ABUSE TRACKER

A Southern Baptist task force has asked the denomination to set up a “Ministry Check” website to track abusive pastors, church employees and volunteers, and to spend millions on reforms to prevent abuse. Most of the suggested reforms are voluntary and some could involve years of study and preparation, prompting a skeptical response from some abuse survivors and advocates.

Other suggested reforms, released on Wednesday, include hiring a national staff person who would receive reports of abuse and forward them to church leaders for a response; increasing training for churches; doing background checks on the trustees who oversee Southern Baptist entities; and encouraging state conventions to consider hiring staff to respond to abuse allegations.

The requests are part of a series of recommendations from the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse task force, which oversaw a recent investigation into how leaders in the 13.7 million-member…

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An epidemic of violence and broken lives. Leaders fail or refuse to respond. And the most vulnerable bear the cost of inaction.

While this story line describes the wave of mass shootings we’ve witnessed recently, it also summarizes another tragedy, described in an investigative report released, coincidentally, just days before the Uvalde massacre. In this case, the violence was perpetrated by ministers, the victims were members of their flock, and the leaders were senior officials in the nation’s second-largest Christian denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

Released on May 22, the report details the findings of an independent investigation into how the SBC dealt with sexual abuse within its ranks over the past two decades. Though the report focuses on a single religious group, there are lessons here for all of us, Baptist and non-Baptist, religious and non-religious.

It’s a damning report. Investigators found that from 2000 to 2021, those reporting…

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The first six months of 2002 marked a watershed in how sexual abuse of children and the Catholic Church were seen in the United States, as well as an inflection point for how the Church responded to allegations of abuse against priests.

With the passage of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in June of that year, the bishops established national norms to hold dioceses accountable for protecting children and ministering to people who had been harmed.

The charter, which has been updated three times since 2002 and will be reviewed for a fourth update next year, starts with an apology to victims. Its 17 articles discuss how parishes should promote the healing of and reconciliation with survivors of clerical sexual abuse, respond effectively to allegations, ensure accountability and try to create a safe environment “to protect the…

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An unnamed 28-year-old woman is suing two former Boston Archdiocesan Auxiliary bishops, claiming they neglected to supervise one of All Saints Roman Catholic Church’s now-defrocked priests — the Rev. Kelvin Iguabita-Rodriguez — and allowed him to sexually abuse her for years.

The complaint was formally filed last month by Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents the woman who claims she was sexually abused by Iguabita-Rodriguez when she was between 5 and 7 years old.

Garabedian announced the lawsuit Thursday morning, via Zoom, on the sidewalk in the shadow of the Haverhill church. He was joined by Robert Hoatson, a former priest who now advocates for survivors of sexual abuse through the New Jersey non-profit charity, Road to Recovery.

According to the Archdiocese of Boston’s records, Iguabita-Rodriguez was assigned to the All Saints Roman Catholic Church as a parish priest – one who assists the parish’s pastor — from June 1999…

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[VIDEO: Paul Neyer, 43, stands before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about being raped as a child by a local music director who later became a priest. Ohio lawmakers are considering a bill that would change the statute of limitations for victims of child rape. (The Ohio Channel)]

A local man who was raped as a child by a church organist, who later became a priest, came forward publicly to work to change child rape laws in Ohio.

Paul Neyer was raped by Geoff Drew when Drew was the music minister at St. Jude in Green Township. Drew has since pleaded guilty to nine counts of rape.

On Tuesday, Neyer held up a picture of himself as an 8-year-old boy when he spoke before the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee. He was one of three rape survivors to testify about Senate Bill 226.

Neyer…

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“La Croix” survey shows many episcopal conferences around the world have still not implemented sex-abuse protocols Pope Francis issued three years ago

It’s been three years since Pope Francis issued strong directives to get the entire Church to address the issue of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people.

And what has been the result?

La Croix carried out a vast survey of all the bishops’ conferences in the world in order to find out.

We asked them a dozen questions about how they have applied the provision found in the “motu proprio” Vos estis lux mundi, which the pope promulgated on May 9, 2019.

This apostolic letter is particularly suitable for a global analysis since it states “that procedures be universally adopted to prevent and combat these crimes that betray the trust of the faithful”.

It also calls for a concrete and easily measurable step: the creation, within a…

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Though KVUE identified five cases within our viewing area, there could be more due to parts of the list being redacted.

 At least five Austin-area pastors and teachers were named among the hundreds of Baptist leaders accused or found guilty of sexual abuse of children, according to a 205-page document released by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

The convention released the list last week, which includes cases between 2000 to 2019.

The list was released in response to an independent investigation by Guidepost Solutions LLC, which concluded SBC leaders failed the public and its community by mishandling sexual abuse cases and mistreated victims and survivors, according to their report.

SBC released a statement regarding why its leaders made the decision to release their internal list:

“This list is being made public for the first time as an initial, but important,…

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The popular YouTube priest said he was ‘overjoyed and humbled’ to learn of the appointment.

Pope Francis has appointed a Los Angeles bishop to lead a southern Minnesota diocese.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Thursday that Francis has appointed Bishop Robert E. Barron to lead the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. Barron has served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for the last seven years and regularly posts YouTube videos.

He will replace 76-year-old Bishop John Quinn, who has decided to resign.

The Diocese of Winona-Rochester covers 12,282 square miles. Nearly 600,000 people reside in the diocese. About 134,000 of them are Catholics. The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and announced a $21.5 million settlement with 145 survivors of clergy sexual abuse last year.

Barron issued a statement on his Word on Fire website saying he will take over in Minnesota on July 29. He said…

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She didn’t immediately call police after an 18-year-old told her he’d been molested by Richard Kearney, according to a just-settled lawsuit that also says Bishop Frank Griswold’s office ignored other suspicions about the predator priest.

In 1990, a youth minister at an Episcopal church in La Grange was concerned about one of the teenagers who frequented the parish — an 18-year-old who’d been living out of a car, “acting strange and doing a lot of drugs.”

She confronted him, and he shared a secret: He’d been sexually abused for years as a boy. His abuser was Richard Kearney, an Episcopal priest who ran his childhood parish in Oregon, Illinois, before moving to a congregation in Waukegan.

“I told her I didn’t know why I was acting the way I was,” the man later said, according to court records. “I was hurting a lot, and I told her about the abuse….

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W debacie publicznej na temat wykorzystywania seksualnego małoletniego przez niektórych duchownych bardzo często – i słusznie – powraca wątek praw przysługujących osobom pokrzywdzonym. Na plan pierwszy wysuwa się fakt, że w postępowaniu kościelnym pokrzywdzony nie jest traktowany jako strona – poza zgłoszeniem faktu wykorzystania nie ma później np. wglądu w materiały dochodzenia.

Być może z tego właśnie powodu powstaje przekonanie, że poszkodowany pozbawiony jest jakichkolwiek praw. Nie jest to jednak prawdą, bo pewne prawa jednak poszkodowanym przysługują. Nie są one jednak skatalogowane w jednym miejscu i trzeba ich szukać w co najmniej sześciu dokumentach, w których podnoszone są sprawy wykorzystywania. Prawdopodobnie jest to kolejna przyczyna, dla której powszechnie uważa się, że poszkodowanemu żadne prawo nie przysługuje. Wydaje się, że dla przejrzystości procesów Kościół winien tę sprawę uregulować. Zanim się to jednak stanie, trochę wody w Tybrze i Wiśle upłynie.

Jednym z praw osoby poszkodowanej jest prawo do informacji…

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• “Si ponerse las pilas es haber creado las oficinas diocesanas para atender las denuncias por abusos, pues entonces sí se ha hecho, pero en la mayoría de los casos porque había la obligación de notificarlo a la Santa Sede antes de un año”, señala un canonista
• “El ‘motu proprio’ está produciendo un crecimiento exponencial de las denuncias, la gente se ha acercado a presentar su informe, a ser acogida y escuchada”
• “Cada vez hay más gente al frente de estas oficinas antiabuso con muchas ganas de trabajar, pero también se detecta que faltan medios humanos, económicos y de formación”
• Tres años después, hay países en donde ni se han creado las oficinas antiabuso y ni siquiera se han traducido las disposiciones emanadas de la carta apostólica del Papa

Este 1 de junio finaliza el trienio de vigencia ad experimentum de las normas decretadas por el papa Francisco en la carta apostólica en forma de motu…

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Please join us on June 4, in person or on Zoom!

A day of discussion, fellowship, and looking ahead.

