ABUSE TRACKER

State legislative leaders say they’ll take a procedural vote on the proposal early next year. 2023 primary voters would then get to weigh in.

State legislative leaders are pledging to vote early next year on a constitutional amendment giving adults who say they survived sexual abuse as children two years to sue their alleged abusers and any institution that sheltered them.

A 2018 Grand Jury report showed the statute of limitations may have closed for hundreds of Pennsylvanians who were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests as children decades ago. That report recommended lawmakers give all abuse survivors more time to sue.

Pennsylvania now lets anyone who says they were abused as a child come to court with a civil lawsuit before age 55, but some say they missed their opportunity when the time window was smaller.

Research shows social and psychological pressures can keep survivors from coming forward for far…

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I’ve believed that ministry is my vocation since I was just out of high school, and I have worked as a lay minister in the Catholic Church for over eight years. About a year and a half ago, however, Jesus put a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling in my path and opened the doors for me to begin this program.

Alongside that, the Lord put on my heart the desire to integrate ministry with mental health counseling. In particular, I want to work with people who have been harmed by the Church, and to assist in the formation of ministers and clergy to help them—frankly—be less harmful to the people they serve. These desires have been reaffirmed over the past year, both from what I’ve learned in my graduate program, but also with the experiences of spiritual abuse that the Lord has allowed me to witness during that…

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A year ago, Sheri Biasin of Cheshire was still waiting for the Catholic priest who molested her to be listed as “credibly accused” by the Springfield Diocese.

The diocese, in a spirit of disclosure and healing, had just changed its policy to include priests who died before those accusations surfaced. But that new and more complete list, released in June 2021, did not mention the Rev. Daniel Gill.

Now it does.

The diocese said Wednesday it added Gill to its online roster Aug. 1, “based on a credible finding by the diocesan Review Board.”

Biasin said Wednesday she recently received a letter from the Most Rev. William Byrne regarding her molestation by Gill, which the new listing says occurred between the years 1967 and 1971. At the time, Gill was assigned to both the Saint Jerome Parish in Holyoke (1962-69) and the Saint Charles Borromeo Parish in Pittsfield…

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Gov. Tom Wolf and legislative leaders have agreed to prioritize a constitutional amendment early next legislative session that, if approved by voters, would open a two-year window for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits.

“I want to first reiterate my deep regret and sincerest apologies to victims for the process error that prevented this issue from being decided upon by the voters this legislative session,” Wolf said in a press statement.

“I have fought for an immediate legislative solution to this issue and have been working with legislators to determine the clearest path forward.”

Wolf earlier this year had threatened to turn up the heat on state lawmakers this summer to pass move legislation forward.

Wolf said he and legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle have committed to prioritizing the second passage of the constitutional amendment early next…

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Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s legal battle  over allegations he made unwanted sexual advances toward a young intern over a decade ago might place him between the Church’s Code of Canon Law and Canadian law.

Between the Church’s long and complex tradition of law and Canada’s common law system, there’s not much agreement on what constitutes sexual assault or how allegations are investigated and brought to trial, one of Canada’s most senior canonists told The Catholic Register. Msgr. Roch Pagé, professor emeritus of Canon Law at Saint Paul University in Ottawa.

Pagé said the story of what will happen to allegations against Ouellet is not over yet. Pope Francis has decided against proceeding to a full canonical trial, but “the secular law has not yet begun,” Pagé noted.

The specific allegations are not a criminal matter. They were made in a class action civil suit against the Archdiocese of Quebec.

Ouellet, who heads the…

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De La Salle Brothers will sell their Malvern school, which has net assets of $27 million, to fund compensation claims from victims of historical sexual abuse and to financially support ageing brothers.

The buyer, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, will take over the running of the college for more than 1000 boys in years 5 to 12.

Lawyers say they have more than 50 ongoing claims against the De La Salle Brothers nationally.

A sale price was not disclosed, but the school, one of four owned by the brothers, has more than $27 million in net assets, according to its financial accounts for the 2021 calendar year.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse said Catholic Church data showed that 328 people made a claim of child sexual abuse to the De La Salle Brothers between 1980 and 2015. The brothers accounted for 7 per cent of all claims made to…

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[Via Catholic Review, Archdiocese of Baltimore]

Nearly every parent’s biggest worry is how to provide for the health, safety and welfare of their children. It’s a concern that takes many forms: getting them to school safely and back again, serving them the best food and housing them safely. More and more, knowing — really, not knowing — what their child may be doing online is a key worry.

Others are beginning to listen.

Congress is one important group paying attention — and could be taking action before the current term ends in December. There are proposals to create a new privacy division at the Federal Trade Commission, expand federal protections for children’s data, fund government research into kids’ mental health and urge companies to act in the “best interest of the child.”

And what Congress can’t or won’t do, the FTC itself can try to launch on its own —…

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A St. Louis judge ruled Thursday that a 2014 arrest in a statutory sodomy case that was later dropped should be expunged from the record of a Roman Catholic priest.

Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser found that the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, 39, met his legal burden to have the April 2014 arrest record expunged.

Jiang was arrested after a boy said the priest molested him in the restroom at St. Louis the King elementary school, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

After all charges were dropped in 2015, Jiang sued the boy’s mother and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest. The lawsuit was settled in 2017 and the mother and SNAP apologized to Jiang.

Jiang’s lawyer, Neil Bruntrager, said Jiang’s settlement with SNAP was confidential but the city of St. Louis had paid the priest a $17,500 settlement.

Jiang said that he had never met…

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[Via Catholic World Report]

A priest ministering in St. Louis — previously accused of abuse before prosecutors dropped all charges — will have his 2014 arrest record expunged after a judge’s ruling last week.

Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, 39, had been accused of two separate instances of sexual abuse, but prosecutors dropped all charges in both cases. Jiang also prevailed in two civil lawsuits related to the accusations.

Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser ruled Aug. 25 that Jiang had met the legal burden to have his 2014 arrest expunged. Jiang said during his hearing that he is currently studying in Rome and that his arrest record has caused problems for him at customs checkpoints when traveling abroad.

Jiang, a native of Shandong, China, was ordained a priest in St. Louis in 2010. He was first publicly accused of abuse in 2012 when a 16-year-old girl brought a civil lawsuit alleging…

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On May 18, 2018, Bishop Luis Antonio Scozzina, OFM, was consecrated the eighth bishop of the remote northern Argentine Diocese of Nueva Orán (also known simply as Orán), in Salta Province (map).

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of his predecessor, Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, on August 1, 2017; Archbishop Andrés Stanovnik, OFM Cap, of Corrientes, had served as apostolic administrator during the intervening months. On December 19, 2017, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Zanchetta the assessor of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA).

On November 16, 2018, Bishop Scozzina announced a sweeping series of personnel changes, including the appointment of a new vicar general (who replaced two previous vicars general) and a new secretary-chancellor. Scozzina did not appoint either Zanchetta loyalists or Zanchetta critics to these leading positions; he chose outsiders.

Father Antonello Tuvone, 39, a newly arrived Sardinian missionary priest, was the new vicar general; he had served…

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On July 29, 2017, El Tribuno, the leading newspaper in northern Argentina’s Salta Province (map), published a letter written by Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta to the faithful of the Diocese of Orán. The bishop said that he had just returned from Rome, where he had presented to Pope Francis his letter of resignation.

“For a long time, a health problem has not allowed me to carry out fully the pastoral ministry entrusted to me, especially considering the vast extension of our diocesan territory, and the enormous challenges we face as Church in the north of the country,” Zanchetta wrote. “That is why I have placed this decision in the hands of the Holy Father, which I believe is the best, especially thinking of you, rather than of myself, and because the recuperation I must face cannot be made here.”

On August 1, 2017, the Holy See Press Office announced that Pope Francis had…

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[On March 4, 2022, Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, former bishop of Nueva Orán, Argentina, and assessor of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, was convicted of sexually abusing two seminarians. As the sixth-month anniversary of the verdict approaches, Catholic World News begins an in-depth look at the case.]

San Ramón de la Nueva Orán is a remote city in Salta Province in northern Argentina, close to the Bolivian border (map). Located over a thousand miles from Buenos Aires, the nation’s capital, San Ramón de la Nueva Orán is 175 miles from the provincial capital, also named Salta.

From the early 1600s, colonial Spanish forces attempted to conquer the remote area, but met with determined resistance from the indigenous inhabitants. On August 31, 1794—the feast day of St. Raymond Nonnatus—a local Spanish governor definitively conquered the area. The governor, who was born in Orán, Algeria, christened the city…

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La revelación se da en la respuesta dada al periodista Juan Pablo Barrientos tras fallo de Corte Constitucional. 14 de los religiosos fueron denunciados por la curia el mismo día que hizo públicas las respuestas.

