ABUSE TRACKER

A former priest who served at a Virginia Beach Catholic Church decades ago has been indicted by a grand jury investigating clergy abuse in Virginia.

Fr. Paul David Ryan is charged with two felony counts of forced carnal knowledge with a minor, according to a news release issued Tuesday by Attorney General Mark Herring’s office. He’s currently in custody in Australia and awaiting extradition to Virginia, the release said.

The assault is alleged to have occurred sometime between 1979 and 1980 during a church-sanctioned ski trip at Massanutten Resort in Rockingham County. Ryan was an assistant priest at Star of the Sea Catholic Church and parish school at the Oceanfront at the time.

Ryan is accused of assaulting the minor twice at a house at the resort where the two were staying. The release did not say if the alleged victim was male or female, or what the youth’s age…

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A former Catholic priest and serial child molester from Australia has been indicted in Virginia on charges of sexually assaulting a teenage boy twice at a Virginia ski resort in 1979. Two people went public with their claims of abuse by the priest in 2007, but no charges were filed until Attorney General Mark Herring’s office took the information to a grand jury last month.

Paul David Ryan, 72, recently served his second jail sentence in Australia for sexual assaults he committed against young boys in Victoria, cases that emerged after victims contacted a national Catholic sex abuse commission, media reports said. Ryan was one of seven Catholic priests or brothers from one diocese in Victoria who were moved from parish to parish for decades as complaints came in about their conduct, the commission found.

Complaints about Ryan began even before he was ordained, Australian court records show, and Ryan’s…

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The Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, one of the largest dioceses in the commonwealth, gained national attention by filing for bankruptcy last year.

The 15-county diocese became the first – and to date only – Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania to file for bankruptcy. The filing followed the 2018 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury report, which found that church leaders had for decades covered up heinous child sex crimes at the hands of hundreds of priests.

Bankruptcy cases are famously long, and one year into the case, the respective parties are nowhere near a resolution.

In the meantime, victims of child sex abuse – particularly those abused as children by Catholic priests – have endured setbacks in their efforts to reform laws that barred them from justice. Now, their efforts to force dioceses to pay for their misdeeds are about to play out against…

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Some sexual assault survivors and advocates are still working to hold Catholic institutions accountable following an independent investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against composer David Haas by St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul, Minnesota. They are pointing to a failure to interview Haas and the then-president of the university, as well as a lack of accountability for a former university employee whom they allege was aware of allegations against Haas.

Although St. Catherine’s investigation found that the university never received any “official” complaints about Haas, it also revealed that a witness that investigators deemed credible brought concerns about Haas to a university employee, who allowed Haas — and a priest who had been stripped of his priestly duties for sex abuse allegations — to continue to participate in the Music Ministry Alive (MMA) summer camps for high schoolers at the university.

St. Catherine’s University is the first of any major…

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The first international conference on sexual abuse of young deaf Catholics will take place May 7 and May 21 during webinars organized by the Deaf Catholic Youth Initiative for the Americas.

Father Joe Mulcrone, director of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of the Deaf, and one of the founders of Deaf Catholic Youth Initiative for the Americas, said this is the first time an event like this is happening.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean survivor of clerical sex abuse who was appointed to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in May, and Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, adjunct secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will both participate in the event. The sessions will be offered in American and Mexican Sign Language and in English and Spanish.

People with disabilities are sexually assaulted at nearly three times the rate of people without disabilities, according…

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[Includes video excerpts from Berthelot’s testimony.]

A Gretna City Councilman reveals he was sexually abused by a priest within the Archdiocese of New Orleans decades ago.

Councilman Jackie Berthelot testified Monday during a house committee hearing in Baton Rouge.

Legislators are considering a bill which would give child molestation victims more time to file a lawsuit. Berthelot only decided to come forward after receiving counseling and gaining courage.

“It took me 50 years to admit to anyone what happened to me,” said 66-year-old Berthelot.

The councilman said he was abused by Monsignor Lawrence Hecker. Berthelot was a fourth grader at St. Joseph School in Gretna and served as an altar boy at St. Joseph Church.

“Little did I know that I was being reeled in by a pedophile when all of this comes to light will be seen as one of the worst pedophiles maybe this country has ever seen,”…

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A Gretna City Council member revealed that he was sexually preyed on in grade school by one of the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ most notorious clergy abusers when he appeared before Louisiana lawmakers Monday and made an impassioned plea that they give child molestation victims significantly more time to pursue damages.

The disclosure from Jackie Berthelot, 66, came during hours of testimony by abuse victims at a meeting of the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure. When testimony concluded, members advanced to the full House a bill that would give child sex abuse survivors until their 53rd birthday to file lawsuits regarding their abuse. Current law gives victims 25 years fewer — until their 28th birthday — to initiate litigation.

The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans. If ratified by the House, it would move to the Senate for consideration.

While the bill doesn’t exclusively…

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German prosecutors have broken up an online platform for sharing images and videos showing the sexual abuse of children, mostly boys, that had an international following of more than 400,000 members, they said on Monday.

The site, named “Boystown,” had been around since at least June 2019 and included forums where members from around the globe exchanged images and videos showing children, including toddlers, being sexually abused. In addition to the forums, the site had chat rooms where members could connect with one another in various languages.

German federal prosecutors described it as “one of the largest child pornography sites operating on the dark net” in a statement they released on Monday announcing the arrest in mid-April of three German men who managed the site and a fourth who had posted thousands of images to it.

“This investigative success has a clear message: Those who prey on the weakest are…

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COVID-19 restrictions proved an unexpected blessing to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ annual novena for healing from abuse, as the online prayer services drew far more participants than in-person liturgies of past years.