Guest interviewers: Margery Eagan and Jim Braude of 89.7 GBH’s “Boston Public Radio”

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

• David Clohessy, former SNAP nat’l director
• Tom Doyle, whistleblower priest
• Mitchell Garabedian, Esq.
• Professor Marci Hamilton, Child USA
• Robert Hoatson, Road to Recovery
• Ann Hagan Webb, SNAP
• Kathy Dwyer, STTOP
• Anne Barrett Doyle, BishopAccountability
• Terry McKiernan, BishopAccountability

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE SCHEDULE AND EASY REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS

WHEN
Saturday – June 4, 2022 – 9:00-4:00 In-person and remote (ZOOM)

WHERE
Marriott Boston-Quincy Hotel
1000 Marriott Dr, Quincy MA

• The Marriott Boston-Quincy Hotel is convenient from Logan and public transportation (Red Line).
• Free parking.
• Box lunches served to registered attendees.

TO REGISTER
Just email Ruth at mooreruth01@gmail.com
Zoom attendees will be emailed log-in info Thursday evening and again on Friday night

Registration required for both in-person ($20) and ZOOM (free) attendees.
Registration fee waived if requested.

Schedule for June 4 conference View Cache

Indigenous leaders met with Canadian bishops on Wednesday and were told Pope Francis won’t add more stops, as they requested, to his trip to Canada, where he will apologize in person for the abuse suffered by Indigenous people at the hands of the Catholic church.

Pope Francis, who has been using a wheelchair because of a bad knee, will head to Canada on July 24 and visit Alberta, Quebec and Iqaluit, a small town in the far north. The pope leaves on July 29.

“Three locations were picked. The survivors had no say in that. We weren’t asked,” said Ken Young, a former regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Manitoba.

“We asked the bishops if that could change to include other venues, perhaps Kamloops, and that answer was no.”

Richard Smith, the archbishop of Edmonton, said the Vatican made it clear the trip had to be short,…

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Archives will be transferred to Royal B.C. Museum and some will be digitized

Records that could offer insight into some residential schools in British Columbia are being handed over to the Royal B.C. Museum. 

Archives from the Sisters of Saint Ann, which include information about day schools, residential schools, hospitals and more, will be transferred to the museum. The religious group will also fully fund an archivist at the museum to manage those archives. 

The museum says they also plan to digitize the records — or at least those that can be digitized. Some of the content date back to as far as 1858 and may be too delicate to handle. 

“Transparent access to comprehensive residential school records is essential to truth and reconciliation efforts,” museum CEO Alicia Dubois said in a media release.

The Sisters of Saint Ann was founded in Quebec in 1850, and moved to the west eight years later….

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Residential school survivors say they hope the Pope’s visit to Canada next month will include a direct apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in running the institutions.

Members of the National Indian Residential School Circle of Survivors hosted three days of meetings to discuss what they expect from the visit and reconciliation with the church.

On Wednesday, survivors met with three Roman Catholic bishops to share their wishes.

“I expect the Pope to apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church in the right way,” said Ken Young, a former Assembly of First Nations regional chief for Manitoba.

“There has to be some recognition that the (Catholic) Church is responsible for what happened. The Pope can represent that responsibility in a statement that says that.”

Pope Francis is to stop in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut. The capital cities of Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit are to act…

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I am a practicing Southern Baptist, and the dereliction of duty from SBC leadership over time has polluted the church’s ability to advance the gospel.

• USA TODAY Network Tennessee Columnist Cameron Smith is a Memphis-born, Brentwood-raised recovering political attorney raising three boys in Nolensville, Tennessee.
• Liability concerns tragically took the place of preserving the integrity of the SBC and its fellowship of churches.
• Dissolving the SBC as currently structured may be the only remedy.
• Individual churches making smart decisions are critically important, but the structural issues at the SBC remain.

According to a top lawyer for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), allegations of sexual abuse by church leaders represented a “satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.”

The diversion from the gospel is real, but the SBC’s wholly inadequate response to sexual abuse within its ranks is the culprit. Dissolving the SBC as currently structured may be the…

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America’s Catholic bishops also employed a self-serving standard, deeming nearly all sex-abuse claims credible.

Southern Baptists received a warning in 2007 from Fr. Thomas Doyle, a priest who had spent years drawing attention to claims of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church. In a letter to the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Fr. Doyle warned that the denomination was headed for a similar reckoning—unless it acted quickly. Inaction would lead to the same “incredible harm to your Church that the Catholic Church did not avoid.”

Fr. Doyle’s warning went unheeded, a fact that Southern Baptist leaders must now regret. Last week a 288-page report on sex abuse commissioned by the convention charged its leaders with myriad failures over the past 20 years. Among other things, the report faults the convention’s leadership for dismissing Fr. Doyle’s invitation to “learn from Catholic mistakes.”

This is ironic….

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A list of sexual abusers released late last week by the Southern Baptist Convention includes the names of three men with Wisconsin ties.

The three men, all former pastors, were charged with, or convicted of, crimes related to child sexual abuse.

The list, which includes over 700 names of abusers, includes about 400 believed to be affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. 

All three Wisconsin men were affiliated with the Baptist tradition, but none of their churches were specifically Southern Baptist in denomination.

Southern Baptist leaders released the previously secret list in response to a bombshell report from independent investigator Guidepost Solutions, which detailed how the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the denomination from liability.

The report revealed the existence of the 205-page list of abusers. Top leaders knew of the list…

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The chairman of the Board of Trustees and president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary jointly published today an open letter to the seminary community that includes a list of 13 individuals who were previously students and/or staff of the institution and who appear on a larger list of persons arrested or credibly charged with sexual abuse or sexual assault maintained by the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which was previously unknown until its release last week following an independent investigation.

All the individuals on the list released today were students and/or employees before 2018.

“Immediately after” the SBC Executive Committee list with more than 700 names was released, seminary leadership reviewed the information to “determine whether there were individuals on the list who have any current or past relationship with the institution,” wrote Board Chair Danny Roberts and President Adam W. Greenway in the open letter,…

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Organization’s former highest-paid employee was accused of sexual misconduct outside of work

Frustrated by poor communication and a workplace culture they say has been warped by secrecy and hypermasculinity, at least a half-dozen Word on Fire employees in recent months have resigned from the Catholic outlet founded by Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron.

Those who remain at the Illinois-based multimedia nonprofit are working in an environment that a few recently departed workers described to NCR as beset by low morale, damaged trust and a “boys’ club” culture that made some female employees uncomfortable and others unwilling to raise concerns to leadership.

“To put it bluntly, I do not feel that if I had been one of the victims, I would have been protected in any way,” said a former staff member, who left Word on Fire after working there for about a year.

The former employee, one of several…

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Southern Baptist leaders on Thursday released a list of alleged sex offenders connected to the church that had previously been kept secret.

The list was made public following a third-party investigation indicating leaders of the church ignored people who came forward with stories of abuse.

Within the 203-page list of alleged sex offenders were two pastors from the Mississippi Coast convicted of sex crimes, along with one from Slidell and one from New Orleans.

In 2016, Carlos Smith was a pastor for Unity Baptist Church in Wiggins and was convicted of sexual battery of a girl at the church he led.

The girl, a relative of the Saucier man, was 11 when the abuse began in 2011 and continued for three years.

David Mathew Thorne, a youth pastor from Goodyear Baptist Church in Picayune, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual battery and one count of touching a…

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A once-secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church personnel accused of sexual abuse has been released to the public by the Southern Baptist convention.

The database was released by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee following an investigation by Guidepost Solutions into allegations that the committee mishandled reports of abuse and mistreated survivors. 

The list released by the committee includes a case in Murphysboro, Illinois. According to the database, a man named Russell Bryant attended Elm Street Baptist Church in 2005. The database entry says the church knew Bryant was a registered sex offender, but didn’t believe he was in violation.

Bryant was charged in 2001 with sexually assaulting a girl between the ages of 13 and 16. He later pleaded guilty to that charge. Then, in 2005, the database entry says Bryant was charged with violating a law that prohibits registered sex offenders…

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An online event to inform and raise awareness about protecting minors and vulnerable people from sexual abuse was organized by MAGIS Thailand, a Catholic youth group committed to applying Ignatian spirituality in their daily lives.

Angela Rinaldi, a lecturer at the Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC), previously the Center for Child Protection (CCP), at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, was invited to be the keynote speaker at the May 27 event.

The focus was the sexual abuse and abuse of power within the Catholic Church, with several participants from Singapore and the Philippines joining their counterparts from Thailand during the Zoom conference.

Kittiya Wu, a programmer in her thirties from Bangkok, said: “We bear the same cross. Therefore, we must care for and help restore the Church’s credibility among Catholics as well as non-believers.”

Natthanon Nakro, a 25-year-old college student…

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Summary: Another word of Jesus’ the SBC’s leaders forgot, as the Catholic bishops did before them: “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

While the Catholic Church has spent much of the last three decades wrestling with deeply painful revelations of priestly sexual abuse and the bishops’ callous disregard for the people in their care, many American Protestant denominations self-righteously wagged fingers at the Catholic hierarchy for tolerating pedophile priests when they knew they had a problem.