[Note: Click here to see the list of accused clergy released by the Archdiocese of Medellín]

El pasado jueves, la Arquidiócesis de Medellín –en cabeza del arzobispo Ricardo Tobón Restrepo– hizo público el informe solicitado al periodista Juan Pablo Barrientos sobre casos de abuso de menores dentro de la jurisdicción de esta curia, luego de que un fallo de la Corte Constitucional del 2 de junio así lo ordenara.

Según informó el ente religioso, lo anterior era una “muestra de transparencia, compromiso con la verdad y de que no existen ningún encubrimiento”.

En el documento de cinco páginas la Arquidiócesis aclaró que decidió responder el primer bloque de tres preguntas que inicialmente…

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The funeral Mass for former Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland drew hundreds of supporters Tuesday, including those who said they were praying for forgiveness and mercy for the man who led the Milwaukee archdiocese for 25 years.

The Mass also drew advocates for survivors of clergy abuse. They said Weakland did not deserve a public funeral at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist because he helped cover up sexual abuse in the church.

Weakland, a Benedictine monk, died Aug. 22, about 20 years after he stepped down as archbishop following a public fall from grace.

The Vatican granted his retirement promptly after he admitted he had used $450,000 in church funds to buy the silence of a former graduate student who years later accused him publicly of date rape.

Weakland maintained the relationship was consensual. The archbishop was in his early 50s and the accuser was in his…

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Los documentos se enviarán cuando la Corte Constitucional aclare las dudas de la Iglesia Católica.

El arzobispo de Medellín, monseñor Ricardo Tobón Restrepo, confirmó en las últimas horas que la Iglesia Católica compartirá con un periodista los documentos donde están recopilados los procesos sobre presuntos casos de abuso sexual que habrían protagonizado 915 sacerdotes de la capital de Antioquia en los últimos años.

La decisión se tomó luego de que la Corte Constitucional obligara a esa corporación religiosa a ceder ante los cuestionamientos del comunicador Juan Pablo Barrientos en medio de una investigación que adelanta sobre los delitos sexuales que se cometieron al interior de la iglesia, en la lista figuran varios presbíteros, diáconos y seminaristas.

Si bien el reportero acudió directamente a la Arquidiócesis para que le suministraran la información antes de caminar en los estrados judiciales, encontró un no como respuesta que fue sostenido en…

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Survivors, advocates and a former priest were among those protesting the funeral of former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland and encouraging members of the clergy to not attend the service.

Weakland was the archbishop for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from 1977 until his retirement in 2002. He died last week at the age of 95, and will be having a funeral service held for him in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

“Archbishop Rembert Weakland deserves no honor or praise,” said Father James Connell, a retired priest and former vice chancellor for the archdiocese. “Doing so would put salt in the wounds of victim survivors of clergy sexual abuse.”

It has been discovered Weakland knowingly reassigned priests who had allegedly sexually abused minors during his time as archbishop. Weakland also admitted to misusing $450,000 in church funds to cover up an affair he had with another man.

“Do not come to the funeral,” Father…

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The Archdiocese of Milwaukee held a funeral Mass Tuesday, Aug. 30, for former Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who died last week at the age of 95.

But a half dozen protesters gathered outside to call attention to Weakland’s complicated legacy and his admitted role in the church’s sexual abuse scandal.

Archbishop Weakland was remembered by parishioners and clergy as an imperfect man of faith.

The church’s sex abuse scandal was mentioned a few times throughout the funeral Mass. But survivors of abuse say it’s still painful, and a funeral for someone this controversial should have been held in private.

As steeple bells chimed, mourners prayed at the funeral Mass. But outside the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist there was a different kind of pain and grief.

Clergy sex abuse survivor John Pilmaier said, “This is really a day of shame for the archbishop and the archdiocese.”

Weakland admitted to covering…

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Rembert Weakland resigned in 2002 amid the church abuse scandal

The funeral Mass for former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland drew crowds in support and protest Tuesday at Milwaukee’s St. John the Evangelist Cathedral.

Weakland resigned in 2002 amid the church abuse scandal and died last week at the age of 95.

The funeral started at 4:30 p.m. The archdiocese did not allow the media inside but did stream the mass on YouTube.

Rev. Steve Avella, of Marquette University, gave the eulogy and did not ignore the scandal or the fallout.

“We are grateful for the time he spent with us, and many of us loved him. Some did not. We cannot dismiss their just anger even as we try to make sense of it all,” Avella said. “People were hurt. Lives shattered and disillusioned. With the perks and power of leadership comes the burden of accountability for serious mistakes. For…

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Advocates for victims of clergy abuse on Monday protested the public funeral for former Archbishop Rembert Weakland.

Weakland’s funeral Mass is planned for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, the seat of the Milwaukee Archdiocese. He died Aug. 22 in Greenfield.

Weakland will be buried in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, at St. Vincent Archabbey, where he attended high school, college and seminary and eventually became archabbot.

Weakland admitted in 2008 in a state court deposition that he shredded copies of sex abuse documents, failed to notify law enforcement officials and moved sexually abusive priests from parish to parish without warning members of their histories.

A private funeral Mass in Pennsylvania would have been better, the Rev. James Connell, a retired Catholic priest who was also vice chancellor of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, said at a news conference Monday outside the cathedral.

“Archbishop Rembert Weakland deserves no honor or praise…

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Victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese are questioning the decision to hold a funeral mass for former Archbishop Rembert Weakland at St. John’s Cathedral.

Weakland died last week in Greenfield at 95 after a long illness.

He was at the center of a clergy sexual abuse scandal in May 2002, when the church revealed there were six active priests in the archdiocese with histories of sexually abusing children.

“I’m doing my best to eradicate it. That’s what I’m doing,” Weakland said at a public meeting in Brookfield.

Days later, he made national news.

ABC and WISN 12 News broke the story of Weakland paying nearly $500,000 to a man to stay quiet about their sexual relationship while the man was a student at Marquette University in the late ’70s.

“He was sitting next to me and then started to try to kiss me and continued to…

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it ‘didn’t have anything to offer’ when asked to comment on the proposed legislation.

A Utah lawmaker wants government-mandated background checks for church leaders and volunteers who work with young people — an effort, he said, that could prevent predators from grooming children for sexual abuse.

Sen. Keith Grover, R-Provo, doesn’t seem confident that his proposed legislation will become law, but he said in an interview last week that he hopes it will start an important conversation about sexual abuse and how to protect children.

He spent his career as an educator and now works as a real estate agent, and he has been required to pass background checks for both professions.

Why, he asks, don’t clergy face the same requirement? Or the church volunteers who take young people on camping trips, play night games with them or offer them support?

…

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At least 130 Jesuit priests have been accused of committing sexual abuse against children between 1927 and 2012 in Spain.

The El Pais newspaper, as part of its ongoing probe into paedophilia within the Roman Catholic Church in Spain, reported there were at least 160 victims who suffered at the hands of the Jesuits.

El Pais has published details of several cases of abuses using victim statements and witness interviews.

The paper said that the Jesuit who faced the largest number of complaints was Barcelona-born priest Emilio Benedetti.

Benedetti worked in several Jesuit schools and died in 2019.

He’s accused of committing sexual abuse against at least 13 victims between 1969 and 1973but no action was taken against him.

El Pais said the number of Jesuits accused of sexual abuse accounts for 15.4% of the total number of Roman Catholic figures accused of paedophilia and harassment through its contacts with…

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A former Northwest Arkansas youth pastor is now behind bars.

Police arrested Keenan Hord on Thursday. He used to be a youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Bentonville. Now he’s facing charges of second-degree sexual assault, possessing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child and sexual indecency with a minor.

“I think what the people need to realize is that there are wolves in sheep’s clothing in every area of life,” said Benton County Prosecutor, Nathan Smith.

Smith said as soon as the church found out about the allegations, it took all the correct steps in reporting what it had learned to authorities. This situation hits home for Smith.

“I was pleased in this case certainly as prosecuting attorney, but also as a member of the church, that it was reported to law enforcement and we can deal with it,” he said. “That was the right thing to…

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Weakland transferred or concealed dozens of known sex offenders resulting in thousands of child victims

In a deposition, Weakland indicated that there had been offenders at some point “covering the whole Diocese”

WHEN: Monday, August 29th, 2022, 1:00pm

WHERE: Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 831 N Van Buren St, Milwaukee, WI

WHO: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates

WHAT: A press conference with survivors and advocates unrolling a 60-foot line of photos of clergy offenders under Archbishop Rembert Weakland

WHY: For 25 years, Archbishop Rembert Weakland facilitated the cover-up of child sex crimes by Catholic clergy, resulting in thousands of child victims. On Tuesday, Archbishop Listecki will celebrate a public funeral honoring and praising Weakland’s life.

In 2019, the Archdiocese removed Weakland’s name and statue from the downtown Cathedral acknowledging his guilt in protecting abusive clergy. This is why victims expected…

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Alleges they permitted abuse

 A former student at Arlington Catholic High School has sued two former priests in the Archdiocese of Boston and a third unidentified priest, alleging their lack of supervision allowed the school’s then vice principal to molest him when the student was serving detention.

