ABUSE TRACKER

This was the year that the Diocese of Norwich filed for bankruptcy because church officials and lawyers recognized that dozens of alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse are in a position to make their claims in civil court. If they win their individual cases, they could be awarded compensation for injury inflicted years ago by priests who were allowed to get away with it.

No one is charging that the current leadership of the diocese has any personal connection to what happened decades back, but as successors to those who were in charge at the time, they represent the institution.

For a pastoral institution that preaches justice, mercy and repentance to be defending itself against any legitimate claim by any former young Catholic shows how internally conflicted the church can be. On the one hand, the church preaches the need to own up to one’s sins. On the other, it lawyers up, because each individual diocese and parish is a corporation that…

View Cache

The Diocese of Gaylord has released a statement in regards to the investigation into a northern Michigan priest.

On December 17, The Office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel confirmed to UpNorthLive News there was an investigation into Father Bryan Medlin from Indian River.

The Diocese of Gaylord’s website said Father Medlin was appointed pastor of the National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods in September 2021.

According to Michigan State Police, Medlin is accused of sending inappropriate text messages to high school students at a Leelanau County school.

In the statement, from December 22, about the investigation, the Diocese said Father Medlin “is not engaging in any ministerial activities at this time, and parish responsibilities are being overseen by Rev. James Gardiner.”

The Diocese encourages everyone to report any allegation of abuse, harassment, or inappropriate conduct by someone in the Church to the Michigan…

View Cache

The Diocese of Gaylord became aware some days ago of an apparent violation of diocesan Protocols for Ministry to Minors involving electronic messages sent to a small number of students. The diocese immediately referred the concerns to the Michigan Department of Attorney General and Michigan State Police, who are investigating the matter. Any investigation of the matter by Church authorities will be undertaken after the civil investigation concludes.

This investigation involves Rev. Bryan Medlin, pastor of the National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods in Indian River. Fr. Medlin has stepped aside from all parish and diocesan responsibilities (i.e., pastor of Cross in the Woods Parish and assistant director of vocations of the Diocese of Gaylord) while this civil investigation is underway. He is not engaging in any ministerial activities at this time, and parish responsibilities are being overseen by Rev. James Gardiner.

Mackenzie Ritchie, Director of Communications for…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy efforts have plodded along for three years with no end visible in the case involving more than 400 clergy abuse victims. Lawyers say three years is a comparatively long time for Chapter 11 proceedings but is far from unheard of. It’s in everyone’s interests — the archdiocese’s and the victims’ — to resolve it through Chapter 11, attorneys say. Therefore, an eventual settlement is still expected.

“The alternatives are so bad that it’s worth it to stay in the game,” Laura Coordes, associate professor of law at Arizona State University, said of Chapter 11.

The archdiocese seeks to raise an adequate sum, through property sales, donations and insurance, to reach settlements with the victims.

In a blog this month, Archbishop John Wester wrote: “We knew when we filed for Chapter 11 that it would not be easy. We are making…

View Cache

In a rare move, the Supreme Judicial Court is inviting debate over questions arising from a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. How the state’s highest court rules will be pivotal to a former altar boy’s wish to be compensated for rapes he endured by a bishop who long led Catholic life in the Berkshires.

Francis V. Kenneally, the SJC’s clerk, notified attorneys Wednesday that justices have decided to consider legal issues relating to whether the church is protected from a claim that the unnamed plaintiff suffered not only brutal sexual assaults by former Bishop Christopher J. Weldon and other priests, but that diocesan officials bungled his 2014 report of that abuse.

Though the lawsuit was filed in Hampden Superior Court, a judge’s ruling at that level earlier this year was appealed by the diocese’s legal team to the Massachusetts Appeals Court….

View Cache

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) joined Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) to urge the Biden administration to take action to ensure a whole-of-government strategy to dismantle the scourge of commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Despite cases of commercial sexual exploitation of children skyrocketing, the federal government’s strategy for years has been a patchwork of efforts – some statutorily required, some not. As part of this, the federal government operates numerous programs and initiatives to address human trafficking, with few focused solely on commercial sexual exploitation of children and addressing this pressing issue here at home.

The senators in their letter also highlighted that the attorney general is statutorily required to file a “National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction” annually, in accordance with the Providing Resources, Officers, and Technology To Eradicate Cyber Threats to Our Children Act (PROTECT Our Children Act). Yet, the Trump administration failed to ever provide a report to Congress and did not prioritize efforts…

View Cache

Pope Francis demanded Friday that priests who have raped and molested children turn themselves in and vowed that the Catholic Church will “never again” cover up clergy sex abuse.

Francis dedicated his annual Christmas speech to Vatican bureaucrats to abuse, evidence that a year of devastating revelations of sexual misconduct and cover-up around the globe has shaken his papacy and caused a crisis of confidence in the Catholic hierarchy.

Francis acknowledged that the church in the past had failed to treat the problem seriously, blaming leaders who out of inexperience or short-sightedness acted “irresponsibly” by refusing to believe victims. But he vowed that going forward the church would “never again” cover up or dismiss cases.“Let it be clear that before these abominations the church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes.”

“Let it be clear that before these…

View Cache

The Ukrainian Catholic Diocese of Stamford has settled allegations of sexual abuse by a former priest for $450,000.

The Rev. Joseph Shaloka, who died in 1990, was pastor at St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church in the Terryville section of Plymouth when the abuse occurred, attorney Nate Baber of Aeton Law Partners said Thursday.

A representative of the diocese could not be reached.

His client was 12 years old when Shaloka started sexually abusing him in the rectory next to the church on Allen Street, and the abuse continued for about five years, Baber said.

The alleged victim, now age 51, did not complain about the abuse at the time because he considered Shaloka a father figure and did not see the abuse as abnormal, Baber said. He said his client was not a member of St. Michael, but had been introduced to Shaloka by a friend who thought the priest…

View Cache

I should probably have a hot take on the recent controversy over the restrictions to the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite.

I never pretended to be a theologian or a liturgist. I don’t care for the Extraordinary Form myself; I prefer the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom which is much older and prettier than the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite. I’ve done my share of poking fun at Traditionalists, and they often deserve it. But not everyone who likes the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite is a traditionalist bully. Some people like it because they like old-fashioned things, or because it’s quiet, or because they think Latin is a cool language. And they’re not wrong.

Bullies are the loudest voices we hear, of course. And the Traditionalist bullies have done a lot of damage. They’re always attacking people in the most spiritually abusive ways, claiming we’re…

View Cache

Singapore – Richard Daschbach, the defrocked American priest whose child sex abuse trial has shaken deeply Catholic East Timor, has been found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The 84-year-old learnt his fate on Tuesday in the District Court of Oecusse, the western Timorese enclave where he abused children at a remote shelter he ran for girls and boys for more than two decades.

Revered to such an extent that his followers believed he had special powers, Daschbach was suspected of abusing at least a dozen young girls at the Topu Honis orphanage.

On Tuesday, he was found guilty of the sexual abuse of four female children there.

Jurídico Social, the human rights law firm that represented the nine victims in the case, said it would “go down as a historical day in the development of the Timor-Leste judicial sector”.

“The history written today is a bitter history…

View Cache

Spain’s Catholic Church is under pressure to investigate allegations of child sex abuse by its clergy following revelations of a barrage of previously undisclosed cases.

El País newspaper has reported 251 alleged cases of abuse by members of the Catholic Church, from between 1943 and 2018. The newspaper says there were at least 1,237 victims affected.

El País said it handed the findings directly to Pope Francis during a flight on December 2nd. According to the newspaper, the pope “acted fast” on his return from the trip, giving the document to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the body charged with investigating abuse claims.

Although cases of abuse have come to light in Spain previously, the numbers have been much lower than in countries such as Ireland, France or the United States and the Spanish church has never carried out a major investigation.

Antonio Carpallo, who is 81, told of how he…

View Cache

Today the Archdiocese of St. John’s announced that it has filed a Notice of Intention to make a Proposal pursuant to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.

“Over the past year since the legal decision became final that the Archdiocese was vicariously liable for the claims of abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, we have been working hard to determine how best to resolve these claims while also ensuring the ongoing practise and celebration of our Catholic faith.” said Archbishop Peter Hundt.

