ABUSE TRACKER

A Tennessee judge struck down Friday the Diocese of Knoxville’s plea to dismiss a lawsuit which alleges that Knoxville’s bishop impeded a diocesan investigation into a rape allegation, and defamed an alleged rape victim, by charging publicly that the victim was actually the aggressor. 

Judge Jerome Melson also dismissed a petition from the Knoxville diocese for a protective order, which would have exempted from subpoena all diocesan records related to a Vatican investigation into complaints against Bishop Rick Stika.

The court also decided Friday that the alleged rape victim will not be permitted to use a pseudonym in his suit against Stika and the Knoxville diocese. 

Although the identity of the plaintiff has been known to the diocese since before the suit was filed, diocesan attorneys argued in a brief ahead of the July 29 hearing that the alleged rape victim should be required to disclose his name publicly in…

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The Telegraph’s podcast criticized a 2020 decision by the Supreme Court of Montana that protected the confessional privilege. But it correctly applied the law.

Article 4 of 5. Read article 1, article 2, and article 3.

Call Bethel, the Telegraph’s podcast, also discusses cases in the United States. In particular, we hear the voices of the plaintiffs in a case in the American state of Montana, where they obtained a verdict of $35 million against the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The verdict was reversed by the Supreme Court of Montana on January 8, 2020, which affirmed that the Jehovah’s Witnesses were excepted from Montana’s mandatory reporting laws in cases of sexual abuse of children because the information obtained by the elders was protected by the confessional privilege.

The podcast includes an ironical comment by one of the plaintiffs after the Supreme…

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To put it mildly, the Catholic Church in Chile has a big problem.

Chilean Catholics describe a giant chasm between the hierarchy, which some church-watchers describe as elite and out of touch, and an increasingly incredulous and hostile laity. Without a real effort of both parties to bridge the gap, these same experts fear the church will never regain its once honored place in the country.

One striking place the strain is showing up is in the numbers.

Eduardo Valenzuela, head of Catholic University’s sociology department, told Crux that in the last two decades, the percentage of Chileans who identify as Catholics dropped from 70 percent to 45. The number of Mass-going faithful has been reduced by half.

“There’s a lot of fear in the hierarchy of not being able to control the situation, of calling a lay Catholic to organize something, of accepting the need to loosen the leash,” he said. “The…

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[See also the lawsuit.]

A former parishioner at a Massachusetts church has filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually abused as a child more than 30 years ago by a Roman Catholic priest who is now an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents as John Doe No. 12, was a 12-year-old parishioner at Saint Mary of the Sacred Heart Parish in Lynn in 1989 and 1990 when he was sexually assaulted about 25 times by Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Boston.

The Archdiocese of Detroit in a statement said Russell denied the allegations.

“Abp. Russell is shocked and saddened by the claims that have been made,” the statement said. “He states that the allegations are totally without merit and that his conscience is perfectly clear.”

Russell has been placed on “limited” ministerial duty, and Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron…

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Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents victims of clergy abuse, is calling for an investigation into Fr. Eric Silva.

Silva was re-assigned to St. Thomas More in Narragansett following alleged inappropriate questions toward religious students during confessionals during his time as priest at St. Luke’s Church in Barrington.

The Diocese of Providence has yet to release the nature of those questions.

“One has to wonder what did Father Silva say to those children what did he actually say?” Garabedian asked.

The Diocese of Providence said the leave was intended for “pastoral study and reflection” but was always going to be temporary.

Garabedian said Silva should be investigated before he serves at any church.

“What is going on in Fr. Silva’s mind? If Bishop Tobin wanted to do the right thing and practice transparency he should call the police. He should call them today for an independent investigation,” Garabedian said.

Silva’s first…

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A priest who was placed on leave earlier this year after complaints that he’d made inappropriate comments to students at two Catholic schools has been assigned to a parish in Narragansett.

The Diocese of Providence has placed the Reverend Eric Silva as an assistant pastor at St. Thomas More Parish, effective Aug. 15, according to a July 14 notice about new assignments.

Silva had been on temporary administrative leave since February, after the principal of Immaculate Conception Catholic Regional School in Cranston barred him when parents complained that he’d asked children about their sexual activity and orientation.

Silva, who’d been ordained in 2019, was an assistant pastor at St. Luke’s Parish in Barrington at the time and visited the Cranston school as a substitute priest. The Diocese said in a Feb. 14 statement that there were complaints from St. Luke School as well, and that Silva’s…

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The Department of Communications shares the following statement from the Archdiocese of Detroit regarding the civil lawsuit filed August 1, 2022 in Massachusetts against Archbishop Paul Russell:

Archbishop Russell is shocked and saddened by the claims that have been made, and states that they are without merit. He holds in prayer all those who have ever been victimized by a member of the clergy.

Archbishop Russell was appointed by Pope Francis as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit on May 23, 2022. The Archdiocese of Detroit was not aware of any allegation of misconduct against Archbishop Russell until it was contacted by media Monday, August 1. Effective immediately, Archbishop Russell is refraining from all public ministry, and will continue until further directed by the Holy See. The canonical (Church law) guidelines, as provided by the Holy See, are being followed.

The Archdiocese of Detroit offers its prayers for all…

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[See also the lawsuit.]

A former parishioner at a Massachusetts church has filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually abused as a child more than 30 years ago by a Roman Catholic priest who is now an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents as John Doe No. 12, was a 12-year-old parishioner at Saint Mary of the Sacred Heart Parish in Lynn in 1989 and 1990 when he was sexually assaulted about 25 times by Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Boston.

The Archdiocese of Detroit in a statement said Russell denied the allegations.

“Abp. Russell is shocked and saddened by the claims that have been made,” the statement said. “He states that the allegations are totally without merit and that his conscience is perfectly clear.”

Russell has been placed on “limited” ministerial duty, and Detroit Archbishop Allen…

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Attorneys on opposite sides of settling sexual abuse claims against the Catholic Church 20 years ago now fiercely disagree over the state’s proposed plan for settling claims from hundreds of people abused while at the former state Youth Detention Center. 

In a July 29 letter to Attorney General John Formella, attorney Chuck Douglas, who represented church abuse victims and now about a dozen YDC victims, blasted attorneys Dave Vicinanzo and Rus Rilee for calling the state’s proposed caps on YDC claims unfriendly to victims. The two represent more than 800 plaintiffs and have hundreds of cases in superior court rather than go through a settlement process they say will cheat and retraumatize victims by questioning their credibility .

In his letter, Douglas noted that when Vicinanzo defended the Catholic Church against sex abuse claims two decades ago, the church agreed to pay its victims far less than the…

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Over a two-year period, investigators working for Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro uncovered evidence of “pervasive” child sexual abuse by clergy — including “detailed” accounts of more than 1,000 victims by 31 “predator priests.”

In Maryland, victims of clergy sex abuse look to the work of Shapiro (D) with a mix of admiration and envy.

It took Shapiro’s investigators two years to investigate and put together an 884-page report that was described as a “bombshell” and led to a global push for reform and prosecution of those who committed or covered up crimes against children.

But three years after Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D) announced an investigation into such abuse in Maryland, victims are still waiting for results.

And they are frustrated by what they see as foot-dragging by Frosh.

In 2019 he hired veteran prosecutor Elizabeth M. Embry to spearhead a probe of predators and church higher-ups who knew of…

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[Via Hawaii Catholic Herald]

At the end of his six-day visit to Canada, Pope Francis, sitting in a wheelchair, said goodbye to Chief Wilton Littlechild, also sitting in a wheelchair.

Littlechild, a 78-year-old lawyer, survivor of abuse in a residential school and former grand chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, had spent decades advocating for the rights of First Nation, Métis and Inuit people and had lobbied hard for Pope Francis to come to Canada to apologize in person for the Catholic Church’s complicity in abusing children, breaking up families and suppressing Indigenous language and culture.

The chief had welcomed Pope Francis to his home — Maskwacis — July 25, the first full day of the trip, and created some controversy by giving the pope his late grandfather’s headdress. He told Canada’s Native News Online that the Ermineskin Cree Nation had decided as a community that the…

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For nearly four years, the Maryland Office of the Attorney General has been investigating allegations of widespread sex abuse against children within the Catholic Church.

But survivors who said they endured the abuse decades ago tell WJZ they are tired of waiting for answers and they’re worried time is running out.

These survivors want Attorney General Brian Frosh to release the findings of his investigation into child sex abuse because it’s been almost four years.

Members of the group SNAP – The Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests – also want indictments for priests who allegedly abused kids and anyone who helped with a cover-up.

As children, the survivors hid the secrets of their alleged abuse.

