ABUSE TRACKER

Archbishop William Lori avoids having to testify at Archdiocese of Baltimore bankruptcy hearing

Clergy sex abuse survivors anticipated hearing testimony from Baltimore’s archbishop, but heard instead from other church officials at the latest hearing for the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy case.

A federal judge heard arguments Thursday on a motion filed by survivors and other creditors seeking a court-ordered freeze on the sale of parish and school properties during bankruptcy proceedings.

Attorneys for the survivors said transactions continue in violation of Chapter 11 rules, saying the archdiocese is offloading assets and hiding it from creditors.

The debtor, the archdiocese, said parishes and schools are a separate entity, and so the sales have nothing to do with the bankruptcy case. The archdiocese said some sales require approval from the Vatican, and all of them require a series of religious paperwork, including special decrees saying the property’s no longer…

View Cache

The Government will present a bill to Parliament so that financial compensation to victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is exempt from IRS taxation announced the Ministry of Finance.

In a statement, the Ministry of Finance explains that this exclusion will also apply to financial compensation awarded for sexual abuse to minors and vulnerable adults “in other similar situations”.

The Portuguese Episcopal Conference announced at the end of March that each of the 57 victims of sexual abuse with an approved compensation request will receive between nine and 45 thousand euros, for a total of more than 1.5 million euros.

In a statement released at the time, CEP explained that, of the 95 requests received, 78 were considered eligible and 17 were immediately archived. Of those considered eligible, 11 were rejected, 57 requests have already been given the green light for compensation, worth 1,609.650 euros.

View Cache

Collin Killoren, the former Kaukauna area teacher accused of possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), received his sentence on Thursday.

Killoren, 31, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of extended supervision, court records show.

The former teacher at St. Ignatius Catholic School initially faced 30 counts of child sexual exploitation and possession of child pornography. However, 13 counts were dismissed, and he was sentenced on the remaining 17.

Killoren pleaded guilty in February and was arrested in April 2025.

View Cache

Now the parents say they feel “gaslighted” by the bishop of Charlotte and are outraged an internal probe has absolved the priest.

A Catholic priest at a North Carolina diocese has been accused of ambushing high school girls with what their parents call “unexpected” and “inappropriate” questions about sex while he was hearing their confessions.

But while Bishop Michael Martin, who heads the Diocese of Charlotte, has acknowledged the parents’ concerns, a diocesan investigation has concluded the priest did not cross the line when he asked the young women whether they had sex with their boyfriends or whether they masturbated.

“The Diocese of Charlotte looked into complaints raised about conversations that occurred during confession at Charlotte Catholic High School last December,” the diocese said in a statement this week to NBC affiliate WCNC of Charlotte. “No violations of our conduct policies were identified.”

That…

View Cache

For the second time in a decade, the St. Coleman’s community has been hit by six-figure embezzlement.

A former Catholic school principal in Miami will avoid jail time after being convicted of stealing $200,000 from the school where she worked – the second six-figure theft discovered at St. Coleman’s Church and School in the past eight years.

Former principal Lori St. Thomas received 10 years’ probation and is being required to pay back $121,548 to St. Coleman Catholic School, where she had worked for more than 20 years before being fired in 2024.

The sentence comes less than a decade after another $200,000 theft was discovered at the same parish: The parish pastor resigned in 2018 after the archdiocese announced that he had stolen the money.

A retired IRS investigator told The Pillar the case should serve as a warning to Catholic leaders to ensure that parishes, schools, and other Church institutions…

View Cache

Pressure on the Catholic Church is no longer just external, and is being brought to bear not only on the individual perpetrators, but also now on those who protected them.

On February 12, Catholic Bishop Artur Wazny faced reporters in the Polish industrial city of Dabrowa Gornicza and apologised for crimes that he did not commit.

“Today I confess our shame and our sorrow,” he said, addressing survivors of abuse by local clergy. “I apologise for every moment you lived through in a church that was meant to be a home, but became for you a place of darkness, a place of wounding.”

Bishop Wazny had taken office less than two years earlier, appointed by Pope Francis to a diocese he had not shaped and had no part in damaging. He apologised on behalf of those who had.

The diocese he inherited, Sosnowiec in the south of Poland,…

View Cache

Clergy sex abuse survivors claim the archdiocese is offloading assets to avoid paying creditors

Clergy sex abuse survivors in Baltimore have accused the Archdiocese of Baltimore of violating bankruptcy rules by continuing to sell parish and school properties during its Chapter 11 proceedings. The survivors argue the archdiocese is offloading assets and hiding them from creditors, while the archdiocese claims the properties are separate entities not subject to the bankruptcy case.

Why it matters

The case highlights the ongoing battle between the Catholic Church and clergy abuse survivors seeking compensation, as the archdiocese attempts to navigate the complex bankruptcy process and protect its assets from creditors’ claims.

The details

At a recent bankruptcy hearing, survivors and other creditors filed a motion seeking a court-ordered freeze on the sale of parish and school properties, arguing the transactions violate Chapter 11 rules. The archdiocese claims the properties are separate entities, and some…

View Cache

As transnational repression sees a global surge, an alarming case of sexual harassment has sparked outrage across Indonesia.

Authoritarian governments are increasingly reaching across borders to persecute their own citizens. That is according to the human rights group Freedom House, which made the allegation on Thursday. They noted this trend was especially high last year in Southeast Asia and East Africa.

In its annual report on transnational repression, the rights group identified China as the world’s “leading perpetrator” in twenty twenty-five. Vietnam and Russia followed closely behind. What’s more, six countries joined this long list of violators for the very first time. Those countries are Afghanistan, Benin, Georgia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. These new additions bring the number of nations known to carry out this specific kind of rights violation since twenty fourteen to at least fifty-four.

To put that in perspective, that forms more than…

View Cache

Edwards said that Tyler Moreland, 30, has waived his extradition hearing, and is awaiting extradition. He will remain in the Houston County Jail until then.

A Central Georgia youth pastor accused of downloading sexually explicit images of children is being extradited to Pennsylvania, according to Houston County District Attorney Eric Edwards.

Edwards said that Tyler Moreland, 30, has waived his extradition hearing and is awaiting extradition. He will remain in the Houston County Jail until Pennsylvania officers arrive to pick him up.

He added that he’s not sure when Moreland will be picked up from jail. Edwards said neighboring states usually pick them up within the week. However, it may take longer due to the distance between Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Investigators said Moreland was in contact with a child and downloading explicit images. According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s office, he was arrested in Houston County and faces…

View Cache

“I spent over 50 years in Missouri. I was abused in Missouri.”

Tammy Woods was 14 years old when she claims Mike Bickle, the founder of the International House of Prayer KC, began sexually abusing her.

Bickle has never been arrested nor charged for the suspected abuse. Woods did not reveal what happened to her until the age of 57.

In Missouri, the statute of limitations on reporting abuse and having a chance at filing a civil suit against an abuser runs out for a person at 31 years of age.

KMBC 9 is your home for Missouri breaking news and weather. For your latest Missouri news and weather visit: https://www.kmbc.com/

View Cache

Key takeaways:

• Abuse survivors’ lawyers initiated an adversary proceeding against the Archdiocese of Baltimore over church consolidations and property sales.
• Maryland U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michelle Harner issued a temporary injunction halting most Seek the City real estate transactions.
• Bishop Adam Parker testified about the archdiocese’s control over parish mergers and property sales.
• The victims’ committee seeks to declare the archdiocese and its parishes one entity for bankruptcy purposes.

The consolidation of Catholic churches in the Baltimore area — and the related sale of church property — were the subject of an evidentiary hearing Thursday in the Archdiocese of Baltimore‘s bankruptcy case.

Lawyers for survivors of child sexual abuse in the church in late February initiated an “adversary proceeding” against the archdiocese, arguing it has withheld information about its Seek the City to Come initiative, through which 61 parishes in and around Baltimore are being consolidated into 30. The victims say…

View Cache

The clergy sex abuse scandal deeply affected Syracuse and many other communities. One local group is trying to promote healing – far past church contrition and financial settlements.

Matthew FitzGibbons buried the abuse he suffered as a child for decades. The memories came roaring back at age 57.

“It affects everything, the anger at the church. For me, the church was my lifelong rock. And to have the basis of my life mission be pulled off as maybe it’s a hoax,” FitzGibbons said. “And then you start questioning, everything that you think you believe in now becomes suspect.”

And it was jarring. He lost his job; relationships with family, siblings and friendships were affected. He actually could forgive his abuser for being sick, but not the church for the lengthy coverup.

Still, FitzGibbons felt he couldn’t give up the church, saying that he felt a message from God. “I’ve had…

View Cache

An organization advocating for survivors of clergy sexual abuse is holding a healing service for survivors and families in Syracuse this weekend.

Michael Koplinka-Loehr of Lansing has spent his life dealing with the decades-long trauma of being groomed and sexually abused by a priest.

“It’s a long time for someone in their teen years to have that developmental stage kind of interrupted by someone who’s Interested in getting their, their needs met sexually,” said Koplinka-Loehr. “So I’ve had a lifelong journey of the impact.”

