ABUSE TRACKER

The Catholic population in Canada has declined by almost 2 million people in the last 10 years, the Canadian census has found in a report that indicates the religiously unaffiliated now outnumber Catholics.

The latest census figures, compiled in 2021, show the Catholic Canadian population has declined to 10.9 million. Catholics now make up about 29.9% of the country’s people. According to the 2011 census, the Catholic population that year was 12.8 million.

Just 53.3% of Canadians, 19.3 million people, now identify as Christian, a decline from 67.3% in 2011 and 77.1% in 2001. Statistics Canada, Canada’s national statistical office, presented the latest figures in an Oct. 26 report.

Catholicism is still the most popular religious affiliation in all provinces and territories except for Nunavut, the sparse population of which has a large Anglican component.

Quebec is the only majority Catholic province, but Catholic numbers declined “considerably,” Statistics Canada said….

View Cache

Earlier this year the Republic of Ireland announced plans for a National Center for Research and Remembrance located at a former Magdalen Laundry in Dublin. It is envisioned as “a site of national conscience” to remember not only those women forced to work in the network of 10 laundries, but also the women and children abused at Mother and Baby Homes, industrial schools, reformatories, and other institutions, mostly run by the Catholic Church but licensed and funded by the Irish state. The proposal calls for a museum and exhibit space, research center, and space “for reflection and remembrance.”

In October, the Irish government introduced an online service that for the first time will provide access to birth certificates and other early life information for people adopted, boarded out, or subject to other illegal birth registration practices, usually through the institutions mentioned above. More than 16,000 people have expressed a preference to…

View Cache

Bond has been set at $75,000 for Patrick Wattigny, a former Catholic priest who was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail Tuesday on a count of molestation of a juvenile, according to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Wattigny, 55, was still in jail mid-afternoon Wednesday.

This is the second child sex abuse arrest for Wattigny, who was formerly pastor of St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church in Slidell. He was arrested two years ago at a home in owns in Georgia on a single count of molestation involving a 15-year-old boy, and has been out on a $150,000 bond.

He pleaded not guilty in St. Tammany Parish in March of 2021 and is scheduled to go to trial in that case in January.

In August, a second accuser, now an adult, contacted investigators to say that Wattigny had abused him while he was an elementary school…

View Cache

Joe Montanez walked up to the first designated “Garden of Healing” in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, just outside the front doors of the St. Camillus Center for Pastoral Care near East LA.

He reached his hand out to touch the water pouring out of an installation feature known as “The Weeping Wall.”

Montanez said he needed to feel it.

“I love the sound of water,” the 64-year-old said. “It creates peace.”

He acknowledged the sounds of the moment: an ambulance siren, the rumble of delivery trucks, a police helicopter buzzing above, the horn of trains in the near distance.

“This can be a peaceful area,” he said with a half-smile.

For those like Montanez directly impacted by sexual abuse in the Church, the establishment of this pacifying space has been an idea years in the making.  

Archbishop José H. Gomez, who presided over the garden’s Oct. 26 dedication, announced…

View Cache

Bankruptcy Judge Paul Warren erred in letting abuse survivors’ individually filed claims against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester’s parishes move ahead, the diocese argues in papers filed recently in the Western District of New York’s Rochester Division.

The diocese’s appeal brief comes some three months after it filed a notice of its intention to appeal Warren’s May ruling. In that decision, Warren said some 300 individually filed state court Child Victims Act claims against Rochester Catholic parishes that had been stayed since the bankruptcy’s filing could resume.  

The state passed the CVA in 2019. The act temporarily eliminated a statute of limitations on certain sex-abuse crimes, making it possible for victims—now middle aged and older—to seek redress for abuse they had suffered as children decades ago. A virtual tsunami of CVA claims followed, with many hitting the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America.

Faced with its own…

View Cache

The Yates report was not the first time we’ve seen widespread misconduct hidden in sports, and it almost certainly won’t be the last.

When U.S. Soccer commissioned an investigation by King & Spalding LLP partner Sally Yates and the results revealed widespread, “systemic abuse and misconduct” across the NWSL and women’s soccer as a whole, many of the findings felt eerily familiar. Three coaches—Paul Riley, Rory Dames and Christy Holly—had all been accused of verbal abuse and/or sexual misconduct. Officials in charge downplayed or ignored the complaints. The coaches moved from club to club freely despite reports of their behavior.

We’ve seen these scandals before in sports, and yet little is done to prevent them from repeating elsewhere.

The Yates report makes it abundantly clear that team owners, general managers and top officials in both U.S. Soccer and the NWSL had plenty of opportunities to just do the right…

View Cache

There have been at least 330,000 cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, nuns, Popes and others in the church. The number will really never be known due to the Church officials covering them up and many men still in shame over crimes that were not of their own choosing. The abused, mostly boys, but also girls, start as young as three years old, with the majority of abuse between the ages of 11 and 14. Cases have also been brought against members of the Catholic hierarchy, who then covered up the sex abuse allegations and moved abusive priests to other parishes, where the abuse always continued. This is a world wide pandemic.

I personally knew the brave and courageous Phil Saviano, the man who helped bring down almost 250 priests in Boston and more. One priest can have over 3,000 victims and most of the time they are kept silent.

I am…

View Cache

Mastriano accuses Shapiro of grudge against the church 

Flanked by tearful victims and their families, Attorney General Josh Shapiro took to the podium in the state Capitol and delivered perhaps the most defining remarks of his career as Pennsylvania’s most powerful law enforcement official.

It was August 2018 and the state Supreme Court had just approved the release of an explosive grand jury report revealing decades of child sexual abuse by hundreds of Catholic priests, as well as efforts by church leaders to cover up their crimes.

He accused the church’s bishops of choosing to protect the institution over the young men and women to whom they were entrusted to lead in their spiritual growth.

He spoke of the euphemisms that some of the church leaders used — “horseplay,” “wrestling,” “inappropriate contact” — to paper over the sordid activities of the priests. 

Jabbing his hand into the…

View Cache

COMMENTARY: The new ‘National Survey of Catholic Priests’ highlights that bishops need to recognize that the vast majority of their spiritual sons, brothers and co-workers are indeed struggling and need their help.

On Oct. 19, the results of the “National Survey of Catholic Priests” were released by The Catholic Project and the Department of Sociology at The Catholic University of America and revealed the enormous toll the Church’s response to the sexual-abuse crisis has been having on American clergy.

The “National Survey,” the largest study of Catholic priests in America in more than 50 years, is an ambitious attempt to assess the state of the priesthood in the United States as the Church marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

Conducted by Gallup between February and June this year, the survey sought to interview 10,000 of the 35,000 Catholic priests in…

View Cache

Rarely has an endorsement for elected office been as open and shut as the one for Democrat Josh Shapiro in the race to become Pennsylvania’s next governor.

To some degree, the choice between the state’s attorney general and Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano involves Mastriano’s continued baseless denial of the 2020 presidential election results and his unfounded concerns over alleged voter fraud.

Ultimately, we support Shapiro on his own merits. As he has climbed up the political ladder in Pennsylvania, he has routinely focused on what’s best for commonwealth residents, regardless of their political leanings, color, creed or economic status.

He has worked his way from county commissioner to state representative — he was actually a state representative for seven years before becoming a Montgomery County commissioner — then to Attorney General, an office he has held since 2017.

Shapiro has built his resume on bipartisanship and taking on big…

View Cache

Patrick Wattigny’s trial on a molestation charge is scheduled for January

Patrick Wattigny, the former pastor of St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church in Slidell, faces new criminal accusations in a second molestation case involving a juvenile, two years after he was arrested on one count of molesting a 15-year-old boy.

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office said a second alleged victim, now an adult, contacted investigators in August and said that Wattigny abused him while he was an elementary school student at a Covington-area Catholic school, according to Sheriff’s Office news release Tuesday evening.

A warrant was issued for Wattigny’s arrest following an investigation, the Sheriff’s Office said. He was being booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail late Tuesday afternoon on one count of molestation of a juvenile, the Sheriff’s Office said.

“It is deeply disturbing when an individual in a position of authority uses…

View Cache

For 62 years, Peter Murnane has been a Dominican priest.

He remained so through the storm after he poured blood on the floor of the US Consul’s office. When he provided a safe house for the asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui. When he broke into the Waihopai spy base, was prosecuted and acquitted. Even when he gave a sermon explaining why he thought Australia’s top Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, was not a good bloke.

Only now, at 82 years old, have the Dominicans seemingly had enough of their rebel priest after Murnane refused instructions to pulp his new book, Clerical Errors, which clinically examines the Catholic Church’s dismal sexual abuse record, lays out a long treatise on Pell and argues the entire church should be dismantled.

Ironically, the Dominicans have labelled him a ‘priest not in good standing’, a tag normally attached to paedophiles and other deviants.