The suit was filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday, Aug. 25, on behalf of Kevin Doherty by attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has spent much of the last 20 years in litigation over molesting priests both in the Archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere.

News about the lawsuit was first reported by Universal Hub, and it includes a link to the complaint.

The suit describes what the vice principal allegedly did, but it does not name him as a defendant. Named are Richard Joseph Malone, who served as secretary of education and vicar general for the Boston archdiocese at the time,…

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Tad Walch, the LDS church beat writer for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, recently posted an informative article on various Christian church views on sexual abuse reporting. The article indicated that churches largely consider priest-penitent confessions confidential and even sacred, but can still facilitate voluntary reporting.  

Some studies have shown mandatory reporting laws may not increase reporting by clergy and may be stressful for survivors, who in some cases would prefer having control over whether any reporting is done. Moreover, confession works for the truly penitent.  

But what about the many who are not truly penitent and are just looking for a temporary penance fix? Favoring the private approach to dealing with sexual abuse amounts to favoring the moral and legal superiority of the church over the government. Essentially, the argument is that the church cares more about perpetrators and victims than government does, and better knows…

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Only $4 million of the promised $25 million has been raised by the Catholic corporation for residential school survivors.

A 2015 decision by Canada may have released the Catholic entities from their $25 million settlement for residential school survivors, but that doesn’t mean the Catholic corporation still can’t do something substantial, says Dr. Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, chair of the Governing Circle for the National Truth and Reconciliation Centre.

“Maybe it’s not going to be $25 million. Maybe it’s going to be the churches are going to say ‘in lieu of the money, maybe we can do something … about the Doctrine of Discovery’, because that was very much part of the discussion when the Pope was here,” said Wesley-Esquimaux.

On Aug. 20, The Canadian Press reported that Canada, under the Stephen Harper government, agreed to “forever discharge” the Catholic entities from the money owing to residential school survivors. Canada…

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It’s been exactly a month since Pope Francis visited Canada to apologize for the church’s role in residential schools.

There’s been much goodwill.

Good words. Big promises for changes by bishops and priests. The Pope even wore a headdress.

Some might even call it a moment of reconciliation between the Catholic Church and Indigenous peoples.

Well, that was fun while it lasted.

Last Saturday, the Canadian Press reported on a secret 2015 deal between Stephen Harper’s Conservative government and Catholic leaders to “forever discharge” the church from its legal obligations to raise $25 million for residential school survivors.

Negotiated during Harper’s final days in office, the document states: “Canada does hereby remise, release and forever discharge the Catholic entities, its directors, officers, shareholders, agents, lawyers, and employees of and from all manners of actions, causes of action, suits, debts, dues, accounts, bonds whatsoever against the releasees.”

Obtained via an Access…

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[Via CBC]

Info is in final release document of 2015 agreement, signed before Trudeau government sworn in

Canada agreed to “forever discharge” Catholic entities from their promise to raise $25 million for residential school survivors and also picked up their legal bill, a final release document shows.

The Canadian Press obtained a signed copy of the 2015 agreement through federal access-to-information laws, marking what appears to be the first time the document has been widely publicized.

“That’s a very, very important set of records,” said Ry Moran, an associate librarian at the University of Victoria and founding director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

“Like all questions around accountability, the question is, ‘Who made the decision? How was that decision made? Who ultimately signed off on this?’ “

Indigenous leaders and legal experts have long questioned why Ottawa opted to give up an appeal of a court decision that…

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[Via The Free Press]

Many of the documents, including a timeline of events, are redacted, either partially or fully

Canada’s decision to abandon its appeal of a 2015 court ruling that freed Catholic groups from the need to raise $25 million for residential school survivors has caused anger and confusion.

Last fall, a package of more than 200 pages of briefing notes and court records was prepared for Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller, who promised he would look into what transpired. The Canadian Press obtained the records under federal access-to-information laws.

Many of the documents, including a timeline of events, are redacted, either partially or fully. According to details available, here is a timeline of what happened:

May 2006: The historic Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement is approved by parties. The agreement involved the Canadian government, lawyers representing residential school survivors, churches that operated them and national Indigenous organizations.

September 2007: Implementation…

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One ought always to be wary of “world-in-a-nutshell” images, which only with vanishing rarity show what they purport (or are purported) to show. That’s why I didn’t make much of the images from Saturday’s consistory, showing the disgraced (and reinstated?) Cardinal Giovanni Angelo dressed in his glad rags, with a prominent seat among his brethren gathered in St. Peter’s for Saturday’s doings.

Cardinal Becciu was once the Sostituto of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See – a fancy way for saying that he was the pope’s chief-of-staff – basically the third man in the Vatican and responsible for the daily run of the place, until he became a cardinal and the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

In September 2020, Pope Francis removed Cardinal Becciu from his offices in the curia and stripped him of all the rights and privileges of his station. Francis had seen evidence…

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Storm clouds are gathering around the Catholic Church in Ireland following the publication of a report on a process that sought the views of members and others on the direction the church should take to remain relevant in today’s world.

Many who took part feel let down by the final report that was submitted to the Vatican that frankly amplifies the views of those seeking radical change within Catholicism in form, function, and purpose. Truth is, if liberal commentators were given the opportunity to write a treatise on changes needed in the Irish Catholic Church, they could not have done a better job whereas the voices for significant but incremental change feel that they have been marginalized. 

Billed by the hierarchy as a listening exercise leading to discernment, it has been an extensive consultative process that began in March 2021. It involved focus groups, public meetings, online surveys, questionnaires, steering…

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The Barque of Peter is currently floating along several currents.

Pope Francis’ pontificate has brought about a renewed focus on pastoral theology, bringing the insights of the post-conciliar church in Latin America to the center of the universal church. It has placed concern for the environment at the heart of the church’s social teachings, and reoriented the work of the Roman Curia, as embodied in the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium. It has emphasized the church as the bearer of God’s tenderness, rather than as a bastion of doctrinal clarity. And, perhaps most importantly, it has revived synodality as a means of church governance. 

All of these have one thing in common: They are made necessary not only by the collapse of modern, post-modern, and post-post-modern cultural critiques or by the spiritual rot of clericalism, as exposed by the clergy sex abuse crisis. A functional rationale for these…

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[Via Crux]

Bonn, Germany – Participants will face a packed agenda and heated debate at the upcoming fourth plenary assembly of the Synodal Path reform project on the future of the Catholic Church in Germany.

At their meeting Sept. 8-10 in Frankfurt, the approximately 230 delegates will discuss 14 papers, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA. These include texts on church sexual morality, the role of priests, the participation of women and the mandatory celibacy of Catholic priests.

Another text advocates the establishment of a synodal council in the Catholic Church in Germany. Made up of bishops and laypeople, it would be a permanent “advisory and decision-making body.” That and other plans discussed in the Synodal Path have encountered strong opposition from more conservative Catholics and are also being viewed critically in the Vatican.

In a statement issued in July, the Vatican said the Catholic reform project in Germany…

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EVIL paedophile and former ‘singing priest’ Fr Tony Walsh is at the centre of FIVE new complaints to Gardai, The Irish Sun on Sunday can reveal.

The fiend — now known as ‘Fr Filth’ — is being investigated by the Protective Services Bureau over the abuse of five boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Statements have now been taken by the abuse victims and a file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

And brave survivor Darren McGavin — who was abused every week by Walsh between Christmas 1979 and 1983 — revealed he is supporting four other victims of the monster.

Darren, 48, said the four men are set to make formal statements to investigators over the coming weeks.

Our revelation comes after Walsh — one of the worst paedophiles in Irish history — received another four years in jail for the indecent assaults of three schoolboys in the…

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A new report by the Polish bishops, summarizing the results of consultations with both the leadership and the rank and file of the Polish church, points to a deep division between clergy and laity and an urgent need to rebuild he relationship between the two groups.

“It not a report about the state of the Church”, Archbishop Adrian Galbas, coordinator of the synodal process in Poland, told Crux, referring to a synthesis of the results of widespread consultations published Thursday.

“It’s a very personal document, giving an image of the Church,” Galbas said – and that image is often fairly harsh.

In the Archdiocese of Katowice, the faithful wrote that the Church, rocked by sex abuse cases, not only “scandalizes and hurts her people. It is a Church that is hopeless, shocked with changes, and one that is frustrating the faithful.”

In the Archdiocese of Gdańsk, birthplace of the Solidarity…

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Erasing comments, misreporting facts

Catholic News Agency is under fire for deleting a victim’s comments and whitewashing clerics’ legacies of abuse cover-up.

