ABUSE TRACKER

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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A Film by Jason Berry – Upcoming Screenings & Discussions with Esteemed New Orleans-Based Filmmaker, Author & Journalist

Tuesday | June 20 | 7:30 PM – SOMERVILLE THEATRE 55 Davis Square | Somerville | MA 02144

Book Signing After The Talk with Harvard Book Store in the theatre lobby

AND

Friday | June 23 | 7:30 PM – MARTHA’S VINEYARD FILM SOCIETY 79 Beach Road | Vineyard Haven | MA 02568 Book Signing After The Talk with Edgartown Books in the theatre lobby

“New Orleans people have a compulsive drive to do everything the opposite of everywhere else. Maybe dancing when someone diesis the most brilliant thing you can do.” – Deborah “Big Red” Cotton

Boston and Vineyard Haven, MA–Distinguished author, journalist and filmmaker Jason Berry is flying into Boston this June to present his new documentary film and give talks after two showings of “City of A Million Dreams.” The first will…

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When the U.S. bishops meet in Orlando this week, they do so with the looming anniversary of an ignominious moment in the Church’s life. Next week will be five years since the Archdiocese of New York announced a credible allegation of child abuse against then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, and a torrent of allegations against the prominent churchman followed.

It is not likely that McCarrick will be a topic of much discussion in Orlando — the bishops will probably make mention of his scandal when they talk about growing distrust of priests for their bishops, and journalists might ask a question or two about the criminal charges McCarrick now faces.

But for the most part, the conference agenda regards the McCarrick affair as a matter in the rearview mirror — once a topic of serious and urgent discussion, and now consigned to pages of history.

It is worth remembering the candid conversation…

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Two more bishops were accused of sexual abuse while heading the church’s main missionary organization

French church leaders have appealed for patience and fairness in establishing the truth, after two more bishops were accused of sexual abuse while heading the church’s main missionary organization.

“The charges are serious, and both categorically deny them,” said Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, the bishops’ conference president.

“The voice of complainants must be heard, the rights of defendants respected, and it is now up to the investigations to ascertain the whole truth. … My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who may be suffering,” he said in a June 13 statement.

The bishops’ conference president was reacting to June 13 joint reports in three Catholic newspapers that prosecutors were investigating alleged offenses by Bishop Georges Colomb of La Rochelle-Saintes and Auxiliary Bishop Gilles Reithinger of Strasbourg during their time heading the…

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Catholic archdiocese gives New Orleans DA files on Lawrence Hecker, accused of raping child decades ago

The second-oldest archdiocese in the US has handed over “voluminous documents” involving a retired Roman Catholic priest – and accused serial predator – to the New Orleans district attorney’s office as prosecutors investigate an allegation that the cleric manhandled and raped a child decades earlier.

The district attorney, Jason Williams, revealed the archdiocese’s provision of the documents after a federal court hearing on Thursday centering on whether those materials should be more widely released as a matter of public safety and interest.

That argument was first advanced by a man named Aaron Hebert. In 2019, Hebert filed a lawsuit accusing priest Lawrence Hecker of molesting him decades earlier, when the plaintiff was a minor. The suit came as a years-long clerical abuse scandal continued metastasizing in the New Orleans area.

The judge evaluating Hebert’s request for…

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When Jenifer Valenti was hired by the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas in April 2019, she was tasked with revising the archdiocesan Child Abuse Prevention Policy.

“Most of these policies, which had served the diocese well, had not been revised in some time,” said Valenti, director of the office for protection and care, “so we really started working on that process then.”

After four years of hard work and careful consideration, the archdiocese is promulgating its Abuse Prevention Policy, which will replace the Child Protection Policy.

“We believe the whole church and everybody that’s involved in the care or mentoring of our vulnerable people has an obligation to safeguard their protection,” said Valenti.

“We hope that this newly revised policy helps people to have some pretty clear behavioral standards,” she continued, “as well as the overarching values and principles that are a part of this ministry to help prevent…

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A New Orleans priest accused of sex crimes is under investigation by the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Lawrence Hecker, a retired priest, is accused of being a serial child molester.

Hecker was named in a list by the New Orleans Archdiocese of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

Hecker has never been arrested or criminally charged. The investigation by the district attorney is the first step in years of looking into the crimes he is accused of.

On Thursday, attorneys for the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the accusers’ attorneys were in federal court to discuss the possibility of unsealing a deposition in Hecker’s case.

WDSU Investigates spoke with one of Hecker’s alleged victims.

“If I would have only told somebody, maybe I could have prevented others to feel the wrath of Father Hecker, and I still feel that way today. Every Catholic in New Orleans should…

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TOPLINE

Accusations of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse of adult women over a 30-year period have led to the expulsion of prominent Slovenian Jesuit priest Marko Ivan Rupnik, accused of abusing multiple women after he’d previously been excommunicated, but then welcomed back into the Roman Catholic church.

KEY FACTS

• The Society of Jesus, an order of Catholic priests commonly known as the Jesuits, announced Thursday it has dismissed 68-year-old Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik after allegations that he abused women in his native Slovenia.

• Rupnik, a hitherto renowned artist who has installed mosaics in dozens of high-profile chapels and at the Vatican, made headlines last year when Italian blogs and websites started reporting on years of abuse complaints from women that were dismissed by church authorities as being past the relevant statute of limitations, the Jesuits reported.

• The Jesuits—the order that includes Pope Francis and…

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Staten Island NY – A former Staten Island priest already accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a minor in New York pleaded no contest to several charges in Pennsylvania Friday in connection with abuse allegations more than a decade ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Rev. James Garisto, 74, pleaded no contest to charges of corruption of a minor and indecent assault after a man came forward accusing the priest of touching him inappropriately at a Fishtown, Pa., home between 2006 and 2010 when he was 15 years old, according to the report.

Other charges in the case were dropped, the report said.

