to revere their religious superiors uncritically, which helps fester all types of spiritual and sexual abuse

“This dark history is not the whole of our history.” We can understand that the superior general of the Brothers of Saint John, who, after issuing a damning report on the serious sexual and mystical abuses of its founder, would like to believe in a better future for his confreres. 

But one wonders, what is “salvageable” in all this? It’s a legitimate question after reading the voluminous report, which shows that in less than fifty years some 72 members of the community abused 167 others! The evil is all the more profound in that it directly concerns the founder.

Can this congregation, which once claimed to be the vanguard of the new evangelization, continue to exist? What spirituality and charism will…

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Allegations against Bishop Georges Colomb of La Rochelle go back ten years when he headed the Paris Foreign Missions (MEP); he’s the twelfth French bishop to be accused of abuse in the past year.

Bishop Georges Colomb, head of the Catholic Diocese of La Rochelle in southwestern France the past seven years, has been accused of sexually assaulting a young adult male in 2013 when the prelate was the superior general of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP).

The 70-year-old bishop has denied the accusations, which were made public on June 13, and said he will ask Pope Francis to let him temporarily step aside from his administrative and pastoral duties to allow a full inquiry to take place.

“I am stunned by these allegations, which I totally deny,” said Colomb, who is the latest of at least 12 French bishops to be accused of sexual aggression in the past…

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Around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Rev. Al Humbrecht’s cell phone buzzed with a new text message from a fellow priest in the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville.

“Hallelujah. Hallelujah.”

Catholics all across East Tennessee woke up Tuesday to the news that Bishop Richard Stika had resigned, a seismic shift in church leadership that was beginning to look inevitable the longer Stika hung on. For many diocesan clergy, there is a sense of deliverance.

“There’s a sense of relief and in one sense, a sense of a kind of positive sense. Now we can start getting back to being what we’re supposed to be about, the work of Christ. Instead of the rabbit holes and distractions,” Humbrecht told Knox News.

He hopes the relief will extend to Stika as well, and he acknowledged there is much work to be done.

“Healing starts with the priests. We have been pretty much together through…

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[This is an updated version of an article blogged earlier today in Abuse Tracker.]

Vatican City – The bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, resigned under pressure Tuesday following allegations he mishandled sex abuse allegations and several of his priests complained about his leadership and behavior, sparking a Vatican investigation.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Richard Stika’s resignation, according to a one-line statement from the Vatican. At 65, Stika is still 10 years below the normal retirement age for bishops.

The archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky, the Most Reverend Shelton Fabre, was named temporary administrator to run the diocese until a new bishop is installed.

Stika’s departure, after 14 years as bishop of Knoxville, closes a turbulent chapter for the southern U.S. diocese that was marked by a remarkable revolt by some of its priests, who accused Stika of abusing his authority and protecting a seminarian accused of sexual misconduct. They appealed to the…

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[This is a significantly updated version of an article blogged earlier today on Abuse Tracker.]

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard Stika, the embattled leader of the Diocese of Knoxville, following a tumultuous two-year period in which the diocese was subject to a Vatican investigation and multiple lawsuits over its handling of abuse cases. 

The Vatican made the announcement in its daily bulletin on June 27 and did not list a reason for the resignation, nor did it name an immediate successor. At age 65, Stika — who has led the East Tennessee diocese since 2009 — is a full decade younger than the standard retirement age of 75 for Catholic bishops. 

For years, questions have swirled around his alleged cover-up of abuse, diocesan finances, morale among priests and the overall administration and management of the diocese. 

In an interview with NCR earlier this year,…

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To the editor: We are still seeing reports of predatory behavior by Catholic priests all over the world and reports of how the Church has either done nothing or covered up the behavior and how the Church uses the confessional and the First Amendment in a way that subverts all attempts to bring perpetrators to justice.

And the Church is still one of the wealthiest organizations in the world, with enough funding to support attorneys to provide cover or evasive maneuvers for officials. Even bishops and archbishops have been implicated. So the corruption goes right to the top. I am deeply saddened by this state of affairs, which historical documents suggest has been going on for hundreds of years all over the world. Is this church a spiritual center, or is it — partly — a criminal enterprise?

Jan Kuniholm, Cheshire

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German police searched properties belonging to the Archdiocese of Cologne on Tuesday as part of a perjury investigation against Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki linked to his handling of historic abuse cases, prosecutors said.

Last year, prosecutors said they were investigating whether Woelki, one of the most senior clerics in Germany’s Catholic Church, perjured himself in sworn testimony about abuse committed by a priest who died in 2019.

The archbisopric said at the time the attempt to accuse Woelki of perjury was unfounded.

“They are looking for clues that prove or refute the accusation of false testimony against Cardinal Woelki,” said lawyer Ralf Hoecker, representing the archbishop.

“It will take time until there is a result,” he said in an email, adding that in the end the case would be stopped because the cardinal had told the truth.

The Catholic Church in Germany has for years struggled to deal with the…

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Police have searched properties belonging to the Catholic Church’s representative in Cologne amid accusations that Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki covered up sexual abuse cases.

Police and prosecutors in the German city of Cologne carried out raids on properties belonging to the local Catholic Church archdiocese on Tuesday as a part of a probe into Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki.

The archbishop has been accused of lying in court over his knowledge of sexual abuse cases in the church. Woelki has denied the allegations.

Police search several locations

The raids began at 8 a.m. (0600 UTC) with police searching four properties in Cologne as well as one property each in Kassel and the town of Lohfelden in Hesse. Around 30 police officers were involved in the raids.

Police also raided the premises of the IT company that supplies the email service for the archdiocese.

The searches were met with cooperation, with Woelki himself opening the door to…

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Archbishop under investigation on suspicion of falsely testifying about when he became aware of clergy sexual abuse

Berlin – German police have raided properties belonging to the Catholic church in response to allegations that the archbishop of Cologne committed perjury over his knowledge of sexual abuse in the local diocese.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, one of the most senior leaders in the German Catholic church, is under investigation on suspicion of having falsely testified to court about when he became aware of reports of clergy sexual abuse.

The raids, carried out by 30 plainclothes police officers and four state prosecutors, took place at 8am local time, according to authorities. Four of the properties searched were in Cologne, the others in Kassel and the town of Lohfelden.

Media who were present captured footage of Woelki dressed in civilian attire, appearing to personally open the gates to his own residence as the…

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Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Most Reverend Richard F. Stika from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Knoxville. At the same time, the Holy See has appointed the Most Reverend Shelton J. Fabre of Louisville, as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Knoxville to serve until the appointment and installation of the new bishop.

The resignation and appointment were publicized in Washington, D.C. on June 27, 2023, by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The Diocese of Knoxville is comprised of 14,242 square miles in the State of Tennessee and has a total population of 2,509,421 of which 68,075, are Catholic.

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Bishop Richard F. Stika, the longest-serving bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, has announced he is retiring from the post he has held since 2009.

“I recently sent a letter to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, asking him to grant my petition to retire as the bishop of this great diocese,” Bishop Stika said. “I am grateful that he has accepted this request.”

The announcement was made by the Vatican on June 27.

“Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard F. Stika from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Knoxville. At the same time, the Holy See has appointed the Most Reverend Shelton Fabre, Archbishop of Louisville, as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Knoxville to serve until the appointment and installation of a new bishop,” the Vatican announcement said.

Bishop Stika was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville by Pope Benedict XVI…

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[Includes link to 12-minute podcast interview with Mike Foreman.]

Topeka – Mike Foreman is not a Catholic.

In an interview for the Kansas Reflector podcast, Foreman said he was haunted by a lack of true reparations from the church.

Foreman was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Father Finian Meis at the age of 11, when his family was attending Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish in Overland Park. Foreman said the assault happened over the course of two “therapy” sessions held at Meis’ house.

When Foreman told his mother about the first assault right after it happened, he said the priest convinced her it was just a part of his therapy methods. She brought him back to the priest’s house again, dropping him off with a freshly baked cake.

“My mother was just so brainwashed and hoodwinked by the Catholic Church, it was just disgusting,” Foreman said. “There’s no doubt in my…

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Bishop Lee A. Piché, who eight years ago resigned from the office of auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis amid charges that the archdiocese had ignored warning signs of a priest abusing minors, will return to service in the archdiocese as the archbishop’s representative to retired priests beginning July 1.

