ABUSE TRACKER

Cardinal George Alencherry has cases pending against him for the sale of Church land in Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese

A top court in the southern Indian state of Kerala has dismissed an appeal by Cardinal George Alencherry seeking exemption from appearing in a district court in cases related to his alleged involvement in the sale of Church lands.

The Nov. 9 decision of the Kerala High Court effectively means the head of Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church will have to personally appear in a court in Ernakulam district in connection with the criminal cases pending against him.

Cardinal Alencherry had pleaded that the presence of his legal counsel be treated as his presence in court as he is “a senior citizen aged 77 years and the head of the Syro-Malabar Church” with duties like “performing religious ceremonies, rituals, including the ordination of bishops, priests, the consecration of churches” among other things.

…

View Cache

Bishop Helmut Dieser of Aachen wants the Catholic Church to take a new perspective on sexuality.

“Same-sex feelings and love are not an aberration, but a variant of human sexuality,” he said in an interview with Deutsche Welle Nov. 8. His remarks were reported by the German Catholic news agency, KNA.

Homosexuals have a right to church support and blessing, said the bishop, who is also the spokesman on abuse issues for the German bishops’ conference. He said the current state of church teaching does not do justice to certain realities when it comes to sexuality: “The thinking is too simple.”

KNA reported the bishop said the church can no longer signal to homosexual people that their feelings are unnatural and that they have to be celibate.

“Homosexuality is — as science shows — not a glitch, not an illness, not an expression of any kind of deficit, and by the way it’s not…

View Cache

Paola Ugaz, a prominent Peruvian journalist known for her investigations of a contested Catholic lay group and who has faced several legal complaints over her reporting, met Pope Francis Thursday, describing the encounter as a victory for survivors.

Speaking to Crux, Ugaz called her meeting with the pope “a big message to the survivors of the Sodalicio, who continue without a response, justice, reparation.”

The “Sodalicio” refers to the Sodalitium Christinae Vitae (SCV), founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari in the 1970s.

Figari is accused of physical, psychological, and sexual abuses within the community, including against minors. He was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2017 and prohibited from having further contact with members of the group, and he is currently living in exile.

According to Ugaz, meeting the pope “was a very powerful message that one of the investigators could arrive to the highest level of the Catholic Church, because the survivors…

View Cache

David Marcotte, an Indianapolis Catholic priest who was suspended in February 2019 amid allegations of sexual abuse involving a minor, agreed to plead guilty to one charge filed against him in March 2022. Marcotte, 32, pleaded guilty to one count of dissemination of matter harmful to minors, a level 6 felony, according to the Hamilton Superior Court plea agreement.

As reported by WRTV News, a judge sentenced suspended Indianapolis priest David Marcotte to a year in home detention on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, as part of a plea agreement that concludes his trial on allegations of sexual abuse of a teenage boy six years ago. Judge Jonathan M. Brown addressed the victim’s distraught parents during a hearing in Hamilton Superior Court as he accepted a plea agreement, which they both implored him to reject.

We first want to applaud and acknowledge the…

View Cache

Brazil’s Amazon region is seeing a rising tide of human trafficking, and the Church has been trying to raise awareness among vulnerable communities, but activists say it’s a battle of David against Goliath.

“There is a great connection between deforestation and human trafficking in the Amazon. The people employed in illegal logging and mining are most of the times suffering labor exploitation,” said Graziella Rocha, Project Coordinator at the Brazilian Association for the Defense of Women, Children and Youth (ASBRAD), a non-governmental organization that combats human trafficking.

Often, the organizations involved in the destruction of the rainforest also promote the sexual exploitation of young girls and boys trafficked from other regions, including from indigenous villages.

“There has been a terrible regression in the State system to deal with human trafficking over the past few years. In fact, public policies have been all dismantled – and that is certainly contributing to…

View Cache

Several leading Christian apologists have released a statement, declaring that three former top executives of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM)—Sarah (Davis) Phillips, Michael Ramsden, and Abdu Murray—are “disqualified” from ministry because of unrepentant abuse and deceit.

The apologists—William Lane Craig, Sean McDowell, Mike Licona, Debbie Licona, and Paul Copan—said they invested about 1,000 hours investigating “serious injustices and abuses” by Phillips, Ramsden, and Murray against former RZIM employees.

After interviewing 25 people, studying “copious amounts of supporting documentation,” and consulting with experts, the apologists concluded that “abuse and deception” was part of the “organizational culture” at RZIM. The apologists list 18 examples of RZIM’s toxic culture, many stemming from leaders’ attempts to conceal the sex abuse scandal involving the late RZIM founder Ravi Zacharias.

Topping the list is the group’s finding that RZIM’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) of Phillips, Ramsden, and Murray “intimidated, mistreated, or retaliated against” RZIM…

View Cache

The niece of Fr Aloysius Flood, who has been accused of sexually abusing young boys and girls, has apologised on his behalf.

Michelle Flood said she is “so ashamed” to be related to the Blackrock College priest who passed away in 2013. 

However, the 52-year-old told RTÉ Radio One’s Liveline listeners that she too was one of her uncle’s victims, and she even told her father about the abuse, but he didn’t believe her. 

“I am so ashamed that I am in any way related to Fr Flood and I want to apologise to everyone affected that he abused because they never got, those who did or didn’t get an apology they deserve one,” she said. 

“I thought I would bring his name to the grave, I never thought his name would come out.

“The church has protected his name for far too long and even when he died, his funeral was…

View Cache

The Vatican said Friday it has decided to launch a preliminary sex abuse investigation into a prominent French cardinal after he admitted to having behaved in a “reprehensible way” with a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said a search was under way to find a lead investigator with the “necessary autonomy, impartiality and experience.”

Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, the retired archbishop of Bordeaux and a former president of the French bishops’ conference, confessed to the abuse in a letter last week while French bishops were meeting at their annual assembly in Lourdes. The revelation further sparked outrage within the French Catholic Church, which has been reeling over revelations of decades of abuse and cover-ups detailed in a groundbreaking report last year.

Marseille prosecutors announced this week they had opened an investigation into Ricard for alleged “aggravated sexual assault” but that “no complaint” had yet been filed against the…

View Cache

[Via TDPel Media]

The Supreme Court of Justice of Chile recently upheld the acquittal of Bishop Emeritus Bernardo Bastres Florence of the Diocese of Punta Arenas.

The prelate was prosecuted in October, accused of covering up the alleged kidnapping of Ricardo Harex González, who disappeared in 2001 at the age of 17.

Along with Bishop Bastres, two priests and four members of the police force were investigated, and all were ordered to be held in preventive detention.

Harex, who would now be 38, disappeared the night of Oct. 19, 2001, in Punta Arenas when he was returning from a birthday party.

At that time, several witnesses claimed to have seen at the scene Salesian priest Rimsky Rojas Andrade, who was the principal of the San José high school where the young man was studying, and whom the local press described as someone who regularly picked up drunk students at…

View Cache

[From Canadian Press]

A disabled woman alleged she was groomed and sexually abused as a pre-teen in the mid 1970s while attending Our Lady of Fatima Church in Coquitlam.

Identified in her notice of civil claim as L.V. – the plaintiff is claiming damages in a B.C. Supreme Court civil suit filed against the estate of the now-deceased Father Georges Chevrier.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver and several other institutions associated with Chevrier’s work history are also named as defendants in the suit.

L.V.’s claim asserts that “As an infant member of the public,” she had the inherent right to live out her childhood and youth unaffected by the unhealthy, unsafe, and immoral interference and public nuisance of predatorial and systematic sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.”

Chevrier was the parish priest at the Coquitlam church from 1971 to 1977. He died in 2003.

L.V. claims that between 1973…

View Cache

In Kenya, one priest said: `I can’t hear your confession. We would have to stop what we do, and I cannot do that’

The late Spiritan priest Fr Patrick Hannan faced abuse allegations from his time while teaching at St Teresa’s secondary school for boys in Nairobi, Kenya. The Limerick native was a brother of the late Fr Gerard Hannan, who was an abuser at Blackrock College in Dublin.

On Tuesday’s Liveline programme “Stephen” (61) spoke of his abuse by Fr Aloysius Flood, Fr Senan Corry and Fr Gerard Hannan at Willow Park and Blackrock College in Dublin in the 1970s. A spokesman for the Spiritans told The Irish Times they had “no dispute with Stephen’s account on Liveline.”

Where Fr Patrick Hannan is concerned, Alex de Figueiredo, a retired teacher living in Vancouver, told The Irish Times in 2012 that he had been a day pupil at the Spiritan/Holy…

View Cache

An outspoken critic of the Buffalo Catholic Diocese’s handling of childhood sex abuse cases has been removed without explanation from the committee of unsecured creditors that represents abuse survivors in the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

Kevin Brun, who confronted diocese leaders in bankruptcy court about pension payments for priests who were credibly accused of abuse and other issues, was dismissed amid the committee’s ongoing mediated settlement negotiations with the diocese and its insurers, parishes and schools.

Brun sued the diocese in 2019, alleging a priest molested him in a Washington, D.C., hotel room when he was 16. He was named to the creditors committee in 2020 with six other people who have childhood sex abuse claims against the diocese.

The committee is responsible for examining the diocese’s assets, liabilities, operations and claims made against it and acting as fiduciary for all abuse survivors in negotiating a settlement.