Father Garisto, the former principal and academic dean of St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School, was arrested in the case on May 4, 2022, the Advance/SILive.com previously reported.

Father Garisto had also faced charges in connection with another incident involving…

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Disgraced former Anglican priest David Norton had been “our role model, our guardian, almost like a parent,” to two boys growing up in the Yukon.

Editor’s note: David Norton was found guilty Wednesday of two counts each of indecent assault, sexual assault and sexual interference. He is going to be sentenced Friday. An updated story will be posted later.

To two boys growing up in the Yukon, disgraced former Anglican priest David Norton had been “(their) role model, (their) guardian, almost like a parent.”

But when the brothers read online newspaper stories about Norton’s convictions in 2018 for sexual abusing little boys in the London area, they realized “our story was identical,” one of them testified in a Whitehorse courtroom.

“There were two parts to Dave,” he said. “One was this great role model and the other were the parts we’re talking about today . . . we wanted to get…

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In the summer of 2003, Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien of the Diocese of Phoenix admitted to transferring priests accused of sexual abuse to other parishes. The parish communities that received these priests did not know about the accusations, and in many cases, the bishop transferred priests to poor, Latino parishes.

By signing a statement admitting the cover-up on June 2, 2003, Bishop O’Brien avoided being prosecuted by Maricopa County. It appeared to onlookers that he would retain his post as the bishop of Phoenix.

But that changed less than two weeks later. On June 14, Bishop O’Brien climbed into his Buick after celebrating a Saturday Vigil Mass. On his way home, his car struck 43-year-old Jim L. Reed, who was jaywalking. Mr. Reed, a six-foot-tall man who weighed around 250 pounds, shattered the bishop’s windshield.

But Bishop O’Brien did not stop driving, and Mr. Reed died. The bishop resigned four days…

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Pope Francis’ Jesuit religious order said Thursday it has expelled a prominent Slovenian priest from the congregation following allegations of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuses against adult women.

A statement from the Jesuits, obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, said the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik was dismissed from the Jesuit order by decree on June 9 “due to stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.”

Rupnik is one of the most celebrated religious artists in the Catholic Church, whose mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world, including at the Vatican.

Late last year, the Jesuits acknowledged he had been accused by several women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuses over a 30-year period. But he had largely escaped punishment, apparently thanks in part to his exalted status in the church and at the Vatican, where even Francis’ role in the case came into question.

The Jesuit statement said…

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Jesuit priest and artist Father Marko Rupnik, accused of having physically and psychologically abused numerous nuns, continues to travel and carry out art projects despite restrictions imposed by the Society of Jesus.

According to recent information released by the Italian newspaper Domani, the priest, who was also briefly excommunicated for absolving in confession an accomplice of a sin against the Sixth Commandment, traveled this June to the city of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina and to Hvar Island in Croatia to do art projects.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Father Johan Verschueren, delegate for the Jesuits’ Interprovincial Houses and Works in Rome and the superior of the accused priest, confirmed the veracity of the information and noted that these travels are “a serious transgression of the restrictive measures imposed on Father Rupnik.”

Specifically, Rupnik reportedly visited the city of Mostar as a guest of the Franciscan Order…

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Creation of ‘safeguarding commission’ comes after religious order promised to help with investigation of priest accused of abusing Inuit children

A Catholic missionary group has retained a retired Quebec Superior Court judge to lead an independent review of the sexual abuse allegations against one of its priests, Rev. Johannes Rivoire, who served in Nunavut decades ago.

The Oblates of Mary Immaculate, OMI Lacombe Canada (part of a worldwide congregation of Oblate priests) and the Oblates of the Province of France announced the appointment Monday.

“The Oblates recognize the tragic legacy of clergy abuse and are sincerely committed to support the Inuit Peoples who advocate for truth, justice, healing and reconciliation,” said Rev. Ken Thorson, the head of the OMI Lacombe Canada, in the release.

Rivoire, now in his 90s, spent more than 30 years in Nunavut as a parish priest, mostly in Arviat and Naujaat, between 1960 and 1992.

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A priest who has worked for schools and churches across the metro New Orleans area returned Monday (June 12) to a St. Tammany Parish courtroom, where a plea deal was offered. Father Patrick Wattigny could face up to 20 years in prison, but would likely get less for pleading guilty.

It has been three years since Wattigny was arrested and charged with molestation of a juvenile, after a teen boy came forward and claimed the longtime Catholic priest had abused him multiple times when he was 15 years old. Talks between the district attorney’s office, the victim’s family and the priest’s attorney have been lengthy.

“Any negotiations can be tough,” Fox 8 legal analyst Joe Raspanti said. “You have to give the person what the law says, which is between 5 and 10 years in the criminal code.”

Wattigny was re-arrested last October after a second juvenile surfaced, accusing him of…

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Jules Woodson remembers the backlash, even after her former youth pastor, who had become a popular megachurch preacher, admitted to the so-called “sexual incident” she experienced when she was a teen.

“I thought, truly, maybe 100 people would read it. But if it helps just one person who had been through what I had been through, then it was worth it to me,” Jules Woodson told Scripps News of her decision to go public about sex abuse she says she endured as a teen.

She blogged about the incident in 2018 at the height of the #churchtoo movement.

“My abuser got a standing ovation for a faux apology you know, that continued to heap shame and blame on me and call for cheap grace for himself,” said Woodson.

It was blame she says she’d felt before recalling a similar response when she told church leaders about the abuse 20 years…

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Archdiocese of Dubuque officials said today that they have received another allegation of past sexual abuse by a former Dubuque priest. 

The new accusation of past abuse of a minor against the Rev. Leo Riley, who served in the archdiocese from 1982 to 2002, was reported to archdiocesan personnel on May 23, a press release states. That was the same day the archdiocese reported that Riley had been accused of sexually abusing a minor in the 1980s.

