ABUSE TRACKER

La fiscalía de Argentina solicitó cuatro años y seis meses de prisión efectiva para el obispo Gustavo Zanchetta, uno de los administradores del patrimonio del Vaticano, en el juicio oral que enfrenta por presunto abuso sexual de dos seminaristas cuando estuvo al frente de un obispado en la provincia norteña de Salta.

En su alegato ante el tribunal, la fiscal María Soledad Filtrín Cuezzo sostuvo el jueves que durante el juicio “se pudo establecer la veracidad, verosimilitud y credibilidad de las víctimas, que presentaron en sus denuncias y durante el juicio lógica interna, contextualización de los hechos, precisión de detalles y vivencias desde lo anatómico”, según un comunicado del Ministerio Público fiscal de Salta.

El caso tomó trascendencia pública a principios de 2019 con un informe del diario El Tribuno de Salta sobre el supuesto comportamiento inadecuado del obispo durante los cuatro años que estuvo al frente del Obispado de…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has announced two updates to their online list of clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse.

On Wednesday, Father Gerard Lafleur was added to the list. He was ordained in 1953 and had assignments in Chicopee, Springfield, South Hadley, and Holyoke prior to his death in 2011. The abuse accusation involves a minor and dates back to 1974.

In addition, the listing for Father Charles Sullivan was updated to indicate that there has been more than one allegation against him. The move comes after the Diocesan Review Board looked into an allegation of sexual abuse involving a minor that dates back to 1994.

Sullivan was ordained in 1965 and had assignments in Longmeadow, Springfield, Holyoke, Westfield, Monson, Pittsfield, Lenox, Amherst, Indian Orchard, and Thorndike before he was removed from the ministry in 2002. He died in 2014.

The diocese explained that…

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A review board run by the Diocese of Springfield has upheld a new allegation of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest who served parishioners of a Pittsfield church in the mid-1980s.

The diocese said Wednesday it updated its roster of credibly accused priests to now reflect multiple allegations that Charles J. Sullivan sexually abused minors.

Sullivan, who served the diocese from 1965 to 1992, died in 2014. He was assigned to St. Mary the Morning Star Parish in Pittsfield from 1984 to 1986.

The newly confirmed allegation of sexual abuse of a minor dates to 1994, the diocese said; the previously confirmed allegation concerns abuse in 1993. Sullivan was removed from public ministry in 2002, the diocese said, and “assigned to a life of prayer and penance” in 2005.

This week, the diocese also updated its list of credibly accused priests to include, for the…

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An Auburn man has filed a negligence lawsuit accusing two now deceased priests of sexually abusing him while he was a studentat a Catholic school in Holbrook during the 1980s.

The suit, filed Tuesday in Worcester Superior Court, alleges the abuse occurred at St. Joseph School when Gerry Nee, now 46, was 6 to 12 years old.

The alleged abuse took place in confessionals and a vacant rectory, where one sexual assault left Nee in need of medical attention, according to the nine-page lawsuit.

Nee wants to set an example for his children and hopefully inspire other victims to come forward, Nee’s lawyer, John T. Martin, said Wednesday.

“It took a tremendous amount of courage for Gerry to disclose what happened and he had to overcome a lot of fears and concerns and anxieties about his privacy,” Martin said. “In many ways, it’s therapeutic for people to confront their abusers…

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Missoula Catholic Schools President Luis Hayes has been placed on immediate paid administrative leave following an investigation, the Diocese of Helena announced.

Former Loyola Sacred Heart High School Principal Kathy Schneider and former Athletic Director Jacob Alford will also remain on paid administrative leave for the remainder of the year.

None of the three administrators on leave will be offered contracts to return in the fall, according to Bishop Austin Vetter.

“This leave is for the remainder of the school year and is due to the fact that there was a failure on the part of these administrators to ensure that a necessary background check and training in safe environment policy were in place when hiring an employee,” the Diocese of Helena wrote in a statement.

Vetter’s decision to place Hayes on leave and continue Schneider’s and Alford’s leaves was received “with the full support of the Missoula Catholic Schools…

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In this age of small-group ministries, most pastors would know how to handle a crisis that affected significant numbers of believers in their pews.

“If you had 1 in 4 members of your congregation actively battling cancer, or 1 in 4 members … experiencing being widowed or losing a spouse, chances are that you would have some level of intentional ministry to those individuals,” said Rachael Denhollander at a recent Trinity Forum event focusing on how churches respond to sexual abuse. “Maybe you would have a support group or a Bible study for them. You would have meal trains to help provide for their physical needs.”

But many sexual abuse victims hesitate to speak out, she said, because churches act as if they don’t exist. Thus, they have little reason to believe the sins and crimes committed against them will be handled in a way that offers safety and healing.

…

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Starting with the pope.

At around the fifth hour of November’s “Enough Is Enough” prayer rally, hosted by the Catholic right media outlet Church Militant, event emcee and fallen alt-right star Milo Yiannopoulos bounded onstage to reveal a dramatic wardrobe change. Gone were the rock-star white suit and purple shoes he’d been wearing since morning, replaced by a black shirt, black suit, and heavy crucifix, which gleamed from the jumbotrons all the way to the back of Baltimore’s Pier Six Pavilion, where the concert venue jutted into the city harbor. The bleached-blond tips of his floppy hair—fashy-short on the sides and Donald Trump combover-long on top—had been shorn in a final makeover after his year of ostentatious renunciation.