He’s been sharing that experience with the Syracuse Catholic Diocese through the group Hope, Healing and Solidarity, which is sponsoring this weekend’s events. He said it’s more important now than ever to keep the issue in the forefront, now that the Syracuse Diocese has reached a financial resolution to the clergy sexual abuse cases locally, making payments of $176 million to victims.

“It’s…

View Cache

A Super­ior Court judge on April 14 refused to dis­miss a sexual assault charge against a Cath­olic priest who was removed from the min­istry by the Provid­ence Dio­cese.

Judge Luis Matos rejec­ted a request by Kevin Fis­ette, 70, of Dayville, Con­necti­cut., to drop the first-degree sexual assault charge against him for allegedly abus­ing a 13-year-old boy between 1981 and 1982 in Burrillville. Fis­ette had alleged that the state viol­ated his due pro­cess rights.

Matos said in his bench rul­ing he found no evid­ence that the state attor­ney gen­eral’s office had acted in “bad faith” in its hand­ling of the case. He dis­missed as spec­u­lat­ive argu­ments that men­tal-health records related to his accuser that have since been des­troyed would have bolstered his case.

Fis­ette’s law­yer, J. Richard Ratcliffe, declined com­ment fol­low­ing the judge’s rul­ing. Fis­ette, who said noth­ing in court, is also being rep­res­en­ted by Craig V. Montecalvo.

Sexual assault charge…

View Cache

NL Appeal Court orders insurance to pay back premiums, lawyers for abuse survivors reviewing decision to determine next steps

A trial judge was right to void an insurance policy over the St. John’s Roman Catholic archdiocese’s failure to disclose sexual abuse allegations in the 1980s, but wrong to allow the insurance company to keep the premiums, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Court of Appeal has ruled.

In a decision released publicly on Wednesday, April 16, 2026, the court upheld a finding that the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s breached its duty of good faith by not telling Guardian Insurance Company of Canada it was aware of the allegations against its clergy when it obtained a policy in 1980 and renewed it yearly for at least four years.

However, the court found there was no proof the archdiocese had intended to commit fraud, and ordered the insurance company to refund the…

View Cache

The church immediately terminated the employee, and has cooperated with law enforcement investigation. The man was also a teacher and coach in Dublin.

A youth pastor at a Monroe County church is in jail facing five arrest warrants out of Pennsylvania after investigators say he was in contact with a child and downloading explicit images. According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s office, all five counts are for possession of child porn.

In a release, investigators said John Tyler Moreland, 30, of Macon, was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Houston County after Pennsylvania State Police identified pornographic images being downloaded in the area of Mount Zion Baptist Church on Rivoli Road.

Moreland has worked as the Director of Students and Families at the church since June 2025. He was immediately terminated upon his arrest on April 13, 2026, according to church officials.

Larry Collins, head of Trinity Christian School…

View Cache

Claimant in N.S. class action frustrated by delays, lack of information

Timothy Clark felt a growing sense of duty. To say something, to protect others. So he popped some coins into a school payphone and dialed the number for the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Halifax.

It was 1984 and he was 14 years old.

A member of the archdiocese office staff answered, he says. He told her he wanted to talk about a priest who had touched him inappropriately. She took his home phone number and said someone would reach out. No one, he says, ever called.

“They basically just ignored me,” Clark, now 55, said in a recent interview at his home in Wileville, N.S.

For nearly four decades, he kept the sexual abuse he suffered as a young teen close to him. So it was with some trepidation that, in 2023, he decided to make a claim as…

View Cache

A cross-party effort caused two House members to resign on Tuesday under threat of expulsion — and the two female lawmakers who helped lead that push say additional members of Congress could face pressure next.

In an interview with CBS News, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández — a Republican and a Democrat, respectively — described how they coordinated to push Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales to step down this week rather than face votes to remove them from office over allegations of misconduct.

Multiple women in recent days have accused Swalwell of sexual assault or sending unsolicited explicit messages, which he has denied, and Gonzales has faced scrutiny over an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. Swalwell also dropped out of the California gubernatorial race over the weekend, while Gonzales dropped his bid for reelection last month.

Luna and Leger Fernández said they worked…

View Cache

South Korea’s Education Ministry on April 1 distributed multilingual guidebooks on sexual violence prevention to international students through support centres nationwide, as the foreign student population continues to grow.

The brochures are available in seven languages – Korean, English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Uzbek and Nepali – reflecting the major nationalities of international students in Korea.

They outline key concepts and types of sexual violence, along with practical guidance on how to seek help or respond when witnessing incidents, using scenario-based examples.

The initiative comes as the number of international students has risen sharply, from 153,000 in 2020 to 253,000 in 2025. The ministry said the materials are intended to help prevent incidents while ensuring students can access assistance promptly.

Officials noted that some cases have shown international students struggling to respond appropriately due to language barriers and cultural differences, even after incidents occur.

The guidebook is available at universities’ human rights centres…

View Cache

Recently leaked screenshots of a lewd group chat among law students at the University of Indonesia (UI) have brought renewed attention to the prevalence of sexual violence in Indonesian universities.

Information about the group chat on messaging apps WhatsApp and Line first surfaced on April 12, when a new X account named “sampahfhui” (or “trash from UI law school”) posted several screenshots with the caption “students from UI Law School created a group where they harass women every day???”.

The post has since been shared more than 90,000 times.

The screenshots show obscene conversations about the physical attributes and anatomy of several female law students at UI, the country’s most prestigious university. In one exchange, the group members appear to joke about rape, saying that “silence means consent”.

The floodgates opened: Within days, more leaked screenshots involving students from other colleges engaging in crude banter made the rounds on social…

View Cache

The case involves inappropriate content, discussions targeting female students and lecturers in a chat group

An alleged case of online sexual harassment at a leading state university in Indonesia targeting female students and lecturers with male students posting inappropriate content and discussions in a chat group has raised nationwide concerns.

Rector Heri Hermansyah of the University of Indonesia (UI) in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta, confirmed the case was reported in its Faculty of Law and is being investigated by a Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Task Force.

“We will continue to monitor the situation,” he said on April 14, adding that they may coordinate with law enforcement authorities if involvement of criminal elements is found.

he investigation began after screenshots of the group chats began circulating online on April 12.

A legal counsel for the victims said that so far, 20 students and seven lecturers within the faculty…

View Cache

To the Editor:

The shocking and sudden collapse of the reputation of an American icon, Cesar Chavez, due to his sexual exploitation of his colleague, Dolores Huerta, and many others — with some 12 or under and fathering four children outside his marriage — reminds us that putting our unquestioned confidence in a particular hero and thus blinding ourselves to one’s faults and sins is extremely disillusioning and dangerous.

Those in the Catholic and wider community have learned bitter lesson over the last 20 years as the clerical sexual abuse scandal — exacerbated by clericalism, hierarchical neglect, denial and cover-up — took its toll on the spirituality of the faithful, confidence in all clerics, and any appreciation of what is the “Church.”

It has been a painful and costly resolution for the Syracuse Diocese and so many others throughout the country as parishes and other institutions have…

View Cache

Topics such as sexual assault have been difficult for survivors and historians to write about, even decades after the war.

Adek Stein – a Holocaust survivor from Bialystok, Poland – looked anxiously about the room, struggling with the question he’d just been asked. As his eyes searched his small audience, it was clear he was nervous. That itself wasn’t new. But the interviewer had asked about sexual violence during the Holocaust, and Stein’s face seemed to betray a pain and worry he had lived with for years.

The USC Shoah Foundation, which filmed its interview with Stein at his home in Australia in 1995, tries to interview survivors one-on-one, without distraction. But that day, several young women, presumably members of Stein’s family, stayed in the room as he gave testimony – including his experiences as a forced laborer at the Treblinka extermination camp, where more than 900,000 Jews were murdered. Then…

View Cache

37-year-old Kirsten Rose charged with multiple counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor

A 37-year-old Florida math teacher has been arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a high school student. Kirsten Rose, a teacher at Cocoa Beach High School, was arrested after the student’s parents discovered the relationship and the student confessed. Rose has been charged with five counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

Why it matters

This case highlights the ongoing issue of educator sexual misconduct in the U.S., which researchers say is “100 times worse” than the Catholic church sex abuse scandal. While female teacher-student relationships often generate headlines, studies show the majority of cases involve male teachers abusing female students.

The details

According to authorities, Rose began chatting with the student on Instagram in November 2025 and the relationship escalated to sexual activity in February and March 2026. The student’s parents became…

View Cache

Citing an overload of evidence, defense attorneys for Anthony Odiong have obtained a delay for the trial of their client, accused of sex assault and fathering children.

The hearing Tuesday in 19th District Court came as the former Catholic priest was set to go on trial May 4. Odiong has been indicted on three counts counts of sexual assault by a McLennan County Grand Jury.

Prosecutors also were granted their motion to consolidate all of the charges against Odiong in one trial.

McLennan County District Attorney Josh Tetens said it could be moved to May 26 with a decision by the court to come by Friday.

