ABUSE TRACKER

Members of the Boston College community sent complaints beginning in the 1997-98 academic year to University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., accusing Rev. Ted Dziak, S.J., a Jesuit at BC from 1990 to 1998, of inappropriate conduct with students. 

Dziak—who went on to work at Jesuit schools in Jamaica, New Orleans, and New York—was accused last week of raping a postgraduate volunteer in Belize in 2004, according to nola.com.

In one instance, members of the chaplaincy—which is now Campus Ministry—submitted a letter to Leahy during the 1997-98 academic year containing student complaints about Dziak’s troublesome behavior.

In the spring of 1998, Dziak announced he would be leaving the University for a position at a school in Jamaica. 

Matt Stautberg, BC ’99, said he met with Leahy in the summer of 1998, while Dziak was on his way out of BC, to discuss the Ignacio Volunteers program, which Dziak had been  View Cache

The Legion of Christ, a Roman Catholic order disgraced by sexual abuse committed by its founder and other clergy, is facing new allegations of molestation of children in lawsuits filed this month in Connecticut, where it is based.

Five men and a woman sued the order in federal court on April 14 and 15, saying they were victims of sexual crimes when they attended schools run by the Legion of Christ in New Hampshire and Rhode Island in the 1990s when they were children.

A spokesperson for the order said Monday that it was reviewing the complaints.

“The Legionaries of Christ respect everyone who comes forth with these types of allegations and are committed to creating and maintaining a safe environment for all children and all people who interact with its members and are involved in its ministries,” spokesperson Gail Gore said.

The five men allege they were fondled and…

View Cache

Los obispos revelan las denuncias llegadas al Vaticano de España desde 2001, que elevan la contabilidad de EL PAÍS al menos hasta 364 clérigos acusados y 872 víctimas

Los obispos españoles han revelado por primera vez una cifra de las denuncias de casos de pederastia en la Iglesia que conocen: afectan a 220 sacerdotes en los últimos 20 años, desde que el Vaticano ordenó en 2001 centralizar en la Congregación de Doctrina de la Fe, su organismo disciplinario, todas las que llegaban a las diócesis. Los datos, de hecho, los solicitó hace varias semanas la jerarquía eclesiástica a Roma. La Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE) sigue sin aportar datos internos ni de las propias diócesis. Tampoco de las denuncias llegadas a las oficinas de atención a las víctimas que abrió cada obispado hace un año por orden del Papa. “Hoy por hoy, la Conferencia Episcopal no tiene intención de abrir una…

View Cache

In a first public attempt to put numbers to instances of child sex abuse by the country’s Catholic clergy, Spain’s Episcopal Conference revealed Friday that 220 cases were officially reported to the Vatican over the past two decades.

The conference, which is the top governing body of Spain’s Catholic Church, said Spanish bishops submitted 76 allegations against regular priests and 144 against members of specific religious orders to the Vatican’s office that handles sex abuse cases since 2001.

The figures didn’t include allegations against non-clergy members of the church or staff working in the numerous schools run by religious orders. And the number didn’t include the number of allegations the bishops actually received, just the number of cases that they determined were worth reporting to the Vatican, as required by a 2001 Holy See rule.

Officials said that 151 of the 220 cases have already been closed and 69 of…

View Cache

Catholic League President Bill Donohue sent this letter to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul on his planned investigation of priestly sexual abuse:

Dear Attorney General Kaul:

News stories say you are about to launch an investigation into sexual abuse in the five dioceses of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin. Your office apparently did not respond when asked if others would be probed.

As president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, I am well aware of this problem in the Catholic Church. I am also a sociologist who has authored a book on this subject, to be published later this year. I am not sure how much you know about this issue, but you should know that almost all the molesting priests (who comprised a very small portion of the clergy) are either dead or no longer in ministry.

In the course of my research, I found that there is…

View Cache

Have you ever been sexually abused? Were you sexually abused as a child? I realize that those are fairly direct and personal questions.

For me the answers to those questions are now, “yes,” and “yes.”

If you would have asked me those questions not much more than a few years ago, I probably would have answered “no” and “no.”

Times change, people change.

While my father and mother were alive, I told myself there is no need to publicly tell anybody about the abuse I suffered. My father was a friend of my abuser. They both belonged to the same Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Chambersburg. They both shared an affinity for sailing, especially in the Caribbean. They were both active members of the same church, the Presbyterian Church of the Falling Spring, which was formed by the founder of Chambersburg, Benjamin Chambers. The abuser and my father were…

View Cache

The Ottawa Catholic School Board is launching a review of how it handled previous allegations brought forward to school administrators concerning a longtime teacher at St. Matthew High School in Orleans.

Last Tuesday, Ottawa police charged Rick Watkins, 57, of Ottawa with three counts of sexual assault, three counts of sexual interference and three counts of sexual exploitation of a young person. Watkins is also known as Rick Despatie.

None of the allegations have been tested in court.

“We heard from some former students and parents that allegations had been brought forward to the previous school administration, yet they did not act on these concerns,” said Director of Education Thomas D’Amico in a letter to parents, guardians and students of the school.

“Our Human Resources department staff has begun a review to determine if we failed to address these concerns. The third-party College of Teachers will also look at all…

View Cache

I received a note from Peter Steinfels on Friday, regarding my column that day about the effort by some at St. Sabina Parish in Chicago to obstruct an investigation into charges of sexual abuse of a minor made against their longtime pastor, Fr. Michael Pfleger. In that column, I referred to Steinfels’ magisterial takedown of the Pennsylvania grand jury report. Steinfels asked me to publish this clarification, which I most happily do:

Despite many years in the media, I find it always a bit startling to come across my name in someone else’s writing. Of course it is pleasing if that occurs in so excellent a place as the “Distinctly Catholic” column by Michael Sean Winters. In writing about the sex abuse investigation roiling St. Sabina’s parish in Chicago (April 23), Winters mentioned my “exhaustive examination” of the Pennsylvania grand jury report and my finding that the report tried to…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe is expected to sell off hundreds of properties by this summer in order to fund settlements of sex abuse lawsuits.

The archdiocese, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, plans to part with more than 700 properties, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Sunday.

Nearly 400 claims of abuse, some of which allegedly occurred decades ago, have been filed.

According to court records, the archdiocese in the last several months has requested a bankruptcy judge grant a request to sell properties in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Raton, Sandia Park and Edgewood. Those sales alone reaped $7.5 million. Most of it stemmed from selling off a large part of the Carmelite Monastery Complex in Santa Fe.

The documents also indicate church officials have hired an auctioneer firm out of Florida to oversee the sale of 732 properties by July 21. A lot of the properties are…

View Cache

Catholic Church officials in Spain have publicly admitted to 220 cases of abuse over the past two decades. We believe that these cherry-picked numbers barely scratch the surface of abuse in Spain. We are confident that, if the Spanish federal government would mandate a no holds barred investigation into abuse – similar to inquiries that have taken place in Australia or New Zealand – the numbers provided by the Spanish Church would be shown to be only the tip of the iceberg.

The abuse rate in countries that have undertaken secular investigations ranges from 8% to 10% and each abuser averages between 10 and 20 victims. That means that, of the 31,000 clerics that the Spanish bishops say worked in their country since 2001, it is more likely that about 3,100 clerics have abused somewhere between 31,000 and 62,000 children. As shocking as those numbers seem,…

View Cache

Fr. Joseph Edward Bradley, a priest of the Diocese of Owensboro, has been reinstated by the Vatican.

On March 1, 2019, Fr. Bradley was temporarily suspended from public ministry by Bishop William F. Medley following a recommendation by the Diocesan Review Board that an allegation of the sexual abuse of a minor had been found credible.

Officials say a second allegation came forth with both dating from the 1980s when Fr. Bradley was Dean of Students and then Principal of Owensboro Catholic High School.

On April 25, 2019, The Diocesan Review Board recommended to Bishop Medley that the allegations be deemed substantiated.

Bishop Medley accepted the Diocesan Review Board’s counsel and submitted a report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, recommending that Fr. Bradley’s temporary suspension from public ministry be made permanent.

Fr. Bradley, with his canonical counsel, filed an appeal of this decision…

View Cache

When Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was falsely accused of sexual abuse in 1993, Chicago attorney James A. Serritella, led the successful defense of the popular archbishop

More than a decade earlier, Serritella was on the legal team that garnered a victory for the Roman Catholic Church in a U.S. Supreme Court case,involving whether teachers in schools run by a church who teach both religious and secular subjects are within the jurisdiction granted by the National Labor Relations Act.