It has left Murnane…

View Cache

Police are also probing whether Bishop Thomas Dabre of Pune tried to cover up Father Vincent Pereira’s alleged crime

An Indian Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a boy has surrendered before the police as they began a probe against Bishop Thomas Dabre of Pune for allegedly attempting to cover up the crime.

Father Vincent Pereira, 55, of Pune in the western state of Maharashtra presented himself before the police on Oct 23, ending his nearly month-long efforts to evade arrest. He is alleged to have abused a 15-year-old boy at his parents’ home on Dec. 4 last year.

Police said the priest had been in hiding ever since they booked him on Sept. 30 under India’s stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

A local court on Oct. 21 granted the priest anticipatory bail that prevented police from arresting him while…

View Cache

Bishop Paul Mason said that mandatory reporting of confessions would turn the priest “from a minister of God to an agent of the state”.

The lead bishop for safeguarding in England and Wales has said that mandatory reporting of disclosures of child abuse cannot break the seal of the confessional, because it would turn the priest “from a minister of God to an agent of the state”.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Sunday programme, the Bishop of the Forces, Paul Mason, said that the nature of the confessional was determined by “the sacredness of the relationship of any person to God and being open to forgiveness”, and so “the Church facilitates that through the intermediary of the priest”.

He said that it is “as though the priest is not there in that confessional situation”.

Bishop Mason was responding to questions on the future of confession following the final report of the Independent Inquiry…

View Cache

In 2021, 34,182 people left the Catholic Church, a record number, reported RTS. The figure represents 1.1% of worshipers.

Departures in 2021 exceeded the previous annual record of 31,410 in 2019 by 2,772. 31,410 people left in 2020.

Leading reasons cited for leaving the Catholic Church in Switzerland included differences of opinion on public issues such as women in the church, homosexuality, remarrying after divorce, abortion and assisted suicide. A survey run in 2019 showed that 36.8% of those leaving listed one of these reasons for their decision. Investigations and revelations of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church are likely to be another factor.

Another reason is cost. Across much of Switzerland there are church taxes. Some cantons apply compulsory church taxes to companies. While others have optional church taxes on individuals. The only canton that effectively levies a compulsory church tax on companies and individuals is the canton of Vaud…

View Cache

The Most Reverend William Patrick Callahan, D.D., Bishop of La Crosse, makes the
following announcement:

The Reverend Monsignor Mark R. Pierce, Pastor of St. Michael Parish and Church of the
Resurrection Parish, both in Wausau, and Dean of the Wausau Deanery, has submitted his
resignation as Pastor and Dean, and it has been accepted, effective October 21, 2022. He has
been placed on a leave of absence.

View Cache

A Catholic priest who served two Wausau parishes has resigned over an accusation of sexual misconduct with a minor that occurred several decades ago. 

The Rev. Monsignor Mark Pierce accepted responsibility and announced his resignation in a statement. Pierce led the congregation at St. Michael and Resurrection Parishes on the east side of Wausau. 

Parishioners at several Wausau churches learned of the accusation and resignation during Sunday services on Oct. 23.

“After many years of neglect, I’m being called to face the wrong I have caused someone by behavior inappropriate for a priest. Facing up to what I have done now is what requires that I resign as your pastor,” said Pierce in a statement that was read to churchgoers on Sunday. “I am truly sorry for the hurt that I have caused one person in particular and the embarrassment I’ve brought on you all.”

La Crosse Diocese Bishop William…

View Cache

Padre detido tinha tentado frequentar o seminário uma primeira vez, mas em vão

O padre que foi detido esta quinta-feira pela Polícia Judiciária (PJ) pela alegada prática de crimes de tráfico de pessoas e de abuso sexual de pessoa incapaz de resistência, em Vila Nova de Foz Côa, só entrou para o seminário em 2006/2007 e foi ordenado padre em 2013, aos 53 anos. No entanto, já tentara anos antes frequentar o seminário, mas em vão – sabe o 7MARGENS. Não foi possível apurar a razão exacta para que isso tenha acontecido, mas um responsável eclesiástico da região diz que ela podia já ter a ver com suspeitas sobre este tipo de factos.

Num comunicado da PJ, refere-se que o suspeito foi detido, através da Directoria do Norte, no âmbito de uma investigação em curso e em cumprimento de mandados emitidos pelo Ministério Público – Departamento de Investigação e Ação…

View Cache

O arguido tinha sido nomeado tutor da vítima em 2017, por via judicial, oferecendo-lhe trabalho, em troca de alojamento e alimentação.

APolícia Judiciária (PJ) deteve um padre de 63 anos pela alegada prática de crimes de tráfico de pessoas e de abuso sexual de pessoa incapaz de resistência, em Vila Nova de Foz Côa.

Em comunicado, a PJ adiantou que o suspeito foi detido, através da Diretoria do Norte, no âmbito de uma investigação em curso e em cumprimento de mandados emitidos pelo Ministério Público – Departamento de Investigação e Ação Penal (DIAP) da Maia.

“Trata-se do padre António Pinto, de Numão, em Vila Nova de Foz Côa”, no distrito da Guarda, disse fonte policial à agência Lusa.

No âmbito da investigação, a PJ efetuou buscas domiciliárias e não domiciliárias, “detendo um indivíduo fortemente indiciado pela prática dos crimes de tráfico de pessoas e abuso sexual de pessoa incapaz de…

View Cache

An Archdiocese of New Orleans priest who is scheduled to be tried in January on child sex abuse charges was arrested again Oct. 25 on an additional molestation charge. 

Father Patrick Wattigny was arrested by the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office located in Southeastern Louisiana after an investigation was initiated by a sexual abuse complaint brought to the office in August. 

Wattigny’s bond was set at $75,000, according to Nola.com. The outlet reported that as of Wednesday afternoon he was still in jail.

“The victim, who is an adult now, disclosed that he was abused by Wattigny while he was an elementary student at a Covington-area Catholic school,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement about the new arrest. 

According to the sheriff’s office, Wattigny was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on one count of molestation of a juvenile.

“It is deeply disturbing when an individual in…

View Cache

‘Most of these defendants used their faith and church to gain access to their victims,’ Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

Four Jehovah’s Witnesses have been charged with sexually abusing 19 children in their congregations, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced in a news conference Thursday morning (Oct. 27). The alleged crimes of the four defendants are separate, but all took place in Jehovah’s Witness communities in Pennsylvania. The charges include indecent assault, rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

“The cases that we are here to announce are deeply disturbing, the allegations hard to imagine, while all sharing one common tie,” Shapiro said at the news conference. “Most of these defendants used their faith and church to gain access to their victims to build their trust and then molested them.”

The charges are the result of a three-year investigation involving dozens of witnesses and hundreds of hours of grand jury…

View Cache

New details raise questions about how officials handled abuse allegations at Franciscan University.

Both Franciscan University of Steubenville and its sponsoring religious order said Friday they would not comment on newly surfaced allegations, which claim that officials mishandled spiritual, psychological and sexual abuse reports from the victim of Fr. David Morrier, a former university chaplain who was convicted this year of sexual assault.

The newly emerged allegations raise questions about statements in which the university and the Sacred Heart Province of the Third Order Regular Franciscans claimed they were not aware of sexual abuse allegations against Morrier until 2015.

Morrier was sentenced in March to five years probation and a lifetime of sex offender registration, after he took a plea bargain on charges of rape and sexual battery.

To avoid trial, the priest pled guilty to one count of sexual battery against a university student he is alleged to have…

View Cache

On Friday the Italian Bishops’ Conference signed an agreement with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to provide support for safeguarding initiatives, particularly in the global south, where funds for these efforts is often lacking.

Speaking to journalists Friday at the close of the commission’s fall plenary assembly, Father Andrew Small, the commission’s secretary, noted that it is part of the commission’s mandate to help bishops’ conferences implement national listening centers and stable publicly accessible reporting mechanisms for victims and survivors of abuse.

These services were required by Pope Francis in his 2019 legislation Vos Estis Lux Mundi, which also imposed mandatory reporting for bishops for any allegation of abuse.

According to Small, of the 114 bishops’ conferences around the world, “I would estimate that about 70-80 don’t really have these really publicly established, mostly in the global south, a part of the world that has not really received,…

View Cache

A senior official in the Vatican’s advisory commission on clerical sexual abuse admitted on Friday that the Catholic Church was failing to tackle the scourge in the southern hemisphere.

There was a “disparity in training and prevention of child sexual abuse between the northern and southern hemispheres,” warned Andrew Small, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

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

Pope Francis has insisted that the Church will adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to abuse, but critics say many countries are yet to seriously confront the issue.

There was an “urgency… to remedy the huge inequality in safeguarding services between the global north and south,” Small said in an article published in the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. View Cache

LANSING, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) — On Thursday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the release of a 154-page report detailingallegations of abuse at Michigan’s seven dioceses, including the Diocese of Marquette.