At the podium, Yiannopoulos assumed an air of exaggerated modesty. “The path to salvation is a series of baby steps,” he told a crowd of some 1,500 predominantly white, mostly middle-aged rallygoers. “I’m glad I…

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February 18 – March 26, 2022

Lisa Kessler

Heart in the Wound

February 18 – March 26, 2022

Howard Yezerski Gallery is pleased to announce Heart in the Wound, a solo exhibition of photographs by Lisa Kessler. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team releasing their groundbreaking story of clergy abuse. Heart in the wound features deeply personal images made before and after the story broke in 2002. Thanks to Kessler’s dedication of connecting herself with survivors and her ability to capture such delicate subject matter, we are able to view and hear these stories. The exhibition will also include an 8-minute audio documentary, as well as an interactive website which provides resources for those affected by these events.

***

I had been treated professionally and kindly as a freelancer for the Archdiocese of Boston through the 1990’s, and I didn’t know how to…

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The CEO of Kanakuk has released an open letter as part of an updated response from the camp to continued allegations related to the abuse of a former camp director.

An in-depth investigation released in March 2021 by former ACLJ and Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel and National Review author David French and his wife for the online journal The Dispatch revealed a number of victims of Kanakuk were under non-disclosure agreements which were signed as part of legal settlements. 

“Recent articles have accused Kanakuk of using Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to hide details of abuse and silence victims,” Kanakuk Ministries President Doug Goodwin wrote in the letter. “This is simply not the case. The awful details of what transpired is part of the public record. The criminal component was equally public and local television stations and newspapers covered this for many months. Kanakuk’s focus is on supporting victims’ privacy and…

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As Mary Pat Fox described last month, Voice of the Faithful grew at an astonishing rate in the first few months. Looking back, though, the amazing thing is the speed and clarity with which the mission and goals of the organization were discerned. Centered in prayer, speaking boldly and listening attentively to one another, we were journeying together in faith 20 years before Pope Francis’ Synod. That convinces me that VOTF was and still is a movement of the Spirit.

Founder Jim Muller’s motto was “Keep the Faith – Change the Church.” When our critics asked us what that meant, we said we respected the role of the hierarchy, but all the people of God must be involved in discerning where the Spirit is leading the Church. Cardinal George of Chicago responded that “Keep the Faith, Change the Church” was problematic because any change in the Church will, “unless most carefully thought out,”…

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A HIGHLY critical report from the chair of the new Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB), Maggie Atkinson (News, 30 September 2021), sets how far the board believes that the Church of England must travel to prevent further safeguarding failures and to promote a safer culture.

In some cases, defending institutions had mattered more than the person making the disclosure, the report, which was presented to the General Synod on Wednesday morning, says. An attitude of “also-to-do” had resulted in seeing safeguarding as a secondary task; and there had been a “child-unfriendly” approach for people seeking help or redress, it says.

“We are keenly aware that the Church’s past failures, and the associated pain, shame, ongoing confusion, sometimes anger, and potentially lifelong trauma of victims and survivors, are too often still present long after the suffering concerned is brought to light,” the report says, “whether or not the Church considers it has in fact…

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The Vatican tribunal has rejected defense motions in a landmark trial concerning alleged financial crimes, ordering the process to continue, starting with the questioning of Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

At a March 1 hearing, court president Giuseppe Pignatone read aloud a 40-page ordinance responding to objections from defense lawyers lodged since the process kicked off last summer.

The three-judge panel hearing the case rejected requests to throw out evidence and charges — which some lawyers indicated they would appeal — and set the next hearing for March 17.

March 17 will mark the first day of testimony, when Becciu will be called to the stand to respond to questions about Vatican and Italian bishops’ conference funds he is accused of illicitly giving to the charitable arm of his home Diocese of Ozieri, located on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Becciu resigned as prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints…

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The power that a seminary faculty has over students would never be accepted in a state run institution.

St Andrew’s College Drygrange was the main seminary for the east of Scotland. When I entered in 1978 it had just celebrated its 25th anniversary. It was a curious  place, a gay community in everything but name, but a self-loathing gay community.

Not everyone was gay. And the ones that were gay pretended that they weren’t. Except when they didn’t. Towards the end of my time there a student in the year below me told me that he and his pal had been working their way through the student list the night before – a common pastime back in the day – deciding who was and wasn’t gay. When they came to my name they concluded: “Brian isn’t gay, but he wishes he was.” 

I suppose Drygrange was not atypical for its …

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Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki has submitted his resignation for a second time to Pope Francis as leader of Germany’s Catholic archdiocese of Cologne.

The archdiocese announced the cardinal’s move on March 2, Ash Wednesday, the day that he returned to lead the archdiocese after a period of “prayer and reflection,” reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

The Cologne archdiocese, which is Germany’s largest and reportedly also its richest diocese, said that the pope had instructed the 65-year-old cardinal to resume his ministry on Wednesday, pending a decision on his resignation.