As adults, they’re openly sharing the details of the pain they say was caused by priests in the Catholic Church.

David Lorenz is the Maryland director of SNAP. He said his abuse happened…

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A former parishioner at a Massachusetts church has filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually abused as a child more than 30 years ago by a Roman Catholic priest who is now an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents as John Doe No. 12, was a 12-year-old parishioner at Saint Mary of the Sacred Heart Parish in Lynn in 1989 and 1990 when he was sexually assaulted about 25 times by Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Boston.

The Archdiocese of Detroit in a statement said Russell denied the allegations.

“Abp. Russell is shocked and saddened by the claims that have been made,” the statement said. “He states that the allegations are totally without merit and that his conscience is perfectly clear.”

Russell has been placed on “limited” ministerial duty, and Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron has pledged “complete cooperation.”

…

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At last, the Pope has apologized on Canadian soil for the Catholic role in this country’s shameful history of residential schools.

Will the apology be accepted? A friend reminded me that forgiveness is an act of the will. Every residential school survivor and family member will choose for themselves what this apology means to them. An APTN correspondent described the reaction of one woman: “The moment [the Pope] apologized, she felt all her sadness and anger leave her body.” If for that alone, this visit is worth it.

It is not my place to say whether the apology should be accepted. But for some of those rejecting it, one reason why casts a long shadow: the Doctrine of Discovery. The issue inflames passions. Just last week, at a papal Mass in Quebec, activists unfurled a banner that read “RESCIND THE DOCTRINE”.

To them, I am happy to…

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A priest who was accused of posing inappropriate questions to children at a Barrington parish has a new position in Narragansett.

Effective Aug. 15, Father Eric Silva will become assistant pastor at Saint Thomas More in Narragansett, a spokesman for the Diocese of Providence confirmed.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) alerted media outlets on Monday that Silva was “back on the job” and said the move raised serious concerns. 

SNAP concerns about placing suspended priests back into parishes

“Countless times in the past, Catholic officials have placed suspended priests back into parishes, only later having to remove them again when additional accusations are reported,” the Chicago-based advocacy group said in a news release. “We are concerned that this history could repeat itself in the Diocese of Providence.”

Fr. Eric Silva placed on leave in Barrington

Silva previously served as assistant pastor for St. Luke’s Parish in…

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[Immaculate] Conception Catholic Church parishioner committee asking outsiders to not put in offers on the church they hold dear

The Cape Broyle Church Committee had been trying to find out for months how they could keep community ownership of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in the community, so it was a big surprise to them late last week when they were informed by a real estate agent the building would be listed for sale on Monday, Aug. 1.

Paula Hawkins, chair of the committee, said they contacted the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s in February to find a way for the community to obtain legal ownership of the church, and got a reply only a few weeks ago that it would have to be referred to the corporation’s legal department. This was following a meeting with the archbishop that same month, where he told them all the church…

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[Via Detroit Catholic]

Before Voice of the Faithful prepared a report on diocesan finance councils, it gave dioceses a heads-up that it would be working on such a report and what it would be looking for when it visited the dioceses’ websites.

The Massachusetts-based organization sent letters to diocesan bishops and chief financial officers of the 176 U.S. Latin-rite dioceses.

Despite the advance notice, only 18 of the 176 dioceses got a grade of 60% or better — what the Voice of the Faithful considered a passing grade when it released the report July 13.

The paper on diocesan finance councils was the fifth diocesan fiscal transparency report assembled by Voice of the Faithful, which was established in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse scandal that engulfed the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002.

Voice of the Faithful’ said the low scores give credence its contention that, had dioceses followed…

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Under Mollo the office will continue to respond to current victim assistance and investigative needs

The Archdiocese of Chicago today announced the appointment of Mario Mollo as the Director of its Office for the Protection of Children and Youth (OPCY). Mollo has more than 25 years’ experience with the Illinois State Police (ISP), including its Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and extensive involvement in peer and youth counseling and mentorship. He replaced Mary Jane Doerr, who had been in the position since 2016.

“We are pleased to have attracted a leader for our Office for the Protection of Children and Youth who has devoted his life to justice and healing,” said Bishop Robert Casey, Vicar General of the Archdiocese. “Mario will build on the fine work of his predecessors, continuing their commitment to pastoral care, transparency and cooperation with civil authorities. He is aware of the archdiocese’s pioneering working in preventing…

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One sultry night in Pearl River, Louisiana, a man noticed that the normally dark windows of his parish church were lit up. Wondering why the lights were on so late, he poked his head in. Rather than seeing a Mass or a prayer service, he witnessed his pastor, Fr. Travis, shooting a pornographic film with two women on the altar. Trembling with shock, he called the police. 

The response by the diocese was definite and swift. About a week later, Archbishop Gregory Aymond of the Archdiocese of New Orleans celebrated Mass at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. The old altar had been taken out and burned a day earlier, and an unused altar from a shuttered parish was brought in to replace it. The archbishop blessed the new altar with holy water and reconsecrated it and the church.

“The desecration of this church and altar is demonic, demonic,” he said during…

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The number of nondisclosure agreements issued across state government and the amount spent is difficult to track down, and a proposal that would ban them in the public sector could die for a third straight legislative session

Massachusetts lawmakers are running out of time to move on a renewed push to ban nondisclosure agreements, which proponents of the legislation say can be used to silence victims of workplace misconduct with taxpayer dollars.

State Sen. Diana DiZoglio has pushed the issue for nearly five years, leading the Massachusetts Senate in January 2019 to unanimously ban NDAs. The legally binding agreements bar victims from speaking out or from filing a lawsuit.

Experts say nondisclosure agreements perpetuate inappropriate conduct and prevent transparency, but the executive offices of the governor and the state’s House of Representatives have continued to allow them.

“Nondisclosure agreements should be banned in governmental proceedings and also in non-governmental proceedings,”…

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For the first time on this papal visit to Canada, Pope Francis acknowledged the sexual abuse perpetrated by “some of [the] sons and daughters” of the church in Canada, describing them on July 28 as “scandals that require firm action and an irreversible commitment.”

“Together with you, I would like once more to ask forgiveness of all the victims,” he said. “The pain and the shame we feel must become an occasion for conversion: never again!”

The long-awaited moment of institutional remorse for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous survivors of sexual abuse came as Catholics in a part of the country not included on this papal journey continued a difficult path of their own toward reconciliation emerging from another source of national anguish.

In Canada’s Maritime province of Newfoundland, a group of elderly survivors of historical abuse at Mount Cashel Orphanage are finally receiving compensation ordered by a landmark ruling in 2020 that…

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Priest Eric Silva was removed from two Rhode Island Catholic churches in February of 2022 for improper behavior. Now, he is back at another Rhode Island Catholic church offering mass.

Earlier this year, Silva had been assigned to St. Luke’s Church in Barrington and was a visiting priest in Cranston.

Parents alleged that Silva was asking inappropriate questions to children about their sexual orientation and sexual activity.

According to a WJAR report in February of 2022, a parent, who requested anonymity, said Silva asked male children if they were gay and accused them of lying if they said no.

And, Silva asked females were asked if they were sexually active and, according to the report, similarly accused of lying if they answered in the negative. He made the comments when he was offering confession.

Silva made the comments to children while he was a visiting priest at Immaculate…

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SANTIAGO, Chile – Experts have long said that in order to fully address clerical sexual abuse, the laity has to get involved. In Santiago, Chile, devastated like few others after the fall of several highly respected priests and two consecutive archbishops accused of cover-up, this tactical change is spearheaded by five women.

Andrea Idalsoaga heads the Pastoral Office for the Reception of Allegations of the Archdiocese of Santiago. She was called in when the office was created, after being a judge of the National Ecclesial Tribunal for 16 years.

“This is not only a problem of the hierarchy, but all the baptized are co-responsible so that this does not happen again,” she told Crux. “I believe the abuses were the symptom of something much deeper in the church, like an iceberg … [they’re] a symptom of a culture that, as Pope Francis said, is one of cover-up, abusive.”

Throughout the week,…

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More than half a century ago, when the Catholic bishop for western Massachusetts and other priests were raping and abusing an altar boy, charities like churches held immunity from certain legal actions.

Though the Legislature ended common-law charitable immunity in 1971, the law change wasn’t retroactive. In April, a lawyer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield argued before the Supreme Judicial Court that a civil lawsuit filed by that former altar boy over his abuse by former Bishop Christopher Weldon should be dismissed.

The church remained protected by that immunity, the lawyer argued.

This week, the SJC rejected that claim.

The decision means the unnamed Chicopee man’s lawsuit against the diocese will move forward in Hampden County Superior Court.