In his time away, Piché, 65, “has embraced a life of prayer and penance for the intention of victims of abuse in the archdiocese, and for efforts to bring healing into the lives of those who have been impacted in any way by clergy abuse,” the archdiocese said in a statement June 22 announcing the assignment.

On the same day, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda announced to the priests of the archdiocese that Piché had accepted his invitation to return to the archdiocese as the vicar for retired priests, the statement said.

At Hebda’s request, Piché also…

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The bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, resigned under pressure Tuesday following allegations he mishandled sex abuse allegations and several of his priests complained about his leadership and behavior, sparking a Vatican investigation.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Richard Stika’s resignation, according to a one-line statement from the Vatican. At 65, Stika is still 10 years below the normal retirement age for bishops.

The Vatican didn’t identify a replacement in its statement, but the U.S. conference of Catholic bishops said the archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky, the Most Reverend Shelton Fabre, was named temporary administrator to run the diocese until a new bishop is installed.

Stika’s departure, after 14 years as bishop of Knoxville, closes a turbulent chapter for the southern U.S. diocese that was marked by a remarkable revolt by some of its priests, who accused Stika of abusing his authority and protecting a seminarian accused of sexual misconduct. They appealed to the…

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ope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard Stika, the embattled leader of the Diocese of Knoxville, following a tumultuous two-year period in which the diocese was subject to a Vatican investigation and multiple lawsuits over its handling of abuse cases. 

The Vatican made the announcement in its daily bulletin on June 27 and did not list a reason for the resignation, nor did it name an immediate successor. At age 65, Stika — who has led the East Tennessee diocese since 2009 — is a full decade younger than the standard retirement age of 75 for Catholic bishops. 

For years, questions have swirled around his alleged cover-up of abuse, diocesan finances, morale among priests and the overall administration and management of the diocese. 

In an interview with NCR earlier this year, Stika defended his 14-year record in Knoxville, which he maintained had seen an uptick in…

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Pope Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of the embattled Bishop Rick Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Stika, 65, was investigated by the Vatican for mismanagement of his diocese. He is also named in a 2022 lawsuit (refiled in 2023) accusing him of protecting a seminarian accused of multiple counts of rape.

The lawsuit also claims Stika attempted to intimidate an alleged victim, a parish organist, into keeping quiet about the alleged sexual assault by Wojciech Sobczuk, and of having accused the alleged victim of being the perpetrator.

Pope Francis named Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky as the Diocese of Knoxville’s apostolic administrator until a new bishop is appointed.

Stika has denied any wrongdoing.

Catholic news outlet The Pillar reported in May that unnamed sources close to the Dicastery for Bishops said Pope Francis had decided to ask Stika for his resignation after reviewing the results of a Vatican…

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Richard Stika, the polarizing bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, has retired amid a crippling scandal of his own making, the diocese announced June 27.

Stika will leave the diocese, carved out in 1988 from the Diocese of Nashville, as its longest-serving bishop. He oversaw significant growth in membership in the church and led the construction of a massive new cathedral in Knoxville. The diocese serves about 70,000 Catholics in 50 parishes and one mission across East Tennessee.

Stika also, however, leaves under a cloud of mismanagement accusations, two explosive lawsuits against the diocese that have sullied diocesan leadership, and questions about his mentorship of a former seminarian who is accused of raping a former church employee.

Stika, just a week shy of 66, submitted his resignation to Pope Francis. Bishops almost never leave before the mandatory retirement age of 75 years old, and even then the pope frequently allows them…

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There was a significant increase in allegations of abuse reported to the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland last year following the airing of the RTÉ Radio 1 documentary, “Blackrock Boys”, about a Spiritan-run school in Dublin.

The Church’s safeguarding watchdog, which published its report last week, revealed that it was notified of 251 allegations between 2022-23 compared to 178 in 2021-22. Many of these relate to alleged abuse in schools run by religious congregations. 

The allegations were made against 170 respondents of which 35 were diocesan priests, 124 were male religious and 11 were female religious.

The vast majority of allegations, 88, relate to the 1970s, while 56 relate to the 1980s and 36 to the 1960s, nine to the 1990s and two to the 2020s.

According to the board’s chief executive Teresa Devlin, the media coverage of abuse in religious-run schools provided an opportunity,…

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Vatican City – Pope Francis appointed Bishop Christopher Coyne as a coadjutor archbishop of Hartford on Monday.

As coadjutor, Coyne will assist Archbishop Leonard Blair in the administration of the Hartford archdiocese and should succeed him as archbishop upon his retirement, expected once Blair turns 75 next year.

Coyne has led the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont since 2015. The 65-year-old bishop previously served as the auxiliary bishop of Indianapolis from 2011 to 2015.

As bishop of Burlington, Coyne removed an unvaccinated pastor from his parish in 2022 for refusing to wear a face mask and be regularly tested for COVID-19, spoke out against a state bill that threatened the seal of the confessional, and formed a lay review committee to investigate personnel files relating to sexual abuse of minors by priests in 2018.

Originally from Woburn, Massachusetts, Coyne worked as a bartender for two…

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The Colorado Supreme Court last week struck down the part of Senate Bill 88, a law passed in 2021, giving victims of child sex abuse dating back to the 1960s a three-year window to file lawsuits

When a group of Colorado lawmakers in 2020 sought to end the state’s statute of limitations for lawsuits in child sex assault cases, some victims and victims’ advocates wanted them to try to go even further. 

Their request was that Colorado give victims of abuse for whom the statute of limitations had expired a window to sue not only their abusers, but also organizations that shielded the perpetrators or negligently allowed the abuse to continue.

The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Legal Services, which offers state lawmakers legal advice, said such a window would violate the state’s constitution, which prohibits the General Assembly from reviving a claim for which the statute of limitations has run…

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The Vatican’s Dicastery of Bishops has completed a formal investigation of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland and the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, according to multiple media reports and confirmed by EWTN News.

The inquiry, known as an apostolic visitation, marks a rare though not unprecedented intervention by Rome into a U.S. diocese and points to possible disciplinary action against Strickland, a widely popular though polarizing Texas firebrand viewed as a culture war champion by many U.S. conservatives for his staunch defense of the unborn, marriage, the traditional Latin liturgy, and Catholic orthodoxy.

The leader of the eastern Texas diocese since 2012, Strickland, 64, has faced criticism for what some see as intemperate social media posts unbecoming of a prominent U.S. prelate, including a May 12 tweet that suggested Pope Francis was “undermining the Deposit of Faith.”

Not one to sit on the sidelines, he recently played a prominent role…

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Tadeusz Rydzyk, Poland’s “father director,” has commanded enormous political power through his Catholic media empire, despite his controversial support for priests entangled in the church’s child sexual abuse scandals — as well as support for Russia. Is his era finally coming to an end?

“When I first became a priest, what I wished for most was media — for the church, for Catholics, for Poland,” Catholic leader Tadeusz Rydzyk told Nasz Dziennik in June.

“Without media, we have no voice at all,” he continued, comparing the church without the arm of the press to “a mute person.”

Over time, Rydzyk’s radio station has amassed 1.2 million active daily listeners and he has also created a Catholic television channel. He receives generous state funding for his media ventures and private foundation.

He’s been called everything from “the most important unelected man in…

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• A former Catholic priest appeared in a Los Angeles court Friday for preliminary hearing on 12 counts of child molestation 
• Father Christopher John Cunningham, 60, allegedly assaulted boys between the ages of 10 and 12 in the 1990s and 2000s

A former Catholic priest charged with 12 counts of child molestation, appeared in a Los Angeles court on Friday.  

Father Christopher John Cunningham, 60, was arrested in 2021 for allegedly molesting boys between the ages of 10 and 12 whilst a priest in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Cunningham appeared before Judge Larry Paul Fidler at the Los Angeles Superior Court for a short hearing. 

Judge Larry Paul Fidler asked Father Cunningham, who wore a grey suit, if he understand the charges against him and if he understood the courts ruling for trial within 60 days.   

Father Cunningham confirmed he understood and promptly left the court with his lawyer. 

Cunningham has been charged…

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ROME – Amid what has so far been a rocky year, the pope’s Commission for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons has drafted an updated version of global anti-abuse safeguarding guidelines along with a survey for feedback on the new norms.