Anthony Odiong served as a Catholic priest at St. Peters Catholic Student Center in Waco, as well as St. Mary’s of the Assumption in West from 2007 to 2012.  Investigators say they also know that Anthony Odiong served in Luling, Louisiana from around 2015…

View Cache

A McLennan County judge granted a defense request Tuesday to postpone the sexual assault trial of disgraced Central Texas Catholic priest Anthony Odiong while he approved a state request to consolidate the cases of three of Odiong’s alleged victims into one trial.

Odiong, 57, who was set for trial in 19th State District Court on May 4, has been in the McLennan County Jail in lieu of $5.5 million bond for 617 days. Despite that delay, his attorney, Gerald Villarrial, sought a delay in his trial, telling Judge Thomas West during a hearing Tuesday that the voluminous information gathered in the investigation is the most he has seen during his 32 years as an attorney.

West, who had given the case a priority setting for May 4, granted the defense’s request and scheduled jury selection to begin on May 23, with testimony to kick off May 26 following the Memorial Day…

View Cache

Monroe County Sheriff’s release says John Tyler Moreland, 30, was arrested on 5 warrants accusing him of downloading pornographic images of children

U.S. Marshals arrested a youth pastor on child pornography charges in Houston County, according to a press release from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office said John Tyler Moreland, 30, was arrested for downloading pornographic images of children. 

According to the release, Pennsylvania State Police found that explicit images were downloaded in the area of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, where Moreland was employed as a youth pastor. Pennsylvania police then contacted the Monroe Sheriff’s Office.

Larry Collins, head of Trinity Christian School in Dublin, added that Moreland was employed at the school for the school years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

Collins said Moreland was a history teacher and had also coached both middle school football and wrestling.

Moreland, a Macon native, was arrested by…

View Cache

According to court documents, four additional charges were filed on Wednesday against Michael McMullen.

A Dauphin County pastor accused of sexually abusing minors in his congregation faces new charges this week. 

Last year, police charged Michael A. McMullen Sr. after a victim reported alleged inappropriate behavior in September. That investigation prompted further victims to come forward, leading to a second case being filed in February 2026.

Now, McMullen has been charged in a third case, in which he faces three felony counts and one misdemeanor — including indecent assault of a person under 13, corruption of minors, aggravated indecent assault of a person under 13 and indecent assault of a person under 13.

At the time of the first case, McMullen served as a pastor at St. John AME Church in Lebanon. He was named the Chief Marshall of the First Episcopal District – AME Church in February…

View Cache

Survivors say a diocesan settlement in bankruptcy court only amplifies the need for outreach and healing.

Jim Boone has a message for survivors of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy.

He knows that in February, the Diocese of Syracuse formally emerged from bankruptcy. Chief Judge Wendy Kinsella, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York, approved an agreement that will distribute $176.1 million to hundreds of survivors of abuse by Catholic priests in the Syracuse area, with an arbiter deciding specific awards.

Boone realizes that to people unaffected in a direct way by the abuse or its consequences, that court decision might seem like the closing of a door on a long, sordid and painful episode in the history of the church in Central New York.

Yet as Boone cannot forget, based on harsh experience:

It never truly ends.

“Guilt. Shame. Horror. Embarrassment,” he said. “Broken…

View Cache

Southern Baptist mega-pastor Heath Lambert posted a video talking about “Seven Years of the SBC Sex Abuse Disaster.”

Of course, first off, we all know that the SBC “disaster” has been going on a great deal longer than seven years. It was nineteen years ago, in April 2007, when ABC 20/20 did a national exposé that spotlighted the sexual abuse of children by preachers of the Southern Baptist Convention. So, that’s when Southern Baptist leaders lost plausible deniability. They’ve known for a very long time about the widespread abuse of kids and congregants in their churches.

Now we’re seven years past another major exposé – the Abuse of Faith series in 2019 – and Southern Baptists still haven’t done diddly-squat.

Lambert’s video offers a good illustration of the kind of platitudinous drivel that Southern Baptist leaders dish up to avoid actually reckoning with their clergy sex abuse problem. It’s the kind of propaganda that perpetuates…

View Cache

Vincent Cassidy, 84, abused two young boys, even abusing one while hearing his confession.

A former priest who was extradited to face justice in Scotland has been jailed for nine years after being convicted of sex offences in the 1970s.

Vincent Cassidy, 84, was convicted of two charges of indecent assault and one of lewd and libidinous practices which had a “devastating” impact on the victims.

The offences related to two young males, one of whom was 16 at the time and the other being aged between eight and 12.

A court was told that Cassidy’s abuse was an “egregious breach of trust”, where he used his position as a priest to gain the confidence of his parishioners and their families.

For the first victim, the abuse took place at a church in Greenock and involved a number of instances of sexual contact.

For one of Cassidy’s victims, who is now…

View Cache

The school denied liability but reached a settlement with the longtime art teacher who alleged retaliation for speaking up about student safety.

Salesianum School, a Catholic high school in Wilmington, Delaware, has settled a lawsuit filed by a former teacher and alum, Brian Magargal, who claimed he was forced out of his job because he pointed out lapses in the school’s training program meant to prevent child abuse. The school denied the claims and liability, but reached a settlement with Magargal, whose terms are not public.

Why it matters

The case highlights ongoing concerns about accountability and transparency in private schools, especially those with histories of sexual abuse allegations. The lawsuit also raised questions about the school’s leadership and its treatment of employees who raise concerns about student safety.

The details

Magargal taught art at Salesianum for nearly three decades and at one point directed the art department. He sued…

View Cache

Richard Adamsky pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse material charges and will serve more than seven years in prison

A man who taught at a Bucks County Catholic school for nearly four decades has been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for possessing child sex abuse material.

Federal prosecutors said Richard Adamsky, 66, of Warminster was sentenced in federal court to 90 months behind bars, followed by 10 years of supervised release. ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in various fines.

Adamsky pleaded guilty last December to one count of receipt and attempted receipt of child sexual abuse material as well as one count of possession, after admitting to knowingly receiving the material for at least four years.

He also possessed two computers and two flash drives with illegal images on them. Some of them included sexual depictions of children younger than 12.

At the time of his…

View Cache

This story discusses sexual crimes against children. Reader discretion is advised.

Almost 25 years ago, the Boston Globe released a series of investigative articles that looked into years of abuse one priest had gotten away with for decades. The case of that single priest led to the exposure of many other clergymen who had committed similar crimes. The research showed that the Catholic Church, with no preventative measures in place for such situations, only shuffled the abusive priests around from parish to parish, while encouraging victims and their families to remain quiet about the abuse.

This piece of journalism, among others, marked a significant shift in how the public expects religious organizations to handle instances of abuse. Churchwide policies are easily found online. Entire law firms have been dedicated to taking religious organizations to court, awarding victims financial compensation for the pain they have endured. Such law firms include Andrews…

View Cache

A judge entered a not guilty plea Tuesday for a priest accused of child pornography possession.

Fr. Andrew Showers, 38, faces two counts of possession of child pornography. He returns to court May 18 for a status conference.

Showers waived his preliminary hearing Tuesday. Showers then stood mute and did not enter a plea, so Judge Diane Meulemans entered the not guilty plea for him. Showers appeared in court in civilian clothes and was not wearing a priest’s collar.

Showers also faces charges for trying to meet who he believed was a 14-year-old girl, but “Abby” was actually an undercover police officer. He was charged in August with attempted sexual assault of a child, attempted child enticement and attempted use of a computer for a sex crime. A status conference is set for May 13 in that case.

These new charges are…

View Cache

Survivors of clerical sexual abuse in Portugal have been airing their grievances following the revelation by The Pillar last week that bishops made significant cuts to recommended compensation packages suggested by a panel of experts commissioned by the country’s episcopal conference.

António Grosso of Coração Silenciado (Silenced Heart), an association for survivors of abuse, described the bishops’ attitude as “unspeakable,” but said the decision to reduce recommended compensation payments

“There was a Compensation Determination Commission, which included judges,” he told The Pillar. “Words have meaning. ‘determination’ means determination. But as it turns out, the commission determined something and then someone came along later and decided differently.”

The Pillar reported this week that the Portuguese bishops’ conference cut the proposed compensation packages by about 50%, which in many cases amounted to tens of thousands of euros.

The bishops did not disclose their decision publicly, or to the victims, only confirming it after news of the decision…

View Cache

The Diocese is currently navigating Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization stemming from more than a dozen sexual abuse lawsuits. The allegations date back to the 1950s through the 1980s in Southern New Mexico, which was part of the El Paso Diocese at the time.

https://www.ktsm.com/news/judge-sets-deadline-for-el-paso-diocese-abuse-claims-rejects-insurers-push-for-extra-paperwork

View Cache

Opens door to compensation for victims whose cases cannot be prosecuted in regular courts due to death of perpetrators, statute of limitations

Spain on Tuesday approved the creation of an office to process compensation claims from victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church who were unable to seek justice through the courts.

The new body, operating under the Justice Ministry, will begin operating on Wednesday.