Woelki began his sabbatical at the end of September 2021 “at his own request,” after he was confirmed in office by Pope Francis, who had ordered an apostolic visitation amid fierce criticism of the archdiocese’s handling of abuse cases.

In a Lenten pastoral letter published on…

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St. Kevin’s to retain church and hall as part of out-of-court settlement

A settlement has been reached involving millions of dollars raised in a Chase the Ace fundraiser for a St. John’s-area parish nearly five years ago.

The cash got tangled up in ongoing insolvency proceedings involving the Roman Catholic church in eastern Newfoundland and efforts to compensate victims of historic abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage.

An out-of-court settlement was reached Sunday night. The matter had been due to go before a Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court judge Monday morning.

“It’s a result we’re pleased with, and the parish council, it’s a result I understand that they are satisfied with,” said Geoff Budden, a St. John’s lawyer who represents 70 people who suffered abuse at Mount Cashel.

“So it’s a compromise, but it is one that will see a significant sum of money put forward to be used to compensate…

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Germany’s ‘synodal way’ charts its own course to reform.

Germany’s Synodale Weg (“synodal way”), led by the German conference of bishops and the national committee of lay German Catholics (ZdK), assembled for the third time in February; it was likely a watershed moment in the German Church’s synodal process. Some 230 delegates, lay and clergy, debated and voted on over a dozen documents produced by working groups in four areas: power in the Church; the model of priesthood; women and ministries; and sexual morality in Church teaching. Each of the documents won the approval of well over two-thirds of all delegates (ranging from 74 percent to 92 percent), and just over two-thirds of the bishops. In addition to voting, some bishops even made bold interventions in favor of doctrinal change. (If they had talked like that when they were still priests, they would never have become bishops in the first place.) A separate…

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The Vermont History Museum is hosting a multi-media exhibit about the experiences of people who once lived at St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington

The newest exhibit at the Vermont History Museum documents a painful legacy, but it’s one survivors of childhood abuse and trauma say needs to be heard as part of their healing process.

“This cannot be allowed to happen again,” said Katelin Hoffman, referring to the abuse she experienced at the now-defunct St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington when she was in her early teens.

Hoffman and others have reported they were routinely harmed at the facility that closed in 1974. Some said, as a particularly shocking example, they were even forced by staff to eat their own vomit when they were sick.

“At night, they’d come in after the kids were asleep and pull them out of bed and beat them,” Hoffman recalled of orphanage staffers in an…

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A very important book critically addresses proposals that statutes protecting the confidentiality of religious confession should be abolished.

Religious Confession and Evidential Privilege in the 21st Century (Cleveland, Queensland: Shepherd Street Press, an imprint of Connor Court Publishing and The School of Law, The University of Notre Dame Australia, 2021), edited by Mark Hill, a distinguished British barrister, and A. Keith Thompson, professor and associate dean at the University of Notre Dame Australia School of Law, with a foreword by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, may well be one of the most important books on religion of 2022 (the year when it has been in fact released, although it bears a copyright date 2021). I will review it in a series of subsequent articles, divided by geographical focus. In this first article, I will concentrate on Australia.

The subject matter of the book is the claim, originated by horrific cases of…

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Prince Andrew could face more sex abuse lawsuits in the US due to a potential change in the law – including from a woman who claims she was groped by the disgraced royal. 

The Duke of York, 62, settled the rape case brought against him by accuser Virginia Giuffre, 38, for an undisclosed amount thought to be up to $15 million. 

Ms Giuffre’s case was allowed by a New York law which gave victims of historic child sex abuse a year to sue their alleged abusers despite the statute of limitations.   

Florida hair salon owner Johanna Sjoberg, 42, has repeatedly claimed that Andrew touched her breast in 2001 when she was 21.

So far she would have been able to sue the prince for the alleged sex assault because the child sex abuse law did not apply to her and too much time has gone by. 

But new bill…

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Batavia – A longtime area priest who became the one of the most notorious in the Buffalo Diocese’s sex abuse scandal has died.

The Rev. Donald W. Becker, 79, died Feb. 15 in Fort Myers, Fla. He was accused of molesting children in 30 lawsuits under the state’s Child Victims Act.

Becker always denied the allegations, but the sheer number of lawsuits made him the most-accused priest in the diocese.

Becker was ordained in 1968 and the lawsuits against him allege incidents dating back to at least that time. One such lawsuit accused him of getting a 15-year-old male drunk and then raping him during a 1975 incident in North Java.

Becker was pastor from 1992 to 2002 at the former St. Mary’s Church in Batavia. He was removed from his duties in 2002 on a “medical leave of absence” and named by the diocese in 2018 among the dozens…

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The Archdiocese of Santa Fe, in the throes of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, sued four insurance companies this week, claiming they haven’t fulfilled their contracts to provide liability coverage for sexual abuse complaints.

The archdiocese hopes to raise enough money, including through insurance payouts, to settle the bankruptcy case involving more than 400 people who allege they were victims of clergy sexual abuse, with some claims dating back decades.