One service alone had 850 live views, far exceeding past in-person services, said Heather Banis, the clinical psychologist who serves as victim assistance ministry coordinator. The possibility to pray virtually, it seems, allowed people who are hesitant to spotlight themselves by attendance to participate anonymously. They could also choose to identify themselves and write comments.

“The livestream gives you all the grace and space you need,” Banis said.

“United Together in Prayer – Novena for Child Abuse Prevention and Healing” was livestreamed April 22-30 from eight parishes and St. John Seminary. Every auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese took part, as did all its seminarians.

It included prayers for all victims of child abuse, but the focus…

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The Diocese of Rockvillle Centre has released a list of 101 diocesan clergy it believes to be credibly accused of sex abuse of minors. The list is not meant to be complete, and most allegations date back decades.

The list comes amid lawsuits from alleged clergy sex abuse victims and other compensation efforts in the New York diocese, which is one of the largest in the U.S.

“The list is not exhaustive,” said the introduction to the April 22 list. “The fact that this list may not include the name of the accused clergy who sexually abused you does not mean that you should not file a Sexual Abuse Proof of Claim Form.”

The names of 101 accused clergy are listed on the document, published at the website of Epiq Corporate Restructuring, LLC. The list names priests and deacons that the diocese’s review board determined to have a “credible” allegation…

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[Includes a ten-minute audio report with a brief clip of Cardinal Law speaking on the abuse crisis early in the report.]

The first time America heard All Things Considered from National Public Radio was 50 years ago — May 3, 1971.

The program started airing on WBUR about a decade later. And that marked the start of the station’s resolute commitment to local news that listeners hear today.

The decades have brought big changes and major news at warp speed — from technological advances, to the attacks of 9/11, to war. Events and new laws in Massachusetts — including the priest sex abuse scandal, same-sex marriage and health care reform — have led to sweeping changes nationally.

In 2013, Boston was hit by domestic terrorism. Bombs went off at the marathon finish line. WBUR’s All Things Considered covered every angle of the tragedy, from the loss and devastation to the trial and sentencing of bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

…

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Pope Francis has selected a new leader for Delaware’s Catholics. On July 13, William Koenig will replace Bishop Francis Malooly, who led the Diocese of Wilmington serving all of Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore since 2008.

Koenig, 64, most recently worked as Vicar for Clergy for the Diocese of Rockville Centre in Long Island, New York. Prior to that, he worked as Rector at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre.

When he’s officially installed this July, Bishop-elect Koenig will be the spiritual leader of more than 246,000 Catholics in Delaware and along Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He’ll also be leader of the nation’s most prominent Catholic, President Joe Biden, who frequently attends services at St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine when he travels back to Delaware on weekends.

“I have never met President Biden, I certainly pray for him every day,” Koenig said as he was introduced at the Cathedral of St….

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Cotter pleaded guilty to an additional three counts of assaulting a seven-year-old girl who attended his church between 1972 and 1975

A woman has spoken of how her life was ruined by a disgraced Preston priest who told her she would get ‘a good breakfast’ after he sexually assaulted her.

Edmond Cotter was the priest at St Anthony’s Church in Fulwood in the 1970s and 1980s when he took advantage of youngsters who attended for Mass and Holy Communion.

Cotter embedded ‘himself into the families of his victims’ and abused them over more than a decade.

Cotter, now 74, was jailed for more than five years in 2007 after sexually assaulting 10 girls and one boy between 1972 and 1984. The children were aged between eight and 11 at the time.

At Preston Crown Court today (April 30) Cotter pleaded guilty to an additional three counts of assaulting a seven-year-old…

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[Via Legacy]

Nationally renowned attorney, who represented the Archdiocese of Chicago for 50 years dies at 78.

James A. Serritella, J.D., an attorney who served as chief counsel and legal advisor to the Archdiocese of Chicago for nearly 50 years, died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Friday, April 23, at the age of 78 from complications of heart disease.

Serritella was a named partner at the law firm of Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella where he served as chair of the Religious and Not-For-Profit Group. His nearly half century legal practice focused on legal needs of tax exempt religious and not-for-profit organizations. He advised four Cardinals, beginning with Cardinal John Cody in the 1970s and continuing through the administrations of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Cardinal Francis George and, currently, Cardinal Blase Cupich.

Over his extensive career, Jim saw the Archdiocese of Chicago through countless critical events including the clergy sex abuse crisis,…

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore has received an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor against Father Romuald Meogrossi, OFM Conv. The allegation was immediately reported to law enforcement. Fr. Meogrossi is an 81-year-old priest who had been in residence at St. Michael the Archangel Friary in Overlea.

In accordance with policy, earlier this week the Archdiocese removed Fr. Meogrossi’s faculties to function as a priest, and his Franciscan superiors suspended him from public ministry, pending the results of an investigation. Fr. Meogrossi is no longer residing in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Until several years ago, Fr. Meogrossi engaged in practice as a licensed clinical professional counselor. The alleged misconduct occurred during 2006 in a clinical therapy setting.

Fr. Meogrossi has denied the allegation.
This matter is in an early stage of investigation and therefore no determination of credibility has been made by the Franciscan Friars Conventual or the Archdiocese at this…

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore has received an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor against Conventual Franciscan Father Romuald Meogrossi. Read the archdiocese’s full May 2 statement below:

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has received an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor against Father Romuald Meogrossi, OFM Conv. The allegation was immediately reported to law enforcement. Fr. Meogrossi is an 81-year-old priest who had been in residence at St. Michael the Archangel Friary in Overlea.