“How can you help your brother remove the speck from his eye when you stagger along with a log in your own eyes?” Jesus asked. Those in the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest denomination, should have taken these words to heart.

A recent…

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In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. 

The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019 within the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

REVIEW: Database of sex abuse allegations

Its existence became widely known Sunday when the independent firm, Guidepost Solutions, included it in its bombshell report detailing how the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the SBC from liability.

Executive Committee leaders Rolland Slade and Willie McLaurin, in a joint statement, called publishing the list “an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention.”

“Each entry…

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The church’s report names pastors and youth ministers who have been convicted of child pornography, sodomy, solicitation and other crimes

The Southern Baptist Convention on Thursday released a once-secret and lengthy list of accused sex abusers — several of whom are in the Midwest — within the denomination.

The 205-page list is a compilation of ministers and other church workers who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The list is described as a “fluid, working document” that was also incomplete but largely pulls information about abusers from published news reports.

The publication of the list comes after the release of a 300-page report by an independent investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for decades have received reports of sexual abuse committed by church workers, pastors and others. But those reports were largely kept secret and, rather than acting upon and investigating reports of sexual abuse,…

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The Vatican’s longtime investment banker testified Monday that he repeatedly voiced concerns about a fund that was investing in a troubled London property, but said the Holy See’s secretariat of state insisted on pursuing the deal even as it lost money.

Enrico Crasso said he was very much on the sidelines of the London deal, which is at the center of the Vatican’s big fraud and embezzlement trial. Prosecutors have accused Crasso and nine other people of fleecing the Holy See of tens of millions of euros and of ultimately extorting the Vatican for 15 million euros to get control of the property.

Crasso, who handled the secretariat of state’s investments for 27 years at Credit Suisse and his own firms, is accused of several counts of embezzlement as well as corruption, fraud and extortion. Crasso denies wrongdoing and testified Monday that in his more than quarter-century of work for…

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Penelakut elder Raymond Tony Charlie writes In the Shadow of the Red Brick Building

Six decades after enduring unthinkable abuse at the hands of priests at Kuper Island Residential School, Raymond Tony Charlie is telling his story.

His recently released book, In the Shadow of the Red Brick Building, exposes the physical, emotional and sexual abuse, but also carries a message of resilience and recovery.

“It took me a long time to write this book,” Charlie explains of his more than eight-year journey to get the book published. “There were a lot of stops and starts and sometimes it was very difficult to write.”

Charlie, a member of the Penelakut Tribe, attended Kuper Island Residential School and another school in Mission B.C. in the 1960s. Other members of his family also attended the residential schools operated by the Catholic Church and other churches in Canada for more than a century.

He says…

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For six days in July, the most important thing happening in Canada will be an old man confronting the nation’s history.

Pope Francis will be in Canada July 24-29 on a pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation, visiting Edmonton, Alberta; Iqaluit, Nunavut; and Quebec City. That the 85-year-old pope will be limited by his age and his health is hardly a surprise, but it is also an advantage — an aspect of Pope Francis’ spiritual power to heal. For Indigenous Canadians, out of the many different parts of Pope Francis’ identity, none matters more than his status as an elder.

“In our minds and in our world view, as you age you become more valuable to the community,” explained Deacon Harry Lafond, Indigenous education scholar at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and former chief of the Muskeg Lake Cree First Nation. “Simply because your age tends to help you…

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On May 24, 2022, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Adult Survivors Act (“ASA”), which creates a one-year lookback window, beginning on November 24, 2022, for the revival of otherwise time-barred civil claims arising out of alleged sexual offenses committed against people who were 18-years-old or older at the time of the conduct. More specifically, the ASA establishes a new section in the New York Civil Practice Law & Rules that permits adult victims of sexual abuse to file a lawsuit against their alleged abusers regardless of when the offenses occurred or if the former statute of limitations period has run.

The ASA also provides that any revival claim is not subject to any order previously dismissing those claims as time-barred or for failure to file a notice of claim. The ASA revives any claims that a victim suffered physical, psychological, or other injuries as a result of sexual…

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Cardinal Angelo Sodano, a once-powerful Italian prelate who long served as the Vatican’s No. 2 official but whose legacy was tarnished by his support for the pedophile founder of an influential religious order, has died. He was 94.

The Vatican in its Saturday announcement of his death said Sodano had died on Friday. Italian state radio said that Sodano recently had contracted COVID-19, complicating his already frail health. Corriere della Sera said he died in a Rome clinic where he had been admitted a few weeks ago.

Pope Francis in a condolence telegram Saturday to Maria Sodano, the retired prelate’s sister, noted that Sodano had held many roles in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, culminating in his being named secretary of state on June 28, 1991, by the then-pontiff, John Paul II. A day later, John Paul, who later was made a saint, elevated Sodano to the rank of cardinal.

In…

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After four months of activity, an independent commission created by the Portuguese bishops to investigate child abuse has received at least 326 allegations of abuse.

The fact that 214 of them were collected within the first month of operation demonstrates that there has been a significant decline in the rhythm of testimonies over the past few months. Some of the group’s members are now calling on the country’s bishops to better publicize their work and encourage abuse victims to come forward.

It was the initiative of the Portuguese bishops’ conference to create the commission, a decision taken in November 2021 after the release of a report on abuse and cover-up in the French church shocked many across Europe.

One month before, the work group that investigated abuse in Catholic institutions in France had publicized the results of its investigation, estimating that some 216,000 people had experience abuse in…

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A Pillar symposium

A three-year experimental phase comes to an end June 1 for Vos estis lux mundi, the set of canonical policies promulgated by Pope Francis for investigating allegations of abuse, misconduct, or administrative negligence on the part of the Catholic Church’s bishops.

Vos estis lux mundi came into effect June 1, 2019 for an ad experimentum period that officially concludes Tuesday. While an official extension has not been announced by the Holy See, Vos estis has been understood to remain in force, and is expected to undergo revisions in the months to come.

While Vatican sources tell The Pillar that some bishops have been asked for feedback on the document, it is not clear whether other Catholics interested in reform efforts will be asked for their views on the possibilities for revising Vos estis lux mundi.

The Pillar asked victim-survivors, advocates, ecclesiastical officials, and other experts for their suggestions on the prospect of revising Vos estis lux mundi.

…

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On Tuesday, after being presented with three candidates, Pope Francis chose Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to be the new president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI).

The Bologna archbishop will be tasked with spearheading changes on the way clerical sexual abuse is addressed in the pope’s backyard.

In a recent interview, Pope Francis indicated that he wanted a man ready to “make a change” and that he preferred for him to be “authoritative,” meaning, “a cardinal.”

Zuppi, a leading figure in the Community of Sant’Egidio, arguably the lay movement most favored by the Argentine pontiff, is defined by those who know him as an authentic street priest, always close to the poor, a man of peace – he was part of the team of mediators that facilitated the Peace Accords in Mozambique in the early ’90s – and as an authoritative personality with pastoral sensibilities.

He was born in Rome and ordained…

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As the Italian bishops’ conference debates this week how to best address the clerical sexual abuse crisis and the calls for a nationwide investigation, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, head of the papal commission for the protection of children, told them that the only way forward is with the truth.

Speaking from experience, as he has spent much of the past 40 years addressing the scandals, O’Malley said, “We have nothing to fear by telling the truth. The truth will set us free. Acknowledging people’s stories of abuse, listening to survivors and committing to working together is not easy,” but “it is the only way.”

The Italian bishops are meeting this week for their general assembly. On Tuesday, they elected Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna as their new leader, and local observers have pointed out that his five-year term as head of the conference will largely be interpreted by how…

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We hope that Bishop Robert McElroy’s elevation to Cardinal signals a change in the California Catholic landscape. The current archbishops of Los Angeles and San Francisco, whose seniority is now usurped by the new Cardinal, have resisted transparency on behalf of sexual abuse survivors. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone alienates many by refusing to do the bare minimum of publishing a list of abusers from San Francisco. At least San Diego has a list and adds to it.

To be sure, Bishop McElroy has work to do to gain credibility; he ignored the advice of Richard Sipe, an esteemed clergy sexual abuse expert regarding Sipe’s warnings about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In the end, Sipe was right, and McElroy was mistaken. His list is short, as being proven by the lawsuits now piling up.

Now that Cardinal-elect McElroy has been given the red hat, we hope he…

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Analysis

Papal advisor Fr. Antonio Spadaro said Sunday morning that the pope’s appointment of San Diego’s Bishop Robert McElroy as a member of the College of Cardinals is “a strong and clear message for the Church in the United States.”

The appointment came as a surprise, apparently even to McElroy, who said in a May 29 statement that he was “stunned and surprised” by the papal nod.