Charitable immunity, Associate Justice David A. Lowy wrote in a 25-page decision, does not protect the diocese from counts in the lawsuit related to sexual assaults…

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The pope reinforced his denunciation of the abuse committed by Roman Catholic-run schools in the country. He also acknowledged that his advancing age might force him to travel less in future.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE — Pope Francis has called the devastation visited on generations of Indigenous people in Canada by European colonizers — carried out with the blessing of the Roman Catholic Church — a “genocide” as he returned to Rome after a six-day trip to the North American country.

As well as again denouncing the abuse against Indigenous people, which he had previously called “evil,” the pope noted that the Canada visit had showed that the limitations of his mobility and the advancement of his age would force him to slow down and possibly reduce the tours that have been a hallmark of his papacy.

“I don’t think I can go on with the same rhythm of previous…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany made efforts to connect with survivors of sexual abuse on Sunday. 

Bishop Edward Scharfenberger was in attendance for Mass at Corpus Christi Catholic Church.

At the front steps of the church, Scharfenberger met with Stephen Mittler, who is a survivor of abuse in the late 1980s.

The two held a conversation and discussed what are the next steps to help survivors and how the church can make sure no abuse happens in the future.

Mittler says conversations like this go a long way towards helping survivors of abuse in the Catholic Church

“So, it’s awareness, not just in clergy abuse, but anyone struggling with being a victim and a survivor,” Mittler said. “And the second piece is transparency. The bishop and I talked about the fact that we need to tie together the events that took place in the 80s and 90s and finish…

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The Bishop of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese publicly met with one of the alleged church sex abuse survivors Sunday before mass. The victim says this was an important step forward in the healing process.

Outside Corpus Christi Church in Round Lake Sunday, Stephen Mittler had a conversation with Albany’s Roman Catholic Diocese’s Bishop Edward Scharfenberger. Mittler says this is the place he says he met his abuser former priest Mark Haight.

“That’s exactly where I met Mark Haight almost 34 years ago, August of 1988,” said Mittler.

Mittler says he was only 12-years-old when Haight started grooming him. He says Haight would take him up to his cabin in Warrensburg, where the two would wrestle. Mittler claims Haight molested and even raped him. Mittler is hoping his story will raise awareness and create transparency.

“I’ve had dozens of people reach out to me and say me too. Two folks…

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Edward B. Scharfenberger has agreed to meet on the steps of Corpus Christi Church in Round Lake, where the man said he met the former priest who abused him as a boy

Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger has agreed to meet on the steps of Corpus Christi Church in Round Lake on Sunday with a 47-year-old man who was allegedly sexually abused as a child by a former priest.

The unprecedented encounter — which is scheduled to take place before Scharfenberger presides over an 11 a.m. Mass at the church — was arranged after the alleged victim, Stephen Mittler, wrote a letter inviting the Albany bishop and other officials with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to follow through on their pledge to “walk with the survivors.”

In June, the diocese agreed to pay $750,000 to Mittler to settle a lawsuit he had filed under New York’s Child Victims Act. It had been the…

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Stephen Mittler first met Mark Haight on the steps of the Corpus Christi Church in August of 1988. Mittler was 12 years old at the time, a typical kid who played outside, rode his bike and, occasionally, had a little too much fun playing with matches.

Church wasn’t especially important to Mittler, but it was a centerpiece of his upbringing. And church mattered to Mittler’s parents. His father, a social worker, was a priest in the 1960s and early ’70s, and every Sunday morning at 10:30 the Mittler family — Stephen, his twin older brothers and his mother — would take their place in the third row at Corpus Christi.

Haight arrived as a fill-in pastor in the summer of 1988. He’d already been transferred out of multiple parishes, but Mittler would only later learn of the priest’s dark history and contend personally with Haight’s brutality. At the time, all…

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The Economist recently ran a lead article arguing that if the Catholics “want to reduce the scourge of sexual abuse by priests, they should demand an end to the rule requiring priestly celibacy.” I found myself checking the year of publication. Surely this must have been an article from 20 years ago. But no: In the same week in which the Catholic bishops of the United States published their annual report on the (still falling) number of abuse claims made in American dioceses, the Economist was running with a tired, discredited argument.

Trying to hang the deadly sin of abuse around the church’s policy of clerical celibacy was perhaps an understandable speculative endeavor in the aftermath of the horrific scandals reported by the Spotlight team of the Boston Globe in the early 2000s. But, with all we have learned in the decades since, and with the painful, continuing revelations of abuse of children in…

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Partners at Corrs Chambers Westgarth are dismayed that they were not consulted before the law firm told the Catholic Church it would no longer handle claims of child abuse after being its main legal adviser on the issue for 25 years.

The Australian Financial Review has been told the decision not only blindsided the church, but it was done without the knowledge of the partners at the national firm, some of whom could lose valuable work in the fallout.

They and others also cannot reconcile the decision with the fact that the firm retains British American Tobacco as a long-standing client.

Partners are usually regarded as co-owners at any firm, and treated as such if they have an equity stake. Even if there is an executive leadership team, any decision that could materially affect the direction or reputation of the firm will usually be discussed or voted on by the broader partnership.

It…

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UPDATE: The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston has released a statement from Bishop Mark Brennan, Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston :

“My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Many of you share my concern upon learning late yesterday that Fr. Pericles “Perry” Malacaman, 84, was recently arrested in Beckley, WV, and is accused of sex abuse of a family member in Pennsylvania. The Diocese was not aware of the allegation until the day it was made public. We have not seen the criminal complaint and, as a matter of policy, we cannot comment on pending criminal investigations. I want you all to know that the Diocese will cooperate fully with appropriate civil authorities as they investigate this matter. While our parishioners and school families in Beckley, Mullens and Pineville are more familiar with Fr. Malacaman, I can share the following information with you. According to Diocesan records, Fr. Malacaman was ordained on December 16,…

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For 11 years, minus one when COVID-19 drove the event online, the Napa Institute hosted its annual Summer Conference at the Meritage Resort and Spa without incident. That changed in 2022, with a spate of press coverage — starting with a Press Democrat story that ran Wednesday — casting light upon the four-day meeting of influential Catholic thinkers and right-wing political activists in Napa.

This year, protesters emerged.

It started Friday afternoon, when a group of 25-30 people met on Second Street in Napa and marched through downtown holding signs and, in the case of one of the organizers, Aisley Wallace Harper of the group Stop Napa Hate, calling into a megaphone.

Two organizations, including NDN Network, planned to shake things up during former U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s scheduled talk — “Strangers in a Strange Land: How do Catholics Live as ‘Resident Aliens’ and Faithful Citizens at the Same Time”…

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Some Catholics say it’s not easy to reconcile their faith with what they see as the Pope’s lacklustre apology for the horrors Church-run residential schools inflicted on Indigenous children, but for many, the process involves trying to change the institution, rather than abandoning it.

The pontiff’s “penitential pilgrimage” across Canada saw him say sorry for the actions of “so many Christians,” but some say Pope Francis should have done more to acknowledge the Catholic Church itself was culpable for abuse at the facilities.

“It’s a challenge to one’s faith, because the Pope is a spiritual leader — and he’s my spiritual leader. And he chose to use language that does not take on the full responsibility, as he could have,” said Paolo De Buono, a Catholic teacher in Toronto.

“So it does make me feel ashamed and concerned that the organization I’m a part of is further hurting by not…

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The Pope’s visit has done little to restore my trust in the church

This First Person column is written by Alyssa Aco, a Filipina who immigrated from the Philippines to Edmonton in 2008. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

WARNING: This column contains distressing details.

When the Pope came to visit Edmonton on his “penitential pilgrimage,” my colleagues were joyfully planning carpools to Commonwealth Stadium where he would hold a public mass for 60,000 people. A lifelong Catholic, I went to Ticketmaster to reserve seats, but my fingers hovered over the screen for a while before I finally exited the website.

Lately, I’ve been finding it hard to be Catholic.

I grew up in the Philippines, where Catholicism is not only a personal religion but permeated every institution, organization and household. 

Before anything else, I learned to say grace before meals, recite all the prayers, memorize the…

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For almost 60 years, the Catholic Church delivered millions of dollars in fees to Corrs Chambers Westgarth. The top-tier law firm provided legal advice to embattled archdioceses across Australia as they became engulfed in clerical abuse scandals and accusations of cover-ups.

It was Corrs that helped establish the “Ellis defence” that meant the Catholic Church did not exist as a legal entity because its assets were held inside a trust structure, which insulated it against further claims.