Serritella, who was in his 50th year as principal outside counsel for the Archdiocese of Chicago and was known as the draftsman of modern-day nationwide policies to combat child sex abuse, died of complications from heart disease on April 23. He was 78.

“Jim worked with four cardinals over the years, helping navigate the archdiocese through many changes and challenges,” Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said in a Monday statement.

“Working…

View Cache

Eight of the ‘credibly accused’ priests or other religious listed on the website of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe worked at St. Therese in Albuquerque. Now, this poor parish, devastated by the effects of these unconscionable assignments over which it had no control, is being asked to contribute to the Archdiocese’s universal settlement in its Chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganization. We hope that the faithful who attend this church begin to speak up and ask questions about what the Archdiocese has done to prevent this from happening again.

While this parish and so many others grapple with the effects of child sex abuse within their faith community, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe is focused on the financials. We believe that victims have long held the true liability of the horrific crimes done to them, the accountability and responsibility must come from the institution and…

View Cache

April 28 – May 1, 2021

International Conference

Online 

“For more than thirty years, the Catholic Church has been going through a crisis that has caused deep wounds and painfully torn the fabric of the Church. The sexual abuse of thousands of children in the heart of the Church is an unbearable suffering and an immense scandal. The Centre for Safeguarding Minors and Vulnerable Persons at Saint Paul University in Ottawa is organizing a three-day conference in which international witnesses and experts who have lived through this crisis will share their experiences and findings. This is a unique opportunity offered to listen, understand and explore new paths of reconstruction and hope.”

Fee: Regular 50$ / Students 10$

Wednesday April 28 2:30pm – 4pm (EST)

Massimo Faglioli: Did the Church protect abusers?

Dr. Massimo Faggioli is full professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia). His books and articles have been…

View Cache

A notice from the Diocese of Trenton

A civil lawsuit has been filed against the Diocese of Trenton alleging the sexual abuse of a minor in 1989-90 by Rev. Joseph Farrell, currently pastor of St. Isidore the Farmer Parish in New Egypt. The abuse was alleged to have taken place during Father Farrell’s ministry in Our Lady of Perpetual Help-St. Agnes Parish in Atlantic Highlands. A report was filed immediately by the Diocese with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Diocese has pledged its full cooperation to law enforcement.  Father Farrell has been placed on leave by the Diocese and an investigation into the credibility of the allegation will be pursued.

Announcements were made at both Our Lady of Perpetual Help-St. Agnes Parish and St. Isidore the Farmer Parish at weekend Masses April 10 and 11. The Diocese requests prayers for all involved in this painful and difficult matter and,…

View Cache

A Catholic priest in Atlantic Highlands stands accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed by a man who claims the priest repeatedly molested him decades ago when he was 13 or 14 years old.

Rev. Joseph Farrell, now a pastor at St. Isidore the Farmer Parish in New Egypt, was put on leave by the Diocese of Trenton after the 44-year-old man filed suit. NJ Advance Media is not disclosing the plaintiff’s name since his lawsuit involves claims of sexual abuse.

“A report was filed immediately by the Diocese with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Diocese has pledged its full cooperation to law enforcement,” the Diocese of Trenton said in a statement.

The lawsuit says Farrell began to groom him for abuse while he was a student at the now-closed St. Agnes Catholic School in Atlantic Highlands around 1989 or…

View Cache

[VIDEO]

Protesters formed outside St. Agnes Cathedral Sunday to demand the Diocese of Rockville Centre to release the names of clergymen accused of sexually abusing children, teens, and vulnerable adults.

After the diocese filed for bankruptcy to pay damages to abuse survivors, it named more than 100 priests and deacons that have been accused of sexual abuse in accordance with the court’s ruling.

However, victims and their advocates say the list fails to include more than 40 prominent clergymen.

Harold Siering, of Massapequa Park, says he was abused hundreds of times by a clergy member on Long Island, and he wants victims to file lawsuits against the diocese about the alleged abuse before a court deadline of Aug. 14.

“We continue to protest because I want to let the whole world know that there are survivors out there that can help other survivors. We have a date coming up of Aug. 14 this year…

View Cache

The Wisconsin Attorney General is launching an investigation into Clergy abuse in Catholic Churches.

Last January the Diocese of Lacrosse released a list of 25 Clergy that were allegedly accused of child sexual abuse. Now, Attorney General Kaul is stepping in to find out just how many Clergy have assaulted children in the past.

Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), released a statement saying they are excited to hear of Kaul’s plans. In their release they said they are hoping for an in depth investigation that includes warrants, subpoenas, and a confidential hotline for victims.

AG Kaul is expected to make an official announcement tomorrow but the Diocese of La Crosse released a statement saying:

“The Diocese of Lacrosse is awaiting the details concerning the Attorney General’s inquiry so we might make an informed response. We will continue to pray for abuse survivors, assists in the healing process,…

View Cache

The pastor of Christ the King Parish in Beverly has been asked to step aside amid allegations that he sexually assaulted a minor decades ago.

Blaise Cardinal Cupich issued a letter to members of the Christ the King Parish, 9235 S. Hamilton Ave., and its school about the Rev. Lawrence Sullivan. Cupich wrote that the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Child Abuse Investigations and Review learned of a report that Sullivan sexually assaulted a minor 36 years ago when he was 18.

Cupich has asked Sullivan to step aside while the allegation is investigated, emphasizing that the allegation has not been proven true or false and guilt or innocence should not be assumed.

The Rev. James Mazydlo, pastor of St. Walter Parish, will serve as the temporary administrator for Christ the King.

The allegation against Sullivan was also reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the…

View Cache

Dear members of the Christ the King Parish and School communities,

I write to share some difficult news about your pastor, Father Lawrence Sullivan. The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review learned this week of a report alleging that Father Sullivan sexually assaulted a minor thirty-six years ago when he was eighteen years old. In keeping with our child protection policies, I have asked Father Sullivan to step aside from ministry while this allegation is investigated. Allegations are claims that have not been proven as true or false. Therefore, guilt or innocence should not be assumed.

Father Sullivan has agreed to cooperate fully with my request and will live away from the parish. Father James Mezydlo will serve as the temporary administrator of Christ the King Parish and will attend to the needs of the parish and school community. Father Mezydlo, the Pastor of St. Walter…

View Cache

The pastor at Christ the King parish on Chicago’s Southwest Side was asked to step aside following a report alleging he sexually assaulted a minor 36 years ago when he was 18, according to a letter Wednesday from Cardinal Blase Cupich.

In the letter to parish families, Cupich said that the Rev. Larry Sullivan will live away from the parish while the allegation is investigated and that the Rev. James Mezydlo, pastor of St. Walter Church, will take over Sullivan’s duties at the parish and school.

Sullivan, in a letter emailed to Christ the King parishioners Monday, said he became aware of an accusation against him that had been posted on social media.

He wrote the incident occurred in 1984 and while he was at a fast-food restaurant “I made unwelcome verbal comments to a female employee that upset her to the extent that her parents and the police were…

View Cache

Dear Parishioners,

I am aware of an accusation against me that has been posted on social media regarding an
incident that occurred in 1984 when I was 18 years old and had just completed high school. I
do recall the night described: I was at a fast-food restaurant and I made unwelcome verbal
comments to a female employee that upset her to the extent that her parents and the police
were contacted. There was no physical interaction between me and the young woman. I was
in the restaurant and spoke to the police, and I left the restaurant without any further police
action.

I was then, and am now, ashamed and deeply sorry that my words caused pain and hardship
to her.

I want to be clear that these allegations were brought to my attention after having been
presented on social media and I have not been formally advised that any complaint has been
made to the Archdiocese. Nevertheless, I have reported…

View Cache

A Chicago pastor has stepped away from his parish this week after sexual assault allegations were made against him from 1984.

Fr. Larry Sullivan, pastor at Christ the King Church, has been accused of attacking and attempting to sexually assault a woman right before he entered seminary.

The allegations were raised in a Tik Tok video, in which a woman says that she was working at a restaurant in 1984, when Sullivan and another man followed her into an alley, ABC 7 reported.