On Friday, Catholic News Agency (CNA) published an article titled “Cardinal Robert McElroy: Newest (and youngest) American ‘red hat’ a kindred spirit of Pope Francis.” It minimized the San Diego prelate’s history of ignoring allegations against disgraced homosexual predator Theodore McCarrick. It also entirely omitted any mention of McElroy’s reinstatement to ministry of sexual predator Fr. Jacob Bertrand — a San Diego priest who confessed in 2014 to ritual abuse of a young woman in his spiritual charge, Rachel Mastrogiacomo.

In spite of knowing of his confession, McElroy put him back into priestly ministry within months of his arrival in San Diego as bishop in 2015. He left Bertrand at his parish assignment until 2016, when Mastrogiacomo reported Bertrand’s crimes to Minnesota police (where…

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Former Bishop of the Diocese of Ossory, Séamus Freeman, who has died at the age of 78 , was a priest of the Pallottine Order, named after its founder Saint Vincent Pallotti.

The eldest of eight children, he was born on February 23, 1944. Shortly afterwards, the Freeman family moved from Mullinahone, Co Tipperary, to Callan, Co Kilkenny. After joining the Pallottines as a seminarian, Séamus studied theology at what was then St Patrick’s College in Thurles as well as philosophy at University College Dublin.

On June 27, 1971, at the age of 27, he was ordained a priest. He went on to study psychology at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. He also spent some time with the Pallottines in Rome before taking up a senior position with the Order for eight years, back in Thurles.

In 1989, he was appointed Vicar General of the Pallottines and…

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[Via Barron’s]

The Catholic Church in Colombia has released the names of 26 priests who were investigated for alleged sexual abuse of minors there, local media reported Saturday.

The Archidiocese of Medellin revealed the list of those accused between 1995 and 2019 in response to a court ruling in favor of Juan Pablo Barrientos, a journalist investigating an alleged network of pedophile clergy.

“Most of these priests … were suspended for a little while, and went back to being priests again,” said Barrientos, who has been investigating sexual assaults by priests for years, in a video released Saturday.

Barrientos managed to get judges to accept his request and force the Archdiocese of Medellin to make the list public.

The prosecution, which has not commented on the investigations, received 14 of the complaints on Thursday, though the abuses were committed years ago, according to the document published by the Church.

Monsignor…

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Each of the 20 churchmen being installed as cardinals this week is a kindred spirit of Pope Francis in varying respects, as would be expected since it was Francis who chose them to receive their scarlet birettas.

But the man slated to become the newest and youngest American cardinal on Aug. 27 — Bishop Robert McElroy, 68, of San Diego — stands out for how closely aligned he is to the pope’s pastoral style and vision for the Church.

Like Francis, McElroy has a passion for the plight of migrants, the homeless, and the environment. He is also a staunch promoter of the pope’s synodal process and its emphasis on listening to those on the margins of the Church.

McElroy, too, shares Francis’ penchant for stirring controversy with some of his comments. In McElroy’s case, these have centered on the idea of opening the diaconate to women, the status of divorced-and-remarried…

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Pope Francis on Saturday is elevating to the rank of cardinal a San Diego bishop whose embrace of the pope’s more liberal positions on the LGBTQ community, the role of women in the church and other hot-button political and cultural issues has put him at odds with some of the more conservative U.S. bishops.

Cardinal-designate Robert McElroy, who was appointed bishop of San Diego by Francis in 2015, will also be receiving his red hat, the symbol of the cardinals’ office, without ever having served as an archbishop, which is the traditional stepping-stone to becoming a cardinal.

In an interview with NBC’s Anne Thompson before the Vatican ceremony, McElroy tried to downplay the differences between himself and the more conservative U.S. bishops over issues like “abortion, climate change, poverty, immigration, race.”

“There are not differences between the bishops much on the question of substance,”…

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A former student at Arlington Catholic High School yesterday sued two former priests in the Archdiocese of Boston – and a third, as yet unidentified priest – whom he blames in part for the times he says the school’s then vice principal came into the room where he was serving detention and molested him.

The suit was filed in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday by attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has spent much of the last 20 years in litigation over molesting priests both in the Archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere.

Although the suit describes what the vice principal did, it does not name him as a defendant. Named are Richard Joseph Malone, who served as secretary of education and vicar general for the Boston archdiocese at the time, and William Murphy, who also served as vicar general, moderator of the curia and auxiliary bishop. “Defendant Three” is another Archdiocese official allegedly involved…

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“The local community and the faith community used to be one and the same. Going to Mass was where you met everyone, young and old.”

BISHOP Fintan Gavin has said the Catholic Church will have to be less focused around the priesthood if it is to renew itself.

The Bishop of Cork and Ross said an ageing clergy, combined with declining vocations, would necessitate a greater role for lay Catholics in the work of spreading the Gospel.

He told The Echo the Catholic Church in Ireland was now paying the price for its past dominance, which, he said, had led to its corruption.

“Power corrupts, and the abuse of children, the abuse of women, the abuse of power, all of those things happened when power corrupted,” he said.

Bishop Gavin said his own work with abuse survivors had given him a sense of the reality of their experiences, describing one such meeting…

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“Despite the constant rhetoric from church officials that the sexual abuse scandal is a thing of the past, this recent case tells us it is very much a thing of the present and the future.”

New Bedford MA – A former altar boy and student at St. Anthony of Padua School is accusing a former priest of sexually abusing him in the rectory, in his car, and during an overnight trip to Maine more than 30 years ago.

The Diocese of Fall River had barred the Rev. Richard E. Degagne from the ministry in February and added his name to the list of clergy who were credibly accused of sexual abuse of children. Now, an Acushnet man is alleging that Degagne had molested him repeatedly when he was 12 and 13 years old in 1988 and 1989.

In a lawsuit filed in Bristol County Superior Court in late…

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O padre Richard Degagnem era o responsável pela Paróquia de Santo António de Pádua, em New Bedford, no Massachusetts. A TSF teve acesso ao processo.

Jason Medeiros acusa o padre de abusos sexuais que começaram quando tinha apenas 12 anos. Ele frequentava a escola primária da paróquia e era acólito tendo, por isso, contactos frequentes com o padre.

Medeiros, hoje com 46 anos, alega que os abusos, que se prolongaram por cerca de um ano, ainda hoje o afetam. De acordo com o processo, a que a TSF teve acesso, o lusodescendente sofre de problemas emocionais, que se traduzem em dificuldades no controlo da raiva, abuso de drogas e álcool, problemas de sono e depressão. Sequelas que muitas vezes o impediram de manter um emprego e de garantir o seu sustento.

Jason Medeiros, que aceitou ser identificado, quer que o padre seja julgado num tribunal de júri e obrigado a pagar uma indemnização…

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A former New Bedford priest is being sued by an Acushnet man who was once an altar boy at St. Anthony of Padua parish for alleged sexual abuse that took place more than 30 years ago when he was 12 and 13 years old. 

The Rev. Richard Degagne is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing Jason Medeiros in a lawsuit that was filed in Bristol County Superior Court on July 18. 

According to the lawsuit, Medeiros was a student and altar boy at St. Anthony of Padua Church from 1988 to 1991, from 12 to 15 years old. He also participated in a Catholic youth group at St. Anthony of Padua Church under the direction of Degagne during that same time.

Degagne allegedly abused Medeiros at least three times in his rectory bedroom and at least two times in his car when Medeiros was 12 and 13. Degagne also allegedly…

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A lower court in Costa Rica ruled that the Catholic Church in the Central American country must pay about $100,000 to a victim of sexual abuse committed by a former priest. The judgment will be appealed.

According to a local media report, on Aug. 23 a lower court issued the judgment against the Costa Rican Bishops’ Conference; the archbishop of San José, José Rafael Quirós Quirós; and temporalities (income, properties, stipends, etc.) of the Archdiocese of San José, accused of covering up sexual abuse by former priest Mauricio Víquez Lizano.

The compensation to be paid to Carlos Alberto Muñoz Quirós, a victim of Víquez Lizano, amounts to 65 million colones, or about $100,000. The court also ordered that the archdiocese pay the costs of the trial: 10.6 million colones, about $16,000.

According to crhoy.com (Costa Rica Today), the decision states that “with regard to Muñoz Quirós (the victim), Quirós Quirós…

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Several months ago the Times Union reported that Catholic High in Troy would be closing its doors and that its students would be moving to St. Ambrose in Latham in the Fall. Shortly thereafter it was announced that the Catholic High building in Troy had been sold for $5 million, so clearly those students were going to have to move somewhere.
 
It is not surprising that the diocese is closing an inner city school to move to a more affluent community as their business model for years has been to pack up and get out of the cities and move to the suburbs where the money is. The diocese’s business model seems to be to generate as much revenue as it can while reducing its services to those most in need.
 
At one time the saying “WWJD” (what would Jesus do) was in vogue with the diocese, but the diocese has strayed…

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[Via National Catholic Reporter]

Retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who was the ninth archbishop of Milwaukee from 1977 until his retirement in 2002, died overnight at Clement Manor in Greenfield after a long illness, the archdiocese announced Aug. 22. The prelate, who lived at the residence, was 95.