“The trustee has…

View Cache

Attorneys for a survivor of alleged sexual abuse are calling on the Archdiocese of Chicago to add Father George Clements’ name to the list of credibly accused clergy.

The victim claims he was abused by Clements while he served as a priest at Holy Angels Church in the 1970s.

Clements denied the allegations before stepping down and died in 2019. However, in April — the archdiocese reached a settlement with the accuser as well as four others for around $800,000.

Lawyers said that is not enough. They want the archdiocese to place Clements’ name on its list of credibly accused clergy.

“It takes an enormous amount of courage for any victims to follow through with a claim and present their case and to stand up to the evil of clergy sexual abuse,” attorney Mitchell Garabedian said.

There is no admission of wrongdoing on behalf of the archdiocese, according to the…

View Cache

The Chicago archdiocese this year paid $800,000 to settle decades-old claims against the longtime Bronzeville pastor and activist, as well as four other priests.

The Archdiocese of Chicago last month doubled the length of a list of priests credibly accused of sex abuse, but lawyers for a man who received a six-figure payout from the church last year say the list is missing the name of Fr. George Clements.

Clements, a civil rights activist who led the congregation of Holy Angels Church in Bronzeville for more than two decades, stepped down from the ministry at the request of Archbishop Blase Cupich in 2019, after he was accused of sexual abuse dating back to the 1970s. Clements, who denied the allegations, died a few months later at age 87.

The archdiocese in February paid out an $800,000 settlement to a man who accused Clements and four…

View Cache

Rome – French Catholics are reeling after a series of recent abuse revelations, including a top prelate’s confession of misconduct, with the latest involving a priest who is accused of drugging and raping a teenager earlier this month.

In a Nov. 10 statement, Archbishop Pierre d’Ornellas of Rennes said he learned with “sadness and pain” that a priest in his archdiocese, Father Yannick Poligné of the Parish of Saint-Louis-Marie in Brocéliande, has been indicted for “aggravated rape of a minor and drug abuse.”

D’Ornellas assured the victim of his “full support” and compassion, saying he understands the “the pain, anger or amazement” that both faithful and clergy of the archdiocese might be experiencing, especially Poligné’s parishioners and those in other places where the priest exercised his ministry.

“Many have trusted him and feel betrayed,” d’Ornellas said, and announced that he will visit the Brocéliande parish this weekend and will be…

View Cache

Noblesville IN – A suspended Indianapolis priest has avoided prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge in a case alleging that he sexually abused a teenage boy.

A Hamilton County judge sentenced David Marcotte, 35, on Wednesday to one year on home detention followed by 18 months of probation, and suspended his 2 1/2-year prison sentence.

The judge accepted Marcotte’s plea agreement even though the boy’s parents begged him to reject the plea deal, under which the Catholic priest avoids prison and does not have to register as a sex offender, WRTV-TV reported.

Marcotte pleaded guilty last month to one count of dissemination of matter harmful to minors and admitted that he shared lewd images with the boy when he was 14 or 15 about six years ago. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss child solicitation and vicarious sexual gratification charges under his plea agreement.

The victim, now 20,…

View Cache

Sex abuse revelations concerning a cardinal and another bishop in France have unveiled certain dysfunctions, especially how information is shared between bishops and the Vatican

The case of Michel Santier

“In the course of the process, there have been shortcomings, errors and dysfunctions in the method of responding to the actions committed by Bishop Santier.” This unambiguous admission was made by Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the French Bishops’ Conference (CEF), during his closing address last Tuesday at the conference’s Nov. 3-8 plenary assembly in Lourdes.

 In an attempt to remedy the problems, the bishops spent several days carefully going over the chronology of Michel Santier’s case and how it was handled. The former bishop of Créteil was sanctioned for “voyeurism”. It’s important to determine who knew what and when they knew it. “The process is very fragmented, with a considerable waste of energy and information each time,” admitted…

View Cache

In considering the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, the justices explored congressional power and equal protection principles.

The Supreme Court heard more than three hours of arguments on Wednesday in a sprawling challenge to the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, which makes it hard to remove Native American children from their tribes and heritage.

The decision in the four consolidated cases could have profound implications for the status of Native Americans in areas far beyond family law. Judging by the justices’ questioning, there was a fair prospect that the court would strike down at least part of the law.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, who has emerged as the court’s leading proponent of tribal rights, indicated strong support for the law, as did the court’s three liberal members. But it was not clear that those four justices would capture the…

View Cache

News on the arrest of a man suspected of mediating child prostitution through orgies went viral after it emerged that participants included a junior high school teacher, a doctor, a Buddhist priest, a self-defense forces member and a certified public accountant. Investigative sources, however, say the suspect likely did not choose the members based on their occupations.

Ryota Takahashi, 31, held orgies consisting of a female high school student he knew and eight or more guests he gathered at a luxury hotel in Tokyo a total of three times from April to June 2020. He had collected 25,000 yen (roughly $170) in cash from each guest as a participation fee. Some of the attendees were reportedly regulars.

Between June and August 2022, 24 people were either arrested or reported to prosecutors by Kanagawa Prefectural Police on suspicion of violating Japan’s law banning child prostitution and pornography for attending the orgies.

…

View Cache

[Via Intermountain News, November 11, 2022 edition]

One of the Church’s leading experts on safeguarding and clerical sexual abuse has said the exclusion of women from seminary formation has had “extremely harmful consequences,” and this “needs to change.”

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner told more than 200 people at a “Stolen Lives” webinar that “the role of women has been to clean up the mess that men have made.” The webinar was organized by the Root & Branch lay reform movement in Britain in conjunction with Survivor Voices and Scottish Laity Network.

Fr. Zollner said he regretted that workshops on safeguarding are attended mostly by women. “It seems that men are not only in the great majority responsible for the big mess and the hurt, but they also run away from facing that reality.”

The priest, director of the Institute of Anthropology Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care at the…

View Cache

Siblings tell of harrowing treatment by priests at Dublin school in the 1970s and ’80s

The Holy Ghost Order has admitted to paying over €5m in abuse settlement claims and support services.

It also says that complaints of abuse have been received at nine of its schools.

It comes as two former Blackrock College pupils have spoken publicly about the abuse they suffered at the hands of priests in the school during the 1970s and ’80s.

They were abused at various locations on the grounds of the school, including in the swimming pool and library.

The Holy Ghost Order, also know as the Spiritans, has confirmed paying out more than €5m since 2004.

It confirmed to the Irish Independent that allegations have been made by past pupils of nine Spiritan schools.

Eight of the schools at the centre of the allegations are based in Dublin.

They are Blackrock College, its neighbouring Willow Park…

View Cache

Just when you think that the era of clerical sex abuse is over, it inevitably returns to haunt the institutional Catholic Church, re-traumatise its many victims and survivors and scandalise people of faith.

The same pattern as previously adopted by church authorities to protect its image has re-emerged in the Spiritan abuse cases (Irish Independent, November 8).

Once again, abusers were moved on to prey on further vulnerable people. However, the exporting of its abusing priest to Africa adds a further depth of depravity.

It was not a one-off, exclusive move adopted solely by the Spiritan order. It was a common strategy used by religious orders to get rid of its troublesome priests.

Brendan Butler

Drumcondra, Dublin

​

Just what sort of person was too bad for the priesthood?

The context of current abuse revelations in Blackrock College prompts the question: “What sort of applicants for the priesthood were rejected?”

…

View Cache

The Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, is under investigation for allegedly making a false statement while under oath about his knowledge of sexual abuse.

Prosecutors in the western German city of Cologne have launched an investigation into Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki’s alleged false affidavit, German media reported on Wednesday. 

Woelki has faced accusations of covering up an alleged sexual abuse case. He had said he had only dealt with the sexual abuse case against a priest since June 2022.  

But a former church employee interviewed by the local paper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger said Woelki had been informed about the abuse in 2015.

The former employee said she had drawn up a list of abusers for Woelki in 2015 but “that didn’t interest the cardinal at all.”

What is the sexual abuse case?

The sexual abuse case concerns a priest in Düsseldorf who died in 2017 with whom Woelki worked with when he was younger as a deacon.

In 2010,…

View Cache

In a letter, the victim described how David Marcotte abused his priest collar to persuade him to undress over video chats

Noblesville – A judge on Wednesday sentenced suspended Indianapolis priest David Marcotte to a year on home detention under a plea agreement that ends his trial on allegations he sexually abused a teenage boy six years ago.

During a hearing in Hamilton Superior Court, Judge Jonathan M. Brown addressed the teary-eyed parents of the victim as he accepted a plea agreement they both begged him to reject.

“Your son deserves some closure so he can put this behind him,” Brown said, addressing the young man’s mother and father sitting in the gallery of his court room. “The last thing your son wants is for him to be found not guilty then walk.”

The victim, now 20, lives in another state and is attending college. In a letter to the court,…

View Cache

An inquiry which looked into the case of paedophile priest from Burton has issued a raft of recommendations, saying that “time and time again” allegations of abuse in the Catholic church were ignored.

The case of Father Samuel Penney who admitted in court 10 offences of abusing children in the 1970s when he was priest at St Mary and St Modwen Church in Guild Street, in the town, was looked into. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which used Penney’s case in its inquiry, described the sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”. The inquiry has now issued its final; report after an in depth seven-year inquiry look at cases including Penney.