Justice Minister Felix Bolanos described the initiative as “a long-awaited right,” saying it recognizes victims’ suffering and reinforces institutional commitments to truth, justice and reparation.

Earlier this year, the Spanish government struck an agreement with the Catholic Church on how to handle sexual abuse cases.

A 2022 report by the ombudsman estimated that more than 1% of the population had suffered abuse in a religious context, which would mean there are more than 440,000 living victims.

The new office will serve as the first…

View Cache

A pastor and school employee in Washington state has been arrested under suspicion of possessing child sex abuse material, including AI-generated content. Kevin Johnson, 54, had been serving as a pastor at Impact Church in Pasco and as a paraeducator at Cottonwood Elementary School in Kennewick.

Editor’s note: This article contains information about child sex abuse that some readers might find disturbing and/or triggering.

Investigators have identified at least two victims.

RELATED: Florida Pastor Charged With Child Molestation Involving 4 Victims, Held Without Bond

According to a Richland Police Department press release, an investigation began when the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a report that CSAM had been “uploaded to an online platform.”

Investigators determined that the images were created using generative AI. The images were altered versions of pictures depicting a real child, who was between the ages of 7-12….

View Cache

A tra­di­tion­al­ist Cath­olic order expelled from the Christ­ch­urch dio­cese claims to be link­ing with like-minded groups over­seas to chal­lenge church reforms, while con­tinu­ing to deny alleg­a­tions of wrong­do­ing.

“We are work­ing in our own small way, with our lim­ited man­power, to bring about an Imper­fect Gen­eral Coun­cil that will pub­licly recog­nise the present Cath­olic dis­aster that has no way out but through,” said Father Michael Mary, head of the Con­greg­a­tion of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as Transalpine Redemp­tor­ists.

He said such a coun­cil would involve bish­ops meet­ing, without papal author­ity, to rep­res­ent a grow­ing net­work of “silenced Cath­ol­ics” around the world. “There are Cath­ol­ics all over the world left in ‘Cath­olic bunkers’ who know what is going on. It is a mat­ter of reach­ing out to them.”

Father Michael Mary claimed that, since the 1962-1965 Second Vat­ican Coun­cil, the church’s dir­ec­tion had been a fun­da­mental…

View Cache

When Alex Yannopoulos was eleven years old and a student at Radnor Middle School, he was molested by a teacher, an event that has greatly affected many aspects of his life.

Alex studied Latin as part of the foreign language curriculum. And the Radnor Township School District had hired Father Raymond Leneweaver to teach Latin.

During the 2003-04 school year, when Alex was a sixth-grade student in Leneweaver’s Latin class at Radnor Middle School, Leneweaver followed him into a bathroom and molested him, according to a lawsuit that Alex filed in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.

“I didn’t tell anybody for a really long time,” said Alex, who is now 33. He started getting treatment from a “really good” therapist about ten years ago and finally began to make progress. 

“There was a long time that I didn’t talk about it or think about it,” Alex said.

Often, victims don’t…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany is working out the details of how it will pay its $148 million settlement for survivors of sexual abuse.

The diocese says officials have been meeting with parish leaders to discuss how much each individual parish is being asked to contribute, and many leaders have relayed that information to parishioners.

The diocese previously announced the total amount from the parishes is expected to be about $50 million.

In a statement Monday, an official said the diocese does not plan to release a list of individual contributions.

Albany Bishop Mark O’Connell, who was appointed to the position by Pope Leo XIV in October 2025, has previously said the abuse marked “a shameful chapter in our history” and issued an apology to survivors.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Hundreds of cases have been filed against the diocese alleging sexual abuse under the Child Victims Act.

View Cache

LA County last year agreed to pay a record $4 billion to settle thousands of claimsof sexual abuse in county-run juvenile facilities and foster homes. There are many perspectives on the controversy. This is from a child advocate. Another perspective from unions representing the affected workers is here.

The recent revelation from 95-year-old Dolores Huerta that César Chávez sexually abused her decades ago is a stark reminder of what research has long shown: the ramifications of sexual abuse are profound and lifelong, and it often takes survivors decades to speak out about what they experienced when they were young.

But even as California legislators pledge support for Huerta and other survivors, they are preparing to introduce legislation that would block an entire class of sexual abuse survivors from ever seeking justice.

Last year, Los Angeles County reached a record $4 billion settlement with survivors of sexual abuse in its foster care and juvenile…

View Cache

Tier 3 sex offenders like Geoff Drew can’t live within 1,000 feet of schools or day cares, but his mother’s home appears to be a legal fit when he gets out of prison Aug. 17

Former priest and confessed rapist Geoff Drew wants to return to the West Side to live with his elderly mother once he’s released from prison on Aug. 17.

Ohio prison officials notified Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich of Drew’s request to live with his mother. A spokesperson said the address has not yet received final approval, which generally happens closer to an inmate’s release date.

“He’s going to be living with his mom, here in our county, within easy walking distance of multiple schools, including an elementary school,” Pillich said. “People need to be very, very worried about the safety of their children.”

Drew pleaded guilty in 2021 to repeatedly raping Paul Neyer when…

View Cache

A survivor of sexual abuse at Dublin’s Blackrock College said he feels “despair” that a statutory investigation into sexual abuse at religious-run schools has yet to contact victims.

Over 18 months ago, a scoping inquiry into allegations of abuse at schools run by religious orders was published.

The inquiry was launched in 2022 after an RTÉ documentary highlighted the abuse brothers Mark and David Ryan suffered at the fee-paying Blackrock College in south Dublin.

A report later found there were 2,395 allegations of sexual abuse across 308 schools run by religious orders. The allegations were made against 884 alleged abusers.

After this report was published in September 2024, the Government announced a commission of investigation, to further examine what emerged from the preliminary investigation.

Justice Michael MacGrath has been appointed by the Government to chair the commission. However, survivors say they have yet to be contacted and have “no idea”…

View Cache

Alleged sexual assault reported to have taken place at parochial house within the Armagh Archdiocese

A parish priest has been interviewed by the PSNI in relation to an alleged sexual assault at a parochial house.

The Catholic priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was interviewed by police on Wednesday 25 March in relation to the alleged incident.

The alleged sexual assault was reported to have taken place at a parochial house within the Armagh Archdiocese on Thursday 5 February, with the male complainant reporting to police on Saturday 7 March.

The Irish News understands that once a report had been made to police, detectives unsuccessfully attempted to locate the clergyman, who was outside the jurisdiction.

The PSNI has confirmed that an interview was conducted with a man in connection with an alleged assault, and that a file will be submitted to the Public Prosecution Service to consider whether…

View Cache

David Samarzia says he simply wanted to protect a group of local kids from the same pastor who had sexually abused him 25 years earlier.

But when he walked into a St. Paul law firm in March of 1991, it set off a series of events that would upend his life: a seven-year legal battle, a bitter public relations fight that landed him on national television, and a “total breakdown” that cost him his sobriety, career and home.

“I came to realize the sexual abuse that happened to me was less damaging in the long run than what the church, through the legal system, dragged me through,” Samarzia said.

In a new book, “Blindsided: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Legal Abuse,” the Duluth native recalls in stark terms the abuse he suffered in the 1960s, his quest for accountability from his former church and the devastating effects…

View Cache

Maryland is facing what could become one of the largest financial liabilities in its history, with more than 12,305 child sexual abuse claims filed against state government entities under the Child Victims Act. Potential costs to taxpayers are estimated as high as $60 billion, according to some lawmakers.

The growing legal exposure comes with no clear public plan for how the state would pay for it, as Maryland already faces mounting budget pressure and increased scrutiny from credit rating agencies.

Moody’s Ratings downgraded Maryland’s credit for the first time in nearly 30 years in May 2025, following an outlook warning first reported by FOX45 News the previous year.

Since the Maryland General Assembly passed the Child Victims Act in 2023, eliminating the statute of limitations for survivors of child sexual abuse to bring claims, lawsuits against both public and private institutions have surged….

View Cache

In this sense, Rute Agulhas believes that “the work is so important” that this structure has “been developed in close proximity to schools, scouts, catechists, precisely because these adults are the ones who are close to children and young people”.

The person in charge also noted that the VITA Group continues “to receive, since the beginning, requests for help from people who have been victims of abusive situations outside the Church, whether in the family, at school, non-Catholic school, in other contexts”.

“We are also, sometimes, approached for situations of domestic violence, situations that do not fall within the scope of our mission”, he said, explaining that the VITA group forwards these cases to the competent authorities, also depending on the person’s area of ​​residence.

According to Rute Agulhas, these requests, in these contexts, are not increasing.

Regarding the amount of financial compensation (between 9 thousand and 45 thousand euros)…

View Cache

Trustee behind the request is “disappointed.”

The Minister of Education doesn’t see a reason to conduct an audit of the local Catholic school board, and that’s disappointing to some.

At the March 24 meeting of the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB), trustees officially received a letter from Minister of Education Paul Calandra. The letter was the long waited for response to a controversial 2024 motion from the board requesting that the Ministry of Education conduct a financial and management audit of the HCDSB.