Dubuque archdiocesan spokesperson Deacon John Robbins said today that he could not share when and where the most recently alleged abuse happened but emphasized that the investigation is ongoing.

“That investigation includes us publishing the alleged perpetrator’s ministry assignments (in the diocese) rather than focusing on a specific time or location,” he said.

Riley was ordained a priest of the Dubuque archdiocese in 1982. He requested a move to the Diocese of Venice in 2002…

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A documentary exposing the abuse of boys at Blackrock College in ­Dublin has enabled more victims to come forward, as official figures show a significant number of new allegations.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland has produced its annual report, revealing that the number of allegations of abuse made against members of the clergy rose to 251, compared to 178 the previous year.

Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the board, wrote: ‘Many of these relate to boarding schools during a time when they were run by religious orders. The national board has consistently welcomed opportunities that give complainants a voice and a mechanism for sharing what happened to them as children.

‘A series of media releases in the autumn of 2022, following a documentary called Blackrock Boys, provided such an opportunity, not just for victims of abuse in Blackrock College, but in other boarding…

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The surviving relatives of the late Pope Benedict XVI stand to inherit money from his legacy, according to the executor of his last will and testament. None of these relatives seem willing to touch it.

One cousin has already refused to accept the inheritance; four others have not yet responded. If they are smart, they will turn it down as well.

The problem is that, by accepting the money, an heir also takes over any legal claims against the deceased, according to estate laws in Germany, where the cousins all live. Joseph Ratzinger, as he was known before adopting his papal name, is a defendant in one of the most-watched cases of clerical sexual abuse in the country.

“We didn’t expect this inheritance, and our lives are just fine without it,” said Martina Holzinger, the daughter and legal guardian of a now 88-year-old Ratzinger cousin who has refused the unexpected…

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[Video interview with Jessica Calefati about the work she and her colleagues at the Baltimore Banner have done to reveal the names of accused priests redacted from the Baltimore report of the Maryland Attorney General.]

A former nun from Philadelphia who died 31 years ago is the last alleged abuser to be identified among the names concealed in the Maryland attorney general’s report on child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, according to census records, obituaries and documents from her religious order.

This story by Jessica Calefati, Tim Prudente, Liz Bowie and Dylan Segelbaum continues. Read the rest at The Baltimore Banner: Final name stripped from Maryland report on Catholic sex abuse is nun from Philadelphia

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A former Flint-area Catholic priest convicted of the attempted sexual abuse of a 5-year-old boy in the late 1980s, was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail and probation.

Vincent DeLorenzo, 84, was sentenced June 13 by Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Brian S. Pickell after previously pleading guilty to a single count of attempted first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a five-year felony.

The sentence followed the framework of the plea, which called for five years probation and one year incarceration at the Genesee County Jail.

“As terribly damaging, harmful and traumatic as all sexual abuse is, (abuse) involving child victims is even more devastating,” Pickell said.

DeLorenzo chose not to speak prior to being sentence.

“Justice did come for the victims in this case,” his attorney, Michael Manley, said.

DeLorenzo was arrested in May 2019 while living in Marion County, Florida. He was…

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[Via News 24]

• The archdiocese of Cologne has been ordered by a German court to pay 300 000 euros in damages to a victim of abuse by a priest.
• The 62-year-old had been raped more than 300 times as a teenager in the 1970s by a Roman Catholic priest. 
• The court also ordered that the plaintiff be compensated for any future costs relating to the abuse including therapy fees.

A German court ordered the archdiocese of Cologne on Tuesday to pay 300 000 euros in damages to a victim of repeated sexual abuse by a priest in what was called a potentially landmark case.

A spokesperson for the Cologne regional court told AFP the 62-year-old plaintiff, who said he was raped more than 300 times as a teenager in the 1970s by a Roman Catholic priest, had demanded some 750 000 euros ($809,000).

The court ordered the archdiocese “to pay 300…

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Berlin – A court on Tuesday ordered a German diocese to pay 300,000 euros ($323,000) in compensation to a former altar boy who was repeatedly abused by a Catholic priest in the 1970s, a ruling that a victims’ association said was the first of its kind in Germany.

The state court in Cologne ruled in a case in which the plaintiff, a man now aged 62 who was raped and otherwise abused more than 300 times by a now-deceased priest, had sought 750,000 euros from the Cologne archdiocese, German news agency dpa reported. The archdiocese decided against invoking the statute of limitations in the case.

Presiding Judge Stephan Singbartl said that the court hadn’t ordered higher compensation because the victim’s life fortunately hadn’t been destroyed, noting that he had married, had children and been able to work.

The German church has been making voluntary payments to abuse survivors. Victims’ groups…

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It’s the first court-ordered compensation payment in Germany for Catholic Church sexual abuse. Typically, as in this case, the statute of limitations has expired, but the archdiocese waived its right to avoid trial.

A German regional court on Tuesday ordered the Archdiocese of Cologne to pay €300,000 (roughly $325,000) in damages to an abuse victim for crimes committed in the 1970s. 

It’s a far higher sum than Germany’s Catholic Church dioceses have paid in voluntary, symbolic compensation payments in the past. 

The case could only come to court because the Church allowed it to.

Technically, as in most such cases, the statute of limitations had expired on the crimes, but the archdiocese elected to allow a court determine the appropriate compensation. 

Ít also did not contest the allegations of at least 320 instances of abuse by a priest against the plaintiff, 64-year-old Georg Menne, in the 1970s. The priest in question…

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Demonstrations in Bolivia in recent weeks have been directed at a seemingly unusual target: the Catholic Church.

More than three-fourths of the people in this Andean nation are Catholic, and Catholicism remained the religion of the state until 2009. Protests erupted, however, after the publication of diary entries from a deceased Spanish Jesuit priest, which detailed his sexual abuse of dozens of boys while teaching in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba during the 1970s and 1980s.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Brazil, a new book by two award-winning journalists has made the magnitude of the clerical sexual abuse crisis more visible.

