ABUSE TRACKER

Analysis

A lawsuit filed Tuesday against Bishop Rick Stika and the Knoxville, Tennessee, diocese provides new details about allegations of both diocesan cover-up and a sexual assault committed by a former diocesan seminarian who remains close to the bishop. 

Both the alleged assault and ensuing administrative misconduct, including the removal of an investigator appointed to look into the matter, were first reported in 2021 by The Pillar. 

But while the suit brings to light more allegations against Stika, it also makes nearly certain that the Holy See will not be forthcoming about the results of its own investigation into the bishop, which began last year. 

At the crux of the Feb. 22 lawsuit are these allegations:

• Stika invited in 2018 to the diocese a Polish seminarian, Wojciech Sobczuk, who had been dismissed from the Society of Jesus after being accused of sexual misconduct at St. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in…

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The lawsuit was filed on Feb. 22 under the name of “John Doe.”

A lawsuit filed in Knox County alleges that the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville and its Bishop, Richard Stika, failed to stop the rape of an employee then attempted to cover the incident up.

The lawsuit was filed on Feb. 22 under the name of “John Doe” to protect the man’s privacy, according to the person’s lead counsel at Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC. However, it is stated that the person filing the lawsuit was a former musician and dedicated Diocesan employee. According to the 46-page filing, the Diocese employed a seminarian who was reportedly a friend of the Bishop. The lawsuit claims the seminarian raped Doe on Feb. 5, 2019 at Doe’s home. After the incident, the filing states that the seminarian sent the plaintiff a written apology after the incident but continued to sexually harass him…

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On Tuesday, Feb. 22, the Diocese of Knoxville and Bishop Stika were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Knox County Circuit Court. Bishop Stika was notified of the filing Tuesday evening, and diocesan attorneys are reviewing the allegations. The diocese understands that the legal system works at a very deliberate pace, and with good reason. The diocese expects the process to be fair and thorough and looks forward to the opportunity to vigorously defend itself if this matter moves forward.  

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Regarding “Lawsuit accuses De Soto priest of sexual abuse at boys’ home” (Feb. 15): Since when did child molesters limit themselves to assaulting only children at their current place of employment? It seems to me that’s what officials at the St. Louis Catholic archdiocese believe.

In response to a new abuse and cover-up lawsuit against the Rev. Alexander Anderson, a church statement says that the charges are “demonstrably false.” Why? Because the church says Anderson “was not assigned to St. Joseph Home during the time the claimant was a resident.”

Is it impossible for a teacher to return to his former school and engage in unwanted sexual advances with children?

This type of denial — “I couldn’t have done it. I wasn’t even there at the time” — is commonly offered up by alleged abusers. But it obscures a simple reality: In mere seconds, a predator can hurt a child….

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A woman is coming forward with sexual abuse allegations against a former Bridgeport priest.

“Jane Doe” said Fr. George Maslar sexually abused her twice in his car in 1971 when she was around 15 years old.

“I never envisioned myself doing this,” the woman said during a press conference Wednesday. “I was too afraid. I felt ashamed as if it was my fault. Thinking about it made me physically sick.”

She said she met Maslar when both attended prayer meetings at the Cathedral of Saint Augustine in Bridgeport.

Last year, “Jane Doe” reached a five-figure settlement, even though the statute of limitations had expired. She’s calling for it to be extended.

“The legislature needs to understand it’s more the norm to say nothing for years because you blame yourself rather than to come forward sooner,” she said.”

“Jane Doe” said she hopes her speaking out encourages other victims to…

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Italian activists fighting sexual abuse by Catholic clergy decry the ‘conspiracy of silence’ between the Italian church and state.

Recent reports on the clerical sexual abuse scandals in France and Germany have put the spotlight once again on the Catholic Church in Italy, which has so far avoided confronting the history of abusive priests in the country.

Advocates for victims in Italy believe it’s time for the local church to allow a thorough investigation into claims of sexual abuse by priests but lament a “conspiracy of silence” between the Catholic institution and the Italian state.

“Italy has a big problem,” said Francesco Zanardi, founder of Rete L’Abuso, Italy’s largest network for victims of clergy abuse, in an interview with Religion News Service on Monday (Feb. 21).  

In Italy “the dynamic of stopping sexual abuse is entirely in the hands of the church,” he said, adding that “the state doesn’t interfere.”

Zanardi,…

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Despite fundraising challenges nationwide caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Catholic foundations continue to grow their role in helping the U.S. church with its fundraising needs, according to a recent study.

“Catholic Foundations in the U.S. Revisited,” released in late 2021, is the work of Walter Dillingham, a Catholic who serves as director of endowments and foundations at the Wilmington Trust, a New York City-based firm that specializes in helping nonprofits manage their finances.

This is Dillingham’s third look at the role of Catholic foundations nationwide, and this report highlights not only the role foundations play, but also which fundraising tools they find most effective and how they provide information about their work to current and prospective donors.

According to the report, more Catholic dioceses than ever before are establishing foundations to handle the bulk of their fundraising.

“Foundation assets continue to grow rapidly with $12 billion in long-term investments, and…

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Abuse of children at Marylands School in Christchurch was so rife it was described as a state-supported, church-run brothel for paedophiles. But so far the spotlight has focused on a handful of individual abusers. An inquiry this week tried to find out how deep the rot went.

Alan Nixon nearly had to burn a church down to get noticed.

After Nixon racked up 400 convictions including arson, vandalism and burglary, his lawyer eventually asked him why he had targeted church buildings.

Nixon told a story he had already told many times: He had been sexually and physically abused at a Catholic school, Marylands, in the 1970s. Any building with a steeple reminded him of the school in Halswell, Christchurch, which he attended from age 8 to 14.

He had told police the same story 30 years earlier after they caught him running away, but later found in their records that…

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As trial in the archdiocesan abuse case moves forward to determine whether assets of churches and schools should be included in the quest “to find an authentic and thorough resolution” for “real healing,” as one lawyer put it, all involved should be reminded why Guam’s case is different than any other.

In every other U.S. diocese which was similarly sued, the impetus for justice originated with lawyers, legislators or journalists. In Guam, lawyers, legislators and journalists had nothing to do with it.

In Guam, the impetus to rid our church of its decades of demons originated with what we shall call “the regular Catholics,” the Catholics in the pews.

The history of the law now being wielded to sue for real healing is this:

The regular Catholics called for the lifting of the statute of limitations in order to hold the bad guys accountable. A lawmaker later introduced a bill…

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Over the course of almost five decades and across two countries, the man who abused me and countless others — track coach and former Olympian Conrad Mainwaring — used his Olympic status to gain access to young male athletes in order to manipulate and abuse them. During Mainwaring’s time working at Syracuse University in the early 1980s, he abused me and many others under the deception of coaching and mentorship.

Because of New York State’s Child Victims Act (CVA), which was signed into law three years ago this month, I had legal recourse — but most of my fellow survivors do not.

I was a high school student at the time the abuse started and under the age of 18, which meant I was eligible to file a civil lawsuit thanks to the CVA’s lookback window. Most survivors of Mainwaring’s abuse were in college and…

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Under intense outside pressure, Catholic leaders in Spain approve “independent audit” on sexual abuse committed by clerics, but it is not intended to be an in-depth study

The Catholic bishops of Spain have finally caved-in to outside pressure to shed light on cases of Church-related sexual abuse, being among the last prelates in Europe to do so.

The Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) announced on Monday that they approved the launch of an independent audit by the law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo to investigate cases of clergy sex abuse.

“The firm… will open an independent channel to receive possible complaints, review legal procedures to punish criminal practices and offer its collaboration to the authorities to help clarify the facts and establish a prevention system that meets social demands in this matter,” said a CEE statement.

Lack of transparency

But it is still not clear whether the episcopal conference will participate…

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It’s SO counter-intuitive. It’s SO hard to imagine.

How could Catholic officials – after decades of devastating, embarrassing and morale-destroying prosecutions, lawsuits and exposes – how could they NOT radically reform and prevent the widespread sexual abuse of boys and girls in the church? How could they NOT work overtime to fix this?

But they don’t, and here’s the latest head-scratching, mind-numbing proof (AND a reminder of why each of us has to do our part to safeguard kids in the church).

“Prominent French priest barred from ministry over abuse attends Vatican priesthood conference.” That’s the headline in the Feb. 18, 2022 National Catholic Reporter.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/prominent-french-priest-barred-ministry-over-abuse-attends-vatican-priesthood

Let us briefly break it down for you.