In a statement Friday, the commission said the new Universal Guidelines Framework (UGF) was approved during its most recent plenary assembly, held in Rome in May, and serves “as a model to define the safeguarding standards to be implemented in every local church across the world.”

The primary aim of the guidelines, the commission said, is to “promote protection from abuse in the Church according to existing good practices in safeguarding,” with a special focus on assisting those who have been impacted by abuse, and dealing with abuse appropriately when it occurs.

According to the commission, the new framework is based on an analysis of work done in…

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What we know about the The Fort Worth Catholic Diocese’s dispute with a Carmelite nun

Arlington police have begun investigating a dispute between the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese and a reverend mother who says she was wrongly accused of “sexual misconduct” with a priest.

The diocese, meanwhile, told the Star-Telegram it has alerted police of “serious concerns” of marijuana and edibles inside the Arlington monastery of Carmelite nuns. The Fort Worth bishop says the nun admitted to the “transgression” of breaking her chastity vow with a priest during interviews with the vicar general of the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese and another sister from her order over several days in April.

A hearing scheduled Friday in a lawsuit filed by Carmelite nuns against Bishop Michael Olson and the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth was postponed to 9 a.m. Tuesday.

An attorney who represents Olson said there is evidence to present showing…

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Published: May. 13, 2023 at 7:25 PM EDT | Updated: Jun. 23, 2023 at 7:29 PM EDT

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – JUNE 23 UPDATE: A Reno priest scheduled to be transferred to Douglas County following an inappropriate relationship with a parishioner has been put on hold pending a criminal investigation, the Diocese of Reno said.

Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg made the announcement Thursday about Rev. Patrick Klekas.

Mueggenborg said in May that Klekas would return to church duty on July 1 at St. Gall parish in Gardnerville after completing counseling and discernment.

Klekas had served as associate pastor at St. Albert the Great in northwest Reno.

Thursday’s announcement said the parish was cooperating with a criminal investigation and will decide about Klekas’ return to ministry after the investigation.

“As is our policy, we wait until civil authorities have completed their inquiries into allegations; in this case, a complaint recently filed in the same matter with…

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A local Catholic priest who was suspended for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship will be reinstated and serve at a Douglas County church in July.

The transfer of a local priest who was suspended for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship is on hold pending an investigation by police. 

According to a release, Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg of the Diocese of Reno has paused the process of reinstating Father Patrick Klekas to active ministry at St. Gall Parish in Gardnerville as it is their policy to wait until police have completed their inquiries to allegations. 

The alleged relationship occurred in 2020 when Klekas was serving as an associate paster at St. Albert the Great Parish in Reno. 

Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg says a complaint was recently filed in the same matter with police in Reno.

The church says it is cooperating and will wait until police complete their investigation before taking any action.

Original story from May…

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Bishop Lee Piché, who eight years ago resigned from the office of auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis amid charges that the archdiocese had ignored warning signs of a priest abusing minors, will return to service in the archdiocese as the archbishop’s representative to retired priests beginning July 1.

In his time away, Bishop Piché, 65, “has embraced a life of prayer and penance for the intention of victims of abuse in the archdiocese, and for efforts to bring healing into the lives of those who have been impacted in any way by clergy abuse,” the archdiocese said in a statement June 22 announcing the assignment.

On the same day, Archbishop Bernard Hebda announced to the priests of the archdiocese that Bishop Piché had accepted his invitation to return to the archdiocese as the vicar for retired priests, the statement said.

At Archbishop Hebda’s request, Bishop…

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Retired priest Johannes Rivoire worked in Canada’s Arctic from 1960s to 1993

An independent review looking into how the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate handled historical allegations of sexual abuse by a now-retired priest who lived in the Arctic for three decades is being met with both hope and skepticism by Inuit in Nunavut and those who have been observing his case.

“I’m glad this is going to be dealt with,” said Steve Mapsalak from his home in Naujaat, a hamlet in Nunavut. “It’s an ongoing thing and taking too long for me.”

He said Johannes Rivoire sexually abused him when he was 13 years old in Naujaat.

Now 66, Mapsalak said he has been waiting a long time for the Catholic Church to take some responsibility — not only for what he said he’s experienced as a victim of Rivoire, but for what others have gone through as well. “We…

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A former pastor at a Snyder County Church has been charged with sexually assaulting three young girls in Schuylkill County.

According to the West Penn Township Police Department, 46-year-old former pastor Marvin Leroy Mosley, of Milroy, PA, sexually assaulted three girls over a 15-year span. Court records indicate Mosley was a pastor at God’s Missionary Church in Penns Creek, Snyder County in 2004, when the alleged abuse began.

As stated in court documents, on April 27 of this year, the victim told police she and two other females had been sexually assaulted by Mosley.

Police say the first victim was assaulted by Mosley from the time she was seven, until she was 15.

Court documents state the incident began with gestures such as Mosley pulling hair and tickling, and then led to him exposing and touching their private areas.

The affidavit says Mosley would often take the girls on four-wheeler…

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A former Plover youth pastor has agreed to the terms of a plea deal in a child sexual assault case during a hearing Friday in Portage County.

Jordan Huffman, 52, pleaded guilty to two counts of repeated sexual assault of a child and was convicted as a result. Six other charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal.

Court documents state the alleged victim said the crimes began in 2017 when the victim was 12 years old. Authorities were told Huffman was working as a youth pastor at Woodlands Church in Plover when he was contacted to mentor the victim. The incidents were reported by the alleged victim’s father in June. Court documents stated the assaults happened more than a dozen times over a two-year span.

The alleged victim stated that nothing sexual in nature had occurred at Woodlands Church, but that some assaults happened in Huffman’s office at…

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Jean Nangwala started singing in her local church worship team at a very young age. She considered this assembly, founded by her grandfather and located in the south of Zambia, a safe haven. Standing on the stage to sing every Sunday, she said, was her greatest joy — until a member of the worship group, a church leader she trusted, sexually assaulted her when she was 19. When Nangwala opened up about the rape, pastors questioned her story and blamed her. Ultimately, Nangwala said she stopped singing, left the church and never returned.

“I was left alone to find safety in a world that does not involve church when I have always loved church,” she said.

Today, she shares her stories in churches to educate members and leaders as part of Freely in Hope, a faith-based nonprofit that aims to end sexual violence within churches. Founded in 2010, the organization…

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New artwork outside a Chaska church honors survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

In May, a mosaic entitled “Ripples” went up in front of Crown of Glory Lutheran Church. The artwork is made of handmade glass panels that have been shattered and reattached.

Roger Lee, the man who came up with the idea for the memorial, says it will help bring hope to clergy sexual abuse survivors.

“We’ve got pieces that are broken and put back together which shows some healing and then there’s the ripple effect whereas we share it the ripples become waves,” Lee said.  “Healing happens in community and it happens when we can break the silence.”

“To hear the news was hurtful, but to know that his voice was going to be heard was so hopeful,”  Pastor Reggie Klindworth of Crown of Glory Lutheran Church said. “That’s a big leap for us knowing exactly what is going…

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The trial for a former, well-known, high school wrestling coach started Wednesday in a Baltimore County courtroom.

Neil Adleberg, 75, is accused of child sexual abuse dating back to 2013 and 2014 when he was assisting with the Mount Saint Joseph High School wrestling team. His alleged victim was 17 years old at the time.

Adleberg was the school’s head wrestling coach in the 1970s.

The trial comes more than a year after a grand jury indicted Adleberg on charges including second-degree rape and sexual abuse of a minor.

His indictment is the only one to come out of the Maryland Attorney General’s investigation into child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

In a report released in April, more than 150 alleged abusers were named for incidents spanning over 80 years.

Allegations about Adleberg came up during this investigation. He was not named in this report.

This is a…

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Apollo Carreon Quiboloy fled to the Philippines in 2021 to avoid arrest in the US

Global video streaming platform YouTube has banned two channels owned by a Filipino evangelical pastor who fled the US two years ago to avoid arrest after being charged with sex trafficking and cash smuggling.

The social media site blocked the channels run by Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, the founder and leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church, on June 21, citing his violation of the site’s ethical and community guidelines.

Quiboloy was accused of using his channels to reach out to victims of his alleged sex crimes.