The Archbishop went on to say, “As a next step in the process of resolving these claims, the Archdiocese has filed for creditor protection. In effect, we will be requesting additional time to complete the evaluation of our assets, formally call for claims against the Archdiocese, and develop a proposal for our creditors to settle victims’ claims and creditor liabilities. This process will…

View Cache

[Via Toronto Star]

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of St. John’s, N.L., says it has filed for creditor protection as it evaluates its assets in anticipation of paying settlements to victims of abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage.

Archbishop Peter Hundt said in a news release Tuesday that the church is requesting more time to take stock of its assets, to formally call for claims against it and to develop a proposal to settle the claims.

He has previously said the basilica in St. John’s is among the properties being considered for sale in order to pay the settlements.

A Supreme Court of Canada ruling in January found the church liable for physical and sexual abuse committed at the St. John’s orphanage between the 1940s and 1960s.

St. John’s lawyer Geoff Budden was involved in the case and said Tuesday he represents at least 75 men now entitled to settlements,…

View Cache

A woman who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest says the church is now trying to subpoena deeply personal medical records, including of an unrelated abortion, as part of her lawsuit against the archbishop.

The woman, a former teacher now aged 60, is suing the Melbourne archiocese over allegations the abuse her parish priest subjected her to from the age of 13 caused psychiatric injury, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

The survivor and her lawyers say, while the church accepted she was sexually assaulted by Preston assistant priest Father Francis Thorp in the 1970s, its legal team intends to subpoena sensitive medical records as part of the claim.

The records flagged for subpoena include information about a termination she had when she was in her late 20s, a decade after the abuse ceased, a contraceptive device she had implanted and her obstetric records.

The woman, who cannot be…

View Cache

POPE Francis has also instructed that such crimes are known to the church authorities to be reported to the civil anchorites and must not be withheld under the guise of “confidentiality” stipulated in Canon Law to protect the name of those involved. This has been used in the past to stifle all action against pedophile priests and to protect them. Now it is a crime to do so.

The Instruction specifically states that church authorities must cooperate with the civil authorities and share evidence with them in any investigation. Also, the victims must never be bound to silence about the abusive act by anybody or impeded by anybody. So, the traditional out-of-court settlement is morally wrong and forbidden.

Child sex abuse committed a heinous crime and must be held accountable before the law. This is justice for the victims and a strong deterrent to other would-be child abusers. Remember that…

View Cache

THERE are serious and profound changes taking place in the Catholic Church to acknowledge and prevent child sexual abuse by clerics and laypeople. The number of priests convicted in the Philippines is zero.  Clerical child abuse has become a crisis for the Church as an institution.

We celebrate this December Pope Francis’s historic decree that approved a new law, Motu Proprio Vos estis lux mundi, to protect child victims and prosecute any clergy accused of child abuse.  It covers bishops that covered up acts of abuse by priests or laypeople. Every complaint of child abuse must be reported and investigated immediately and reported to the Church and the civil authorities. 

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has its guidelines in dealing with child abuse by priests but they are outdated and do not include any cooperation with civil authorities in bringing a cleric child rapist or abuser to justice….

View Cache

Sometimes the Vatican can appear so obsessed with papal bulls and encyclicals, and its frequent rounds of damage control, and managing people’s naughty bits, and tabulating the number of angels shaking their booty on the heads of pins, that it forgets the gospel according to Robert Fulghum.

“Don’t take things that aren’t yours.”

“Put things back where you found them.”

As most who have ever cracked the spine on a bestseller know, that was part of Fulghum’s formula for virtuous living as contained in his book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

It turns out that popes over the decades – especially the apparently avid artifact collector Pius XI — have amassed hundreds of items from Indigenous peoples in Canada, including an antique seal-skin kayak from the Western Arctic.

When news of this broke, Inuvialuit leaders in the region issued a statement demanding the return of the…

View Cache

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller says he’s “absolutely open” to an independent review of the residential school compensation deal reached between the federal government and Catholic Church.

“I would say we’re absolutely open to the idea; we have to get to the bottom of what we’ve done,” Miller said in a phone interview Monday. “The job I’ve been given is to get to the bottom of these things.… This is not the end of the story.”

Advocates say while that’s encouraging news, Miller could show good faith by immediately releasing key government documents related to the deal he admits are already in his possession.

“We expect the federal government to release everything. This is a necessary step for many survivors in their own healing journey,” Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron said.

In recent months, a CBC News investigation has revealed new details of the Catholic Church’s three key promises to compensate survivors under the landmark Indian…

View Cache

Pope Francis’ meeting with representatives of Canadian Indigenous communities at the Vatican, spurred after unmarked graves were discovered at residential schools earlier this year, has been delayed. America spoke via email with Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., archbishop emeritus of Ottawa-Cornwall and current apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Hearst–Moosonee—which includes a number of people belonging to First Nations—about the situation in Canada. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

At an ordination Mass in August 2021, you spoke movingly of the church’s response to the residential boarding schools revelations. Would you mind sharing with us what you said there?

Here are excerpts from that homily:

We Jesuits of the world are celebrating a special jubilee year in 2021, the 500th anniversary of a Spanish soldier named Ignacio de Loyola being gravely wounded by a cannonball in the siege of Pamplona—not so much that battle as by an inner struggle that followed….

I would…

View Cache

Congregations affiliated with the United Methodist Church have agreed to contribute $30 million to a fund for victims who say they were molested as youngsters in the Boy Scouts of America, an attorney said Tuesday.

A committee representing United Methodist churches that sponsored Scouting activities also agreed to help raise an additional $100 million for the fund.

Jessica Lauria, an attorney for the BSA, told Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein about the planned agreement during an online hearing Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. Lauria said the United Methodist-affiliated churches would receive protected party status, which means they would be released from further liability for abuse claims.

The proposed trust is expected to grow to more than $2.6 billion and would be the largest sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history.

More than 82,000 sexual abuse claims have been filed in the bankruptcy case. Victims who say they were abused must…

View Cache

A Dec. 21 motion for transcript, audio and video recordings of depositions related to the criminal charges against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was an important step for the prosecution, according to one of his alleged victims present in the courtroom.

The motion was a part of a brief second pre-trial hearing in the case at Dedham District Court in Massachusetts. In addition to the motion, the case was continued to March 3 for a status update.

McCarrick wasn’t present in the courtroom. His attorney Barry Coburn stated he had no objection to the commonwealth’s motion before exiting the courtroom without further comment. Crux couldn’t reach Coburn for comment after the hearing.

James Grein, a Virginia man who came forward in 2018 with two decades of abuse allegations against McCarrick, was present in the courtroom on Dec. 21 and told Crux that he had “high emotions” ahead of the hearing. Grein said it was “important” for…

View Cache

Six months after the Vatican announced criminal charges in connection with a London property deal that cost millions, the Vatican City State court is still dealing with preliminary, procedural arguments.

But in an editorial for Vatican News Dec. 20, Andrea Tornielli, an official at the Dicastery for Communication, argued that was to be expected due to complications arising from the Vatican’s penal code, which is older than and different from Italy’s.

“This has created objective problems for all parties to the proceedings, who are asked to apply that code to factual situations that the legislator of a century ago could certainly not foresee,” he wrote.

The Vatican court originally had brought to trial 10 individuals, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, former prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, and four companies on charges involving financial malfeasance and corruption in relation to a multimillion-dollar property deal in London.

But in October, the court ordered the prosecution to redo its investigations of four of the defendants and…

View Cache

 On Dec. 2, a Rome-based Spanish journalist handed Pope Francis a journalistic inquiry of abuse allegations against 251 priests, arguably the largest investigation into clerical sexual abuse conducted in Spain to date.

On Sunday, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni sent out a statement to a group of journalists saying that the report had been sent to “the competent authorities” so that it can proceed according to the “canonical norms in force, opportunely updated in recent years.” 

“The Holy Father has always insisted on his attention and closeness to the victims of abuse, with words, prayer and many gestures,” the head of the Vatican press office stressed in his message.

The Vatican has not specified to which “instances” it has forwarded the document documenting the abuses, but in virtually every case, sexual abuse against minors committed by a Catholic priest are investigated and tried by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the…

View Cache

Ballarat’s Catholic diocese has been found liable for the sexual abuse of a young boy by one of its priests.

The decision, believed to be an Australian first, was handed down by Victoria’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The diocese and its current bishop, Paul Bird, were sued by a man who said he was sexually assaulted by Father Bryan Coffey at his parents’ home in Port Fairy in 1971.