He’s rabidly anti-gay.

He has said publicly – just a few years back – that the church hierarchy does NOT have an obligation to report abuse to police or prosecutors.

And he’s purportedly been removed…

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A Feb. 22 lawsuit against the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee, and its bishop, alleges that a former parish organist was raped and sexually harassed by a diocesan employee and seminarian, and that a diocesan investigation into his allegation was impeded by the bishop.

Bishop Rick Stika told The Pillar last year that he removed a diocesan investigator looking into the rape allegation, and that he “knew in [his] heart” the seminarian was innocent.

The suit also charges that Stika has claimed the seminarian, Wojciech Sobczuk, was himself sexually assaulted by the lawsuit’s plaintiff. The suit characterizes that claim as an “egregious” defamation of a rape victim.

“The lawsuit raises disturbing questions regarding the Diocese of Knoxville’s commitment to protecting its employees and the community from sexual abuse. It raises disturbing questions regarding the Diocese of Knoxville’s commitment to providing for the welfare and healing of victims of sexual abuse. And it raises…

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(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 23, 2022)

In a shocking lawsuit filed in the Knox County Circuit Court of Knoxville Tennessee on February 22, 2022, the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville and Bishop Richard Stika face six counts including defamation, negligence in supervision, and retention as well as negligence in the training of a diocesan seminarian. Also, in the list of counts is intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

The lawsuit describes the outrageous behavior of one of its seminarians, culminating in the rape of an employee of the diocese named John Doe for the purposes of this lawsuit. ‘The Pillar’ reported on the unrest in the diocese among both priests and the laity over many issues, including the retention of Sobczuk as a seminarian even after he was expelled from St. Meinrad Seminary, Rockport, Indiana, where three seminarians accused Sobczuk of sexual harassment…

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The church said it is aware of the lawsuit and “looks forward to the opportunity to vigorously defend itself.”

A civil lawsuit filed in Knox County Circuit Court Tuesday alleges a Knoxville seminarian raped a church musician, who then faced intimidation by Bishop Richard Stika into staying silent about the assault.

The musician, who was named as a John Doe in the suit, said a Polish priest-in-training came to his house after celebrating mass one evening in early February 2019. He tried to kiss Doe, performed unwanted oral sex on him and then raped him, the lawsuit said.

Weeks later, on Valentine’s day, Doe said the seminarian wrote him a card that said, in part, “Thank you for everything. And for what was wrong – I apologize with all my heart.” A photo of the card is attached in the lawsuit.

Doe said he contacted the Knoxville Police Department in…

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On the second day of the trial against Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta over sexual abuse, a priest testified that he had porn on his phone, while a psychologist of one of the alleged victims testified that the bishops’ behavior “scared and intimidated him.”

As the trial began Monday, Zanchetta, bishop emeritus of Orán, in northern Argentina, denied all charges of alleged sexual abuse. 

This is the civil trial against the prelate, who used to boast of his friendship with Pope Francis, with whom he worked at the Argentine bishops conference. Zanchetta was one of the first bishop appointments made by the Argentine pontiff, and led the Diocese of Oran from 2013 to 2017. Following his tenure in Oran, he went to Spain, where he received psychological treatment for undisclosed causes. Later, he was appointed by the pontiff to APSA, which oversees the Vatican’s property portfolio.

According to a statement from…

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BUENOS AIRES – An Argentine bishop requested massages from young men studying to be priests and stored pornographic photos on his phone, witnesses testified on Tuesday on the second day of the cleric’s trial for sex abuse.

The judiciary in Salta issued a statement summarizing the testimony on Tuesday, part of an unprecedented trial in Argentina that is the latest case of alleged sex abuse to rock the Roman Catholic church in one of its Latin American strongholds. The trial is being held behind closed doors.

Gustavo Zanchetta, the former bishop of Oran in the northern province of Salta, has been accused of sexually abusing seminarians, as well as abuse of power and financial mismanagement.

He denied the accusations on Monday, arguing he had “a good and healthy relationship” with all seminarians and that his accusers seek revenge. 

One of the three priests who lodged the first complaints against Zanchetta,…

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A North Carolina woman is sounding the alarm about abuse she says she endured inside a now-defunct Northeast Ohio home for children.

“I was there for four years of hell,” said Carolyn Mason.

Mason was 4 years old when she became a resident of Parmadale Children’s Village of St. Vincent DePaul in Parma, which was founded in 1925.

During a news conference in Westlake Tuesday, Mason, now 61, says she endured serious physical abuse at the hands of a nun who was her primary caregiver.

“I was upset for being there. She said we don’t waste food and I would throw up and she would feed it back to me, a spoon at a time,” Mason said.

She also alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a priest.

“Now they’re doing an investigation,” said Mason. “There’s two separate investigators, one for the priest abuse sodomy and…

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A Las Vegas, Nev., pastor accused of child sexual assault made his first appearance before a New Mexico judge Monday after being arrested Saturday in Albuquerque and jailed as a fugitive from justice.

Reynaldo Crespin, 59, conferred briefly with a public defender before waiving his right to fight an extradition to Nevada to face criminal charges.

Bernalillo County Metropolitan Judge Linda Rogers issued an order directing Nevada law enforcement officials to retrieve Crespin within 15 days. He’ll remain in jail until then, the judge said.

Crespin is the pastor of New Horizon Christian Church and Fellowship in Las Vegas, according to the church’s website. He co-founded the church in 2002.

He also had been a second grade teacher at a public elementary school in Clark County, Nev., for about five years before he “separated” from the the school district earlier this month, according to the CBS affiliate in Las Vegas.

…

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A man abused by members of a Catholic religious order at a residential school in Fife has been awarded record damages. Known only as AB, the man was a pupil at St Ninian’s in Falkland at the beginning of the 1980s. While there, he was physically and sexually assaulted by the Christian Brothers.

Damages have been set at £1.4 million, believed to be the largest ever secured in such a case. Although the total sum is derived from different sources, the single largest amount, at around £1 million, relates to lifetime lost earnings due to AB’s difficulties in maintaining employment given the psychological issues resulting from his abuse.

During his time at St Ninian’s, dating from February 1980 to April 1981, he was subject to forcible sexual assault and regularly beaten, as well as suffering other forms of abuse. Due to the weight of evidence his favour, AB was not…

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[This article appears in the Bishop Mulakkal trial feature series. View the full series.]

The verdict acquitting Bishop Franco Mulakkal in the much-awaited case of the sexual abuse of a religious sister has been disappointing to many of us, and has made us suspicious. I write this for many reasons; first, because I have journeyed with this case from a distance; and because I feel the need for speaking up in defense of our sisters, and sounding a wake-up call for us as women religious.

What has pained me more than anything else is that some women religious that I know have rejoiced about the verdict of acquittal of a bishop who was accused of nothing less than rape — and worst of all, he happens to be the patron of that local congregation. We all know now that…

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I first met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1994 when I was researching my book “Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church.” I was getting ready to leave Rome and he was one of the last and most important interviews for the book. Because of illness, he had to cancel our first appointment and then graciously rescheduled me for a time when most Vatican officials were taking their siestas.

At the end of the interview, I asked for his blessing — something I only did with two other Vatican officials — because I sensed I was in the presence of a holy man.

But I also knew I was in the presence of a man who, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had done irreparable harm to theological discussion in the church. There were scores of theologians who had been investigated and…

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Caving to pressure from abuse survivors, politicians and the media, the Spanish bishops announced on Tuesday that they will conduct a full, nation-wide investigation of clerical sexual abuse.

Cardinal Juan José Omella, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, and lawyer Javier Cremades announced a twelve-month investigation with the necessary historical “breadth” which will include both dioceses and religious congregations.

This decision backtracks from what Omella said last month, when he announced there was no need to carry out such an investigation, because each diocese and religious congregation were doing so independently.

In the beginning of the investigation, 18 professionals will take part in the process. Although  reporters were told the commission will analyze cases linked to both the present and the past, it is unclear what historical periods will be included.

According to Omella, the investigation will be carried out in a way that allows the formation of a “credible…

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The head of the Spanish Catholic bishops’ conference said that the Church sees the comprehensive audit as a step forward in transparency and reparation to victims.

At the launch of an independent investigation into clerical sex-abuse cases in Spain, the head of the Spanish Catholic bishops’ conference said that the Church sees the comprehensive audit as a step forward in transparency and reparation to victims.