“They attacked me and their intent was to sexually assault me. I fought them off, the police were called, my parents came [and] we found out that one of them was leaving for seminary the next day to become a Catholic priest,” the woman said.

Sullivan responded to the allegation in a letter to his parishioners.

“I am aware of an accusation against me that has been posted…

View Cache

The woman recently made the allegations in a TikTok video, saying the Rev. Larry Sullivan — then an 18-year-old seminary student —attacked her in an alley outside where she worked. She said she was 17.

The pastor at Christ the King parish in Beverly is stepping aside while the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago investigates allegations that he assaulted a restaurant worker about 37 years ago, on the night before he was to leave for the seminary.

The woman recently made the allegations in a TikTok video, saying the Rev. Larry Sullivan and another person followed her into an alley while she took out the garbage near closing time. She said she was 17.

“They attacked me and their intent was to sexually assault me. I fought them off, the police were called, my parents came [and] we found out that one of them was leaving for seminary…

View Cache

The majority of U.S. bishops in a recent survey were at best “uneasy” with the second Catholic president in U.S. history, said Catholic analyst Francis Maier, yet Joe Biden’s presidency could in an unexpected way be good news for the Catholic Church.

Maier, a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), spoke at the John F. Scarpa Conference on Law, Politics, and Culture at Villanova University on April 23.

“Over the past six months,” he said, “I’ve done confidential interviews with 29 bishops about the future of the Church for a project I’m pursuing through Notre Dame’s Constitutional Studies program. Twenty-eight of those men were American. These are mainstream guys. No cranks and no outliers. They come from very different backgrounds. They serve in a wide variety of pastoral conditions, urban and rural. And they lead dioceses in every region of the country, in 20 different states.” 

…

View Cache

Twice in the past two years, a Catholic parish in Pierce County has found itself on a list of sin, scandal and modest compensation for great pain. It’s a list that no church wants to show up on.

Credible allegations of sexual abuse against two former priests led to financial settlements between abuse survivors and the Archdiocese of Seattle. The two served at All Saints Parish in Puyallup within a decade of each other. Both were accused of violating their sacred trust while assigned to the parish on 3rd Street Southwest.

And both men, now dead, won’t see the smidgen of accountability that’s being extracted a half century later.

The latest settlement involves William O’Brien, who began his priesthood in Seattle in 1925 and finished it in Puyallup 45 years later. His longest assignment was at All Saints from 1949 until he died in 1970. According to O’Brien’s unidentified accuser…

View Cache

Pope Francis on Sunday gave the Catholic church nine new priests, encouraging them in an ordination ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica to be humble and compassionate and to stay close to the rank-and-file faithful, whose trust in clergy has been sorely tested by decades of sex abuse scandals.

Professing obedience to the pontiff during the Mass on Sunday were six men from Italy and one each from Romania, Colombia and Brazil. The men removed their masks, part of COVID-19 safety protocols, when they knelt before Francis and he lay his hands on their head as part of the ordination ritual. At another point of the ceremony, the nine lay prostrated on a carpet in front of the basilica’s central altar in a sign of obedience, humility and giving of oneself.

Shortages of locally ordained seminarians have in recent decades seen priests be transferred to predominantly Catholic countries like Italy from…

View Cache

Sex abuse victims have urged the German president not to award an Order of Merit — equal to a knighthood — to Munich’s bishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

Catholic victims of sex abuse urged German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Saturday not to give one of the country’s top honors to Cardinal Reinhard Marx. 

The bishop of Munich served as chair of Germany’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference until 2020. Although outspoken for victims in recent years, Marx also stands accused of concealing cases, including a priest’s misuse of a woman employee and forcing her to abort a pregnancy in 1989.

He is now expected to receive Germany’s top Order of Merit with Star — what in Anglo-Saxon countries would be a knighthood — from Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Victims’ representative threatens to give back his own medal

A group of sex abuse victims say that honoring Marx in this way would render their efforts to shed light on church cover-ups “valueless” and…

View Cache

As part of its bankruptcy court filings, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, which oversees parishes across Long Island, has released a list of over 100 clergy accused of sexual abuse while serving in the diocese, including some who had not previously been identified. Eleven of the clergy on the list served on the South Fork from the late-1950s through as recently as 2000.

The list names priests who served at Most Holy Trinity in East Hampton, St. Andrew in Sag Harbor, St. Therese of Lisieux in Montauk, Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Southampton, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary in Bridgehampton, and the Villa Maria convent in Water Mill.

All 101 of them are men against whom a diocesan review board has determined that the allegations of abuse were credible, those “against whom an allegation of abuse was made” through an Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program,…

View Cache

The late Bishop John McGann and Msgr. Alan Placa had been prominent figures in the Catholic Church on Long Island, which is grappling with a still-unraveling sexual abuse scandal.

But neither is on a list of 101 clergy members accused of sexual abuse of minors that the diocese recently released, even though related lawsuits have been filed against both, according to attorneys for alleged abuse victims. The attorneys called the omission of the two, who held powerful posts in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, an example of what they claim is a continuing cover-up of wrongdoing in the church.

“Clearly, the Diocese of Rockville Centre should have listed Bishop McGann as being accused of sexual abuse on multiple occasions if it really cared about safety, accountability, healing and transparency,” said Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based lawyer who has filed three civil complaints on behalf of alleged sexual abuse victims of McGann.

…

View Cache

St. Therese Catholic Parish in Albuquerque’s North Valley was once the largest in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, with a holy shrine and tiled-roof church considered one of the finest ecclesiastical buildings in New Mexico.

These days, the parish on North Fourth is one of the smallest and struggles to make ends meet. It is behind on its property insurance and in debt to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, owing more than a year’s worth of Sunday collection plate assessments, according to its pastor.

Its usual fundraising efforts crippled by the COVID-19 virus, the parish has taken to holding green chile roasting events to pay bills.

But sacrifice it will, as one of more than 90 parishes grappling with the archdiocese’s request to help pay a universal settlement in its Chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganization.

“We have very minuscule savings at the Archdiocese Savings and Loan Program at the Catholic Center…

View Cache

St. Therese Catholic parish in Albuquerque knows too well the scourge of clergy sexual abuse.

Eight of the 79 priests and other clergy members on the archdiocese list of those “credibly accused” of molesting children worked at the North Valley parish over a 32-year period. The first priest was assigned in 1959, five years after the current church was built.

The eight included Jason Sigler, one of the few priests who worked in New Mexico who were criminally charged and who went to prison after being convicted of sexually abusing a minor.

Across the U.S., many survivors of clergy abuse served as altar boys in the church or belonged to parish youth groups when they were molested.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s website says it has adopted a “zero-tolerance” policy on clergy sexual abuse, and says there have been no substantiated cases involving diocesan priests since 2005.

Court records in…

View Cache

The Chennai police have arrested the priest of a church and three other relatives of a minor girl who was allegedly sexually abused by them. The arrests came almost 10 days after her mother, a playback singer, lodged a complaint.

Apart from the priest Henri (40), those arrested included the singer’s sister, the latter’s husband and the husband’s brother. While the police registered a case a week ago, the accused were picked up from a farmhouse in Tindivanam on Friday and remanded in judicial custody.

Police said that the singer left her daughter in her sister’s custody when the victim was just six as she had to relocate to Hyderabad. The girl, who is 15 years old now and studying at a private school, reportedly informed her mother recently about the abuse she was subjected to by her aunt, uncle and the priest Henri, when she was taken to the…

View Cache

Tireless work by the Michigan Attorney General’s clergy abuse investigation team has resulted in another successful plea agreement and will lead to prison for a former priest in the Upper Peninsula. 

Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal sexual conduct in Ontonagon County Thursday afternoon. 

As part of the offer, Jacobs was required to plead guilty to one count, and the highest charge, on each of the four cases he faced. This resulted in admission of guilt on three counts of CSC 1st degree and one count of CSC 2nd degree.  

Other aspects of the plea agreement include: 

• Jacobs will serve between eight and 15 years on each count, which will run concurrently; 
• Lifetime sex offender registration on the three counts of CSC 1st degree; 
• Tier II registration on the CSC 2nd degree charge; 
• All victims – those involved in the charged cases and those who came forward since – can speak at sentencing if they wish; 
• Sex offender counseling; and
• Lifetime electronic monitoring when released.  