He was five years old.

Coffey received a three-year suspended sentence in 1999 after being convicted of charges including indecent assaults of males and females under 16 and false imprisonment.

The man, known as DP in court documents, didn’t tell anyone except for his partner about the assault until 2018.

He made a claim for more than $1.5 million for loss of earnings as a result of the assaults, a figure described by Justice Jack Forrest as “bold”.

The judge instead…

View Cache

Cheboygan County Mich. – The Office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is investigating a priest from northern Michigan.

According to Nessel’s press secretary, there is an investigation involving Father Bryan Medlin from Indian River.

The Diocese of Gaylord’s website said Father Medlin was appointed pastor of the National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods in September 2021.

Previously, he served as the pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Lake Leelanau.

Michigan State Police Public Information Officer Lt. Derrick Carroll said state police are investigating reports of a Diocese of Gaylord clergy member who allegedly sent inappropriate text messages to high school students.

He said MSP is investigating reports stemming from an incident involving students from a school in Leelanau County.

View Cache

The Attorney General’s Office is investigating a priest in northern Michigan.

Bryan Medlin was appointed to be the pastor of the National Shrine of the Cross In The Woods in Indian River in September.

When contacted by 9&10 News for comment, the Diocese sent this statement:

The Diocese of Gaylord recently became aware of concerns regarding electronic messages sent to a small number of high school students. In accordance with its policies, the diocese immediately referred the concerns to civil authorities who are investigating the matter.

To maintain the integrity of the investigation, at this time, the Diocese of Gaylord will not make any further comments. Any questions should be directed to local law enforcement or the Michigan Department of Attorney General.

The Diocese of Gaylord encourages that any allegation of abuse, harassment, or inappropriate conduct by someone in the Church be reported to the Michigan Department of Attorney General at 844-324-…

View Cache

A court in East Timor jailed a defrocked American priest for 12 years on Tuesday, his lawyer said, after he was charged with sexually abusing more than a dozen girls over decades.

The case was the first time that allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by a priest have gone to trial in the staunchly Catholic country.

Richard Daschbach, 84, founded a shelter in the early 1990s for orphans, vulnerable children and victims of abuse.

His lawyer, Miguel Faria, in comments broadcast by online news portal SMnewstimor, said his legal team did not accept the sentence and would coordinate with the defendant and his family to prepare an appeal.

Faria said the verdict was based on the testimony of four victims but had not taken into account the testimony of other witnesses.

Daschbach, who had faced 14 counts of sexual abuse of children younger than 14, as well as one charge…

View Cache

St. Joseph High School and the Diocese of Fort. Wayne-South Bend want a lawsuit brought by three former volleyball players accusing their volleyball coach of sexual misconduct dismissed, saying the alleged misconduct does not fall under Indiana’s statute of limitations.  

The school and diocese are also seeking to identify the three women — who graduated in 2018 and 2019 — in court documents. The women are currently filing the suit anonymously as Jane Doe plaintiffs.  

In a civil lawsuit filed in October, the former players alleged Justin Cochran “groomed” girls on the volleyball team with inappropriate sexual conversation and images, including sending nude pictures of himself, and that he retaliated against girls who complained about his behavior. 

The lawsuit also claims administrators at the high school — including principal John Kennedy and former athletic director Debra Brown — brushed aside parents’ concerns about Cochran’s behavior and failed to follow…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy efforts have plodded along for three years with no end visible in the case involving more than 400 clergy abuse victims.

Lawyers say three years is a comparatively long time for Chapter 11 proceedings but is far from unheard of. It’s in everyone’s interests — the archdiocese’s and the victims’ — to resolve it through Chapter 11, attorneys say. Therefore, an eventual settlement is still expected.

“The alternatives are so bad that it’s worth it to stay in the game,” Laura Coordes, associate professor of law at Arizona State University, said of Chapter 11.

The archdiocese seeks to raise an adequate sum, through property sales, donations and insurance, to reach settlements with the victims.

In a blog this month, Archbishop John Wester wrote: “We knew when we filed for Chapter 11 that it would not be easy. We are making progress, albeit…

View Cache

The name Robert Anderson meant little two years ago outside of Ann Arbor and inner circles of the University of Michigan athletic department.

But Anderson’s name gained infamy in February 2020 when former UM wrestler Tad DeLuca went public in a letter to UM Athletic Director Warde Manuel about how Anderson sexually abused him in 1975. That first accusation grew from dozens to hundreds to more than a thousand former students and athletes over the next 22 months who claim Anderson digitally penetrated them in unnecessary rectal exams during physicals….

View Cache

Pope Francis has condemned domestic violence against women as “almost satanic”, in some of his strongest language yet on the issue.

The head of the Catholic Church made the remark during a programme broadcast on Italy’s TG5 network on Sunday.

He spoke to a panel of four people from difficult backgrounds, including a survivor of domestic abuse.

He lamented the “very, very high” number of women “who are beaten and abused in their homes.”

“The problem is that, for me, it is almost satanic because it is taking advantage of a person who cannot defend herself, who can only [try to] block the blows,” said Pope Francis. “It is humiliating. Very humiliating.”

He spoke with a woman named Giovanna who said she had escaped from a violent home with her four children.

The Pope added that women who suffered abuse had not lost their dignity.

“I see dignity in you…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s says it may have to file for bankruptcy protection as it grapples with settling sex abuse claims linked to Mount Cashel Orphanage in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

In a message to all parishioners on Sunday, Archbishop Peter Hundt said the move would buy the Church more time to finish assessing the value of all its assets “as we develop a proposal for our creditors to settle victims’ claims and creditor liabilities.”

Several months ago, the Church announced that a team of advisors was working on a “major restructuring” plan to resolve the claims, estimated to be in the millions of dollars.

In July, Hundt said that would involve downsizing and consolidation at both the diocese and parish levels, including the potential sale of the flagship Basilica of St. John the Baptist. The Archbishop’s residence in Outer Cove and the Mount St. Francis…

View Cache

Accusations that the Dallas priest, who died in 2006, sexually abused boys are credible, the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province said.

The Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province added the Rev. Patrick Koch — a former Jesuit College Preparatory School president who died in 2006 — to its list of “credibly accused” religious leaders. Koch already had been listed as credibly accused by the Dallas and Corpus Christi dioceses.

The publication comes weeks after Brendan Higgins, a former Dallas-area TV anchor, revealed himself as one of nine former students who are suing the Jesuit order and others over sexual abuse they said they suffered at the hands of priests in the school.

“There’s been a big change in leadership in the Southern Province that has come with a new level of respect, cooperation and empathy for the victims. This feels really good,” Higgins said Saturday in an…

View Cache

[VIDEO]

The Diocese of Fresno failed to name at least five priests who have been publicly accused of sexual misconduct when it released its delayed list of credibly accused clergy in early August, according to records provided by a law firm representing victims of sexual abuse.

The Fresno Bee previously reported that three of the five clergy members were missing from the list. The additional two — Rev. Orlando Alberto Battagliola and Father Edgardo Arrunataegui Jimenez — were identified by Jeff Anderson & Associates, which represents victims of sexual abuse, the vast majority of whom have cases involving clergy.

The list released by the diocese is “incomplete and inaccurate,” said Mike Reck, an attorney with Jeff Anderson & Associates.

He said the Fresno Diocese has misled the public about the dangers posed by the priests left off the list.

“Time and time again, this diocese has shown that it cannot…

View Cache

As the window begins to close for North Carolina sexual assault victims to take their attackers to court, two new lawsuits pull back the curtains on allegations of more than a half century of Boy Scout abuse in Charlotte.

In one complaint, 29 former Scouts have sued the Mecklenburg Council of the Boy Scouts of America over assault allegations dating back as far as 1950 and as recent as 2007. At least one of the former Scouts is now in his 80s.

In a second lawsuit, a New York City man claims that as a 13- and 14-year-old, he was abused by his Scoutmaster in Charlotte for more than a year in the early 1980s, triggering a lifetime of emotional and physical problems. He, too, is calling on the Mecklenburg courts to hold the Boy Scouts council responsible for abusers it should have been aware of and crimes…

View Cache

The fourth report from the Catholic Church to the National Office for Child Safety outlines initiatives across dozens of Catholic entities as they continue to strengthen their efforts to keep all people safe in Church settings.