The report is a compilation of the information obtained from the Department of Attorney General tip line, victim interviews, police investigations, open-source media, paper documents seized from the Diocese, electronic documents found on the Diocesan computers and reports of allegations disclosed by the Diocese.

Diocese of Marquette – FINAL REPORT – Oct – 2022

“The report contains detailed descriptions of allegations of sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct, including grooming and misuse of authority, against minors and adults,” the Michigan Department of Attorney General said.

In Oct. 2018, Michigan law enforcement authorities executed search warrants at Michgian’s seven dioceses and seized 220 boxes of pater documents and over 3.5 million digital documents, the department said.

To date,…

View Cache

If nothing else, it was thorough.

That’s what at least some people are saying about a 100-plus page report released late this week from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel concerning allegations of sexual abuse that took place in the Catholic Diocese of Marquette.

The report was released in the interest of the public and to acknowledge the reports of alleged abuse from victims, Nessel’s office said. The document is a compilation of the information obtained from the Department of Attorney General tip line, victim interviews, police investigations, open-source media, paper documents seized from the diocese and electronic documents found on the diocesan computers, and reports of allegations disclosed by the diocese.

Here are the numbers: The list of priests for which there were allegations of sexual misconduct against either children or adults since Jan. 1, 1950, is derived from information gleaned from a search warrant that was executed against the…

View Cache

Interview with a member of a network that is organizing rallies this weekend in various parts of France to protest the handling of the so-called Bishop Santier affair.

A group of Catholics in France who are committed combating sex abuse in the Church is coordinating a series of rallies in various cities this weekend to voice their displeasure with the way the so-called Santier affair has been handled.

French Catholics have been angered by recent revelations that Bishop Michel Santier, who took early retirement in 2021 on health grounds, had actually been sanctioned by the Vatican for sexual abuse of two young men. And the Catholic network “Agir pour notre Église” (“doing something for the Church”) is holding the weekend rallies to “send a message to the bishops” before the Church leaders meet later next week for their plenary assembly.

 Alix Huon, a member of the network, told La Croix’s…

View Cache

Nazir Afzal, Chair of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, spoke to The Tablet after the publication of the IICSA final report.

The report recommendations – do you wholeheartedly endorse them? 

This final report is vitally important as it consolidates all that has gone before in terms of identifying the scale of work needed to better protect children in a range of settings, as well as the work already done by the Catholic Church.

It matters to the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) because it will continue to help shape our work. It matters to the Catholic Church because there won’t be more chances to get this right. Most crucially, it matters to victims and survivors of abuse.

Any measures, whether governmental, or institutional, which help us tackle abuse and protect children, must be actioned.

Do you particularly accept the recommendation of mandatory reporting of disclosures of sex abuse, even if…

View Cache

The Vatican panel due to produce annual reports on child abuse prevention within the Catholic Church will not deliver its first full review until 2024, its secretary said on Friday.

In April, after a wider constitutional overhaul of Vatican structures, Pope Francis gave the Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors a mandate to produce the reports.

Clerical sex abuse and cover up scandals have rocked the 1.35 billion-member Catholic Church for decades, undercutting its moral authority and taking a toll on membership and coffers.

Greater transparency, new reporting procedures and tougher punishment for abusers and those who fail to go after them are part of Francis’ stated “zero tolerance” response.

“Around October next year we’ll have a good idea of what we want to say, (but) I don’t think we’re going to have data in place until the following year, 2024,” said panel secretary Father Andrew Small.

Briefing reporters, he…

View Cache

‘We recognize that this news is especially difficult for many Inuit people,’ said Father Ken Thorson

The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate Lacombe say they’re disappointed in France’s decision not to extradite a retired priest who faces charges of sexual assault in Canada.

On Wednesday, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said French authorities denied Canada’s extradition request for Johannes Rivoire, who formerly belonged to the religious group. It said France’s reasoning included that too much time has passed since the events in question, and that the country can’t extradite its own citizens.

In September, the Oblates said they were dismissing Rivoire from their congregation. That process is expected to take two to three months.

Father Ken Thorson, head of OMI Lacombe, the Oblate order headquartered in Ottawa, said Thursday in an email that his organization was “deeply saddened” by the news that French officials denied Canada’s extradition request.

“Further,” Thorson wrote, “we…

View Cache

Catholic academics, theologians, clergy sex abuse survivors, and advocates for the inclusion of women and LGBTQ individuals in the U.S. Catholic Church praised the forthrightness and transparency with which the Vatican’s new synod document engages controversial topics that in years past would have been off-limits for discussion.

“This is really Pope Francis enacting a post-conciliar ecclesiology. It’s his contribution to making space for a listening church to really emerge,” said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, chair of the religious studies department at Manhattan College.

The 45-page working document will guide the continental phase of the 2023-24 Synod of Bishops in Rome. The document distills several major themes that emerged in listening sessions with millions of Catholics across the world, who over the past year articulated a desire for a “listening” church that reaches out to the marginalized, especially the LGBTQ community, and that allows women to serve in…

View Cache

With a renewed membership, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors met at the Vatican in late October and laid the groundwork for devising an annual report on child protection efforts by the Catholic Church globally.

Oblate Fr. Andrew Small, commission secretary, told reporters Oct. 28 that members also looked at the commission’s new relationship to the disciplinary section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and continued their efforts to promote greater transparency and fuller reporting to victims about the outcome of their cases.

“In our engagement with victim survivors, the acknowledgement of the wrong that was done to them is primary, being listened to, being believed,” Small said. “There’s nothing that takes the place of being believed and heard.”

But, he said, “seeing the wrongdoer continue to flourish at times or to appear without sanction is also very painful,” so victims are understandably confused or…

View Cache

A recently released document that is part of the Vatican synod contained discussions of topics formerly considered taboo by the Roman Catholic Church leadership. These included clergy sexual abuse allegations, ordination of women into priesthood, and LGBTQ relationships.

What the Synodal Document Contains

According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Vatican issued the 45-page document titled “Enlarge the space of your tent” on Oct. 27. 

The document contained a discussion of various topics that formed part of the “listening sessions” among the Catholic faithful throughout 2021 and up to the current year.

The Synodal document touched on topics that reflect the present mindset of the Vatican over issues once deemed taboo.

The article bared that the document will serve as a blueprint for future continental ecclesiastical meetings for the next half of the year. 

The meetings will come before the scheduled twin assemblies in Rome…

View Cache

Click here to hear Bishop James Doerfler comments. Click here to read the AG’s report.

Marquette Catholic Diocese Bishop James Doerfler held a news conference Thursday afternoon to respond to the 154-page report issued by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, which detailed alleged sexual abuse within the Diocese.

Doerfler started his remarks by offering a “sincere apology” to those who have been harmed, adding that the work to “stamp out this great evil must continue.”

To the alleged victims, the Bishop said:

“You are, and should have been, our priority. There is no excuse for what happened to you. It is especially grievous if your voice was not heard. Thank you to those who have courageously come forward to bring light into this darkness.”

The Attorney General report summarized allegations of misconduct against 44 different members of the clergy, dating back to 1950. Some of them are now…

View Cache

A new report by the Michigan attorney general’s office identifies dozens of abuse allegations against Catholic priests in the Upper Peninsula.

The report is part of an ongoing state investigation into allegations of sexual abuse involving Catholic priests. In this case, the data stems from a search warrant served on the Diocese of Marquette in 2018 and additional tips.

The report identifies 44 priests for which there were allegations of sexual misconduct against either children or adults since January of 1950. 32 of the priests are known or presumed to be dead. Of the 12 others, two are still involved in active ministry.

Bishop John Doerfler apologized to the victims at a news conference Thursday, saying “words fall short.”

“Even though almost all the abuse in our diocese occurred decades ago, the wounds run very deep and many people are still suffering today,” said Doerfler.

Since the state investigation began,…

View Cache

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel today announced the release of a report by the Department of Attorney General concerning allegations of abuse that took place in the Marquette Catholic Diocese. A video providing an overview of the report is included.

The report was released in the interest of the public and to acknowledge the reports of alleged abuse from victims.  The document is a compilation of the information obtained from the Department of Attorney General tip line, victim interviews, police investigations, open-source media, paper documents seized from the Diocese, and electronic documents found on the Diocesan computers, as well as reports of allegations disclosed by the Diocese.

The list of priests for which there were allegations of sexual misconduct against either children or adults since January 1, 1950, is derived from information gleaned from a search warrant that was executed against the Diocese of Marquette on October 3, 2018.  There…

View Cache

Once again, thanks to the intrepid work by Michigan’s Attorney General, we now know much more about the issue of clergy abuse within the state of Michigan. We are grateful to  A.G. Dana Nessel and her team for their transparency and for releasing a report that provides parents, parishioners, and the public with far more detail about the extent of clergy abuse in Marquette than had been provided by Catholic officials.