In the civil case against John Ellis, who was sexually abused as a 13-year-old by Father Aidan Duggan, a Corrs solicitor promised in an email to the church’s barristers that they would be “greeted with open arms at the Pearly Gates” for their efforts to thwart future litigants.

But last week, Corrs abruptly severed ties with the church, at a time when the legal industry is jostling to retain younger staff and attract…

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A former DeSales University priest who had ties to the Royal Family in Europe has pleaded guilty in a child pornography case.

William McCandless, of Wilmington, Delaware, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to access with intent to view child pornography, according to online court documents.

As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop the other two charges of transporting and possessing child porn, says the document, which was filed in May.

Both parties agree to a sentence of 30-37 months in prison, but McCandless could face the maximum time of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in November.

McCandless was accused of gathering thousands of child pornography images in Monaco, where he was an advisor to the Royal Family, and bringing them back to the U.S. in January 2017, just a few days before he started working at DeSales.

He was fired from DeSales…

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Pope Francis concluded the final day of his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage” through Canada on July 29 at one of the most remote locations he has visited since election as pope in 2013. He again apologized for abuses Indigenous peoples endured in Catholic Church-run residential schools, and used his location in the Arctic to spotlight environmental concerns. 

“I want to tell you how very sorry I am and to ask for forgiveness for the evil perpetrated by not a few Catholics who contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation” in those schools, the pope said here in the capital of the territory of Nunavut.

In Iqaluit —  with a population below 7,500 people and no paved roads — the pope again met with survivors of residential schools, which for nearly a century forcibly stripped away many Native cultures and customs, including the Inuktitut language. 

The pope paid tribute to this history…

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On a stage designed to evoke a qammaq — a traditional Inuit summer home built of whale ribs, sod and stone — Pope Francis again apologized to the Indigenous communities of Canada for Catholics’ complicity in breaking up their families and suppressing their languages.

“I want to tell you how very sorry I am and to ask for forgiveness for the evil perpetrated by not a few Catholics” who ran the residential schools Indigenous children were forced to attend, Pope Francis said in the Canadian Arctic.

The stories told by survivors “not only cause us pain; they also create scandal,” the pope said July 29 in Iqaluit, Nunavut’s capital city.

After a flight from Quebec of just over three hours, Pope Francis was met at the Iqaluit airport by provincial and city officials, leaders of local Inuit organizations and Andre Tautu and Salome Kangok, two survivors of residential schools.

Then,…

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Pope says he must slow down pace of travel due to health issues

Pope Francis on July 29 said that the Catholic Church’s treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada amounted to a cultural “genocide” and warned against a colonialist mindset that continues to view Native peoples and customs as “inferior.”

Francis said that “taking away the children, changing the culture and mentality” and erasing “an entire culture” was effectively a “genocide.” 

The pope’s remarks came during an inflight press conference en route back to Rome after his July 24-29 trip to Canada, where he apologized on multiple occasions for the abuse that Indigenous children suffered at Catholic-run residential schools, as well as for the church’s adoption of policies that stripped away Indigenous culture.

The phrase “cultural genocide” was used by the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission in its final report in 2015. During his first full…

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Pope Francis agreed Saturday that the attempt to eliminate Indigenous culture in Canada through a church-run residential school system amounted to a cultural “genocide.”

Speaking to reporters while en route home from Canada, Francis said he didn’t use the term during his trip to atone for the Catholic Church’s role in the schools because it never came to mind.

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined in 2015 that the forced removal of Indigenous children from their homes and placement in the residential schools to assimilate them constituted a “cultural genocide.”

Some 150,000 children from the late 1800s to the 1970s were subject to the forced assimilation policy, aimed at making them fully Christian and Canadian. Physical and sexual abuse were rampant at the schools, and children were beaten for speaking their Native languages.

“It’s true I didn’t use the word because it didn’t come to mind, but I described…

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Meeting Indigenous survivors of residential schools in Canada, Pope Francis entrusted them and the journey of truth, healing and reconciliation to three women: St. Anne, Mary and St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

“These women can help us to come together and start to weave anew a reconciliation that can uphold the rights of the most vulnerable in our midst and look at history without resentment or forgetfulness,” the pope said July 29, his last morning in Canada.

Before heading to the airport for a three-hour flight to Iqaluit, Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic, Pope Francis met with two dozen survivors of residential schools from across Eastern Canada. Organizers said they included people from the Algonquin, Mohawk, Cree, Innu and Mi’kmaq nations.

Seated in a wheelchair, Pope Francis greeted each of the survivors as they entered a large living room in the residence of Cardinal Gérald Lacroix of Quebec. He then entered the…

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Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Thursday at Canada’s national shrine and came face-to-face with a long-standing demand from Indigenous peoples: to rescind the papal decrees underpinning the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery” and repudiate the theories that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today.

Right before Mass began, two Indigenous women unfurled a banner at the altar of the National Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré that read: “Rescind the Doctrine” in bright red and black letters. The protesters were escorted away and the Mass proceeded without incident, though the women later marched the banner out of the basilica and draped it on the railing.

The brief protest underscored one of the issues facing the Holy See following Francis’ historic apology for the Catholic Church’s involvement in Canada’s notorious residential schools, where generations of Indigenous peoples were forcibly removed from their families and cultures to…

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Administrative tinkering to Vatican bureaucracy is hardly the stuff of stop-the-presses headlines, but Pope Francis’ recent naming of three women to the office that helps select bishops around the world is certainly more substantive than changing the office’s name from “congregation” to “dicastery.”

On July 13, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had named two religious sisters —Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist Raffaella Petrini and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Sr. Yvonne Reungoat — and a laywoman, Maria Lia Zervino, as members of the Dicastery for Bishops. The appointments were made just over a week after the pope had told a Vatican journalist of his plans.

NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters was not wrong to call the move “historic” and an “enormous change in the life of the Roman Curia and the life of the universal church.” Even more significant than the gender…

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The legacy of residential schools has been handed down to today’s Native Americans.

Jody Roy’s uncle was sexually and physically abused in Canada. Terry Cornell had three family members who never came home from a residential school in the U.S.

So when Pope Francis apologized to Canadian Indigenous for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation at residential schools, Native Americans, like many Canadian Indigenous, said forgiveness was hard — despite their Catholic faith.

“They ripped those children away; they took them out of their hands and arms,” said Roy, an Ojibway who serves as director of the St. Kateri Center of Chicago.

“The U.S. government’s assimilation policy was nothing short of murder,” said Terry Cornell, whose heritage is Irish and Cheyenne Arapahoe. “All it was was a cash grab. The government paid these agencies…

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After 50 years of waiting for an apology for the horrific treatment of indigenous children in residential schools in Canada, Evelyn Korkmaz, co-founding member of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), and survivor of St. Anne’s Residential School, met with the Pope on Friday, July 29, 2002. Her message was simple, SHOW US THE RECORDS.
ECA supports the demand of Evelyn Korkmaz and calls on Pope Francis, before he leaves Canada, to state that all records held by Catholic entities regarding the residential schools will be made available as was the promise on December 17, 2019 when he abolished the pontifical secret in the case of sexual violence and the abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-12/pope-abolishes-pontifical-secret-sexual-abuse-clergy.html

The Pope was also given a letter from ECA, SNAP and BishopAccountabiity.org to draw his attention to the urgency of a current case of clerical sexual abuse and cover-up in the Democratic Republic…

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Pope Francis joined church leaders for vespers in Quebec’s Cathedral of Notre Dame

Pope Francis wanted to check in with the bishops, priests and religious of Canada: “How are we doing when it comes to joy?” he asked them.

After intense days of meeting and listening to Canadian Indigenous and government leaders and celebrating Masses and leading prayer services, the pope joined church leaders July 28 for vespers in Quebec’s Cathedral of Notre Dame.

In his homily, Pope Francis acknowledged the challenge of ministering in the wake of allegations about clerical sexual abuse and the abuses against Indigenous children at church-run residential schools, but also the difficulties of sharing the Gospel in an increasingly secular society.

To proclaim the Gospel, the pope told them, “we must also be credible.”

Credibility, he said, comes from the witness of one’s life, from concretely demonstrating “the compassion that asks for nothing in return…

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The global network of women religious fighting human trafficking was offering a virtual tour of its work helping survivors as a way to mark the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

The Talitha Kum anti-trafficking network was making the “Nuns Healing Hearts” photo exhibition available online on its website, talithakum.info, starting July 30, the day the United Nations has dedicated to raising awareness about the battle against human trafficking.

The exhibit of more than two dozen images, taken by U.S. photographer Lisa Kristine, illustrates the stories of women and men once ensnared by traffickers and the nuns working alongside them, dedicated to their healing and also working in vulnerable communities, seeking to prevent new victims.