The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ACBC) and Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) on Thursday published their Annual Progress Report on initiatives implemented at national and local level to fight abuse in the Church . The report has been issued yearly since 2018 on recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It summarizes reports provided by more than 50 Catholic entities across the country to give an account to the Australian government of the progress made in the field of child protection.

Acknowledgment of past failures

In the preface, Bishops’ Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane and CRA president Br Peter Carroll FMS acknowledge the “shameful past” that…

View Cache

Spain’s Catholic Church is to open an investigation into alleged sex abuse of hundreds of children by members of the clergy dating back 80 years that the newspaper El Pais has uncovered, the daily said on Sunday.

The investigation will look into allegations of abuse against 251 priests and some lay people from religious institutions that the paper has uncovered, El Pais said.

The paper has not published in full its findings from a three-year investigation it conducted into the issue, but said its correspondent gave a 385-page dossier to Pope Francis on Dec. 2 while the papal entourage and journalists were flying from Rome to Cyprus.

The number of victims is at least 1,237 but could rise into the thousands, the paper said. The allegations concern 31 religious orders and 31 of the country’s some 70 dioceses. The oldest case dates back to 1942 and the most recent to…

View Cache

THERE are serious and profound changes taking place in the Catholic Church to acknowledge and prevent child sexual abuse by clerics and lay people. The number of priests convicted in the Philippines is zero. Clerical child abuse has become a crisis for the Church as an institution.

We celebrate this December Pope Francis‘s historic decree that approved a new law, Motu Proprio Vos estis lux mundi, to protect child victims and prosecute any clergy accused of child abuse. It covers bishops who covered up acts of abuse by priests or lay people. Every complaint of child abuse must be reported and investigated immediately and reported to the Church and the civil authorities.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has its guidelines in dealing with child abuse by priests, but they are outdated and do not include any cooperation with civil authorities in bringing a cleric child rapist or abuser to justice. That…

View Cache

A pastor at one of Canada’s largest churches has been accused of sexual misconduct and has been placed on leave while the church undertakes an external investigation.

Bruxy Cavey, who grew The Meeting House into a megachurch with some 5,000 people attending 19 campuses in the larger Toronto metropolitan area, was accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who reported it to the church’s board of directors last week.

Cavey taught at Fresno Pacific University Biblical Seminary as a lecturer for about 2 years before being removed from his position in a program shakeup in August 2018.

A news release from FPU at the time said the dismissal of Cavey and two other pastors resulted from concerns over the direction of the seminary and “some teaching positions of visiting lecturers.”

The chair of the Meeting House board, Maggie John, issued a statement on Thursday regarding the allegations.

“Bruxy…

View Cache

A pastor at one of Canada’s largest churches has been accused of sexual misconduct and has been placed on leave while the church undertakes an external investigation.

Bruxy Cavey, who grew The Meeting House into a megachurch with some 5,000 people attending 19 campuses in the larger Toronto metropolitan area, was accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who reported it to the church’s Overseers Board, or board of directors, last week.

In a brief statement, Maggie John, chair of the Meeting House board, wrote: “Bruxy has now been placed on a leave of absence while an external investigation takes place. We take these allegations very seriously and are committed to a thorough and transparent process. We are praying through this situation.”

Church leaders moved quickly to hire a third-party investigator — less than a week after they were notified of the accusations. They would not comment further. 

Cavey, 56, is…

View Cache

A bond hearing was held Thursday for the former director of Arc of Greater New Orleans.Advertisement

Stephen Sauer is facing sex crime charges, and investigators say there could be more victims. He attended his hearing via Zoom.

His bond was set at $75,000.

Sauer was ordered to stay away from the victims, and if he didn’t, would be subject to arrest.

He also will be on house arrest if he posts bail.

According to court documents, on July 23 JPSO was contacted by the New York District Attorney’s Office.

Documents show Sauer had sent a hard drive to a company based in New York for repairs.

The company found a couple of hundred images of sexual assaults that happened in the Metairie area on the hard drive and turned it over to the district attorney’s office in New York, according to court documents.

Documents state the adult men pictured were…

View Cache

The executive director of Arc of Greater New Orleans has been arrested on five counts of video voyeurism and one count of sexual battery, according to court records.

Stephen Sauer, 59, remains behind bars in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center, pending a court hearing Thursday. 

ArcGNO, with headquarters in Metairie, provides services to mentally disabled people in Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes. Sauer’s LinkedIn profile says he has been at the helm of the nonprofit since January 2017.

Records also show Sauer was a Jesuit priest, listing him as pastor of Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans from 2008 to 2012. A spokesperson for the Society of Jesus said Sauer left the order “at his own request in 2020.”

Sauer, who lives in Metairie, posted on LinkedIn that he has served on a number of local boards, including…

View Cache

Boston Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, in a Dec. 17 interview with a newspaper from Argentina, spoke about how some church factions in the U.S. drive views opposing Pope Francis via polarizing media messages.

The cardinal, head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, also spoke of how the sex abuse crisis has impacted evangelization.

In the interview with La Nación on the occasion of Pope Francis’ 85th birthday, Cardinal O’Malley said polarization and opposition to Pope Francis includes some conservative prelates in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, but he did not name anyone.

“Yes, the episcopal conference is polarized, but it is difficult to put a (figure on the) percentage of the opponents. There are also some bishops who are linked to a more conservative policy, and the Holy Father himself has commented on the situation of EWTN television, where, many times, the commentators are very critical…

View Cache

Perhaps 2021 will be remembered as the year that we got used to living with a pandemic as the “new normal.” Sadly, it may also be the year that U.S. Catholics got used to a “new normal” of near-constant culture war battles in our church.

The year opened with the shameful storming of the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of a valid presidential election. The next day, we editorialized that Catholics needed to confess their complicity in what was, in effect, a failed coup.

“Catholic apologists for [former President Donald] Trump have blood on their hands,” we wrote, calling out “some bishops, priests, a few sisters, right-wing Catholic media and too many people in the pro-life movement,” as well as the more than 50% of Catholics who voted for Trump “after four years of incompetence, racist dog whistles and assaults on democratic norms.”

Just…

View Cache

The National Catholic Reporter (NCR), the independent Catholic news organization, named Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez as its Newsmaker of the Year in an editorial published Dec. 17, 2021.

NCR cites Gomez’s inability to unite the church, his support for efforts to deny Communion to pro-life politicians including President Joe Biden and his dismissive comments toward social justice movements for fanning the flames of culture war.

“As head of the bishops’ conference for the past two years, Gomez has squandered his presidency fighting dead-end culture wars,” NCR writes. “The year was bookended by Gomez’s moves to attack Biden and a year-end speech denigrating social and racial justice movements that do the work of the gospel. In an organization whose history is peppered with failed leaders, it is hard to find one less accomplished.”

In a separate editorial, NCR held up the example of Catholic social and racial justice advocates as  View Cache

Phil Smith’s parents dropped him off at the Charles H Burke Indian School in New Mexico when he was five years old, in 1954.

A member of the Navajo Nation, Smith would attend the boarding school just outside the nation’s borders for one year, before moving onto other similar schools in the United States.

He spoke the Navajo language when he arrived but was taught that it “was no good, it’s not useful, (and) you need to only learn English”, explained Smith’s daughter, Farina King, who shared his story with Al Jazeera.

As a result, Smith didn’t teach King or her siblings the Navajo language. “And then I don’t learn Navajo, and I’m placed in this very difficult position where I’m the one who has to do this reconnecting work,” she said.

Hundreds of schools

In 1927, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a federal government agency, converted former army buildings…

View Cache

“He only touched me once. I never put myself in a situation where it could happen again.”

Michael Diabo was 10 years old when Jesuit Léon Lajoie allegedly sexually assaulted him while he was getting bread at the church in Kahnawake, a southern suburb of Montreal.

He never spoke of it before this summer. But 45 years later, he discovered something that would no longer let him remain silent.

“The story of the Kamloops graves made me realize that I was not the only victim of the Church,” Diabo said.

Like others, the discovery of 215 unidentified children’s remains on the grounds of the Kamloops (British Columbia) residential school brought the trauma to the surface.

In communities like Kahnawake, where Lajoie was the parish priest from 1961-1990, word is getting out.

The Jesuit was a key figure in the village. And when he died in 1999 he was among one…

View Cache

A team of New York-based filmmakers is producing a documentary about reclaiming Indigenous heritage, told through the experiences of an 18-year-old descendant of a U.S. Indian boarding-school survivor.