The ban came reportedly after a Twitter user posted on the site questioning how a person on the wanted list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was still using social media and reaching out to his victims.

His channels had more than 47,000 subscribers. He used the channels…

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News outlet Diligente reported seminarians faced physical abuse and ate bad food

Church officials in Timor-Leste have dismissed a media report on the abusive treatment of students and substandard food in a seminary as false, terming it an attempt to tarnish the image of the church.

Father Natalino da Costa Soares, rector of the Balide-based Our Lady of Fatima Minor Seminary said “we firmly reject the allegations made” during a press conference on June 22.

“We consider it untrue and the content is slanderous, which directly affects the dignity and rights of those involved, and jeopardizes the honor and reputation of the seminary as a special training institution for seminarians,” the priest said in a written statement.

The statement was in response to a June 11 report published by capital Dili-based news outlet, Diligente, with the headline ‘Aggression and bad food: former seminarian denounces persecution at Minor Seminary.’

…

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The Vatican just released its much-anticipated working document for the Oct. 4-29 Synod of Bishops in Rome, and few Catholic watchers will be surprised that “the question of women’s inclusion in the diaconate” will be among the topics for discussion. This has been an issue for some Church leaders and other delegates, as they ponder Pope Francis’ call for a more inclusive, synodal Church that listens and discerns the will of the Holy Spirit.

“Most of the Continental Assemblies and the syntheses of several Episcopal Conferences call for the question of women’s inclusion in the diaconate to be considered,” reported the instrumentum laboris, or working document, which marked the beginning of the third phase of the multiyear Synod on Synodality global process that began with parish and diocesan surveys and listening sessions and then continued with national and continental synodal gatherings.

“Is it possible to envisage this, and in what way?” the…

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Ferruccio Panicco, who died Wednesday, jointly filed a $10-million lawsuit against the Vatican last November.

The Vatican’s former deputy auditor general who had been suing the Vatican for unlawful dismissal died of cancer Wednesday at his home in Turin, Italy. He was 63 years old. 

Ferruccio Panicco had a pending $10-million lawsuit against the Vatican that he had jointly issued with the Vatican’s former auditor general, Libero Milone, last November. 

They accused the Vatican of “breach of contract, damage to reputation and moral damage to us and our families” after they were dismissed from their jobs in 2017 for “spying.”

Both men have firmly denied the accusations and accuse the former No. 2 official at the Secretariat of State, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, of working with the Vatican police to force their removal by framing them on false accusations of spying and embezzlement after their auditing began uncovering evidence of corruption…

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Emphasizing the responsibility of all Catholics to ensure the church is a safe place, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is inviting public comment on a proposed set of principles that church bodies around the world must reflect in their safeguarding guidelines.

Distribution of the draft “Universal Guidelines Framework” was approved by members of the commission at their meeting in May; the framework begins by calling church leaders to “acknowledge and take ownership of their moral, pastoral and governance responsibilities to work for the creation of a ‘one church approach’ to safeguarding.”

The principles, though, insisted guidelines must be tailor-made for different countries and their cultures. And, it said, they should include processes for “regular internal review and external audit procedures.”

The framework was sent to the world’s bishops’ conferences, the heads of religious orders and survivors of abuse for review. But on June 23, the commission also…

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Names of Predator Priests NOT Currently on Credibly Accused Catholic Church Lists ‘How many other abusive clerics are out there?’ victims & advocates ask SNAP Reacts: ‘Archdiocese gets info on these offenders but keeps it secret’

WHAT

At a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their advocates will disclose the names of 30+ publicly accused abusive clerics who are, or were, in Illinois but are NOT in the Illinois Attorney General Catholic abuse report that ‘outed’ more than 450 predator priests a month ago.

A dozen of these clerics now live in Illinois, most with little or no supervision or monitoring, and may still pose a threat to children, victims and advocates say. For the first time ever, the groups are also launching Facebook ads, targeted to families who live near these predators, warning parents to keep their kids away from these men.

WHEN

Thursday, June 21 at…

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The sexual abuse survivor group SNAP says the Catholic Church still has unresolved allegations of abuse within its Palmerston North Diocese.

The statement comes as the Catholic Church announces the appointment of a new bishop, John Adams, to the diocese today.

SNAP says the allegations have been forwarded to the Royal Commission, NZ Police, the Vatican, and the NZ Catholic Church’s national office for handling clergy and religious sex abuse complaints.

SNAP Aotearoa leader, Dr Christopher Longhurst, says the Church’s process for responding to the complaints has not been properly followed with these allegations, and coverups continue.

He says complaints against clergy in Palmerston North have been obstructed, and risk assessments following serious complaints against Palmerston North clergy have not been carried out.

SNAP is appealing to the new bishop, John Adams, in good faith to clarify what follow-up there has been to the complaints.

SNAP wishes the new bishop…

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Our culture is crazy for orphan stories. From Harry Potter to The Last of Us to The Batman, from Demon Copperhead to A Series of Unfortunate Events, we just can’t get enough of a good orphan yarn. Our fairy tales—and Disney films—are based on abandoned, tormented children. But of course, these are fictional tales. No one likes to hear, or write, about the real thing.

I know because I tried. I stumbled across the real thing in Northwest Alaska at St. Mary’s Mission back in the 1990s and considered writing a book about it. But I didn’t have the stomach for the gory details. Dipping your toe into Cinderella or Anne of Green Gables is one thing. But spending a decade researching and living with the true horror is quite another.

Christine Kenneally did just that for her new book, Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search for Justice. She spent more than…

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More than 820 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clerics, teachers and nuns were filed in New Jersey against Catholic dioceses and orders in the two year period starting Dec. 1, 2019, when the state suspended the civil statute of limitations for civil sex abuse complaints.

NorthJersey.com kept track of those cases, and reported extensively on many of the most alarming allegations, as well as the priests named most often in the suits. NorthJersey.com also compiled a database of the lawsuits, which contain allegations that span seven decades, from the 1940s through 2016. About 250 Catholic clerics have been accused of sexual abuse, including dozens never named publicly before.

Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former head of the Newark Archdiocese and one of the most powerful American prelates in the Catholic Church, has been accused of abuse in at least 10 of the suits.

NorthJersey.com exposed new information about McCarrick’s rise to…

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A Minnesota bishop is set to be assigned to a pastoral ministry role in his archdiocese, eight years after he resigned from the office of auxiliary bishop amid scandal in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Bishop Lee Piché, who resigned as an auxiliary bishop at the age of 57 in 2015, will become vicar for retired in the Minnesota archdiocese next month, the archdiocese confirmed to The Pillar June 22.

In a statement posted online after questions from The Pillar June 22, the archdiocese said that Hebda had invited Piché “to return to the Archdiocese to serve as his Vicar for Retired Priests.”

The statement said that in the eight years since the bishop’s resignation, “Bishop Piché has embraced a life of prayer and penance for the intention of victims of abuse in the archdiocese, and for efforts to bring healing into the lives of those who have been impacted in any…

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June 22, 2023

Fr. Dennis Kriz, OSM

Servite Provincial Center
3121 West Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60612-2729

Dear Fr. Kriz:

We are with a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).  Our mission is to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth. We would like you to help us do this by being more forthcoming about predators who are or were in your religious order.

As you know, Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s recent five-year investigation into clergy sex crimes and cover ups was extensive and well done. It’s becoming increasingly clear, however, that Illinois Catholic officials – despite promises to be ‘transparent’ – kept many secrets from AG staffers.

As a result, the names of dozens of child molesting priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers, monks and bishops who are or have been in Illinois are still hidden.

We are not professional investigators nor experienced internet sleuths….

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The sexual abuse survivor group SNAP says the Catholic Church still has unresolved allegations of abuse within its Palmerston North Diocese.

The statement comes as the Catholic Church announces the appointment of a new bishop, John Adams, to the diocese today.

SNAP says the allegations have been forwarded to the Royal Commission, NZ Police, the Vatican, and the NZ Catholic Church’s national office for handling clergy and religious sex abuse complaints.

SNAP Aotearoa leader, Dr Christopher Longhurst, says the Church’s process for responding to the complaints has not been properly followed with these allegations, and coverups continue.

He says complaints against clergy in Palmerston North have been obstructed, and risk assessments following serious complaints against Palmerston North clergy have not been carried out.