The inquiry concluded by calling for a national compensation scheme for victims to be introduced, along with laws compelling people in positions…

View Cache

Three men have been cleared of wrongdoing after toppling the statue of a former Polish priest suspected of sexually abusing children.

The activists gained prominence by knocking over the effigy of Henryk Jankowski in February 2019.

Jankowski rose to prominence in the 1980s through his support for the pro-democracy Solidarity movement against Poland’s communist regime. After his death in 2010, evidence mounted that he had allegedly abused boys and girls during his priesthood.

Polish officials initially refused to take down a statue honouring him, before three men chose to act.

Konrad Korzeniowski, Rafal Suszek, and Michal Wojcieszczuk toppled the statue during the night and reported themselves to the police, explaining they had acted for the good of the community. The move was a symbolic moment in the traditionally Catholic country’s reckoning with clerical abuse.

The three men also accused the Polish church of “systemic complicity in the evil done to people by Henryk…

View Cache

233 people have made claims against the Spiritans order and over 80 settlements have been paid out.

The Holy Ghost Order, also known as the Spiritans, has admitted to paying out over €5 million in abuse settlement claims and support services since 2004. The news comes after two former Blackrock College, Dublin, students spoke out about the abuse they suffered at the hands of the priests during the 1970s and ’80s.

A newly released Documentary on One from RTE is described as “From the ages of 12 to 17, two brothers, Mark & David Ryan, were both repeatedly sexually abused in Blackrock College in South County Dublin. Their abusers were from the Spiritan community at the school. Several court cases ensued as David and Mark fought.”

As well as David and Mark’s abuse cases, another 233 people have made claims of abuse against the Irish Spiritans throughout Ireland and…

View Cache

[From Deutsche Presse Agentur]

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI is willing to testify in a sexual abuse trial at a court in southern Germany, a court spokeswoman has confirmed to dpa.

The case targets a suspected paedophilic priest, identified as Peter H under German privacy law; Benedict, who served as the archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982; his successor, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, as well as the archdiocese.

Prosecutors are seeking to establish the culpability of the priest and the other church officials in a historical case of child abuse against the plaintiff, a now 38-year-old man from Bavaria.

A report into the priest released in January details years of abuse by church officials in the archdiocese. Instead of turning the priest over to civilian prosecutors, church officials moved him to other locations, where the cycle began again, according to the report.

The pope emeritus’ decision clears one hurdle…

View Cache

The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution Monday establishing November 18th as a day to spotlight the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.

The day also will be used to stress the need for prevention, for perpetrators to be brought to justice, and for victims to be given a voice as part of the long process of healing.

The resolution, which was sponsored by Sierra Leone and Nigeria and co-sponsored by more than 110 countries, was adopted by consensus and a bang of the gavel by the assembly’s acting president, which was greeted with loud applause.

Sierra Leone’s first lady, Fatima Maada Bio, who introduced the resolution, called child sexual abuse a “heinous crime” that especially affects girls who are at greater risk of experiencing forced sex and exploitation.

She said prevention is “an emergency — but doable.”

The resolution proclaims Nov. 18 every year as the World Day for…

View Cache

The accused Sherod Manohar (58) and his wife Helen (55) hailing from Sri Lanka came to Chennai a few years ago and ran a church in Adambakkam.

A pastor and his wife from Sri Lanka who allegedly sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in Adambakkam, Chennai were arrested on Monday.

The accused Sherod Manohar (58) and his wife Helen (55) hailing from Sri Lanka came to Chennai a few years ago and ran a church in Adambakkam. Sources said the pastor used to misbehave with young women and children, who are visiting the church, and his wife, Helen, would also favour him.

However, no one was coming forward to file a complaint against the pastor. A few days ago, the grandmother of the 16-year-old girl filed a complaint at the Madipakkam all-women police station accusing the pastor of sexually assaulting the girl. The police who visited the spot held inquires on…

View Cache

A former pastor of a Roman Catholic parish in Framingham was indicted Monday for allegedly raping an altar server more than a decade ago, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan’s office.

Monsignor Francis Strahan, 89, was charged with onecount of rape of a child by force and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. An arraignment date hasn’t been set.

His lawyer, R. Matthew Rickman of Libby Hoopes Brooks & Mulvey, P.C., said in a statement that Strahan denies the allegations.

“He is, simply put, not guilty,” Rickman said. “This is a gross injustice to a man who devoted his life to serving people and his parish.”

The charges were filed in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a male student at Saint Bridget School in Framingham on two occasions when the boy was between 11 and 13, prosecutors said. The alleged…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Boston released the following statement Nov. 8:

The Archdiocese of Boston has been informed that a Middlesex County Grand Jury has returned an indictment against Msgr. Francis V. Strahan regarding an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. Msgr. Strahan was placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese in October 2019, when the Archdiocese learned of the allegation, which is reported to have taken place in approximately 2006. At that time, the Archdiocese immediately informed law enforcement and initiated a preliminary canonical investigation into the complaint. The canonical investigation will remain on hold during the pendency of the criminal proceedings.

Msgr. Strahan will remain on administrative leave without any public ministry pending the outcome. His resignation as pastor of St. Bridget , Framingham has been accepted. We pray for a just and fair resolution to these proceedings for all involved.

The Archdiocese of Boston is committed to…

View Cache

French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard has been named by the Church as one of 11 serving or former bishops accused of cases linked to abuse.

In a statement, the cardinal said he had abused a 14-year-old girl when he was a parish priest 35 years ago and would now withdraw from his functions.

A year ago, a panel found evidence of thousands of paedophiles operating in the French Catholic Church for decades.

All 11 accused face either prosecution or disciplinary action in the Church.

The latest revelations came during the French bishops’ conference in Lourdes in south-western France.

Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort told reporters the 11 included a former bishop of Créteil, Michel Santier, who retired last year after he was accused of committing sexual abuse two decades earlier. Some are being investigated for sexual abuse while others are accused of failing to report it.

The archbishop read out a letter…

View Cache

Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard was among those who admitted to sexual abuse. The French Catholic Church has been mired in scandals, with a panel last year estimating that 330,000 children were sexually abused over 70 years.

French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard was among 11 former or current bishops accused of sexual assault, a church body revealed on Monday.

Cardinal Ricard’s statement admitting to abuse was read out at a conference of French bishops’ in Lourdes, a town in southwestern France.

Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, head of the French bishops’ conference, said all those accused would face disciplinary action.

Moulins-Beaufort told reporters that bishops were shocked at the cardinal’s public statement.

Cardinal says he abused a 14-year-old girl

Ricard said in his statement that “thirty-five years ago, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way towards a girl of 14.”

“There is no doubt that my behavior caused serious and long-lasting…

View Cache

A cardinal’s admission that he had behaved “reprehensibly” with a 14-year-old girl over three decades ago was one of several revelations that threw a gathering of French bishops into turmoil this week, renewing scrutiny of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in France a little over a year after a landmark report on the pervasiveness of the issue.

The admission of wrongdoing this week by Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, 78, who retired in 2019 after 18 years as the archbishop of Bordeaux, was one of two recent revelations that have stunned the Catholic community in France.

The other involved Michel Santier, 75, the former bishop of Créteil. He stepped down and was disciplined last year after decades-old accusations of sexual abuse against young adults, but the church authorities had not made his case public until the French news media uncovered it. Last month, Catholics angry about that silence  View Cache

Pope Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of a German bishop who was convicted of embezzling money from a woman suffering from dementia.

A German court found Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Bündgens of Aachen guilty of misappropriating 128,000 euros (about $128,000).

Bündgens was sentenced to nine months suspended jail time and a 5,000-euro fine, CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported.

“It is good for all parties that the pope has made a swift decision,” Bishop Helmut Dieser said in a statement published Tuesday. 

“Personally, I very much regret that the past years have led to this development. “

Bishop Bündgens had initially appealed a July verdict but later withdrew his appeal, CNA Deutsch reported. 

The judgment thus officially became legally binding in October. At that time, the Aachen Diocese announced that the auxiliary bishop would offer his resignation to Pope Francis. 

Bündgens, born in 1956,…

View Cache

A suspended Archdiocese of New Orleans priest who is facing rape charges could now be facing additional federal charges for financial malfeasance after a court document revealed that he allegedly pocketed almost $400,000 in parishioner donations, The Guardian reported. 

An ongoing 2021 lawsuit accuses 62-year-old Father John Asare-Dankwah of raping a 10-year-old boy while out of state on a 2008 retreat. Asare-Dankwah, who was the pastor at St. Peter Claver parish in New Orleans for approximately seven years before his January 2021 suspension, has denied the rape accusations. He has since counter-sued for defamation. Asare-Dankwah is from the West African country of Ghana.

The court document was an archdiocesan financial audit showing irregularities in the priest’s spending habits while at St. Peter Claver, The Guardian reported. That audit, completed in August 2021, was unsealed on Nov. 4. 

According to the…

View Cache

An ordained elder at a megachurch in San Diego, California, has been arrested on suspicion of abuse and murder in the death of her 11-year-old daughter, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

The elder, Leticia McCormack, 49, was arrested Monday and faces murder and torture charges stemming from the August 30th death of her daughter, Arabella McCormack, officials said. Also arrested and suspected in the girl’s death is McCormack’s father, Stanley Tom, 75, and his 70-year-old wife, Adella Tom, the sheriff’s department said.