“This plea agreement and subsequent prison time is the culmination of resolute work by our clergy abuse investigation…

View Cache

A former priest who left Michigan decades ago pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually abusing teens in the Upper Peninsula in the 1980s, the attorney general’s office said.

Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal sexual conduct in Ontonagon County and will serve at least eight years in prison before he’s eligible for parole, authorities said.

“This sentence will not erase the pain Mr. Jacobs inflicted on those who trusted him. But I hope our pursuit of justice can offer some sense of relief as their vulnerability led to this accountability,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

Jacobs is scheduled to make a similar plea deal in Dickinson County on May 3, Nessel said.

A message seeking comment from his attorney wasn’t immediately returned.

The Diocese of Marquette has said Jacobs was removed from ministry in 1988 and left the state. He was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when…

View Cache

A bill that could expand child sex abuse lawsuits in the state of Pennsylvania has received new support in the state legislature, signaling its possible passage after more than two years of unsuccessful efforts.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 951, lifts some sovereign immunity protections in child sex abuse cases for public schools and institutions. It creates a two-year window for lawsuits to be filed in old cases where the statute of limitations had already expired.

Survivors of abuse may sue their perpetrator or the institution that contributed to the abuse through negligence.

Democratic state Rep. Mark Rozzi, who says he was abused by a priest at age 13, introduced the bill. The state Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-3 on Wednesday to approve an amended form of the bill. Now that it has received new support, supporters are hopeful that the bill could pass the legislature.

The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Detroit will proceed with a “canonical disciplinary process” against a priest accused of the sexual abuse of a minor, after the Vatican declined to move forward with a canonical investigation. 

The priest, Fr. Eduard Perrone, was the pastor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Grotto) parish in Detroit. Perrone has not served in public ministry since 2019, after the accusation was made against him and the diocese conducted a preliminary investigation. He maintains his innocence. 

In an April 13 statement, the archdiocese explained that approximately two years ago, it began a canonical “preliminary investigation” of the allegations against the priest. After this review, the archdiocese forwarded the allegations to the Vatican. 

However, the archdiocese said that it could not take action in the case after the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) would not move forward with its investigation of Fr. Perrone. 

…

View Cache

The name the “Roger Kennedy Centre” has been removed from a hall at St Mary’s Catholic College, Gateshead, but the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Bill Wright, will not say why.

The diocesan refusal to explain its actions coincides with its call for public help – including through the Newcastle Herald – to plan a memorial to the victims and survivors of its sexually abusing clergy and teachers.

Monsignor Roger Kennedy, a long-serving priest at Gateshead, died in 1994.

Robert O’Toole, a co-founder of the Clergy Abused Network (CAN), said Kennedy stands accused of historical sexual abuse of both boys and girls.

“Monsignor Kennedy was at Muswellbrook, New Lambton, Kurri Kurri, Newcastle, Carrington and Gateshead,” Mr O’Toole said. “CAN is aware of allegations of abuse against Monsignor Kennedy in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.”

Mr O’Toole said he told Bishop Wright about the allegations in December.

Mr O’Toole said he told Bishop…

View Cache

[Photo above: Fr. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church in Chicago, is seen in this 2015 file photo. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago asked the priest to step aside from ministry Jan. 5, after the Archdiocese of Chicago received an allegation he sexually abused a minor over 40 years ago. (CNS / Jim Young, Reuters)]

The Catholic Church’s struggle to eradicate the cancer of clergy sex abuse is on trial today. The community at St. Sabina church in Chicago is trying to obstruct the investigation of their much-beloved pastor Fr. Michael Pfleger on charges he sexually molested minors, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Once again this week, there was an organized effort through the St. Sabina website to employ inappropriate and intimidating tactics to put pressure on the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Independent Review Board (IRB) as the case of Father Michael…

View Cache

Cardinal Blase Cupich has lashed out at “intimidating tactics” by supporters of the Rev. Michael Pfleger.

Days after Chicago’s cardinal lashed out at “intimidating tactics” by supporters of the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the current pastor at St. Sabina’s church said he has instructed parishioners to express themselves “respectfully.”

Last week, Cardinal Blase Cupich blasted attempts to influence an investigation into Pfleger as “offensive and an injustice,” citing a coordinated effort to “flood the archdiocese’s phone lines dedicated to receiving calls from victims and civil authorities.”

Magwaza, who is filling in for Pfleger during the investigation, said he received the cardinal’s letter on April 13 and has since been telling parishioners to vouch for Pfleger by “respectfully and peacefully asking [the review board] to expedite the investigation.”

The St. Sabina website’s homepage has a link to Cupich’s letter and a message directing parishioners to write directly to…

View Cache

Wisconsin authorities will launch an investigation into the state’s Catholic dioceses and religious orders to determine how many clergy members have sexually assaulted children over the years.  

Attorney General Josh Kaul notified the state’s five dioceses as well as separate orders of Catholic priests that his office will review sexual abuse allegations against clergy and other faith leaders, according to a letter obtained by USA Today Network-Wisconsin. Wisconsin is home to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and dioceses in Madison, Green Bay, La Crosse and Superior.

“I agree with the many survivors of clergy abuse, and those who support and have advocated for them, that a review by our office is necessary to provide accountability and, ultimately, healing,” Kaul wrote. “I hope you will welcome that review.”

Kaul, a Democrat in his first term, invited representatives for the dioceses and orders to a meeting Monday to discuss next steps and indicated…

View Cache

Geoff Drew accused of raping altar boy 30 years ago

Green Township — The trial of Rev. Geoff Drew is scheduled to begin Monday, nearly 21 months after Cincinnati police officers arrested the Catholic priest for raping an altar boy decades ago.

The victim was 10 when Drew began sexually assaulting the child, according to charging documents in the case.

Drew, 59, is charged with 9 counts of rape. He faces life in prison, if convicted.

Drew is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center on $5 million cash bond.

According to charging documents, Drew raped the boy from 1988 to 1991 at St. Jude Catholic Church and school in Green Township.

At that time, Drew was the St. Jude music minister.

He became an ordained Catholic priest in 2004.

Drew assaulted the child in his church office during and after school, according to charging documents.

“It’s the opinion…

View Cache

A former Upper Peninsula priest pleaded guilty today to four counts of criminal sexual conduct, which will result in the harshest prison sentence thus far in the Michigan Attorney General’s clergy abuse investigation.

Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty in Ontonagon County on Thursday, April 22, to three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, the attorney general’s office announced. He was facing four separate sexual abuse cases and his plea agreement required that he plead guilty to the highest charge in each case.

Jacobs faces a fifth case in neighboring Dickinson County where a similar plea agreement is planned; that hearing is set for May 3.

The charges in the five cases involved alleged sexual assaults between 1981 and 1984 in Ontonagon County and in early 1984 in Dickinson County when Jacobs worked for the Catholic Diocese of Marquette….

View Cache

Editor’s note: This article has been modified from its original published version.

Tim Ballard, a previous employee of Jesuit Volunteers International, who came forward with rape accusations against former Loyola vice president the Rev. Ted Dziak, S.J. in an article released by nola.com April 18, told The Maroon he will never forget a call he received when he was abroad in June of 2005.

The call was from Dziak, a Jesuit priest and the man Ballard had worked closely with while mentoring students in Belize as a part of the service of Jesuit volunteers, the same man Ballard is alleging raped him during their time in Belize between 2004 and 2006.

As Ballard overlooked the Belizean ocean view and paced along a veranda listening to Dziak on the phone, Dziak told him he’d be returning to Belize after he’d already completed his three month contract and Ballard thought he was done. As…

View Cache

For the past 14 years Bishop Frank J. Dewane has held a Mass to petition for the Lord to heal and protect the victims of clerical abuse while giving the grace for all to act in helping end this scourge.

“Whatever procedure, educational announcement, commitment we make, or administrative mechanisms we put forward are all powerless compared to the strength of our prayers through our gathering at this Holy Sacrifice, at this Table of the Lord, asking the Lord to heal the victims of abuse,” Bishop Dewane stated.

The Bishop celebrated Mass April 16, 2021 at Epiphany Cathedral in Venice with the specific intention of praying for victims of child abuse. The Mass takes place annually in April, which is National Child Abuse Awareness Prevention Month, as Bishop leads the faithful in praying for an end to child abuse, and specifically the clerical abuse which has been a scourge on…

View Cache

[Via the Catholic Standard, Archdiocese of Washington]

Teresa Pitt Green, who as a child was sexually abused by Catholic priests, said she is convinced “there’s a lot more hope than people dare to feel.”