SNAP is appealing to the new bishop, John Adams, in good faith to clarify what follow-up there has been to the complaints.

SNAP wishes the new bishop…

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LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — The Vatican has sent to Bolivia the diary of the late Alfonso Pedrajas, a Jesuit priest who allegedly confessed to abusing dozens of minors in Bolivia dating back to the 1970s, the latest development in a pedophilia scandal that has shaken the Andean country.

In a statement released Thursday, the Society of Jesus of Bolivia said the diary was sent to them by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith — which handles clergy sexual abuse cases — and then turned over to the prosecutor’s office in the city of Cochabamba, where the alleged abuse took place.

The Society of Jesus, as the Jesuits are known, said it will request a copy of the diary written by Pedrajas, who died in 2009, in order to know its full contents, since only a few excerpts were released in April by Spanish newspaper El País, which first…

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Church reform groups and theologians say they are finding hope in the new Vatican document setting the stage for the upcoming Synod of Bishops in October, even as many harbor reservations or skepticism about the possible outcomes of the synod itself.

The document, released June 20, mentioned many topics previously considered taboo in similar high-level conversations, including the ordination of women to the diaconate, inclusion of LGBTQ+ Catholics, the possibility of married priests and reckoning with and responding to the sexual abuse crisis.

“I’ve been noticing that, as the reports go up the ladder, they become more and more general; they get away from the specific topics,” Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic LGBTQ+ ministry, told NCR. 

In an earlier statement about the text, DeBernardo said it was “nothing short of an amazing and [a] true blessing” that LGBTQ+ persons were mentioned twice…

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Matt Barker was 11 years old the first time his life’s luck ran out.

It was 1979 and he remembers Hey Hey It’s Saturday playing in the background as his innocence evaporated in a lonely caravan on a bush block in Sydney’s west.

“I still have a very clear feeling of right at that moment of the first abuse beginning, of just something breaking inside,” he says.

Over three years he was repeatedly abused by his Scout leader, a convicted, recidivist paedophile.

Five years after the historic Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse wrapped up, survivors like Matt who are now seeking civil compensation are being thwarted by extraordinary legal tactics rarely seen before the inquiry.

Legal reforms made it easier for victims of institutional child abuse to seek justice, but now a fierce new battleground is emerging as organisations at the centre of the claims push…

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Key points:

• There are claims institutions are intentionally drawing out the legal process
• Child sex abuse survivors are describing the process as “adversarial and traumatic”
• A new parliamentary committee will investigate the claims

The often drawn out and re-traumatising experiences of child sexual abuse survivors as they seek compensation is set to come under intense public scrutiny.

Described variously as a “war of attrition” and an attempt to “break you down”, survivors have spoken of unnecessarily long delays in legal proceedings and unreasonable demands for information.

Liberal MP David Honey is stark in the language he uses.

“Concerns have been expressed that perhaps some of the respondents in these cases, are deliberately slowing down the passage of the cases in the hope that the victims will die,” he said.

Dr Honey has been appointed chair of a new WA parliamentary committee tasked with scrutinising the legal tactics used by some…

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Alfonso Pedrajas, conocido como padre Pica y fallecido en 2009, escribió una especie de memorias en las que admite que abusó de decenas de niños mientras era profesor en varios colegios de la orden en Bolivia.

Bolivia.- El procurador general de Bolivia, Wilfredo Chávez, da sorbos a una taza de café mientras habla pausadamente sobre el terremoto mediático que ha provocado la revelación de los casos de pederastia dentro de la Compañía de Jesús en su país. El sonido de su móvil corta la conversación con el periodista, y el procurador revisa lentamente el mensaje que acaba de recibir.

-Era el presidente. Al final de la tarde enviará a la Asamblea Legislativa el anteproyecto de ley.

Chávez se refiere a la proposición legislativa del jefe del Gobierno boliviano, Luis Arce, para hacer imprescriptibles los delitos de pederastia y para crear una comisión de la verdad que investigue casos concretos y elabore un informe “a fin de…

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La Fiscalía boliviana informó este jueves sobre la aprehensión de un sacerdote acusado por abuso sexual a una mujer, en un hecho que se enmarca en las varias investigaciones abiertas en el país contra religiosos, algunos ya fallecidos, por agresiones a menores. 

El sacerdote Jorge Luis M. “está siendo investigado por el delito de abuso sexual (…) y ya existía una orden de aprehensión contra él”, declaró a los medios la fiscal departamental de la sureña región de Tarija, Sandra Gutiérrez. 

La denuncia fue presentada el pasado 13 de junio por una mujer que aseguró que sufrió la agresión sexual por parte del clérigo en 2017, cuando este era docente en una universidad, precisó la fiscal. 

Hasta hace poco, el religioso cumplió sus labores pastorales en la parroquia de El Puente, en donde el obispado lo destinó después de una suspensión temporal a causa de varias denuncias en su contra…

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Help us protect kids, heal victims and learn the truth  

You won’t know many of these names. That’s because your bishop refuses to reveal the names of all the child molesting clerics in your diocese. It’s painful to do, but we respectfully ask that you read each of them.  

• Msgr. Martin Henry Froeschl, who was sued for molesting a child. Your bishop paid $277,000 to his accuser. 
• Fr. Alexander B. (“Sandy”) Sinclair, who was accused of abusing a youngster. Your bishop paid his alleged victim $60,000.  
• Fr. James V. McCormick, who is on a church ‘credibly accused’ abuser list in the Sioux Falls SD diocese. He moved to KC MO in the 1980s where he worked for many years. 
• Fr. Lawrence C. Schierhoff, who is on ‘credibly accused’ abuser lists in two dioceses – St. Louis and Jefferson City. He was at Christ the King Church for ten years….

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Paedophile Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale has made a deathbed confession to sexually abusing his 72nd victim.

The 89-year-old has been in prison since 1994 and is currently serving a maximum 39-year sentence for abusing dozens of child victims when he worked as a priest at multiple schools and churches across Victoria.

In October last year, his earliest release date was extended to April 2027 after he admitted abusing two brothers between 1981 and 1982.

Ridsdale, who is bed bound and cannot walk, wore a blanket and sat in a wheel chair with his eyes closed as he faced Ballarat Magistrates Court from a prison hospital by video link on Thursday.

He pleaded guilty to a fresh charge of indecent assault against a 13-year-old boy while he worked as an assistant priest at a Catholic school in Horsham in 1987.

Ridsdale touched the boy inappropriately inside an office at the school,…

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A FORMER Catholic priest who is currently in jail for indecently assaulting children has been handed a further custodial term of eight-and-a-half years.

David Leslie Crowley, 69, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court on Monday after pleading guilty to committing 15 sex offences against five young boys across Yorkshire, England.

Crowley is already serving a sentence of 18 years, extended by two years, after being sentenced in 2019 for 13 similar offences committed between 1979 and 1985.

He had also previously served time after being given an 11-year sentence in 1998 for 15 sex offences against young boys.

“Crowley flagrantly abused his position of authority and trust within the communities he served to commit vile offences against young boys, leaving many of them with lifelong trauma,” said Graham Guest of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

PLIED WITH GIFTS AND ALCOHOL

The offences Crowley was sentenced for this week occurred on…

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One year after a massive sex abuse scandal, America’s largest Protestant denomination has a different concern: women in church leadership.

Episode Notes

Last week, the Southern Baptist Convention held its annual meeting in New Orleans – and its main order of business was to tighten the reins on what women can, and can’t, do in the church. It’s the result of a years-long push from the SBC’s ultraconservative wing to reverse what it calls a “liberal drift.” As the nation’s largest Protestant denomination prepares to crack down on gender roles, what does that mean for American evangelicals – and for the rest of us?

Guest: Beth Allison Barr is a history professor at Baylor University. She’s also the author of “The Making of Biblical Womanhood.”

Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.

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Last month, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul released a scathing 696-page report about child sexual abuse and cover-up in the six Catholic Dioceses across the state. The findings were stunning: bishops knew about abusive clerics for decades and did little to nothing to protect the children in their care. Instead, bishops (some of whom were predators themselves) moved, promoted, and protected alleged child abusers, leaving children in harm’s way for decades.