Arabella had 6- and 7-year-old sisters, who are currently living with a foster family, officials said.

In addition to the murder charge, McCormack faces three counts of willful cruelty to a child and three counts of torture, as do her parents.

McCormack served as an elder and ministry leadership coordinator for the Rock School of Ministry at the Rock Church pastored…

View Cache

A Wausau man described as a pastor at a former downtown church is accused of repeatedly assaulting a young girl over a period of years beginning when she was 10 years old, court records show.

The girl described the man as “Pastor Ray” and said he was a leader at Song Nulife Gospel Oasis, a church that was located on Scott Street in the Landmark Building and held worship services on Saturday mornings for several years. The girl was unaware that the man, identified by police as Delfino R. O’Day-Figueroa, is a lifetime sex offender registrant with a prior felony conviction for assaulting children, and said she believed he was a pastor there until roughly 2019.

The Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry shows O’Day-Figueroa, 53, was convicted in 1995 in Milwaukee County of second-degree sexual assault of a child. Online court records also show a 2008 conviction on fourth-degree sexual assault…

View Cache

The city of Boston has agreed to pay more than $2.1 million to the Christian legal organization that backed a court challenge after the city refused to fly a Christian flag outside City Hall, a case that made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The settlement announced Tuesday by Liberty Counsel covers attorneys’ fees and other costs associated with the legal battle that started in 2017 when city resident Hal Shurtleff and his Camp Constitution group asked to hoist the flag on one of three poles on City Hall Plaza to mark Constitution Day.

“We are pleased that after five years of litigation and a unanimous victory at the U.S. Supreme Court, we joined with Hal Shurtleff to finally let freedom fly in Boston, the Cradle of Liberty,” Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement.

The U.S., state and city flags usually fly…

View Cache

Mesdames,
Messieurs,

Soyez remerciés d’avoir accepté de nous rejoindre aujourd’hui, pour cette conférence de presse qui n’avait pas été prévue jusqu’ici, sans attendre le discours final de notre Assemblée plénière et la conférence de presse qui le suivra.

Avant de vous faire part de la nouvelle qui motive ce bouleversement de notre emploi du temps, je voudrais vous faire part de l’avancée de nos travaux concernant ce que certains appellent « l’affaire Michel Santier ».

En ouvrant cette Assemblée, j’avais souligné combien nous nous réunissions avec des sentiments mêlés et combien surtout nous sentions colère et lassitude chez les personnes victimes de violences et d’abus dans l’Église, en particulier chez ceux et celles qui avaient décidé l’an passé de nous faire confiance et aussi chez les fidèles catholiques, surtout les plus engagés, qui avaient exprimé avant notre assemblée et ont continué à exprimer pendant celle-ci leurs doutes, leur découragement, leur difficulté à assumer…

View Cache

Aujourd’hui où l’Église en France a souhaité écouter les personnes victimes et agir en vérité, j’ai décidé de ne plus taire ma situation et de me mettre à la disposition de la justice tant sur le plan de la société que celui de l’Église.

Cette démarche est difficile. Mais ce qui est premier c’est la souffrance vécue par les personnes victimes et la reconnaissance des actes commis, sans vouloir cacher ma responsabilité.

Il y a 35 ans, alors que j’étais curé, je me suis conduit de façon répréhensible avec une jeune fille de 14 ans.

Mon comportement a nécessairement causé chez cette personne des conséquences graves et durables.

Je m’en suis expliqué avec elle et lui ai demandé pardon, je renouvelle ici ma demande de pardon ainsi qu’à toute sa famille.

C’est en raison de ces actes que je décide de prendre un temps de retrait et de prière.

Enfin…

View Cache

Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard was president of the French bishops’ conference from 2001 to 2007 and is a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

A retired French cardinal admitted Monday to abusing a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago.

In a Nov. 7 statement, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard announced that he was withdrawing from his functions and would cooperate with both secular and ecclesiastical justice systems.

Ricard was president of the French bishops’ conference from 2001 to 2007 and is a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees abuse investigations, according to his Vatican biography.

The 78-year-old cardinal served as Archbishop of Bordeaux, southwestern France, from 2001 to 2019, when he stepped down at the age of 75.

Ricard’s statement was read out by current French bishops’ conference president Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort during the bishops’ plenary meeting at Lourdes.

Ricard said: “Today, when the Church…

View Cache

[Via Barrons]

Lourdes – French prosecutors said Tuesday they had opened an inquiry into child abuse by a cardinal after he confessed publicly to “reprehensible” acts with a 14-year-old girl in the 1980s.

Jean-Pierre Ricard, a retired bishop made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2016, was named among 11 senior clergymen who face sexual abuse allegations in an announcement by the French Catholic church on Monday.

In a message read out at a conference of bishops, Ricard admitted that “35 years ago, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way towards a girl of 14. There is no doubt that my behaviour caused serious and long-lasting consequences for that person.”

The most serious sexual offences in France such as rape usually have a statute of limitations of 30 years, but the period to bring charges can be extended if the victim was a minor at the…

View Cache

Paris – French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard said on Monday that he had abused a 14-year-old girl decades ago and he would withdraw from his functions.

“Thirty-five years ago, when I was a parish priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way with a young girl aged 14. My behaviour has inevitably led to grave and lasting consequences for this person,” Ricard said in a statement.

Ricard asked for forgiveness and said he would withdraw from his functions and be available for legal and church authorities. He was bishop in the southwest region of Bordeaux from 2001 to 2019.

In total, 11 bishops or former bishops, including a former bishop in Creteil, near Paris, Michel Santier, are currently targeted by abuse investigations, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, head of the French bishops’ conference, told a news conference on Monday. He read out Ricard’s statement during the event.

These are the latest revelations to hit…

View Cache

The total of bishops implicated in cases of sexual abuse is now 11 and some bishops are under investigation.

Paris – France’s beleaguered bishops studied their options under civil and canon law at their autumn plenary in Lourdes this week while the ire of lay Catholics around the country rose to incendiary levels and shocking new revelations emerged.  

As The Tablet reported on 17 October, a Vatican sanction against a sexually abusive bishop, Michel Santier of Creteil, was hushed up for a year. Bishop Santier, who retired in 2021 at 73 ostensibly on health grounds, had held “strip confession” sessions with two young men in the 1990s.

Rouen Archbishop Dominique Lebrun then said five further men claimed abuse by the retired prelate, who admitted his guilt in a letter to Pope Francis. The cover-up was exposed one year after an independent panel estimated a shocking total of 216,000 victims of clerical sexual abuse…

View Cache

L’épiscopat français a révélé lundi que 11 anciens évêques avaient eu affaire à la justice civile ou la justice de l’Église pour des « abus » sexuels ou de la « non dénonciation », dont un ancien archevêque de Bordeaux.

À la surprise générale, le président de la Conférence des évêques de France Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, qui tenait un point presse sur le thème des abus sexuels et de leur gestion à la veille de la clôture de l’assemblée plénière de la CEF à Lourdes, a lu un message envoyé par le cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard.

« Il y a 35 ans, alors que j’étais curé, je me suis conduit de façon répréhensible avec une jeune fille de 14 ans. Mon comportement a nécessairement causé chez cette personne des conséquences graves et durables », y écrit le cardinal.

« J’ai décidé de me mettre à la disposition de la justice tant sur le plan de la société que de celui de…

View Cache

Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, one of France’s highest-ranking prelates of the Catholic Church, said Monday that he had abused a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago and is withdrawing from his religious duties.

The move comes after a report issued last year revealed a large number of child sex abuse cases within the French Catholic Church.

“Thirty-five years ago, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way with a young girl aged 14,” Ricard said in a written statement.

“My behavior has inevitably caused serious and lasting consequences for this person,” he said.

Ricard, 78, used to be the archbishop of Bordeaux, in southwestern France, until he retired from that position in 2019 to serve in his home diocese of Dignes-les-Bains, in the south of the country. In the 1980s, he was a priest in the archdiocese of Marseille.

The announcement was made Monday at a news conference by the…

View Cache

A settlement agreement has been reached with the Diocese of Rochester following years of sexual abuse claims and court proceedings.

Now, one victim and her attorney are speaking about the issue.

The Diocese of Rochester filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and was the first in the state to do that. It’s now required to pay out $55 million dollars to victims.

Rochester First reports that News 8 was able to speak with survivor Carole DuPre of Spencerport.

DuPre said that in the 1960s she was molested around the age of 16 by a priest in Marion. Now, she uses her voice to help speak for other victims of abuse at the hands of the Diocese.

She said she’s glad they’re finally taking responsibility and also hopes they’ll be taking the blame. She added she hopes that the victims will be able to find peace, because money won’t…

View Cache

The accused allegedly assaulted a five-year-old girl in California in 2017

A Singaporean court for the first time has ordered the extradition of a man to the United States following his arrest on the charge of sexual assault against a minor in a church.

District Judge Loh Hui-min ordered Chester Yang Jr., also known as Pian He Yang and Tian He Yang, to be held in prison until his removal under the Extradition Act, the Straits Times reported on Nov. 3.