The report released by A.G. Nessel includes the names and details of 44 priests who worked, lived, or spent time in the Diocese of Marquette. Of those men, 38 were trained, ordained, and employed by the Diocese itself. This report flies in the face of supposed transparency and honesty from Church officials from Marquette, where the names of only eight abusive priests had been released. Just like in Illinois and Pennsylvania, the lists released by Catholic…

View Cache

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the release of a report on accused priests in the Diocese of Marquette issued by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel:

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has issued the most vacuous report, “Diocese of Marquette: A Complete Accounting,” on clergy sexual abuse ever written. We know she has been out to get the Catholic Church, but this effort makes her look incompetent, as well as unethical.

The probe of Catholic dioceses searching for instances of clergy sexual abuse began in 2018 under her predecessor, Bill Schuette; she took the reins in 2019. There has been no attempt to investigate the sexual abuse of minors by ministers, rabbis, imams or school teachers. Just Catholic priests.

This amounts to Catholic profiling. Make no mistake, this is no less invidious than a probe of violent crime would be if it only targeted African Americans. Such a selective…

View Cache

[To see a PDF of the statement, click here.]

October 27, 2022

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Words fall short when attempting to speak about something as sobering and disturbing as the report released earlier today by the Office of the Michigan Attorney General concerning its investigation into clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Marquette. However, something must be said, and our work to stamp out this grave evil must continue.

On behalf of the Church, I offer a sincere apology to anyone who has been abused by clergy in the Catholic Church. You are, and should have been, our priority. There is no excuse for what happened to you. It is especially grievous if your voice was not heard. Thank you to those who have courageously come forward to bring light to this darkness which has brought about so much harm.

If you have suffered abuse…

View Cache

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Thursday announced the release of a report from her department concerning allegations of abuse that took place in the Catholic Diocese of Marquette.

The report was released in the interest of the public and to acknowledge the reports of alleged abuse from victims, the attorney general’s office said. The document is a compilation of the information obtained from the Department of Attorney General tip line, victim interviews, police investigations, open-source media, paper documents seized from the diocese and electronic documents found on the diocesan computers, and reports of allegations disclosed by the diocese.

The list of priests for which there were allegations of sexual misconduct against either children or adults since Jan. 1, 1950, is derived from information gleaned from a search warrant that was executed against the Diocese of Marquette on Oct. 3, 2018. There are 44 priests on this list; 38 were…

View Cache

Michael F. Whalen, whose 2018 news conference began a sexual abuse scandal in the Buffalo Diocese, called the diocese’s settlement with the state attorney general on Tuesday “a step in the right direction.”

He’s a bit worried, though, that the enhanced child protection and priest monitoring plans mandated in Attorney General Letitia James’ settlement won’t go far enough to keep the diocese honest. The court-ordered monitoring program will last for a period of five years. 

“I just don’t think it goes far enough,” Whalen said in an interview with The Buffalo News. “I think it should be permanent.”

In Nov. 2020, James sued the Buffalo Diocese, along with retired Bishop Richard J. Malone and retired Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz, over their handling of clergy sexual abuse cases.

The civil case accused diocese leaders of protecting more than two dozen priests accused of child…

View Cache

The Buffalo Diocese in its settlement Tuesday with the State Attorney General’s Office made no admissions about covering up for priests who had molested children, but agreed to implement enhanced measures to prevent future sex abuse in parishes and schools.

The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, bans two retired bishops linked to a cover-up of sex abuses from serving in any charitable fiduciary roles in New York, and requires the diocese to follow through for five years on such measures as a program to monitor offending priests.

New York’s AG is alleging diocese leaders protected more than two dozen priests accused of child sexual abuse by not referring their cases to the Vatican.

Attorney General Letitia James said the deal ushers in a “much-needed era of independent oversight and accountability” of the diocese.

“For far too long, the Buffalo Diocese and its leaders…

View Cache

Roman Catholic diocese failed its most basic duty to guide and protect children, New York Attorney General Letitia James says

An independent auditor will monitor how the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo handles sexual-abuse allegations as part of a settlement filed Tuesday in federal court with New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The diocese, which declared bankruptcy in February of 2020 after a wave of sexual-abuse lawsuits, also agreed to specific time frames for investigating misconduct claims. The auditor, former FBI official Kathleen McChesney, will be in place for five years. The auditor will prepare and publish an annual report on the diocese’s compliance with its procedures regarding abuse claims.

“For far too long, the Buffalo Diocese and its leaders failed their most basic duty to guide and protect our children,” Ms. James, who sued the Buffalo Diocese in November of 2021, said in a statement.

It is the first…

View Cache

Some media reports have claimed that the Buffalo diocese has agreed to “submit to government oversight” as part of the settlement.

The Diocese of Buffalo announced a settlement Tuesday in the lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general, over the diocese’s handling of clerical sexual abuse allegation.

Some media reports have claimed that the Buffalo diocese has agreed to “submit to government oversight” as part of the settlement.

Is that true? What does the settlement actually say?

The Pillar explains.

What’s been going on in Buffalo

The attorney general’s lawsuit was filed against the diocese in 2020, charging a coverup in more than 20 alleged cases of clerical sexual abuse.

The suit came after a protracted public scandal under the tenure of former diocesan bishop Richard Malone, who resigned from office in December of 2019, a year after a former Buffalo chancery employee leaked diocesan documents to local media on the…

View Cache

The Diocese of Buffalo and the New York attorney general’s office have reached a settlement in a 2020 civil lawsuit filed by the state regarding the diocese’s handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations.

Under the agreement, filed Oct. 25 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the diocese is required to implement enhanced child protection measures. It also prohibits two retired bishops alleged to have covered up clergy sexual abuse from holding any fiduciary roles within New York.

“The settlement that the diocese and the New York attorney general have agreed to confirms that the rigorous policies and protocols the diocese has put in place over the past several years are the right ones to ensure that all young people and other vulnerable persons are safe and never at risk of abuse of any kind by a member of the clergy, diocesan employee, volunteer, or member…

View Cache

A Catholic priest in central Wisconsin has resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor that happened several decades ago.

The allegation against Monsignor Mark Pierce, who has been a priest for 26 years, surfaced last week, La Crosse Bishop William Callahan said, adding that Pierce was told of the accusation, placed on a leave of absence and relieved from ministerial duties.

No details about the allegation were released, including when and where it occurred, the La Crosse Tribune reported Wednesday.

Pierce led the St. Michael Parish and the Church of the Resurrection in Wausau. His resignation was announced Sunday in a statement read to churchgoers.

“After many years of neglect, I’m being called to face the wrong I have caused someone by behavior inappropriate for a priest. Facing up to what I have done now is what requires that I resign as your pastor,” Pierce’s…

View Cache

France has rejected a request to extradite a priest accused of sexually abusing Indigenous children in Canada’s far north decades ago, Canadian authorities said Wednesday.

Johannes Rivoire, who now lives in a retirement home in Lyon, is the subject of an arrest warrant in Canada for allegedly sexually assaulting a child between 1974 and 1979.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) said Wednesday that France refused the request because its law prohibits extradition of its own citizens, and because “too much time has passed between the events and the charges being laid.”

The latter reason also prevents French authorities from prosecuting Rivoire themselves.

Rivoire, 93, left Canada in 1993 after 33 years as a missionary.

The priest, who has dual nationality, was also the subject of an arrest warrant between 1998 and 2017 for the alleged sexual abuse of three minors. It was never acted upon.

The priest denied…

View Cache

The Canadian government said Wednesday that France has denied an extradition request for Johannes Rivoire, a former priest accused of crimes against children in the northern territory of Nunavut.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada made the extradition request for Rivoire, who was in Canada from the early 1960s until 1993 but now lives in France.

Rivoire, who has denied any wrongdoing, is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant after being charged in February with one count of indecent assault on a female. The alleged victim was a child at the time of the offence, which occurred between January 1974 and December 1979.

The prosecution service said in a news release that French authorities denied the extradition request because French law prohibits the extradition of its own citizens and too much time has passed between the events and the charges being laid. The latter issue also prevents French authorities from prosecuting…

View Cache

Angeblich musste der Bischof von Créteil aus gesundheitlichen Gründen zurücktreten. Jetzt sind die wahren Gründe bekannt – die Bischöfe schwiegen.

Von einem „Schock für die Gläubigen“ spricht der Vorsitzende der französischen Bischofskonferenz, Erzbischof Éric de Moulins-Beaufort. Ein neuer Missbrauchsskandal erschüttert die französische Kirche, während Präsident Emmanuel Macron am Sonntag nach Rom aufgebrochen ist. Er wird an diesem Montag zu einer Audienz von Papst Franziskus empfangen. Doch die Frage des Umgangs mit sexuellem Missbrauch in der Kirche soll laut Élysée-Palast nicht zur Sprache kommen. Dieses Thema sei bereits beim vorangegangenen Besuch Macrons im Vatikan erörtert worden. Im November 2021 sprach Macron mit dem Papst über den kurz zuvor veröffentlichten Abschlussbericht der Unabhängigen Kommission über sexuellen Missbrauch in der Kirche (Ciase) unter Leitung des ehemaligen Verwaltungsgerichtspräsidenten Jean-Marc Sauvé. Der Bericht beschrieb das „systemische Ausmaß“ sexuellen Missbrauchs und leitete eine Debatte über notwendige Veränderungen ein, um Missstände schnell aufklären und die Opfer schützen…

View Cache

44 priests accused of abuse, grooming and misuse of authority

Michigan’s Sexual Assault Hotline is free, anonymous and available 24/7 by calling 1-855-864-2374 or texting 1-866-238-1454.