“For a quarter of a century, Archbishop Weakland led the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and his leadership embodied his Benedictine spirit,” said Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki. “His pastoral letter, ‘Eucharist without Walls,’ evoked his love for the Eucharist and its call to service.”

“During his time, he emphasized an openness to the implementation of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, including the role of lay men and women in the church, the celebration of the sacred liturgy, ecumenical dialogue and addressing societal issues, especially economic justice,” he added. “May he now rest in peace.”

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Raised in western Pennsylvania and…

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Archbishop Weakland died Aug. 22 after a long illness. He resigned as Milwaukee’s archbishop in 2002 after revelations that the archdiocese had paid $450,000 to silence Paul J. Marcoux, an adult seminarian with whom he had had a sexual relationship.

Jesuit Father James Martin said he was sorry Tuesday for not having been clearer about the “sins and crimes” of Archbishop Rembert Weakland, in an earlier tweet noting the death of the Benedictine and retired prelate.

“Last night many people were angered by two tweets about Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who committed many sins and crimes, and who died at 95. Obviously I condemn his covering up of sex abuse and his paying out hush money,” Father Martin, an editor at large for America magazine, wrote on Twitter Aug. 23.

“I can see how people thought I was downplaying (or even ignoring) his sins and crimes. I’m sorry for not being clearer about…

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The Civil Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José sentenced the Episcopal Conference and Archbishop José Rafael Quirós to pay ¢65 million colones for moral damages to the victim of sexual abuse by the former priest Mauricio Víquez Lizano.

The victim’s lawyer, Rodolfo Alvarado, confirmed the information, saying there are still two more lawsuits against the Catholic Church for acts attributed to the former priest.

Alvarado pointed out that the Catholic Church was involved in a cover-up by not taking action when the complaints were made against the former priest. The complainants assure that Quirós was aware of Víquez’s actions, but he delayed the internal complaints.

The Episcopal Conference announced that they will present an appeal before the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.

In March, Víquez Lizano was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping and sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in 2003, the…

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Acushnet – An Acushnet man and former altar boy at St. Anthony of Padua parish is suing a former New Bedford priest for alleged sexual abuse he says took place over three decades ago.

In a lawsuit filed in Bristol Superior Court in late July, Jason Medeiros alleges that Father Richard Degagne sexually abused him on multiple occasions.

The alleged abuse took place in or around New Bedford and while on an overnight trip to Maine in 1988, when Medeiros was 12 years old.

Father Richard Degagne is one of three priests the Fall River Diocese agreed in December were “credibly accused” of child abuse.

The Diocese said at the time that Degagne was suspended in 2019 and would not be returning to ministry, although the former priest denied the allegations.

Degagne, who was ordained in 1982 and is in his late 60s, was affiliated with St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford from…

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The Benedictine monk was one of the leading liberal voices in the Catholic Church before his resignation in 2002

Rembert G. Weakland, a Benedictine monk who became a leading liberal voice within the Catholic Church and served for 25 years as archbishop of Milwaukee, resigning his post in 2002 amid revelations of a financial settlement with a man who had been his lover decades earlier, died Aug. 22 at a retirement center in Greenfield, Wis. He was 95.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced his death but did not cite a cause.

For years, until his embattled final days in office, Archbishop Weakland was one of the most prominent American prelates in the Catholic Church. He was by all accounts a formidable intellect — he spoke six languages and was a musical prodigy who had studied at Juilliard as well as the seminary — and brought to his ministry…

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Archbishop Weakland of Milwaukee was a liberal lion who worked to trash the Catholic Church’s tradition — and covered up sex abuse

Former Milwaukee Catholic Archbishop Rembert Weakland has died, aged 95. He was an archliberal who was at the forefront of just about everything bad that happened to the Catholic Church in America since the 1960s — including sex abuse.

Not that you would know it from the response that Vatican Pride ambassador James Martin, SJ, tweeted to his repose [see below].

I don’t at all blame Father Martin for mourning the passing of a friend, however great a sinner the friend was. But “legacy was marred” is doing a lot of work there. They recall the words of Boston’s then-Cardinal Archbishop Bernard Law to the serial pedophile Father John Geoghan, upon Geoghan’s retirement after cornholing little boys in a number of parishes: “Yours has been an effective life…

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The death of Archbishop Rembert Weakland has thrown the spotlight back on the corruption of the American hierarchy. While the late archbishop was himself involved in both sexual abuse and financial misconduct, let me focus here on another aspect of the corruption, which extends far beyond this one individual: the routine of lies and, still worse, the contempt for people who told the truth.

Most American bishops were not personally involved in sexual abuse. But most—at least most of those whose responses were exposed to public view during the “Long Lent” of 2002—were guilty of misleading their people about abuse and abusers. Few were as relentless as the late Archbishop Weakland in the campaign against whistle-blowers. But the media coverage during that unforgettable sad and scandalous year showed a shockingly familiar pattern:

When confronted with evidence that a priest had abused a child, our bishops:

1. Denied the evidence.
2. When…

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Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, a liberal critic of Vatican orthodoxy who led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee for 25 years but resigned on the eve of retirement in a scandal over a long-secret love affair with a man, died on Monday at his home in Clement Manor, a retirement community in Greenfield, Wis. He was 95.

His death was announced by the archdiocese.

An intellectual touchstone for progressive Catholic reformers, Archbishop Weakland, over the course of a distinguished if often controversial half-century career, was head of the worldwide order of Benedictine monks for a decade, presided in a rocky tenure over the Milwaukee archdiocese’s 700,000 Catholics, wrote many books and was an influential voice among the nation’s Catholic bishops.

But after an ecclesiastical life that lifted him from poverty in a Pennsylvania coal town to one step below the College of Cardinals — he was the recipient…

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Archbishop Rembert Weakland, formerly of Milwaukee, died Monday. He was 95 years old.

Weakland is widely regarded as one of the most ignominious Churchmen in American Catholic history.

The bishop was, in his day, the lion of the American Catholic left — he called for the ordination of women, excoriated the Church’s teaching on sexuality and contraception, and urged his priests to conduct “experiments” in living – urging them out of their parish rectories, and into apartments instead. He was regarded as a liturgical “innovator” par excellence. 

While he advocated for a broader social safety net for the poor, Weakland also lobbied to give abuse victims less time to file in court, and urged “flexibility” on legal tolerance for abortion. 

But while his record as a bishop and teacher of the faith might have otherwise been debated among Catholics, the details of his personal life, and his handling of sexual abuse,…

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This afternoon, it was announced that former Archbishop Rembert Weakland died at age 95.

His legacy, no doubt, will be described as “complex” and “controversial” — appointed to run the Milwaukee Archdiocese, he soon became the liberal icon of the American hierarchy, his hopes to become a Cardinal dashed with the ascendency of John Paul II and the return and triumph of the conservative church. His many gifts, his concert-level piano playing, his mastery of several languages, and his intellect — will be enumerated and praised. 

Yet the specter that cast itself over the life of Weakland, one that his death will not erase or ameliorate, is his role as chief architect in the widespread and systematic abuse of children by clergy of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Thousands of children were harmed under his watch, and he bears the responsibility. 

During his tenure as Archbishop of Milwaukee, Weakland transferred dozens…

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[Via Port Pirie Recorder]

A deceased choirboy’s father will be able to pursue civil action against the Catholic Church after a Victorian court ruled the clergy cannot use a legal loophole.

The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is seeking damages against the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and Cardinal George Pell in the Supreme Court.

He claims to have suffered nervous shock after being informed of allegations Cardinal Pell had sexually assaulted his son in the mid-1990s. Cardinal Pell has always maintained his innocence.

The Catholic Church tried to be excused from the proceedings by relying on the Ellis defence, arguing the man could not sue as he was not the direct victim of the alleged sexual abuse.

Up until 2018, the church could use the defence to deny liability to sexual abuse victims.

The case is believed to be the first to test the whether the Legal…

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Retired Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, a once-towering figure in the American Catholic Church who spent his final years in virtual exile after a public fall from grace, has died. He was 95.

He suffered a long illness and died overnight at Clement Manor, a Greenfield senior living center, the archdiocese said Monday. 

Weakland served as Milwaukee archbishop for 25 years before stepping down in 2002 amid a scandal that involved paying hush money to a man who had accused him of sexual assault. Weakland had denied the allegations. He would come out as openly gay — possibly the first Catholic bishop to voluntarily do so — in his 2009 memoir “A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church.”

His resignation came as the public was beginning to grasp the scope of the church’s global crisis involving the sexual abuse of minors. Weakland, who protected abusive priests and at least initially treated complaints about them with…

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Bishop of Derry warns against dumbing down church teaching to adapt to changing cultural priorities

Abuse of children by priests was addressed “clearly, directly and very movingly” in the synthesis report sent to Rome last week by the Irish Catholic Church, people attending the novena at Knock were told on Monday.