The alleged offense took place on April 21, 2017, in the loft of a church in California.

Five years later, Yang was arrested on May 31, 2022, in Singapore. The court documents didn’t reveal the citizenship and age of the accused.

Judge Loh Hui-min said Yang was “liable to be surrendered to the US in respect of the three charges.”

“Accordingly, I issued a warrant committing him to…

View Cache

In March 2022, Pope Francis, indigenous leaders, and survivors of Canada’s resident/boarding schools met to discuss the horrible things done to native children by Catholic priests while attending those schools. The Canadian government and church were making the effort to address the Native American’s demands for reconciliations, reparations, and justice, after hundreds of unmarked graves were found just outside some of the resident schools.

Pope Francis met with the First Nations, the Metis and Intuit, with a counselor present at each meeting. Then, the “delegates” gathered for a group meeting, where Francis spoke to a more formal audience. Personal stories were shared from three Metis survivors, where the Pope listened with compassion. The meeting lasted about an hour, and the Pope responded by emphasizing his commitment to truth, justice, and healing.

Caron said, “We hope that in committing to us, committing to real action, the church can finally begin its…

View Cache

Church, civil society and governments need to put children first and help them win justice

It is vital that the Catholic Church, non-government organizations (NGOs), development agencies, and government put children at the heart of national and religious concerns. The Church and clergy must remember and act constantly on the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth when he made children the center of importance in the kingdom. “Whoever welcomes in my name one such child as this, welcomes me,” he said.

Jesus also demanded all abusers be brought to justice. “Better that that person (abuser) have a large millstone tied around his neck and he be drowned in the deep sea,” he said in Matthew 18:1-7.

When the evidence of clerical child sex abuse is overwhelming, is there any bishop, law enforcement officer, prosecutor and judge with the guts, courage and commitment to children, the law and love of justice, to…

View Cache

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE – Pope Francis said Sunday that the Catholic church was working “as best we can” to fight clerical child abuse but admitted there were shortfalls.

During a press conference on a plane while returning from Bahrain, where he had been promoting dialogue with Islam, the pontiff said child abuse inside the Church was a “tragic thing.”

“We are working as best we can, but there are people within the Church who don’t see it clearly”, the 85-year-old Argentinian admitted on the return flight to Rome.

“It is an ongoing process that we are carrying out with courage,” he added.

The abuse scandal erupted in the second half of the 1980s, sparking an avalanche of allegations about paedophile priests around the world, from Australia to Chile, France and the United States.

Pope Francis has insisted the Church will adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to abuse, but critics…

View Cache

The Rochester Catholic Diocese reached a $55 million settlement with over 400 survivors of sexual abuse on Friday.

Sunday was the first full service from Bishop Matano at St. Joseph’s since the settlement took place.

The sermon focused on acknowledging the past, while moving forward.

“The greatest of Challenges has been over over past decades, where our church is plagued by a crisis so very painful. Painful to you my sisters and brothers. How necessary it is that I always in everyway and whenever possible express my deep sorrow and express my apology to those so violated by those that whom they had put their trust and believed they were ministers of the lord,” said Salvatore Matano, Bishop of Rochester Diocese. “Every bishop must be willing to suffer whatever is necessary to heal, to reconcile, to restore, and to bring consolation to his people in any circumstance.”

The settlement could…

View Cache

One of the church’s leading experts on safeguarding and clerical sexual abuse has said the exclusion of women from seminary formation has had “extremely harmful consequences,” and this “needs to change.”

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner told more than 200 people at a “Stolen Lives” webinar that “the role of women has been to clean up the mess that men have made.” The webinar was organized by the Root & Branch lay reform movement in Britain in conjunction with Survivor Voices and Scottish Laity Network.

Zollner said he regretted that workshops on safeguarding are attended mostly by women. “It seems that men are not only in the great majority responsible for the big mess and the hurt, but they also run away from facing that reality.”

The priest, director of the Institute of Anthropology Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care at the Pontifical Gregorian University and a member of the…

View Cache

A survivor of abuse says churches have missed a golden opportunity to really reflect on how Aotearoa-New Zealand came to have such an appalling record of abuse of people in care.

Faith-based organisations were given a chance to respond at the recent final public hearing of the Royal Commission in to Abuse in care.

Jacinda Thompson suffered sexual harassment by her Anglican minister in the early 2000’s, and she has given evidence to the inquiry.

She said that while abuse itself was condemned, most church leaders failed to accept responsibility for allowing it to flourish in the first place.

Thompson had hoped the churches would respond by taking a good hard look at themselves, look at their teachings and the part churches played.

”I was sure that the churches would know the value of genuine repentance and change. Without this how could they expect to rebuild people’s trust in their…

View Cache

Audit details potential irregularities in which nearly $400,000 of church congregants’ funds were allegedly misused

A Catholic priest who led one of New Orleans’ best-known inner-city churches until being accused of sexually molesting a child has been reported to federal authorities for possible financial crimes after an audit found he spent nearly $400,000 of his congregants’ money in questionable ways.

John Asare-Dankwah ran the St Peter Claver church in New Orleans’ historic Treme neighborhood from 2014 until early 2021, when a lawsuit alleging that he raped a boy on an out-of-state overnight trip years earlier prompted church officials to indefinitely suspend him from his role.

Asare-Dankwah, 62, has denied the rape accusation. But his financial stewardship at St Peter Claver – whose parishioners grapple with high levels of poverty and gun violence – also fell under scrutiny after the city’s archdiocese in 2020 became the oldest in the…

View Cache

Archdiocesan authorities have stripped Father Karole Reward Israel of priestly functions pending investigations

The recent arrest of a Filipino priest for alleged sexual molestation and blackmail of a 16-year-old church volunteer has come as a surprise for the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao in the northern Philippines.

Father Karole Reward Israel, 29, a newly ordained cleric who received his assignment sometime in May 2021, has been stripped of his priestly functions pending investigations and a trial.

“The archdiocese will fully cooperate with the prosecution service towards the conduct of an unbiased preliminary investigation and will also extend its assistance to our priest,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

Israel’s arrest by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Oct. 20 was made public two days later. Authorities said the clergyman had molested the victim several times.

“We formed a team of NBI officers who followed the priest and his minor victim…

View Cache

The French bishops’ conference overhauled its agenda for its November plenary meeting to deal with “the anger, shame, powerlessness (and) incomprehension” they and their people felt after discovering that a bishop allowed by the Vatican to retire actually was disciplined for sexual abuse.

Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, president of the bishops’ conference, announced the changed agenda Nov. 3 and urged his fellow bishops to have as their first concern “the victims, those who spoke out two years ago and more recently, and those, perhaps, who have not yet made themselves known.”

The archbishop was referring to the case of retired Bishop Michel Santier of Créteil. When the Vatican announced in 2021 that the bishop was retiring, the bishop had said it was for health reasons. No one contradicted him publicly until mid-October, when the Diocese of Créteil confirmed he had been credibly accused of sexual misconduct and disciplined…

View Cache

Editor’s note: this story has been updated to clarify the appeals court order, which halts any action in the case until further notice.

The Missouri Court of Appeals has ordered a Cedar County judge to halt all further action in the Agape Boarding School case until it issues a final decision on a recent motion.

“You are directed to refrain from taking further action,” the appellate court wrote in a ruling that was issued Wednesday, “ … until further order of this court.”

In what is called a preliminary writ of prohibition, the appellate court said the only action Associate Judge Thomas Pyle could take in the case is to vacate his Oct. 12 order that the state appoint a guardian ad litem for each Agape student and to include all the parents as parties to the AG’s petition to shut down the school. Late last month there…

View Cache

A priest in the Somascan Order has apparently been removed from his post as pastor at a Houston parish after several New Hampshire lawsuits allege sexual abuse at the Somascan-run home Pine Haven home for troubled boys in Allenstown.

Fr. Albert Zanatta, a member of the Somascan order who once served at Pine Haven, is still listed on the Houston Assumption Parish website as the pastor, though recent editions of the parish weekly bulletin indicate he is no longer serving in that capacity.

There has been no public statement about Zanatta’s status from either the Somascan order, nor any from representatives from the Galveston-Houston Roman Catholic Archdiocese. InDepthNH.org has made several calls to the archdiocesan media representatives, Jo Ann Zuniga and Jonah Dycus, without any response.

InDepthNH.org has repeatedly attempted to speak to Zanatta, but he has not returned any of the calls or messages left for him.

The only…

View Cache

Fr. Andrew Small, secretary of the Vatican’s child protection committee, talks about sexual abuse and Church reform.

Fr. Andrew Small was appointed in June to one of the most important positions in the Catholic Church’s fight against abuse.

The English priest was named secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors pro tempore (“for the time being”) at a significant moment of transition for the body founded by Pope Francis in 2014.

The decree establishing the commission eight years ago defined its “specific task” as advising the pope on “the most opportune initiatives for protecting minors and vulnerable adults.”

In 2019, Pope Francis took another significant step when he issued the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi, setting out new norms for combating abuse and holding Church leaders accountable for their handling of cases. Article 2 of the document called on all dioceses to establish a “public, stable and easily accessible” system for…

View Cache

In speaking to worshippers at Broadmoor Baptist Church in Madison, Mississippi, on Sunday, Lead Pastor Josh Braddy presented several action steps toward addressing a decades-old case of sexual abuse to which he and other church leaders believe “a more thorough response was warranted.”