Proponents of sending the request argued it was a chance to address what they believe is the persistent underfunding of the HCDSB when compared to other school boards in the province.

“I, as the minister, may direct an audit of the board or, in accordance with the Education Act, pursue an investigation of the board’s financial affairs. Given that the school board has…

View Cache

Pope Leo XIV’s four-nation, 11-day trip to Africa is so dizzying in its complexity it recalls some of the globetrotting odysseys of St. John Paul II in his early years.

Themes Leo is expected to raise include Christian-Muslim coexistence, the over-exploitation of the region’s natural and human resources, corruption and migration.

Here’s a country-by-country look at each destination and highlights of the itinerary:

ALGERIA: April 13-15

The Algeria stop clearly carries the most personal importance for Leo, given his ties to St. Augustine, the inspiration of his religious order who lived and died there. Leo will visit Annaba, the modern-day Hippo where the 5th century saint was a bishop.

Migration and Christian-Muslim coexistence are expected to be other top themes in Algeria, a former French colony which is a majority Sunni Muslim nation on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast. Leo will pay homage to migrants killed in shipwrecks trying to reach Europe and…

View Cache

The new leader of Seattle Public Schools said he wants to improve how the district responds when teachers are accused of sexual abuse or harassment.

Since arriving in Seattle in February, Superintendent Ben Shuldiner said he’s seen “renewed vigor” in the district’s human resources department, which is currently looking into a backlog of old cases.

“If you came up to my office, you would actually see stacks of data around investigations that have happened over the last couple of years and me really pushing to say, ‘Where are we with this? What’s going on?’” Shuldiner said in a recent interview with KUOW’s “Adults in the Room” podcast.

The seven-part podcast revisits decades-old sexual misconduct allegations against Tom Hudson, a beloved biology teacher at Garfield High School, and examines the district’s teacher accountability system.

Not all of the cases Shuldiner and the HR department are reviewing today…

View Cache

After years of mediation in the Baltimore Catholic Archdiocese bankruptcy case stemming from the abuse of children over nearly a century, the church’s largest insurer offered $100 million in settlement funds.

The offer, from The Hartford, is the first of its kind in the case, which has drawn scrutiny from survivors as some fear they may die before the case comes to a conclusion.

The offer is only one piece of the puzzle, as the archdiocese, its parishes and a handful of other insurance companies that hold accounts with the church still have not come to any agreement with the committee that represents the survivors.

Jonathan Schochor, founding partner and chairman of Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., who represents survivors, said the funds cannot be paid out piecemeal and that the survivors still need to wait until all parties come to an agreement.

However, the offer may get the…

View Cache

One of the insurers in the Archdiocese of Baltimore bankruptcy case has agreed to pay to settle some claims, according to a court filing.

WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates has learned Hartford Insurance Group will pay $100 million to settle claims from some victims, documents show.

The group will also buy back all of the insurance policies from the archdiocese.

Attorneys for the committee representing the survivors said the move is a big step forward.

“It is significant,” said Jonathan Schochor. “It is not going to get it done — not even close to getting it done. It is significant for an insurance carrier to step up and do what they need to do.”

In a statement, Christian Kendzierski, executive director for the archdiocese, said: “The archdiocese continues to be committed to the process and working with the Survivors Committee and others to achieve agreed-upon resolution of these reorganization…

View Cache

“I want to make sure other students don’t have to experience what I experienced,” the student says

Content warning: This article contains details about alleged sexual assault and may be distressing to some readers. Resources for support are listed at the end of this article.

An Oakville student is calling for accountability from the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) after she says she was sexually assaulted while completing a volunteer placement promoted to students to fulfill mandatory graduation requirements.

The high school student, who is being identified as “Jane” due to ongoing court proceedings, spoke with Oakville News alongside her lawyer and father about her experience and the broader concerns it has raised about student safety.

According to the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS), the alleged incident took place while Jane was volunteering at St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church. Police say they began investigating in early February after receiving a complaint of a…

View Cache

Earlier this week, GoLocal was the first to report that a student at the Barrington boarding school, St. Andrew’s, was arrested and charged with sexual assault and simple assault.

The alleged perpetrator is a juvenile.

Since then, GoLocal has learned that a second student had come forward making similar allegations against the same individual. The alleged victim’s parents notified the school of the allegations over a month ago.

The Rhode Island Family Court has issued an order barring the alleged perpetrator from contacting the two alleged victims. Further, the individual has been ordered to home confinement and must wear an electronic monitoring device.

By Rhode Island law, the school is required to report any allegations of abuse and neglect to the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) within 24 hours.

GoLocal on Friday was told by DCYF spokesperson Barb Francella, “DCYF was not formally made aware by St….

View Cache

Christian David Vargas, 22, was arrested on April 7 on a warrant for lewd and lascivious battery of a victim under 16 years of age; the victim in this case is the third to accuse him of engaging in sexual intercourse with girls under the age of 16, and all of the alleged incidents occurred at Ignite Life Center (404 NW 13th Avenue), where Vargas’s father, Mark Vega, was the senior pastor.

Vega has been charged with failing to report suspected child abuse, related to four cases in which he allegedly knew that young men were having sex with underage girls at the church but failed to report the incidents to law enforcement; Gabriel Hernandez was sentenced to five years in prison, Noel Cruz was sentenced to three years of probation, and the two cases against Vargas are still open.

Click here…

View Cache

A now 34-year-old woman detailed being sexually abused by Troyce Hernandez in 2010.

A 51-year-old pastor, Troyce Hernandez, was arrested this week, accused of raping a young woman nearly 20 years ago.

An arrest affidavit states the woman was 18 at the time of the alleged sexual abuse. Now, 34, she filed a complaint with the Irving Criminal Justice Center on March 24 this year.

According to the affidavit, the woman said Hernandez raped her in January 2010. The court document said she made a “delayed outcry that she was sexually assaulted multiple times by Hernandez.”

The woman told police she and her family were living with Hernandez at the time as he volunteered to help her “move forward with her faith and desire to do more for God within the church.”

According to the woman accusing Hernandez, he entered her room, undressed her, and then forced himself on her.

…

View Cache

Authorities say at least two victims have been identified, but investigators believe there could be more.

New details are emerging in a child abuse investigation in Richland County that investigators say involves a husband and wife.

Authorities say 50-year-old Rodney Gibson is facing multiple charges, including criminal sexual conduct with a minor. His wife, Kawiana Young, a daycare operator, is charged with unlawful conduct toward a minor.

According to an incident report, the case centers on allegations from a teen who told a deputy she was sexually and physically abused while living in a foster home. The report states the alleged abuse began in 2023, when the victim was 15 years old, and continued until it was reported in March 2026.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said the investigation began after a school resource officer received information and reported it to authorities.

“Well, it initially started with an SRO finding out…

View Cache

Federal court records show a Midlands pastor arrested last week on sexual abuse charges involving an underage girl was out on parole on federal gun and drug charges at the time of his arrest.

Rodney Gibson and his wife, Kawiana Young, both 50, are charged in the most recent case in Richland County.

READ MORE: Sheriff: Richland County pastor, wife arrested in child abuse case

According to online records, in 2009, Gibson was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison on those federal charges, but was released in 2021, when President Trump commuted his sentence.

He was described as a “model inmate” for more than 11 years in custody.

Gibson has been on supervised release ever since and has requested it be terminated early.

Richland County deputies arrested the pastor of Pathway 2 Hope Ministries and his wife on April 1, after he was…

View Cache

Crossroads Church leaders released an update Thursday following an investigation into its founder and senior pastor, who was accused of inappropriate behavior.

Brian Tome was suspended in late February after a former member accused Tome of ”inappropriate physical humor” during a video shoot in late 2015.

The investigation determined that the accusations levied against Tome were substantiated, and he will be placed on a one-month suspension, followed by a four-month extended leave, during which he will “take part in appropriate steps of repentance and reconciliation.”

“I ask your forgiveness for too often allowing my flesh to overrule the Spirit in how I’ve used my words. God is doing a good and yet painful thing in me. I’m thankful for our Board serving tirelessly in a way that is making me and our entire church healthier,” Brian Tome said in a statement.

The church said that while it cannot go into…

View Cache

The Brief

• A Pasco County pastor and former sheriff’s deputy is facing multiple felony charges involving alleged abuse of four children.
• Investigators say incidents date back to 2021, with at least one victim under the age of 12.
• The case is ongoing, and authorities say the victims are safe and receiving support.

A Pasco County pastor and former deputy was arrested on multiple charges of lewd and lascivious behavior and molestation involving minors, according to the sheriff’s office.

The backstory:

Officials say 56-year-old Angelo Musicaro is accused of molestation/fondling a victim of less than 12 years of age. PSO says they investigated reports of Musicaro being inappropriate with four juvenile victims on various occasions between 2021 and 2026.

Court affidavits describe similar patterns of abuse, and investigators say forensic specialists confirmed evidence consistent with sexual abuse.

Musicaro is currently facing at least four felony charges,…

View Cache

The Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik has installed mosaics across the Roman Catholic world, including at the Vatican. After nuns accused him of abuse, some want his work removed.