The report was extensive and met with praise from survivors and advocates. Unlike a similar report released in Maryland in April, where Identities of abusive clerics and most enablers were redacted, the Illinois report pulled no punches: abusive clerics were named, bishops were exposed, and the real danger was made clear.

Since the report’s release, bishops have groveled for forgiveness, citing “past errors” and “misunderstanding” about the effects of abuse. They said they were “saddened” and “disturbed,” even though the information in the…

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Archbishop Gregory Aymond knew of nine allegations facing disgraced priest Lawrence Hecker in 2012. The church didn’t out him as a sexual predator until six years later.

A retired Catholic priest who worked in about a dozen New Orleans-area parishes admitted to his superiors more than 20 years ago that he had molested seven teenagers he met on the job, but he was allowed to continue working and never faced criminal charges, according to an investigation published Tuesday by The Guardian.

The newspaper cited a two-page 1999 statement from disgraced priest Lawrence Hecker, now 91, who confessed to “overtly sexual acts” with two boys and behavior with other children from 1966 to 1979 that included fondling, mutual masturbation and bed-sharing during a trip to a Texas amusement park.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond knew of nine allegations facing Hecker as early as 2012, including…

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Keith Flores says he never heard from Catholic church superiors to whom the priest reported his transgressions in 1999

• This article contains descriptions of child abuse

Keith Flores was surprised to learn that he was named in a statement in which a priest who once worked at his New Orleans school confessed to abusing children while on duty.

Flores said he never heard from any of the superiors to whom the priest, Lawrence Hecker, reported his transgressions in 1999.

As the Guardian first revealed on Tuesday, Hecker took a sabbatical, underwent a psychiatric evaluation which determined he was a pedophile who should not work around children, and was sent back to work before quietly retiring in 2002. These events all took place 16 years before the second oldest archdiocese in the US – under pressure from a metastasizing clerical abuse scandal – publicly admitted he was a predator.

“It’s disgusting,” Flores said…

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The Vatican’s secretary of state has dismissed the claim that clergy sexual abuse is linked to homosexuality, labeling it a “serious and scientifically untenable association.” 

“Homosexual orientation cannot be considered as either cause or aspect typical of the abuser, even more so when it is decoupled from the general arrangement of the person,” wrote Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The cardinal’s remarks were published as the preface to a new book, Il dolore della Chiesa di fronte agli abusi (“The Pain of the Church in the Face of Abuse”), a volume that includes contributions from a number of Catholic theologians, psychologists and other experts on clergy sexual abuse. 

Yet while the cardinal’s reflections are notable coming from the second-highest ranking person in the Vatican and indirectly push against claims from a number of right-wing prelates and activists who have repeatedly tried to tie clergy abuse…

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For decades, famed preacher John MacArthur has taught that pastors and elders with wayward children are disqualified from ministry, even if those children are adults.

Recently, I mentioned this standard in an article on MacArthur’s son, who’s embroiled in a $16 million investment scandal, and people pushed back.

“No parent can control the behavior of their fully grown adult child—even John Macarthur (sic),” one woman wrote.

“Kicking out an elder when their 30+ year old child becomes a criminal seems to not be the fault of the parent,” said another.

Yet, that is precisely what MacArthur has taught. In a sermon entitled, “The Required Character for a Pastor: Family Leadership,” MacArthur states:

So, a pastor, an elder, must be this kind of man, ‘above reproach’ . . . having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion.’

‘Having children who believe’—that is literally what the Greek…

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A former head wrestling coach of Mount Saint Joseph High School who was the only person indicted in the Maryland attorney general’s investigation into child sexual abuse and cover-ups within the Archdiocese of Baltimore is set to stand trial this week on charges that he groomed and assaulted a teen.

Neil Adleberg, 75, of Reisterstown, who prosecutors saidserved as the head wrestling coach in the 1970s and returned as an assistant wrestling coach for the 2014-15 season, is charged with six counts, including sexual abuse of a minor.

Adleberg appeared Tuesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court and opted for a bench trial. That means Circuit Judge Dennis M. Robinson Jr. will determine whether he is guilty of the charges in the case.

In 2013, Adleberg, then 65, met a 17-year-old who was a senior and member of the wrestling team at Perry Hall High School…

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The former pastor and co-founder of North Clackamas Bible Community was sentenced to 160 months in prison after he was found guilty for sex abuse, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced Tuesday.

Michael Sperou, 72, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration on May 19. It’s the third time since 2015 that Sperou has been tried for sexual abuse.

Sperou repeatedly sexually abused seven young girls at the church he pastored from 1988 to 1996, Schmidt said. He was arrested on June 19, 2014, by federal officers. By the time the case went to trial in 2015, charges related to six of the seven girls went beyond the statute of limitations — Sperou was investigated in 1997 after seven girls said he had sexually molested them, but prosecutors never brought charges because of their conflicting statements.

All seven women were  View Cache

“When one victim-survivor can extend the hand of compassion and kindness to another, even when struggling with their own pain, that is grace to me.”

Jim Richter, 52, recently moved to Grafton, Wisconsin, with his husband, Ben. They previously lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where they met in 2019.

They have two elderly dogs: a 13-year-old Great Dane, Lexi, and a 16-year-old schnauzer, Charlie. Richter works remotely as a pathologist for a cancer diagnostics company. “I enjoy being able to help people and solve problems,” he says.

Richter is eager for the better weather ahead. “This is our first summer here,” he explains, “and we are looking forward to gardening, boating, barbecuing with friends, and getting to know the greater Milwaukee area.”

Awake: Jim, I’m so pleased that you are open to sharing your story and insights with our community. Thanks so much. What would you feel comfortable…

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The Vatican on Tuesday released the results of a two-year canvassing of churches around the world that showed that rank-and-file Catholics want more rights for women in the clergy, justice for victims of widespread sexual abuse within the church and acceptance for previously shunned groups, including divorced and remarried and LGBTQ+ parishioners—but it’s unclear how the Vatican will act on the findings.

KEY FACTS

The document raises several key questions brought forward by members of worldwide parishes: Should women be ordained deacons in the church, should married priests be allowed to serve where there is a clergy shortage, how can the church better welcome LGBTQ+ members and should the church’s current hierarchy be restructured in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis?

The prospect of allowing women to be ordained as priests was not discussed, but the document found a “unanimous” and “crucial” call for women in…

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A priest has been reinstated following an accusation that he sexually abused a minor decades ago.

Father John Clemens is cleared to return to ministry.

SEE ALSO | Dozens of clergy credibly accused of sex abuse live in Illinois without supervision, survivors say

Cardinal Blase Cupich sent letters on Tuesday to Our Lady of Hope Mission parishioners in Rosemont and Mary Seat of Wisdom parishioners in Park Ridge.

The Archdiocese Independent Review Board determined that there is no reasonable cause to believe that Clemens abused a minor in an accusation dating back nearly 50 years.

READ MORE | Joliet Diocese priest sex abuse survivors say list of abusers is not complete

RELATED | Child sex abuse by Illinois Catholic clergy spans state and decades, AG investigation finds

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Attorneys representing a woman who has accused retired Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet of sexual assault say two other women have come forward with accounts of alleged sexual assault and other misconduct. The cardinal has denied the claims and stressed the need for the judicial process to determine the truth.

Attorneys representing a woman who has accused retired Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet of sexual assault say two other women have come forward with accounts of alleged sexual assault and other misconduct. The cardinal has denied the claims and contended that the allegations of such “reprehensible behavior” only further defame him. He stressed the need for the judicial process to determine the truth.

The 79-year-old cardinal previously filed a defamation lawsuit against Pamela Groleau for her claims that the cardinal inappropriately kissed or touched her on four occasions, characterizing it as sexual assault. She initially made these claims in an August 2021 class-action…

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It was a sweltering June day in 1983 when a teenager named Emanuela Orlandi left her home to attend a nearby music school and later meet up with some friends in a small square not far from the Vatican walls.

But Orlandi never showed up. What followed has been 40 years of mystery, international intrigue and conspiracy theories that have captivated Rome, all of Italy and the world.  

Orlandi was 15 at the time and lived with her family in Vatican City. Her disappearance sparked a series of investigations and unanswered questions that continue to baffle investigators and the public alike. Indeed, 40 years later, the Orlandi case remains both perplexing and a long-standing mystery.