Over the past two decades, sexual abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic Church nearly everywhere it has a presence. Latin America, where 4 in 10 of the world’s Catholics live, is no exception. Yet the church’s role in the region is distinct, as are the stakes.

Owing to centuries of Spanish and Portuguese colonization,…

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There was a “significant increase” in the number of notifications of allegations of abuse reported to the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) in the past 12 months.

In its latest annual report, the NBSCCCI has said it is clear from the source of the allegations that many
of these relate to alleged abuse in boarding schools run and managed by male and female religious orders.

It is believed that the RTÉ documentary Blackrock Boys, which has resulted in a preliminary inquiry by the Government into the issue of sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders, has contributed to the rise in allegations.

The board received 251 notifications of child protection concerns about clergy and male and female religious between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

That compares to 178 allegations of abuse against clerics and religious…

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An abuse survivor is speaking out after several priests with ties to Richmond were named in an abuse investigation by the Maryland Attorney General.

In April, the Maryland Attorney General released the findings of a four-year investigation into sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The investigation documented abuse of at least 600 children by 156 priests, deacons and other leaders within the Baltimore archdiocese between the 1940s and the early 2000s.

The four priests named in the investigation include Fathers John Bostwick, Francis Bourbon, Charles Jeffries Burton and Henry (John) O’Toole, all of whom served in the Richmond area at some point.

8News spoke with abuse survivor, Becky Iani, who said she was abused by Father William Reinecke between the ages of 8 and 12 years old.

Reinecke was one of several priests credibly accused by the Catholic Diocese of Arlington in 2019. He…

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A former teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School has been arrested for allegations of sexual assault against a student, North Vancouver RCMP announced on Monday.

On May 2, Anthony Vesco was formally charged with sexual exploitation and sexual assault and a Canada-wide warrant was issued. He was arrested on June 6 in Windsor, Ontario, and released on bail.

It is alleged that during his tenure as a teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School, Vesco sexually assaulted a student while he was teaching at the school from 2017 to 2019.

Police said they are aware that there has been communication through social media between some individuals who may have been impacted or had knowledge of the incident. Investigators are asking those people to speak with police.

“Our priorities right now are to speak with those who have not yet come forward, to gather all available evidence, and…

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Leading Catholic sexual abuse experts, survivors and survivor advocates are questioning the suitability of the priest who leads the Vatican’s clergy abuse commission, following an investigation that has raised significant questions about his record of financial transparency and accountability.

Oblate Fr. Andrew Small “should be gone — voluntarily or forcefully,” David Clohessy, longtime executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said in reaction to a May 31 Associated Press report.

The Associated Press investigation revealed that under Small’s leadership as former U.S. director of the Pontifical Mission Societies at least $17 million was transferred from the Vatican’s U.S.-based missionary fundraising entity into an impact investing operation created by Small. The priest continues to run the investment organization while also serving as the No. 2 official at the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

“What pains me the most is that of all…

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Deacon Carlos Humberto Ramirez, of Miami Gardens, had worked as a teacher and deacon at Holy Family Catholic School on Northeast 12th Avenue in North Miami

A deacon and teacher at a Catholic school in North Miami was arrested after he was accused of molesting two students, police said.

Deacon Carlos Humberto Ramirez, 51, was arrested Wednesday on two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child, an arrest report said.

Ramirez, of Miami Gardens, had worked as a teacher and deacon at Holy Family Catholic School on Northeast 12th Avenue in North Miami.

According to the arrest report, the alleged incidents happened back in March during a Spanish class.

An 11-year-old student was turning in her classwork when Ramirez grabbed her by the waist and then squeezed her rear end, the report said.

She was able to leave class without any issues but another student who witnessed the…

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A former nun from Philadelphia who died 31 years ago is the last alleged abuser to be identified among the names concealed in the Maryland attorney general’s report on child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, according to census records, obituaries and documents from her religious order.

Catherine A. Hasson joined the Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia in 1943, lived at the group’s headquarters for one year, and taught first grade at St. Katharine School in East Baltimore for one year, the order confirmed. She left religious life in 1945, shortly before she would have professed her vows.

Those details match the report’s description ofthe accused woman listed as No. 149.

Hasson was one of 10 alleged perpetrators and five church officials accused of covering up abuse whose names were stripped from the report for procedural reasons. Survivors of clergy sexual abuse have repeatedly  View Cache

Buffalo priest has dropped his defamation lawsuit against a man who claimed he had been sexually abused as a child in the 1980s by the priest.

The Rev. Roy T. Herberger said he couldn’t afford to continue toward a trial after spending $20,000 in legal fees since filing the defamation case in 2020 in State Supreme Court in Erie County.

Herberger consulted with his attorney, Steven K. Long, and decided that pressing further was unlikely to accomplish anything more.

“He asked me what do I want to do, and I said, financially I can’t do it anymore, not after all that money already spent,” Herberger said.

Herberger’s lawsuit is believed to be the first and only defamation case in Western New York alleging that a plaintiff in a Child Victims Act lawsuit was lying about abuse accusations to slander an innocent priest.

The Buffalo Diocese put Herberger…

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Gary Mercure is serving up to 25 years in a Massachusetts prison. He has been cast as a serial sexual abuser who victimized numerous boys over decades.

A former priest accused of systematically raping and sexually abusing boys at multiple parishes throughout the Albany diocese was recently denied parole and will remain in a Massachusetts prison, where he is serving a sentence of up to 25 years for raping two altar boys.

Public records indicate that Gary Mercure, 75, was again rejected for parole last month, in part, because he continues to claim he is innocent. He was sentenced in February 2011 after being convicted of raping two boys that he drove from New York into Massachusetts during skiing trips. Mercure stands accused of raping many more boys, but New York’s statute of limitations has prevented his prosecution here.