“The darkest place in our Catholic story is clerical and institutional abuse,” said Archbishop of Tuam Francis Duffy in a homily during Mass in the Basilica. In the synthesis report “it is referred to as an ‘open wound’ that was concealed by the church for so long. Those who participated in the synodal preparations identified a sense of loss, anger, betrayal, estrangement, in addition to the deeply personal and living sense of hurt. There is also a clear desire for healing,” he said.

The Archbishop noted how “significantly” the synthesis report “links abuse to other aspects of life where…

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Sylvia MacEachern said she will no longer update the site or allow people to post comments because of concerns that she “may be doing more harm than good.”

An Ottawa woman who has devoutly catalogued the clergy sexual abuse scandal in Canada for more than a decade has decided to shut down her encyclopedic blog known as Sylvia’s Site.

In a recent post, Sylvia MacEachern said she will no longer update the site or allow people to post comments because of concerns that she “may be doing more harm than good.”

MacEachern, a practising Catholic, said she has been deeply pained to see “diocese after diocese” forced to sell off churches to settle victims’ damage claims.

“Countless good, decent Roman Catholics are suffering because a diocese was sued for the sins and crimes of defiant, deviant priests who, in pursuing their own perverted passions, betrayed the faithful entrusted to their…

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[Via Union of Catholic Asian News]

The independent commission wants those living abroad to submit testimonies, especially during their summer home visits

An independent commission investigating sexual abuse in Portugal’s Catholic Church urged more victims to submit testimonies, especially during summer home visits by citizens living abroad.

“In our work as a voice in the silence, we continue appealing to all adults who may have been victims as children,” said the commission’s chairman, Pedro Strecht.

“We make the same request to all members of the church who can spread this message as they consider appropriate, such as in homilies or on parish door notices.”

The child psychiatrist spoke at a Lisbon media conference Aug. 17, nine months after the six-member commission was set up by Portugal’s Catholic bishops.

He said he was concerned to reach the 2.3 million Portuguese, 20% of the population, currently living outside the country, a “significant…

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The crackdown particularly continues to target the Catholic Church, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says in a comprehensive report.

Dated August 2022, the USCIRF’s report on Nicaragua is a powerful indictment of the massive violations of freedom of religion or belief perpetrated by the Marxist, pro-Russian, and pro-Chinese regime of President Daniel Ortega.

The USCIRF, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom,  is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). Its Commissioners are appointed by the President and by Congressional leaders of both political parties.

The report notes that “Nicaragua is embroiled in a social and political crisis that started after the government’s repression of peaceful protests in April 2018.” Catholic support for the protesters led to a crackdown on the Catholic Church.

“Since 2018, the report summarizes, government actors and citizens sympathetic to the regime…

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Why have over half of the Gen Z youths lost faith and confidence in organized religion? Societal upbringing is one cause, but there are several other causes.

America’s trust in organized religion has reached another all-time low. In fact, people were more than twice as likely to have a robust confidence in organized religion in the 1970s than they are today. According to Gallup, 65% of adults (ages 18 and up) in the 1970s said that they had a “great deal of trust” in organized religion, while this number has fallen to just 31% today.1

But organized religion is not the only institution where trust has eroded significantly. Gallup has been surveying people’s trust in other institutions for over forty years. Over that period of time, the percentage of Americans who have “a great deal” of trust in the medical system has fallen from 80% to 38%. Similarly, trust in the…

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The Italian cardinal at the center of a historic Vatican trial on corruption and mismanagement, said on Sunday that Pope Francis had invited him to the consistory for the creation of 21 new cardinals, to be held on Saturday in Rome.

“On Saturday, the pope phoned me to tell me that I will be reinstated in my cardinal duties and to ask me to participate in a meeting with all the cardinals that will be held in the coming days in Rome,” Cardinal Angelo Becciu reportedly said Sunday, during a private Mass celebrated before a group of faithful in Italy’s Golfo Aranci, where he is vacationing.

He shared the story with those in attendance to explain why he will not be “able to be present” during next Sunday’s Mass because he will be “busy in Rome.”

The prelate’s lawyer, Ivano Iai, confirmed the information to a local news outlet: “An invitation…

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A mediation plan is being negotiated by the church and attorneys for more than 440 alleged victims of abuse who have filed lawsuits

Dozens of personnel files for clergy and others associated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany as of midday on Friday had not been turned over to the attorneys for hundreds of victims who allege they were sexually abused as children.

Despite court orders instructing the diocese to turn over the materials, and public proclamations by Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger and other officials that the diocese is being transparent, the attorneys said more than half of the treatment and personnel files for roughly 60 accuses priests had not been disclosed before a Friday court conference.

The pre-trial discovery process is supposed to unfold as a slow-moving mediation plan is being negotiated by the church and attorneys for more than 440 alleged victims of abuse who have filed…

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More than four decades after sexual abuse claims against a Catholic priest first made national headlines, spurring accusations, lawsuits, a series of newspaper investigations and billions in settlements, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating a religious group’s handling of sexual crimes by clergy and church staff. 

This time, the Southern Baptist Convention is under investigation, according to a statement released Friday by leaders of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

News of the investigation came months after the release of a report from the investigative firm Guidepost Solutions that found SBC leaders had mistreated abuse survivors and mishandled abuse claims for decades.

The SBC’s Nashville-based Executive Committee acknowledged that it had received a subpoena from the Department of Justice. Leaders from Southern Baptist seminaries, missionary groups, the Executive Committee and other entities promised to cooperate fully.

Texas pastor Bart Barber, the SBC’s newly elected president, also signed the…

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The Vatican said Thursday it will not hold a trial against Marc Cardinal Ouellet over allegations he sexually assaulted a woman.

Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, was accused of sexual assault in a civil suit filed this week against the Archdiocese of Quebec.

A Vatican spokesman said Aug. 18 that the conclusion of a preliminary investigation by Father Jacques Servais, SJ, found “that there are no elements to initiate a trial against Cardinal Ouellet for sexual assault.”

AFP reported that a class action suit, filed Aug. 16, includes the testimony of 101 people who say they were sexually assaulted by clerics or Church staff from 1940 to the present. Eighty-eight clerics face accusations in the suit.

Ouellet is accused by a woman who says that he assaulted her multiple times while she worked as a pastoral intern for the Quebec archdiocese between 2008 and 2010, while…

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On August 12, 2022, the Federal Bankruptcy Court in the City of Camden adjourned the Plan of Reorganization Confirmation Hearing scheduled for August 29, 2022 until October 3, 2022. In response to this delay, Bishop Dennis Sullivan, Bishop of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey stated: “After nearly two years and nearly unanimous support from almost every survivor, the Bankruptcy Court’s adjournment of the confirmation hearing is very unfortunate.” 

In April 2022, after nearly 8 months of intense negotiation and mediation with the Tort Claimant’s Committee, the Diocese filed a joint Plan of Reorganization seeking to pay over $87.5 million to the approximately 300 survivors of clerical abuse who have filed claims during the Chapter 11 process. 

Over 97.8% of survivors voted in favor of the Tort Claimants’ Committee/Diocese of Camden Plan of Reorganization.  A total of 270 of the 276 voting survivors accepted the Plan of Reorganization.  On August…

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Donations allegedly spent on live sex shows. Fr Luke Seguna denies wrongdoing

Marsaxlokk parish priest Luke Seguna is believed to have spent nearly €150,000 of parishioners’ money on pornographic websites as he faces accusations of money laundering in court.

Sources close to the investigation told Times of Malta that Seguna was accused of misappropriating parishioners’ donations and used large volumes on the sites that provide live sex shows by performing artists against a fee.

It is understood that this went on for several years.   

Seguna is believed to have told investigators he was struggling with a “sexual crisis” triggered by a major health problem at the time. 

When contacted, his lawyers José Herrera and Matthew Xuereb, said their client denies any wrongdoing.

“It must be pointed out that our client is in no way accused of any related offence. We further emphasise that, at this point in time, our client is presumed…

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 A preliminary Vatican investigation into allegations against Cardinal Marc Ouellet concluded there was not sufficient evidence to warrant opening up formal proceedings against the cardinal for sexual assault, a Vatican spokesman said.

However, the Jesuit who did the investigation was a long-time associate of the cardinal.

Pope Francis has been made aware of these findings and, after further consultation, has declared that “there are insufficient elements to open a canonical investigation for sexual assault by Cardinal Ouellet against person F,” Matteo Bruni, head of the Vatican press office, said in a written statement Aug. 18.

Bruni wrote that a preliminary investigation ordered by Francis had been completed and that it concluded there were no facts or “elements to initiate a trial against Cardinal Ouellet for sexual assault.” The Canadian cardinal is prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops.