A detailed report has been released by the Michigan attorney general’s office regarding allegations of sexual abuse that took place in the Marquette Catholic Diocese.

The report includes information from the attorney general’s tipline, interviews with survivors, police investigations, open-source media, paper and electronic documents seized from the diocese and reports of allegations disclosed by the diocese.

Nessel said the report was released in the interest of the public and to acknowledge reports of alleged abuse from survivors.

Nessel provided a statement via video, which you can watch below:

(Can’t see the video? Click here)

Abuse allegations date back to 1950; 44 priests on list

There is a list of priests who have faced allegations of sexual…

View Cache

The report names 44 priests who ministered in Marquette who have been accused of abuse since the 1940s. Thirty-three of the 44 priests named in the report are known or presumed to be deceased.

MARQUETTE, Mich. — Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel on Thursday released a report compiling allegations of sexual abuse directed at priests in the Diocese of Marquette, stretching back to the 1940s. 

Nessel said the Oct. 27 document is the first of seven from her office on sexual abuse allegations against priests in each of Michigan’s Catholic dioceses. 

“Since the very start of my term, I pledged to use the resources of my department to ensure that every case of sexual abuse and assault is thoroughly reviewed, and that whenever we are able to pursue justice, we do so relentlessly and aggressively,” Nessel, a Democrat who is running for re-election, said in a video statement…

View Cache

Catholics want the role and vocation of women to be tackled urgently, according to a new report that has come out of the synodal listening process.

The landmark synod report says that Catholics repeatedly express the desire for a more welcoming, inclusive Church that eradicates the misuse of power. 

The findings are contained in a 45-page document released by the Holy See’s synod office that summarises the results of the unprecedented listening and dialogue process as part of the global synod. 

“Women remain the majority of those who attend liturgy and participate in activities, men a minority; yet most decision-making and governance roles are held by men,” the report states.

“From all continents comes an appeal for Catholic women to be valued first and foremost as baptised and equal members of the People of God. There is almost unanimous affirmation that women love the Church deeply, but many feel sadness because their…

View Cache

[Via Vancouver Island Free Daily]

Under French law, too much time had passed between the events and the charges being laid

The federal government says France has denied an extradition request for a priest accused of crimes against children in Nunavut.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada made the extradition request for Johannes Rivoire, who is in his 90s and lives in Lyon, France.

Rivoire is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant issued in February for a charge of sexual assault that stems from a complaint received last year. The accuser was a child at the time of the alleged offence between 1974 and 1979.

“This news is deeply troubling,” said Aluki Kotierk, president of Nunavut Tunnagavik Inc., which organized a delegation to France to call for the extradition earlier this year.

“It’s difficult to fathom why France continues to harbour a fugitive and refuses to allow one of its citizens…

View Cache

A newly released Vatican document for the next phase of Pope Francis’ ongoing consultation process for the world’s Catholics reckons with a number of topics once considered taboo in the Catholic Church, including women’s ordination, LGBTQ relationships, children of priests, sexism and clergy sexual abuse. 

The 45-page document, released on Oct. 27, distills a number of the major themes from listening sessions held with millions of Catholics across the globe over the last year. While the document is careful to note that it is not magisterial church teaching, it is arguably the most comprehensive and candid expression of the Catholic Church’s relationship with the modern world yet released by a Vatican office.  

The document will serve as the framework for the continental phase of the church’s ongoing synod process, which will involve ecclessial gatherings on every continent over the next six months, ahead of View Cache

The Catholic Church’s go-to lawyer for child abuse claims, Richard Leder of Corrs Chambers Westgarth, has engaged top silk Allan Myers, KC, as legal action looms over his exit from the firm.

Leder has been negotiating with the Corrs leadership since the firm alerted church leaders in July that it would no longer handle abuse claims for the archdioceses of Melbourne and Sydney.

This gutted Leder’s practice: about 80 per cent of it was work for the church.

It explains why he is playing hardball on an exit package, given the options outlined by Corrs CEO Gavin MacLaren in an interview with The Australian Financial Review do not seem to be on the table.

MacLaren explained that partners in Leder’s position would be given the opportunity to rebuild their practice in other areas with the firm’s support and a guarantee of income protection for up to three years. He called this “the preferred…

View Cache

[See the IICSA report, executive summary, and summary.]

The Catholic Church in England and Wales has said it will “carefully study“ the contents of a national report concerning sexual abuse, which recommends that reporting abuse to the police should be made mandatory, even if perpetrators admit to child abuse while confessing to a priest.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) released its report on Oct. 20 after seven years of investigation and evidence-gathering.

The IICSA examined a number of significant organizations and institutions and concluded that “the investigation into the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales revealed a sorry history of child sexual abuse where abusive priests and members of religious orders and institutions preyed on children for prolonged periods of time.”

When outlining a way forward that might mitigate against further abuse, the report states: “Neither the freedom of religion or belief nor the rights of…

View Cache

A former priest accused of sexually assaulting one boy and groping another has been ordered to serve one year in jail after pleading guilty to revised charges. 

Jaime Marin-Cardona, 54, was sentenced Monday to 10 years in jail, suspended after one year, plus five years probation for a risk of injury to child charge and one year in jail for a fourth-degree sexual assault charge.

He will serve his one-year jail sentence at the ​​Bridgeport Correctional Center, according to the state Department of Correction. 

Risk of injury to child is a class C felony and fourth-degree sexual assault is a class A misdemeanor.

Marin-Cardona was originally charged with — and pleaded not guilty to — three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, three counts of risk of injury to child and three counts of illegal sexual contact after turning himself in to Danbury police on a…

View Cache

Public Prosecution Service of Canada says there’s still a ‘reasonable’ chance Rivoire can be prosecuted

France will not extradite a priest facing historical sexual assault charges in Nunavut, but there’s still a chance he could be prosecuted in Canada by other means.

A news release Wednesday from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) says French authorities denied the extradition request for Johannes Rivoire on Oct. 14.

The extradition request was made by the federal Department of Justice on behalf of the PPSC.

French authorities said there are two reasons the request is being denied.

The first relates to French law — France can’t extradite its own citizens. 

“France has determined that at the relevant time Mr. Rivoire was a citizen of France,” the release said.

The second reason, which also falls under French law, is because “too much time” passed between the events and the charges being laid.

That’s also…

View Cache

Parole decision reveals church knew decades ago Jean Pilon abused boys during the 1980s, but merely transferred him to another location.

A former Catholic priest who admitted last year that he sexually abused a dozen students at a school in Rigaud has been granted parole.

A written summary of the decision made by the Parole Board of Canada reveals Jean Pilon, 80, was suspected of having abused other people after he was transferred out of Quebec during the 1980s when allegations of his sexual abuse of boys first surfaced at Collège Bourget in Rigaud.

“Although you do not report any hidden criminality, a community assessment produced in September 2021 with your superior indicates that in order to ‘punish’ you (in connection with abuses committed), you were sent away during the 1980s. You came back to Quebec a few years later because it appears that you continued to commit such gestures…

View Cache

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested a priest accused of molestation for the second time.

The sheriff said a second accuser came forward with accusations of molestation against Patrick Wattigny.

In October 2020, Wattigny was arrested on molestation charges after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor in 2013 while serving as pastor of a Slidell-area church.

In August 2022, a second accuser contacted the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office and told the sheriff of sexual abuse by Wattigny.

The accuser, who is an adult now, said that he was abused by Wattigny while he was an elementary student at a Covington-area Catholic school.

An arrest warrant was issued for Wattigny, and he was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center for one count of molestation of a juvenile.

“It is deeply disturbing when an individual in a position of authority uses that position to prey on…

View Cache

The Arkansas Baptist State Convention will create a Standing Sexual Abuse Response and Resources Team to assist churches dealing with that type of problem.

The Sexual Abuse Task Force, which was established a year ago to study the issue, had recommended that the team be formed in a report released Tuesday morning.

Voting members, known as messengers, unanimously approved the task force’s recommendations in Hot Springs at the convention’s annual meeting.

Convention President Larry D. White, the pastor of Woodland Heights Baptist Church in Conway, said implementing the changes would be one of his top priorities if he is elected to a second term.

View Cache

Former Church of the Highlands pastor Micahn Carter has filed a defamation lawsuit against a woman whose 2021 rape allegation against him, he says, resulted in his loss of employment at Highlands and loss of reputation.