Indeed, the cardinal-elect is not the metropolitan of a major archiepiscopal see, nor the prefect of a Vatican dicastery. Francis has previously appointed as cardinals the bishops of smaller sees, but every U.S. bishop to whom he has previously given a red hat has been an archbishop. 

And given that a growing number of American Catholics are Hispanic, many Vatican-watchers expected the next U.S. cardinal would also be Latino, even if it was not Los Angeles’ Archbishop Jose Gomez, whom the pope has…

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At the turn of the twentieth century, the modernist crisis roiled the entire Catholic Church. Modernism’s opponents claimed that exegesis and theology had become infected with rationalism, thereby undermining the historical truth of the Bible and the Christian faith. The remedy for this disease, they believed, was a widespread network of anonymous informants—called the Sodalitium Pianum or La Sapinière—who would denounce professors and others suspected of the modernist heresy. The accused priests would be summarily removed from their positions, with little or no chance of defense. 

While modernism was a real theological problem the Church needed to address, this overwrought response led to human rights abuses that haunted Catholicism for a long time. The modernist controversy comes to mind when thinking about the suppression of priests’ rights that has accompanied today’s sex abuse crisis. 

Recently, four veteran Catholic priests I know were suspended from priestly ministry. Each was suspended on the basis of…

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Many of us are struggling to come to terms with the news that the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention has covered up abuse, maligned survivors, and even kept a secret list of 700-plus sex offenders for years.

In the aftermath of this atrocious exposure, the behavior of various SBC leaders has been discouraging and even appalling. We are hearing many sorrowful words, but are these leaders just crying crocodile tears? Will words ever be followed by action?

One harrowing example is Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas. He appeared on Fox News speaking about the horror of the report. He bragged about how his own church has a zero-tolerance policy toward abuse. He then ended his interview by calling for survivors to forgive their offenders — an audacious, inappropriate, tone-deaf request to make as a pastor representing the denomination that has plundered the souls of victims repeatedly.

The icing…

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For two men who grew up in Sandusky, a lawsuit filed in California might be their last chance to get some form of justice for a local minister they say sexually abused them for years, and for the church that did nothing to stop it.

The California statute of limitations allows more time for alleged survivors of childhood sexual assault to bring legal action. It also provides a “look back window,” which suspended all statute of limitations time constraints for three years.

That “window” ends this year.

For Victor and Roy Matthews, like many alleged victims, the California law has provided the opportunity to ask a court to hear the allegations and render a judgment.

They contend that Bishop Rev. Rufus Sanders, of the Emmanuel Temple Church on East Adams Street in Sandusky, sexually molested both of them when they were boys, beginning in the late 1970s through the early…

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SINS OF THE FATHERS

Pope Francis just named the new head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference who says he will do what no one has ever dared: investigate clerical sex abuse in the shadow of the Vatican.

If there is one open secret in the eternal city, it is that the allegations of clerical sex abuse in Italy have always been swept away, into the shadows of the Vatican.

The last three popes have had mixed reviews on their handling of the global scandal. When the worst of the abuse was coming to light, Pope John Paul II was too infirm and impotent to do anything about it. His successor Pope Benedict XVI was demonstrably blind to the problems coming in from the global church, and was implicated in the coverup in Germany. Pope Francis has done more than both of his predecessors in terms of reconciling the pain. But none of these…

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The sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Southern Baptist Convention in recent days should prompt leaders within the denomination — and within individual churches — to examine the issue more closely, local pastors say.

“It’s overwhelming, and I am deeply concerned by the findings,” said the Rev. Steve Livengood, senior pastor of Abbotts Creek Missionary Baptist Church, one of the more than 30 High Point churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

“Sexual abuse should grieve us all, and it should grieve us that the name of Christ is harmed. I think we need to look at the recommendations closely to determine how we can ensure that every church is a safe place for every woman, man, girl and boy to come and worship our Lord.”

In an independent report released May 22, explosive details painted a picture of how SBC leaders had perpetuated a cycle of sexual abuse…

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When a sexual abuse scandal hits the church, words from its ministers can be indicative of how bad things really are. The reputation of the church is on the line, but so is the welfare of the people it serves.

“Mortified” is a word one minister used last week. “Heartbroken and sickened,” said another.

If you’re not up on this particular story, you might be led to believe that such reactions came from Catholic clergy, whose church has been repeatedly rocked by abuse allegations.

But not this time. These are the words of Eric Costanzo, pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church, and Todd Fisher, executive director-treasurer of Oklahoma Baptists and former pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee.

They’re both ordained ministers in the Southern Baptist Church, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and probably the most influential religious group in Oklahoma.

I know both men. They are…

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A large-scale lawsuit against the Southern Baptist Convention alleging a coverup of sexual abuse has been refiled by a new set of attorneys for Hannah Kate Williams.

An earlier version of the same charges had been filed in a Kentucky circuit court Aug. 16, 2021, but some months later was withdrawn. The new suit was filed by two nationally known attorneys specializing in abuse who now represent Williams.

The new lawsuit has been largely overlooked in the national media — perhaps because it was announced just two days prior to publication of the SBC’s massive report on sexual abuse.

On Friday, May 20, attorneys Vanessa B. Cantley and Brian Kent announced that they now represent Williams, who has been an outspoken advocate for reform in the SBC. Due to a recent change in Kentucky law, cases of this nature must be filed under seal, so Baptist News Global has not been able to…

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Between July 24 and 29, Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Chruch will be visiting Canada, making stops in Quebec City, Edmonton and Iqaluit. The visit is largely centred around reconciling the Church with First Nations, Metis and Inuit, in light of mass graves of children being found at Canada’s numerous residential schools.

Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok said the visit is important for Nunavummiut, particularly survivors who are still reeling from the horrors of residential school. Which has resulted in various issues for Inuit families in Nunavut, including addiction, chronic health problems and cycles of physical and sexual abuse, which originated from educators at residential schools.

“I’m really optimistic for the healing journey to start happening for the people who really need to be a part of this process,” said Akeeagok.

“We’ve all seen and we all know the devastation residential schools have played on Nunavummiut.”

On April 1…

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Given the death late Friday of Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who was 94, what’s often described as the Vatican’s “old guard” has taken a significant blow. Sodano had been the Secretary of State to two popes and the former Dean of the College of Cardinals, and he remained massively influential in shaping the Vatican’s internal culture.

With Sodano’s passing, the new de facto captain of the old guard arguably becomes 88-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Sodano’s successor as Dean of the College of Cardinals and, like Sodano, a product of the Secretariat of State, having served as an aide to the legendary Cardinal Giovanni Benelli when Benelli was the sostituto, or chief of staff, to Pope Paul VI.

What do we mean by the “old guard”?

The phrase refers to an informal network of longtime personnel, both clerical and lay, and primarily (though not exclusively) associated with the Secretariat of State, the Vatican’s…

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Bishops in Italy examine the issue of clergy sexual abuse

An independent body to look into sexual abuse; listening to victims; compensation; and a historical and sociological study.

These are among the demands that victims of clergy sex abuse are making to the Catholic Church in Italy. They are supported by a shocking book, co-authored by the historian Lucetta Scaraffia (Agnus Dei. Gli abusi sessuali del clero in Italia).

The demands are reminiscent of the courageous methods that bishops in France adopted when they established the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) under the direction of Jean-Marc Sauvé. Except that, so far, the Italian Church has been resistant to dealing with matters of sexual abuse.

 After initially claiming that it was not an issue in their country, the bishops are now saying that they can deal with it on their own and without external intervention, especially from…

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The death of Cardinal Sodano marks the end of an era.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who died on 27 May at the age of 94, was a Holy See diplomat who wielded enormous power inside the Vatican but whose time in office was tainted by his perceived failure to tackle high-profile cases of sexual abuse. 

The Italian prelate served as Secretary of State from 1990 to 2006 and during the years when John Paul II’s health was failing he effectively ran the Church’s central administration alongside the Polish Pope’s personal secretary, then-Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz. A highly skilled diplomat, in 1984 Sodano helped John Paul II to mediate a resolution to the decades-long conflict between Chile and Argentina over the islands in the Beagle channel, forcefully articulated the Vatican’s opposition to the 2003 Iraq war, and was closely involved in steering the Church’s diplomatic relations with eastern Europe, Russia and China. 

His…

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Free Catholic school tuition and cemetery plots are among the proposed compensation the island’s Catholic church wants to give victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The church, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019 as it faced hundreds of abuse lawsuits asking for more than $1 billion in damages, submitted its updated bankruptcy plan May 20. The plan provides more details about how the church intends to compensate victims.

The bankruptcy plan, which the church said will, “bring the greatest measure of justice to the greatest number of victims,” must be approved by a vote of the church’s creditors.