At least one attorney sees the archdiocese’s lawsuit as a step toward a resolution in the case, which has stretched over more than three years and is on its third mediator. While it was clear the archdiocese and its insurance companies haven’t reached deals on payouts, the lawsuit reveals the severity of the disagreements between them.

The defendants named in the suit are Great American Insurance Co., Arrowood Indemnity Co., St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. and United States Fire Insurance…

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One of the oldest Roman Catholic dioceses in the U.S. is suing four insurance companies over claims that they haven’t fulfilled contracts to provide liability coverage for sexual abuse complaints.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe filed the lawsuit this week as it deals with a bankruptcy case involving more than 400 people who allege they were victims of clergy sexual abuse. Some of the claims date back decades.

The archdiocese hopes to raise enough money, including through insurance payouts, to settle the bankruptcy case, which has stretched over more than three years and is on its third mediator.

At least one attorney sees the archdiocese’s lawsuit as a step toward a resolution in the case, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

The defendants named in the lawsuit are Great American Insurance Co., Arrowood Indemnity Co., St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. and United States Fire…

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[Google translation followed by German text]

Judgment in the trial of a Catholic priest: A 70-year-old has been imprisoned for twelve years for sexual abuse. He had molested several girls over the years. 

The trial against a 70-year-old priest before the Cologne Regional Court ended with a sentence of twelve years in prison. He worked in the Voreifel, in Gummersbach, Wuppertal and Zülpich. After the testimonies of the witnesses had become overwhelming, he himself admitted that he had sexually abused girls in all these places on numerous occasions.

“You were not the luminary that you were perceived as, but a pedophile serial offender who has abused for decades,” said judge Christoph Kaufmann to the 70-year-old priest, who on Friday before the 2nd major criminal chamber of the Cologne district court was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment. He has committed 110 cases of sexual abuse, of which 23 are classified as serious and 15 as…

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A New Jersey doctor [Hoatson is a Ph.D.] is protesting against a late Bridgeport priest who is accused of sexually abusing a child.

Bob Hoatson stood in Bridgeport Sunday outside of St. Michael the Archangel Church with a sign reading: “Abuser of minor children – Father George Maslar.”

This comes after an unidentified woman claimed she was abused twice by the priest when she was young.

Hoatson is the co-founder of a non-profit in New Jersey, Road to Recovery, that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

We’re told Maslar moved around at least 25 times to different churches. According to Maslar’s assignment record, the late priest began his career in 1965 at St. Michael’s Church. He moved to several different churches throughout Connecticut, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania before ending at St. Maximilian Kolbe Friary in Hamburg, New York.

Hoatson said Father Maslar’s name has not appeared in…

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Last August, former Bishop Howard J. Hubbard reflected on his handling of decades of child abuse allegations in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, noting that his “most fervent prayer each day is that victims … and their families will find healing, reconciliation and peace in God’s love and that we as a church and a society will learn from this tragedy.”

The remarks by the bishop emeritus, who headed the diocese from 1977 to 2014, were made in an extraordinary opinion piece that was published in the Times Union on Aug. 13 — the final day that alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse could file claims under New York’s Child Victims Act, which had lifted the statute of limitations for two years.

Hubbard, who is among numerous clergy facing allegations of sexually abusing children, wrote in his op-ed that the diocese’s response “fell short,” and he admitted church officials had…

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A priest who abused children and adolescents over many years has been handed a 12-year jail sentence by a Cologne court. The archdiocese where he worked has denied any responsibility.

The Catholic Church has been facing a wave of abuse allegations against many priests

A  court in the western German city of Cologne on Friday convicted a Catholic priest of sexually abusing children in cases spanning many years, sentencing him to 12 years in prison.

The priest was also ordered to pay three co-plaintiffs in the cases damages totaling €50,000 ($56,000).

The conviction comes as the German Catholic Church is under intense scrutiny after revelations of decades of sexual abuse of children and misconduct toward minors by church employees, including in the Cologne Archdiocese. 

The church is seen by many to have abused its position of power by covering up abuse by priests

What was the priest convicted…

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To organize a National Eucharistic Congress in 2024, the Catholic bishops in the United States have partnered with an event planner who was accused of charging exorbitant rates during the preparations for Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in January 2017.

The bishops are also relying on conservative Catholic organizations to provide funding and create catechetical and promotional materials for a multiyear National Eucharistic Revival that will lead up to the four-day congress in July 2024. The bishops intend to set up a nonprofit organization to handle logistics and raise $28 million over the next two years to hold the event in downtown Indianapolis.

Some Catholic observers, including experts in financial planning and church management, say the bishops’ plan is sound and consistent with other large religious events in recent years, including the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

Also linking belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist…

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The Bishop of Knoxville says he will fight a lawsuit which claims he both covered up a rape allegation against a former diocesan seminarian, and defamed the alleged rape victim.

“I am taking this matter seriously and my plan is to vigorously challenge these allegations,” Bishop Rick Stika wrote in a Feb. 25 letter, distributed to priests and other personnel within the Tennessee diocese. 

“We know that the legal system works deliberately, and with good reason. I welcome a thorough examination of these allegations, but this will take some time,” Stika wrote.