Cardinal Juan José Omella, the archbishop of Barcelona, apologized at a press conference on Feb. 22 on behalf of the Catholic Church in Spain to the victims “who have suffered and continue to suffer so much pain.”

“We are hurt by all the abuse, including that which has occurred in other institutions. This hurts us, and we would like these cases to be investigated as well,” Cardinal Omella said, according to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

In commissioning the investigation, Cardinal Omella said that the…

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[This is a Google translation of an article that appeared 2/21/2022 in the Spanish newspaper El País. To see the original article, click here: La auditoría de los abusos encargada por la Iglesia investigará el encubrimiento y propondrá indemnizaciones]

A law firm will investigate pedophilia: “We have the task of going to the bottom so that the whole truth comes out.” It will have the collaboration of the German office that the Munich diocese hired and appointed Benedict XVI, and will follow its work model

The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Juan José Omella, on January 14 during the meeting with the media to report on the ad limina meetings held with Pope Francis – Antonello Nusca

The investigation that the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) has commissioned the law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo to independently investigate cases of pederasty in the Church in recent decades will…

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Un bufete de abogados indagará en la pederastia: “Tenemos el encargo de ir hasta el fondo para que aflore toda la verdad”. Contará con la colaboración del despacho alemán que contrató la diócesis de Múnich y señaló a Benedicto XVI, y seguirá su modelo de trabajo

La investigación que la Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE) ha encargado al despacho de abogados Cremades & Calvo Sotelo para indagar de forma independiente en los casos de pederastia en la Iglesia de las últimas décadas abordará también el posible encubrimiento de estos delitos por la jerarquía eclesiástica y el pago de indemnizaciones, según aseguran a EL PAÍS fuentes cercanas al proceso. Del mismo modo, sostienen que el equipo de trabajo colaborará con cualquier investigación que se ponga en marcha desde las instituciones y le facilitará toda la información de que disponga. El objetivo de los obispos, aseguran las mismas fuentes, es que…

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Senior clergy divided on need for investigation

Spain’s Catholic Church has pledged to carry out an independent investigation into alleged cases of sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy, following claims by victims that it has attempted to cover up any wrongdoing.

The head of the church in Spain, Cardinal Juan José Omella, said the main objective of the inquiry, which would be the first of its kind in Spain, was to provide “help and compensation” to victims of abuse.

He said the Catholic Church “wants to assume its responsibilities by setting up a new tool that helps clarify the acts of the past and prevents them from reappearing in the future”.

The church has hired a law firm, Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, to carry out the investigation, which will also see an advisory role for Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, a German firm which carried out a similar probe in Munich,…

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A Madrid-based law firm will conduct a year-long inquiry into past and present sexual abuse committed by Spain’s Roman Catholic clergy, members of religious orders, teachers and others associated with the church, the law firm and the head of the country’s bishops’ conference said Tuesday.

The public announcement marked a departure from the previous position of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, which for years rejected the idea of taking a comprehensive approach to investigating sex abuse. Some abuse survivors met the news with skepticism.

Cardinal Juan José Omella, the conference’s president, said the goal of the inquiry by law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo “is the help and reparation of the victims, establishing new and additional channels to collaborate and denounce in addition to those existing in over 40 offices established by the Church.”

The inquiry is intended to cover all abuse and is not limited to investigating only cases in…

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“I was trying to follow all the rules, but it was just hell.”

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 A woman who was an orphan at the former Parmadale facility is speaking out, detailing allegations of physical and sexual abuse by nuns and priests that has caused her a lifetime of psychological damage. 

On Tuesday in Westlake, Carolyn Mason held a news conference and recalled several traumatic incidents that she alleges took place at Parmadale while living there from age 5 through 8. 

Among the stories shared by Mason:

• She claimed she was physically abused by a nun. Citing an example, Mason says when she got sick from eating, the nun made her eat her own vomit because they ‘don’t waste food.’
• Mason says she was a bed-wetter and if an incident happened, she was made to stand the entire night with her underwear over her head while the sheets were…

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On January 11, 2022, Cleveland’s WEWS-TV aired accounts by three women of the brutal physical abuse they suffered or witnessed as young children at Parmadale Children’s Village, a residential institution for orphans and children from troubled homes in Parma, Ohio. Carolyn Folyn Mason and another woman described being viciously beaten by a Sister Myra Wasikowski, CSA.

The report was merely the latest in two decades’ worth of abuse revelations at the now-closed facility.

When the Cleveland diocese opened Parmadale Children’s Village of St. Vincent de Paul in 1925, it was promoted as the nation’s first residential cottage plan in Catholic children’s homes. Parmadale was staffed for decades by the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, based in Richfield OH, and eventually came under the auspices of the Catholic Charities of Cleveland.

In 2002, former residents began going public with allegations of sexual and physical abuse by the nuns, priests and lay…

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The priest at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in De Soto has been accused in a lawsuit of abusing a child two decades ago at a St. Louis boys’ home.

Christin Hornbeck says in the lawsuit that the Rev. Alexander Anderson fondled him in the late 1990s or early 2000s at St. Joseph’s Home for Boys, 4753 S. Grand Ave., in south St. Louis. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 10 in the St. Louis Circuit Court.

Hornbeck, who now lives in Georgia, was between the ages of 11 and 13 at the time of the alleged abuse, said his lawyer, Rebecca M. Randles of the Randles Mata law firm in Kansas City.

The Leader typically does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse, but Hornbeck’s suit uses his name and his lawyer said Hornbeck does not object to being identified.

In the lawsuit, Hornbeck is seeking a jury trial and asks…

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For Immediate Release: February 18, 2022

We applaud Senator Morgan McGarvey and Representative Lisa Willner for their sponsorship, support, and shepherding of SB 153 and HB 464. We believe these bills are much-needed reform that would remove archaic barriers that have been placed in front of survivors of childhood sexual abuse and will allow them the opportunity to expose abusers and enablers in court. We know that giving survivors the opportunity to bring cases against their abusers helps create safer communities and hope that SB 153 and HB464 quickly move forward so that children in Kentucky are safer.

SB 153 and HB464 would remove the statute of limitations for civil actions arising from childhood sexual assault or abuse, giving those survivors who were abused as children the opportunity to receive justice for the crimes they experienced. Because the average age of a survivor of sexual abuse coming forward is 52,…

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Retired Argentine bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, seen as close to the Pope and with a history managing Vatican property, denies charges of sex abuse allegedly committed a decade ago.

A retired Argentine bishop seen as close to the Pope, and who worked as an advisor for management of Vatican property, on Monday denied charges of sex abuse allegedly committed a decade ago.

Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, 57, appeared behind closed doors in the court of San Ramón de la Nueva Orán, where he was bishop from his appointment by Pope Francis in 2013 until his resignation in 2017.

Orán is some 1,700 km (1,050 miles) north of Buenos Aires in Salta Province.

Zanchetta, who travelled from the Vatican to attend the hearings, is charged with “simple sexual abuse continued and aggravated by being committed by a recognised minister of religious worship,” according to a statement from judicial officials in Salta.

A…

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The criminal trial of Bishop Oscar Zanchetta in Argentina is set to begin later this month, but the process is set to commence without requested case files from the archbishop’s canonical process at the Holy See.

Zanchhetta is accused of sexually abusing two former seminarians, and will face trial Feb. 21 in Oran, the northern Argentine city where he was diocesan bishop from 2013 until 2017.

Ahead of the trial, Zanchetta’s attorneys have subpoenaed the Vatican’s files on the bishop’s 2019 canonical trial at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The trial in Argentina, originally set to begin in October 2021, had been delayed while the court waited for those documents, according to local newspaper El Tribuno, 

Since they have not arrived, the trial’s judge has ordered the process begin this month.  

While Pope Francis has acknowledged authorizing the CDF process, the Vatican has released no details about…

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The trial of a Roman Catholic bishop accused of sexually abusing young men in northern Argentina began Monday with the cleric denying the claims, in the latest court case to highlight sex crimes that have roiled the global church in recent decades.

Pope Francis, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires and the first Latin American pontiff, has repeatedly apologized for past crimes by priests and pledged to end cover-ups while ensuring that priestly sexual abuse be “erased from the face of the earth”.

The latest Argentine case centers on accusations that Gustavo Zanchetta, who served as bishop of Oran in the northern province of Salta, preyed on young men studying for the priesthood at a seminary he founded in 2016.

Zanchetta denied the accusations on the first day of the trial, stressing that he had “a good and healthy relationship” with all seminarians, according to a statement from Salta’s judiciary.