One of Mercure’s former victims, who said he was in the…

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They called out the names of their friends, sometimes their predecessors, some of them martyred, some having lived long lives, others short, but all rooted in radical closeness to the Gospel. Fr. Jose Luis Loyola gently told them not to worry if tears came. 

But mostly tranquility filled the Mass that closed the 48th board meeting of the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious, or CLAR, in Lima, Peru. They ended late on June 5, with flags from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean draped over an altar, remembering their fallen friends, giving thanks for their lives.

Women and men religious gathered June 2-5 to tackle some of the toughest issues facing Latin America and the Caribbean or “the night,” as Sr. Liliana Franco, president of CLAR, called the social, ecclesial and other conditions affecting consecrated life in the region. To some, those conditions, such as…

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A bishop might have put people at risk by ignoring grooming concerns to promote a priest and being friends with a paedophile, a review has found.

Bishop Robert Byrne undermined safety in the Hexham and Newcastle diocese, the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) said.

He was bishop from 2019 to 2022 but stepped down amid serious concerns over his handling of concerns.

Bishop Byrne told the CSSA he supported keeping people safe.

The CSSA said overall the Roman Catholic diocese was meeting the “minimum standards” of guidelines and was ranked as having made “early progress”.

But auditors heavily criticised the tenure of Bishop Byrne, in particular his promotion of Canon Michael McCoy to Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle and the bishop’s “inappropriate” friendship with Father Timothy Gardner, a priest convicted of child sex offences.

The CSSA said the bishop’s “poor leadership” had “undermined” the safeguarding work of others “to…

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Sex-abuse response, women ordinations among the issues 

Members of the Southern Baptist Convention are gathering in New Orleans this week to elect a president, determine how to respond to sexual abuse within the church and weigh the fate of congregations that ordain women as ministers.

With more than 12,000 delegates already preregistered for this year’s annual meeting, organizers are anticipating one of the largest turnouts in the past quarter-century.

Arkansas native Bart Barber, who was elected convention president last year, will be nominated for a second one-year term but faces a challenge from Georgia pastor Mike Stone, who narrowly lost a previous bid for the presidency in 2021.

Last year’s proceedings were held in Anaheim, Calif.; this time, the gathering is closer to the denomination’s traditional strongholds.

“It’s going to be a crowd. There’s going to be a lot of people there,” said Craig Jenkins, director of advancement and news…

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The $100M proposed class-action has been discontinued, though the judge in the case has concernsJenny Lamothe
a day ago

A proposed class-action lawsuit launched by sexual abuse survivors on Manitoulin Island has been discontinued after 29 victims reached individual settlements. 

The $100-million claim was filed against the Jesuit Fathers of Upper Canada, also known as the English Canada Province, as well as the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie, the estate of father George Epoch and the estate of Brother O’Meare.

Filed by plaintiffs known only as I.P. and M.P.  in 2015, the lawsuit was proposed on behalf of “all persons who were abused as children by clergy or staff of the Holy Cross Mission in Wikwemikong, as well as all parents, spouses, children and siblings of the abused persons above.”…

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Former leader at controversial Qahal Yahweh Church shares how he, his pregnant wife and others were beaten into submission

WESTERN BUREAU:
Shane Wise* can clearly remember that day over five years ago when he and his pregnant wife were reportedly brutally beaten when they tried to leave the Qahal Yahweh Church compound in Paradise, Norwood, St James.
In fact, etched in his memory are the many horrible abuses he witnessed during the five years he lived at the controversial church, as the leaders reportedly used brute force and intimidation to brainwash the followers into submission. 
Returning to the island last week to finally report all the horrors that happened at the church during the period he was there, Wise said he is now ready to speak out, no longer afraid, as he sat down with The Sunday Gleaner during an exclusive interview on Thursday.
The Qahal Yahweh Church made headlines last week when it…

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As the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention approaches next week in New Orleans, one line from the Gospel of Matthew keeps rising in our minds: “Who is there among you, who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?”

It’s so simple and clear. And it’s relevant on this, the one-year anniversary of a long overdue but tragically still unfulfilled promise made by Southern Baptist officials: To create a public database of clergy sex abusers that would include ministers convicted, admitted and credibly accused of child molestation.

Why is such a list important?

Because parents, police, prosecutors and the public can best protect children from predators if they know who and where the predators are.

That’s why every state has an official, online sex offender registry for those with criminal convictions. But of course, criminal convictions are the bare tip of the iceberg.

That’s why Catholic abuse survivors have, for decades,…

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Mac McCall’s molestation case led to conviction of Catholic cleric and now he hopes to help children, the elderly and those recovering from substance abuse

After pressing a criminal case which led to the conviction of a Catholic cleric who admitted molesting him as a child, the son of an influential Louisiana politician is trying to convert his “pain into power” by building a physical and mental health fitness program for schoolchildren, the elderly and people recovering from substance abuse.

Mac McCall – whose father, John Young, once ran for lieutenant governor of Louisiana – recently publicly identified himself as the victim of the late Virgil Maxey “VM” Wheeler III, in one of the most contentious cases involving a decades-old clerical molestation scandal in his home town’s archdiocese.

A prominent attorney, Wheeler was friends with McCall’s father – once president of Jefferson parish, with more than 440,000 residents –…

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Any heir takes over any legal claims against the deceased, according to estate laws. ‘I could get the shakes just thinking about how much I would have to pay out,’ one cousin told Bavarian Radio.

The surviving relatives of the late Pope Benedict XVI stand to inherit money from his legacy, according to the executor of his last will and testament. None of these relatives seem willing to touch it.

One cousin has already refused to accept the inheritance; four others have not yet responded. If they are smart, they will turn it down as well.