The bishops’ letter came after a Feb. 22 lawsuit against Stika and the Knoxville diocese, filed by a former cathedral organist, who charges that he was raped and sexually harassed by seminarian Wojciech Sobczuk in February 2019, and that Stika did not take seriously the allegation — and in fact, tried to pressure him to keep silent. 

Stika…

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Handing a key legal victory to survivors of clergy sexual abuse, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood on Saturday ruled the assets of Catholic parishes and schools belong to the Archdiocese of Agana as a whole – and could therefore be used to help pay abuse claimants.

The judge’s ruling capped a three-year-old request from hundreds of survivors, represented by Leo Tudela, 78.

“I will stay a Catholic,” Tudela told the court after the ruling, while also urging other survivors to come forward for “healing” and to put aside differences within the Catholic Church.

Millions of dollars worth of buildings, parking lots, vehicles, cemeteries, bank accounts and other parish and school property are now part of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy estate, which could be liquidated.

But the judge and the creditors committee, along with the archdiocese, said the end goal is to justly compensate the abuse survivors while keeping the…

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District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood ruled on Saturday that funds from the Archdiocese of Agaña’s Catholic parishes and schools could be used to help pay survivors of sexual abuse.

In January 2019, the Archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy to allow it to restructure its finances to pay the plaintiffs in about 202 clergy sex abuse claims.

The church listed $22.96 million in assets, with $45.66 million in liabilities, according to PDN news files.

Attorney Edwin Caldie, who represented some of the survivors and other creditors, said that the parties currently are trying to agree on a settlement between what the claimants are asking and what the church can pay without losing its entire community.

“It’s complicated. The church chose to file for bankruptcy and so the bankruptcy code, all of the laws, federal laws, relating to bankruptcy, they’ll guide and they’ll help us figure out…

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The new Archbishop of Glasgow yesterday said the Catholic Church should feel ashamed over the child abuse scandal while praising survivors for speaking out.

William Nolan also insisted the Church must “change our ways to ensure what happened in the past does not happen again”.

His comments came as he was installed as the new leader of Scotland’s largest Catholic community at a mass in the city’s St Andrew’s Cathedral. Pope Francis had nominated the former Bishop of Galloway for the role after the former archbishop, Philip Tartaglia, died following contracting Covid-19 last year.

As he was welcomed into his new role, Nolan spoke about “scandals” that have impacted the Church in recent years and “in particular the child abuse scandal”.

He praised those who had been abused and who had gone on to speak out for ­having “taken what happened in the dark and brought it to light”.

He…

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An extraordinary claim appeared in a column by Matthew Syed in the Sunday Times yesterday, namely that up to a million Italian children have been abused by Italian priests since 1950. No-one can fail to have been shocked by such a figure, but from where does it originate? The answer is that it comes from a member of ‘The Abuse Network’ which is calling on the Church in Italy to investigate clerical sex abuse as has happened recently in France and Germany. Speaking to The Times, Francesco Zanardi (pictured above), himself an abuse victim and member of ‘The Abuse Network’, said: “I believe the number of victims could be as high as a million here”.

But what does he base that figure on? What he has done is extrapolate from a number that appears in the recent French report that was commissioned by the French hierarchy.

Based on a survey, that…

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In this age of small-group ministries, most pastors would know how to handle a crisis that affected significant numbers of believers in their pews.

“If you had 1 in 4 members of your congregation actively battling cancer, or 1 in 4 members … experiencing being widowed or losing a spouse, chances are that you would have some level of intentional ministry to those individuals,” said Rachael Denhollander at a recent Trinity Forum event focusing on how churches respond to sexual abuse. “Maybe you would have a support group or a Bible study for them. You would have meal trains to help provide for their physical needs.”

But many sexual abuse survivors hesitate to speak out, she said, because churches act as if they don’t exist. Thus, they have little reason to believe the sins and crimes committed against them will be handled in a way that offers safety and healing.

…

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We must now accept that such evil is not an aberration but part of a duality central to institutional religion

The most dangerous moment in any scandal is when anger shades into indifference, when revelations that once had the power to shock become so normalised that they scarcely register. I wonder if we have reached such a tipping point in one of the most disturbing stories of our age: the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests.

If so, this should trouble us all.

On Wednesday a Vatican insider estimated that up to a million Italian children had been abused over seven decades. We do not know the true number because the clergy enjoy various immunities in Italy and the nation has never confronted, let alone fully investigated, the evil that has taken place within its borders. This should have led the news worldwide but scarcely merited a mention on…

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Religion should carry a health warning

I applaud Matthew Syed’s piece “A million children abused by Italian priests, and it barely makes the news” (Comment, last week). In my work as a psychotherapist, I witnessed the lifelong psychological damage experienced by survivors of abuse. It leads me to wonder: should all religious belief systems carry a mental health warning?
Tony Warren, Burgess Hill, West Sussex

Priests unfairly damned
The Catholic church is an easy target in countries with a long tradition of anti-Catholic bigotry such as Britain. A comprehensive survey of sexual abuse by priests in the US by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York found that about 4 per cent were accused (but not all found guilty). That means 96 per cent had no accusations against them. This is comparable with many other organisations and churches.
Professor John Loughlin, fellow, Blackfriars Hall, Oxford

Fallibility must be acknowledged
It is difficult…

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A German court on Friday convicted a Catholic priest of sexual abuse of children in cases that spanned many years and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

The Cologne state court also ordered the 70-year-old to pay three co-plaintiffs in the cases damages totaling 50,000 euros ($56,000), news agency dpa reported.