…

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In addition to a comprehensive report, the investigation is expected to open an independent channel to receive potential complaints and recommend further preventative measures.

Spain’s Catholic bishops have commissioned a law firm to conduct an independent investigation of sex abuse committed by Church members.

The independent audit will be administered by the Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo law firm and is intended to create a “comprehensive report” of all clerical sex-abuse cases, ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, reported on Feb. 21.

The move follows an independent study commissioned by the Catholic Church in neighboring France that generated headlines worldwide, as well as a recent high-profile inquiry conducted by a law firm in the German Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. 

Cardinal Juan José Omella, the president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, will answer questions about the audit together with Javier Cremades, the president of the law firm, at a press conference on Feb. 22.

In addition…

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Spain’s Catholic Church said Monday a law firm would carry out an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse involving its clergy as political pressure grows to hold an inquiry.

The legal team will “open an independent channel” to receive complaints, review the legal procedures to punish criminal practices and help the authorities clarify the facts, the CEE Episcopal Conference, which groups Spain’s leading bishops, said in a statement.

The firm, Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, would also “set up a protection system in line with society’s demands”, the statement said.

Church leaders will further address the matter at a news conference on Tuesday.

Until now, there has never been an official investigation into alleged abuse by members of the clergy, not by Spain’s government nor by the Spanish church itself.

The Church, which has only recognised 220 cases of abuse since 2001, has ruled out “a comprehensive investigation” into reports of…

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Phyllis Googoo is ready to share her story with Pope Francis. She’s been wrestling with her memories of Shubenacadie Indian Residential School for more than 60 years.

“We get better, us survivors,” she told The Catholic Register. “Among the AFN (Assembly of First Nations), we meet once in a while. Our stories are so sad. When we first met, it was mostly crying. It was hard.”

Googoo will have her chance to speak with Pope Francis March 31 as one of 13 First Nations delegates going to Rome. The Metis delegation will meet with Pope Francis March 28 and the Inuit later that same day. All the delegations together will have an audience with Pope Francis April 1. Each of the four meetings is scheduled for one hour.

Googoo knows she will have only five-to-10 minutes to speak her piece. She wants to be sure to leave space for other delegates who…

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How Catholics on the African continent are coming to grips with sexual abuse in the Church three years after a major summit that the pope held in Rome

It has been three years since Pope Francis summoned the presidents of all the world’s episcopal conferences to Rome for an unprecedented summit on the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church.

The aim of the meeting – which took place February 21-24, 2019 – was to make the bishops understand the urgency of dealing with a crisis that is undermining the Church’s credibility.

At the time, some of the African Church leaders and their clergy did not do much about it, with some believing that this scourge was primarily a Western reality.

The very notion of sexual abuse did not seem to be understood by everyone.

A priest in Burkina Faso, for example, described sexual relations between a 15-year-old girl…

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The trial of a Roman Catholic bishop accused of sexually abusing young men in northern Argentina will start on Monday, in the latest court case to highlight allegations of sex crimes that have roiled the global church over the past few decades.

Pope Francis, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires and the first Latin American pontiff, has repeatedly apologized for past crimes by clerics and pledged to end cover-ups while ensuring that priestly sexual abuse be “erased from the face of the earth”.

The Argentine case centers on accusations that Gustavo Zanchetta, who served as bishop of Oran in the largely Catholic northern province of Salta, preyed on young men studying for the priesthood at a seminary he founded in 2016.

In late 2017, Zanchetta left Oran to work in the Vatican’s Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, a financial and accounting office that also manages church properties…

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The Church hierarchy has been signalling a new openness to change, but a plea from the Pope emeritus, following the release of a report on abuse, follows an old path.

In Germany, lately, powerful bishops have been speaking of prospects for change in Catholic life with a frankness not seen from the Church hierarchy anywhere else in a long time. When some hundred and twenty-five priests and other Church employees collectively “came out” as gay last month—with a manifesto faulting the Church’s “defamatory” teachings on sexuality and gender—Jean-Claude Hollerich, a Jesuit who is the archbishop of Luxembourg, told the German news outlet KNA that the foundation of Catholic teaching on homosexuality “is no longer true,” and called for a “fundamental revision of the doctrine.” Reinhard Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising—who last year spoke approvingly of the prospect of some form of Church blessings for same-sex-unions— View Cache

Secularization, sex-abuse scandals and the country’s culture wars are contributing to the decline

Warsaw – Julian Rembelski, 21, grew up in the Catholic Church, like most other Polish children, receiving First Communion and Confirmation and taking religion class in school. He says he enjoyed the sense of community he found in the church, particularly when taking part in volunteer activities such as distributing food and clothing to the poor.

But around the age of 17, Mr. Rembelski ceased to consider himself a Catholic, alienated by revelations of clerical sex abuse and what he says are the church’s efforts to impose its teachings against abortion, contraception and gay relationships on the rest of Polish society.

“I believe in God, but I don’t like what the church is doing now, because it’s doing politics and that’s not what the church is supposed to,” said Mr. Rembelski, now a student of…

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Business has been brisk this past week at the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.

The latest phase of the inquiry has looked at the historical wrongdoing that took place at the Marylands residential school and its co-located St Joseph’s orphanage in Christchurch, as well as the nearby Hebron Trust facility.

These residences were overseen by the Brothers Hospitaller of St John of God, a Catholic order known for its work with at-risk young people, including kids with learning disabilities – and rather too many of the 1680 reports of abuse against local Catholic clergy and workers from 1950 to the present day.

Like its state-run counterparts, the order’s local operation seems to have been established with benevolent intentions. The aim was to provide a refuge for youngsters not unlike the order’s own namesake Portuguese-born saint, who as a child was forced to live on the streets of Europe.

As…

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Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes and former Archdiocesan Finance Council President Richard Untalan on Monday took the witness stand in a trial that would determine whether the assets of Catholic parishes and schools could also be used to pay hundreds of survivors of alleged clergy sexual assaults.

Byrnes acknowledged the position of the archdiocese that he, as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Agana, only holds the assets of schools and parishes in trust, for the benefit of schools and parishes. 

It was the second day of the marathon trial, which starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m. daily over the next two weeks.

As archbishop, Byrnes said he signs off on parish and school spending exceeding $25,000.

Creditors’ committee counsel Edwin Caldie said because the archbishop himself described the Catholic Church on Guam as “one body,” then he administers the church for the benefit of the whole archdiocese.

The…

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Tony Anatrella, a former psychoanalyst with important connections in the Roman Curia, has been suspended from public ministry and speaking engagements since 2018

What would happen if a prominent Catholic priest who’s been suspended for sexually abusing seminarians were to show up at a major Vatican conference — on the future of the priesthood, no less?

Do you think the organizers would tell him to hit the road or invite him to stay for lunch at the pope’s residence?

No kidding. Something similar to this actually happened. Not years or decades ago. It happened this week.

The priest was Tony Anatrella, a cleric and former psychoanalyst who was suspended by the Archdiocese of Paris in July 2018 following years of accusations that numerous young men had brought to the attention of Church officials.

The 81-year-old priest was among the 400 or so participants who gathered in the spacious Paul VI Hall on Thursday…

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 Spanish prosecutors are investigating 68 cases of alleged sexual abuse of minors by Catholic church staff, the public prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday in the first release of official data about such cases.

Allegations of child abuse by Catholic clergy and of possible cover-ups by the church are only surfacing now in Spain, years after similar scandals rocked the Church in other countries such as the United States, Ireland and France.

The prosecutor’s office released a spreadsheet with the criminal cases launched in 17 Spanish regions into alleged sexual abuse of minors in congregations, schools and other religious institutions, but did not provide any details.

Suspected abuse of children has been in the spotlight in the country since El Pais newspaper reported two months ago it had found 1,200 cases reported between 1943 and 2018.

In January, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference said it would set up commissions at diocese level…

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The number of Catholics and of Catholic men and women who devote their lives to serving them continues to grow in Africa and Asia, Vatican statistics show, but pastoral ministry is still much more readily available to Catholics in Europe.

At the end of 2020, the number of Catholics in the world reached 1.36 billion, an increase of 16 million over the previous year, according to the Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics, which published a brief overview of the global numbers in early February.

While Catholics remained about 17.7% of the global population, their numbers grew in Africa by about 2.1% and in Asia by 1.8% while in Europe the increase was just 0.3%, said the summary, which was based on numbers reported Dec. 31, 2020.