In accordance with policy, earlier this week the Archdiocese removed Fr. Meogrossi’s faculties to function as a priest, and his Franciscan superiors suspended him from public ministry, pending the results of an investigation. Fr. Meogrossi is no longer residing in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Until several years ago, Fr. Meogrossi engaged in practice as a licensed clinical professional counselor. The alleged misconduct occurred during 2006 in a clinical therapy setting. Fr. Meogrossi has denied the allegation.

…

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A Minnesota man accused of sexual battery who formerly served as a Lutheran minister has resigned as a pastor, according to the Rev. Laura L. H. Barbins, bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, based in Cuyahoga Falls.

Steven P. Woyen, 46, is accused of engaging in sexual conduct with a minor who attended or was a member of First Lutheran Church of Strasburg when he was its pastor. The Tuscarawas County Grand Jury indicted him on three counts of sexual battery that allegedly occurred between 2008 and 2011. 

“We became aware of allegations that former pastor Steven Woyen was accused of sexual misconduct with a minor while he was a pastor at First Lutheran Church in Strasburg,” Barbins wrote in an email to The Times-Reporter. “His bishop reported those allegations to the appropriate authorities here in Ohio and I and his bishop have cooperated fully with law enforcement.

“Mr. Woyen resigned immediately after the…

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Geoff Drew is charged with nine counts of rape. His alleged victim was just 10 years old at the time.

A Cincinnati-area priest accused of raping a 10-year-old boy will not stand trial until October, officials said Monday. 

Geoff Drew originally was expected to go to trial Monday for nine counts of rape, but the trial was postponed to Oct. 25 after Drew’s attorneys requested more time to build their defense. If convicted, Drew faces life in prison.

In lieu of a $5 million bond, Drew remains at the Hamilton County Justice Center, where he’s been since his arrest in 2019. He pleaded not guilty during an arraignment that year.

Drew is accused of raping an altar boy in his office while he was a music minister at St. Jude in Bridgetown. The accuser, who was 10 years old when those rapes allegedly started in 1988 and is…

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A recent lawsuit alleging clergy sexual abuse and a cover-up by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield — which the diocese is seeking to have dismissed — recalls a similar case the church faced and settled in 2009.

The earlier suit claimed that former diocesan Bishops Joseph F. Maguire and Thomas L. Dupre knew the Rev. Alfred Graves, who had the time of the suit had been removed from ministry, had a history of child molestation when he was assigned to a Berkshire County parish. Andrew Nicastro, the 38-year-old plaintiff in the case, alleged Graves sexually molested him between 1982 and 1984 while a priest at St. Patrick’s Parish in Williamstown.

Lawyers for the two bishops sought unsuccessfully to get the suit dismissed on statute of limitation grounds. The 2012 jury trial ended shortly after it began when the parties agreed to a $500,000 settlement.

“They did…

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On May 1, 2020, the Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. Since filing, the archdiocese has not been entirely honest about the real reason that they declared bankruptcy. 

When asked for a statement on why they declared bankruptcy, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese forwarded along a press release and informational booklet, commenting that “As this is a legal proceeding pending before the federal bankruptcy court, we think it is imprudent to comment further.” 

The press release explained, “In order to continue effectively ministering to the needs of the church community and victims and survivors of clergy abuse, the Administrative Offices of the Archdiocese of New Orleans announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. The move was necessitated by the growing financial strain caused by litigation stemming from decades-old incidents of clergy abuse as well as ongoing budget challenges. The unforeseen circumstances surrounding…

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Pope Francis has issued a new decree on financial management at the Vatican in what is being touted as a further step in his fight against corruption inside the Church.

The new text, which was issued on April 29 in the form of a motu proprio (meaning “at his own initiative”), imposes measures to ensure financial transparency at all levels of the Holy See.

What exactly does this new motu proprio contain?

First of all, it requires all Roman Curia officials – from the prefects of dicasteries to the vice-directors – to complete, as soon as they take office, a declaration of interests.

They must attest, in particular, to never having been convicted in any country and to not have benefited from any system of amnesty or prescription.

The motu proprio explicitly states that all curia heads, “including cardinals”, will also have to promise not to be the subject of…

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Attorney General Josh Kaul announced April 27 a statewide initiative, led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), with support from district attorneys, survivor groups, and crime victim services professionals, which will review reports of clergy and faith leader abuse in Wisconsin.

Survivors, their friends and family, or anyone who has information about the church’s response to abuse are encouraged to report clergy and faith leader abuse online at SupportSurvivors.widoj.gov or by calling 1-877-222-2620.

“The people of Wisconsin, and especially victims, deserve an independent review of clergy and faith leader abuse,” said Attorney General Kaul. “With this initiative, we are seeking to ensure that survivors of clergy and faith leader abuse have access to needed victim services, to help prevent future cases of sexual assault, and to get accountability to the extent possible.”

“Survivors are grateful to the Attorney General for his commitment to pursue justice for victims of clergy…

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A laicized priest, removed from public ministry in 2003 and dismissed from the clerical state in 2016 for substantiated child sexual abuse accusations, died April 29. Joseph Wajda was 74.

Ordained in 1973 for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Wajda served in eight parishes. He also was judicial vicar of the Metropolitan Tribunal from 1996 to 2002.

Funeral services were pending.

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Regarding “Guarding faith: St. Louis archdiocese adds another priest’s name to its list of abusers, but won’t talk about it” (April 18): As the president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, I must complain about this story.

We live in a complex time with no shortage of current events that merit readers’ attention. Between the coronavirus, the border crisis and a whole host of other issues, it is peculiar the Post-Dispatch would prominently feature a story about a priest accused of abusing a minor in the 1970s. This is hardly the substance of breaking news. That is, unless the goal was to attack the church and impugn the reputation of Catholic priests.