Bruni confirmed that Belgian Jesuit Fr. Jacques Servais had been chosen by…

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Priests, pastors and bishops from various faiths say both sides of an apparent collision of ideals are sacred to them: protecting children from all forms of abuse, and keeping confessions confidential so penitents feel safe and motivated to acknowledge and stop their sinful — and sometimes criminal — behavior.

The tension between doctrines about confessions and the impulse to protect children through mandatory reporting laws raises important legal, societal and religious questions about how religious leaders try to focus on and prioritize rescuing victims of abuse while also providing spiritual help to the person who has confessed.

Spiritual confessions have been shielded from government eyes, police investigations and courts for hundreds of years by legal exemptions called the clergy-penitent privilege, similar to privilege given to attorneys and their clients. But seven U.S. states and most states and territories in Australia now designate clergy members as mandatory reporters of…

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“The entire operation of the help line,” says Pulitzer-winning journalist Michael Rezendes, “…is enveloped in secrecy.”

Earlier this month, an Associated Press investigation of several child sex abuse cases, including a particularly horrific one in Arizona, revealed that the much-debated “help line” supplied by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its lay leaders failed to protect the victims.

The expose brought responses of dismay, disgust and anger from insiders and outsiders alike — and the reverberations are still being felt.

On The Salt Lake Tribune’s latest “Mormon Land” podcast, AP journalist Michael Rezendes — who previously earned a Pulitzer Prize with The Boston Globe for uncovering the Catholic Church’s pattern of covering up clergy sex abuse as part of the team dramatized in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight” — talked about the story, how he came upon it, how he reported it and how it compares to his previous reporting on…

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This coming Saturday, Pope Francis will hold a consistory to create new cardinals, followed by two days of meetings with all cardinals to discuss his reform of the Roman Curia. In between he’ll visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila, and although papal outings inside Italy generally are low-key affairs, this one is destined to draw saturation coverage.

The reason is because L’Aquila is home to the tomb of Celestine V, the last pope to voluntarily resign the papacy before Benedict XVI. When Benedict visited Celestine’s resting place in 2009, he left behind the pallium, or stole, which he’d received at his election – and, with the benefit of hindsight, that gesture was seen as foreshadowing Benedict’s own resignation in 2013.

As a result, observers will be hyper-attentive during Francis’s brief Aug. 28 trip to see if he drops any hints about the current state of…

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The Vatican cardinal accused in a class-action lawsuit in Canada of sexual assault against a woman on Friday denied any inappropriate behavior and said he would vigorously fight the “false” and “defamatory” accusations if the case proceeds.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet issued his own statement via the Vatican press office a day after the Holy See said a preliminary church investigation into the woman’s allegations determined the case didn’t warrant further investigation or canonical trial.

The back-to-back statements were responding to lawyers in Quebec who recently filed a class-action compliant by 101 alleged victims accusing 88 prelates of sexual abuse and assault over decades.

Ouellet, who headed the Quebec archdiocese from 2002-2010, was accused by a woman identified only as “F” of several alleged incidents of unwanted touching, including sliding his hand down her back and touching her buttocks at a 2010 event in Quebec City.

In…

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Canadian cardinal Marc Ouellet on Friday (Aug. 19) strongly denied claims of sexual assault made against him and said he was ready to prove his “innocence.”

Ouellet is accused of abusing a female intern, identified only as “F,” from 2008 to 2010, when he was archbishop of Quebec.

The 78-year-old, who was once considered a strong candidate to be pope, was named in court documents this week relating to a class action suit targeting more than 80 members of the clergy in the archdiocese of Quebec.

He rejected the accusations in a statement, a day after the Vatican said it ruled out a formal church investigation.

“Having learnt of the false accusations made against me by the complainant, I strongly deny having made inappropriate gestures towards her,” he said.

“I consider the interpretation and circulation of these allegations of sexual assaults to be defamatory.

“If a civil inquiry is…

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The rally, calling for mandatory reporting of child sex abuse, comes after an AP report revealed that the faith’s “help line” failed to protect sex abuse victims.

Scores of Utahns gathered on the state Capitol steps Friday night with a plea.

That plea, written across a yellow banner, read “We petition the Lord and President Nelson, protect LDS children.”

The demonstration, drawing about 100 protesters and hosted by Mandate Clergy Reporting, came after a recent Associated Press report revealed that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used a “help line” in a number of cases to keep sexual abuse accusations against members from being reported to law enforcement.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Protesters gather on the steps of the Capitol, for a rally to gain support for removing the clergy exemption from mandatory reporting in cases of abuse and neglect, on Friday, Aug….

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An Arizona judge overseeing a high-profile lawsuit accusing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of conspiring to cover-up child sex abuse has ruled that the church may not refuse to answer questions or turn over documents under the state’s “clergy-penitent privilege.”

Clergy in Arizona, as in many other states, are required to report information about child sexual abuse or neglect to law enforcement or child welfare authorities. But an exception to that law — the privilege — allows members of the clergy who learn of the abuse through spiritual confessions to keep the information secret.

Judge Laura Cardinal ruled on Aug. 8 that the late Paul Adams waived his right to keep his confessions secret when he posted videos of himself sexually abusing his two daughters on the Internet, boasted of the abuse on social media, and confessed to federal law enforcement agents, who arrested him in 2017 with…

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(For Immediate Release August 18, 2022) 

According to a statement released by the Vatican today, Pope Francis has concluded that there are insufficient grounds for a canonical investigation into the accusations of sexual assault against Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet. The Vatican statement noted that the Pope consulted with Father Jacques Servais, who confirmed that position with these words: “There are no grounds to open an investigation into the sexual assault undergone by person ‘F.’ by Cardinal M. Ouellet. Neither in the written report sent to the Holy Father nor in the testimony via Zoom that I subsequently gathered in the presence of a member of the Diocesan Ad Hoc Committee, did this person make any accusation that would provide grounds for such an investigation.”

To us, it appears that the Pope has passed up a perfect chance to demonstrate that even those closest to him, such…

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There is not enough evidence to open a formal church investigation into sexual assault allegations against a prominent Quebec cardinal, Pope Francis declared Thursday.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, an adviser to the Pope, has been accused of sexual misconduct in a class-action lawsuit filed earlier this week in Quebec Superior Court. A woman identified as “F.” accused the cardinal, once considered a front-runner to become pope, of several incidents of sexual assault between 2008 and 2010, including sliding his hand down her back and touching her buttocks at an event in Quebec City.

The lawsuit says the woman wrote a letter to Pope Francis in January 2021 regarding Ouellet and was informed that the Pope appointed Father Jacques Servais to conduct a preliminary investigation into her allegations.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See press office, issued a statement on Thursday quoting Servais, who said, “there are no grounds to open…

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After Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet was accused by a woman of sexual assault in a class-action lawsuit introduced this week, more women have come forward with similar allegations against members of the province’s Catholic Church.

At least three women filed formal sexual assault complaints against the archdiocese of Montreal since the allegations against Ouellet were made public, Christine Kirouack, ombudswoman for the city’s archdiocese, said in an interview Wednesday.

“It exploded since yesterday,” Kirouack said about the introduction in Superior Court of two class-action lawsuits against members of the Catholic Church in Quebec, involving hundreds of alleged victims.

It was the media reports about the allegations against the cardinal, however, that led to numerous calls to Kirouack from women. She said the high-profile allegations by an adult woman broke the stereotype commonly associated with church abuse — that it involves young children, mostly boys.

“One of them told…

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Governor Spencer Cox on Thursday signaled his support for a bill to mandate clergy to report any disclosures of abuse to the proper authorities.

Bills are being planned on Utah’s Capitol Hill to remove the clergy-penitent privilege in abuse reporting laws. It follows an Associated Press investigation surrounding The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ abuse “help line” that claims the system can divert accusations away from law enforcement to church attorneys. The Latter-day Saint faith has disputed the reporting.

Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, told FOX 13 News that she was re-filing a bill she initially brought forward in 2020. The bill faced significant and heated pushback from faith-based groups.

This year, she is not alone in pushing the issue. Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, said he was also planning a similar piece of legislation. Utah is a state that mandates that any disclosure of abuse be reported to…

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Geoff Drew was a lay minister when he raped an altar boy 30 years ago

After living in a “hell” created by the Catholic music minister who raped him more than 30 years ago, Paul Neyer told police in July 2019 that he was ready to file criminal charges against his rapist, Geoff Drew, who had become pastor of one of the Cincinnati area’s largest parishes.

“I felt like I had an obligation to protect kids,” Neyer told the WCPO 9 I-Team.

Based on Neyer’s emotional testimony, a Hamilton County Grand Jury indicted Drew on 9 counts of rape.

If convicted, there was a chance Drew would live the rest of his life in prison.

“I wanted 32 years — an eye for an eye,” Neyer said on Monday during an interview with the WCPO 9 I-Team. “The years that I struggled through this entire thing, I give it back…

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Education Review Office chief executive Nicholas Pole wants more support for children facing a stand-down or exclusion from school.