The photos were to be accompanied by testimonials and seven short videos on human trafficking.

Comboni Sister Gabriella Bottani, international coordinator of Talitha Kum, said in a July 29 news release the network wanted to…

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Rescued minor girls have been handed over to the care of the district child welfare committee in Kozhikode, Kerala state

A protestant pastor and his two associates were arrested by police in the southern Indian state of Kerala on suspicion of being involved in the trafficking of minor girls.

Police said they have rescued 12 girls, aged between nine and 12, traveling with the three men who were arrested and remanded to judicial custody on July 28.

The rescued girls are now undergoing counseling and would be handed over to their parents, said officials of the district child welfare committee.

Jacob Varghese, the arrested pastor, runs an orphanage, Karuna Charitable Trust in Perumbavur on the outskirts of the city Kochi, offering boarding and educational facilities for children from poor families.

An alert against him and his associates was sounded by passengers on board Okha- Ernakulam Express who suspected something was…

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According to reports, Jacob Varghese, the arrested pastor of the Pentecostal Church was running the illegal trade under the guise of running an orphanage named Karuna Charitable Trust, in Kochi’s Perumbavur area.

The Kerala police busted a human trafficking racket and arrested a Kochi-based pastor, along with three others for trafficking minor girls from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. According to reports, Jacob Varghese, the arrested pastor of the Pentecostal Church was running the illegal trade under the guise of running an orphanage named Karuna Charitable Trust, in Kochi’s Perumbavur area.

The pastor and the other accused, who were working as agents, have been arrested and a case has been registered against them under section 370 (1) (2) (3) (4) (human trafficking) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Childline officials said that a separate complaint will be filed against the orphanage under the Juvenile Justice Act.

As per reports,…

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A 61-year-old former church leader is facing over 20 charges for multiple sex crimes, including the sexual assault of a child, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.

A family member informed the police department in June 2022 that the victim was sexually assaulted by a member of Saint Matthews United Methodist Church in Annandale. The member, later identified by detectives as Thomas Weaver, had periodically been a leader in youth activities but hadn’t held that position since 2020. 

According to detectives, on multiple occasions since 2020, Weaver coerced the victim to meet him in a secluded area in Annandale. Once there, Weaver allegedly sexually assault the victim.

Detectives conducted a search warrant at Weaver’s home on Wednesday where they found numerous images of child pornography.

Weaver was arrested and charged with 20 counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of indecent liberties of a minor by a…

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(For Immediate Release July 29, 2022) 

A retired Catholic priest from the Diocese Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, who purportedly has not served in ministry since 2009, has been charged by Pennsylvania State Police with sexually assaulting a young male through ages 9-14 yrs. Perry Malacaman, 84, who resides in West Virginia, is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16, corruption of minors, and indecent assault of a person younger than 16, according to a criminal complaint.

Malacaman worked at St. Francis de Sales, a parish in Beckley, W.Va., and was ordained in 1972, in the Archdiocese of Davao, in Davao City, Philippines. He had been assigned to several parishes in West Virginia starting in 1993, and last served as a priest in 2009 in Beckley, according to diocesan Bishop Mark E. Brennan, who wrote a letter to Catholics in the Beckley…

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The Barnardo’s review shows that failures by the Archdiocese, which took place over a period of time, were institutional.

Archbishop Bernard Longley said: “I am deeply sorry for what happened to those who have been harmed by Joseph Quigley.”

A top abuse lawyer has condemned the Archdiocese of Birmingham for safeguarding systems that were “shambolic and wholly inadequate”.

Richard Scorer, specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon who has acted for numerous victims of abuse in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, was speaking after publication today of an independent review by children’s charity Barnardo’s into the management of concerns about Joseph Quigley, a priest in the archdiocese.

Scorer said: “This report is utterly damning. It paints a picture of a diocese in which safeguarding systems were shambolic and wholly inadequate. Since 2001 the Catholic Church has claimed that all abuse allegations are reported to the statutory authorities. This report clearly demonstrates that this…

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Catholics of the Diocese of Oran, Argentina, gathered in the city’s main square Tuesday and Wednesday to protest the decision to allow their disgraced former bishop, Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, to live in a retired priests’ home while serving his sentence for the sexual abuse of seminarians.

The protests focus on the Church’s handling of Zanchetta’s case, following his conviction by a civil court in March on charges of sexual abuse against two seminarians, aggravated by his position as a minister of religion. 

Despite his conviction and being sentenced to four and a half years in prison, Bishop Zanchetta has received no public sanction from the Church, and the results of a canonical process initiated in 2019 have not been announced. 

On July 8, Zanchetta was released from prison on medical grounds to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest and moved into the Monastery of Our Lady…

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Aboriginals have talked about the atrocities in residential schools for decades, but most Canadians became aware of the tragedy only after the recent discovery of unmarked graves

Are Canadians finally aware of what happened in residential schools for their country’s Indigenous peoples?

“With Kamloops, Canada may have woken up,” said Angela White, director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society. “But our families have been telling us about the horrors of residential schools forever.”

Kamloops is a charming little town in British Columbia’s Thompson Valley. But in the collective psyche over the past year, the mere mention of Kamloops immediately evokes the dark reality of these institutions.

The discovery of 215 unmarked graves of Aboriginal children on the grounds of the residential school in this town moved and gripped the entire country.

Rallies were held and statues of the architects of the residential schools were pulled down.

“We felt that…

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A former Catholic missionary in Canada who returned to his native France in 1993 is accused of sexually abusing Indigenous children, who now want him extradited

“The Catholic Church must work to punish priests and religious who have committed horrible acts against children. Several are known and still alive. But they are not worried. This is the situation for Joannès Rivoire, who is a famous case.”

So says Cassidy Caron, president of the Métis National Council in Canada.

She is not the only one hoping that Pope Francis’ visit to Canada’s Aboriginal peoples will advance the judicial process against Father Rivoire.

A missionary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the priest arrived in Canada in 1960 to minister to the Inuit of Nunavut, the largest and most northerly territory in the vast country.

Thirty-three years later, in 1993, he abruptly returned to France.

“My parents were suffering, they needed me,”…

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A retired Catholic priest who served at St. Francis de Sales Church in West Virginia is accused of sexually abusing a boy in Butler County, according to court papers.

Perry Malacaman, 84, who resides in West Virginia, is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16, corruption of minors and indecent assault of a person younger than 16, according to a criminal complaint.

Pennsylvania State Police said the accuser, who is now 19, came to them on July 13 to report that Malacaman had sexually abused him when he was between 9 and 14 years old. The suspect would have been between 74 and 79 years old at the time.

The Tribune-Review doesn’t identify alleged victims of sexual assault.

The teen told police he was abused by Malacaman on more than five different occasions, all at the same location, documents show.

A preliminary hearing…

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A retired priest is being accused of sexually abusing a minor for about a five-year period.

According to information provided by Pennsylvania State Police, Perry Malacaman allegedly assaulted the victim approximately 10 years ago in Center Township.

Malacaman is currently a resident of Beckley, West Virginia, and is also a retired Catholic priest of St. Francis De Sales Catholic Parish in Beckley.

Police say that Malacaman would have been between 74 and 79 at the time of the abuse.

He is facing criminal charges including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of a minor, and indecent assault.

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Emily Riddle is a writer, public library worker and editor in Edmonton, Alberta. She is Nehiyaw and a member of the Alexander First Nation. She is also on the board of advisers for the Yellowhead Institute, a First Nations-led think tank based out of Toronto Metropolitan University.

On Sunday, the Pope landed in what we call Treaty Six Territory, but you are more likely to know it as Edmonton, Alberta. The purpose of his visit was delivering an apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s involvement in the genocidal project known in Canada as residential schools — a system that forcibly removed Indigenous children from their parents and tried to assimilate them into Euro-Christian society.

“I am deeply sorry — sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples,” Pope Francis said.

The Pope addressed his comments to several thousand…

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Pope Francis on Monday began a long-sought act of reconciliation in Canada, decrying the country’s “catastrophic” residential school system for Indigenous children and asking for forgiveness for the “evil committed by so many Christians.”

“I am deeply sorry — sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said in his native Spanish.

He addressed his comments to several thousand residential school survivors in a grass field encircled by a small grandstand on the first full day of a trip aimed at penitence for one of Canada’s greatest tragedies: a school system that forcibly removed Indigenous children from their parents and tried to assimilate them into Euro-Christian society — often brutally. Students were forbidden from speaking their native languages or practicing traditional customs; many were physically or sexually abused.