The priest was identified by local media only as Hans U.

According to the indictment, the case against the priest covered 118 counts and the youngest victim was a 9-year-old girl. The priest was taken into custody during the trial because more victims came forward and the court saw a danger of him reoffending.

The court heard that the suspect’s victims included a girl who complained of homesickness at a holiday camp and a girl to whom he was supposedly giving anger therapy.

The priest continued to have opportunities to be alone with children although the officials with…

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“We’re very let down by this open letter from Joe White,” said a 34-year-old Branson man who says he was abused by a former Kanakuk counselor now in state prison serving two life sentences.

Kanakuk camp near Branson went public late Friday with a new statement aiming to redefine its relationship with people who say they are survivors of sexual abuse that took place at the Christian summer camp.

For more than a decade, the camp has been under scrutiny for reports of sexual abuse. As the News-Leader reported in 2010, a charismatic former camp counselor, Peter Newman, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing boys and is now serving two life sentences in Missouri prisons, plus 30 years.

Eleven months ago, Kanakuk was again in the spotlight due to new reporting by journalists Nancy French and David French published by The Dispatch, a conservative-leaning news site. Much…

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Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez issued the following message to his diocese on Feb. 25 outlining an investigation of child sex abuse claims against a New Jersey lay employee who previously had served for 20 years at a parish in Philadelphia. The employee, Thomas Whittemore, was terminated from parish ministry this week as the two dioceses’ investigation continues.

My Siblings in Christ,

It grieves me to tell you that several months ago, we were contacted by someone who reported that he had been sexually abused as a child by Mr. Thomas Whittemore during the time Mr. Whittemore served as the director of music at St. Peter’s Church, Pine St., Philadelphia. Mr. Whittemore was employed by St. Peter’s from 1984 to 2004 and employed from 1980 to 1983 at All Saints, Wynnewood. At the time we received the report, Mr. Whittemore was employed by a parish in the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey.

We…

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The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee has offered a public apology and a confidential monetary settlement to sexual abuse survivor Jennifer Lyell, who was mischaracterized by the denomination’s in-house news service when she decided to go public with her story in March 2019.

The committee, which acts on behalf of the SBC between its annual national meetings, announced the resolution during their Tuesday meeting in Nashville, the latest chapter in a saga that has raised questions about the handling of sexual abuse in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. In addition to a public apology, Lyell also received a financial settlement of an undisclosed amount, according to Gene R. Besen, the committee’s interim legal counsel.

Lyell publicly disclosed she was a sexual abuse survivor after learning the man she accused of abuse, a former Southern Baptist seminary professor, had recently returned to ministry. She said she came forward with her story…

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A youth church leader in north Alabama has been arrested after authorities said she sexually abused a 15-year-old high school student.

Allison Brianna Cookston Stone, 26, of Albertville, was arrested Wednesday and charged with second-degree sodomy and second-degree sexual abuse, Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims said.

Stone is a youth leader at the Church of God of Union Assembly in Albertville, Sims told reporters Thursday.

“That’s a position of trust in our community,” the sheriff said, according to al.com.

Stone was released after posting $60,000 bond. It was unknown if she has an attorney who could comment on her behalf.

The alleged victim in the case was identified as a teenaged boy from Boaz High School.

Authorities believe the boy’s parents “were unaware of the sexual nature” of the relationship between him and Stone, Sims said. The alleged abuse had been going on “for some time,”…

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One of the oldest Roman Catholic dioceses in the U.S. is suing four insurance companies over claims that they haven’t fulfilled contracts to provide liability coverage for sexual abuse complaints.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe filed the lawsuit this week as it deals with a bankruptcy case involving more than 400 people who allege they were victims of clergy sexual abuse. Some of the claims date back decades.

The archdiocese hopes to raise enough money, including through insurance payouts, to settle the bankruptcy case, which has stretched over more than three years and is on its third mediator.

At least one attorney sees the archdiocese’s lawsuit as a step toward a resolution in the case, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

The defendants named in the lawsuit are Great American Insurance Co., Arrowood Indemnity Co., St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. and United States Fire Insurance Co. Representatives of…

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Michael Vanderburgh is a lot of things. He is a husband, and a father. He’s a college graduate, and a former cop. He is the executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Dayton, Ohio. He is also a survivor of clerical sexual abuse when he was a child. 

Like a lot of survivors of abuse, Michael never told anyone what he went through at the hands of a priest and family friend. He first came forward in the aftermath of the Spotlight scandals which rocked the Church in the early 2000s.

Coming forward meant that Michael, like a lot of victim-survivors, had to come to terms with what he’d been through all over again. 