And while just over 20% of the world’s Catholics live in Europe, 40% of the world’s priests minister there. The Americas have 48%…

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As the dust began to settle last year on the Vatican’s troubled $400 million dollar land deal in London, and as the colossal dimensions of the failure it represents became clear, Pope Francis was determined to put someone on trial, including his former chief of staff, Italian Cardinal Becciu, along with nine other defendants.

Yet, under the heading of “be careful what you wish for,” Francis could find that the primary person on trial ends up being not Becciu and the rest, but himself.

That, at least, seems to be the new tactic defense lawyers rolled out Friday, when a Vatican tribunal led by veteran Italian jurist Giuseppe Pignatone conducted its latest hearing in a process that’s been underway for seven months and still hasn’t gotten anywhere close to considering the actual charges.

Instead, the process has been bogged down with preliminary procedural issues. Initially, they had to do with…

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Opening an international conference on priesthood, Pope Francis insisted that those who are not close to God in prayer, close to their bishop and other priests and immersed in the lives of their people are simply “‘clerical functionaries’ or ‘professionals of the sacred.’”

“A priest needs to have a heart sufficiently ‘enlarged’ to expand and embrace the pain of the people entrusted to his care while, at the same time, like a sentinel, being able to proclaim the dawning of God’s grace revealed in that very pain,” the pope said Feb. 17 as he opened the conference in the Vatican audience hall.

With some 500 people attending in person and hundreds more online, the Feb. 17-19 symposium was organized by Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and aimed at renewing a theological understanding of Catholic priesthood.

The cardinal told participants he understood how people could wonder…

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Editorial: The harshness of the attacks that were directed at Benedict XVI following the report’s publication is not justified by the actual evidence in the report, and seem strangely timed considering the recent German Synodal Way.

Clergy sexual abuse of minors is an appalling crime. It’s a scandal so grave that it has completely undermined the trust of many of the faithful in their Catholic leaders. It has also profoundly injured the Church’s capacity to undertake its fundamental evangelical mission of the salvation of souls.

That’s why it’s so disturbing to see this issue cynically commandeered by some progressive Catholics. The Church must continue to strive for authentic solutions to combat sexual abuse, support the victims of abuse, punish sexual abusers, and learn from prior mistakes. Instead, these Catholics exploit it as an instrument to advance agendas that contradict settled Church teachings — as in the case of the doctrinal…

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As a symposium in Rome considers the priesthood, we hear from the prefect who organized the event.

ardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, is leading a symposium titled Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood at the Vatican through February 19, 2022.

In the lead-up to this event, I.Media spoke with the Canadian cardinal about what is at stake for the Church today.

Why did you choose to hold a symposium on the priesthood today?

Cardinal Ouellet: The Church is currently in a synodal process that raises the question of the participation of the People of God in the whole life of the Church. In launching the Synod on Synodality, the Pope does not wish to conduct a survey of opinions in the Church, a parliamentary operation or a collection of ideas. He wants to reawaken the faith of the People of God.

After the Synod…

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Defense lawyers in the Vatican’s fraud and extortion trial on Friday accused Pope Francis of violating their clients’ human rights by issuing four secret, executive decrees that gave prosecutors free reign to investigate in ways that deprived the suspects of basic legal guarantees.

The lawyers argued that the resulting trial into the Vatican’s bungled 350 million euro investment in a London real estate deal is therefore illegitimate, and they again called for Tribunal President Giuesppe Pignatone to throw out the indictments. Pignatone is set to rule on their motions March 1.

The pope’s prosecutors have accused the Holy See’s longtime money manager, Italian brokers and lawyers involved in the London deal of fleecing the Vatican of tens of millions of euros, much of it donations from the faithful, and of then extorting 15 million euros from the Vatican to finally get full ownership of the property. The 10 suspects deny…

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After 200 unmarked graves were discovered last year in Canada at an Indian boarding school, the grim discovery prompted the U.S. government to launch a national investigation. CBN News traveled to Montana to explore this tragedy that’s become an issue on both sides of the border. 

“Kids are most important to have a good upbringing and to be safe,” said Wes Bremner.

But that wasn’t the case at times for Bremner, who is a member of the Blackfeet Nation. He attended the Cut Bank Boarding School in northwestern Montana. As a second grader in the ’60s, distance and harsh winters made it a necessity. His first day proved to be harsh.

“One of the matrons – he was a big, large man, a White man – he said, ‘Hey, little f’ers, behave!’ He said, ‘Knock it off!’ He said, ‘Do you want a horn?’” Bremner told CBN…

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Trevor Lavalais, principal and director of Legacy Christian Academy, a private school in Alamogordo, was arrested on Feb. 11 on six counts relating to sexual assault involving a child.

Lavalais, 33 of Alamogordo, was charged with one count of criminal sexual penetration of a minor, three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, per court records.

On Feb. 9, a 12-year-old student at Legacy Christian Academy reported to a counselor that the principal made the child watch pornography, records show.

The counselor allegedly told the child that she would have to report the incident. The child did not want the incident reported, court records state.

Court records state that the child had been experiencing incidents with Lavalais beginning in August 2021.

On Feb. 9, the child allegedly told the counselor that in exchange for her not telling anyone that the child would…

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Kerala’s church community has split into a for-and-against divide.

Ask someone in Kerala’s Kuravilangad where the St. Francis Mission Home is, and they might not know. But mention the infamous former bishop Franco Mulakkal, and they nod for sure. In the four years since he was accused of rape by a nun, Kerala’s church community has split into a for-and-against divide — rife with politics, intrigue, and wild, whispered conspiracies.

And then came the shock judgment last month by a sessions court in Kottayam. The former bishop was pronounced not guilty.

The convent is like a formidable fortress at the end of a dirt road, tucked away in the middle of thick, quiet forest. All visitors are looked at with suspicion. The convent doors open briefly only to let in a man delivering tapioca, then slams shut. Outside, two policemen keep vigil. Information about guests must be relayed…

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A Vatican symposium on the priesthood, including discussions on sexual abuse, was embarrassed on Friday by the discovery that a French priest disciplined for alleged sexual abuse was among the attendees, witnesses said.

The priest was Father Tony Anatrella, 81, who was barred from public ministry in France in 2018 after a Church investigation found that he abused adult seminarians he was treating in so-called conversion therapy aimed at suppressing their homosexuality.

The Vatican declined to comment, but a Church source confirmed Anatrella’s presence after it was first reported by the French Catholic newspaper La Croix.

Anatrella was seen at the symposium by the La Croix reporter as well as a reporter for the French Catholic news agency I Media, one of whom spoke to him.

Anatrella, 81, could not be immediately reached and it was not immediately clear if he was still at the symposium on Friday afternoon after…

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In last week’s letter, Benedict XVI acknowledged the Church’s past errors in dealing with abuse.

Reactions in Germany to Pope Emeritus Benedict’s 8 February letter of apology for the handling of abuse cases in Munich during his 1977-82 time as archbishop have been mixed.

Benedict was accused in a report on the archdiocese released on 20 January of failing to take action in four cases of alleged sexual abuse. In an 82-page initial statement on the report, Benedict had denied in three places that he had taken part in an important meeting in January 1980. On 24 January, he admitted that, despite the earlier statements to the contrary, he had indeed taken part in the January 1980 meeting and apologised for the “editing” error.

In last week’s letter of 8 February Benedict acknowledged past failings of the Catholic Church in confronting clergy sexual abuse under his watch. “Each individual case of sexual abuse…

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The Vatican’s big fraud and extortion trial resumes Friday after exposing some unseemly realities of how the Holy See operates, with a new spy story taking center stage that is more befitting of a 007 thriller than the inner workings of a papacy.

According to written testimony obtained Thursday, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers brought in members of the Italian secret service to sweep his office for bugs and commissioned intelligence reports from them, completely bypassing the Vatican’s own police force in the process.

The reported actions of Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the No. 2 in the Vatican secretariat of state, raise some fundamental questions about the security and sovereignty of the Vatican City State, since he purportedly invited foreign intelligence operatives into the Holy See’s inner sanctum, and then outsourced internal Vatican police spy work to them.

Peña Parra hasn’t been charged with any crime, though his subordinates…

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On the sidelines of Friday’s hearing, Cardinal Becciu gave a statement to the media about his financial giving to Spes Cooperative, the non-profit managed by his brother, denying that he intended to favor family members.

The Vatican’s internal financial watchdog has joined an ongoing Vatican trial as a civil party.

The addition of the Financial Information and Supervision Authority, or ASIF (formerly the AIF), to the civil action of the trial took place at a hearing on Feb. 18. The court session, which lasted more than four hours with breaks, was adjourned until Feb. 28.