The case centers around a former member of Broadmoor’s youth group who approached church leaders recently over abuse she suffered from the youth minister during the 1980s.

Allegations include abuse and inaction by staff. Current church leadership has committed itself to investigating the charges, updating current policies and procedures and, if need be, assisting in the survivor’s legal defense should there be a lawsuit brought over violating a non-disclosure agreement with the alleged perpetrator.

“Many times we ask ourselves, ‘What in the world, God, do you want from me?’” Braddy said toward the end the morning worship service. “I always go to one verse that leads me…

View Cache

In a video posted to his social media accounts, Brian Houston, the former leader of the Hillsong global megachurch and media empire, lashed out at the leaders of the church he co-founded, saying their public allegations against him had made his position as pastor “untenable.”

“The media and others incorrectly say I resigned because I breached the Hillsong code of conduct, but that’s just not true,” Houston said in the studio-shot video posted to his Facebook on Thursday afternoon (Nov. 3) in Australia. “I didn’t resign because of my mistakes. I resigned because of the announcements and statements that had been made.”

Houston, 68, who co-founded Hillsong with his wife, Bobbie Houston, in Australia in 1983, resigned from his position as global senior pastor March 21, less than a week after the church’s board revealed in a statement that he had sent inappropriate text messages to a staff member and had spent…

View Cache

A Langley woman has filed a lawsuit against Northside Foursquare Church and pastor Barry Buzza, claiming the pastor sexually abused her and subjected her to “psychological, spiritual, and sexual grooming, abuse and exploitation.”

The lawsuit also alleges Buzza used his privilege and power as her pastor and as the woman’s father figure to gain her trust when she was most vulnerable.

“The grooming and sexual exploitation was perpetrated through Buzza’s coercion, manipulation and exploitation of his position of power and control over the plaintiff,” the claim stated.

The woman, identified in court documents as A.B., is claiming damages against Buzza, the Lansdowne Drive church, and its parent organization Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada in the notice of civil claim filed in the B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 18.

The claim alleges, among other things, that Reverend Buzza was the one who baptized A.B. a year after she began attending the…

View Cache

The Diocese of Rochester has reached a settlement with sex abuse survivors, resolving a Chapter 11 case.

The Diocese will pay $55 million to a trust to benefit sexual abuse survivors.

More than 450 sexual abuse survivors asserted claims.

Survivors will also be able to pursue claims in court against the Diocese.

Bishop Salvatore R. Matano released a statement Thursday, saying:

“We believe that this Restructuring Support Agreement represents the fairest approach for the survivors and most viable path forward for the Diocese and its related Catholic entities to continue our shared mission of healing and reconciliation.

“Once again, while I know my words may seem hollow, simply repeating a rehearsed apology, I renew with sincerity my deep apology to the survivors of sexual abuse. The history of sexual abuse of children in our Church has caused tremendous pain, hardship, alienation, and understandable anger. It has seriously impacted survivors, their families,…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester will pay $55 million to survivors of sexual abuse committed by clergy members under a settlement announced by church officials.

The diocese, which declared bankruptcy in 2019 after hundreds of lawsuits were filed against it under the state’s Child Victims Act, will create a trust for abuse survivors, Rochester Bishop Salvatore Matano said Thursday. Survivors may also be able to pursue further claims with the diocese’s insurers, Matano said.

The settlement was negotiated with abuse survivors and is subject to bankruptcy court approval.

Matano, whose diocese was the first in New York state to seek bankruptcy protection under the weight of abuse lawsuits, apologized to survivors in a “Letter to the Faithful.”

“The history of sexual abuse of children in our Church has caused tremendous pain, hardship, alienation, and understandable anger. It seriously has impacted survivors, their families, our priests and others in diocesan…

View Cache

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester has reached a $55 million settlement with hundreds of clergy abuse survivors.

More than 450 sexual abuse claims were filed in connection with the case against the Diocese over the past three years, many of them in response to the Child Victims Act, which extended the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases. 

The Diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2019. It was the first in New York State to do so.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Diocese “and related entities” will pay $55 million into a trust for the survivors, many of whom will be able to pursue further claims in court against the Diocese’s insurers.

A previously-offered $106 million settlement with those insurers was “deemed inadequate” by the committee representing the survivors. The new settlement does not include any of that money.

…

View Cache

The Official Creditors Committee in the Diocese of Rochester Catholic bankruptcy case has reached a settlement with the Diocese after more than three years of litigation.

The settlement is a first of its kind in a New York Catholic bankruptcy case where three other diocesan bankruptcies are pending—Diocese of Syracuse, Buffalo and Rockville Centre. The Committee, appointed by the United States Trustee, represents the interests of approximately 475 sexual abuse survivors who asserted child sexual abuse claims against the Diocese.

The settlement consists of three main components: a $55 million payment from the Diocese and parishes; the ability for survivors to pursue additional assets from the insurance companies; and establishes a trust for the benefit of survivors of sexual abuse.

The Diocese previously announced a settlement of approximately $106 million with its insurers, which the Committee deemed inadequate.

Under the new settlement, the insurance policies will be assigned to a…

View Cache

After a torturous three years in Bankruptcy Court and many months of talks, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester and more than 400 sexual abuse survivors with claims in the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy have agreed to terms.

The settlement agreement is an important step but far from the final chapter in the Rochester diocese’s hard-fought bankruptcy.

“There’s still a long road ahead,” predicts James Cali, chairman of the bankruptcy’s official creditors committee.

Formed by the U.S. Trustee to represent survivors’ interests, the creditors committee worked out the settlement’s terms with the diocese.

Anticipating a flood of claims under the New York Child Victims Act, the diocese asked for court protection in September 2019, a month after the CVA took effect.

The CVA temporarily lifted a statute of limitations that had kept survivors of long-past abuse suffered as children from going after their abusers. A virtual tsunami of CVA cases…

View Cache

The so-called “Santier affair” is overshadowing the autumn plenary of the Catholic episcopal conference of France, as people demand answers from their Church leaders

One year after the French Bishop’s Conference (CEF) held a very intense plenary assembly, during which its members took institutional responsibility for the Church’s sex abuse crisis, the bishops are once again meeting amidst public anger over the “Michel Santier affair”, an abuse case concerning one of their retired confreres.

Santier, former bishop of the Créteil diocese in the outskirts of Paris, was disciplined by the Vatican in 2021 for acts of “voyeurism” that were aggravated by the misuse of his spiritual authority and the sacraments. But the canonical sanctions remained secret and were only revealed recently by the press. This has caused bewilderment and anger among members of the French Catholic Church, which now seems to be careening from one crisis to another.

The bishops,…

View Cache

Un joven contó por primera vez en un programa de televisión cómo Julio César Grassi había abusado sexualmente de él. El cura mediático, que supo aprovechar los beneficios del menemismo, fue condenado a 15 años de prisión por abuso sexual. Si bien hoy pasa sus días en una cárcel común, no dejó de recibir protección de la iglesia que, hasta la actualidad, continúa encubriendo a sus criminales sexuales.

A pocos días de asumir como jefe de la Iglesia Católica, Jorge Bergoglio afirmaba que no daría “un paso atrás” en lo referido a “esos problemas” porque “con los chicos no se juega”. Frente a la notoriedad pública que cobraban los abusos sexuales cometidos por integrantes de la Iglesia Católica alrededor del mundo, Bergoglio intentó maquillar la responsabilidad de la jerarquía eclesiástica en el encubrimiento de los abusadores con algunas reformas. Muchos de estos criminales siguen gozando de la protección del Vaticano. Uno de ellos es Julio…

View Cache

Every diocese has its own list of credibly accused clergy of sexual abuse. But just because the list exists doesn’t mean it’s a good one. What matters most about any church offender list is one criterion: Is every predator on the list that SHOULD be on the list? 

We at Horowitz Law have repeatedly found that proven, admitted, or credibly accused clerics whose identities have been made public elsewhere via news coverage, court records, and church documents go unmentioned on a diocesan list where they also worked or lived. With that being said, is the Diocese of Monterey’s list complete? Bishop Daniel Garcia falls far short.

Historically, the most accurate and thorough lists of accused Catholic clerics are found on www.Bishopaccountability.org. At least six clerics listed on BA’s list are not named on Monterey’s accused list. These six clerics have been inexplicably left off the official Monterey diocesan accused list. 

…

View Cache

Evil and scandal abound in the churches today — but there is real hope

Last night at bedtime, I got to scrolling Twitter, which is stupid, and happened on stories which are hard to take, but have to be confronted, somehow.

I was reminded that I almost never hear about corruption in the Orthodox Church institution almost entirely because a) the Orthodox Church is tiny in the West, and b) I don’t speak languages used in the Orthodox world, so I can’t read their media. This Catholic twitter account @tomsdigest shows up on my Twitter feed so often that for a very long time I assumed I was following him. Only last night did I realize that I wasn’t, so I started to follow him, and my timeline blew up with really interesting news and commentary by him about issues related to Catholicism and other churches. It was there that I…

View Cache

Steubenville priests have urged the USCCB to consult before weighing in on the future of their diocese.