“If I can turn all the suffering and darkness of my life into a testimony that even in that place, Jesus was there and Jesus heals me, then that’s not such a bad way to use having been abused,” she said.

Pitt Green is co-founder of Spirit Fire, a Christian restorative justice initiative and fellowship of survivors of abuse in the Church.

People associated with Spirit Fire find healing by integrating their therapies with their efforts to grow in their relationship with God. They share wisdom, experience and faith with others seeking healing, growth and reconciliation.

They work with Church leaders to deepen pastoral care for survivors, their family members and all Catholics, including priests, deacons,…

View Cache

Vigilante parents dug under a preschool, searching for secret tunnels. The police swapped tips on identifying pagan symbols. A company that sells toothpaste and soap had to deny, repeatedly, that it was acting as an agent of Satan.

Early in the 1980s, baseless conspiracy theories about cults committing mass child abuse spread around the country. Talk shows and news programs fanned fears, and the authorities investigated hundreds of allegations. Even as cases slowly collapsed and skepticism prevailed, defendants went to prison, families were traumatized and millions of dollars were spent on prosecutions.

The phenomenon was so sprawling that, in its aftermath, it took on several names, like the ritual abuse scare or the day care panic. But one name has increasingly stuck: the satanic panic.

“The evidence wasn’t there, but the allegations of satanic ritual abuse never really went away,” said Ken Lanning, a former F.B.I….

View Cache

‘Sex, Lies and the Priesthood’ tells the story of the late Richard Sipe, who helped expose abuse.

In a scene in “Spotlight,” the Oscar-winning film about clerical sex abuse, Boston Globe reporters huddle around a speakerphone listening intently to the words of Richard Sipe, portrayed by actor Richard Jenkins.

Sipe, a former Benedictine monk renowned for his defense of clerical sex abuse victims, died at his home in La Jolla at age 85 on Aug. 8, 2018.

Sipe stunned the Globe reporters when he said 50 percent of American Catholic priests do not practice celibacy. He assumed that at least 6 percent of Boston priests were sexual predators.

He was wrong. The Globe uncovered nearly 100 priest predators in the Boston archdiocese, about 10 percent of its clergy.

The Globe series, relying heavily on Sipe’s research, won a Pulitzer Prize and led to Cardinal Bernard Law’s early retirement and transfer to Rome.

“Sex, Lies and the…

View Cache

University President Tania Tetlow sent out a statement via email this morning addressing a rape allegation against Rev. Ted Dziak, former VP for Mission and Identity at Loyola.

This statement comes after a Nola.com article that details accusations against Dziak, former Loyola priest, of rape and inappropriate conduct while on mission trips through Jesuit Volunteers International, an international volunteer program Dziak founded. The allegations did not occur during Dziak’s time at Loyola.

Tetlow claims Loyola only recently found out about the allegations after being contacted by a reporter for comment. The university is not aware of any allegations against Dziak during his time at Loyola, according to Tetlow.

Dziak left Loyola in the summer of 2020 after a year-long, faith-based sabbatical, according to former Loyola Maroon articles.

In the Nola.com article, Tim Ballard, 40, detailed accusations that Dziak raped him on a volunteer mission in…

View Cache

A Chicago priest has been asked to step away from ministry following a report of minor sex abuse from over 35 years ago.

In a letter to members of the Christ the King parish and school, Cardinal Blase Cupich said the archdiocese received a minor sex abuse allegation involving Rev. Lawrence Sullivan.

Sullivan has agreed to cooperate with the request and will live away from the parish, the archdiocese said.

Rev. James Mezydlo will serve as the temporary administrator of Christ the King Parish and will attend to the needs of the parish and school.

The archdiocese said the report alleges that Sullivan sexually assaulted a minor 36 years ago when he was 18. They did not specify if he was involved in ministry at that time or not.

Sullivan has been at Christ the King, which is located in Beverly, for the past six years, according to his biography.

…

View Cache

[Includes Twitter video clip of David Clohessy speaking about the experience for a survivor of coming forward.]

Holding signs like “Split hairs or protect kids” outside of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, members and supporters of a group of clergy sexual abuse survivors urged Springfield Catholic Bishop Thomas John Paprocki Wednesday to include five more names on the diocese’s list of “credibly accused” priests.

All five of the accused served at parishes or studied in the Springfield diocese, which includes 28 counties in central Illinois.

Four of the priests who have had accusations made against them are deceased, confirmed David Clohessy, a spokesman and former executive director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

The Springfield diocese “credibly accused” list includes “cases of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy in this diocese as disclosed in our voluntary review with the…

View Cache

Interview by Adam Van Brimmer

The following is an excerpt from a “Difference Makers” podcast interview with Bishop Stephen Parkes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah. Comments have been condensed in the interest of space. Full episodes are available at SavannahNow.com/podcasts or through mobile device podcast apps by searching “Savannah Difference Makers”.

Question: You are one of two priests — bishops actually — in your family, as your brother leads the Diocese of St. Petersburg. Are we to assume that you grew up in a devout home? 

Stephen Parkes: “Growing up, faith was always important. That said, I’ve often thought that we were not a particularly devotional family. We prayed before meals. We went to mass on Sunday. I had the opportunity to go to Catholic school from first grade through eighth grade. But otherwise, our family was into many different things, many different activities. Church was always important. Church was always a priority. And…

View Cache

[See also the decision and the original indictment.

The 10th Circuit upheld a federal grand jury’s conviction of a former priest on seven counts of sexual abuse against a 10-year-old boy dating back to the 90s.

Arthur Perrault, a former Roman Catholic priest who served at several parishes in Albuquerque, New Mexico, fled the country in 1992 to Canada and then Morocco after learning of a local reporter’s investigation into allegations that Perrault sexually abused young boys.

“After a two-week sojourn in Canada, Perrault made a new life in Morocco — a country, as it so happens, that doesn’t share an extradition treaty with the United States,” wrote Circuit Judge Gregory Phillips, a Barack Obama nominee, in the 58-page decision.

Following a federal grand jury in 2017 that charged Perrault with six counts of aggravated sexual abuse and a count of abusive sexual contact with a minor…

View Cache

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a former Roman Catholic priest’s convictions and 30-year prison sentence in a New Mexico case centered on sexual abuse of an altar boy at a veterans cemetery and military base.

A 58-page decision by the three judges on a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied Arthur Perrault’s appeal, saying they were convinced Perrault “received a fundamentally fair trial in compliance with his constitutional rights.”

Perrault had fled the United States decades before he was returned from Morocco after being indicted in 2017.

Perrault was convicted in April 2019 of six counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact with a minor under 12. He maintained his innocence during his October 2019 sentencing.

Formerly a pastor at an Albuquerque parish and a chaplain at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, Perrault was accused of sexually abusing a boy…

View Cache

The Diocese of Syracuse will hold a Mass for Healing on April 29 after nearly 400 sex abuse claims involving the diocese have been filed.

“One victim of sexual abuse is too many,” said an April 19 letter from Bishop Douglas Lucia of Syracuse to his diocese. “And so, to see the number ‘371’ is particularly disheartening and of the greatest concern for me because of the damage done both directly and collaterally,” he said of the 371 claims that had been filed under the state’s Child Victims Act.

Lucia said that he is renewing his commitment and that of the Diocese of Syracuse to assist survivors of sexual abuse with their healing. 

“We seek to make amends for the wrong and sinful behavior perpetrated against you and cannot apologize enough for the failure to protect you from your abusers,” said the bishop. 

New York’s Child Victims Act created a…

View Cache

In the wake of reports on how clergy sex abuse was handled, laypeople in Cologne Archdiocese want more of a say

[Via Union of Catholic Asian News]

Catholic laypeople in the Archdiocese of Cologne have called for a local synod to address the ongoing crisis in Germany’s most populous diocese.

“We must make every effort to reestablish a genuine dialogue between the cardinal, senior members of the diocesan leadership and the grassroots of the church,” said Tim-O. Kurzbach, president of the Cologne archdiocesan council of Catholics.

However, the German Catholic news agency KNA reported a spokeswoman for the archdiocese said that, under church law, a local synod would not allow the broad participation of the faithful that currently exists in the diocesan “Pastoral Way Forward.”