The story centers on Ku Stevens, a top-ranking Nevada athlete who organized a run along the 50-mile escape route his great-grandfather Frank Quinn took, fleeing from the Stewart Indian Boarding School to the Yerington Paiute reservation.

Paige Bethmann, director and producer of the “Remaining Native” documentary, who is Mohawk and Oneida, said it is named after the idea that he used his legs to preserve his identity, something she feels many Indigenous people are struggling with.

“Trying to preserve our cultural identities, our tradition, our language, because of how many obstacles the United States has put in front of Indigenous people, to get rid of that aspect,” Bethmann outlined.

The film also follows the first…

View Cache

Stephen Sauer, a former Jesuit priest who served as executive director of the Arc of Greater New Orleans, is accused of taking hundreds of sexually explicit photos of unconscious men without their consent, according to authorities.

The photos, which were found on Sauer’s computer hard drive, include “adult males asleep, unconscious or under the influence of an unknown substance in various stages of undress,” with their genitals exposed and being fondled. In some of the photos, there was evidence of ejaculation on the men’s faces, Jefferson Parish Assistant District Attorney Kellie Rish said in a bond hearing Thursday in Jefferson Parish Magistrate Court.

“Five victims were identified and denied willful participation with any act,” Rish said. “Nor did they consent to be photographed with any devices.” 

Sauer, 59, of Metairie, was arrested Monday by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and booked with five counts of video voyeurism and one count…

View Cache

The specific words varied by publication, but every headline made sure to include the number: $380 million.

No wonder.

When the approved court settlement over Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse of hundreds of female gymnasts landed as one of the largest dollar amounts in the history of sexual abuse cases, it was bound to be prominently displayed.

Of course no amount of money can fix what happened to Nassar’s victims. No amount of money can replace their stolen childhoods, restore their shattered innocence or rebuild their broken trust in institutions that failed so miserably to protect them. But what this money can do is help the victims on their road to recovery, provide actual, tangible resources for mental and physical care.

What this money also does? Stand as a powerful symbol in the fight for justice.

And that is something that deserves a headline today, tomorrow, and every day into the…

View Cache

“If you can no longer eat with a friend without a paparazzo taking pictures of you, what kind of world do we live in?” the archbishop asked.

In an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien published on Dec. 13, the archbishop said that his lawyer was preparing to take action against Paris Match after it published images of the archbishop taken with a telephoto lens.

The former archbishop of Paris also suggested in the interview that he was the victim of a “cabal,” but said he couldn’t provide proof. 

The Paris Match report, headlined “Mgr. Aupetit, lost for love” and published Dec. 8, showed Archbishop Aupetit walking through a forest near Paris with the Belgian theologian Laetitia Calmeyn.

The 70-year-old archbishop said that he had lunch with the 46-year-old consecrated virgin at a small bistro, followed by a walk in Meudon forest in France’s Hauts-de-Seine department.

“If you can no longer eat with a friend without…

View Cache

He challenged the Roman Catholic Church on the culture of secrecy and denial that protected predator priests, and said celibacy should be optional.

The Rev. Donald Cozzens, a Roman Catholic priest who challenged the church on its culture of secrecy and its denial that it protected priests who molested children, died on Dec. 9 in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. He was 82.

His sister, Maryellen Dombek, said the cause was complications of pneumonia brought on by Covid-19. He had been vaccinated, she said, and was healthy, still playing racquetball and riding his bike, when he succumbed to the virus in a hospital in a matter of days..

Father Cozzens, a diocesan priest, seminary rector and counselor to priests and seminarians, was best-known both in and outside the church for his candid writing.

In his most influential book, “The Changing Face of the Priesthood” (2000), he was among the first to explore…

View Cache

Pope Francis celebrated his 85th birthday on Friday, a milestone made even more remarkable given the coronavirus pandemic, his summertime intestinal surgery and the weight of history: His predecessor retired at this age and the last pope to have lived any longer was Leo XIII over a century ago.

Yet Francis is going strong, recently concluding a whirlwind trip to Cyprus and Greece after his pandemic-defying jaunts this year to Iraq, Slovakia and Hungary. He has set in motion an unprecedented two-year consultation of rank-and-file Catholics on making the church more attuned to the laity, and shows no sign of slowing down on his campaign to make the post-COVID world a more environmentally sustainable, economically just and fraternal place where the poor are prioritized.

“I see a lot of energy,” said the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, one of Francis’ trusted Jesuit communications gurus. “What we’re seeing is the natural expression, the…

View Cache

The former prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy sat down for an interview on his three-volume ‘Prison Journal’ touching on his incarceration, Cardinal Becciu and Vatican finances.

When Cardinal George Pell took a leave of absence in 2018 from his post as the inaugural prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy and returned to Australia to stand trial for his “historic sexual abuse” case, he was the highest ranking Church official to be swept up in a decades-long global scandal that has shattered victims and wreaked havoc on the Church’s moral credibility.

Convicted in 2018, he would spend 402 days in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, before his guilty verdict was overturned by Australia’s highest court in 2020. 

During his incarceration, the former archbishop of Melbourne from 1996-2001 and of Sydney from 2001–2014 was barred from celebrating the Mass, forcing him to dig deep into his faith and prayer life….

View Cache

A recent seminar hosted by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was an opportunity to learn about the rights of victims of clerical sexual abuse in various legal systems and learn how to promote those rights in the Church, according to Professor Myriam Wijlens.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors held a three-day academic seminar earlier this week to study provisions in various judicial systems and to evaluate the role of victims in canonical penal procedures.

The seminar went under the title “The Rights of Alleged Victims of Sexual Abuse as Minors in Canonical Penal Procedures” and saw Roman Curia officials and various experts take part.

Professor Myriam Wijlens, a member of the Commission, spoke to Gudrun Sailer about the event.

She said it stemmed from a previous meeting in 2019 which discussed balancing transparency and confidentiality in cases involving clerical sexual abuse.

At that event,…

View Cache

A psychologist testifying for Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense in the British socialite’s sex abuse trial said on Thursday that people can sound confident when they recall false memories.

The testimony from Elizabeth Loftus, a psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine, is part of the defense effort to undermine the credibility of four women who say that Maxwell groomed them for abuse by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein when they were teenagers.

“When you have post-event suggestion or intervention, people get very confident about their wrong answers,” Loftus said. “False memories … can be very vivid, detailed. People can be confident about them, people can be emotional about them, even though they’re false.”

Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty. Her attorneys argue the memories of the four accusers who testified for the prosecution have become corrupted over the years. The alleged abuse took place between 1994 and 2004, according to…

View Cache

Fr. Donald Cozzens turned the tables on conventional ideas about priest and prophet.

He showed that priests of the modern era need not play the role of serfs to the ecclesial lord of the manor. They need not be silent nor swallow the difficult truth they’ve come to understand about the culture that formed them and expects eternal obeisance.

He showed, too, that prophets need not rant and call down the wrath of God. He demonstrated they could upend faulty presumptions and conceits by quietly, diligently and in great detail laying bare the truth.

One might also suspect that Cozzens would advise anyone with royal ecclesial ambitions to leave the third element of the mission of the baptized — that of king — to God alone. After all, in his book Faith That Dares to Speak, he writes that we’re witnessing in the contemporary church the “unraveling…

View Cache

A meeting at the Vatican between Pope Francis and the Indigenous communities in Canada, originally scheduled for Friday through Sunday (Dec. 17-20), was postponed due to the pandemic with the promise that the pope might visit the country next year.

But the scandals tied to the Christian-run residential schools in Canada, as well as the lack of a formal apology by the Vatican to local Indigenous communities, make it “an open question,” according to Jesuits on the ground, whether Francis will be warmly welcomed when he does go to Canada.

Tensions between the Catholic Church and Indigenous peoples in the country have grown since last summer, when more than 200 buried bodies were discovered on the property of a school for Indigenous children in the city of Kamloops, in western Canada. Since then, many more bodies have been found in mostly Christian-run residential schools in the country.

In the late…

View Cache

Officials with a Boy Scouts of America chapter in North Carolina did nothing to prevent Scout leaders from sexually abusing 21 children between 1960 and 2010, according to a lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 29 in Forsyth County Superior Court against Old Hickory Council of Boy Scouts of America Inc., the Winston-Salem Journal reported. Another lawsuit filed on the same day alleges that an 11-year-old boy was sexually assaulted multiple times by a Scout leader while on a camping trip in Mount Airy in 1978 and that another Scout leader allowed it to happen.