I have had to raise concerns before about what I believe is an anti-Catholic bias at the Post-Dispatch.

William A. Donohue, Ph.D. • New York, N.Y.

President, Catholic League

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The Archdiocese of Santa Fe intends to sell over 700 properties by year’s end to help pay for settlements to sexual abuse survivors, an examination of court records has found. 

An examination of court records by the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper found that the diocese has sold at least six properties over the past year and intends to sell 732 more by late July. 

Those first six sales generated $7.5 million for the diocese, the records show. According to the AP, among the buildings sold were several surrounding a Carmelite Monastery in Santa Fe. 

Of the many more properties to be sold by an auctioneering firm, most are small vacant lots, fields, or grazing land donated to the archdiocese by families, the New Mexican reported. 

In August 2020, the archdiocese listed the vacant St. Francis Cathedral School in downtown Santa Fe for $3.6 million.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11…

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A safeguarding expert said that the Catholic Church could do more to take responsibility for the failures of the past, and to reform power structures which allow abuse and cover-ups to take place.

Fr. Hans Zollner, S.J., a psychologist, theologian, and leading expert on abuse prevention, told CNA April 30 that the Church’s safeguarding procedures would not be effective unless those in power shared the same goals.

“You can have the best guidelines, you can have the best-prepared people for that kind of work or for protection or safeguarding, [but] if the institution as such does not live up to the ideals that are expressed in the guidelines — for example, if there are power structures that contradict what the guidelines for safeguarding say — then the same guidelines are put up in vain,” he said.

Zollner, president of Rome’s Center for Child Protection (CCP), told CNA that the prevalence of…

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An Owensboro, Kentucky priest says he is “on cloud nine” after receiving word that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had reinstated his faculties after he appealed his permanent suspension from public ministry. 

“When the letter [from the CDF] came, I was telling them I was almost afraid to open it  because you don’t know what the news is,” said Fr. Joseph Edward Bradley to 14 News on April 26. 

“I am so happy I can hardly talk,” he said. He said that it was the prayers and support of his “good friends” who got him through his suspension.

“After two years, it was getting more and more difficult,” said Bradley, as he waited for word on the status of the appeal.  

Bradley was in March 2019 temporarily suspended from public ministry following allegations he had sexually abused a minor in the 1980s. 

Another claim was made during…

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A former Catholic priest charged with committing lewd acts on four boys while assigned to churches in Palmdale and Redondo Beach between the mid-1990s and 2001 is set to be arraigned Friday in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.

Christopher John Cunningham, 58, was charged April 2 with a dozen felony counts of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Cunningham was an associate pastor at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in Palmdale and worked at Saint Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church in Redondo Beach at the time of the alleged crimes.

The alleged victims include an 11-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted on two occasions between November 1995 and September 1997 and a boy — whose age was not available — who was allegedly abused at his home some time between June 1996 and June 1998, while Cunningham was…

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A Roman Catholic priest has appeared in court accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the early 1990s.

Father Anthony White is charged with indecent assault and buggery against the 15-year-old in 1992 and 1993.

The attacks were allegedly carried out where Mr White was then living, in Horsham, West Sussex, when he was an Assistant Priest at St John the Evangelist church.

Fr White, 62, appeared at Crawley Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

The defendant, now of Cross-In-Hand, Heathfield, did not enter a plea.

The case has been committed for trial, with an initial hearing at Lewes Crown Court on 26 May.

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An arrest warrant was issued for Jeremy M. Hylka after police were made aware of the video, according to Joliet police.

A former Catholic school teacher in the southwest suburbs has been charged after a video surfaced showing him “engaged in inappropriate communication with a minor.”

Jeremy M. Hylka was charged with traveling to meet a child and grooming after investigators were made aware of a Snapchat video that “possibly depicted inappropriate contact of an adult with a minor,” Joliet Police Lt. Joe Egizio told reporters at a new conference Friday afternoon.

He did not provide details on the contents of the video.

Detectives tracked down and interviewed the person who posted the video, Detective Sean Filipiak said. The person is a 19-year-old man who, in conjuction with a group called “Save Our Siblings,” posed as a 15-year-old when communicating with Hylka.

Filipiak said the…

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Jeremy Hylka worked at Saint Joseph Catholic School in Lockport, Saint Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, Cathedral of Saint Raymond Nonnatus in Joliet when fired

 A former Catholic school teacher in the southwest suburbs has been charged after a video surfaced showing him ‘engaged in inappropriate communication with a minor.”

Jeremy M. Hylka was charged with traveling to meet a child and grooming, according to Joliet police.

Publically, Hylka was a former youth minister, father and teacher, and passionate about the weather. He even appeared in videos for the Joliet Weather Center.

But out of view of his students and parishioners, police say Hylka tried to solicit sex with children on the internet.

Police said on Wednesday they were alerted to a Snapchat video they said possibly showed inappropriate contact with a minor by an independent group called Save Our Siblings.

In part of the video that was sent to police,…

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The Legion of Christ, the Roman Catholic order that operated a now defunct school in Center Harbor, is facing new lawsuits alleging sexual abuse against children at its private schools.

All but one of the suits alleges abuse against boys at the Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in Center Harbor. One lawsuit alleges abuse against a female student of the Immaculate Conception Academy in Rhode Island.

The Legion, founded in 1949 by Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, is headquartered in Cheshire, Conn. Maciel’s behavior reportedly included drug addiction, fathering several children with at least three different women, the sexual abuse of his own children and others. He died in 2008.

The lawsuits, filed earlier this month, allege abuse against boys age 12 to 15 by priests and brothers of the order, some of whom had not been publicly reported as abusers by the order.