Clergy in the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio, have asked USCCB officials to delay a consultative vote on the prospect of merging their diocese into the neighboring Diocese of Columbus.

The vote – scheduled for a Nov. 14-17 meeting of U.S. bishops – would come before laity and clergy in Steubenville have been adequately consulted on a plan that would significantly impact their spiritual lives, according to an Oct. 28 letter signed by 18 priests and deacons of the Steubenville diocese.

“We ask Your Excellencies and your brothers in the episcopate to delay the November vote on the proposed merger so that we and our laity may participate in this process that so directly greatly impacts our relationship with the Church and each other,” the clerics wrote, in a letter sent to Archbishop Jose…

View Cache

Despite commissioning multiple investigations, the Catholic Church is still to resolve allegations a priest knew about paedophile clergyman Neville Joseph Creen’s abuse of a school girl in the 1980s.

Key points:

• The church has failed to resolve the complaint and has now commissioned another report
• Father Creen was convicted of multiple offences of abusing young girls in the 1970s and 1980s
• Father Lancini denies claims a victim of Creen told him she had been abused

Two independent reviews and investigations have so far been undertaken by the Church and a third is under way into a complaint by Townsville woman Kathleen Walsh who was abused by former Catholic priest Neville Creen in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ms Walsh alleged that as a 16-year-old in the early 1980s she met with then Mount Isa priest Father Dave Lancini and told him that Creen had “touched” her when she was a school girl.

She alleged Fr Lancini disregarded her disclosure.

…

View Cache

Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, condemned digital pornography while speaking at the Vatican about social media use.

The pope spoke to and answered questions from a group of seminarians and priests studying in Rome, Italy, on Monday, Oct. 24, according to the full text of the event published on Vatican City’s website.

 One person asked the pope how priests and those considering becoming priests should use social media, the text of the event says.

After instructing people to use digital technology “to advance, to communicate,” the pope turned his attention to the topic of digital pornography, The Guardian reported.

Pornography, the pope said, “is a vice that has so many people, so many lay people, so many lay women and also priests and nuns,” according to a translation by Sky News.

The pope said he realized this reality and condemned the behavior, saying both “criminal pornography like…

View Cache

Retired Roman Catholic priest Maurice Praught, 69, is facing multiple sexual assault charges stemming from alleged incidents on P.E.I. in the 1990s.

On May 17, 2022, police were told about several incidents of alleged sexual assaults against a minor involving a 69-year-old man, which are alleged to have occurred between 1990 and 2010 in Summerside P.E.I., according to the RCMP.

When Summerside Police Services started investigating, it learned offences had also allegedly happened in other areas of the Island, according to a news release from the force.

Summerside Police Services and the RCMP started a joint investigation into the allegations on May 20.

Ten days later, the Diocese of Charlottetown, which covers the Island, announced Praught would retire from active ministry.

On Monday, police arrested a 69-year-old man in Stratford, P.E.I., in connection with the investigation, says RCMP.

On Tuesday, six counts of sexual exploitation and four counts…

View Cache

Abuse survivors support proposed resolution D095

The Episcopal Survivors Network (ESN), comprising victims of abuse in the Episcopal Church, today sharply condemned Bishop Todd Ousley’s repeated mishandling of clergy disciplinary complaints made via Title IV, the church disciplinary canon. Ousley is the current bishop for the Office of Pastoral Development and reports to Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.

“Ousley’s dismal and disgraceful handling of Bishop Whayne Hougland’s admitted extramarital affair is appalling. The notion of rewarding misconduct, while ignoring victims, is repugnant to basic notions of Christianity. We see no evidence of any effort by Ousley to care for those hurt by this situation, or any recognition of the added trauma his behavior has caused.

“Nor is this the first time we have seen Ousley ignore church canons. Indeed, he has repeatedly refused to address situations in which bishops ignore Title IV requirements altogether, both substantive and procedural. Ousley himself often…

View Cache

In its final report, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse recommends eliminating the confessional privilege in cases of sexual abuse of children

These are tough times for the confessional privilege, i.e. the legal protection of the secret of the Roman Catholic confession and similar practices in other religions. Laws compelling priests and pastors to report information obtained in confession about child sexual abuse have been passes in Ireland, in almost all states and territories of Australia, and in some states of the US. Earlier this year, Bitter Winter devoted a series of articles to this theme.

Now, in its final report, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales states at paragraph 109 that “neither the freedom of religion or belief nor the rights of parents with regard to the education of their children can ever justify the ill-treatment of children or prevent…

View Cache

• Mark was abused for three years at St Joseph’s College in Geelong in the 1970s
• PE teacher John Coogan molested him about 100 times from fourth to sixth class
• Mark took to cross-dressing in fourth class as a way of coping with the violation
• He is now suing the Christian Brothers for at least $2.5million in compensation 

Mark was raised in a deeply religious Catholic family and his devout parents taught him to respect and obey all his hometown authority figures.

Trusting his elders helped feed Mark into the hands of notorious paedophile teacher John Coogan at St Joseph’s College in Geelong, a Christian Brothers campus south-west of Melbourne.

Day after day for three years Coogan forced Mark to sit on his lap in his locked office and molested him, violating the boy at least 100 times through primary school.

Mark’s response was to begin cross-dressing, late in fourth…

View Cache

• Legislation also requires ministers of religion to disclose information gained during confession
• Changes implement recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 

Ministers of religion are now legally required to report information about child sexual abuse, including information gained in confession.

The changes are part of new laws introduced by the McGowan Government and come into effect today.

Failure to make a mandatory report is an offence with a maximum penalty of $6,000. A minister of religion will not be excused from criminal responsibility for failing to make a report because their belief is based on information disclosed during a religious confession.

The Children and Community Services Amendment Act 2021 implements key recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, delivering on the McGowan Government’s commitment to create a safer WA for children.

The changes also extend mandatory reporting requirements to early childhood, out…

View Cache

Cuatro de estos presuntos casos de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes en León ocurrieron este año y dejaron al menos 8 víctimas

 La Arquidiócesis de León ha dado seguimiento a 9 presuntos abusos sexuales contra menores de edad y posibles adultos vulnerables. Del total, cuatro ocurrieron en este año y solo estos han sido denunciados penalmente. Los otros cinco se habrían cometido hace aproximadamente 10 años y no llevan un proceso legal. 

Carlos Muñoz Hernández, Presidente de la Comisión Diocesana para la Protección de Menores y Adultos Vulnerables, informó sobre el acompañamiento que han dado a las víctimas desde el momento en que se acercaron sus familiares a denunciarlo. 

“Se ofreció la información de que podían denunciar. Las autoridades están actuando conforme al Código Nacional de Procedimientos Penales. Nosotros tenemos una obligación muy grande para no incurrir en un delito que está penado (…) Es lo que estamos ofreciendo, yo como Presidente hablo con las…

View Cache

An insurance company is appealing the recently confirmed reorganization plan for the Archdiocese of Agana, which could delay the church’s exit from bankruptcy.

It could also delay the payouts to more than 270 men and women who say they were abused as children by Guam priests and others associated with the Catholic Church.

Continental Insurance Co. on Tuesday notified the U.S. District Court of Guam that it is appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, challenging a final order confirming the archdiocese’s reorganization plan.

Continental, an archdiocese insurer, has been challenging abuse-related contribution claims. It previously called for the nonconfirmation of the plan.

The insurance firm’s notice of appeal comes days after U.S. District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood issued an Oct. 20 written order confirming the fifth amended joint plan of reorganization for the archdiocese.

During plan confirmation hearings in October, attorneys for…

View Cache

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a German archbishop on Tuesday. 

Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg had been in charge of the Bavarian archdiocese since 2002.

Schick recently came under pressure for the handling of sexual abuse cases in his diocese.

The archbishop of the diocese in Southern Germany said in a statement published Nov. 1 that he had conveyed this request “to the pope verbally and in writing during a private audience in April of this year, explaining it thus: I have fulfilled and completed my duties in the archdiocese.” 

Schick said the pope had asked him to remain in office. “After presenting my reasons again, he then granted my request at the end of September,” Schick said. 

He is not the first German archbishop to ask the pope to accept his resignation. In 2021, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, who has come under criticism for his handling of sexual…

View Cache

The lawsuit claims that Father Joseph John Toole, who died in 2010, sexually abused a young girl repeatedly at Holy Spirit Church

The Catholic Church in Calgary is facing a $3.2-million lawsuit over allegations a since-deceased priest sexually abused a young girl in the 1980s.

 But in a statement of defence, the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Calgary denies the plaintiff was abused and said if Father Joseph John Toole committed any sexual assaults it was without the knowledge of church officials.

The statement of claim filed last month says the sexual abuse of the plaintiff began in 1985 when she was seven, or eight years old and continued for about four or five years.

The sexual abuse ranged from Toole exposing his naked body to the girl, to anal and vaginal rape.

“In order to facilitate the abuses, Toole also engaged in a pattern of behaviour…

View Cache

A Roman Catholic priest on Prince Edward Island is facing charges for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenager in the 1990s.

The investigation started in May when the alleged victim reported the incidents to police in Summerside, P.E.I.

When Summerside Police Services started investigating, it learned offences had also allegedly happened in other areas of the Island, according to a news release from the force. As a result, the RCMP’s Major Crime Unit was brought in to investigate.