The problem is that, by accepting the money, an heir also takes over any legal claims against the deceased, according to estate laws in Germany, where the cousins all live. Joseph Ratzinger, as he was known before adopting his papal name, is a defendant in one of the most-watched cases of clerical sexual abuse…

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The Catholic Diocese of Arlington has been advised that an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against Msgr. Edward P. Browne was determined to be credible by the Diocese of Richmond’s Review Board.  Msgr. Browne died in August 2002; the allegation, which involved an incident that took place prior to the establishment of the Diocese of Arlington in 1974, was reported posthumously.  

Msgr. Browne was ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Richmond in 1951. His assignments in Northern Virginia included St. Charles Borromeo in Arlington (1951-55), St. Rita in Alexandria (1967-72), St. Bernadette in Springfield (1972-86), and St. Michael in Annandale (1986-2000).  He also served at several parishes in the current territory of the Diocese of Richmond.  When the Diocese of Arlington was formed in 1974, he was incardinated as a priest of the Diocese of Arlington.

The Diocese of Arlington encourages anyone who knows of…

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The Rev. James Garisto will be sentenced this September.

A Staten Island priest pleaded no contest to corruption of a minor and indecent assault on Friday after prosecutors said he sexually abused an underaged boy in Fishtown during the mid-2000s.

The Rev. James Garisto, 74, faced several related charges after his arrest last year, but those charges were dropped, according to a spokesperson for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

Garisto, who spent nearly 40 years as a priest, teacher, and school administrator in the Archdiocese of New York, has faced multiple allegations of abuse. Church officials placed him on leave in 2019 after receiving a report of sexual misconduct against him.

After a New York man sued Garisto in 2021 over abuse he said he suffered at the hands of the priest as a boy, a Philadelphia man in his 30s came forward to say that Garisto had abused him…

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Aspen Police this week released a redacted report detailing the 500 hours of investigation, including interviews of 86 witness and assistance from the FBI, of an ex-altar boy’s accusations from prison in 2021 of sexual abuse by a priest who had served at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in the mid-2000s.

No corroborating evidence was found, and the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced in April it would not file criminal charges. The Archdiocese of Denver announced this week that it had concluded its own investigation, and Father Michael O’Brien would return to work July 1 as pastor of two churches in the Julesburg area.

The accuser was Keegan Callahan, now 25, who made his allegations from prison, where he is serving a 14-year sentence for raping a 16-year-old girl off McClain Flats Road. Callahan’s attorney, Steve Eldredge in Denver, told The Aspen Times this week that the…

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[SEE VIDEO]

Survivors of child sexual abuse in three states are praising opportunities to seek long-delayed justice after lawmakers removed the statute of limitations for such crimes.

(AP Video: Rodrique Ngowi/Robert Bukaty)

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“If you have issues in your life, influence, power and position will exacerbate all of them.”
—Carl Lentz, former pastor of Hillsong New York City

There is no better way to sum up the new FX documentary “The Secrets of Hillsong” than the above quote by former Hillsong golden boy himself, Carl Lentz. The series documents the rise and subsequent public downfall of the “influencer pastor,” but goes well beyond him too, exposing the abusive and toxic history of the church, beginning with founder Frank Houston and continuing through his son Brian Houston.

The series, which is streaming on Hulu, is the latest chapter in a developing story that encircles the well-known nondenominational congregation, originally founded in Sydney but now a worldwide movement. Last year’s “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed” on Discovery+ dove into the accusations of child sexual abuse perpetrated by founder Frank Houston, Brian Houston’s alleged cover-up…

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[VIDEO]

Tom Doyle brings a wealth of knowledge, experience of both research and litigation, and a solid integrity to the examination of the abuse of children by clergymen in the Roman Catholic Church.

He speaks on this subject with an honesty, and courage that is peerless. His testimony is precise without being sensational. The analysis he outlines explains the role of church history, church government and church theology in creating this catastrophe.

The response from the bishops and cardinals is one of denial, cover-up, control and outright lies, often under oath. Despite all that has been revealed, they still refuse to address the horror of what has been done to the most vulnerable in society—little children. They do not grasp the lifelong suffering of the victims. Instead spending more time, care and resources on the abusers.

Every time a documentary is shown on TV, more victims come forward. Suicide, substance…

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ARLINGTON (CBSNewsTexas.com) – Investigators from the Arlington Police Department visited a monastery Wednesday morning to speak with the nuns involved in a bitter dispute with the Bishop of Fort Worth.

The conversation was focused on the facts of the initial confrontation with Bishop Michael Olson in April, and his demand for the computers and phone used by the Carmelite nuns, according to their civil attorney Matthew Bobo. 

Bobo said he understood the Tarrant County Sheriffs Department may also be looking at the situation, but a spokesman there Wednesday said Arlington was the lead on any potential case.

No criminal charges have been filed or recommended, however the meeting is the first time police have become involved in the public clash between the two religious entities. A third-party sent a letter to Arlington police chief Al Jones, asking him to look into the situation.

After taking the electronic devices, Olson and…

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Charges and countercharges of illegal activity have further escalated a bitter public dispute between the Diocese of Fort Worth and a monastery of Carmelite nuns in Arlington, Texas.

In the latest salvo in what has become a protracted legal and public relations battle was launched by the diocese on Wednesday when it released a pair of photographs that purportedly show cannabis and marijuana products inside the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity.

Diocesan spokesman Pat Svacina said in Wednesday’s release that the diocese “is in communication” with the Arlington Police Department regarding “serious concerns it has regarding the use of marijuana and edibles at the monastery.”

The monastery’s attorney, Matthew Bobo, denied the allegations related to drug use, calling them “absolutely ridiculous” and “without merit.”