The order operated the Immaculate Conception Apostolic School…

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A former Catholic priest pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of lewd acts on four boys at two parishes, in Palmdale and Redondo Beach, between the mid-1990s and 2001.

Christopher John Cunningham, 58, was charged April 2 with a dozen felony counts of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Cunningham was an associate pastor at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in Palmdale and worked at Saint Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church in Redondo Beach at the time of the alleged crimes.

The alleged victims include an 11-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted on two occasions between November 1995 and September 1997 and a boy, whose age was unavailable, who was allegedly abused at his home some time between June 1996 and June 1998, while Cunningham was an associate pastor at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in Palmdale.

Prosecutors also…

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A former Catholic priest accused of lewd acts on four boys pleaded not guilty on Friday.

The alleged crimes happened in the mid-1990s and 2001 in Redondo and Palmdale.

The former priest, 58-year-old Christopher John Cunningham, was charged on April 2 with 12 felony counts of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

He was an associate pastor at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in Palmdale and worked at Saint Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church in Redondo Beach at the time of the alleged crimes.

“The victims were innocent children who have spent most of their lives with the trauma caused by the abuse alleged in this case,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement about the charges.

“My office is committed to holding accountable anyone who abuses and takes advantage of our children, especially when they hold a position…

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Pope Francis has sent another message to Vatican-based cardinals and bishops that he intends to hold them accountable for criminal misconduct: He removed the procedural obstacles that had spared them from being prosecuted and judged by the Vatican’s lay criminal tribunal.

A new law published Friday makes clear that Vatican city-state prosecutors and judges have jurisdiction over Holy See cardinals and bishops and need only the pope’s consent to proceed with investigations and trials against them.

The law abrogated a regulation that said only the tribunal’s highest appeals court, which is made up of three cardinals, could judge cardinals and bishops accused of criminal offenses.

The reform is the latest sign that after eight years of preaching about ending corruption and other criminal activity in the Holy See, Francis is taking concrete steps to make it easier to hold his own cardinals and bishops accountable while emboldening Vatican prosecutors to…

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Sister Jeanne Christensen, the last member of the Sisters of Mercy still working in Kansas City, packed up her electric blue Corolla and drove back to her hometown of Omaha last week, ending her order’s service here after 134 years.

Kansas City women in particular have reason to thank her and all who came before her for that service. Because the sisters showed up for us, my sisters.

They’ve been doing that since the order’s foundress, Catherine McAuley, spent her inheritance to open the first House of Mercy as a shelter and school for women and girls in Dublin in 1827. But their history in Kansas City began on Aug. 2, 1887, when Sr. Mary Agnes Dunne arrived from Kentucky to set up a home for young working women living on their own in what Sr. Kathleen O’Brien, author of a history of the Sisters of Mercy, called this “newly large…

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The Bishop of Knoxville accepted a transitional deacon for parish ministry, even after the deacon was dismissed from seminary because of sexual misconduct allegations. Bishop Richard Stika reportedly intended to ordain the deacon a priest, despite objections from both Knoxville’s diocesan priests and psychological experts. 

Priests in the diocese say the circumstance is part of a pattern of questionable relationships and troubling judgment on the bishop’s part, which have been noted in complaints about Stika sent recently to the Vatican. Those reports are expected to trigger an investigation into the bishop’s leadership of his Tennessee diocese. 

The transitional deacon, incardinated in another U.S. diocese, was dismissed from seminary after “making sexual advances toward a younger seminarian” in late 2016, according to diocesan records obtained by The Pillar.

The deacon was reportedly accused of other incidents of sexual misconduct while in seminary. A 2017 psychologists’ report said the deacon’s “manipulative style, sexual predatory…

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It’s been nearly three years since a grand jury report initiated by Attorney General Josh Shapiro found that bishops and leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years.

In a state such as Pennsylvania, where one in every four residents is Catholic, the report was both scathing and sobering – revealing more than 1,000 identifiable victims were abused at the hands of bishops, priests and other leaders of the Catholic Church.

Even before Shapiro’s report, in 2005, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham released a jaw-dropping, lengthy report about child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia which gave a detailed account of the horrific abuse of hundreds of children by more than 60 priests and the cover-up by leaders of the church.

It is obvious that these survivors should be able to seek justice so they can…

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Ever since the lid was blown off the top of the global clerical sexual abuse scandal, church institutions have found themselves on the defensive. Pope Francis’ 2019 global summit of bishops on abuse – the first of its kind – was a belated first step towards a more proactive and coordinated church-wide approach. 

The lesson has sunk in that abuse is not going to magically disappear. Tackling abuse in society and in the Church needs a committed and ongoing response. To that end, a new body that will study the root causes of abuse and how safeguarding measures can be made more effective has been established in Rome. 

The “Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care” was ratified by the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education on 15 April and is to carry out pioneering research and formation in this field. It will be a faculty…

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On April 15, the School of Theology and Ministry (STM) welcomed Dr. Natalia Imperatori-Lee, Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, for a Zoom webinar titled “The Sacred and The Secret: Lessons from Movements Like MeToo and ChurchToo.” 

Introduced by Fr. Thomas Stegman, S.J., Dean of the STM, Imperatori-Lee presented a lecture outlining the ways sexual abuse thrives, how these factors operate in the Catholic Church, and strategies to eliminate the persistence of abuse and rape culture within a Christian paradigm. 

She began by discussing that MeToo entering the national lexicon in 2016 has led to  countless individuals and groups identifying how rape culture is an assumption that permeates everyday life, both personally and structurally. Imperatori-Lee defined rape culture as “the normalization of assault as we assume that, given the opportunity, men will assault women sexually, making it necessary for women to put guardrails in place for their own safety.”…

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The Vermont House has joined the Senate in advancing a bill to repeal the statute of limitations for civil actions based on childhood physical abuse.