“It is painful to think of how the…

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A commission investigating child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the Iberian nation has collected around 350 testimonies since it started its work in January.

Portuguese prosecutors said on Thursday they have launched 10 inquiries into alleged child sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy, the first such move since a commission was created seven months ago to investigate accusations.

A commission investigating child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the Iberian nation has collected around 350 testimonies since it started its work in January. It has said that number was “just the tip of the iceberg.”

The majority of the alleged crimes were committed decades ago, and can no longer be investigated due to Portugal’s statute of limitations, but the commission has submitted 17 testimonies to public prosecutors.

Based on those testimonies, the prosecutor’s office launched the 10 inquiries, it said, adding that seven of them were ongoing while three were dismissed…

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After long-awaited apologies, Indigenous people in Canada want to know what comes next.

OTTAWA, Ont. — The six-day Pope Francis apology tour to Canada was like déjà vu for Indigenous leaders and residential school survivors who have been promised atonement — and treatment as equals — countless times in the past 15 years.

The pope told thousands gathered Monday at a ceremony in the community of Maskwacis that he was sorry for the “catastrophic” effects of the policy of assimilation carried out at Catholic-run residential schools across Canada for 100 years, ending well into the 20th century.

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous Peoples,” he said at a traditional powwow gathering space called Maskwa Park on the outskirts of the Alberta town.

Governor General Mary Simon, the first Inuk vice-regal representative, was in attendance. So were Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and…

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Pope Francis prayed for healing Tuesday from the “terrible effects of colonization” as he led a pilgrimage to a Canadian lake that has been known to Native peoples for centuries as a sacred place of healing.

The prayer service at Lac Sainte Anne in Alberta was one of the spiritual highlights of the pontiff’s six-day visit to Canada to atone for the Catholic Church’s role in running residential schools that forcibly assimilated the country’s Indigenous children into Christian society. On Monday he apologized for the “catastrophic” ways families were torn apart; the following day he transitioned to praying to help them heal from the “wounds of violence.”

“In this blessed place, where harmony and peace reign, we present to you the disharmony of our experiences, the terrible effects of colonization, the indelible pain of so many families, grandparents and children,” Francis said on the shore of the lake. “Help us to…

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In evening prayer address, Francis says Catholic Church on a ‘new path’ in Canada

Pope Francis, who is presiding over Thursday evening prayers in Quebec City, acknowledged the sexual abuse inflicted on “minors and vulnerable people” for the first time since arriving in Canada.   

In his homily, Francis said the Catholic Church in Canada is on a new path after being devastated by “the evil perpetrated by some of its sons and daughters.”

He said addressing sexual abuse and other such “crimes” requires “firm action” and an “irreversible commitment.”

Francis has apologized during stops in Alberta and Quebec for the role Catholic institutions played in the Indigenous residential school system but until now had not directly spoken of sexual abuse.

His homily in Quebec City also says that as part of its reconciliation efforts, the Christian community can never again be “infected” by the idea that one culture is…

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Summary

• Visits oldest Catholic pilgrimage site in North America
• Pope seeks forgiveness for sexual abuse at residential schools
• Talks of “burden of failure” on Catholic Church
• Pope leaves on Friday via stop in Canadian Arctic

Pope Francis on Thursday asked for forgiveness for sexual abuse at Canadian schools for indigenous children run by Catholic orders, addressing a deep wound that many survivors wanted him to acknowledge during his apology tour in Canada.

At an evening vespers service with priests and nuns in the Quebec City cathedral, the pope said the Church in Canada was on a new path after being “devastated by the evil perpetrated by some of its sons and daughters.”Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport an ad

“I think in particular of the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people, scandals that require firm action and an irreversible commitment,” the pope said on the penultimate day of his six-day visit to…

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If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s 24/7 hotline at 800-871-7741.

The Rev. Robert C. Vaillancourt will return to his duties after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland determined allegations of sexual abuse were unfounded.

Vaillancourt was placed on administrative leave in July 2021 while being investigated for an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor girl in the 1980s. Although he has not yet been assigned his newest post, Vaillancourt will be returned to active ministry effective immediately, according to the Portland diocese.

Investigations into the allegations included interviews with more than 30 individuals, according to the diocese, as well as record and document checks, which did not find evidence to prove that the alleged events occurred. Findings from the investigation were reported to the Diocese of Portland’s Review Board, which found…

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An investigation of the 2 allegations found that the abuse, which allegedly took place in the 1980s, ‘could not have occurred,’ the Portland Diocese said.

A Maine priest is being returned to active ministry after a yearlong investigation by Catholic Church officials found allegations that he sexually abused two girls in the 1980s are unfounded, the Portland Diocese said Wednesday.

The Rev. Robert Vaillancourt was placed on administrative leave last July after church officials received a complaint from a woman who said that she was sexually abused by the priest in the 1980s. Two months later, another woman came forward and said she, too, had been sexually abused by Vaillancourt during the same period. Both women were girls at the time.

The second woman said the abuse occurred in Biddeford, where in the early 1980s Vaillancourt was a new priest and running a youth program at St. Andre’s Catholic Church.

…

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After the completion of a yearlong investigation, Fr. Robert Vaillancourt will be returned to active ministry, effective immediately. Two allegations of sexual abuse of minor girls in the 1980s were determined to be unfounded. Fr. Vaillancourt has not yet received a new assignment from the diocese.

In July of 2021, upon receipt of the first complaint and in accordance with diocesan policy, Fr. Vaillancourt was placed on administrative leave. The announcement of the administrative leave and investigation was distributed to all parishes in the diocese, publicized on the diocesan website and social media platforms, and issued to media outlets throughout the state, encouraging people to come forward with relevant information. Subsequently, a second allegation against Fr. Vaillancourt was received through an attorney representing a second woman. Civil authorities were notified of the allegations and state law enforcement conducted investigations over the past year.

Internal investigations were conducted by the Diocese…

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A lawsuit brought by a former altar boy who alleges he was sexually abused as a child in the 1960s by a now-deceased Roman Catholic bishop and other clergy can proceed, the highest court in Massachusetts said in a decision released Thursday.

The man from Chicopee identified in court papers as John Doe alleges in the suit filed in February 2021 that not only was he abused by former Diocese of Springfield Bishop Christopher Weldon as well as two priests, but also that the church engaged in a yearslong coverup to protect the bishop’s reputation.

The diocese sought to have the suit dismissed based on charitable immunity and the doctrine of church autonomy, derived from the First Amendment.

The Supreme Judicial Court, which upheld a lower court’s decision, said charitable immunity does not apply because “The abuse allegedly carried out by Weldon and other church leaders was not, and could…

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To the editor — I read the Yakima Herald-Republic article, “Vatican issues reprimand of former Yakima bishop Carlos Seville” (July 18 issue).

Having family in Yakima and being Catholic myself, I think that bishops should be held to high standards of accountability when it comes to cases of sex abuse by clergy. The handling of such cases has been proven to have been woefully deficient in the Yakima Diocese and former Bishop Sevilla deserves the papal reprimand — and really should get more than just a slap on the wrist.

These scandals need to stop. Parishioners should not have their tithes used to pay off defense claims or attorney fees. If a priest or bishop is found guilty, he deserves jail time. And if that penalty were imposed more often where guilt is proven, it would greatly deter such offenses.

JAMES A. MARPLES

Longview, Texas

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The Vatican’s belated and inadequate reprimand of now-retired Yakima Bishop Carlos Sevilla shows that some church leaders still struggle to grasp the seriousness and complexity of the problem of clergy sexual abuse.

It also shows that they feel little obligation to be transparent enough to reassure the community that local parishes are safe and that the church stands ready to hold clergy accountable for any misdeeds.

Even now.

Even after the church has had to answer for thousands of clergy around the world who’ve been plausibly accused of abusing young boys and girls over the years.

Even after the church has paid out millions to settle international claims made against clergymen by people who suffered life-scarring harm, intimidation and humiliation at the hands of the people they trusted more than anyone: their priests.

Even after stacks of disturbing reports of church leaders around the globe — including here…

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The Canadian government made clear Wednesday that Pope Francis’ apology to Indigenous peoples for abuses in the country’s church-run residential schools didn’t go far enough, suggesting that reconciliation over the fraught history is still very much a work in progress.

The official government reaction came as Francis arrived in Quebec City for meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Mary Simon at her Quebec residence, the hilltop Citadelle fortress, on the second leg of Francis’ week-long visit to Canada.

The government’s criticisms echo those of some survivors and concern Francis’ omission of any reference to the sexual abuse suffered by Indigenous children in the schools, as well as his original reluctance to name the Catholic Church as an institution bearing responsibility.