The reason for ASIF’s inclusion as a plaintiff in the case will be heard at the end of the month, during the continuation of Friday’s hearing.

The financial information authority joins the civil parties of the Secretariat of State, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See…

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Father Jean Claude Philippe, convicted of raping a parishioner in the rectory of his church in Homestead, did not apologize when it came time for his sentencing. Instead, he complained about his time in jail and said he was preaching the word of God to inmates behind bars. “The devil is powerful but won’t change me,” he said. “I won’t change my ways. I will continue in my path.” That path, a judge ruled on Thursday, will nevertheless continue in state prison for nearly eight years.

Circuit Judge Carmen Cabarga on Thursday sentenced Philippe, 67, to 94-and-a-half months in prison. It was the lowest permissible prison term under Florida’s sentencing guidelines for Philippe, who did not have any previous arrests or convictions. Cabarga did not explain her reasoning for the sentence, but rejected prosecutors’ call for a sentence of 15 years, the max allowed by law.

“The bottom line is…

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The recent accolades for Bishop Remi De Roo on his death at the age of 97 show a failure to truly examine his career and how he cared for the most vulnerable.

It was Bishop De Roo who gave faculties to Fr. Phil Jacobs, despite knowing that the priest had abused two young boys in Columbus, Ohio. Fr. Jacobs went on to abuse more boys in Victoria, British Columbia and was convicted for those crimes in September 2013.

In addition, in a Vancouver Sun article dated March 27, 1998, Bishop De Roo minimized the complaints of survivors at St. Michael’s Residential School against Bishop Hubert O’Connor, saying “I personally cannot see that what he had done was, strictly speaking, a criminal offence.” He went on to say that Bishop O’Connor was “overwhelmed by the bitterness and the slander.”…

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Pope Francis on Feb. 17 kicked off a much anticipated three-day Vatican conference on the future of the Catholic priesthood by upholding clerical celibacy as a “gift” that should be lived out through “healthy relationships.” 

“Celibacy is a gift that the Latin Church preserves, yet it is a gift that, to be lived as a means of sanctification, calls for healthy relationships, relationships of true esteem and true goodness that are deeply rooted in Christ,” Francis told some 400 Catholic bishops, priests and theologians attending the Feb. 17-19 conference in Rome. 

The pope’s remarks come at a time when some leading European bishops have signaled their willingness to relax the church’s celibacy requirements for priests. 

“I would also add that when priestly fraternity thrives and bonds of true friendship exist, it likewise becomes possible to experience with greater serenity the life of celibacy,” said the pope. “Without friends…

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Warning: This story contains references to sexual and physical abuse and may be upsetting for some readers.

Too much shame and guilt to speak out at the time.

The words of Hanz Freller, 47, to the inquiry into Abuse in Care and its investigation into the religious brothers of the Order of St John of God.

The Royal Commission is investigating historical abuse at the Marylands residential school in Christchurch, and the Hebron Trust, a home for at-risk youth, both run by the Order.

Freller was a resident at the Hebron Trust’s Pampuri home in Christchurch in the early 1990s from the age of 15.

It was overseen by the now notorious Brother Bernard McGrath.

Freller said McGrath befriended him, gave him privileges the other boys did not have and generally kept a close eye on him.

McGrath took a keen interest in him, often standing in the doorway of…

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Repeated claims that the St John of God order was “deeply shameful” of the abuse that occurred over decades at Marylands School in Christchurch have been labelled as hollow words by the survivors of the abuse.

In his closing statement before the royal commission of inquiry on Thursday, Dr Christopher Longhurst from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) slammed claims by leaders of the Catholic Church that it welcomed the inquiry.

He pointed out that church leaders initially opposed that faith-based institutions be included in the inquiry.

“Simply stating that the church is shameful in 2022 after it was forced to become the subject of a royal commission, is entirely insufficient,” Longhurst said.

“Where was their shame decades ago when child victims and their parents first reported the abuse? Where was their shame when disgraced brothers were shipped overseas instead of facing justice? Where was their shame when some of their…

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Five officials at a Christian school in Texas have been arrested and charged with failing to report the alleged sexual assault of a ninth-grader that unfolded in the locker room during baseball practice, officials say. 

The faculty members, two coaches and three administrators at Midland Christian School, were arrested Wednesday and charged with failure to report with intent to conceal neglect or abuse.

The five were: Jared Lee, school superintendent; Dana Ellis, secondary school principal; Matthew Counts, secondary assistant principal; Gregory McClendon, athletic director and head football coach; and Barry Russell, baseball coach, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by NBC News.

Midland Police were notified on Jan. 28 about the possible sexual assault, according to the affidavit, and a forensic interview was scheduled with the victim on Feb. 11. 

The ninth grader was allegedly assaulted during baseball practice at Max H. Christensen Stadium on Jan. 20, the affidavit said.

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A U.S. bishops’ conference draft policy update on seminary formation does not incorporate a call to build a national screening database of applicants to seminaries and religious orders.

Advocates say a database could help flag problem seminary applicants before they are accepted, by tracking rejected applications from seminaries or religious orders, along with those applications deferred or withdrawn.

The database was proposed to the U.S. bishops’ conference by an Ohio seminary nearly six years ago, but there has been no apparent move toward adopting it. It has not been included in the USCCB’s draft for a sixth edition of the Program of Priestly Formation, the policy document which guides seminary admission and training in the U.S.

The recommendation came after the 2016 arrest of a seminarian studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum, for the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio. 

Joel Wright, then 23, was arrested on Jan. 29, 2016, in San…

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Italy has so far resisted calls for an independent investigation into how the Roman Catholic church has handled these cases.

Catholic groups and abuse survivors on Tuesday called on the Roman Catholic Church in Italy, which has yet to reckon with the scourge of sexual abuse by priests, to create an independent commission to investigate how the crisis has been handled.

In a number of countries — including Australia, France, Ireland and the United States — the church has allowed some scrutiny of its actions. But so far, the church in Italy has resisted calls for an independent inquiry, even after Pope Francis in 2019 held a landmark meeting on clerical sexual abuse and called “for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors.”

“Italy is an anomaly,” said Francesco Zanardi, a clerical abuse survivor and president of Rete l’Abuso, the country’s most outspoken victims’ rights group, which has independently tracked more…

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Pope Francis dismissed progressive views favoring ‘the ideology of the moment’ and the conservative ‘rigidity’ that clings to the past, encouraging a third way.

With broad strokes and a balancing act, Pope Francis weighed in on the polarizing tensions in the Catholic Church concerning the future of the priesthood. While upholding priestly celibacy as “a gift,” the pope distanced himself from the “perversion” of rigidity while speaking at a Vatican conference on Thursday (Feb. 17).

As Catholic bishops and laypeople in Germany call for a reevaluation of official doctrine on priestly celibacy, female ordination and sexuality, conservatives look at the emerging discussions on the future of the priesthood with a mixture of practical and theological concern.

The sexual abuse crisis has crippled the church’s credibility worldwide and the number of men entering the priesthood continues to dwindle, contributing to what Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the head of the Vatican’s department overseeing bishops,…

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Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who is presiding over a high-profile Vatican symposium on the theology of the priesthood, has spoken out on a range of hot-button issues related topic, including clericalism, the abuse crisis, and the call for women’s ordination.

As head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet has one of the most significant roles in the Catholic Church’s governing bureaucracy, as his office is charged with vetting candidates to lead dioceses across the globe.

Ouellet, 77, was first appointed to the congregation by Benedict XVI in 2010 and has stayed in his post far beyond the usual 5-year term for heads of Vatican departments.

Much of his tenure in the department has been marked by the clerical abuse scandals – including those involving bishops and even fellow cardinals, such as ex-priest and ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick – making his job of finding the right shepherds for…

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A prominent French priest barred from exercising public ministry due to abuse allegations is attending a major Vatican conference on the priesthood, organized, in part, to help the church turn a corner on abuse.

Msgr. Tony Anatrella, a psychotherapist who was once an Vatican adviser on matters regarding human sexuality, was banned from ministering as a priest by the former Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, in 2018. 

News of his attendance at the Feb. 17-19 Vatican conference was first reported by the French Catholic daily, La Croix, which also reported that the Vatican said the cleric, who retains his priestly faculties, was not invited and registered on his own accord.  

Anatrella’s presence at the conference was later confirmed to NCR by attendees at the event. NCR did not immediately receive a response from conference organizers to a query about Antatrella’s attendance.