A third lawsuit filed last year alleges that a Scout leader sexually abused a 14-year-old boy in 1972.

The national Boy Scouts of America entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2020 to halt numerous individual lawsuits and create a fund for men who said they were sexually abused as children. Attorneys…

View Cache

A New Zealand government-commissioned report on abuse in care settings is questioning how the Vatican has handled a Catholic bishop credibly accused of abuse.

The report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care – titled He Purapura Ora, he Māra Tipu; from Redress to Puretumu — was tabled in New Zealand’s parliament on Dec. 15.

Bishop Charles Drennan, the former bishop of the Diocese of Palmerston North, resigned from his diocese on Oct. 4, 2019, after an investigation into a complaint by a young woman that the bishop committed an abuse against her of a sexual nature.

Drennan – a former official of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State – was a member of Te Roopu Tautoko, the body was established to coordinate and manage cooperation between the Catholic Church in New Zealand and the royal commission.

He took over the Diocese of Palmerston North in 2012.

He was one…

View Cache

A new report on sexual abuse in New Zealand says abuse in religious settings often causes “particular harm” to victims.

The report quoted Thomas Doyle, a former Catholic priest and a leading expert in abuse in the Catholic Church, who called it “soul murder.”

The report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care – titled He Purapura Ora, he Māra Tipu; from Redress to Puretumu — was tabled in New Zealand’s parliament on Dec. 15.

The document makes recommendations on how survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care should be listened to and how they should be compensated. The three religious denominations covered in the report were the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Salvation Army.

The Royal Commission was set up by the government but was completely independent from the government and the religious groups involved. The main period of investigation was 1950 to 1999, although…

View Cache

Vatican judges signaled in a pre-trial hearing Tuesday that they have a deadline in mind to begin the formal phase of the Vatican Secretariat of State’s financial crimes trial. In a separate court decision, an Italian judge dismissed an effort by Vatican Cardinal Angelo Becciu to sue his former deputy, Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, who is now a star witness in the Vatican’s criminal case.  

The Vatican’s Dec. 14 pre-trial hearing focused on procedural appeals lodged by defense attorneys for ten defendants indicted on allegations of abuse of office, fraud, money laundering, embezzlement and a range of other charges.  

During the day’s session, chief judge Giuseppe Pignatone informed lawyers that he has ordered the production of technical transcripts for the hours of video interviews conducted by prosecutors with Perlasca and other key witnesses.

Tapes of those sessions were deposited with the court by prosecutors in November with short sections edited out…

View Cache

One alleged survivor of child abuse by a Fall River priest is asking for financial compensation from the diocese after he said Catholic leaders ignored his claims for ten years.

On Monday, the Fall River Diocese announced that three priests have been added to the list of those “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors.

Fathers James Buckley, Edward Byington, and Richard Degagne have been suspended from all church activities. Two of the men were already retired.

Richard Eldridge said Byington abused him after a Catholic retreat when he was 16 years old.

He said that Byington made him confess his sins — despite not being a Catholic — and then brought him to a convent, where he said the nuns tried unsuccessfully to stop the priest from bringing the teenager upstairs.

But according to Eldridge, his story wasn’t deemed “credible” by the diocese until years later, when another victim came forward anonymously.

As…

View Cache

An independent ombudswoman hired by the Montreal Roman Catholic archdiocese said Wednesday she has received 75 formal complaints – including 46 related to abuse – dating back to 1950 until the present day.

The cumulative report published Wednesday by Marie Christine Kirouack, who was hired by the church this year, is composed of complaints against members of the church that were filed between May 5 and Nov. 30.

Thirty complaints involve allegations of sexual abuse from 1950 to the present day, and another 16 complaints are connected to alleged psychological, financial, physical or spiritual abuse.

Kirouack’s report says 10 complaints have been referred to outside investigators and nine others have been forwarded to religious communities.

She says she also received about 30 complaints that fell outside her purview, including COVID-19-related complaints and 13 complaints for abuse suffered by Indigenous Peoples.

Kirouack says in a statement that listening…

View Cache

Middle schooler Rarity Cournoyer stood at the heart of the Red Cloud Indian School campus and chanted a prayer song firmly and solemnly in the Lakota language — in a place where past generations of students were punished for speaking their mother tongue.

Her classmates stood around her at a prayer circle designed with archetypes of Native American spirituality, with a circular sidewalk representing a traditional medicine wheel.

Lakota language teacher Amery Brave Heart walked quietly with a small bundle of smoldering sage stems. Brave Heart — sporting a long braid on the very campus where his grandfather, Basil Brave Heart, said he had his long hair shorn and carelessly trampled on as a newly arrived pupil — offered the sage to each student as part of a brief smudging or purification ritual, in which they symbolically waved the scented smoke toward themselves.

Such scenes would have been hard to…

View Cache

The FBI is encouraging any possible victims of a former Southern Baptist preacher to come forward in the wake of his recent indictment on sexual abuse charges.

Roy Edward Williams is accused in federal court of sexually abusing five minors, offering them payment afterward and threatening them to keep them from reporting the abuse, Acting U.S. Attorney Clinton Johnson said.

A federal grand jury indicted Williams, 63, in November. The former minister is charged with coercion and enticement of a minor in Indian Country, aggravated sexual abuse of a minor in Indian Country, abusive sexual contact of a minor between 12 and 16 years old in Indian Country and possession of child pornography.

Williams was charged in federal court because he is a member of the Cherokee Nation. The victims ranged in age from 7 to 16 when the abuse occurred, the U.S. attorney alleged. Williams was a member and a preacher at Bunker Hill Baptist Church in Vinita. 

…

View Cache

An independent redress plan should have a holistic approach based in Maori and Pacific Islander culture to help survivors and their families

Bishops and religious order leaders welcomed an interim redress report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care and said they will look at how they can implement the recommendations. They already have begun working on a plan.

The report, “He Purapura Ora, he Mara Tipu; from Redress to Puretumu,” was introduced in Parliament Dec. 15 and makes recommendations on how survivors of abuse in state-run and faith-based institutional care should be heard and get compensated for the harm suffered. Volume 1 of what was submitted took churches and the New Zealand government to task for ignoring and stonewalling survivors claims.

“Despite harrowing accounts and often obvious signs of physical, emotional or psychological damage, many survivors found their efforts to obtain redress from state and faith-based…

View Cache

A planned meeting at the Vatican between survivors of Canada’s Indian residential schools and Pope Francis has been postponed indefinitely because of a worldwide rise in the Omicron variant of the COVID virus.

A joint statement announcing the delay was issued Tuesday by the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapirat Kanitami, the Métis National Council and the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops.

“After careful assessment of the uncertainty and potential health risks surrounding international travel amid the recent spread of the Omicron variant, the Canadian Bishops, Assembly of First Nations, Métis National Council, and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami have jointly decided to reschedule a delegation to the Vatican in December 2021 to the earliest opportunity in 2022,” according to the statement.

The meeting had been set for Dec. 17-20 at Vatican City amid calls for a papal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the abuse and death of thousands of…

View Cache

Canada’s Indigenous Services Minister announced on Monday that the government is provisioning C$40 billion (the equivalent of US$31.2 billion) to provide compensation and to commit the funds necessary to implement long-term reform so that future generations of First Nations children will never face the systemic tragedies of their ancestors.

Officials confirmed the government will start paying out once a protracted lawsuit is settled.

The lawsuit concerns the damage inflicted by Canada’s residential school system that separated Indigenous children from their families and sent them to boarding schools where they were malnourished, beaten and sexually abused. The schools operated mainly between the 1890s right up until the mid 20th century and were run by the government and by Churches. 

Canadians, and the world, were shocked in May at the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of a former Residential School in British Colombia. The bodies belonged to…

View Cache

The federal Liberal government is setting aside a whopping $40 billion to settle outstanding Indigenous child welfare lawsuits and to meet the long-term health, education and social welfare needs of First Nations children and families.

Several First Nations leaders and advocates reacted positively yet warily to Ottawa’s pledge, saying discussions to settle three massive lawsuits are still underway, with no final decisions made.

“Number one, nothing’s been signed, so there is no agreement,” said Cindy Blackstock, head of the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society, which launched one of the key lawsuits at the heart of the ongoing battle for reform.