In more than 210 churches across four continents, thousands of Roman Catholics worship every Sunday beside colorful mosaics designed by a Slovenian theologian and artist, the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik.

For decades, Father Rupnik’s distinctive mosaics won legions of admirers — until, about three and a half years ago, allegations emerged that he had sexually, spiritually and psychologically abused nuns. How many victims he is alleged to have abused is unclear, but a spokesman for the Jesuit religious order said it had contacted 20 people about reparations, including some witnesses.

Now, some of those women want his mosaics taken down. One wants them accompanied by labels that note the accusations. Most churches have yet to comply, a few have already covered them…

View Cache

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith has reportedly closed its investigation into a Spanish bishop who was accused of sexual abuse because it could not determine whether the victim was underage at the time of the alleged abuse.

According to reports in El País and the Spanish Catholic website Religion Digital the dicastery has closed the investigation because the Code of Canon Law in force at the time the abuse is alleged to have taken place – the 1990s – means that only cases involving a victim under the age of 16 constitute a crime.

The complainant alleges that the abuse began when he was 14, and continued until he was 21, when Bishop Emeritus Rafael Zornoza of Cádiz and Ceuta – the accused – was rector of a seminary in Getafe.

After being informed by El País of the dicastery’s decision which was reportedly made weeks ago, the complainant, a former seminarian, said he…

View Cache

Bishop Antonio Santarsiero OSJ has temporarily stepped down from his position while an investigation is conducted.

The Peruvian bishops’ conference announced Apr. 9 that its secretary general, Bishop Antonio Santarsiero OSJ, has temporarily stepped down from his position while an investigation is conducted following the emergence of abuse allegations against him.

The conference said in a statement that it “is making every necessary effort to clarify the complaint, acting according to the established protocols and civil and canonical legislation in force.”

The statement also said that “possible affected persons can go to the recognized listening channels, according to the provisions of the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi.”

Spanish website InfoVaticana recently published an article accusing Santarsiero, the Italian-born 74-year-old bishop of Huacho, of sexually abusing several victims, including a minor.

The website said it had access to a notarized letter sent to the apostolic nunciature in Peru on March 31…

View Cache

Some of the child sex abuse charges against a former priest at a now-shuttered Wilmington Catholic school were dismissed earlier this year.

The ruling dismisses two charges, but several others remain against John Taggart, who is accused of repeatedly abusing a child during and after the victim’s seventh and eighth grade years at the former St. Thomas the Apostle School and rectory. Taggart was a priest there for years.

Last year, the 80-year-old was indicted on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child, two counts of dangerous crime against a child, two counts of third-degree unlawful sexual penetration, four counts of first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse and second-degree unlawful sexual contact.

His case is now moving forward with the dangerous crime against a child charges dismissed after a local judge ruled that those charges are too old to apply and violated constitutional provisions dealing with laws written after criminal conduct occurred. 

His…

View Cache

As a single mother, she trusted the Catholic church for support raising her children. After learning that a Catholic youth minister allegedly abused her son, Renee Penton-Jones hopes for “acknowledgement, apologies and accountability.”

Renee Penton-Jones raised her son and daughter mostly as a single mother. Though she is Methodist, her ex-husband and kids were Catholic, and she relied “on the safety” of the Catholic Church for support. The Casper resident enrolled her children in Saint Anthony School and had them take part in church activities. The Christian education and physical activity her children received “meant the world” to Penton-Jones. 

Last month, Penton-Jones’ son, James Stress, told her “that there was going to be a discussion with the church” about things that had happened to him as a boy. He didn’t want to talk about it with her then. She “really had no clue” what her son’s words could mean. 

On…

View Cache

A man from Mexico said he didn’t know the priest who allegedly molested him for years was also doing the same thing to his brothers.

Rev. Theodore Gabrielli sat in the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court on Thursday listening to the man, Oscar, describe years of alleged childhood sexual abuse at the hands of the priest. Oscar was the second witness to take the stand in the case’s multi-day preliminary hearing.

Gabrielli, 62, is charged with 35 counts of forced oral copulation, sexual abuse, forcible lewd acts, aggravated sexual assault and sodomy by force that allegedly took place across multiple California counties, including in San Luis Obispo County. All of the charges are for acts allegedly committed against children under the age of 15 between 1991 and 2010.

Four alleged victims have come forward against the priest: Oscar and two of his brothers, Patricio and Felix, who…

View Cache

A former Wings of Faith resident alleges Bud and Debbie Martin isolated her from her family, moved her across several states and into Mexico, and used coercion and punishment to obtain her labor

The proprietors of a now-shuttered Southwest Missouri boarding school are facing a new lawsuit by a former student alleging trafficking across several states, coerced labor, isolation and sexualized punishment while she was underage. 

The lawsuit was filed last week in the Western District of Missouri Southern Division court by Javairia Yankowy, who says she spent four years at Wings of Faith Academy after being placed in the custody of the school’s owners, Debbie and Percy “Bud” Martin. The lawsuit alleges the couple trafficked Yankowy while running Wings of Faith, which operated alongside Agape Boarding School, another Southwest Missouri Christian boarding school that has faced extensive abuse allegations.

The Martins did not respond to requests for comment. 

According…

View Cache

Bail was set at $250,000 on Tuesday for a Tri-Cities paraeducator accused of using AI to turn images of a girl he “friended” on Facebook into sexually explicit videos and photos. Kevin R. Johnson, 54, who is also a pastor at a local church, was arrested Monday by federal agents outside Cottonwood Elementary School in Kennewick where he worked.

Tuesday afternoon he made an initial court appearance by video link from the Benton County jail, where he is being held on suspicion of possessing and dealing in child pornography. Formal charges have not been filed.

He is suspected of downloading pictures of the girl posted on Facebook and Instagram, then altering them with artificial intelligence software. The girl lives in another state, said investigators.

Deputy Prosecutor Chelsea Parker asked for the high bail amount, saying, “The state is very concerned about his employment, seemingly choosing employment that gives…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of New York late last year sought authority from its insurer to discuss settling as many as 1,700 child sex abuse claims for up to $2 billion as part of high-stakes negotiations.

The Manhattan-based Catholic institution pitched the figure to Chubb Ltd. following a proposal from lead plaintiffs’ counsel representing more than 80% of claimants who sued under the state’s Child Victims Act, according to court records filed Tuesday by the insurer’s attorneys in the New York Supreme Court, New York County.

The archdiocese didn’t think a settlement demand made by claimant lawyers in November was reasonable, its attorney Jim Murray of Blank Rome LLP said in a Dec. 1 email. But he told a Chubb attorney that a global resolution was achievable at a “substantially lower dollar amount” after the church did its own analysis.

The claimants’ proposal wasn’t disclosed in court documents.

“The analysis has convinced the Archdiocese…

View Cache

Wyoming News Now has received a statement from the Diocese of Cheyenne related to a lawsuit of alleging sexual abuse.

The lawsuit alleged that former youth minister Doug Hudson of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Casper sexually assaulted three boys during youth programs in the 1990’s.

The complaint lists both the church and diocese as defendants for failing to supervise and control Hudson and protect the plaintiffs.

RELATED: Ex-Wyoming Catholic youth minister, diocese face lawsuit over sexual assault accusations involving 3 boys

Their statement is included in full:

“The Diocese of Cheyenne has been notified of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse in the mid-1990’s by an individual who served as a youth minister at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Casper, Wyoming.

Because this matter is now the subject of active litigation, the Diocese is not in a position to comment on the specific allegations….

View Cache

The president of the Portuguese bishops’ conference confirmed Tuesday that “significant cuts” were made to the recommendations from an independent commission for financial compensation packages to victims of clerical sexual abuse.

On Tuesday The Pillar broke the news that the Portuguese bishops’ conference voted in a February closed-door meeting to make cuts to the amounts proposed by an independent Compensation Determination Commission, which had been formed in 2024 by the bishops’ conference.

But until news reporting was published April 7 on the subject, the bishops’ conference had declined to confirm the cuts, telling The Pillar earlier this month only that “the final amounts attributed were defined in accordance with the procedural regulation, which allowed for a distinction between the technical report and the final decision” and “taking into consideration” the work of the CDC.

The independent commission was composed of seven legal experts,including two judges, along with several lawyers and university law professors.

…

View Cache

For the second year in a row, the House has approved a bill to allow victims of sexual abuse by clergy to sue the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence and any other entity that knew, but failed to stop – or concealed – the abuse they suffered as children.

The legislation would also provide the victims with a two-year window to revive claims currently barred by expired time limits.

The vote was 67-to-5 along party lines, after one lawmaker after another expressed their disgust at the decades of abuse of children by trusted clergy who, in the words of one lawmaker, Rep. Teresa Tanzi, had been told were their mortal “connection to God.”

The legislation sponsored by Rep. Carol McEntee reflects one of several legislative actions that Attorney General Peter Neronha recommended in his scathing report on the sexual molestation of more than 300 Rhode Island children by at…

View Cache

Rhode Island lawmakers’ vote today on a bill allowing victims of sexual abuse by clergy to sue the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence will put the spotlight back on the updated list of credibly accused priests in a recent report by Attorney Gen. Peter Neronha.