Michael thought the process of coming forward ended with his home Archdiocese of Cincinnati offering him $21,000 in compensation, while acknowledging that “no amount of money can sufficiently compensate a victim of…

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A German Catholic priest was sentenced to 12 years in prison for child sexual abuse, a German court said on Friday, the latest in a string of cases that have shaken the German Catholic Church.

The Cologne district court found the man, identified in court documents as Hans Ue., guilty in a total of 110 cases between 1993 and 2018, including 23 cases of serious sexual abuse of children.

The court ordered the defendant to pay compensation to three of the nine plaintiffs for their pain and suffering.

German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeiting said the youngest victim was 9 years old at the time of the crime, adding that three plaintiffs were nieces of the 70-year-old priest.

Court hearings in the case, underway since November last year, revealed additional potential victims and led to the priest’s detention in January, the Cologne court said.

The lawsuit is the latest case in a…

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A long-awaited public apology is to be offered by five Stormont ministers to victims of historical institutional abuse.

The compromise move comes as the offices of the First and deputy First Minister remain empty following the resignation of Paul Givan, which also forced Michelle O’Neill out of the role.

The public apology was recommended in the final report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI), which was published five years ago.

Mr Givan and Ms O’Neill announced last month that the apology would be given in Parliament Buildings in Stormont on behalf of the powersharing executive on March 11.

However, since then the DUP has resigned the first minister role, in protest at the workings of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol, leading to doubt over whether the apology would go ahead.

It was confirmed on Thursday morning that the public apology will be offered by ministers Michelle McIlveen, Conor Murphy, Nichola…

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Survivors are calling for the remains of a Catholic priest to be exhumed from church grounds after they allege he sexually abused children.

The First Nation of Kahnawake south of Montreal will vote next month in a referendum on whether the remains of a Jesuit priest alleged to have committed sexual abuse should be exhumed and removed from the community.

Exhumation “was an idea proposed by community members, alleged victims and supporters,” Tonya Perron, one of the Mohawk Council’s elected chiefs, said in an interview this week.

“They proposed having him removed from the territory, and it started a dialogue in the community about his remains being here in the first place. We don’t have any precedent to go by.”

After the discovery last summer of what are believed to be 215 unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., several Kahnawake residents came forward with allegations that…

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Senators Melissa Agard (D-Madison) and Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee), joined by Rep. Kristina Shelton (D-Green Bay), on Thursday, Feb. 24 released LRB-6112.

The bill requires members of clergy, like other professionals interacting with children, to report all instances of child abuse and neglect, including sexual abuse, of which they become aware in their professional capacity.

Peter Isley, Program Director of Nate’s Mission, joined Agard in support of the bill. Nate’s Mission is committed to “dismantling the structural mechanisms that allow abuse” within churches.

Agard and Isley released the following statements:

Agard: “For far too long, secrecy has clouded justice and healing for victims. It is time to put an end to keeping the known abuse of children in the shadows. This bill will hold accountable clergy and faith leaders who sexually abuse children, as well as those who have worked to hide this abuse. These are heinous crimes and an abuse…

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A disclosure by the Diocese of Bridgeport about Fr. George Maslar has us infuriated, but not surprised. A brave survivor, identified only as “Jane Doe,’” has stepped up and shared publicly about the abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of Fr. Maslar. The woman received a settlement from the Diocese last year, after notifying Church officials in Bridgeport in 2017 that she was assaulted by the priest in 1971 when she was just 15 years of age. She met the cleric when both attended prayer meetings at the Cathedral of Saint Augustine in Bridgeport.

The Diocese of Bridgeport said in response to the woman’s public disclosure of the abuse, “It is important to note that when the Diocese first became aware of the allegations in November 2017, it immediately reported them to the Connecticut State Department of Children and Family, Child Abuse and…

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Today’s sentencing of Fr. Jean Claude Jean-Philippe, CM,  a member of the Vincentian religious order, hopefully will bring closure to his victim, and we pray that she and her family, hurt by this betrayal of trust, can begin to heal. The Archdiocese of Miami deeply regrets the harm perpetrated by this priest which extends not only to the survivor of this assault and her family but to the parishioners, to priests of integrity, and to the entire community of faith. 

It is over twenty years since the leaders of the United States Catholic Church established a charter to protect children and those who are vulnerable. One hundred ninety-five dioceses in the country now have very clear and mandatory policies along with educational tools to maintain the safety of children and vulnerable adults. 

Along with proactive directives, the Archdiocese of Miami’s policy dictates immediately reporting allegations of abuse by clergy or…

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The woman claims she was abused by a priest while attending a church-run school in 1970

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic subject matter that may be upsetting to some

An Okanagan Indian Band member has sued the Catholic Church, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a priest more than 50 years ago at a Vernon elementary school that was run by the church.

The woman filed a statement of claim Feb. 22 in B.C. Supreme Court against the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kamloops. According to the court documents, the woman does not know the identity of the priest who assaulted her but claims the diocese does. The priest is listed as defendant John Doe.

The statement of claim states that the woman attended St. James Catholic School from 1968 to 1972. She was allegedly molested in 1970.