“In contrast to a diocesan synod — which is a kind of advisory body of selected laypeople and priests — the approach of the Way Forward…

View Cache

Victims of child sexual abuse are deeply wounded by such abuse and the Catholic Church needs to be “more compassionate and caring” toward those victims, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory said at an April 21 Mass in observance of National Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention Awareness Month.

“Many who are victims (of sexual abuse) are people who carry a great wound, and we as their brothers and sisters in Christ need to be reminded that we need to be part of the compassion that Christ wishes to extend to them and their families and loved ones,” Cardinal Gregory said.

Cardinal Gregory celebrated the noon Mass in the Archdiocese of Washington’s Pastoral Center’s St. Ursula Chapel. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, attendance was limited and the Mass was livestreamed.

Sexual abuse and assault victims “carry a wound that is serious and has been life changing for them,” Cardinal Gregory said. “Let…

View Cache

For the first time, prominent Republican state senators on Wednesday put their support behind legislation in Pennsylvania to change the law to allow now-adult victims of child sexual abuse to sue the perpetrators or institutions that did not prevent it when it happened years or decades ago.

The vote, 11-3, in the Senate Judiciary Committee comes after years of damning investigations into child sexual abuse by clergy in Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses and signals that the legislation may have enough Republican support to pass the full state Senate.

Similar legislation passed the House earlier this month and Democrats — including Gov. Tom Wolf, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro and practically all of the party’s members of the Legislature — have backed the effort.

“Today’s vote brings these brave survivors the closest they have been to having their day in court,” Shapiro said in a statement.

Many childhood…

View Cache

Seven men filed a lawsuit last week against St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe, alleging school officials failed to prevent three staff members – all Christian Brothers – from sexually abusing them while they were students decades ago.

The lawsuit filed in 1st Judicial District Court alleges Brothers Andrew Abdon, Louis Brousseau and Tom McConnell abused students while working for the school as teachers and athletics coaches between 1953 and 1980. All three had already been listed on the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s credibly accused list.

The suit also names the school’s parent organization, Brothers of the Christian Schools, as a defendant in the case. Attorney Bill Keeler, who is representing the victims, said that’s because the Brothers supplied the teachers who abused students to the school.

“While these men have each filed a claim in the Archdiocese bankruptcy, the Christian Brothers must also be held accountable for allowing…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Independent Review Board that assists with child protection efforts released the fourth annual reports from the archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection and the review board. 

Archbishop William E. Lori initiated the reports in 2019, with reports from fiscal/reporting years 2017 and 2018 released within months of each other. Since then, the reports have been issued annually.

The latest report, which covers the reporting year from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, notes that the archdiocese was again, as every year, found by outside auditors to be in full compliance with standards set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and its accompanying norms, as well as updates to those policies.

The report details efforts in education, employee and volunteer screening, reporting of allegations and outreach…

View Cache

If we wanted to name the 21st century movie with the best ensemble cast, we could make a strong argument for 2008’s Doubt. In addition to Meryl Streep and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, both playing characters that rank among the richest and most complex of their careers, there was Amy Adams. She was still early in her path to stardom, but this role served as a perfect bridge between the sunny ingénues she specialized in at the time of Enchanted and the severity that would define her later roles. Topping it all off, Viola Davis, then a theater actress unknown to mainstream audiences, appeared for eight minutes in one of the all-time greatest performances with barely any screentime. All four actors earned Oscar nominations.

There was a reason Doubt, specifically, was the film to bring together such a firestorm of acting talent. An adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s Tony-winning…

View Cache

When you think of risky and hazardous careers, reporting the news might not top your list, but there’s more danger involved than you may think. Journalists obtain the facts on the important stories affecting our lives, and it doesn’t always come easily. It’s important to remember some of the most horrific scandals only came to light as a result of the hard-working women and men who make up our newsrooms. 

This is the central idea behind 2015’s Spotlight, an Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The film features an extremely talented group of actors, including the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Michael Keaton, playing the journalists who uncovered a history of abuse within the Catholic Church. It’s difficult subject matter, especially when it focuses on the victims, but it shows the constant struggle between the power of journalism and the influence of the Catholic Church. 

Thankfully, you…

View Cache

A former substitute teacher at Oconto Falls High School was sentenced to two years in prison for engaging in a sexual relationship with a student she coached.

Brynn Larsen, 31, will then serve five years on extended supervision, Judge Michael T. Judge decided.

“There’s no question in my mind that you abused your position of trust and authority as a teacher …,” Judge said Tuesday during sentencing. “There’s no way to say it other than that, and for that, there has to be a consequence.”

Larsen, an Oconto Falls native who was a star athlete at the school, worked there as a substitute teacher with the Oconto Falls School District from 2013 to 2018, and as an assistant coach for the volleyball team.

Acting on an anonymous tip, Oconto Falls police investigated whether Larsen and a then 15-year-old girl were involved in a sexual relationship in May 2014. The student and Larsen denied…

View Cache

A federal judge has blocked an effort by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester to shield the identity of priests accused of sexual abuse during its bankruptcy procedure, after the Democrat and Chronicle objected to the practice.

Gannett Co. Inc., the parent corporation of the Rochester newspaper, filed a motion to intervene in the diocese’s bankruptcy proceeding “in order to enforce the public’s right of access.” 

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2019, saying it could not afford to pay the compensation being demanded in a flood of new civil suits alleging sexual abuse by its priests in past decades. Hundreds of claims have been filed against the diocese as part of the bankruptcy process.

In February, the diocese asked the court to keep the names of alleged abusers named in those claims sealed from public view. 

“While the Diocese has no intention of concealing the…

View Cache

Hotel owner and elder school both make a play for Immaculate Heart property

Perched in the city’s eastern foothills, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Retreat and Conference Center sits in near silence. The coronavirus stopped most activities on the property that’s cradled by the Carmelite monastery, a residential neighborhood of expensive adobes and Museum Hill.

But behind the scenes in recent months, at least two buyers made offers to buy the retreat and conference center property from the struggling Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and a bidding war appears to be taking shape.

The owner of a company based in Austin, Texas, says he has a purchase agreement with the archdiocese to buy the property and turn it into a hotel with a restaurant and bar, which has set off concerns among current tenants and neighbors about noise, a change of pace in the area and proposed rezoning that would be…

View Cache

A former Vermont resident has filed a civil lawsuit in Windsor County Superior Court, alleging the Weston Priory and the Jesuits religious order were negligent in allowing him to be sexually abused as a teenager in about 1970.

Michael Veitch, 66, of New York said he was 15 when priest James Talbot molested him during a visit to the priory, according to claims first reported in 2018.

Talbot, convicted three years ago of sexually abusing a boy in Maine, recently was released from prison. The registered sex offender, now in his 80s, was jailed earlier on another conviction and has settled lawsuits with more than a dozen other plaintiffs, according to media reports.

Veitch attorney Jessica Arbour, noting Vermont’s recent elimination of its statute of limitations on such allegations, said her client “is grateful for the chance to call those who wronged him to account now.”

View Cache

Survivors of sexual abuse by priests, teachers and others rallied outside the Capitol in Harrisburg on Monday, calling for legislation that would create a window in the statute of limitations, allowing lawsuits over long-ago sexual abuse by clergy and others.

Chanting, “No window, no justice,” the group rallied in support of legislation that recently passed the House of Representatives and is pending in the state Senate. It would create a two-year window in the statute of limitations, which normally would prohibit lawsuits to within a few years of a victim becoming an adult.

Many of those who reported abuse by trusted adults said that due to the trauma, it took them years or decades to reach the point where they could seek justice.

Those at the rally have spoken of years of frustration as previous proposals have faltered. A similar measure, which would have created a window by amending the…

View Cache

[Via National Catholic Reporter]

Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner presided over a farewell Mass to the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, April 15, two days after Pope Francis accepted the bishop’s resignation from pastoral governance of the northeast Minnesota diocese.

As requested by the pope, Hoeppner, 71, resigned April 13 following a 20-month investigation into allegations that he mishandled allegations of clergy sexual abuse.

That investigation was the first of a standing U.S. bishop under Pope Francis’ 2019 legislative document “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the light of the world”), which provided universal means for holding bishops and other church leaders accountable for actions in addressing abuse claims, following the abuse scandal of Theodore McCarrick, a former U.S. cardinal.