In a voice vote Thursday, House members offered near unanimous support for S.99, which the Senate approved 29-0 earlier this month.

“For a variety of reasons related to the trauma of being a victim of child abuse, it is extremely difficult for the victim to file the action before turning 21,” Rep. Felisha Leffler, R-Enosburg Falls, told her House colleagues. “As a result, these victims are permanently barred from ever being compensated for what in many cases are horrendous injuries.”

The Legislature, responding to a decadeslong Vermont Catholic priest misconduct scandal, two years ago repealed the deadline for introducing civil actions involving child sexual abuse.

But that change to allow accusers to go to court at any time pertains only to molestation and not other abuse,…

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The Vatican has a PR problem. In an international poll, Pope Francis is less admired than even Donald Trump. While Trump is ranked as the 15th most admired man in the world in the 2020 survey, Pope Francis is ranked at 18. The Dalai Lama ranked number 8. “More than 45,000 people in 42 countries and territories were interviewed to compile the list,” YouGov published in September.

Due to the adulation of Pope Francis by the U.S. for-profit mainstream media, it’s not surprising that the pontiff ranks much higher in this country, almost tied with the Dalai Lama at numbers 8 and 9 respectively.

The Vatican generates favorable coverage from the U.S. media. Anthony Fauci and Chelsea Clinton are among the famous American headliners at a virtual conference being held May 6-8. Other notable speakers – Deepak Chopra, Kerry Kennedy, Cindy Crawford, John Sculley, entrepreneur and investor in high-tech startups, Brandon Marshall, a…

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The resignations of  Bishop Julio Parrilla Diaz, who turned 75 last month, and his deputy, Monsignor Gerardo Miguel Nieves Loja, 53, were accepted by Pope Francis this week in Rome. We are glad to learn of these resignations but hope more action comes from the Vatican.

We also applaud the Spanish missionary in Riobamba, Julia Serrano, for raising awareness and fearlessly calling out the poor leadership of Bishop Parrilla. More importantly, she shed light on the suitability of the Bishop’s potential successor, Msgr. Nieves, who has also resigned. Serrano wrote in a Catholic blog, “Redes Cristianas,” about a culture of homosexuality among diocesan clerics as well as “a number of priests with children in the diocese, some recognized and others not.”

We suspect that Catholic officials in Ecuador have underreported the damage caused by abusive priests, nuns, and religious orders. Concealing the truth and deceiving the…

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Pope Francis set a 40-euro ($48) gift cap for all Vatican employees Thursday and issued a new law requiring Vatican cardinals and managers to periodically report on their compliance with clean financial practices in one of his biggest efforts yet to crack down on corruption in the Holy See.

The law requires Vatican superiors to declare every two years that they aren’t stashing money in tax havens and aren’t under criminal investigation for tax evasion, money laundering or other crimes. They also must declare that any investments they hold are in funds consistent with Catholic doctrine.

The crackdown comes as Vatican prosecutors are nearly two years into a corruption investigation involving the Vatican’s investment in a London real estate venture. Francis has preached about cleaning up the Holy See’s murky financial practices for eight years, but the new law marks his biggest step yet to ensure his own cardinals and…

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The Wisconsin Department of Justice is opening a statewide investigation of abuse by clergy and faith leaders within the state’s five dioceses.

“We’re conducting this review to promote greater accountability and to promote healing for victims” as well as improving the response to abuse and preventing future abuse cases, said Attorney General Josh Kaul during an April 27 news conference outside the Wisconsin State Capitol.

Leaders of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the dioceses of Green Bay, La Crosse, Madison and Superior, and the Norbertines at St. Norbert Abbey acknowledged in statements released as Kaul was meeting with reporters that they joined the attorney general during a teleconference April 26 to discuss the planned investigation.

Each diocese also said the review will look at historical cases rather than reports of new allegations of sexual abuse.

The statements from the dioceses and the religious order said requests for documents from the Wisconsin Department…

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Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continued, members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors remained active in promoting outreach and providing new educational opportunities.

As they met online and in Rome for their plenary assembly April 19-22, the members also welcomed a new member, Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivors’ advocate, who was participating in his first meeting since Pope Francis appointed him March 24.

Cruz said “he hoped his presence and contribution will bring renewed impulse to the churches’ commitment to hearing, welcoming, assisting and accompanying the children, men and women who have been abused and in creating a space for them in the life of the church,” according to a press release by the commission April 22.

The plenary meetings, held twice a year, give the 17 members a chance to listen to each working group’s progress report and to lay the groundwork for future action.

The…

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En respuesta a denuncias de mala gobernanza y flaqueza moral en la diócesis ecuatoriana de Riobamba, el papa Francisco aceptó el miércoles las renuncias no sólo del obispo que alcanzó la edad de retiro sino también la de su heredero designado, sobre quienes se multiplican las acusaciones en Ecuador.

Los renunciantes son el obispo Julio Parrilla Díaz, quien cumplió 75 años el mes pasado, y su coadjutor, monseñor Gerardo Miguel Nieves Loja, de 53.

Nieves había sido designado obispo coadjutor de Riobamba el año pasado y debía ser consagrado obispo en febrero para suceder a Parrilla cuando éste cumpliera 75 años, la edad canónica del retiro, pero presentó su renuncia a Francisco una semana antes de la ceremonia.

Parrilla confirmó la renuncia de Nieves en una carta a su diócesis firmada el 19 de febrero y reproducida por la agencia católica en español Religión Digital. Parrilla dijo que comprendía la…

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The Heights article of April 26, 2021 describing allegations against Fr. Ted Dziak contains erroneous and irresponsible claims about me and my role as President of Boston College. A response is necessary.