Appearing before the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care, Pole said families needed help navigating schools’ disciplinary processes.

“My own view is there should be greater protections and greater advocacy and support for whānau going through the process of having their child stood-down or excluded.”

Too many children who were excluded from a school were being enrolled with correspondence school Te Kura instead of being re-enrolled with another regular school, Pole said.

High levels of exclusion and stand-downs were often linked to poor practices in schools, he said.

“Often it is a manifestation of the quality of teaching, the quality of leadership, the quality of governance, practices and systems in the school and a lack of that collective teacher efficacy where teachers are working together to make sure every single learner…

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A Canadian church plans to terminate a rental agreement with a Christian school due to its connection to a lawsuit involving former students accusing local private school officials of abuse. 

Forest Grove Community Church of Saskatoon made a public announcement Monday that it will terminate Grace Christian School’s lease next month.

At issue is a Grace Christian employee being named in a class-action lawsuit by several former students of another school, Legacy Christian Academy, over allegations of abuse by school officials, including allegations of forced exorcisms. 

The termination comes after it was discovered that Grace Christian School had hired staff who previously worked at LCA. Last week, Saskatchewan’s education ministry appointed administrators to oversee LCA, Grace Christian and a third school that employs someone named in the lawsuit, Regent Academy in Prince Albert. 

“Forest Grove Community Church’s operations staff and church leadership have reviewed our…

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A Catholic priest who stepped aside from his Westwood church four years ago amid sexual assault allegations has reemerged at a church resource center in Newark that serves abuse victims, pregnant women and other vulnerable populations.

The Rev. Jim Weiner, who took a leave of absence from the Church of St. Andrew in 2018 amid decades-old allegations, has been reassigned to the Mercy House in Newark, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Newark confirmed this week. The archdiocese said an investigation into the accusations against Weiner had closed, but it offered no further details.

“The Archdiocese of Newark has returned Father James Weiner to ministry to serve the needs of the poor and vulnerable,” spokeswoman Maria Margiotta said in an email this week. “A re-review of an allegation of misconduct with an adult originally reported almost 20 years ago has concluded and the matter regarding Father Weiner has been closed.”

Asked…

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It was a somewhat lonely vigil Friday morning for Robert Hoatson.

Hoatson, a New Jersey-based advocate for those abused by Catholic clergy, waved to occasional drivers on Richards Avenue in front of St. Mary’s-Sacred Heart School and debated with a few passersby as he called for the Fall River Diocese and Bishop Edgar da Cunha to disclose more information about allegations against a local pastor, the Rev. Rodney Thibault.

“Thibault should be exposed for what he did here,” Hoatson told a small gaggle of reporters gathered on the sidewalk. “We don’t know what the offense was.”

The diocese says it can’t make more information public while its investigation is underway.

Last weekend, parishioners of the Transfiguration of the Lord Parish were told Thibault, pastor since 2019, is the subject of an investigation into “alleged misconduct that is inconsistent with standards of ministerial behavior and in direct violation of…

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Thousands of New Jersey Catholics gathered over the past year in an unprecedented series of meetings designed to help steer the future of the church.

The consensus, officials say, was clear: The Catholic Church needs to open its arms more to women, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals and others who feel marginalized by the faith.

The desire for more inclusivity was a major theme in discussions with 16,000 parishioners in four of New Jersey’s Catholic dioceses, according to summaries released recently by each diocese. While responses varied widely, many at the listening sessions said they too often feel unwelcome. Participants also cited distress at the church’s handling of the clergy abuse scandal.

“The challenge remains,” Trenton Bishop David O’Connell said in a statement, for the church “to determine ways to address and minimize the hurts felt by people.”

The surveys conducted by the Trenton, Camden, Paterson and Metuchen dioceses — representing almost 2.5…

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Earlier this week Canadian media reported that Canada’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet – a potential successor to the Pope and a noted conservative – has been accused of sexual misconduct as part of a class-action lawsuit brought against the Archdiocese of Quebec, one of two high-profile cases being brought against Catholic bodies in Canada.

In the lawsuit naming Ouellet, 101 alleged victims have accused upwards of 80 priests and diocesan staff of sexual abuse. A woman identified as F. in documents filed to the court accused Ouellet of inappropriate touching and massaging her back at a series of events in 2010 and kissing her in overly familiar manner in 2008, when she was a diocesan intern.

Pope Francis has determined, following a preliminary investigation by Jesuit Father Jacques Servais, that “there are insufficient grounds to open a canonical investigation for sexual assault by Cardinal Ouellet regarding person ‘F’.

Ouellet allegation could…

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Analysis: Cardinal Marc Ouellet

Canadian media reported Tuesday that Cardinal Marc Ouellet has been accused in a class-action lawsuit of inappropriately touching an intern, allegedly kissing her at a 2010 ordination party, and then sliding his hand down her back and touching her posterior.

The cardinal has not yet made a statement about the allegations, nor has the Holy See officially indicated whether any canonical process will be undertaken.

The allegations are the kind unlikely to be prosecuted as crimes, and neither guilt nor innocence is especially likely to be proved. Ouellet will most likely remain for some time in a middle ground, neither exonerated nor condemned. 

But the Vatican’s handling of the case already – in the 19 months since Pope Francis apparently learned of the allegations – is likely to draw criticism for the pontiff, renewing the frequent charge that Francis does not have a handle on addressing…

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Arthur Masse, 92, charged with assaulting 10-year-old girl at Fort Alexander school more than 50 years ago

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A retired priest accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl at a Manitoba residential school more than 50 years ago has pleaded not guilty.

Arthur Masse, now 92, was not in the Powerview, Man., court on Wednesday, but entered his plea through his lawyer. His case will go to a Court of Queen’s Bench judge-only trial in Winnipeg, but a trial date has not been set.

Masse was arrested in June after a decade-long investigation and now faces one charge of indecent assault.

RCMP say the victim was a student at Fort Alexander residential school in Sagkeeng First Nation, in eastern Manitoba, where Masse worked. 

Police haven’t named the victim, but 63-year-old Victoria McIntosh, of Sagkeeng First Nation, says she was the child at the centre of this case.

“I’ll be there…

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Church outlines its feelings on abuse and how a recent Associated Press story got it wrong

For generations, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have spoken in the strongest of terms about the evils of abuse and the need to care for those who are victims or survivors of abuse. From the thundering rebuke of former President Gordon B. Hinckley to the recent words of healing offered by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Presidency of the Seventy, our feelings are clear. We echo those sentiments and teachings today. Our hearts are broken as we learn of any abuse. It cannot be tolerated. It cannot be excused. The Savior Jesus Christ wants us all to do better and be better.

It is important to us that our members and friends understand how deeply we feel about this subject. It is also important that they have accurate information about how we approach…

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News agency says it “stands by its story” as reporter explains why he believes bishop knew of ongoing abuse.

A recent Associated Press article about a horrific case of child sexual abuse by a Latter-day Saint father in Arizona has “significant flaws in its facts and timeline, which lead to erroneous conclusions,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Wednesday evening in a scathing critique of the piece.

It was the Utah-based faith’s second response to the AP article published Aug. 4, written and reported by Michael Rezendes, a member of The Boston Globe’s investigative team that won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing clergy abuse in the Catholic Church.

The LDS Church’s initial response called the AP article an “oversimplified and incomplete” story about the faith’s handling of child sex abuse cases, but didn’t supply any examples of what was wrong with it.

Rezendes’ reporting centered on Paul Adams, a one-time…

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Alleged victim says Léopold Manirabarusha assaulted her more than 15 times

WARNING: This article contains details of abuse.

The archdiocese of Quebec removed a priest accused of sexual assault from his post in April of this year, just months after an alleged victim filed an official complaint against him.

But court documents from a new civil lawsuit against the archdiocese show at least one parish official knew of allegations against him more than four years earlier.

Details of the allegations against Léopold Manirabarusha were made public Tuesday in a class action that represents more than 100 victims. Some 88 members of the clergy are named in the lawsuit.

The allegations date back to 2016 and were made by a woman in her 30s who was working as a pastoral agent in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, a town just west of Quebec City, at the time.

The woman, identified only as “F” in the court…

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Cardinal Marc Ouellet, one of the most prominent Catholic leaders in Canada, was accused of sexual assault in legal documents filed Tuesday in a Quebec court.

Ouellet, considered a candidate for pope in recent conclaves, is one of scores of church clergy, employees and volunteersaccused of sexual misconduct in a class-action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec.

In the lawsuit, a woman identified only as “F.” accuses Ouellet of inappropriate touching and comments when he was archbishop of Quebec and she was a pastoral intern. She said the alleged abuse left her feeling “troubled” and gave her a sense of “deep unease,” and eventually prompted her to complain to Pope Francis last year.

The Archdiocese of Quebec said Tuesday that it “took note” of the allegations and “will not have any comment.” A Vatican spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Ouellet, 78, is one of the most…

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