Number two, Blackstock said in an interview, there’s no way to get to a final deal unless there is a “mechanism” to hold the governments to account for delivering the money and the reforms promised.

“Promises actually don’t end the discrimination for kids if they’re not implemented,” she…

View Cache

The Canadian government will set aside $40 billion — more than $30 billion in U.S. currency — to compensate Indigenous people who faced abuses as children in the country’s residential schools, officials announced Monday. The funds will also be used to reform the country’s troubled child welfare system.

The pledge comes amid ongoing negotiations between Canadian authorities and First Nations groups over how to make amends for the historical mistreatment of Indigenous children.

“We have been unequivocal throughout these historic negotiations: we will compensate those harmed by the federal government’s discriminatory funding practices and we will lay the foundation for an equitable and better future for First Nations children, their families and communities,” Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu and Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller said in a joint statement.

From 1831 to 1998, the government separated some 150,000 Indigenous children from their families and sent them to residential schools…

View Cache

Pope Francis agreed Monday to meet with the commission that published a ground-breaking report into clergy sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church and, separately, expressed “sadness” over the sudden downfall of the archbishop of Paris, according to French bishops who met with him.

Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the French Bishops Conference, told reporters that Francis had agreed “in principle” to meet with the independent commission members but that a date had to be found.

The head of the commission, Jean-Marc Sauvé, had said the members would be received by the pope. But the reported Dec. 9 date came and went without an audience.

The French report estimated that some 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, scout leaders or other Catholic-affiliated lay employees from 1950-2020.

The estimate is based on broader research by France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research into sexual abuse…

View Cache

After a private meeting with Pope Francis, the officers of the French bishops’ conference said the pope encouraged them to continue responding together to a recent independent report on sexual abuse in the church since the 1950s.

“The pope underlined the dignity of our attitude and our way of considering the report” of the 21-member Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, “and he encouraged us to continue to do so in a synodal way,” said Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, president of the French bishops’ conference.

The archbishop and other officers of the bishops’ conference met with reporters Dec. 13 after their meeting with Pope Francis. They said Pope Francis has agreed to meet with members of the independent commission, although a date for the meeting has not been set.

Like the leaders of other large bishops’ conferences, the French prelates meet annually with the pope,…

View Cache

Even though the papacy isn’t a popularity contest, a pope’s influence in his home country is one way to measure how he’s doing. Alas, when it comes to Pope Francis’s Argentina, things are a bit more complicated: According to the local bishops, Argentines hear about the pope, but they don’t actually hear him.

According to a 2020 poll by the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), nine in ten Argentines affirm that their religiosity did not increase after the election of history’s first pope from the global south. Furthermore, 40 percent of Argentines are “completely indifferent” to the pope, and within this number, 32 percent of those who answered identify as Catholic. And 27 percent of the people think he’s too involved in politics instead of spiritual affairs.

Seeing these numbers, it comes as no surprise that the head of the Argentine bishops’ conference, Bishop Oscar Ojea of San Isidro,…

View Cache

Of all the silly and self-defeating habits the Vatican has fallen into over the years – and, let’s face it, it’s not a short list – censoring the words the pope speaks during his airborne press conferences is perhaps the most absurd.

After all, the pope speaks those words in front of about 70 journalists traveling with him aboard the papal plane, virtually each one of whom records them faithfully from start to finish and then painstakingly transcribes them, pondering each syllable for meaning.

Thus when the Vatican revises its official transcript a few days later, usually trying to make an error disappear, do they really think nobody will notice?

The most recent case in point involves the news conference Pope Francis conducted on his way back from a Dec. 2-6 trip to Cyprus and Greece, in which he addressed the case of the recently resigned Archbishop of Paris, Michel…

View Cache

A Vatican official apologized to a leading Catholic L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group for having yanked a reference to it on the Vatican website, drawing immediate praise Monday from the group as a “historic” move to repair the painful rift between the Catholic hierarchy and the gay community.

The Vatican’s General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops, which is organizing a two-year consultation of rank-and-file Catholics ahead of a 2023 meeting of bishops at the Vatican, restored the reference to New Ways Ministry on the website over the weekend.

The Synod had originally included a reference to a webinar video made by New Ways Ministry, a U.S.-based organization that advocates for greater acceptance of gays in the Catholic Church, in its “Resources” page directing people to sources of information about the Synod. The video urged L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics to participate in the consultation process, which aims to make the Catholic Church more welcoming,…

View Cache

 Three more Catholic priests in Bristol County, Massachusetts, were banned from the ministry after church leaders found allegations of child sex abuse to be credible.

One accuser spoke publicly after what he called a 10-year battle with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River.

Richard Eldridge said the sexual abuse started in the early 1970s when he was about 16 years old, following a Catholic retreat he attended while in high school where the nuns tried to block the staircase.

“They were trying to protect me — and he pushed his way through and brought me upstairs,” he said. “I don’t want any other kids to end up in this situation and go through what I went through.”

His alleged abuser, the Rev. Edward Byington, was assigned to various parishes in Bristol County, including: St. John, Attleboro; Sacred Heart, Taunton; St. Patrick, Fall River; St. Paul, Taunton;…

View Cache

One alleged survivor of child abuse by a Fall River priest is asking for financial compensation from the diocese after he said Catholic leaders ignored his claims for ten years.

On Monday, the Fall River Diocese announced that three priests have been added to the list of those “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors.

Fathers James Buckley, Edward Byington, and Richard Degagne have been suspended from all church activities. Two of the men were already retired.

Richard Eldridge said Byington abused him after a Catholic retreat when he was 16 years old.

He said that Byington made him confess his sins — despite not being a Catholic — and then brought him to a convent, where he said the nuns tried unsuccessfully to stop the priest from bringing the teenager upstairs

But according to Eldridge, his story wasn’t deemed “credible” by the diocese until years later, when another victim came forward anonymously.

As…

View Cache

Millions of children worldwide are at risk of abuse and exploitation in institutions, often to attract funding from donors, says Lumos charity

Immediate action must be taken to prevent trafficking and exploitation of children in orphanages, according to a report published on Monday.

International children’s charity Lumos says that an estimated 5.4 million children worldwide live in institutions that cannot meet their needs and neglect their rights and where they are exposed to multiple forms of exploitation and harm.

The report is the first to identify global patterns of institution-related trafficking, taking into account evidence from 84 organisations in 45 countries around the world. It highlights instances of sexual exploitation, as well as children being forced to work and coerced into performing for foreign donors to secure more funding. In some instances, children were left malnourished and held in cramped, unhygienic conditions to attract money from donors and volunteers. Lumos also…

View Cache

This is part 3 of The Christian Post’s article series on the crisis of leadership in American evangelicalism. Read part 1 here, read part 2 here and part 4 here. 

The last few years have seen multiple instances of well-known evangelical leaders entrenched in scandals and misconduct. Some have questioned if seminaries are doing enough to train future pastors to lead churches and disciple their congregations virtuously.

Darvin Wallis, a pastor and founder of Mission U Online, an online biblical education resource group, penned a provocative op-ed piece published by The Christian Post earlier this year about the problems facing American evangelical pastoral leadership.

“For about three decades now, the evangelical church has embraced corporate leadership paradigms. This has worked wonders for the bottom lines of attendance, giving and the number of reported conversions. Yet, it has also…

View Cache

Three Fall River priests formerly suspended due to child sex abuse allegations will not be returning to ministry after the diocese announced today that the accusations against them have been deemed “credible.”

The Diocese of Fall River stated on Monday that Father James Buckley, Father Edward Byington, and Father Richard Degagne have been added to the list of clergy who are “credibly accused” of sexual abuse.

According to the diocese, Degagne, the former pastor of Easton’s Immaculate Conception Parish, was suspended in 2019.

Buckley and Byington were suspended in 2020, although both were already retired and not assigned to a parish at the time.

All three priests have denied the allegations.

Late last month, one of Byington’s alleged victims, Richard Eldridge, came forward publicly with his story.

He said the abuse took place when he was a teenager in the 1970s, at a convent where the nuns tried to block the priest from taking him upstairs following a religious retreat.

…

View Cache

Allegations of sexual abuse of a minor made against three suspended priests, two of whom have Attleboro area ties, have been determined to be credible, and none will return to ministry, the Fall River Diocese announced Monday.