The House is scheduled to vote on Tuesday, April 7, on the bill to allow the victims to file suits seeking damages from the Diocese – and any other entity that knew and failed to stop sexual abuse they suffered as children. The legislation would also provide the victims with a two-year window to revive claims currently barred by expired time limits.

The total list of credibly accused clergy is 75 names long, with 14 still living. The previously released list by the diocese was 55 names long.

What does credibly accused mean? “[A]n allegation of Sexual Misconduct Perpetrated Against a Child where there is a reasonable basis to believe…

View Cache

Two decades of accountability are transforming the Church

Accountability. Consistency. Compassion. These three words represent an untold story of the Catholic Church’s response to child abuse in the last two decades. It’s getting results and healing hearts.

It’s a story revealed, not only in data but in programs using compassion and education as a way to carry out two of Christ’s most important missions: protecting children and meeting the deepest needs of people.

Culture of prevention

It has been more than 20 years since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) first presented the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The document created standards for how sexual abuse allegations involving minors and priests or deacons should be handled across the country.

Adopted in 2002, the document has served as a guide since then for change and accountability. With three previous updates and a fourth review underway this…

View Cache

Brendon Earl Gallant served in more than a dozen parishes before retiring in 2018

WARNING: This story contains disturbing descriptions of child sex abuse. Resources and supports for anyone who has experienced sexual violence can be found at the bottom of this story.

A retired Catholic priest in Prince Edward Island who pleaded guilty last year to sexually abusing a child in the late 1980s at St. Margarets Parish has been sentenced to five years in a federal prison.

Brendon Earl Gallant, 80, was sentenced Tuesday in provincial court in Charlottetown. He pleaded guilty last summer to a charge of sexual assault.

• Retired P.E.I. priest pleads guilty to sexually assaulting 12-year-old boy in 1980s
• Retired P.E.I. Catholic priest again scheduled to be sentenced for 1980s sexual abuse

The court heard the victim was 12 years old when Gallant took an interest in…

View Cache

A former P.E.I. Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused an altar boy in the late 1980s has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Brendon Earl Gallant, 80, appeared in provincial court in Charlottetown on April 7 for sentencing. The five-year prison sentence was a joint recommendation from Crown attorney John Diamond and defence lawyer Chris Montigny that was accepted by Judge Nancy Orr.

Gallant previously pleaded guilty to the sexual assault charge on Aug. 21, 2025, in provincial court in Georgetown. A publication ban is in place preventing the release of information that could identify the male victim.

Agreed statement of facts

According to an agreed statement of facts previously read in court, the victim reported the historic sexual abuse by Gallant to the RCMP on March 3, 2023. The police investigation revealed that Gallant was assigned to St. Margaret’s parish in Kings County and met the victim in…

View Cache

The Time’s Up Act, passed during the “Me Too” movement, allows victims to file civil lawsuits until their 51st birthday – but that only applies to abuse that occurred after Oct. 1, 2019.

Sexual abuse survivors shared heart-wrenching stories at the state Capitol on Tuesday.

Victims are pushing for more time to sue their abusers, but the effort faces an uphill battle.

STORIES OF ABUSE

As a child, Janet Orsatti-Duffany suffered years of sexual abuse. As an adult, it took her decades to report it.

“I didn’t know what he was doing to me was wrong,” she said. “It wasn’t until I was 43 that these memories came crashing through.”

Orsatti-Duffany and other survivors want Connecticut to eliminate the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits. They also want a three-year “lookback” window for cases that have already expired.

“I had a repressed memory, and I didn’t remember until…

View Cache

A local pastor has been arrested and charged with Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child after two women came forward against him.

On April 3, 2026, Pastor Ryan Pena, who had previously been associated with the Church of Acts, was arrested and charged with Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child after investigators in California reached out to the San Antonio Police Department.

According to arrest records from Bexar County, the two victims, now adults, are family members of Pena. The victims told investigators they had been brutally assaulted as far back as 2008.

Both victims recalled graphic descriptions of abuse that started when they were as young as 6 to 8 years old, all the way until the victims were in their late teens.

The victims both reported that they had previously disclosed the incidents to family members but did not contact police at the time because they were trying…

View Cache

A St. Thomas pastor and youth leader who was arrested last February on sexual assault of a female minor is now facing federal charges in connection with transporting her for sexual activity.

U.S. Attorney Adam Sleeper announced that Lawrence Turnbull, 65, of Estate Mandahl, was charged in connection with the alleged abuse of a minor he supervised through his role in the church.

Court documents allege Turnbull “transported the minor to different locations” on multiple occasions and “touched the minor inappropriately,” according to a statement released Friday by Sleeper’s office.

He faces charges of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, coercion and enticement, unlawful sexual contact and child abuse. Prosecutors said the most serious charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison if convicted.

No other details were available but a V.I. Police statement last year noted…

View Cache

The Rhode Island House of Representatives on Tuesday approved three attorney general-backed bills that would open the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence and other institutions to lawsuits and require additional reporting in sexual abuse cases.

The measures, sponsored by Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee, a South Kingstown Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Judiciary, now head to the Senate, where the tougher test awaits after similar reform stalled last year.

“Give the survivors a chance for justice,” McEntee, whose sister is a survivor of clergy abuse, said when introducing the legislation on the House floor. “There needs to be transparency and accountability.”

The first bill approved by lawmakers would open a “revival window” allowing previously expired claims against institutions and supervisors responsible for enabling or covering up sexual abuse. The window would open on July 1, 2026, and close on June 30, 2028.

McEntee’s proposal builds on the…

View Cache

The bishops’ conference voted to significantly cut the amounts recommended by an independent commission.

After an independent body of specialists recommended financial compensation packages to victims of clerical sexual abuse, the Portuguese bishops’ conference has voted to significantly cut the recommended amounts before offering the packages to victims.

While compensation offers to victim-survivors are individually approved by the local diocesan bishops, the Portuguese bishops voted as a conference in February to apply a uniform percentage cut to compensation packages recommended by an independent panel — with the cuts believed to be as high as 50 percent.

After an independent commission’s 2023 report on clerical sexual abuse, Portuguese victims of clerical sexual abuse were in 2024 invited to present their cases to a panel of abuse experts, and to apply for financial compensation. The process applied to cases which could no longer be prosecuted in civil courts because of the statute…

View Cache

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy nearly three years ago amid a large number of allegations of sexual abuse.

An insurer for the Archdiocese of Baltimore has offered to contribute $100 million to a settlement for abuse victims there, the latest development in the archdiocese’s yearslong bankruptcy proceedings related to Church sexual abuse.

Court documents obtained by EWTN News show that the Hartford Insurance Group proposed the nine-figure payment in an April 3 filing in U.S. bankruptcy court.

The archdiocese originally filed for bankruptcy in September 2023 amid the threat of a wave of clerical abuse lawsuits. The filing was made ahead of the Maryland Child Victims Act taking effect in October of that year. That law ended the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits for negligence in relation to child sexual abuse.

The archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2024 the archdiocese sued multiple insurers over what…

View Cache

[To watch a video of this conversation, click here and forward the video to the 1:06 mark — that is, one hour and six minutes from the beginning.]

Boston Public Radio, The Curiosity Desk, & The Culture Show Live Monday April 6, 2026

Today on Boston Public Radio: Ricardo Pierre-Louis and Rose Staram, about their luck getting city contracts. MIT economist Jon Gruber on the long-term economic impacts of a War in Iran. Mitchell Garabedian, renowned Catholic Sex scandal victims’ attorney and advocate, joins with a survivor of the Catholic Sex Scandal, Dr. Herbert Brennan, to discuss a new report out of Rhode Island. GBH’s Jared Bowen on arts and culture news. 

Today on The Curiosity Desk: Boston influencer Maddie GW and creator economy expert Lia Haberman pull back the curtain on how creators make a living. Edgar talks with Nina Sankovitch about her book on America’s most…

View Cache

[To watch a video of the conversation, click here.]

In this episode, Amber sits down with attorney Mitchell Garabedian, known for his role in exposing clergy abuse cases highlighted in the movie ‘Spotlight.’ He shares what he’s seen representing thousands of survivors, why many wait decades to come forward, and how these cases are still happening today.

This is a difficult but important conversation about trauma, accountability, and the power structures that allow abuse to continue — and what’s changing as more survivors speak out.

Viewer discretion is advised.

If you or someone you know has experienced abuse, there are resources available – reach out for help.

View Cache

In Australia government funded and supported institutions, and their clergy bound by doctrine and oaths of allegiance to a foreign Vatican sovereign daily act with impunity to pervert justice, minimise and cloak rape in eternal secrecy, prioritizing papal loyalty over truth, victims and national law.

This is a massive question for me and not easy to answer in a short space.

Q: “As a survivor, theologian, SNAP Aotearoa leader, and contributor to New Zealand’s Royal Commission into Abuse in Care (and recipient of the King’s Service Order), could you share the key parts of your life story and advocacy journey?”