…

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Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre have reached an out-of-court settlement in the civil sexual abuse claim filed in the US.

According to a letter submitted to the US District Court, written jointly by Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies and the Duke of York’s legal representatives, the two parties have “reached a settlement in principle”.

The out-of-court deal will mean Prince Andrew will not face a public trial over allegations that he sexually abused Giuffre when she was a teenager. The Duke of York has always strenuously denied the allegations. 

Instead, he will make a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”, according to the letter. The prince intends to demonstrate his regret for his association with Jeffrey Epstein by supporting the “fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims”.

What could he have faced?

The Duke of York was facing a civil trial in…

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On Friday of last week, Irish blogger Pat Buckley reported that four men have come forward with allegations including boundary violations, spiritual abuse, and sexual harassment against Dom Mark Kirby of Silverstream Priory, the author and alleged visionary behind the popular devotional book In Sinu Jesu. These new allegations follow a lengthy August 2021 interview with Fr. Benedict Andersen in the Pillar.

Fr. Andersen is a Silverstream monk who is currently in canonical limbo, unable to minister as a priest after his complaints of inappropriate behavior and spiritual abuse by Fr. Kirby resulted in an apostolic visitation of the priory. Formerly the sub-prior of the community, Andersen was the first person to publicly bring forward allegations against Kirby, although stories about Kirby’s past and his allegedly abusive treatment of his subordinates had been circulating for years.

If these new allegations are true, it appears that Fr. Andersen…

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The Vatican this week is hosting a three-day symposium on the Catholic priesthood amid renewed public attention on clergy sex abuse scandals and fresh research into the abuses of priestly power that harm both children and adults.

Pope Francis opens the symposium Thursday, and no fewer than a half-dozen Vatican cardinals are scheduled to either address the conference or preside over its sessions.

The high-level lineup suggests the topic has particular relevance as the Catholic hierarchy grapples with dwindling numbers of priests in Europe and the Americas and calls for a reform of everything from celibacy requirements to the role of women in the church.

But the sex abuse scandals are still making news, most recently with allegations that Pope Benedict XVI botched cases when he was an archbishop. While such revelations have been emerging for decades, new attention is focused on clergy who abuse their power to engage in…

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Recently Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, a Catholic nun who stole $835,000 from a Catholic elementary school in Torrance, California, was sent to prison for a year and ordered to pay the money back to the school, where she was the principal for over 28 years. The school funds were used to support the nun’s gambling addiction, including trips to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. 

“I have sinned, I’ve broken the law and I have no excuses,” Kreuper admitted during her sentencing. 

Her sentence is ironic and her contrition admirable compared with the behavior of Catholic priests and their history of abuses within the church.

Compare the apology of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who recently responded a report from the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, where he was archbishop before being called to Rome, detailing decades of sexual abuse by priests there. In a letter to the faithful of Munich, Benedict…

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A lawsuit filed in circuit court here accuses a De Soto priest of abusing someone at a boy’s home two decades ago.

Christian Hornbeck’s lawsuit says Father Alexander Anderson fondled him in the late 1990s or early 2000s at St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in south St. Louis.

The suit says the St. Louis Archdiocese and other Catholic institutions allowed Anderson access to “numerous vulnerable individuals” and “knowingly covered up and concealed the sexual abuse of their minor parishioners by” Anderson.

Anderson, who is now at St. Rose of Lima parish in De Soto, referred a reporter’s questions to the Archdiocese.

In a statement, the Archdiocese said previous allegations involving Anderson were either retracted or shown to be false. One such claimant has maintained his allegations from prison where he is incarcerated for financial fraud.

“This most recent claim is demonstrably false, as Fr. Anderson was not assigned…

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An influential cardinal opened a Vatican symposium on the priesthood Thursday apologising for “unworthy ministers” and the cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, before an audience that included Pope Francis.

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet acknowledged that “we are all torn and humbled by these crucial questions that every day question us as members of the Church”, with Francis at his side in the Vatican’s vast Paul VI Hall.

“Should we not rather refrain from talking about the priesthood when the sins and crimes of unworthy ministers are on the front pages of the international press for betraying their commitment or for shamefully covering up?”

A string of recent investigations exposing paedophile priests have been front page news in recent months, exposing the scale of the problem and the decades-long Church cover-up.

Ouellet is a prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, one of the most important functions within the…

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An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced an Islamic boarding school principal to life in prison for raping at least 13 students over five years and impregnating some of them.

The principal of the girls school in West Java’s Bandung city, Herry Wirawan, pleaded guilty and apologized to his victims and their families during the trial.

He was accused of raping at least 13 students between the ages of 11 and 14 from 2016 to 2021 at the school, in hotel rooms or at rented apartments, according to the indictment. At least nine babies reportedly were born as the result of the rapes.

The case drew a public outcry over the number of rapes and the length of time they occurred.

Officials said many of the victims did not report their rapes for fear of having to relive the traumatic experience, and their parents had trusted that the boarding school was…

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An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced an Islamic school teacher to life in prison for raping 13 students in a case that has spotlighted the need to protect children from sexual violence in the country’s religious boarding schools.

Judge Yohannes Purnomo Suryo Adi said that teacher Herry Wirawan had sexually groomed the 13 girls, who were between 12 and 16 years old, and impregnated eight of his victims, some of whom suffered injuries from the rapes.

“Wirawan was proven guilty…of the crimes of purposely committing violence, forcing intercourse on more than one victim repeatedly,” the judge told the court in the city of Bandung in West Java.

Herry’s lawyer, Ira Mambo, said he would speak to his client about whether to appeal the verdict.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty or chemical castration for the teacher, citing the severity of the crimes, which occurred between 2016 and 2021.

Indonesian officials,…

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India’s Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) – India’s equivalent of the FBI – to procced in the investigation of two Catholic nuns who have been accused of inducing a student’s suicide through “forced conversion.”

One of the nuns was arrested last month, after a seventeen-year-old girl died on January 19, 10 days after having attempted suicide by poisoning.

The girl was a student at Sacred Hearts Higher Secondary School in the Thanjavur district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The girl’s family say the nuns pressured her to convert to Christianity, and claim she made a statement to this effect in a video recorded in the hospital before she died.

Sister Sahaya Mary has been released on bail but has been ordered by the court to “not make any undue influence on the witnesses … not indulge in any other offence in…

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A former employee at a Catholic church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, who pleaded guilty to four counts of statutory rape was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday.

Michael D. Lewis was indicted in June 2020 on 10 counts of statutory rape and four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure. A jury trial had been scheduled for Monday, but Lewis reached a plea agreement with prosecutors last week, The Tennessean reported.

The abuse began in 2014 when Lewis was director of religious education at the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, Rutherford County prosecutor Sharon Reddick said at the sentencing hearing. His victim was 13 at the time and had chosen Lewis to serve as her mentor for the religious ceremony of confirmation. The girl later served as a student coordinator for religious education and altar serving, a position that required her to work closely with Lewis, Reddick said.

After…

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The Archdiocese of Agana’s legal team on Friday morning made the case to hire a special counsel, a week before the start of a trial on a lawsuit seeking to include the assets of Catholic parishes and schools to help pay clergy sex abuse claimants.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood heard oral arguments from the archdiocese, the U.S. Trustee, and the creditors committee representing mostly abuse claimants in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case.

The judge is expected to soon issue a written order.

At the center of the hearing is the archdiocese’s last-minute motion to employ the Camacho Calvo Law Group as special counsel.

The Camacho Calvo Law Group used to represent only the 33 Catholic parishes and schools on Guam but the court ruled in July 2021 that the archdiocese, parishes and schools “are one and the same.”

But the Camacho law firm continued to represent the schools…

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Britain’s Prince Andrew has settled a civil lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre accusing the prince of sexually abusing her when she was 17, a court filing showed on Tuesday.

Here is a look at the lawsuit against Queen Elizabeth’s second son, the settlement and what the dispute means for Andrew.

WHAT WERE GIUFFRE’S CLAIMS AGAINST ANDREW?

Giuffre, also known as Virginia Roberts, sued the Duke of York in New York in 2021. Giuffre said Andrew forced her to have intercourse at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and Epstein’s longtime associate, and at properties owned by Epstein. Andrew denied the claims.

Epstein, a teacher-turned-globetrotting financier, died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sexual abuse charges. Maxwell, 60, was convicted on Dec. 29, 2021, of sex trafficking and other crimes.