The dispute between the monastery and the diocese began in April when Olson launched a canonical investigation into an alleged sexual affair between the monastery’s…

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Last year, the Southern Baptist Conference was forced to confront its own hidden history of sexual abuse, after the release of an explosive report on how the leadership of that Protestant denomination had ignored and even “vilified” sexual abuse survivors. Sadly, the S.B.C. had only been repeating a familiar pattern of cover-up and institutional protection already observed in the Catholic Church (and still coming to light, as with the recent report on hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by clergy discovered since 1950 in several dioceses in Illinois). The same lack of accountability in both denominations has left them liable to criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits.

These latest revelations are simply more evidence of a pandemic of child abuse that has infected countries all over the world and can be found throughout the 20th century. I have previously characterized this epidemic as “a war on children” that, unfortunately, has not attracted enough of…

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The allegations are extreme: Adultery, abuse of power, marijuana usage, defamation, lies, theft, scandal and a conspiracy to take valuable monastery land.

The questions are many: What really happened? Has the process been done correctly? What did Vatican officials know, and when did they know it? And why was the bishop at the center of the storm put in charge?

The issues are complex: They involve Texas civil law, criminal law, canon law, papal decrees, congregational constitutions, hierarchical authority and investigatory powers — to name just a few.

And all this over a tiny monastery of 10 Carmelite nuns and the local bishop.

He said, she said accusations

According to court documents, interviews and press reports, the maelstrom began April 24, when Bishop Michael Olson, head of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, arrived at the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity, home to the Discalced…

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Ann Allen loved going to church and the after-school social group led by a dynamic priest back in the 1960s.

The giggling fun with friends always ended with a game of hide and seek. Each week, the Rev. Lawrence Sabatino chose one girl to hide with him. Allen said when it was her turn, she was sexually assaulted, at age 7, in the recesses of St. Peter’s Catholic Church.

“I don’t remember how I got out of that cellar and I don’t think I ever will. But I remember it like it’s yesterday. I remember the smells. The sounds. I remember what he said, and what he did,” she said.

Allen, 64, is one of more than two dozen people who have sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine, over the past year, seeking delayed justice since lawmakers allowed lawsuits for abuse that happened long ago and can’t be…

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CHESTERFIELD — The Archdiocese of St. Louis has agreed to pay roughly $1 million to a man who alleged he was sexually abused as a boy by a priest at Ascension Catholic Church in Chesterfield in the 1990s, an attorney for the plaintiff said.

The settlement appears to be the second largest amount the archdiocese is known to have paid one single victim in a sexual abuse claim. Both settlements resulted from lawsuits alleging abuse by the same former priest, Gary P. Wolken, one of the first St. Louis-area clergy to plead guilty to sexual abuse since the crisis shook the Roman Catholic Church two decades ago.

Wolken, now 57 and a registered sex offender, served 12 years in prison from 2003 to 2015 for sexually abusing a Ballwin boy from 1997 to 2000 while babysitting the boy. The archdiocese removed Wolken from ministry in 2002 and in 2004 paid…

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The Archdiocese has agreed to pay $1 million, one of the largest single settlements, to a man who said a former priest abused him in the 1990s.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis on Thursday reached a $1 million settlement with a man who alleged a former priest abused him when he was a boy in the 1990s.

The settlement is one of the largest settlements the Archdiocese has paid to a single victim in its history, and the second suit involving former priest Gary Wolken. 

“We are hopeful that this settlement provides some measure of comfort for the victim and for his family,” the Archdiocese said in a statement. “We continue to pray for all victims of sexual abuse, that they may find comfort and healing.”

Wolken, 57, was previously convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for first-degree sodomy of a boy over a period…

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The Archdiocese of St. Louis will pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest

The Archdiocese of St. Louis will pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who previously spent 12 years in prison for abusing another boy, an attorney for the victim said Friday.

The plaintiff was an altar boy at Ascension Catholic Church in Chesterfield, Missouri. The suit alleged he was abused by the Rev. Gary Wolken starting in 1993, when the boy was in fourth grade, and continuing through 1995. The lawsuit said the plaintiff repressed memories until he was an adult. The man’s lawsuit, which did not use his name, was filed in 2018.

His attorney, Rebecca Randles, said the settlement was reached this week.

“We applaud our client…

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A long history of abuse at Hesston College demands recognition and answers

In 1930, at a revival meeting, a pastor named Maurice “M.A.” Yoder asked a 27-year-old woman named Ruth Bender to confess her sins. She described what her father D.H. Bender would later admit to as “fornication” with Ruth when she was a teen.

At the time she spoke up, Ruth was teaching French and Latin at Hesston College, a Mennonite school in Kansas. Her father was the founding president of the college.

Yoder went on to make Ruth’s confession public.

D.H. Bender was called before the Mennonite Board of Education, which didn’t buy D.H. Bender’s claim that there was only one rape, “during a Kansas thunderstorm.” The abuse had continued for some time.

In August 1930, Bender lost his ministerial credentials and was excommunicated by Hesston Mennonite Church. But that same day, the congregation heard Bender’s confession and…

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Eric Dejaeger is facing eight counts of historical sexual assault involving six Inuit children.

A defrocked Catholic priest and convicted sex offender made a brief court appearance in Iqaluit Thursday on historical sex charges involving six Inuit children.

Eric Dejaeger, 76, has twice been convicted of sex crimes against Inuit children in Nunavut.

He now faces eight more charges of sexual assault involving six alleged victims, said Sgt. Pauline Melanson of RCMP V Division in Iqaluit.

Dejaeger was shackled at the wrists and ankles while dressed in sweat pants and a sweater. He was seen nodding at defence lawyer Keir O’Flaherty, who requested a publication ban during the bail hearing.

The hearing was put over until June 27.

Dejaeger was flown to Nunavut on Wednesday after being arrested on a Canada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ont.