Edward J. Byington, Richard E. Degagne and James F. Buckley have been added to the list of “credibly accused” clergy on the diocese’s website, fallriverdiocese.org.

Byington once served at St. John’s the Evangelist in Attleboro and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Seekonk in addition to working with the Attleboro Area Girl Scouts of America, according to the diocese.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian in 2020 said he represented a client who was allegedly assaulted by Byington in a church rectory in Taunton after the client attended a religious retreat for teens in 1971.

Degagne was the pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Easton and previously served at St. John the Evangelist…

View Cache

I first met Donald Cozzens on the page. As a doctoral student interested in ministry, I picked up The Changing Face of the Priesthood as soon as a copy arrived at the library and read it that afternoon. At first, I didn’t know what to make of this beautiful book. Here was a seminary rector calling out clerical culture, a former vicar for clergy grieving the betrayal of children—not only by priest perpetrators, but by church structures devoid of accountability. Here was a committed celibate taking up the taboo of sexual orientation, a spiritual director describing an Oedipal conflict between priests and bishops.

Was this theology? Spirituality? Psychology? Was Father Cozzens “conservative” or “liberal,” a patient confessor or a prophetic voice? Yes, I decided, all of the above.

It wasn’t long before I met Don in person at an academic conference. We connected through mutual acquaintances and soon became friends. A few years…

View Cache

Four months after a South Carolina priest was placed on leave for allegedly manipulating a woman into a sexual relationship, the catholic diocese of Charleston says he has returned to worship.

They say Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone made the decision to reinstate father Wilbroad Mwape at St. Anthony’s of Padua. He returned on Dec. 10.

The diocese did not say anything additional about the pending lawsuit.

SNAP– the survivors network of those abused by priests- said it is “incredulous” that the priest is back in the pulpit, just six months after Pope Francis changed Catholic Church law to criminalize the sexual abuse of adults by priests.

“By putting Fr. Mwape back in a position of power at St. Anthony of Padua, the Diocese of Charleston is not only putting others at risk but also re-traumatizing the survivor who filed the lawsuit, as well as any other…

View Cache

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is denouncing the Diocese of Charleston after allowing a priest to resume preaching duties after being accused of sexual exploitation.

Officials say that Father Wilbroad Mwape began preaching again at a Greenville church four months after being placed on temporary leave following a sexual exploitation allegation by a parishioner.

The accusation led to a lawsuit filed on August 4th with complaints of the priest abusing his position beginning at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Orangeburg and his relocation to Greenville.

SNAP says “he may again abuse those seeking help and trusting in their spiritual ‘leader’.” Fr. Mwape was able to resume his position six months after Pope Francis altered Catholic Church law to criminalize the sexual abuse of adults.

SNAP offers support to survivors of sexual abuse by clergypeople and requests for those who may have been harmed by Fr. Mwape…

View Cache

A Belfast man who says he was sexually abused at a children’s home run by a religious order is set to receive £75,000 in damages.

The payout represents settlement of the 66-year-old’s civil action against De La Salle Provincialate.

No admission of liability was made in the resolution confirmed at the High Court in Belfast.

The man who took the case cannot be named for legal reasons.

He claimed that Christian Brothers molested him at Rubane House in Kircubbin, Co Down in the late 1960s.

Proceedings centred on the alleged physical, sexual and emotional abuse he suffered after moving into the facilities at the age of 11.

Rubane House was among the homes examined by the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry chaired by the late Sir Anthony Hart.

An estimated 200 of its 1,050 former residents have made allegations of serious sexual or physical abuse.

A trial into the man’s…

View Cache

“This is an extremely important step forward in the BSA’s efforts to equitably compensate survivors,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement.

One of the Boy Scouts of America’s primary insurers, Chubb Ltd unit Century Indemnity Company, said on Monday it will contribute $800 million to a deal proposed by the youth organization to settle sexual abuse claims.

The money would be used to settle around 82,500 claims from people who say they were sexually abused as children by troop leaders.

The move brings the total pot of money available to resolve claims to more than $2.7 billion.

Under the Boy Scouts’ proposal, those who filed claims in the organization’s ongoing bankruptcy proceeding will receive settlements according to the severity of their cases and when the alleged abuse occurred.

Century’s contribution comes after more than a year of back-and-forth between the insurer and…

View Cache

Attorneys in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy case have reached a tentative settlement under which one of the organization’s largest insurers would contribute $800 million into a fund for victims of child sexual abuse.

The agreement announced Monday calls for Century Indemnity Co. and affiliated companies to contribute $800 million into the fund in return for being released from further liability for abuse claims. The payment would bring the amount of money in the proposed trust to more than $2.6 billion, which would be the largest sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history.

The settlement comes as more than 82,000 sexual abuse claimants face a Dec. 28 deadline to vote on a previously announced Boy Scouts reorganization plan.

That plan called for the Boys Scouts and its roughly 250 local councils to contribute up to $820 million in cash and property into a fund for victims. They also would assign…

View Cache

Three Massachusetts Catholic priests, including one from an Easton church, are barred from returning to ministry after the diocese found them each to be “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of a minor.

According to the Diocese of Fall River, the Rev. Richard E. Degagne was suspended after allegations surfaced in 2019. He was then the pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Easton.

The Rev. Edward J. Byington and the Rev. James F. Buckley were already retired and were not assigned to a parish when allegations surfaced during 2020, diocese officials said.

The Rev. Buckley was ordained in 1959, the Rev. Byington was ordained in 1970 and the Rev. Degagne was ordained in 1982. As a result of Monday’s decision, all three are prohibited from participating in church duties.

“They are not permitted to exercise any public ministry including the celebration of public Mass or of other sacraments. They may not…

View Cache

The Diocese of Fall River announced today that separate allegations of sexual abuse of a minor made against three suspended priests have been determined to be credible and that none would return to ministry.

Given these determinations, the names of Father James F. Buckley, Father Edward J. Byington, and Father Richard E. Degagne have been added to the list of “Credibly Accused” clergy on the Fall River Diocesan website.

The Diocese of Fall River previously announced the suspensions of all three priests. Father Degagne, then pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Easton, was suspended in 2019. Father Buckley and Father Byington were suspended in 2020. These two priests were already retired at the time and not assigned to a parish. All three priests have denied the allegations.

Before making any determination in these cases, the Diocese followed its protocols including notifying civil authorities, conducting its own investigations, and…

View Cache

Scandals over clerical abuse of minors have left the institution poorer and less influential

From when the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse crisis erupted in 2002 until his death more than three years later, St. John Paul II never met with a victim of clerical sexual abuse.

In contrast, Pope Francis has met numerous times with abuse victims and their advocates since his election in 2013. He plans next year to meet with representatives of indigenous people from Canada who are protesting the historical abuse of children at church-run residential schools there.

Those meetings are a sign of how the Catholic hierarchy has transformed its response to abuse scandals, which have left the church poorer and less influential in the countries where they have emerged.

“The leadership of the church has come to recognize that the church has to take ownership and responsibility for what happened,” said Francesco Cesareo,…

View Cache

The agreement reached with U.S.A. Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee will compensate more than 500 girls and women abused in the sport

Hundreds of female gymnasts who were sexually abused by Lawrence G. Nassar, the former team doctor of the national gymnastics team, have agreed to a $380 million settlement with U.S.A. Gymnastics and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, ending the latest dark chapter in one of the biggest molestation cases in sports history.

The settlement, announced on Monday during U.S.A. Gymnastics’ bankruptcy proceedings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana, is among the largest ever for a sexual abuse case. The funds would compensate more than 500 gymnasts — including Olympic gold medalists like Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman — who were abused by Nassar or someone else in the sport.

“No amount of money will ever repair the…

View Cache

This commentary is by Maura Labelle, a resident of Colchester.

An open letter to Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, the Roman Catholic bishop of Vermont:

Why are you waiting for me and other clergy abuse victims to die?

As children at St. Joseph’s Orphanage, we were physically, mentally and sexually abused. In December 2020, you said the following during an interview on the WCAX program “You Can Quote Me”: “I absolutely believe that children were abused at the orphanage. No one is contesting that at all.” 

You know that there was abuse, yet you do everything you can to avoid helping the abused.

In 2019, you said the following on Vermont Public Radio: “We don’t have any money; there’s no more insurance; we have very limited unrestricted funds.” If the church doesn’t have funds, it’s because of its own actions to hide the money. 

You know very well that your predecessor,…

View Cache