This is a massive question for me and not easy to answer in a short space.

I am a survivor, a theologian, and an advocate – whose life is shaped by experience, conviction, and a commitment to justice.

My journey begins not in theory, but in lived reality. As a survivor…

View Cache

Social media priests attract many while sidestepping abuse, poverty and injustice

It is an increasingly familiar sight on Indonesian social media: Catholic priests in cassocks or wearing crosses looking confidently into the camera and beginning to speak.

They talk about the truth of the Catholic faith, arguments against atheism, Church law on marriage and the Virgin Mary — in short, why these teachings are valid, even superior to others.

Some, like Father Patris Allegro of the Archdiocese of Kupang, who has more than 90,000 Facebook followers, focus heavily on differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. His remarks often question Protestant teachings, sparking backlash from Protestant groups.

The content is meticulously produced, packaged in a smooth narrative, uploaded regularly and enthusiastically received by thousands of followers hungry for spiritual guidance — some with rigid, even fanatical, views. These followers are also quick to attack comments that question or criticize…

View Cache

A SPANISH priest jailed over child sexual abuse has continued to receive a salary from the Church who ‘believe he is innocent’, according to documentation seen by EL PAIS.

ose Luis Galan was arrested in 2021 for abusing a teenager between 2011 and 2014, while he was spiritual director at Toledo’s Hijos de Maria Nuestra Señora de Talavera de la Reina school.

Galan, a priest, had met the minor during a school trip on the Camino de Santiago in 2010 and then, a year later, was appointed as her spiritual director and came to be seen as the teenager’s ‘second father’.

The sixteen-year-old’s mother advised that her daughter sought guidance from Galan and so the student began to meet the priest two times a week in his parish office in San Ildefonso church. 

It was here that he repeatedly assaulted her sexually, physically and psychologically for three years. 

Two years…

View Cache

A Pasco County pastor, who once served as a local deputy, has been arrested on multiple allegations of molestation, according to the sheriff’s office.

The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office told 8 On Your Side that they had investigated reports of 56-year-old Angelo Musicaro, pastor of Worship-Life Church in New Port Richey, “being inappropriate” with four children on multiple occasions between 2021 and 2026.

Unsealed criminal complaints revealed some details of the allegations.

In one case, a child victim told an investigator that she frequently visited Musicaro’s house between 2021 and 2025. The alleged victim said he touched her inappropriately underneath her clothing on five separate incidents, according to a criminal complaint.

“Subsequent to your affiant’s investigation, a forensic interview was conducted with the juvenile victim,” the affidavit said. “The forensic specialist conducting the aforementioned interview confirmed positive findings of sexual abuse for this victim and several other…

View Cache

Deputies say both had proximity to other children and are asking anyone with information about potential additional victims to come forward.

A local pastor and his wife, a daycare operator, have been arrested in connection with alleged crimes against children, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies said Rodney Gibson, 50, and Kawiana Young, 50, were taken into custody following an investigation that began March 12, 2026, after a victim reported sexual abuse while in foster care at their home.

Investigators said the victim reported that Gibson sexually assaulted her numerous times beginning at age 15 and continuing until she aged out of foster care as an adult.

During the investigation, deputies learned that a minor child was currently living in the home. Authorities said they also uncovered allegations of physical abuse by Young against that child.

The child was first taken into Emergency Protective Custody on March 18….

View Cache

Francesco Zanardi was 11 years old when a Catholic priest in northern Italy started sexually abusing him, an ordeal which lasted for more than five years. As an adult, Zanardi founded Rete L’Abuso, a network exposing clerical abuse and demanding accountability from the Church. But despite his campaigning, highlighting over 1,250 alleged cases and more than 1,000 accused priests, the Catholic Church in Italy remains immune from legal accountability. As Zanardi has explained, ‘The Church hasn’t referred a single case to judicial authorities in Italy. On the contrary, the Bishops’ Conference [i.e. the Italian Bishops’ Conference, the permanent union of Italian bishops] has expressly stated that cases filed via Church complaint centres will not be referred to the judicial authorities.’ Indeed, such cases are handled by the Church itself, and the Bishops’ Conference has stated that there is no legal obligation in Italy to report suspected cases.

In rejecting any obligation…

View Cache

Throughout her childhood and adolescence, Heidi Evensen said she was exploited by adults who took explicit photos and sexually abused her.

Years of physical and mental abuse took their toll on Evensen, and she felt invisible.

Until one day, when Evensen was 9 years old, one of her abusers approached her, looked Evensen in the eyes and actually talked with her. She still is not sure to this day why.

“It was one of the worst times of my life, … (but) she squatted down, and she said, ‘I see you,’” Evensen said. “… And if you think those three words are not enough for a child that you see in harm’s way, even if you don’t know what to do, you can say those three words. You can say, ‘I see you,’ and you can follow it up with, ‘Is there anything I can do to help you?’ ……

View Cache

Countries would be well advised to follow Australian legislation to overcome deficiencies in canon law

The child sexual abuse scandal has been described as the worst crisis that the Catholic Church has had to face since the Reformation.

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, in its 2017 Final Report, found that canon law imposed serious impediments to a proper response by the Church to the sexual abuse of children. It recommended changes to the canonical disciplinary system. Some of those, such as the abolition of the pontifical secret over child sexual abuse, have been adopted.  

However, there are still outstanding matters. One is the refusal of the Church to impose mandatory reporting to the civil authorities unless there is an applicable civil reporting law. In 2014, the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child View Cache

A former priest said the church failed to investigate after he reported he was sexually harassed by a senior priest more than a decade prior. 

Jonathan Ficara detailed the incident and the aftermath in a public letter to Pope Leo XIV, which was published by the National Catholic Reporter on March 25. 

In the letter, Ficara asks for a series of safeguards to protect victims of sexual abuse, including education on reporting mechanisms, mandatory documentation, transparency and protections against retaliation. 

He submitted an abuse claim against the Diocese of Norwich in 2025

Ficara also filed documents with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut that chronicled the abuse, the Diocese’s lack of action and his attempts of resolution for more than a decade. 

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021 after facing upward of 60 sexual…

View Cache

Allegations against the former Colton High athletic trainer and daughter of legendary coach stem from encounters in 2001 to 2007

Colton Joint Unified School District has paid $19.5 million to settle lawsuits by 12 former Colton High football players who alleged they were sexually abused by the school’s former athletic trainer, the daughter of the team’s renowned football coach.

The Southern California News Group learned just recently of the settlements even though the high-profile litigation was quietly resolved from June through August 2025. According to the settlement agreements obtained by SCNG, each plaintiff received $600,000 to $2.4 million.

Attorney Morgan Stewart, who represented nine of the 12 plaintiffs, did not explain why the settlements were not publicly disclosed earlier, except to say the final defendant in the litigation, Riverside-based Clover Enterprises Inc., did not settle until February. Clover is the sports medicine service that contracted with the district to provide…

View Cache

Prosecutors say Anthony Odiong exploited his parishioners’ emotional dependency to engage in sexual conduct with them

A Roman Catholic priest with ties to Texas and south-east Louisiana and criminally charged with abusing his position as a clergyman to pursue sex with three spiritually vulnerable female congregants faces being taken to trial on all of those cases at once.

The Texas district attorney’s office prosecuting Anthony Odiong filed a motion seeking to consolidate the three cases in late March, ahead of a trial date that the Guardian understands has tentatively been set for 4 May. Prepared by McLennan county first assistant district attorney Ryan Calvert, the motion notes that Texas state law allows “a defendant [to] be prosecuted in a single criminal action” if the crimes alleged “are connected or … are the repeated commission of the same or similar offenses”.

And Calvert’s motion maintains that each of the three cases pending against Odiong involves…

View Cache

The child sexual abuse scandal has been described as the worst crisis that the Catholic Church has had to face since the Reformation.

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, in its 2017 Final Report, found that canon law imposed serious impediments to a proper response by the Church to the sexual abuse of children. It recommended changes to the canonical disciplinary system. Some of those, such as the abolition of the pontifical secret over child sexual abuse, have been adopted.  

However, there are still outstanding matters. One is the refusal of the Church to impose mandatory reporting to the civil authorities unless there is an applicable civil reporting law. In 2014, the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child criticized this failure.  

In 2023, the Holy See imposed mandatory reporting to the…

View Cache

Gareth Gore’s 2024 book Opus alleges decades of manipulation, which the group has denied. He believes the pope wanted to send a clear message

Gareth Gore was on a research trip to California earlier this year when he was told to expect a call from the Vatican arranging a one-on-one audience with the pope.

Gore was stunned. In 2024 he published the book Opus, a meticulously researched and gripping account of the abuses allegedly perpetrated by Opus Dei, the highly secretive Catholic group started by the Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá in the 1920s. Over a century Opus Dei established itself as a deeply religious order that, they claim, helps ordinary people “love God and serve others through work well done, carried out with honesty and integrity”.

Gore’s book lays out claims the organisation is at the heart of a conspiracy involving child grooming, human trafficking, and psychological and emotional control,…

View Cache