READ: Don’t Underestimate The Vatican’s Power In Italian Politics

“I’ve always said that there is some responsibility on the part of the Vatican,” said Pietro Orlandi, who has made it his mission to…

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A national group representing Inuit says it hopes a review into how the Oblates handled allegations of a former priest sexually abusing children in Nunavut will bring change within the Catholic Church.

A retired Quebec judge has been tasked with leading the review into how the Oblates handled the abuse allegations against Johannes Rivoire.

“We look forward to engaging with Justice André Denis and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to achieve a greater understanding of the decisions that contributed to the unconscionable situation of an accused criminal being allowed to evade justice,” Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami said in a statement.

“We hope that Justice Denis’ independent review will help to bring about necessary governance change within the Oblates and the Catholic Church more broadly as well as bring a small measure of peace to victims through an assurance that such decisions are not repeated.”

The group added that it continues to…

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A predatory Catholic priest who terrorised altar boys across West Yorkshire for more than a decade, forcing them to perform sex acts on each other, has been handed a fresh jail sentence.

Father David Crowley used his position and access to youngsters as a “breeding ground” to groom and then carry out his sordid sexual fantasies, thinking he was “untouchable”, a judge told him at Leeds Crown Court this week.

He has been jailed twice already for sexually abusing young boys, first in 1998 and then in 2019, having targeted a total of 11 youngsters. It was only after he was jailed for a second time that five more victims dared to step forward.

Now 69-years-old, he abused the boys from the early 80s through to the mid 90s, taking place in Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and the Yorkshire Dales. He initially denied the offences, but later made full…

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Four survivors shared their stories more than 50 years after they were brutally physically and sexually assaulted by priests at an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore.

[See video]

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It wasn’t until similar abuse allegations came to light in Boston that Lawrence Hecker was quietly retired in 2002.

Three days after the Feast of All Saints in 1999, Lawrence Hecker confessed to his superiors at the archdiocese of New Orleans that he had either sexually molested or otherwise shared a bed with multiple teenagers whom he met through his work as a Roman Catholic priest.

The roughly 15-year period, beginning in the mid-1960s, during which the admitted conduct unfolded “was a time of great change in the world and in the church, and I succumbed to its zeitgeist”, Hecker said in a two-page statement which he gave to local church authorities serving a region with about a half-million Catholics. “It was a time when I neglected spiritual direction, confession and most daily prayer.”

Hecker’s admission – less than two months after he had been…

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The Shiny Happy People documentary got my attention, too.

There is a reason it’s trending right now and you’re seeing it in your feeds and hearing about in conversations. Not only did it provide the history behind the Duggar family’s rise to fame that allowed them to promote their strict religious beliefs in a way even secular America was entertained by, it removed the mask on the man who started the group they touted.

Bill Gothard had a very successful business in manipulating countless followers through the Institute in Basic Life Principles and his homeschool curriculum, Advanced Training Institute. He invaded Americans’ living rooms and minds through TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting. He claimed to be an all-knowing leader who demanded rules about sexual purity, courtship, marriage and family planning — all while being a single man with no children.

Not only were his teachings abusive, he was abusive.

An unexpected twist to the…

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An evangelical pastor and former TV preacher is attempting to have his conviction quashed after he was last year found guilty of indecently assaulting a young woman while giving her a massage at his southwestern Sydney home.

John McMartin was earlier this year handed a 16-month suspended prison sentence, to be served by way of an intensive corrections order, after being found guilty of one count of indecent assault following a Local Court hearing. McMartin plead not guilty to the charge and has denied he touched the woman in a sexual manner.

McMartin, founder of the Liverpool-based Pentecostal Inspire Church, on Monday briefly appeared before NSW District Court for an appeal against both his conviction and sentence.

Defence barrister Philip Strickland SC told the court that one of the grounds of appeal related to the complainant’s evidence.

Mr Strickland argued that her version of events had changed over several statements…

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NEW ORLEANS — Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to renew their Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force for another year, giving the body additional time and resources to complete its mandates.

A few messengers opposed extending the task force another year, arguing that the matter was better left to autonomous local congregations and voicing fears that ministers might be falsely accused.

Members of the task force said their work would make make churches safer spaces for children.

During this week’s annual meeting, the task force unveiled a prototype for its Ministry Check website, sbcabuseprevention.com, where the names of credibly accused perpetrators will eventually be posted.

For now, it includes a “ministry tool kit” that provides resources for local congregations seeking to safeguard parishioners better, but doesn’t yet identify any perpetrators.

The task force is working to list the names of those ”credibly accused” of sexual abuse.

The names of the churches…

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A former Baptist missionary from Iowa has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing a 4-year-old who tested positive for gonorrhea.

Jordan Webb, a 31-year-old former missionary to the Caribbean country of St. Lucia, will be required to serve at least 17.5 years in prison, or 70 percent of his term, before being eligible for parole, The Messenger reported. Days after Webb tested positive for gonorrhea, a preschool family member also tested positive for the sexually-transmitted disease, The Roys Report (TRR) previously reported.

“The state is pleased with the outcome and sentence in this matter,” Bailey Taylor, assistant Webster County attorney and prosecutor, told The Messenger. “We’d like to thank law enforcement, medical professionals involved, and the Webster County community’s help to ensure justice in this matter.”

Webb reportedly worked as a missionary in St. Lucia from 2019 to 2022 with “Christ in the Caribbean.” According…

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A public version of the Maryland attorney general’s report on child sexual abuse within the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore redacts the names of 10 alleged abusers and gives the reasons why in the footnotes: These people are presumed to be alive and previously haven’t been listed as publicly accused.

The Catholic Church, under pressure from survivors and advocates to be more transparent since the report’s release, has said in numerous statements and on its news site that none of the 10 are in active ministry.

Both the church and the attorney general’s office cite a judge’s confidentiality order as to why they cannot release those names, as well as the names of five high-ranking church officials who helped cover up abuse. Other names are redacted in the report —…

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This is either kabuki theatre, or there’s one camp in the Jesuit leadership trying to deal with a guy who is a criminal pervert and another group in the Roman curia—lots of whom have SJ after their names, too—who … aren’t.

The disgraced celebrity artist-priest, Fr. Marko Rupnik, requested release from the Jesuit order several months before the Society of Jesus dismissed him. The claim came in an Italian-language statement released Saturday over the signature of Maria Campatelli and the Centro Aletti, and was confirmed by reporting from the Associated Press.

Campatelli is the current director of the Centro Aletti, an art studio Rupnik founded in the mid-90s when he came to Rome.

Her statement accuses the Jesuits of trumping up the grounds of stubborn disobedience on which the Jesuits expelled Rupnik, saying a “last chance” assignment to a new Jesuit house and mission outside of Rome was no last chance at…

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My wife took Christ off our living room wall earlier this year. It was a postcard image of a mosaic created by Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik. She couldn’t bear to have it up.

Father Rupnik is a remarkably gifted artist. His mosaics adorn chapels and buildings from the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Lourdes, France. And until now, our living room wall.

Father Rupnik stands “accused of spiritual, psychological or sexual abuse by multiple adult women over the course of almost 40 years,” according to a report by Paulina Guzik at OSV News. Many of the cases involved women under his spiritual direction. Three years ago, he was even briefly excommunicated for granting absolution to a consecrated woman with whom he had sex, though the excommunication was lifted when he confessed and repented. This week, we learned…

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The priest and artist Father Marko Rupnik, accused of the physical and psychological abuse of numerous religious sisters, was dismissed from the Jesuits this month, according to the religious order.

The Society of Jesus said in a June 15 statement Rupnik was expelled due to his “stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.”

Rupnik had been asked to change communities and “accept a new mission,” the statement said. “Faced with Marko Rupnik’s repeated refusal to obey this mandate, we were unfortunately left with only one solution: dismissal from the Society of Jesus.”

According to canon law, Rupnik has 30 days to appeal the dismissal after receiving the decree on June 14. The decree was issued June 9, the Jesuits said.

Father Johan Verschueren, SJ, Rupnik’s superior whose name the statement was in, said no further comments will be made until after this period has concluded.