Police arrested the accused, a 69-year-old man, on Monday.

He faces charges of sexual exploitation and sexual assault. Police say all charges are in relation to a single alleged victim, who was 14 when the assaults allegedly began.

The accused has been released from custody and is due in court in December.

View Cache

Father Kevin Christofferson was placed on administrative leave last week by the Diocese of Helena after being accused of abusing of a minor in 2001. Fr. Christofferson worked at Immaculate Conception in Polson, MT.

It is astonishing to us that Church officials routinely announce that a cleric’s placement on leave is not an admission of guilt. However, it would be more helpful if Bishop Austin Vetter would inform parishioners from Christofferson’s prior workplaces about the current allegations. This affirmative action would alert parishioners and the public. Statistics and experience routinely demonstrate that those who harm children seldom have just one victim.

We applaud the alleged victim who stepped forward with strength and courage and hope that they are getting the support they need. Now that this survivor has come forward, we call on church officials from Helena to use every resource at their disposal, including parish bulletins and…

View Cache

Advocates for Ohioans who have survived childhood sexual abuse are pushing for bills that they say would help survivors, protect kids, and prevent more victims. They’re hoping lawmakers will take action on several bills during the lame duck legislative session after next month’s election.

The advocates with Ohioans for Child Protection include survivors of childhood sexual abuse, such as Paul Neyer. He held up a photo of himself when he was in elementary school, at the age when he was sexually abused multiple times.

“That boy took 32 years to find his voice. I was about out of time. I’m thankful I narrowly made it through the small window of time,” Neyer said. “I was able to hear my assailant say ‘guilty’ nine times.”

The man who pleaded guilty to rape is Father Geoff Drew, who was sentenced to seven years in prison with that plea deal last year. Drew…

View Cache

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday the release of a 154-page report detailing allegations of sexual abuse within the Marquette Catholic Diocese.

The report is the first of a series of seven reports that will be released detailing alleged abuses in each of the state’s six diocese and the Archdiocese in Detroit.

The Marquette report draws from a number of sources, ranging from the Department of the Attorney General’s clergy abuse tip line and victim interviews to documents seized from the diocese and reports of allegations disclosed by the diocese itself.

“The willingness of the Diocese to provide information was instrumental in the compilation of the report,” Nessel said in a video announcing the document’s release. “The report was shared with the Diocese of Marquette in advance of being released to the public to ensure accuracy and completeness.”

For Marquette, the investigation by the Attorney General’s Office and the Michigan State…

View Cache

Report finds majority of allegations against 44 Upper Peninsula priests over the past 72 years regard incidents in the 1960s and ’70s

The Michigan Attorney General’s Office released the first of seven reports Oct. 27 related to its investigation of sexual abuse in Michigan’s seven Catholic dioceses over the past 72 years, detailing allegations of abuse in the Diocese of Marquette.

Since 1950, the report states, allegations of sexual misconduct were made against 44 priests in the diocese, including 38 who were “employed or incardinated by the Marquette Diocese,” a release from the Attorney General’s office said.

This includes both substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations. An allegation’s inclusion in the report “does not reflect a determination by the Department that the allegations are credible or otherwise substantiated,” the report said.

According to the report, the majority of allegations against Marquette clergy date to the 1960s and 1970s, and there are no…

View Cache

My abuser wasn’t a pastor. Still, he was a “good Christian man” by all appearances. He went to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. No one would have suspected a thing, and I wasn’t talking.

Lately, we’ve heard a lot about clergy who have sexually abused women and children in their congregations. We’ve also seen how churches and denominations have failed to address the problem.

But what about the abusers in the pews? The “good” churchgoing men who molest their children (and/or someone else’s), who hit their wives or who sexually harass women at work? What is the church doing about them? How much are they, and the other men in the pews who sit silently by not speaking out against misogyny and abuse, responsible for the church’s pathetic response to predatory clergy?

The proportion of men who abuse is pretty much the same, whether they’re Christian or not….

View Cache

HELENA — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is investigating a priest accused of abuse a minor. The alleged abuse happened in 2001.

In a statement, the diocese says Bishop Austin Vetter notified law enforcement after they learned of the accusation and placed the priest on administrative leave as of October 27, 2022.

The priest has not been officially charged with any crime at this time. MTN News is not identifying the priest because he has not been charged with a crime.

The Diocese says they take every accusation of abuse seriously. The accused priest is not permitted to have contact with minors and will refrain from administrative responsibilities and priestly duties. The Diocese also recognizes that accused persons are justly considered innocent until proven guilty.

“I ask that you join me as we pray together for those who are directly involved, and everyone affected by this difficult situation,” said…

View Cache

The Diocese of Helena said Monday it has received an accusation of abuse of a minor in 2001 against Father Kevin Christofferson.

Bishop Austin A. Vetter notified law enforcement and placed Christofferson on administrative leave on Oct. 27, which was keeping with diocesan policy, and in consultation with the Diocesan Review Board.

Upon the conclusion of any law enforcement investigation, and per diocesan policy, the diocese will do a third-party investigation into the accusation, diocese officials said in a news release.

Christofferson is not permitted to have contact with minors and will refrain from administrative responsibilities and priestly duties.

Christofferson has not been charged with any crime, diocese officials said, adding accused people “are justly considered innocent until proven guilty.”

“I ask that you join me as we pray together for those who are directly involved, and everyone affected by this difficult situation,” Vetter said in a news release.

Christofferson…

View Cache

Last week, we discussed that a “good” way to evaluate bishops concerning abuse is to look closely at their ‘credibly accused’ clerics lists. We started by examining the list in the Fresno Diocese. Now it’s time to dive into the San Bernardino Diocese.

Bishop Alberto Rojas, who hails from the Chicago Archdiocese, took the reins in San Bernardino in December 2019. His predecessors included Bishop Gerald Barnes, Bishop Phillip Straling, Bishop Dennis Patrick O’Neil, and Bishop Rutilio J. del Riego. Like other California prelates, San Bernardino’s bishop released a ‘credibly accused’ list in September 2018 in the wake of the scandalous revelations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. To his credit, Bishop Rojas includes religious order clerics on his credibly accused list, including Fr. Bernard Waltos OFM CONV., Fr. Carlos Rene Rodriguez CM, Fr. Joseph Fertal SVD, Fr. Howard Melzer SCJ,…

View Cache

The USCCB will vote this month on whether the Steubenville diocese should merge with Columbus.

The bishop of Steubenville, Ohio, is facing a new challenge to his handling of sexual abuse cases, several sources have confirmed — the second Vatican-ordered investigation into the bishop to be reported this month.

Church officials and other sources close to the case have told The Pillar that a Vos estis lux mundi investigation is getting underway regarding Bishop Jeffrey Monforton’s dealings with an alleged victim of sexual abuse within the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R.

According to sources close to the case, the complaint pertains to a former member of the religious community, who alleges that she was sexually abused by a religious sister who was not a member of the Franciscans, but was involved in TOR formation activities. The alleged abuse reportedly began in the late 1980s or early 1990s, sources told The Pillar.

The Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R. of Penance…

View Cache

A Catholic priest from Nsukka Diocese, Enugu, Rev. Fr. Benedict Ugwuanyi, has called for the implementation of civil sanctions against child abusers in the country.

Ugwuanyi said that unless strict sanctions are meted out to offenders, it will be hard to nip the escalating menace in the bud.

In a statement he signed and made available to newsmen in Abuja on Monday, the cleric emphasised the need to strengthen economic support to families of victims of child abuse.

According to him, strengthening economic support to families has become important because poverty was one of the underlying causes of child abuse, especially child sexual abuse in Nigeria.

He said, “Poverty in most parts of the country is indeed worrisome. The current economic situation in Nigeria has brought about the challenge of financial insecurity.

”Increasingly, many low income families are thrown into abject poverty, leading to more and more children dropping out…

View Cache

The first person to be charged as a result of the ongoing Boy Scouts of America (BSA) investigation has pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct charges, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced today.

Mark Chapman, 51, of New York pled guilty before Judge Kathryn A Viviano in the 16th Circuit Court in Macomb County to the following charges:

• One count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, with a sentence agreement of 12-20 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections, lifetime sex offender registration, and lifetime electronic monitoring as mandated by statute, and sex offender counseling.
• One count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, with a sentence agreement of 10-15 years served in the Michigan Department of Corrections, lifetime sex offender registration, and sex offender counseling. 

“Securing justice for the survivors of abuse is one of my top priorities.  Regardless how much time has passed, or how difficult the circumstances of a case may…

View Cache

The law extends liability protections to churches that disclose allegations.

Texas state lawmakers passed a law in 2019 intended to shield charities, including churches, from liability when sharing information about sexual abuse allegations against their employees and contractors. Officials with the Southern Baptist Convention, facing its own sex abuse scandal after a damning report in May, backed a resolution this year encouraging lawmakers across the country to pass legislation like what Texas approved.

We think the law could benefit from clearer language about how far the liability protection extends. Nevertheless, the legislation is a welcome measure to protect congregations from predators who for too long have moved from church to church with impunity.

The Texas law, known as House Bill 4345, was sponsored by state Rep. Scott Sanford, R-McKinney, and written with contributions from Bart Barber, a Farmersville pastor who was recently elected SBC president. It states that charitable organizations…

View Cache