Real estate

The church wants to sign over dozens of pieces of real estate, worth about $18.35 million, to a trust for victim compensation, the bankruptcy plan states.

It also wants to separately sell its chancery office complex in Hagåtña and the church-owned FHP/TakeCare property in Tamuning. The church wants to use…

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The shocking news released this week of hundreds of Baptist church leaders and officials named in sexual abuse cases across the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) sent ripples through the faith community.

The self-help group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) spoke to us Sunday to give their perspective and also inform the public on resources available to victims.

“We’re not upset with the faithful in any denomination. It’s the leaders that SNAP has an issue with,” said David Brown.

Brown is a Tennessee SNAP representative who has his own experience with sex abuse.

“I was abused by a Catholic priest in Nashville from ‘61-’62,” Brown said. “I was a 15-year-old skinny, pimple faced kid. No one was going to believe me.”

He said he repressed those memories and remained silent for 35 years, and still his trauma was felt well-into adulthood.

…

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Notorious paedophile priest Vincent Gerard Ryan has died at the age of 84.

Key points:

• Vincent Gerard Ryan had 37 known victims
• Ryan has died at the age of 84
• Catholic Church officials will not comment on his death

Ryan, known as Vince Ryan, was jailed for more than two decades for abusing 37 known victims, dating back to the 1970s.

He completed his studies in Rome a decade earlier, before becoming a parish priest in the beachside Newcastle suburb of Merewether.

He went on to work as a parish priest across the New South Wales’ Hunter Valley until he was first jailed in 1996.

His abuse survivors are angry he has died without being stripped of holy orders, or defrocked.

The Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese will not comment on his death.

Victims raise the alarm

It was July 1995 when two men, Gerard McDonald and Scott Hallett, raised the alarm on Ryan’s abuse.

Ryan…

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Pope Francis this morning announced the creation of 21 new cardinals, most of whom will be eligible to vote in the next papal conclave. One of them is Robert McElroy, the ultra-progressive bishop of San Diego. For Catholics who actually believe what the Catholic Church teaches, this is terrible news.

And for Catholics who would like their Church to be run by men who can be trusted to do the right thing on sex abuse — well, Francis long ago showed (e.g., the Zanchetta affair) that he cannot be trusted. And here he goes again. Here’s a link to a 2016 letter that Richard Sipe, the (now-deceased) psychotherapist and foremost expert on the sexual habits of the Catholic clergy, sent to McElroy back in 2016. Excerpts:

It was clear to me during our last meeting in your office, although cordial, that you…

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Andrew Ehman claims senior monk ‘discreetly’ observed abuse occur in boys’ shower, did not intervene

[Warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault, and could negatively affect someone who has experienced similar trauma.]

A third man has now filed a civil suit alleging sexual abuse at Mission’s minor seminary school while he was a teenager. Andrew Ehman, like the two other accusers, attended the high school seminary for aspiring priests in the 1970s.

In his civil claim, filed in BC Supreme Court on May 24, Ehman says Shawn Rohrbach was an adult student at the college seminary in 1975 when he allegedly plied Ehman with alcohol and committed sexual battery against him. Ehman was 16 at the time.

Harry Sanders (known as Father Placidus), whose estate is named in all three suits, “detected and discreetly observed” the abuse taking place in the boys’ shower room and did nothing, which allowed…

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Here is a list of the 21 men Pope Francis will install as Roman Catholic cardinals at a ceremony known as a consistory on Aug. 27.

Cardinal Electors under 80 will be able to enter a conclave to elect the next pope after Francis dies or retires:

1. Archbishop Arthur Roche (British) – Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

2. Archbishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik (South Korean) – Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy

3. Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga (Spanish) – President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President of the Governorate for Vatican City State

4. Archbishop Jean-Marc Aveline – Metropolitan Archbishop of Marseille, France

5. Bishop Peter Okpaleke – Bishop of Ekwulobia, Nigeria

6. Archbishop Leonardo Ulrich Steiner – Metropolitan Archbishop of Manaus, Brazil

7. Archbishop Filipe Neri António Sebastião di Rosário Ferrão – Archbishop of…

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[Via the Catholic Telegraph]

Pope Francis announced Sunday that he will create 21 new cardinals in August, one of whom is the bishop of San Diego, California.

Who is Bishop Robert McElroy? Here are some fast facts:

A San Francisco Native, McElroy Has Led the San Diego Diocese Since 2015

Born in San Francisco in 1954, Bishop McElroy grew up in San Mateo County. McElroy was ordained a priest in 1980 and served as an auxiliary bishop to San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone starting in 2010.

In 2015, Pope Francis tapped him to lead the San Diego diocese, succeeding Bishop Cirilo Flores, who died of cancer in September 2014 just one year after assuming the position.

McElroy underwent coronary bypass surgery late last year, which according to the diocese was successful. As a cardinal, at age 68, he is well within the maximum age of 80…

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Back in February, we reported that former St. Peter’s Parish Pastor, James Garisto was arrested with charges of endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors and indecent assault. New information against Garisto has surfaced with a new accusation from a former St. Peter’s altar server.

Previous Allegations

As we previously reported, Garisto, who owned a home in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia at the time of the earlier assaults, was accused of attacking a child hundreds of times between 1995 and 2002. He was released from custody after posting 10% of his $75,000 bail.  

Garisto has been in the public eye since his abrupt removal as pastor of St. Adalbert – St. Roch parish in North Shore Staten Island in 2015. His departure caused plenty of confusion and distress, as seen from the video at the bottom of this article. On leave from the Archdiocese of New York since…

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[Note from BishopAccountability.org: See the Southern Baptist Convention list and the report. See also Christa Brown’s website, the Baptist Accountability website, and the Houston Chronicle’s Abuse of Faith investigation.]

They were right. I was wrong to call sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) a crisis. Crisis is too small a word. It is an apocalypse.

Someone asked me a few weeks ago what I expected from the third-party investigation into the handling of sexual abuse by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee. I said I didn’t expect to be surprised at all. How could I be? I lived through years with that entity. I was the one who called for such an investigation in the first place.

And yet, as I read the report, I found that I could not swipe the screen to the next page because my hands were shaking with rage. That’s because, as dark a…

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How many bad apples must we pluck before we recognize that the orchard is diseased?

Yesterday, at 4 p.m. eastern time, the Southern Baptist Convention released a comprehensive, independent report of its executive committee’s response to decades of sex-abuse allegations. The SBC is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, by far. It is the nation’s most powerful and influential evangelical denomination, by far. Its 14 million members help define the culture and ethos of American evangelicalism.

Last June delegates, called “messengers,” to the SBC’s annual convention responded to proliferating reports of inadequate or corrupt responses to sex-abuse allegations by voting overwhelmingly to commission an external review of their own leaders. The executive committee hired a firm called Guidepost to conduct the investigation.

The report is a calamity. My friend Russell Moore, a former president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, called it an “apocalypse.” The report says that “for…

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[Includes video with brief interview of convicted deacon Stephen Douglas Livingston in prison, and of the mother of victim Heather Schneider.]

As a pastor who holds Southern Baptist Convention school degrees and has served on boards for SBC entities, I am mortified by what report disclosed.

A dark and difficult day has come for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). We knew it was coming. It needed to come. And it is devastating.

As the prophet Isaiah warned, “What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?”

The Southern Baptist Convention and our convention of churches now have nowhere to turn, nowhere to run, and no place left to look but inward. This past week, Guidepost Solutions released the full report of their independent investigation of…

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Victims of sexual abuse at Southern Baptist institutions no doubt hoped they would find a caring reception when they took their stories to the denomination’s leaders in Nashville. But for decades, what they received was legal stonewalling.

The grim story is told in abundant detail by investigators hired to review the denomination’s stubborn failure to address abuse by clergy and other church employees. Again and again, their report shows, victims and their supporters went in search of atonement only to find attorneys in their way. Neither Jesus nor the Bible figures prominently in the internal documents quoted in the report, but risk management and dodging liability are constant concerns.

“Over the years, the EC’s response to sexual abuse allegations” — the “EC” referred to is the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention — “was largely driven by senior EC staff members, particularly D. August ‘Augie’ Boto, the…

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In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse.

The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019.

Its existence became widely known Sunday when the independent firm, Guidepost Solutions, included it in its bombshell report detailing how the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the SBC from liability.

Executive Committee leaders Rolland Slade and Willie McLaurin, in a joint statement, called publishing the list “an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention.”

“Each entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” they said. “Our prayer is that the survivors…

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Note: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault.

In an open letter to his former church, Southern Baptist Convention leader Johnny Hunt admitted to inappropriate behavior with a woman in 2010 but denied he sexually assaulted her as alleged by the woman and her husband.

The incident was highlighted in the May 22 report issued by Guidepost Solutions after its independent investigation into alleged mishandling of sexual abuse cases in the SBC. One week before the report was released, Hunt abruptly resigned as senior vice president at NAMB.