Francis has said he is on a “penitential pilgrimage” to atone for the church’s role in the residential school system, in which generations of Indigenous children were…

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Fugitive priest Joannes Rivoire says Nunavut RCMP have yet to speak to him about allegations

[Includes a two-part video interview of Rivoire]

Warning: This story contains details that some people may find disturbing. The Hope for Wellness Help Line offers immediate help to all Indigenous Peoples across Canada. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-855-242-3310 in English and French and upon request in Cree, Ojibway, and Inuktitut.

A pigeon lands on the railing of his balcony overlooking Lyon, the third-largest city in France. It appears to be waiting for something.

Pierre Joannes Rivoire smiles.

“I feed them,” he says.

But not today.

“I don’t have any bread,” says the 92-year-old as the bird gives up and flies away.

The French Catholic priest turns his attention back to the interview with APTN News.

“Come on, why are there these accusations?” he says. “I am wondering what’s the…

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Canadian justice officials have asked France to extradite Oblate priest Joannes Rivoire, APTN News has learned.

Ian McLeod, a spokesperson for Department of Justice Canada, confirmed the move in an email to APTN Wednesday.

“Due to the exceptional circumstances of this case, Justice Canada can confirm that an extradition request was made to France in respect of Mr. Rivoire,” McLeod wrote.

“The extradition request was made by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada through Department of Justice officials.”

McLeod noted Canada normally keeps state-to-state communications private.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the “exceptional circumstances.”

He said there would be no further comment.

Rivoire, 92, is wanted in Canada on one count of sexual assaulting an Inuk girl from his time as a Catholic missionary in Nunavut between 1963 and 1993. RCMP in Nunavut laid the charge in 2021 after a 51-year-old woman filed a complaint.

The allegation has not been tested…

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[VIDEO]

CNN’s Paula Newton speaks with survivors who suffered decades of physical, sexual, and mental abuse in Canadian residential schools with ties to the Catholic Church.

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The Rev. Vincent Chávez, pastor of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus Catholic Church in Albuquerque, said he has been placed on a leave of absence after publicly criticizing the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s request that its parishes contribute $12 million to a $121.5 million sexual abuse settlement.

Chávez said after he spoke out publicly in a July 3 story in The New Mexican, he was called into a tense meeting that ended with the priest being placed on leave.

Chávez, 59, said the leave will last four to six months starting Aug. 1. During this time, as Chávez understands it, he will not be able to attend archdiocese events but can still see and socialize with parishioners outside of parish buildings.

Chávez said the leave could be “for multiple reasons,” noting he has faced a few health issues that crept up last summer. However, when asked if he…

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Lawyer says he has received hundreds of unreported cases since he was tasked by the country’s bishops in February

The lawyer leading the Spanish Catholic Church’s investigation into clerical sexual abuse said he is currently looking into thousands of suspected cases that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.

In an interview with Spanish news agency Europa Press published July 25, Javier Cremades, who is leading the investigation, said he also has received hundreds of unreported cases since he was appointed by the bishops in February.

“Between those that the bishops’ conference has and those that the newspaper El País has, we are talking about approximately between 1,000 and 2,000 cases. Now we are sorting and classifying those that have reached us,” Cremades said.

In mid-December, the Spanish newspaper El País said it conducted a three-year investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Spain and uncovered 251 unpublished cases of abuse…

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Incident took place on a church premises when the victim was 10 years old

The city police, acting on directions from the National Human Rights Commission, have booked eight persons, including a church priest and a teacher, for sexually abusing a minor girl a decade ago.

The East Division Women Police Station has registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, for rape and outraging the modesty of a woman under the Indian Penal Code. The sexual abuse reportedly took place on a church premises when the victim was 10 years old.

The victim, who is now aged 20 and pursuing her studies in a city-based college, was under treatment over the trauma she suffered due to the sexual abuse. She recently shared her ordeal with her sister, who approached NHRC, which directed the city police to register a case and probe the matter.

…

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Researchers at Creighton University have reached out to Into Account about numerous reports from men who describe grooming, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse perpetrated by Rev Daniel Kenney, known as “The Monkey Priest,” formerly active at Creighton Preparatory School and Camp Buford, a children’s wilderness camp in Wyoming. For more information about Kenney’s assignments, see the timeline at the bottom of this post.

Some of Kenney’s behaviors include memorizing student schedules, appearing wherever they were throughout the day, pulling students out of class, asking invasive questions about their private lives including about masturbation, providing “counseling” in which he asked about masturbation and sexual thoughts, bringing boys to confession, and asking boys to undress.

If you experienced any of these behaviors, or others, including behaviors that simply felt strange or off, we invite you to contact us. If you’d like to report directly to the researchers, they…

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Pope Francis prayed for healing Tuesday from the “terrible effects of colonization” as he led a pilgrimage to a Canadian lake that has been known to Native peoples for centuries as a sacred place of healing.

The prayer service at Lac Sainte Anne in Alberta was one of the spiritual highlights of the pontiff’s six-day visit to Canada to atone for the Catholic Church’s role in running residential schools that forcibly assimilated the country’s Indigenous children into Christian society. On Monday he apologized for the “catastrophic” ways families were torn apart; the following day he transitioned to praying to help them heal from the “wounds of violence.”

“In this blessed place, where harmony and peace reign, we present to you the disharmony of our experiences, the terrible effects of colonization, the indelible pain of so many families, grandparents and children,” Francis said on the shore of the lake. “Help us…

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Grandmothers are traditionally revered in Canada’s Indigenous culture, and St. Anne’s grandmotherly intercession is playing a significant role in this papal pilgrimage’s search for healing the Church and First Nations.

Among Indigenous Catholics of North America, St. Anne is greatly revered as the grandmother of Jesus. So Pope Francis’ July 24-30 “pilgrimage of penitence” to Canada’s First Nations, Meti, and Inuit peoples fittingly centers the beginning and ending around two shrines dedicated to St. Anne.

In North American Indigenous cultures, grandparents and elders are traditionally revered. But grandmothers have an especially honored status, since as women they are blessed with the Creator’s gift of nurturing life, and as grandmothers, they nurture their children’s children with their gifts of memory, wisdom and unconditional love.

Many of us can recognize their spiritual insight the Vatican affirmed as the “idea of the nonna” recalling memories of our own grandmothers’ role and influence…

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The United States in May acknowledged the damage inflicted on generations of children at federal Indian boarding schools, a system built to assimilate indigenous kids into white society by cutting them off from their parents and tribes.

Geraldine Charbonneau Dubourt, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, welcomed that admission, part of a report released by the Department of the Interior . But what she really wants is justice.

The septuagenarian has waged a so-far fruitless effort to seek restitution for the rapes and other abuses she says she, her eight sisters and scores of other Native American children endured for years at the former St. Paul’s Indian Mission School in Marty, South Dakota.

A 2010 state law barred victims of alleged sexual abuse aged 40 or older from filing civil lawsuits against any institution that knew or should have known about it. That legislation,…

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It was a stunning image: Pope Francis briefly wearing a full Indigenous headdress, its rows of soft white feathers fastened in place by a colorful, beaded headband after he apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s “disastrous” residential school system for Indigenous children.

Chief Wilton Littlechild, a residential school survivor himself, gave Francis the headdress Monday, placing it on his head amid cheering by an audience in Maskwacis, Alberta, that included many school survivors.

The Vatican and the pope clearly appreciated the gesture: Francis kissed Littlechild’s hands after receiving the headdress, something he has done in the past as a sign of respect for Holocaust survivors, and has done on this trip for residential school survivors.

The Vatican obviously understood the symbolic significance of the moment, putting the photo on the front page of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano under the headline “I humbly beg forgiveness.”

Headdresses historically are…

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Pope Francis to address the devastating effects of decades of abuse against indigenous children in Church-run schools

The hurt, pain and damage to the lives of countless indigenous children top Pope Francis’ agenda on his visit to Canada. Climate change damage to their ancestral lands and environment by big business is also on his mind, and which he will speak forcibly and clearly about.

Pope Francis has strongly commented on destructive climate change resulting from rich nations’ emissions of greenhouse gases seen in many devastating wildfires, droughts, floods and poverty everywhere. This has been caused by failed policies of governments and big business on a scale never seen before. Everything is connected.

Pope Francis challenged them recently on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and called on world leaders to address climate change and growing poverty, especially among indigenous peoples. This Sunday, he visited Canadian indigenous people…

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Is there anything so rare in our modern, technocratic, power-obsessed world as genuine contrition?

How many times do public figures apologize “if anyone was offended” by some grievous wrong, as if what is wrong is contingent upon negative consequences? It is a non-apology apology.