“In or around the spring of 1970, when the…

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A federal judge found sufficient claims of fraud allegations exist against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg and ruled that attorneys representing sexual abuse survivors can seek a judgment to have an estimated $95 million in assets the Diocese transferred behind two different trusts moved to its bankruptcy estate.

According to the Feb. 17 ruling by Chief Bankruptcy Judge Henry W. Van Eck, the assets include $50 million in real estate like the Diocesan Campus, bishop’s residence and a retirement home for priests, all in Harrisburg, along with eight cemeteries including All Saints Cemetery in Elysburg and seven high schools including Our Lady of Lourdes Regional in Coal Township.

Also at risk of being returned to the bankruptcy estate is $45 million in furniture and appliances, cash and securities, religious artifacts and objects, vehicles, notes, records and books, according to filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District…

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The woman was a student at St. James School from 1968 to 1972 and was allegedly molested in 1970

Another lawsuit alleging sexual abuse has been filed against St. James Catholic Church in Vernon.

A member of the Okanagan Indian Band is claiming she was sexually abused at a church-run elementary school in Vernon when she was a child.

The woman filed a claim in B.C. Supreme Court Feb. 22 against the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kamloops and John Doe.

Court document state the woman does not know the name of the priest who allegedly molested her, but claims his identity is known by the diocese.about:blank

According to court documents, the woman was a student at St. James School from 1968 to 1972 and was allegedly molested in 1970.

“In or around the spring of 1970, when the plaintiff was seven years old…

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he Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville and its bishop have been named in a lawsuit alleging that sexual abuse allegations against a former employee weren’t investigated properly.

The complaint filed Tuesday in Knox County Circuit Court details multiple allegations of sexual harassment and abuse that a then-employee of The Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville lodged against a then-assistant to Bishop Knoxville Bishop Richard Stika, news outlets reported.

The lawsuit claims that Stika overreached in his response to the abuse complaint. It says the diocese hired an outside consultant to investigate the claims, but the bishop replaced the initial investigator with someone who only interviewed the former assistant and not the employee who made the allegation, according to the lawsuit.

Stika was notified Tuesday evening of the lawsuit and attorneys are reviewing the claims, diocesan spokesperson Jim Wogan said in a statement.

“The diocese expects the…

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The number of 300,000+ mentioned in a 2021 report, now seems uncertain and is hotly debated. But the problems for the Catholic Church remains huge.

In October 2021, the Commission indépendante sur les abus sexuels dans l’Église (CIASE, Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the [Catholic] Church) released its report. The CIASE studied sexual abuse in a Catholic context rather than sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy only, as it also included abuse perpetrated by laypersons associated with Catholic institutions. Although the detail was overlooked by some foreign media, the CIASE was “independent” in the sense that the Catholic Church did not control its work and results, but it was appointed and funded by the French Catholic Bishops, not by the government or by any other secular institution.

The report concluded that between 1950 and 2020 the victims of sexual abuse in a Catholic context in France had been 330,000, of…

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Reports of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church have become so routine — and the scale of victimization and coverup so vast — that the effect is to dull the impact of each new revelation. It appears that over the course of decades, practically every higher-up in the institution knew, or should have known, what was going on.

Yet even the apparent sameness of so many disclosures and admissions, over so many years, should not blunt the importance of a recent report that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, as archbishop of the German cities of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982, failed to discipline abusive priests and enabled them to maintain their roles in ministry.

Similar allegations have been leveled, and often documented, regarding many bishops. But the German report, two years in the making, implicates a future pope, who at the time was known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

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Ellen Gable Hrkach explains how she has kept her faith even after learning that her father was a victim of abuse by a priest.

He heals the brokenhearted,  and binds up their wounds. (Psalm 147:3, Revised Catholic Edition)

 Almost four years ago, the revelations about the now-defrocked Theodore McCarrick and the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report were disturbing, especially to the most devout Catholics. Since then, many members of the Church have left in disgust. 

In the years that followed, revelations that homosexual networks exist within seminaries and dioceses have caused some Catholics to have a crisis of faith. Numerous seminarians have tried to alert higher-up prelates to no avail. It’s unacceptable that a bishop – or as in the case of McCarrick, a cardinal – would not only be complicit but also participate in the abuse. 

For every abuse reported, there are likely hundreds, perhaps thousands over the past 70-plus…

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An unnamed plaintiff is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville and its bishop, alleging the diocese did not properly investigate sexual abuse allegations against a former employee.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in Knox County Circuit Court, outlines in vivid detail several instances of sexual harassment and abuse the plaintiff said he suffered. It also makes several allegations about the bishop overreaching in an investigation of abuse claims, using information reported last year by a news agency. 

The plaintiff didn’t learn of the diocese’s “casually connected and conspiratorial efforts to conceal their involvement in his sexual abuse” until The Pillar, a Catholic news agency, published articles on the diocese early last year, the lawsuit alleges. 

Diocesan attorneys are currently reviewing the claims after Knoxville Bishop Richard Stika received notification of the lawsuit on Tuesday evening, diocesan spokesperson Jim Wogan said in a statement Wednesday.

 “The diocese expects the process to be fair and thorough…

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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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[VIDEO]

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.”

[VIDEO]

 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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