First, in the fall of 1997, I learned of concerns about Fr. Dziak and the Ignacio Volunteers program pertaining to his social interactions with students at Boston College. There were no reports of sexual misconduct by Fr. Dziak at that time and none have been made since. I discussed these matters with Fr. Dziak and reported them to his Jesuit superiors, emphasizing aspects of his behavior that conflicted with University standards.

Second, I was never Fr. Dziak’s religious superior, and was not consulted by the Province about his assignment to Jamaica or any subsequent assignment.Heads of Jesuit provinces make decisions about assignments of Jesuits, a fact that The Heights could have easily obtained if it had spoken with officials of the…

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Boston College president Reverend William Leahy is facing scrutiny from students who believe he did not adequately respond to complaints made more than 20 years ago about “inappropriate behavior” by a priest at the Jesuit institution who ran volunteer programs overseas in which the college’s students participated, The Boston Globe reported.

The Reverend Ted Dziak, the former administrator, left Boston College in 1998 and went on to work at Loyola University New Orleans and Le Moyne College in upstate New York. He was recently accused of raping a former volunteer during a 2004 service trip, Nola.com reported. Several other volunteers — some of them students — said that Dziak was emotionally abusive, according to Nola.com. He was removed from Le Moyne in September, the news site reported.

Boston College students, faculty and staff members who knew of Dziak’s alleged misconduct between 1990 and 1998 compiled complaints made in 1997 and…

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 April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “National Child Abuse Prevention Month recognizes the importance of families and communities working together to strengthen families to prevent child abuse and neglect. Through this collaboration, prevention services and supports help protect children and produce thriving families.”

While in many states, specific occupations like doctors and teachers are mandated reporters, in Tennessee, it’s everyone.

3,994,000 people across the country reported the suspicion of child abuse or neglect in 2019.

Jennifer Nichols, the commissioner of the Department of Children’s Services for Tennessee, says that one statistic from the Department of Health and Human Services is why the month of April focuses so heavily on raising awareness.

“It’s written into Tennessee law specifically under Tennessee code annotated 37-1-403 that all Tennesseans, all persons are mandated reporters,” said Nichols. “It’s not of child abuse and neglect,…

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Interview with award-winning theologian Doris Reisinger

Doris Reisinger is one of four speakers in a webinar series on spiritual abuse on April 28 and May 18 by the Union of the European Conferences of Major Superiors. Reisinger was the recipient of the 2020 Christine Schenk Award for Outstanding Young Catholic Leadership by FutureChurch for her testimony and writings about spiritual and sexual abuse of women, particularly women religious, by clergy.

She has also been critical of “the structures and culture that keep most women in a position of unquestioning obedience to a superior,” as FutureChurch notes. That culture, she said in her address (under her former name Doris Wagner) at the Voices of Faith event “Overcoming Silence – Women’s Voices in the Abuse Crisis” in November 2018, is what prevented her from speaking out for two years about her own case of being raped by a priest. She had entered…

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The United States Bishops Are Releasing Lists of Priests Who Are Credibly Accused of Sexual Abuse. But There is No Consistency in What Data is Included in These Lists or How They Are Disclosed.

Think back a couple of decades. Remember how survivors and advocates deplored the stunning disparity that characterized how both the accusers and the accused were treated based solely on where the reported abuse happened? A case in Chicago, for instance, was handled very differently from a case across the state line in Milwaukee or across another state line in Gary, Indiana.

These disparities were supposed to end in 2002. That year, gathered in Dallas, all of the United States bishops adopted a first-ever allegedly binding nationwide church abuse policy mandating ‘openness’ and ‘transparency’ in this scandal.

But for the most part, consistency just isn’t happening. Each bishop continues to act as he sees fit, despite the…

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Over the past few years, journalists – including this Vatican watcher – and experts in a host of related or adjacent fields have written ad nauseam about “the state of reform” in the Catholic Church, especially regarding juridical reform, broader legal reform, and general reform of the leadership culture.

The premise has always been the same: that there is a conscious and deliberate reform effort underway at every level of ecclesiastical life and governance, driven by persons appalled at the status quo and spearheaded by reformers who want to get it right.

Events of the past two weeks make it abundantly clear that it is time to challenge that premise.

At very least, it is time to allow that cases before the public suggest things may be otherwise.

Crookston

Last week, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner from the Diocese of Crookston, Mn. Crookston said Pope Francis had asked Hoeppner…

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The leader of Tennessee’s youngest diocese is likely facing an investigation by Catholic officials from the Vatican due to allegations that the bishop worked to impede investigations into cases of sexual misconduct. While we are glad that these allegations are being investigated, we hope that secular officials will be looking into the situation as well to determine if any criminal charges should be filed.

According to sources, Bishop Richard Stika from the Diocese of Knoxville, TN, is facing a likely Vos Estis investigation over complaints about how he handled allegations of sex abuse levied against a local seminarian. It is extremely concerning to learn that Bishop Stika kept the accused seminarian in formation despite knowing of the multiple complaints against him. This situation is a “no win” one made worse by a powerful prelate’s refusal to crack down on sexual abuse and harassment.

As troubling as the bishop’s…

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The Legion of Christ, a Catholic religious order that was taken over by the Vatican in 2010, is again facing lawsuits for child sexual abuse. Six new victims filed complaints against the Legionaries this month in a Connecticut Federal Court. These survivors allege that they fell prey to abusers while attending Legion schools in New Hampshire and Rhode Island in the 1990s.