About an hour and a half after release of the Guidepost report on Sunday, Hunt issued a statement via Twitter denying the allegations of abuse: “I vigorously deny the circumstances and characterizations set forth in the Guidepost report. I have never abused anybody.”

Five days later, Hunt issued an open letter admitting to inappropriate behavior with the pastor’s wife but denying that it was a…

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For those unaware, a new and remarkable Southern Baptist Abuse Report was released this week at the Southern Baptist Convention, showcasing the denomination’s handling of sexual abuse over the past two decades. Conducted by a third-party investigator, the new Southern Baptist Abuse Report features almost 300 pages of allegations, cover-ups of reported sexual abuse cases, and an internal list of 703 people suspected of abuse.

Here are four takeaways from the shocking Southern Baptist Convention showcasing child sex abuse and cover-up scandals that burst into the public consciousness this week.

1) Institutions can do more than they claim or admit.

For at least 15 years, Baptist officials repeatedly told victims, advocates and reformers: “We can’t compile a list of child molesting clergymen” and “We can’t take action to stop abuse as a national body because all our churches are independent.” Events of the last few days prove these…

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Bombshell.

That’s how multiple media outlets described the 395-page report released Sunday (May 22) by Guidepost Solutions after a months-long investigation into how the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee responded to clergy sexual abuse allegations over the last two decades. The Houston Chronicle, whose investigative journalism in 2019 deserves credit for helping lead to this new report, explained how Guidepost documented the systemic efforts by leaders of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to cover up sexual abuse and misconduct.

“The investigation sheds new and unprecedented light on the backroom politicking and deceit that has stymied attempts at reforms and allowed for widespread mistreatment of child sexual abuse victims,” Chronicle reporters Robert Downen and John Tedesco wrote Sunday. “And it exhaustively corroborates what many survivors have said for decades: that Southern Baptist leaders downplayed their own abuse crisis and instead prioritized shielding the SBC — and its hundreds of millions of dollars in annual donations — from…

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The report on sexual abuse by ministers of the Southern Baptist Convention, or SBC, and the failure of the denomination’s leaders to respond with Christlike concern for the victims, makes comparison with the travails of the Catholic Church all too easy to draw.

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior [Executive Committee] leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse… and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC,” the report stated.

“In service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action due to its polity regarding church autonomy — even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation,” it said.

Sound familiar? For years, reporters here…

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Cardinal Angelo Sodano, a controversial Vatican power broker for more than a quarter of a century who was accused of covering up one of the Catholic Church’s most notorious sex abusers, has died at the age of 94.

Sodano, who had been ill for some time and died on Friday night, was secretary of state under two popes — John Paul II and Benedict XVI — holding the number two post in the Vatican hierarchy for 16 years between 1990 and 2006.

It was widely believed that Sodano, together with John Paul’s secretary, then-Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, ran the Church in the final years of the late pope’s life as his health deteriorated from Parkinson’s and other illnesses. John Paul died in 2005.

In a series of exposes in the National Catholic Reporter in 2010, author Jason Berry, a leading expert on the Church’s sex abuse crisis, wrote how Sodano blocked…

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A recent News 4 Investigation into a Jefferson County center where Catholic priests and clergy accused of sexually abusing children are living under the radar has led to a new police investigation.

The center is located in Dittmer, Missouri. It’s called the Vianney Renewal Center and is run by the Servants of the Paraclete, a Catholic religious order founded in 1947. The Servants of the Paraclete’s website claims to “provide care for priests and brothers in need.” Nothing mentions sexual abuse.

Read: Priests accused of sexual abuse living at Jefferson County treatment center

While reporting on the center, News 4 Investigates found one former clergy member, Robert Brouillette, who is listed on the national sex offender registry, as living at the Paracletes center. His name does not show up on the Missouri sex offender registry as required by law.

News 4 Investigates brought this to the…

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Native American tribal representatives are partnering with Catholic dioceses and religious congregations in uncovering vast amounts of information about the church’s role in operating residential schools that for more than a century worked to assimilate Indigenous children into white society.

Known as the Catholic Native Boarding School Accountability and Healing Project, or AHP, the effort is helping church institutions learn about their past and aiding Native American communities fill holes in their ancestral history.

The “pain of the realization of the immensity of the harms caused,” motivated Sister Susan Torgersen of Minneapolis to join the effort as a member of its coordinating team and its Religious Accompaniment Subcommittee working with religious congregations of women and men.

She said the AHP seeks to work toward accountability by Catholic institutions’ and to promote healing among both Indigenous tribes and Catholic entities.

“As church, we owe our Native brothers and sisters what it…

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German Catholic Bishop Georg Bätzing has defended his decision to promote a priest accused of sexual harassment.

The bishop of Limburg, western Germany, said on May 26 that if he was taking the decision today, he would send the case for review to a diocesan advisory board, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

The board did not exist at the time that Bätzing appointed the unnamed priest to the post of district dean, although the bishop knew of the allegations and was in contact with both reported victims, the “Christ und Welt” supplement of the German newspaper Die Zeit said on May 25.

The victims were identified as a trainee Protestant pastor and a Catholic employee of the Limburg diocese.

Bätzing, who has served as chairman of the German Catholic bishops’ conference since 2020, said that today he would “present the whole matter and ask…

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Anti-abuse activists on Friday demonstrated near the Vatican embassy to Italy to demand action into sexual abuse in the Italian Catholic Church, amid ongoing discussion on how such an investigation should be organised.

A small group of protesters approached the Apostolic Nunciature building, near the centre of Rome, carrying boards with pictures of men and women with blood-stained underwear. One of the protesters had a nun’s veil on her head.

They said they took inspiration from a protest staged in the Estonian capital Tallinn in April which sought to draw attention to alleged violence committed by invading Russian forces against women in Ukraine. In that protest demonstrators applied fake blood to their underwear and down their legs.

“I have unfortunately experienced paedophilia and every victim knows they cannot recover from what they have been through, but the greatest wish is that other children do not suffer what we have experienced,”…

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All eyes are on Italy’s bishops this week to see if they will finally launch a full-scale investigation into pedocriminality within the Catholic Church in their country.

Members of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) gathered at a large hotel on the outskirts of Rome on Monday for a week-long plenary assembly as victims of clergy sex abuse and their supporters issued demands for an inquiry.

“We ask for the full collaboration of the Italian Church in an independent investigation, conducted by credible and objective professionals, that sheds light on the abuses committed by the clergy in Italy,” said an open letter issued by “Italy Church Too”, a group of associations created in February to give weight to these demands.

“We ask that the archives of dioceses, convents, monasteries, parishes, pastoral centers, and Catholic educational and scholastic institutions be opened and made available (and) that channels of effective collaboration be put…

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Barely had Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, the new head of the Italian bishops’ conference and key Pope Francis ally, wrapped up a Friday press conference announcing a new study of clerical sexual abuse cases when survivors of abuse proclaimed they were “very unhappy” and declared the bishops’ initiative “useless.”

“It’s rather sad. It’s not good, we are very unhappy,” said Francesco Zanardi, an abuse survivor himself and head of Rete L’Abuso (“The Abuse Network”), Italy’s lone survivors group.

For months, both abuse survivors and advocacy groups in Italy have pressured the Italian bishops and state officials to conduct an independent national inquiry into clerical abuse going back decades, offering a comprehensive report similar to those being published in other European countries.

The previous leadership of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), led by Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, had said it was considering the proposal but would let the new officials elected during the…

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The new president of the Italian Conference of Bishops on Friday said he would launch an independent inquiry on sex abuse by Catholic clergy in Italy, but the announcement disappointed victims advocates because it will only go back 20 years.

The Italian church is coming under mountain pressure to confront its legacy of clerical sexual abuse. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who was appointed this week by Pope Francis, said the investigation will limit its scope to two decades in order to be “more accurate and accountable.”

Zuppi promised a report would be delivered by Nov. 18 by a panel of independent experts selected among university professors.

“We are starting from them (the victims),” Zuppi told a news conference. “It is clear that their suffering drives us, and it should stimulate us to give responses that are trustworthy and serious.”

Victims’ advocates say the initiative does not go far enough. They…

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In his first press conference since being selected as president of the Italy’s bishops’ conference, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi announced on Friday plans for a report on clerical sex abuse in the country.

“Our thoughts always go to the victims and that is the first concern,” Zuppi said on May 27.

“We need to strengthen diocesan services for minors and vulnerable people,” he said, according to ACI Stampa, CNA’s Italian-language news partner.

The cardinal announced that the report will only cover abuse in the Catholic Church in Italy from the year 2000 to 2021. He said it is due to be released on Nov. 18, 2022.

“There is a willingness peacefully and painfully to clarify, here we evaluate with accuracy … We want fair and true clarity,” Zuppi said.