Carter, who denies the rape allegation, filed the lawsuit in July in Jefferson County Circuit Court. He’s asking for $500,000 plus general and punitive damages.

“Accusing somebody of rape is devastating,” said Carter’s attorney, William Bright. “It’s hard to calculate all that is involved in that type of accusation and what the damages are to come from it.”

The complaint alleges Carter also lost “publishing contracts and paid speaking engagements,” and that he suffered “mental anguish” and “humiliation and embarrassment.”

The defendant in the suit is Mary E. Jones of Spokane, Washington. In court records she alleges that on April 29, 2019, Carter sexually assaulted her at…

View Cache

The Knox County judge who presided over the trial of a pastor convicted of repeatedly raping his adopted daughter has refused to overturn his ruling. The man’s attorney has filed an appeal.

David Richards was convicted in 2019 on charges including rape, incest and sexual battery by an authority figure. The Knox County Criminal Court trial pitted Richards against his adopted daughter Amber, an adult when the trial started. Knox News typically does not identify victims in sexual abuse cases, but Amber Richards agreed to be named after the trial.

Richards, who was sentenced by Judge Steven Sword to 12 years in prison, sought a new trial. But after a multiday hearing, Sword signaled very clearly he had not been swayed from his belief that Amber Richards told the truth.

Sword reaffirmed Richards’ conviction in a 30-page ruling, but attorney Stephen Ross Jenkins wasted no time by filing an appeal…

View Cache

his article discusses sexual assault. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can call RAINN’s national sexual assault hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for confidential support. 

LA CROSSE, Wis. — After an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor, a Catholic priest in Wausau has resigned, according to the Diocese of La Crosse.

The abuse happened several decades ago, but most parishioners at Wausau Catholic churches learned of the accusation during the Oct. 23 Sunday worship service, per the diocese. 

The accused Rev. Msgr. Mark Pierce took responsibility for the abuse in a prepared statement.

“After many years of neglect, I am being called to face the wrong I caused someone by behavior inappropriate for a priest,” Pierce said in the statement. “Facing up to what I have done now requires that I resign as your pastor.”

Pierce led congregations at St. Michael and Resurrection churches.

Rev. William Callahan said in…

View Cache

A former priest has been arrested on an additional charge for molestation after a second victim came forward in St. Tammany Parish.

Recall in October 2020, Patrick Wattigny was arrested on molestation charges after it was alleged he had sexually abused a minor in 2013 while serving as pastor of a Slidell-area church.

In August 2022, a second victim contacted the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office and disclosed sexual abuse at the hands of Wattigny. The victim, who is an adult now, disclosed that he was abused by Wattigny while he was a elementary student at a Covington-area Catholic school.

Following an investigation, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Wattigny.

He was booked Tuesday (October 25) into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center for one count of LRS 14:81.2 Molestation of a Juvenile.

“It is deeply disturbing when an individual in a position of authority uses that position…

View Cache

A former Wausau area priest has been accused of sexual misconduct.

Reverend Mark Pierce resigned from his position with St. Michael and Church of the Resurrection, collectively known as the Eastside Parishes, after the allegation arose.

A pastor’s letter dated back to May 2017, features a brief bio written by Pierce introducing himself to the parish. He describes his journey to becoming a priest. Stating he was ordained in 1981 and continued to become an associate priest in Chippewa Falls and Stevens Point. Then later became a pastor at the Newman University Parish at UW-Stevens Point, the Roncelli Newman Parish at UW-La Crosse, and now the Parish of Notre Dame in Chippewa Falls.

Details of the allegation have yet to be relieved but the representative with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said the victim needs justice.

“Victims don’t need prayers they…

View Cache

Clergy in the state have no obligation to report child abuse

Nearly 20 years ago, in the aftermath of the Catholic sexual abuse scandal, former Washington state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson wanted to make sure child sexual abuse could not be hidden so easily by church leaders. 

In Washington, clergy — unlike teachers, physicians and law enforcement — were not listed as mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect. Dickerson, D-Seattle, introduced a bill that would have changed that. 

“I really wanted to have a law that was as strong as possible that would require clergy to report abuse,” Dickerson tells InvestigateWest today. “And I was concerned about children.” 

But each attempt failed. The closest any version came was in 2005, when a bill that would have compelled clergy to report sexual abuse passed the state House unanimously. However, a watered-down version still couldn’t make it out of a state Senate…

View Cache

After a St. Cloud priest was recently released from prison after serving more than two years for sexual misconduct with an adult, one of his victims says the Catholic Diocese of St. Cloud needs to do more to ensure that he will never again serve in the priesthood.

The Rev. Anthony Oelrich was released from the state prison in Lino Lakes on Oct. 17 after serving two-thirds of a 41-month sentence.

Oelrich pleaded guilty in 2019 to one felony count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for being a member of the clergy and having ongoing sexual contact with a woman who’d come to him for spiritual advice. That’s prohibited under Minnesota law, and consent is not a defense.

The 56-year-old Oelrich remains a Catholic priest, although his priestly faculties have been suspended since his 2018 arrest. That means he can’t present himself as a priest, celebrate Mass publicly or wear…

View Cache

Buffalo Diocese Required to Comply With Independent Oversight, A First for the New York Catholic Church

Priests Credibly Accused of Sexual Abuse Must Agree to Monitoring under Newly Created Priest Supervision Program

New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced a landmark settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo (Buffalo Diocese, the Diocese), resolving a lawsuit filed in November 2020 that alleged the Buffalo Diocese persistently failed to address the child sexual abuse crisis and systematically evaded the very reforms it publicly adopted nearly 20 years ago for investigating, reviewing, and responding to abuse complaints. Instead, the Buffalo Diocese protected accused priests from facing the potential consequences of abuse accusations by quietly removing them from ministry.

The settlement ensures that the Buffalo Diocese will address complaints of clergy sexual abuse appropriately through a comprehensive court-ordered compliance program that is mandated for five years. The settlement also establishes…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has agreed to submit to sweeping government oversight of its operations in a legal settlement reached on Tuesday with the New York attorney general, Letitia James, resolving a lawsuit that accused the church and its officials of a yearslong cover-up of sexual abuse.

The agreement, which is the first of its kind in New York, includes no financial penalties but instead mandates a series of structural reforms within the diocese, particularly regarding its handling of abuse allegations.

Under the deal, priests who have been credibly accused of abuse will be assigned an independent monitor with law enforcement experience to ensure they comply with a list of restrictions, which include a ban on watching pornography, performing priestly duties and having a post office box.

Those monitors will be overseen by Kathleen McChesney, a former high-ranking F.B.I. official who also led the child protection office at…

View Cache

New mapping project supports claims that abusers were sent to tribal communities

WARNING: This story includes disturbing details about boarding schools. If you are feeling triggered, here is a resource list for trauma responses from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in the U.S. The National Indian Residential School Crisis Hotline in Canada can be reached at 1-866-925-4419.

Nearly half the Jesuit priests or brothers found to be credibly accused of sexual abuse in a 10-state region in the western United States spent time working in Indian schools and missions, according to a new database drawn from Catholic data on abuse.

The new database allows users to track how priests moved within the church and supports allegations that the church used rural tribal communities as dumping grounds for “problem priests,” according to researchers Kathleen Holscher and Jack Downey, who compiled the data.

“It helps us visualize…

View Cache

The Catholic Project, an initiative at The Catholic University of America, recently conducted the largest study of Catholic priests in over 50 years. What emerges is a picture of a priesthood that is fraught with distrust.

Twenty years after the U.S. Bishops implemented the Dallas Charter, a nationwide policy for handling accusations of clerical abuse, priests still feel the effects. One of the most compelling problems identified in a landmark survey is the sense on the part of priests that they cannot trust their bishops.

The Catholic Project, an initiative at The Catholic University of America, recently conducted the largest study of Catholic priests in over 50 years. A survey was distributed to 10,000 priests, 3,516 of whom responded. Of those, interviewers conducted in-depth interviews with more than 100 priests. In addition, The Catholic Project surveyed U.S. Bishops, and received responses from 131 of them.

What emerges is a picture of…

View Cache

Editor’s note: This story contains data related to sexual assault and misconduct toward minors and adults.

A new database reveals many Jesuit priests accused of sexual abuse worked in tribal communities, including dozens in the Mountain West.

Over the past 70 years, 96 priests of the Jesuits West Province of the Society of Jesus have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. Nearly half of them – 47 priests – spent time on tribal lands.

That’s according to a database called “Desolate Country: Mapping Catholic Sex Abuse in Native America,” which a pair of researchers built from the Catholic Church’s own list of “credible claims of sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult” by priests and brothers across much of the West dating back to 1950.

Kathleen Holscher, an associate professor of religious studies and American studies at the University of New Mexico, is one of the researchers who…

View Cache

Observers say Cardinal Woelki’s orthodoxy accounts for the much harsher public criticism he has received, even though his documented mistakes were far less serious than those made by Bishop Bode.