How often do people mouth slogans about the sins of the past, asking forgiveness for the wrongs committed by others and making an idol of guilt? The historian of the Holocaust, Eva Fleischner, recognized the danger of such attitudes when she wrote: “Guilt which remains guilt is dangerous. It will become too heavy a burden sooner or later, and may in the end result in blaming the victim. … We must help our students transform their sense of guilt into a sense of responsibility, for the present and the future.”

How often do we moderns — having reduced our religion to a form…

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Pope Francis visited the first officially designated Indigenous parish after apologizing to survivors of residential schools in Canada

While presented as missionary work, the operation of residential schools by Catholics in Canada was actually an attempt to impose European culture on Canada’s Indigenous people, Pope Francis said.

“One cannot proclaim God in a way contrary to God himself,” the pope said July 25 at Edmonton’s Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples.

Several of the First Nation, Inuit and Métis parishioners of Sacred Heart and many of their parents and grandparents were forced by the Canadian government to attend residential schools, which were set up to force the Indigenous to adopt European languages, culture and forms of Christianity.

“If we think of the lasting pain experienced in these places by so many people,” the pope said, “we feel nothing but anger and shame.”

“Nothing can ever take away the violation…

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The first step of Pope Francis’ “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada involved him returning two pairs of children’s moccasins.

The little shoes were not among the Indigenous artifacts held in the Vatican Museums, but rather reminders that Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan had left with Pope Francis in March so he would think and pray about the children who went to residential schools and, especially, about those who never returned home.

On the treaty land of the Ermineskin Cree Nation, Samson Cree Nation, Louis Bull Tribe and the Montana First Nation, near the former site of one of Canada’s largest residential schools, Pope Francis said, “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.”

“The first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply…

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Survivors of Canada’s residential school system who were present for Pope Francis’s apology on Monday described the moment as historic and “bittersweet,” but said that the highly anticipated mea culpa will only be meaningful if it’s followed by concrete action.

Speaking during a press conference after the pope’s apology, Samson Cree Nation Chief Vernon Saddleback said, “Words cannot describe how important today is for the healing journey for a lot of First Nations people.”

“I’m really grateful for this event to happen,” he said, calling the pope’s apology a historic moment not only for Canada, but for all First Nations communities. “It was an amazing day, a historic day…words fail me to say what this means to my people.”

Similarly, Frog Leg Cree Nation Chief Greg Desjarlais voiced gratitude that a papal apology finally happened in Canada, saying, “today is a bittersweet day.”

“It’s bitter in some people’s minds and hearts, some…

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Pope Francis delivered on Monday an apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in residential schools, saying many Christians supported the colonization of Indigenous people. He made the remarks at the former site of the Ermineskin Indian Residential School in community of Maskwacis, south of Edmonton.

Here is some of the reaction to the historic apology:

“Pope Francis’s words today and in Rome this spring represent a journey that has taken more than 180 years — from the time the doors of these so-called schools opened to the challenges First Nations people live today. By apologizing for the abuses of the past, Pope Francis has helped to open the door for survivors and their families to walk together with the church for a present and future of forgiveness and healing. I accept and choose this path.” — Former Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine, who attended two Manitoba residential…

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France has received a request from Canada to extradite retired Roman Catholic priest Johannes Rivoire so he can face a charge of sexual abuse from when he worked in Canada’s North, a French diplomatic source said.

Canada’s northern indigenous people, the Inuit, plan to press the Pope Francis while he is on a visit on Friday to help return Rivoire to Canada.

“An extradition request concerning Mr. Johannes Rivoire has been transmitted to France by Canada’s judicial authorities,” the diplomatic source told Reuters. “This request is currently being processed by the Ministry of Justice, which has asked Canadian authorities for additional information.”

It was not clear what information France is seeking or when Canada made the request.

Canada’s justice department could not be immediately reached for comment. It has previously declined to comment on whether it asked France to extradite Rivoire, saying such requests are confidential.

The extradition treaty between…

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As Pope Francis’ visit to Iqaluit looms, accused priest remains sheltered from charge in France

The Catholic Church has promised to help bring one of its priests charged with sexually assaulting Inuit children to justice, but whether that priest ever steps into a courtroom is likely up to him alone.

Johannes Rivoire, 91, spent more than 30 years in Nunavut, mostly in Arviat and Naujaat, between 1960 and 1992.

While his name often comes up in the context of residential schools, he never worked within the residential school system.

Rivoire’s responsibilities were those of a parish priest: He performed mass, taught catechism, presided over funerals, officiated weddings. In his free time, he kept a greenhouse, growing lettuce and radishes in soil cultivated from seaweed.

He is also accused of sexually assaulting boys and girls during that time, some as young six years old.

Rivoire left Canada in 1993, saying…

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A former Macomb County priest will spend years in prison after being convicted of sex abuse, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced today.

Judge Diane Druzinski sentenced Neil Kalina, 67, to up to 15 years in prison after the former priest was convicted on two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC) by a jury in Macomb County Circuit Court last month.  Kalina was a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township from 1982-1985.

“This is a victory for the survivors who fought to see their abusers held accountable,” said Nessel.  “Regardless of how much time has passed or how difficult a case may be, my prosecutors are committed to securing justice for the victims of clergy abuse.  Adults who prey upon and subject children to abuse belong in prison.”

Kalina was first charged in May 2019 and arrested in Littlerock, California. The jury was also presented first-degree CSC…

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A former Macomb County priest was sentenced to prison this week for sex abuse in the 80s.

Neil Kalina received a 7-15 year sentence, with credit for 215 days served. 

He was a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township from 1982-1985. He was first charged in 2019 and arrested in Littlerock, Calif. 

Last month, a jury found him guilty of two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

“This conviction marks the sixth one secured by my clergy abuse team,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said. “It’s also a reminder of our ongoing commitment to this investigation and the survivors in these cases. We will continue to fight for justice.”

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WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Christina Kitchekesik couldn’t travel to Maskwacis, Alta., to see Pope Francis apologize to survivors of residential schools, but felt emotional watching the televised program alongside others at a viewing event in Winnipeg on Monday.

“It’ll always affect us for the rest of our lives. We won’t forget, but we have to learn to live with it by healing yourself, going through ceremonies,” said Kitchekesik, who is from Tataskweyak Cree Nation, about 900 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

She is one of a number of Manitoba residential school survivors — although she now considers herself a “thriver” — who watched the Pope address thousands of Indigenous people in Canada.

Pope Francis apologized for members of the Catholic Church who co-operated with Canada’s “devastating” policy of Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed their families and marginalized generations in ways still being…

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The former Manitoba senator who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada says there’s a “deep hole” in the apology issued by Pope Francis Monday for the role Catholics played in Canada’s residential school system.

Murray Sinclair says the historic apology, although meaningful to many residential school survivors and their families, fell short of Call to Action 58 in the final report. 

It specifically called on the Pope to issue an apology “for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools.”

In a written statement Tuesday, Sinclair said the intent was that survivors would not only hear remorse, “but an acceptance of responsibility for what they were put through at the hands of the church and other institutions.”

While he called it a “historic apology,” he said the Pope’s statement “has left a deep hole…

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Pope Francis apologized on Monday to Canada’s native people on their land for the Church’s role in schools where indigenous children were abused, calling their forced cultural assimilation a “deplorable evil” and “disastrous error.”

Speaking near the site of two former schools in Maskwacis, Alberta, Francis apologized for Christian support of the “colonizing mentality” of the times and called for a “serious” investigation of the schools to help survivors and descendants heal.

“With shame and unambiguously, I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples,” said Francis, who arrived and left in a wheelchair due to a fractured knee.

The address to the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people was the first apology on Canadian soil by the pope as a part of tour to heal deep wounds that rose to the fore after the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools last…

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An abridged trip through 500 years of papal and legal history to understand why Pope Francis faces calls to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery, which underpins Europe’s heist of the Americas and a mass dispossession of Indigenous peoples that remains foundational to Canadian sovereignty

Before Rodrigo Borgia donned the papal tiara in 1492 and became Pope Alexander VI, he’d had multiple mistresses and fathered at least eight children. He favoured debauched parties with dancing prostitutes and used the papacy to enrich his Spanish family.

Upon his death, likely by poisoning, subsequent popes sealed off the Vatican apartments where Pope Alexander and his family had lived, as a prophylactic against the ghosts of his orgiastic reign.

And this is where many biographical entries end, prioritizing titillation over the substance of his rule, which still haunts the world despite the efforts of Vatican ghostbusters.

Abridged accounts of his life tend to exclude…

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