As metropolitan archbishop of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis oversaw the investigation, which was carried out by a team of experts in…

View Cache

A longtime Baltimore priest has been suspended from ministry after an investigation by police into allegations that he sexually abused a minor in Carroll County starting in about 1989.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has removed the authority of Rev. Martin H. Demek, the pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Bolton Hill, to function as a priest after investigators with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office conducted an inquiry into a report that he sexually abused a minor at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Manchester, where Demek served as pastor from 1987 to 1996.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case, according to Cpl. Jon Light, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, but the archdiocese announced the disciplinary measures after beginning its own investigation late last week.

The alleged victim was 11 at the time of the first reported incident, and multiple incidents allegedly took place, according to a…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Baltimore removed Fr. Martin Demek, pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Baltimore, after it received an allegation of sexual abuse involving an 11-year-old child.

The Archdiocese says it received the allegation earlier this year. The abuse allegedly began in 1989 and allegedly happened multiple times. The Archdiocese says the sexual abuse apparently happened at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Manchester, Maryland.

The Archdiocese says its policy is to suspend Fr. Demek pending a full investigation.

The Archdiocese says it notified the Carroll County Sheriff’s office immediately after receiving the allegation. The sheriff’s office requested that the Archdiocese refrain from investigating on its own until the office gave it permission. The Archdiocese received permission from the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office earlier this week.

Fr. Demek was ordained a priest in 1975. He served as Associate Pastor at Our Lady Queen of Peace (1975-1980), St .Thomas Aquinas (1980-1984),…

View Cache

Bishop Michel Dubost, after running Lyon archdiocese between the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and the appointment of new Archbishop Olivier de Germay, will take on another clerical sexual abuse controversy as the new apostolic administrator of Cayenne diocese in French Guiana. 

Dubost, 78, will temporarily lead the diocese while a canonical inquiry investigates a dispute between retired Bishop Emmanuel Lafont and an illegal  Haitian immigrant who accuses him of sexual abuse. The bishop flatly denied the charge and accused the immigrant of robbery.  

Lafont, who had headed Cayenne diocese since 2004, handed in his resignation last October on his 75th birthday and Pope Francis took the rare step of promptly accepting it. The Cayenne public prosecutor had opened its civil inquiry into the dispute the previous week. 

The Haitian accuses Lafont, a Paris-born and Rome-educated social activist who was previously posted as a priest and then seminary vice-rector in South Africa,…

View Cache

A St. Louis-based group of child sexual abuse survivors and their supporters is calling on the new bishop of the Belleville Diocese to add four names to its publicly available list of accused priests.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, said they found four men who spent time in the Belleville Diocese as they searched the internet for abuse allegations against priests with local ties.

Three of the men appear on lists of accused priests in other states. The fourth man admitted to a Belleville News-Democrat reporter 15 years ago that he had abused children in other states.

“They belong on the (Belleville Diocese) website, plain and simple,” said David Clohessy, the volunteer Missouri director for SNAP.

Monsignor John Myler, a spokesman for the Belleville Diocese, said Bishop Michael McGovern will consider updating the diocese’s…

View Cache

The Bishop of Raphoe has confirmed that a retired priest of the diocese has been charged with assaulting two minors between 1972 and 1975.

It is understood the 85-year-old retired priest has been released on bail after he was charged with 26 counts of indecent assault.

In a statement, Bishop Alan McGuckian says the diocese has been cooperating fully with Gardai and Tusla regarding the case.

He added that they are committed to assisting and supporting anyone who has been a victim of clerical abuse in seeking justice.

As this is an active case, the Bishop says no further comment will be made.

The statement concluded by advising anyone who wishes to report a concern, or complaint of child abuse, either current or historical to do so by contacting the Designated Liaison Person for the diocese or the statutory authorities; Tusla and Gardaí National Protective Services Bureau and in an…

View Cache

Leslie Woodcook Tentler’s American Catholics: A History sails between the Scylla of over-generalization and the Charybdis of perpetually getting lost amidst minor themes. Tentler admirably assigns the people and events she chronicles their appropriate significance, which is a lot harder to do than a non-historian might suppose.

Tentler also indicates in the title that she intends to focus not only on the institution of Catholicism, but on the people who populate that institution, peppering her thematic chapters with short biographical profiles of Catholics who epitomize the themes. The book starts with a sketch of Jesuit Fr. Eusebio Kino, the great Jesuit missionary of the Southwest. A reader might pass over a dry recitation of the religio-cultural atmosphere on the frontier of the Counter-Reformation Church, but in Kino we see the heightened concern for discipline and education of the clergy bearing fruit in vigorous, selfless missionary work.

Tentler then…

View Cache

A 37-year-old Wellesley woman was arraigned on Friday on charges of repeatedly raping a student she met while she was a teacher at a Hudson middle school, prosecutors said.

Caitlin Harding was indicted by a Middlesex grand jury on March 18 on one count of rape of a child by force, three counts of aggravated rape of a child and five counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office.

The defendant allegedly assaulted the girl, who was 13 then, multiple times over the course of several months in 2010, the DA’s Office said.

Harding was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court on Friday and released on personal recognizance on the conditions that she have no direct or indirect contact with the alleged victim or witnesses, have no unsupervised contact with children under 18 and not work or volunteer with children…

View Cache

CRESTWOOD — In the 1950s, the Archdiocese of St. Louis was on the move, trying to catch up with a flock migrating out of the city in droves. New churches were in demand, particularly in south St. Louis County.

The Rev. Vincent J. Duggan, a former 2nd Marine Division chaplain in the South Pacific during World War II, was called in from a tiny parish in Montgomery County, Missouri, to help. His assignment: transform a farm in the 8800 block of Pardee Road into Our Lady of Providence.

With the help of a group of nuns Duggan recruited from Indiana, the church and school quickly became the spiritual home for hundreds of families. Duggan would stay more than two decades, earning high praise from his congregation, according to an extensive online history of the church that champions each milestone.

To this day, Our Lady of Providence is still active. But…

View Cache

A trio of survivors of sexual abuse are inviting the Catholic Church — from parishioners in the pews to the bishops who lead dioceses — to join them on their journey toward healing and reconciliation.

The invitation from Mike Hoffman, who chairs the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Hope and Healing Committee, Mark Williams, a special adviser to Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, and a deacon in the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois who asked to remain anonymous is meant to help the wider church heal as well.

And that means hearing their stories and those of other sexual abuse victims-survivors, they told Catholic News Service in mid-April, which is Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

It’s their belief that by hearing those stories, Catholics will be touched and begin to realize that churchwide healing from the wounds of abuse is a long process, as their…

View Cache

Father Christopher Ciomek, pastor of St. Peter Damian Parish in northwest suburban Bartlett, has been removed from ministry as the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago investigations allegations of child sex abuse dating back 30 years.

“It is with great difficulty that I write to share news about your pastor, Father Christopher Ciomek. In keeping with our child protection policies, I have asked Father Ciomek to step aside from ministry following receipt by the Archdiocese of allegations of sexual abuse of a minor approximately 30 years ago. Allegations are claims that have not been proven as true or false. Therefore, guilt or innocence should not be assumed,” Cardinal Blase Cupich said in a letter to the parish.

According to Ciomek’s biography on the church’s website, he was born in Poland, has been a priest since 1998, starting as a full-time associate pastor at St. Monica Parish in Chicago. He’s also served at St. Theresa Parish in…

View Cache

April 12, 2021

Dear Saint Peter Damian Parish Family, 

It is with great difficulty that I write to share news about your pastor, Father Christopher Ciomek. In keeping with our child protection policies, I have asked Father Ciomek to step aside from ministry following receipt by the Archdiocese of allegations of sexual abuse of a minor approximately 30 years ago. Allegations are claims that have not been proven as true or false. Therefore, guilt or innocence should not be assumed.  

I have further directed Father Ciomek to live away from the parish while the matter is investigated, and he is fully cooperating with this direction. Father Curtis Lambert will serve as temporary administrator of Saint Peter Damian Parish. Father Lambert presently resides in retirement at Saint Peter Damian and, as an experienced pastor, will attend to the needs of the parish community. 

Moreover, as is required by our child protection…

View Cache

There are accusations of abuse against a Catholic priest at a parish in Bartlett.

The Chicago Archdiocese released a letter late Saturday afternoon saying that Cardinal Blase Cupich has asked Father Christopher Ciomek of Saint Peter Damian Parish to step aside following allegations of sexual abuse of a minor approximately 30 years ago.