The initial furor over a leading German bishop judged last month in a damning report to have gravely mishandled historical abuse cases quickly died down after he refused to resign — in striking contrast to the ongoing criticism directed against Cardinal Rainer Woelki of Cologne over significantly less serious mistakes. 

The muted reaction to Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück and the media and episcopal pressure that continues to be heaped on Cardinal Woelki, despite the Vatican clearing him of wrongdoing in handling sexual-abuse cases, seems even more unjustified when the findings of reports about the diocesan handling of abuse in Osnabrück and Cologne are examined in detail.

An interim report, published Sept. 19 on sexual abuse in the Diocese of…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has agreed to strengthen its oversight of clergy accused of sexual misconduct to settle a lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general alleging the church mishandled abuse claims and protected predatory priests, authorities said Tuesday.

The settlement requires the diocese to have a formal program to monitor credibly accused priests and submit to an annual compliance audit by a former FBI official with expertise in clergy sexual abuse, Attorney General Letitia James said.

“For far too long, the Buffalo diocese and its leaders failed their most basic duty to guide and protect our children,” James said in a news release. “In choosing to defend the perpetrators of sexual abuse instead of defending the most vulnerable, the Buffalo diocese and its leaders breached parishioners’ trust and caused many a crisis of faith.”

Buffalo Bishop Michael Fisher said the agreement confirms safety and reporting protocols the…

View Cache

Bishop Michel Santier resigned in 2021 after accusations of spiritual abuse but said he was stepping down for health reasons.

The Vatican has received a new report containing allegations against French Bishop Michel Santier, who resigned in 2021 following accusations of spiritual abuse but said publicly that he was stepping down for health reasons.

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun, Santier’s metropolitan archbishop, announced on Oct. 20 that “other people” had come forward claiming that the retired bishop had committed acts against them when they were young adults.

“Yesterday, Wednesday, Oct. 19, after having heard directly from one of these victims, I immediately sent a report to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith via the apostolic nunciature,” the archbishop of Rouen said.

“There is no doubt that the dicastery will conduct a new investigation in the face of revelations that accentuate the seriousness of the facts of which Bishop Michel Santier is…

View Cache

Survivors of St Anne’s Indian residential school allege government withheld key evidence in determining compensation for victims

Canada’s supreme court has declined to hear an appeal brought by a group of Indigenous residential school survivors, dealing a major blow to their decade-long fight against federal government over thousands of unreleased documents.

Survivors of St Anne’s Indian residential school had hoped the country’s top court would take their case, which alleges Canada’s federal government withheld crucial evidence in determining compensation for victims of abuse at the school in northern Ontario.

The court did not say why it declined to hear the case, as is standard practice.

But the decision was met with sharp criticism and disbelief by prominent Indigenous voices.

“No words for how horrible this is, how justice is continually denied for St Anne’s Indian Residential School survivors, their families,” the writer Tanya Talaga tweeted. “Canada should have done the…

View Cache

The pastor of two Wausau area catholic churches has resigned following allegations he had sexual conduct with a minor several decades ago.

Rev. Msgr. Mark Pierce was a pastor at St. Michael and Resurrection Parishes. On Oct. 23, the congregation at St. Anne’s church was notified of the news as their pastor, Father Tom Lindner opened service with a statement from Bishop William Patrick Callahan. Father Linder opened the service and announced he had some very distressing news to share.

He asked the members of St. Anne’s to pray for their neighbors at St. Michael and Resurrection Parishes.

In a statement from Bishop Callahan Father Lindner read:

“It is with great sadness that I share with you this news that an allegation concerning Monsignor Mark Pierce and sexual misconduct with a minor was received this week. While the misconduct occurred several decades ago, our procedures are clear. And we notified…

View Cache

A recent survey of American priests shows the perpetual risk of stress and ‘burnout’

For almost every Catholic family of yesteryear, having a son as a priest, or a daughter as a nun was a source of pride. Why is it that vocations to the Catholic priesthood no longer attract as they once did?

It is a complex question with many answers.

Some of the reasons are demographic: families today are smaller, and parents are reluctant to see an only son (or daughter) pursue a celibate vocation in the Church. After all, the desire for physical posterity is strong everywhere.

Besides, today’s employment opportunities are many and far more attractive than in former times. It used to be that the priest was the only educated person in town and his advice was sought on everything that mattered.  No longer. Many others today, both men and women, are far better educated…

View Cache

Police are also probing whether Bishop Thomas Dabre of Pune tried to cover up Father Vincent Pereira’s alleged crime

An Indian Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a boy has surrendered before the police as they began a probe against Bishop Thomas Dabre of Pune for allegedly attempting to cover up the crime.

Father Vincent Pereira, 55, of Pune in the western state of Maharashtra presented himself before the police on Oct 23, ending his nearly month-long efforts to evade arrest. He is alleged to have abused a 15-year-old boy at his parents’ home on Dec. 4 last year.

Police said the priest had been in hiding ever since they booked him on Sept. 30 under India’s stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

A local court on Oct. 21 granted the priest anticipatory bail that prevented police from arresting him while…

View Cache

A report last month that a priest in suburban Chicago had been accused of sex abuse after a diocesan review board had found “insufficient reason to suspect” misbehavior has raised questions about the efficacy of these special committees set up to review allegations of sex abuse by Catholic clergy.

For me, it also brought to mind an invitation I received last year to join one of those boards.

The call came from a priest who worked for Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik. The bishop wanted a journalist on the board, the priest explained, and I had done good work in Catholic media.

This request to volunteer my services raised a lot of questions. Like most journalists of my generation (I’m 45), I had reported on clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church, mostly for The Wall Street Journal. In that sense, I was qualified. I’ve interviewed priests,…

View Cache

No lawmakers showed up to their news conference

Child sexual abuse survivors begged Ohio lawmakers last week to eliminate the statute of limitations, but no legislators attended their press conference.

Advocacy group Ohioans for Child Protection say many of them never get justice, adding that Ohio’s statute of limitations actually helps prevent their abusers from being held accountable.

From the age of eight to 10, Paul Neyer was repeatedly sexually abused by his Cincinnati music minister. Thirty-two years later, he began to take his life back.

“It was just unreal, the amount of freedom that came from just saying ‘I was raped,’” Neyer said.

Neyer’s testimony helped convict Geoff Drew, who became a priest, of nine counts of rape, to which the pastor pleaded guilty. Neyer was able to help put him behind bars because he was inside Ohio’s statute of limitations.

The average age a child survivor comes forward…

View Cache

An ex-Anglican priest convicted of sexually abusing boys in his parishes and the London-region diocese that once employed him face a $4.1-million lawsuit from an abuse survivor.

David Norton, who was sentenced to a total of 13 years in prison for abusing boys at two London-area congregations, and his former employer, the Incorporated Synod of the Diocese of Huron, are being sued by one of the victims from the 2018 trial where the ex-priest was convicted of indecent assault and sexual assault.

The plaintiff, identified only as J.R.C.K. in the statement of claim, is seeking $4.1 million in damages, including $250,000 for mental distress and $1 million in punitive damages, money awarded by the court to punish the defendants and deter similar conduct in the future.

“The relationship that Norton developed with the plaintiff, under the guise of a priest-parishioner relationship, allowed Norton an opportunity to be alone with the…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Tuguegarao on Monday, Oct. 24, said it will cooperate with authorities investigating the case of a priest accused of sexual abuse in Cagayan.

In a statement, the archdiocese said Fr. Karole Reward Israel is currently not allowed to perform his priestly duties.

“Fr. Karole Reward Israel of a parish in Solana town was ‘excused’ from his priestly duties as the probe is ongoing. 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,” it added.

National Bureau of Investigation agents arrested the priest on Oct. 18 for allegedly abusing a 16-year-old girl.

Charges of sexual harassment, qualified seduction, violence against women and children, violation of anti-photo and video voyeurism law, and child abuse have been filed against Israel before the Tuguegarao City Prosecutor’s Office.

The archdiocese assured that it will provide…

View Cache

Dozens of people rallied Sunday on the steps of St. Sabina Church in support of its pastor, Father Michael Pfleger.

Earlier this month, Pfleger stepped aside from the ministry after a new claim of sexual abuse of a minor that allegedly happened back in the 1980s.

RELATED: St. Sabina parishioners push back against allegation Father Michael Pfleger sexually abused child

Fr. Pfleger released a statement proclaiming his innocence.

Those gathered at the rally, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, want the Archdiocese of Chicago to expedite its investigation and return Fr. Pfleger to ministry as soon as possible.

READ: Father Pfleger’s Full Statement:

Statement by Fr. Michael Pfleger

READ: Full letter from the Archdiocese of Chicago to St. Sabina Parish

View Cache

Nearly half the Jesuit priests or brothers found to be credibly accused of sexual abuse in a 10-state region in the western United States spent time working in Indian schools and missions, according to a new database drawn from Catholic data on abuse.