In February,…

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To the editor: Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez’s Mass to “pray for our city” is a disgrace to the church and another slap in the face to the survivors of abuse that has been repeatedly and systematically covered up by the Catholic Church for decades.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, honored at Dodger Stadium’s LGBTQ+ Pride Night on Friday, promote inclusion, grace and assisting those who are ailing or otherwise in need of support. Sounds a lot like that guy Jesus whom Catholics say they follow.

The church, on the other hand, has a lot of other things its leaders should be praying for, including forgiveness for all the harm they have caused.

Cynthia Olaya, Long Beach

..

To the editor: The Times’ apparent disdain for Roman Catholics has intruded into your editorial quality assurance process.

Someone should have corrected the reporter who described the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence…

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Waiting decades after abuse for due process

Recent news headlines about JPMorgan Chase’s $290 million settlement with sexual abuse victims of the deceased predator, Jeffrey Epstein, made me feel nauseated. Epstein’s victims, who were teenage girls and young women at the time of their hideous abuse, are said to number more than 100. Coincidentally, the settlement comes on the heels of a civil trial in which former president Donald Trump, a friend of Epstein, was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, now 79, and ordered to pay her $5 million in damages. Carroll is now seeking an additional $10 million.

I have mixed feelings about both settlements, not to mention a recurring bittersweet taste in my mouth when I hear of another ultra-rich celebrity finally being held accountable many long years, if not decades, after committing horrific crimes and then covering them up with the help…

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On June 25, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly ceremonially signed S.B. 2127, a bill intended to advance the cause of justice for victims of child sex abuse. This legislation received unanimous support in both chambers thanks to the tireless advocacy of survivors. As a state representative and attorney who has represented survivors of child sex abuse and human trafficking for over a decade, I was one of the legislators who pushed for the bill’s passage. But while it was certainly a step in the right direction, there is more to do to protect our kids from sex abuse and provide justice to those who survive.

Child sex abuse is a persistent and ever-present societal plague. Since 2002, when The Boston Globe shined a spotlight on abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, the nation has witnessed a steady stream of revelations of this abuse in  other institutions and regions of the country,…

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Just days after Pope Francis’s Jesuit order announced that Slovenian Father Marko Rupnik had been expelled over accusations of abusing multiple adult women, a community in Rome loyal to the controversial artist has claimed he actually asked to leave the Jesuits earlier this year, and accused the Jesuits of engaging in a media smear campaign.

Other Jesuits attached to that Roman community, who number at least four, also announced that they too plan to leave order, apparently in solidarity with Rupnik.

On June 15, the Society of Jesus, the largest men’s religious order in the Catholic Church, to which Pope Francis and several high-ranking Vatican officials belong, announced they had dismissed Rupnik over what they called “his stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.”

The statement was signed by Father Johan Verschueren, who, in his role as permanent delegate of the Society of Jesus for houses, works and…

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Pope Francis expressed concern — and dismay — over the allegations of sexual abuse committed by priests in Bolivia in a letter sent Friday to President Luis Arce, as a pedophilia scandal involving priests continues to rock the the Andean country.

The pontiff pledged “the full cooperation of the Church to work alongside the government” in the ongoing investigations over the abuse allegations.

“I express my sorrow … for the deplorable acts that have affected and continue to affect individuals who have been sexually abused by members of the church,” Francis wrote in the letter dated May 31 that was read Friday by María Nela Prada, the minister of the Bolivian presidency, at a news conference in La Paz.

In the letter, Francis says he shares the president’s “concern, outrage and condemnation” regarding the recently reported incidents, as well as for “the negligence of those who should have exercised vigilance.”

…

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Pope Francis has sent a letter to the president of Bolivia expressing “feelings of shame and dismay” and a firm promise to work with the government of the South American country to end clerical sexual abuse of minors.

The letter, released Friday according to the Associated Press but signed on May 31 and addressed to Bolivian President Luis Arce, is a response to another letter sent to the pontiff on May 22 by the South American president. The pope’s letter was made public on May 15 on the official Twitter account of the Bolivian president.

“Dear Mr. President: I have read your letter and I thank you for the clarity and deference with which you share with me your concern, outrage, and condemnation and that of the citizens of that beloved nation, due to the deplorable events that have affected and continue to affect individuals sexually abused by members of the…

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A pair of class-action lawsuits against two Roman Catholic organizations in Quebec involving sexual assaults alleged to have occurred over the past 80 years can move forward.

The Superior Court in Montreal on Friday authorized the two lawsuits, which name the dioceses of Joliette and Longueuil as defendants.

A total of 41 people have joined the suits, which accuse over a dozen priests of sexual assaults dating back to the 1940s until the present, according to the firm behind the lawsuits, Arsenault Dufresne Wee (ADW).

A 47-year-old man and a 50-year-old man are the lead plaintiffs. They were between 6 and 10 years old during the alleged assaults. Neither is named in the firm’s release, though it says one is prepared to go public.

While the court’s authorization allows each case to proceed, “the parties have decided to negotiate to try to reach an amicable settlement,” before beginning the legal…

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The Society of Jesus has dismissed Father Marko Rupnik from the order. According to Father Johan Verschueren, his superior in Rome, Father Rupnik was turned out by the decree of Jesuit Superior General Father Arturo Sosa June 9; he has 30 days to appeal that decision. This was done, as Father Verschueren put it in a report from Catholic News Service Rome, “in accordance with canon law, due to his stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.”

Well good. But I have questions.

The most urgent concerns Father Rupnik’s status as a priest. He remains one, of course. Dismissal from a religious order does not laicize a priest. Canonically, though, he is not able to function as a priest unless his faculties and ministerial duties are first approved by a bishop receiving him into a diocese and acting as his superior.

It is to be hoped, but is by no…

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Following the conclusion of a police investigation into an allegations of child sexual abuse, the Archdiocese of Denver has closed its own internal review of the claims made against Rev. Michael O’Brien and found them “baseless” and “false.”

O’Brien was accused in September 2021 of sexual assault. He was immediately placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese.

Now exonerated by the police and the church, O’Brien will return to St. Anthony of Padua in Julesburg and St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Crook as the Pastor on July 1st. O’Brien had been with those churches only a short time before he was placed on leave. 

“I will not let irresponsible and unfounded civil lawsuits keep a good priest from ministry,” Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila stated in a press release. “His fortitude in the face of a false accusation has been inspiring to me and to the…

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If you’re a Catholic who regularly attends Mass, I’m sure you have noticed that the pews are not as crowded these days as they have been in the past. If your parish is like mine, you will also see the people in the seats predominantly have either gray or no hair. This is a growing and serious issue for the Catholic Church. Mass attendance is down significantly with fewer young people attending regularly. What has happened to cause this? Let’s take a look.

Where Did Everyone Go?

There have been a number of significant factors that have contributed to this problem. I believe first and foremost the sex scandal has been a huge contributor. Another growing problem for the Catholic Church has been the division amongst the American people resulting in increased attacks on Catholics as well as the Church itself. 

Is the Scandal Finally Over?

Who knows? There is more focus…

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Review of Doing Theology and Theological Ethics in the Face of the Abuse Crisis, Daniel J. Fleming, James F. Keenan and Hans Zollner, editors, 384 pages; Pickwick Publications $48.00

The late great historian John O’Malley dated what he termed the Roman Catholic church’s “long nineteenth century” from the French Revolution in 1789 to the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. Arguably, however, that counter-revolutionary, intensely clerical, ultramontane period in the church’s life extended beyond Vatican II and met its final end only within the last 20 years, with the revelations of the scale and systemic nature of the church’s sexual abuse crisis. 

As John McGreevy remarks in his recent history of the church from the French Revolution to the present, while the bishops at the council changed much about the church, they did not “assess [its] structures,” with the result that the “evolution toward transparency…

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The head of a religious art and culture center founded by a disgraced Jesuit priest came to his defense Saturday after he was expelled from the Jesuit religious order following allegations of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse against adult women.

Maria Campatelli, director of the Rome-based Aletti Center, said the claims against the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik were “defamatory and unproven” and amounted to a form of mediatic “lynching” against the Slovene priest and his art center.

The Jesuits announced this week that Rupnik had been ordered expelled from the order June 9 because of “stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.” The Jesuits acted after Rupnik had been accused by several women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuses over a 30-year period.

Until the case exploded publicly late last year, Rupnik had largely escaped punishment, apparently thanks in part to his exalted status in…

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