Melanson said the defrocked priest was living in the Henry Trail Community Correctional Centre –…

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GRANT PARISH, La. (KALB/Gray News) -A prominent Louisiana Baptist leader in the central Louisiana area has been arrested, law enforcement said.

Daryl Stagg, 60, of Pollock, was arrested on Thursday and is being held at the Grant Parish Detention Center in Colfax.

The Louisiana Baptist Convention confirmed that Stagg has been the associational mission strategist for the Big Creek and CenLa Baptist associations.

Stagg has been charged with felonies: three counts each of oral sexual battery, first degree rape, aggravated crimes against nature and indecent behavior with juveniles.

Bond has been set at $500,000. He remains in jail at this time.

The Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office said that there will be a press conference on Monday to discuss a recent investigation involving sex crimes with young children as victims.

Sheriff Steven McCain said that he is concerned that there may be other victims related to the…

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“I think that they should be” posting lists of abusive members “because it’s been actually asked of us by the larger church,” the Rev. Gregory Polan told the Sun-Times.

The Benedictine monastery that founded Benet Academy in Lisle and the one that runs Marmion Academy in Aurora should publish complete lists of their clerics who have been deemed to have been credibly accused of child sex offenses, the top official of the Catholic religious order worldwide is urging.

“I would certainly encourage they be honest about those types of things,” the Rev. Gregory Polan, leader of the confederation of Benedictine groups around the world, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“I think that they should be” posting such lists of abusive members “because it’s been actually asked of us by the larger church,” Polan said in an interview from Rome, where he is based. “I think we need to do what the…

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High court of Australia is considering a NSW court’s permanent stay in a case brought by a woman who alleges she was abused as a 14-year-old

The high court has pressed the Catholic church to explain why it didn’t have an adequate opportunity 50 years ago to investigate the extent of a priest’s abuse of children, given there were “red flags everywhere” about his crimes.

The court on Thursday began hearing a key case about a legal tactic now routinely being employed by the church and other institutions to permanently shield themselves from abuse survivors’ civil claims for compensation.

Institutions are now regularly seeking permanent stays, or a permanent halt to proceedings, by arguing the death of alleged perpetrators and the inability to obtain their response to a survivor’s allegations leaves them unable to receive a fair trial.

The approach has infuriated survivors and their advocates,…

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Survivors of abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, and by clergy from the Archdiocese of St. John’s through the years, are poised to receive a financial settlement from the archdiocese by the end of the year.

Lawyers for survivors, the Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s (RCECSJ) and court monitor Ernst & Young appeared in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court May 30 to declare Global Resolutions Inc., a Toronto-based dispute resolution organization, has been appointed as claims officer.

Reportedly, Global Resolutions Inc. has assigned four of its most senior panel members to adjudicate this process. At the suggestion of survivors’ lawyer Geoffrey Budden, Newfoundland resident Lawrence Hatfield, also a mediation specialist, has been added as a fifth member of this team. 

“There are not a lot of mediators in Canada with the combination of general experience and specific experience assessing or mediating sexual abuse claims,”…

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What is the price of an abusive kiss by a predatory priest? How much should an unwanted fondle fetch to serve justice to the victim? Ask the class-action lawyers.

They and the legal system have developed a grid, or “meat chart” as one Ontario lawyer refers to it, that spells out the dollar value of abuse much as insurance companies codify the value of a lost thumb or the ability to walk. The chart has two distinct components. One section enumerates four levels of the sexual assault. The second section addresses the “harms and effects,” or the knock-on psychological harm or financial losses experienced by those assaulted.

The valuations will come into play now that the large class actions against Roman Catholic dioceses and religious orders in Canada have reached a settlement and damages will soon be disbursed to the claimants.

In April, the Diocese of Chicoutimi in Quebec settled…

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A $100 million class action lawsuit launched on behalf of alleged victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Manitoulin Island has been abandoned after the victims reached individual settlements with the church.

All of the 29 alleged victims are from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory and attended Holy Cross Mission, run by the Jesuit Fathers of Upper Canada.

The suit was launched in 2015 and named several defendants, including the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie, the Estate of Father George Epoch and the Estate of Brother O’Meare.

“The action was brought on behalf of all persons who were abused as children by clergy or staff of the Holy Cross Mission in Wiikwemkoong (and) all parents, spouses, children and siblings of the abused persons,” court documents said.

Two alleged victims – one of Father George Epoch and the…

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Revelations of rampant sexual abuse by deceased Jesuit Fr. Alfonso Pedrajas have prompted dozens of people in Bolivia to come forward with similar accusations of atrocities in the South American country, where the Catholic Church confronts a reckoning over the criminal acts of pedophile priests.

An investigation by Bolivian newspaper Página Siete found more than 170 victims of clerical sexual abuse being raised since early May, when the Spanish newspaper El País published its exposé into Pedrajas — a Spanish Jesuit who kept a record of his abuse of children by writing a diary.

“What El País has achieved has been the victims connecting with each other, interacting with each other, daring to speak out. Many of the victims are more than 50 years old,” Raphael Archondo, an academic and former director of Fides, a news outlet supported by Bolivia’s Jesuits, told OSV News.

“There’s a wave of complaints and…

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LOUDON COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A former Virginia priest was sentenced to spend eight years in prison for sexually abusing a teenager nearly four decades ago.

Scott Asalone, 66, is a former priest of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Purcellville, Virginia. According to court documents, in 1985, a then-29-year-old Asalone sexually abused a 14-year-old child.

Asolone was removed from public duties in 1993 and dismissed from the Order of Capuchin Friars in 2007.

Asalone was indicted by a grand jury in March 2020 and was arrested from his home in New Jersey shortly afterward. He was then extradited to Virginia and remained on bond until his trial.

In December 2022, Asalone pled guilty using the Alford rule in a Loudon County Circuit Court to felony carnal knowledge of a minor between 13 and 15 years of age. An Alford plea allows a defendant to plead guilty…

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