The new database allows users to track how priests moved within the church and supports allegations that the church used rural tribal communities as dumping grounds for “problem priests,” according to researchers Kathleen Holscher and Jack Downey, who compiled the data.

“It helps us visualize these clusters of abuse,” said Holscher, an associate professor of religious studies and American studies at the University of New Mexico. “We created a database that let us track how each priest moved over the course of his career.”

The database, ”Desolate Country: Mapping Catholic Sex Abuse in Native America,” provides public access to records dating back to 1950 of…

View Cache

A victim of child sexual abuse while he was an altar boy says children are still at risk and the Catholic church must do more to protect them.

The individual was abused by Father John Tolkien, a priest in charge of a church in Stoke-on-Trent.

He gave evidence to an independent inquiry which calls for the prosecution of those who work with children who do not report child sexual abuse.

The abuse at 11 years old “completely ruined my life”, he said.

The victim, who wishes to go by the name of Daniel, said he had kept quiet about his abuse for 50 years “which was horrible”.

“It’s getting somebody to believe, that was the first step, and now I want to try and help other people because there are more [victims] out there,” he added.

Father Tolkien, the son of novelist JRR Tolkien, had manipulated him, he said, by…

View Cache

The Hadapsar Police booked Father Vincent Pereira for allegedly sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at the latter’s home on December 4 last year. The First Information Report (FIR) was registered on the basis of a formal complaint lodged by social activist Maruti Bhapkar, and was transferred to the Kondhwa Police.

A priest who worked at a prominent English medium school in Pune and was booked on September 30 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) for alleged sexual abuse of a minor boy, was granted bail by a Pune court on Friday.

The Hadapsar Police booked Father Vincent Pereira for allegedly sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at the latter’s home on December 4 last year. The First Information Report (FIR) was registered on the basis of a formal complaint lodged by social activist Maruti Bhapkar, and was transferred to the Kondhwa Police.

The FIR stated that Father…

View Cache

Leicester – A new report in the United Kingdom is recommending legislation that will mandate the reporting of child abuse, and specifically says no exemptions should be given for sacramental confession, which could lead to a clash with a central tenet of Catholic teaching.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in England and Wales was announced by the British government in 2014 to examine how the country’s institutions handled their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse.

The final report of the inquiry recommended that people be required to go to the authorities “when they either receive a disclosure of child sexual abuse from a child or perpetrator, or witness a child being sexually abused,” adding that a “failure to report in those circumstances should be a criminal offence.”

Furthermore, it said mandatory reporting “should be an absolute obligation; it should not be subject to exceptions…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Chicago for the first time has posted the names of credibly accused sex-offender priests from multiple Catholic religious orders — with many unexplained omissions.

Several years after Cardinal Blase Cupich began cracking down on religious orders to report their sexually abusive clergy members who preyed on minors, the Archdiocese of Chicago has added dozens of order priests to its online posting of predatory clergy.

But Cupich is still keeping secrets on clergy sex abuse of minors, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.

Even though the archdiocese instantly nearly doubled the size of its list of clergy deemed to have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children, there are significant gaps in what’s been added.

Those include the omissions of some clergy members whose orders deemed them to have molested children or who were the subject of lawsuits over predatory sexual acts that church officials settled. Among them:

…

View Cache

Dr Rocío Figueroa Alvear is an abuse survivor and Catholic theologian who has done extensive research into sexual harm in the Catholic Church.

OPINION: The crisis of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is not just about perpetrators and victims. It’s not a case of a few bad apples preying on the vulnerable.

As a Catholic theologian and abuse survivor who has researched sexual harm within the church, I know it’s much more than that – it’s about an entire structure that has enabled the abuse to continue.

On the one hand, we have the silence, the mishandles, the cover-ups – those in the hierarchy who would prefer to protect perpetrators and the “image” of the church than defend survivors – and on the other, we have an unhealthy culture that has perpetuated the abuse.

The testimonies from survivors at the Royal Commission of Inquiry Into Abuse in Care have revealed that many…

View Cache

For seven years, a UK inquiry has examined child sexual abuse and heard from victims. The results should shame us into action

As the report of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) delivers its findings, seven years in the making, the numbers alone are incredibly hard to confront: 79% of the thousands of victims and survivors who gave testimony were under 11 when the sexual abuse started. Children with disabilities and those who were already neglected were exploited disproportionately – a chilling insight into predatory behaviour: how it takes the very quality of vulnerability that should engender empathy and protection, and opportunistically exploits it instead.

Yet it is in hearing the voices of these victims and survivors that you begin to understand the vast and pressing duty this inquiry creates, a duty of root and branch change in how children are perceived, cared for and protected, and alongside that a…

View Cache

The findings of a seven and a half year process must lead to rapid action. The price of past mistakes has been huge suffering

Seven and a half years after it began, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse has delivered its final report. The testimony of victims, said Prof Alexis Jay, was “almost unbearable” to witness. The stories uncovered have been of limitless cruelty, deviousness and negligence. The inquiry’s course has been rough. When she was appointed in 2015, Prof Jay was the fourth person in the job. Some survivors and lawyers withdrew their cooperation from a process they saw as an establishment stitch-up. But a vast amount of evidence was presented, including by 6,200 victims and survivors. The findings must now be confronted.

These include vicious behaviour by many individuals including priests, teachers and foster carers. But the reason why child sexual abuse became the scandal that it did…

View Cache

A study of U.S. priests released Oct. 19 details clerics’ “crisis of trust” toward their bishops as well as fear that if they were falsely accused of abuse, prelates would immediately throw them “under the bus” and not help them clear their name.

The study “Well-being, Trust and Policy in a Time of Crisis” by The Catholic Project, written by Brandon Vaidyanathan, Christopher Jacobi and Chelsea Rae Kelly, of The Catholic University of America, paints a portrait of a majority of priests who feel abandoned by the men they are supposed to trust at the helm of their dioceses.

And while the study says priests overwhelmingly support measures to combat sex abuse and enhance child safety, the majority, 82%, also said they regularly fear being falsely accused. Were that to happen, they feel they would face a “de facto policy” of guilty until proven innocent.

The study, unveiled at The…

View Cache

Child sex abuse is epidemic in Britain, affecting millions of victims, and those who work with young people should be prosecuted if they fail to report it, a seven-year public inquiry concluded on Thursday.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said institutions and politicians had prioritised reputations over the welfare of young people, meaning horrific acts were hidden away for decades, while there were still inadequate protection measures in place.

The inquiry, one of the largest and most expensive investigations of its kind ever undertaken in Britain, said the issue was a global crisis, where children would be at risk unless urgent action was taken.

“The nature and scale of the abuse we encountered was shocking and deeply disturbing,” its chair Alexis Jay, a social care expert, told reporters. “This is not just a historical aberration which happened decades ago, it is an ever-increasing problem and a national…

View Cache

[See the IICSA report, executive summary, and summary.]

Leicester – A government-established inquiry into sexual abuse says priests should be legally required to report abuse, even if it means violating the seal of confession.

The final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in England and Wales was issued on Oct. 20, after a years-long investigation into abuse in institutional settings.

The IICSA had previously published separate reports on different Catholic institutions, including the Catholic Church as a whole, the country’s Benedictine Congregation and the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

IICSA was not limited to the Catholic Church and also released reports on the Anglican Church and civil institutions.

The 2020 IICSA report on the Catholic Church didn’t make any specific recommendations about mandatory reporting and the seal of confession, saying it would form part of the Inquiry’s final report.

In the final report, the authors recommended that a person…

View Cache

[See the IICSA report, executive summary, and summary.]

The Catholic Church in England and Wales has offered an “unreserved apology” to all sexual abuse victims who have suffered in the Church, following the publication of an independent inquiry released Thursday.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse published a report on child sex abuse in England and Wales on Oct. 20.

The report scrutinises the handling of abuse cases through a national lens and focuses in detail on several institutions and organizations, including the Catholic Church, concluding that “The investigation into the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales revealed a sorry history of child sexual abuse where abusive priests and members of religious orders and institutions preyed on children for prolonged periods of time.”

The report goes on to note that the Church has failed to support victims, while at the same time taking “positive action” to protect perpetrators…

View Cache

Ohio needs laws that do a better job protecting children from sex predators who victimize them, according to activists who traveled to Columbus and held a news conference Thursday inside the statehouse to call out lawmakers.

These activists include Paul Neyer, the man who came forward in 2019 to press charges against a priest in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Father Geoff Drew, and one of his classmates from St. Jude School, where the rapes occurred, Rebecca Surendorff.

This is Neyer’s second trip to our state’s capitol this year to lobby for a state law change to give victims more time to take civil and/or criminal action against their abusers.

Neyer is coming out with his story again and again as he tries to be a part of the change he says is needed to prevent more kids like him from being victimized.

He confronted Drew in court at his sentencing…

View Cache