The possibility of reparations for victims is an open question at this time, according to the cardinal, who said…

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[Google translation followed by original Italian text.]

The almost two-hour dialogue between Pope Francis and the Bishops opened the 76th General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference in the Vatican.

The various sessions, which took place at the Hilton Rome Airport in Fiumicino (Rome) from 23 to 27 May 2022, had as their central theme: “Listening to the narratives of the people of God. The first discernment: which priorities are emerging for the Synodal Way? “.

It was attended by 223 members, 14 Bishops emeritus, the Apostolic Nuncio in Italy HE Mons. Emil Paul Tscherrig, the President of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) HE Mons. Gintaras Grušas, the Coordination Group of the Synodal Way and the representatives of the Synodal Way delegates from the Regional Episcopal Conferences.
In the course of the works, a trio of diocesan bishops were elected, from which the Holy Father appointed the new President…

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The Italian Bishops’ Conference on Friday presented its plan to investigate clerical abuse, but critics say it is insufficient and disappointing.

Italian bishops said on Friday that they would carry out a long-demanded investigation into clerical sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable persons, but victims and their advocates immediately said the plan fell short of what was needed.

Seeking to address the concerns about the revelations of abuse that have devastated the church worldwide, the bishops announced that they would commission a report examining cases from 2020-21, to be published in November, as well as a second report that would analyze how clerical abuse had been handled in Italy in the past two decades.

“We don’t want to evade,” Matteo Zuppi, the newly elected president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, told reporters. “We’ll take the beating we have to take.”

Even though Rome is home to the…

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[Note from BishoAccountability.org: See the Southern Baptist Convention list and the report.]

A joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade:

The recently released Guidepost report revealed a list of alleged abusers compiled by a former employee of the SBC Executive Committee. This list is being made public for the first time as an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention. Each entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse. Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable among us.

Our God invites us to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. (Micah 6:8). As a network of Great Commission churches, we are commissioned to live out the Great Commandment…

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On March 8, 2022, my office received a credible allegation of inappropriate conduct by Fr. Percy Singco, MSP, Parochial Administrator of St. Patrick Parish in Weaverville. This allegation involved inappropriate conduct with an adult woman.

We take every allegation of this nature very seriously and act promptly to ensure the safety of parishioners and others with whom an accused priest may have been in contact. Accordingly, I removed Fr. Singco from ministry as of March 10, 2022, pending the outcome of an investigation into this matter.

The investigation has concluded. Fr. Singco was found to have violated diocesan policy regarding clergy conduct. He no longer has an assignment, nor does he have faculties in the Diocese of Sacramento. I have asked him to return to his order, the Missionary Society of the Philippines (MSP), effective today.

The laws of the Catholic Church and our Diocese are clear on this topic….

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They dedicated their lives to a gospel that says that every human being is made in the image of God. They dedicated their lives to a creed that commands one to look out for the marginalized, the vulnerable. The last shall be first. The meek shall inherit the earth.

And yet when allegations of sexual abuse came, the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention betrayed it all. Those men — and they seem to have all been men — must have listened to hundreds of hours of pious sermons, read hundreds of high-minded theological books, recited thousands of hours of prayer, and yet all those true teachings and good beliefs had no effect on their actual behavior.

Instead, according to an independently produced report released by the convention this week, those leaders covered up widespread abuse in their denomination and often intimidated and belittled victims. More than 400 people believed…

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Key leaders of a controversial megachurch have resigned following a series of accusations of abuse and harassment within the organisation.

Brent and John and Gillian Cameron announced their resignations in a statement on the Arise Church website on Friday.

Lead pastors John and Gillian Cameron​ said they had listened to the stories of those who had “experienced pain” in their church, and they were repentant.

“We wish to apologise to all those who have been hurt, either by our actions or the actions of others, both past and present.”

“We are resigning to allow for real change to take place. We believe that our resignation ensures the best future for both the staff and the congregation of Arise.”

Arise Church recently launched two reviews into allegations its interns had been “overworked, overwhelmed, and taken advantage of”.

At the time, the church said on its website that an independent reviewer has been appointed to…

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“Yes, we dropped our guard—particularly in the 1970s. It was a terrible, terrible decade. And the Church deserves criticism for what happened then. But also, if we’re going to be fair about it, we have to give credit where credit is due…”

Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University. His writing, speaking engagements, and appearances on countless television and radio programs see him addressing many issues from a Catholic perspective, as well as through the lens of sociology. His recent books include Why Catholicism Matters: How Catholic Virtues Can Reshape Society in the 21st Century (Image, 2018) and Common Sense Catholicism: How to Resolve Our Cultural Crisis (Ignatius Press, 2019).

His latest book is The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes (Ignatius Press, 2021). In it, he brings to bear his background as…

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British prosecutors said Thursday they had authorized police to charge actor Kevin Spacey with four counts of sexual assault against three men, an announcement that came as the actor was in court in New York testifying in a different case.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it had “authorized criminal charges” on the four sex assault counts and one of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.”

The alleged incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and one in western England in April 2013. The alleged victims are now in their 30s and 40s.

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the service’s Special Crime Division, said the charges followed a review of evidence gathered by London’s Metropolitan Police.

Prosecutors initially said Spacey had been charged. However, they later clarified that charges had been authorized, but the formal charging by police had not yet taken place.

…

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A three-judge panel on Thursday upheld the sentence for a Juarez Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing an altar girl when she was 8 years old.

The Rev. Aristeo Baca was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of aggravated sexual abuse in February 2021.

In early March, the same three-judge panel sentenced Baca to 34 years in prison. He had appealed, but the judges upheld the sentence on Thursday.

The abuse took place inside the Santa Maria de la Montana parish in South Juarez between December 2015 and January 2018, the state Attorney General’s Office said.

The investigation began when the girl’s parents called the police after their daughter refused to go back to the church in early 2019. Police psychologists and medical personnel determined the girl had suffered sexual assault, the AG’s Office said in a statement.

Baca denied the charges, although prosecutors alleged…

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In 2002, for the first time, the Catholic Church’s secret sex abuse files were made public. Thousands of victims came forward, and a global movement began. Saturday, June 4 – A day of presentations, discussion, fellowship, and looking ahead.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE SCHEDULE AND EASY REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS

Guest interviewers: Margery Eagan and Jim Braude of 89.7 ‘GBH’s “Boston Public Radio”

• David Clohessy, former SNAP nat’l director
• Tom Doyle, whistleblower priest
• Mitchell Garabedian, Esq.
• Professor Marci Hamilton, Child USA
• Robert Hoatson, Road to Recovery
• Ann Hagan Webb, SNAP
• Kathy Dwyer, STTOP
• Anne Barrett Doyle, BishopAccountability
• Terry McKiernan, BishopAccountability

WHEN
Saturday – June 4, 2022 – 9:00-4:00 In-person and remote (ZOOM)

WHERE
Marriott Boston-Quincy Hotel
1000 Marriott Dr, Quincy MA

• The Marriott Boston-Quincy Hotel is convenient from Logan and public transportation (Red Line).
• Free parking.
• Box lunches served to registered attendees.

Registration required for both in-person ($20) and ZOOM (free) attendees.
To register, email Ruth at mooreruth01@gmail.com.
Registration fee waived if requested.

Schedule…

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When news broke that Southern Baptist leaders had covered up sex abuse for decades I felt a numb sense of familiarity. I came of age as a Catholic against the backdrop of our own ongoing sex abuse crisis. It would be years before I would truly understand how sexual violence and the criminal conspiracies that perpetuated it had defined contemporary U.S. Catholicism.

One thing was clear quite quickly, however. The sex abuse scandal cast doubt on the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church itself. A similar crisis of moral authority is underway for arguably the most significant white evangelical institution in the country. I say this both as a U.S. religious historian and as a Catholic who grew up in Alabama surrounded by Southern Baptists. As Russell Moore, a prominent former Southern Baptist, put it, “this is the Southern Baptist apocalypse.”

The Southern Baptist Convention, or…

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Drew Dixon spent 22 years not talking about what happened to her.

But in 2017, she joined a chorus of women giving voice for the first time to some of the worst experiences of their lives. For Ms. Dixon, that meant going public to The New York Times with a long-suppressed claim that the media mogul Russell Simmons had raped her.

The response was swift and seismic: widespread media attention, conversations on Twitter, a documentary. There was solidarity, backlash and, ultimately, a sense of peace.

But there would be no criminal case or any lawsuit against Mr. Simmons: The statute of limitations for either had long since passed during the two decades Ms. Dixon kept her silence.

But Ms. Dixon will soon have an opportunity to revisit pursuing her case.