The Archdiocese said Ciomek has also been directed to live away from the parish while the matter is investigated, and he is fully cooperating.

Church leaders said the allegations were reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Cook County State’s Attorney.

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Seattle has reached settlements totaling just over $1.3 million for four cases involving allegations of sexual abuse against three priests and a youth minister.

The three priests were included on the archdiocese’s “List of Clergy and Religious Brothers and Sisters for Whom Allegations of Sexual Abuse of a Minor Have Been Admitted, Establish or Determined to be Credible” when the list was originally published in January 2016.

On March 6, the archdiocese reached a settlement in a case involving an allegation of sexual abuse by Father Patrick Desmond McMahon in the mid-1970s. McMahon served as pastor at St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Port Townsend from 1973 to 1985. McMahon was put on administrative leave when an individual brought forward an allegation of sexual abuse. He was put on permanent prayer and penance, removing him from service. Later he was returned to the lay…

View Cache

 A Bilgrimage Biography

Ruth Elizabeth Krall, MSN, PhDNote: Since 2015 my friend William D. Lindsey (Bill) has published my work on his blog Bilgrimage. At this time, the blog is inactive, so I have decided to pull together my various posts so that future researchers and academics can find them in one place.  I have arranged this bibliography so that more recent entries follow earlier ones.  

Krall, R. E.  (January 3, 2021).  Persephone’s Journey into the Underworld: Lessons for Our Time.  

Krall, R. E. (December 12, 2020).  A Meditation: The Third Sunday in Advent.  

Lindsey, William.  (December 1, 2020).  Ruth Krall’s Study Course: Black Lives Matter.  

Krall, R. E. (March 2, 2020).  Ruth Krall on the Coronovirus: “If We Fail to Adequately Care for Those Who Cannot Care for Themselves, the Door Will Open to Threaten Us All.”  

Krall, R. E. (February 5,…

View Cache

A Vatican investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of minors by a Detroit-area priest has reached its conclusion, with the Holy See declining to pursue a canonical case, the Archdiocese of Detroit said April 13.

Two years ago, the archdiocese referred the allegations against Fr. Eduard Perrone, pastor of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Grotto) Parish, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “which has the sole authority in the Catholic Church to issue a determination in such cases,” the archdiocese said.

“The CDF has informed the Archdiocese that — without ruling on the merits of the allegations against Fr. Perrone — it has decided not to proceed in this particular case,” a statement from the archdiocese’s communications department said. “Therefore, no further action can be taken in this case under church law.”

In its communication to the archdiocese, the congregation acknowledged that while its investigation into…

View Cache

Jane Doe never attended Mount Cashel Orphanage, but she knows the second-hand impact all too well. 

Nightmares from the dark years her husband John spent there in the 1950s continue to rouse him in the night and for over 20 years she’s been there to comfort him back to sleep. After all that time, John, whose identity is protected for legal purposes, hasn’t fully been able to open up to her about what happened to him at the infamous boys’ orphanage that has become synonymous with sexual and physical abuse.

The couple met in Utah and now live in Idaho, over 6,600 kilometres away from the now demolished orphanage in St. John’s, Newfoundland. As a young man, John moved to the United States hoping to leave that dark past behind him. At 79, he keeps the memories from his four years there as an adolescent from 1954-58 tucked deep down…

View Cache

Victims and relatives complain defence lawyers for two nuns and several other women are stalling trial into historic child sex abuse at Próvolo Institute in Mendoza Province.

Victims and relatives have called for an “end to delays” in the trial of two nuns and seven other women accused of complicity in the sexual abuse of deaf children at the Antonio Próvolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in Mendoza Province, which was postponed last week due to a case of coronavirus.

The second trial in this case, which has shaken up the Catholic Church in the homeland of Pope Francis and which has already seen two priests sentenced to 40-year prison terms in 2019, was postponed last Monday for a fortnight when the defence lawyers pleaded that one of them is in isolation due to Covid-19.

“The defence lawyers of the nuns have been playing their little tricks for…

View Cache

To date, Colorado’s Catholic church has paid out more than $7 million to victims of priest abuse

A state-led investigation into child sex abuse by Catholic priests in Colorado in 2019 discovered 52 priests were responsible for sexually assaulting 212 children between the 1950s and 1999.

Now, one of the victims is telling a story of healing after he reached a settlement with the church.

“I never thought I would come out of the darkness,” said Troy Gallegos, a Denver man who kept his story a secret for more than four decades. “I’m still trying to climb out of there.”

Gallegos was a lead altar boy at Saint Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Denver. He said he kept the secret out of fear and out of respect for his mother’s visible position with the Denver Archdiocese.

“I used to hate to go to school because it was right next to the…

View Cache

When Pope Francis abolished the “pontifical secret” covering the church’s judicial handling of cases of the sexual abuse of minors, it was hailed as a major step forward in promoting greater transparency and accountability.

At first glance, it means victims and witnesses are free to discuss a case and, even though Vatican officials are still obliged to maintain confidentiality, it “shall not prevent the fulfillment of the obligations laid down in all places by civil laws,” the amended law said.

But an additional consequence of this landmark change, enacted in mid-December 2019, will be its potential to provide much-needed practical training and multidisciplinary studies for those involved in the handling of abuse cases.

The faculty of canon law at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University recently announced it is offering a new diploma in penal jurisprudence — an “innovative” yearlong course designed to give canon law graduates practical skills and guidance in…

View Cache

Former Winona pastor Rick Iglesias’ legal defense against sexual abuse charges suffered a setback earlier this month when a judge ruled testimony from Iglesias’ former boss and senior pastor may be used in the case.

Iglesias, 66, was charged in 2019 with repeatedly sexually abusing a minor from 2010 to 2012 when Iglesias was a pastor at Pleasant Valley Church in Winona.

In one of the case’s most significant events to date, defense attorney Kurt Knuesel petitioned the court to suppress testimony from Dr. Kurt Bjorklund. Bjorklund was a minister at a church in Pennsylvania where Iglesias worked in 2019. Bjorklund was Iglesias’ supervisor, the two were old friends from seminary, and Knuesel wrote, Bjorklund was Iglesias’ “only spiritual superior in the church.” In summer 2019, Iglesias asked to meet Bjorklund at his house, reportedly disclosed that he had committed a sexual crime against a minor, and resigned from his…

View Cache

Parents at St. John the Baptist School in Hamilton County, Ohio expressed concern this week about former Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Binzer, who resigned and apologized last year after failing to report concerns about a priest to the archbishop, being assigned to pastor two churches associated with the school. 

The archdiocese has so far responded to the concerns by saying that Bishop Binzer’s role, if any, at the school has not yet been determined, and the archdiocese is listening to concerns from parents and parishioners. 

Bishop Binzer resigned last year as auxiliary bishop after failing to report to the archbishop allegations of inappropriate conduct on the part of a Cincinnati priest. 

Bishop Binzer was earlier this month named pastor of the Corpus Christi and St. John Neumann Pastoral Region, which includes two Catholic churches in Hamilton County. 

Parents say those two parishes feed into the nearby St. John the Baptist School.

…

View Cache

Once again, a news story has broken about a serially abusive Church staffer who has been left off lists of perpetrators in multiple states, replete with weak excuses from Catholic officials attempting to explain away their lack of transparency. This is yet another example of why the only openness we can truly count on in cases of clergy sex crimes is that afforded to the public through grand jury investigations, interventions by attorneys general, and reports to police and prosecutors.

In this case, Deacon James Griffith was known to be an abuser as early as 1988, when he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child in Louisville, KY. Despite that conviction, Deacon Griffith – a member of the Passionist Order – was moved first to the Houston area, then San Antonio, Orlando, the suburbs of Chicago, and finally to metropolitan Detroit.  Despite working in these five places,…

View Cache

DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law Thursday ending the statute of limitations for civil sex abuse cases.

The bill removes the current six-year limitation on bringing a civil claim based on sexual misconduct. It applies to any incidents that happen on or after January 1, 2022.

The legislation defines sexual misconduct and removes restrictions that limit victims’ ability to file a civil action or recover damages.

The bipartisan bill was signed as survivors of sexual assault spoke out about how this bill will change lives.

Polis said he hopes this bill will help heal many people who weren’t able to seek immediate relief.

View Cache