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Supporters of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI rose to his defense in the past week after a report on decades of sexual abuse in his former archdiocese in Munich accused the retired pontiff of covering up and ignoring abuse by Catholic priests there.

But some believe the defense of Benedict is less about his legacy and more about the deepening polarization in the Catholic Church and its approach to homosexuality and priestly celibacy, issues that are both now center stage in Germany.

“I don’t think the report is going to change the mind of people either way” when it comes to Benedict, said Bill Donohue, longtime president of the Catholic League, a conservative watchdog and promoter of the church.

Benedict “is hated by the Catholic left because he is the one who really enforced the Scriptures of the Catholic Church as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith,”…

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A federal judge has been told that Archdiocese of Santa Fe records that would indicate how much insurance money is available to help pay a settlement of clergy sex abuse claims can be made public if they are redacted to withhold victims’ identities.

The archdiocese previously asked Judge David T. Thuma to seal the records, saying that releasing them could breach the terms of its insurance agreements and make them unenforceable.

However, lawyers for four insurers said during a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing Monday that they didn’t object to release of the records if information identifying victims is redacted, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Archdiocese attorney Thomas Walker also said Monday that the records could be released with redactions, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

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The man, identified only as AB, said he was abused by three monks at the school he attended in Fife about 40 years ago.

A man who claims to have been sexually abused my monks has been awarded almost £1.4 million in damages – said to be a record sum for a victim.

The man, identified as AB, who has not been named for legal reasons, said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Brothers Ryan, Farrell and Kelly while attending St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife, about 40 years ago.

The claimant, now 54, said his brother, who is 14 months older than him, also claimed to have been sexually abused by the same men at a similar time without him knowing.

The Christian Brothers, a religious sect that ran the school, tried to have the legal case thrown out but, in a written judgement released on February 4, a sheriff…

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A man who was raped, abused and beaten by monks at a notorious Fife school has secured a record £1.4 million in damages.

It is the highest known sum ever awarded to an abuse survivor.

The victim, known as AB, suffered at the hands of Brothers Paul Kelly, John Farrell and Gerry Ryan throughout the 14 months he stayed at St Ninian’s School, Falkland, in the early 1980s.

The monks would play Ashes to Ashes by David Bowie during their assaults, a civil court has heard.

Victim AB, now 54, said to this day the song still spark horrific flashbacks.

The abuse began as “punishment” for swapping tuck shop snacks with other children.

The school, which closed in the 1980s, was operated by the Christian Brothers, a religious sect that tried to have AB’s legal case thrown out.

Now AB – who cannot be named for legal reasons – hopes…

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Victims claim the church has a Mafia-style grip on the Italian authorities preventing habitual child-abuse offenders from being brought to justice.

Giuseppe remembers the day his mother betrayed him. He was 12 years old and his parish priest in the southern Italian town of Salerno forced him to touch his erect penis. Giuseppe remembers the starchy black cloth of the priest’s cassock and how at first he thought maybe the priest was hiding a toy for him. Giuseppe told his mother about the priest’s penis and told her it made him feel uncomfortable. He told The Daily Beast that his mother called him a liar and punished him for “making up stories.”

It was the beginning of a sexually abusive relationship that lasted more than four years and included forced fellatio and rape. Finally, Giuseppe ran away from home and the abuse. He ended up in a spiral of substance…

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Catholic groups on Tuesday accused Italy’s Church of an “institutional failure” to confront clergy sexual abuse, and demanded an independent national inquiry mirroring ones conducted in France and Germany.

A collective of nine groups – seven headed by women – issued the demand during the launch of a campaign called “Beyond the Great Silence” and a hashtag, #ItalyChurchToo, inspired by the international #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.

In an online news conference, Paola Lazzarini, head of Women in the Church, called for the opening of the archives of “all dioceses, convents and monasteries”, damages for victims and the uncovering of the truth, “however painful”.

Globally, revelations of sexual abuse by clergy have so far cost the Church hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.

The Italian campaign aims to increase public pressure on the Church and the government for a national inquiry going back decades, and rejects assertions from some…

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Several victims’ groups and associations in Italy have joined forces to organize a campaign calling for an independent investigation into clerical sexual abuse in the country.

The nine groups, including the Italian association Rete L’Abuso, announced the launch of the “Oltre il Grande Silenzio” (“Beyond the Great Silence”) campaign, urging the Italian government to investigate past and present abuse cases within the Catholic Church.

During a news conference Feb. 15, campaign representatives highlighted the need for transparency, citing similar inquiries done in the United States, France, Germany and Portugal as well as proposals for government-led investigations like in Spain.

Some bishops support an internal investigation while others, like Archbishop Erio Castellucci of Modena, vice president of the Italian bishops’ conference, advocated for an independent investigation that would look at abuse not only within the Catholic Church, but also in schools, sports and other institutions to better gauge sexual abuse in…

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Advocates for victims of sex abuse by Italian clergy have launched a campaign to demand an national inquiry

Advocates for victims of sex abuse by Italian clergy launched a campaign Tuesday to demand a cover-up inquiry, lamenting that deference showed the Catholic Church hierarchy in Italy has conditioned everything from criminal prosecutions to media coverage of the problem.

A consortium of groups said they hoped recent national inquiries in Germany and France, and planned ones in Spain and Portugal, would pressure the Italian Catholic Church to open its archives to independent investigators to ascertain the scope of the problem, assign responsibility to the perpetrators and bring restitution to the victims.

But they acknowledged the context is far more complicated in Italy than in other European countries given the outsized political, economic and social weight the church carries in the pope’s backyard.

The church’s…

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Parents say Rev. Eric Silva, of St Luke’s in Barrington, asked Cranston Catholic school students about sexual matters during confession.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence put a Barrington priest on leave after parents accused him of asking their children inappropriate questions about sex and sexuality during confession.

Rev. Eric Silva, of St Luke’s Parish in Barrington, was filling in at Immaculate Conception Regional Catholic School in Cranston last week. He was tasked with hearing confessions from students.

But parents told NBC 10 News Silva asked boys whether they were gay and also asked girls if they were sexually active, as well as other questions. During the leave, Silva will not be allowed to serve at the school or at St. Luke’s Parish, diocese officials said.

“The Church places great responsibility on the priest as confessor to exercise prudence, discretion, and attentiveness to the age of penitents,”Michael…

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The pastor of a Cranston parish said he has barred a Barrington priest from working there again after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence reproached the priest for errors in judgment while hearing confessions from schoolchildren at the parish last week. 

At the end of Mass on Sunday morning at Immaculate Conception Parish in Cranston, The Rev. Edward J. Wilson Jr. told congregants that Father Eric Silva, associate pastor of St. Luke’s Parish in Barrington, would not be allowed back again after parents complained that he asked inappropriate questions of children during confession. 

“At this point going forward, there is nothing more that I can do,” Wilson said. “It is in the hands of the Diocese. But as a pastor, I can do one thing. I am not going to allow that priest to come back to this parish or to our school.” 

‘Errors in pastoral…

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A man who was abused by monks at a school in Fife run by Christian Brothers has secured £1.4m in damages.

It is believed to be the highest sum ever to be awarded to a survivor.

The victim was sexually assaulted and beaten by three Christian Brothers while staying at St Ninian’s School in Falkland in 1980 and 81.

The man, who was named in courts as AB to protect his identity, said he hoped his award would inspire others in their quest for justice.

A year ago, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, being conducted by Lady Smith, said St Ninian’s residential school had been “a place of abuse and deprivation”.

• School ‘was a place of abuse and deprivation’

Lady Smith said children suffered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and described the evidence as “shocking and distressing”.

The inquiry chairwoman also concluded that members of the Catholic religious…

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#ItalyChurchToo launch “Beyond The Great Silence”

Italian survivors of clerical sex abuse on Tuesday unveiled their campaign for Italy to see the kind of probes that have unveiled massive abuse and cover-ups around the world.

The umbrella group of survivors, called #ItalyChurchToo, launched the campaign “Beyond The Great Silence”, saying that Italian priestly abuse is hugely under-reported and authorities have repeatedly ignored victims’ pleas and covered up cases or shuttled perpetrators around.

“We are asking that the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) as soon as possible task an independent commission with an investigation into abuse in the Church, we are asking that it be an investigation with professional figures, with quality and quantity of methods, opening the archives of all the dioceses and all the monasteries, an investigation focusing exclusively on the abuse and addressing the critical nexus of the lack of third parties in the listening centres set up at…

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