The State Assembly on Monday overwhelmingly passed the Adult Survivors Act, which enables adult victims, those 18 or older…

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Former Ward at St. Dominic’s Children’s Home Recalls Ordeal of Being Raped at 9 Years Old

A man who was sexually abused over 25 years ago, when he was about nine years old, wants the “sexual monster” to be brought to justice.

The man who shared his heart-­wrenching experience with the Express yesterday said he is willing to tell all to the police, in the hope that the abuser, who sexually abused 30 to 40 children at the home, is finally held accountable for the crimes he committed which left him and many others shattered and traumatised for life.

The victim provided a detailed account of the horror he endured at the hands of the man, including being fondled by a priest who was aware that he was abused , and a Sister at the home who burnt all the kitchen towels after learning the perpetrator used these to clean…

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Lawyers for people who say they were victimized by child sexual abuse from clergy in the Rochester Catholic Diocese are unhappy with an attempt by the diocese to settle those claims in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, who is one of the lawyers representing 175 of those who are claimants in the lawsuits, said that the diocese is trying to force a $147 million dollar settlement on 475 survivors and victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Anderson does not feel that is a particularly generous offer. He contends that that the Diocese has billions of dollars in insurance coverage. He called it, “an effort to cheat survivors that will retraumatize them.”

Another attorney representing those involved in the lawsuits, Mitchell Garabedian, said the amount of money being offered is tied to the respect that should be shown for the survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

“Survivors need validation and they need…

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Safety was not a concern when her son became an altar server at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Poughkeepsie.

In her mind, the church was a place where the 15-year-old would be guided spiritually and emotionally.

When the Rev. James Garisto took a special interest in her son, she hoped he would be a positive influence.

That was 2006. In the years since, the mother watched as her son fell down what she called a “horrific path” that included a 10-year battle with drug addiction that nearly led to the end of his life on more than one occasion.

The root of that trauma, the family says, is sexual abuse suffered through the relationship with Garisto, of which they say the church was aware.

Garisto served as priest at St. Peter’s from 1998 to 2014.

He was taken into custody on May 4 by Philadelphia police based on allegations…

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If you pay only minimal attention to news outlets, you know the story of the week is the Southern Baptist Convention’s stunning cover up of clergy sexual abuse. The glaring headlines of Christianity Today, The Washington Post and The New York Times are hard to miss, especially if you have been on social media. Baptist News Global has provided extensive coverage of the unfolding story.

While I have much to say about the horrifying revelations that have come to light, a story that needs to be told is that the 300-page report released by Guidestone Solutions can be directly traced to courageous, tenacious women; women who reported their own abuse; women who advocated for those who had been abused; women who stood strong in defiance of powerful Southern Baptist leaders; women who fought, some for years, against a corrupt system; women who were called names, slandered, ridiculed and threatened but who did not back down…

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The Diocese of Rochester, New York, and its insurers have submitted a proposal to bankruptcy court to settle 471 sexual abuse claims against them for $147 million. The settlement includes $107,750,000 from insurers and $40,500,000 from the Catholic diocese and its entities.

The offer came after years of negotiations between insurers and the diocese.

The settling insurers include London Market Insurers ($16.6 million), certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s ($1.1 million), Interstate Fire & Casualty Co. and National Surety Corp. ($26 million), and Continental Insurance Co. (CNA) and its affiliates ($63.5 million). The liability insurance policies affected were purchased starting in 1943.

The offer would allow for an average recovery of more than $300,000 per survivor claim, according to the filing.

Lawyers for the victims of sexual abuse criticized the proposal as a deal made with insurers that shortchanges the victims. Jeff Anderson & Associates, a law firm that represents survivors of…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester has put forward a $147.75 million offer to settle claims filed by 475 sexual-abuse survivors in the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Whether the nine-figure offer will bring a quick end to the long-stalled bankruptcy at this point seems far from certain. The offer was outlined in a filing posted with the Rochester Bankruptcy Court late Friday afternoon.

In court papers, the diocese portrays the offer as a deal that would best serve the abuse victims “by achieving certainty with respect to a very substantial insurance contribution rather than risking the cost, extensive delay, and uncertain outcome of litigation in pursuit of the theoretical possibility of a larger recovery at some point in the distant future.”

The Rochester diocese filed bankruptcy in September 2019, roughly a month after the New York Child Victims Act went into effect. 

Signed into law in February of that year, the…

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An independent investigation commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, showed that sexual abuse allegations were ignored or covered up by church elders for nearly 20 years.

That scathing report named Steve Gaines, the senior pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church, as one of the SBC leaders who “protected or even supported abusers.”

SBC leadership called for this investigation at last year’s annual convention. Guidepost Solutions took seven months to complete its investigation, looking at incidents between January 1, 2000 and June 14, 2021.

The nearly 300-page report concluded, “to survivors, the 2016 election of Steve Gaines as SBC President conveyed the message that a clergy sex abuse cover-up was considered ‘no big deal.’”

It was a stunning remark about Gaines, spiritual leader of one of the largest churches in the Mid-South: Bellevue Baptist in Cordova, 30,000 members…

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The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee — and thousands of its rank-and-file members — now have opportunities to address a scathing investigative report that says top SBC leaders stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations.

The report, issued Sunday, says these survivors, and other concerned Southern Baptists, repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive Committee, “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.”

The seven-month investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm contracted by the Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s national meeting pressed for a probe by outsiders.

Since then, several top Executive Committee leaders have resigned, and the body — under interim leadership — will meet Tuesday to discuss the report. Three weeks later, the SBC will convene its 2022 national meeting in…

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Top Southern Baptists plan to release secret list of pastors, church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse

Top administrative leaders for the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, said Tuesday that they will release a secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse.

An attorney for the SBC’s Executive Committee announced the decision during a virtual meeting called in response to a scathing investigative report detailing how the committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse and stonewalled numerous survivors. The committee anticipates releasing the list Thursday.

During the meeting, top leaders and several committee members vowed to work toward changing the culture of the denomination and to listen more attentively to survivors’ voices and stories.

The report is expected to contain new details about former Jacksonville Pastor Darrell Gilyard. He was a pastor at Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church…

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In the summer of 2010, a pastor and his wife at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Georgia, said they received an invite to vacation in Florida with Johnny Hunt, a senior pastor of their church whom they considered a mentor.

The 55-year-old church leader had been elected national president of the Southern Baptist Convention two years earlier, making him one of the most powerful members of the largest denomination of Protestants in the U.S.

Hunt allegedly helped to book them a place in Panama City Beach that, unbeknownst to them, was directly beside his unit in the same condo complex, the unnamed young couple said in a 288-page blockbuster investigative report released Sunday by the Southern Baptist Convention. When the pastor’s wife arrived alone after a day out, she said she was greeted by Hunt, and they interacted from their respective balconies.

But when she invited…

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Top administrative leaders for the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, said Tuesday that they will release a secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse.

An attorney for the SBC’s Executive Committee announced the decision during a virtual meeting called in response to a scathing investigative report detailing how the committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse and stonewalled numerous survivors. The committee anticipates releasing the list Thursday.

During the meeting, top leaders and several committee members vowed to work toward changing the culture of the denomination and to listen more attentively to survivors’ voices and stories.

The 288-page report by Guidepost Solutions, which was released Sunday after a seven-month investigation, contained several explosive revelations. Among those were details of how D. August Boto, the Executive Committee’s former vice president and general counsel, and former SBC spokesman Roger Oldham kept their…

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A first-of-its-kind U.S. government investigation is helping to reveal the deadly and commonplace brutality of the former Native American “boarding school” system, a 150-year program of separating children from their families that was part of a federal policy to eradicate Native communities’ identity and forcibly take indigenous lands.

The Interior Department’s study follows decades of calls by advocates for the government to acknowledge and address the harms caused by the boarding schools, and represents the first official attempt to confront a system of racist dehumanization that resulted in cultural genocide and the deaths of possibly tens of thousands of children.

The department’s report and initiative holds particular significance as an official acknowledgement by the U.S. government of its role in creating and perpetuating a system aimed at eliminating entire cultures and peoples.

Still, the agency’s power to address past and ongoing harms is limited, and advocates and indigenous…

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A trip to the Goodhue County Historical Society’s basement in Red Wing is a trip back to a complex and complicated time in United States history. And right now, the traveling display the organization spent years trying to secure is once again a topic of national conversation.

READ MORE: Interior Dept. Investigation Identifies 21 Federal Indian Boarding School Sites In Minnesota

Titled “Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories,” the display on loan from Arizona’s Heard Museum details the decades Native American children spent in federally run boarding schools across the country through artifacts and first-person testimony.

“This is definitely a conversation that needs to be had,” said Collections Curator Afton Esson. “It’s one of those topics that’s powerful and emotional and having it right now is the perfect time to share this topic with the community.”

The perfect time, perhaps, because…

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