In 2019, The Legion of Christ released a report identifying 33 priests and 71 seminarians who sexually abused minors over the previous eight decades. The Legion tallied 175 victims of abusive clerics but failed to indicate how many survivors there were from the abusive seminarians.

The order’s founder, Rev. Marcial Maciel, died in 2008. He may be the Roman Catholic Church’s most egregious perpetrator, abusing seminarians and even the children he had fathered secretly with at least two women….

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A western Kentucky priest accused of sexually abusing two minors has been reinstated by the Vatican but remains banned from entering schools for five years.

The Diocese of Owensboro announced Monday that Joseph Edward Bradley could resume priestly duties after the Vatican overrode a 2019 recommendation from the Owensboro bishop that he be permanently suspended, according to the diocese’s statement.

Bradley served in leadership roles at Owensboro Catholic High School in the 1980s. His priesthood was suspended in the spring of 2019 after the diocese received two reports accusing him of sexual abuse against a minor stemming from his time at the school.

A review board found the allegations credible and they were formally deemed substantiated after an investigation, according to the diocese.

Bradley’s lawyers appealed the suspension to the Vatican, who reinstated him last week, noting in its ruling that Bradley engaged in “imprudent…

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On March 1, 2019, Fr. Joseph Edward Bradley, a priest of the Diocese of Owensboro, 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. 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.

The Diocesan Review Board, a 12-member group formed in 2002, as mandated by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, undertook an investigation and on April 25, 2019, this 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…

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Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s decision to waive one of Germany’s highest honors is a sign that “church aristocracy” is finally glancing at past harm done, say sexual abuse victims.

Groups for survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy  in the Cologne and Trier dioceses welcomed Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s decision not to receive one of Germany’s top awards for public service — akin to an Anglo-Saxon knighthood.

“It shows that churchly princes also are finally glancing at the people harmed,” said Peter Bringmann-Henselder of a Cologne diocese advisory group, referring to the many children abused in the past by priests.

Herman Schell of a Trier abuse victims group, calling itself Missbits, said Marx’s renunciation showed earnest candor, but irritation lingered over the cardinal’s reticence to explain his role in protecting perpetrators and trivializing abuse during his term as Trier bishop between 2002 and 2008.

Marx, a bishop in…

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Cardinal Reinhard Marx said Tuesday that he had asked German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier not to bestow the Federal Cross of Merit on him after an outcry among advocates for abuse survivors over the award.

The archbishop of Munich and Freising was scheduled to receive the Bundesverdienstkreuz, Germany’s only federal decoration, at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin April 30.

But Marx said April 27 that he wished to withdraw from the event.

In a letter, the 67-year-old cardinal thanked Steinmeier for the “high honor of the award,” which Deutsche Welle, Germany’s state-funded international broadcaster, described as equal to a knighthood.

“It is my great request to you not to carry out the award. I am convinced that this is the right step with consideration for those who are obviously offended by the award, and especially with consideration for the survivors [of sexual abuse],” Marx said, according to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

Marx, the…

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One of Germany’s most senior church figures, Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has renounced an Order of Merit award after criticism from abuse victims who said investigations into child abuse were “far from being cleared up.”

Marx had sent a letter to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday requesting that he not receive the award, a spokesman for the archdiocese of Munich and Freising said.

The award was to have been presented in Berlin on Friday.

According to the statement, Marx thanked Steinmeier for the “high honour” of the award, while the head of state would hold onto it “in response to the public criticism.”

On Monday, a victims’ advisory council in the archdiocese of Cologne had appealed to Steinmeier not to make the award for the time being.

According to the advisory board, which represents victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, accusations of an alleged cover-up by Marx were “far…

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The Centre for Child Protection at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University has been transformed into a Vatican-approved academic institute with its own faculty and ability to award advanced academic degrees.

Starting Sept. 1, 2021, the university’s center will become the Institute of Anthropology, offering interdisciplinary studies on human dignity and care and expanding its scope in research, the university said in a press release April 27.

The Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education approved the change April 15, allowing the center to broaden its work, develop its own academic faculty and award a licentiate in safeguarding and a doctorate in anthropology, in addition to the current diploma in safeguarding.

The university’s rector, Jesuit Father Nuno da Silva Gonçalves, said, “With this decision, our university reiterates and intensifies its commitment to the work of protecting minors and vulnerable people and supporting safe environments which promote respect for human dignity.”

The new institute will…

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On 1 September 2021, the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Centre for Child Protection (CCP) will become the Institute of Anthropology. Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC). The Congregation for Catholic Education has approved this transformation which will allow the Centre to expand its scope, to award academic degrees, and to develop its own academic faculty.

The IADC will continue and expand on the CCP’s current contribution to the academic community, focusing specifically on Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care. As its name suggests, the IADC will provide a proactive, positive approach to such sensitive subjects as sexual abuse prevention, intervention, and safeguarding.

Care for victim-survivors of child abuse has been the focus of the CCP since its establishment in 2012 as part of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Institute of Psychology. Its initial purpose was to educate and provide resources for research in the area of the prevention of child sexual abuse…

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Vatican approves ramped-up status for center based at the Pontifical Gregorian University

The Vatican has blessed an initiative by the Pontifical Gregorian University to transform its Centre for Child Protection into a new Institute of Anthropology.

The Congregation for Catholic Education approved the change on April 15, giving additional heft to an anti-abuse center that has been based in Rome since 2014.

The Jesuit-run university’s new institute will open next September at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year. Its purpose is to facilitate “interdisciplinary studies on human dignity and the care of vulnerable persons”.

The Centre for Child Protection was originally founded in 2012 by the Diocese of Munich and a clinic in Ulm, Germany.

Since its origins it has been headed by the German Jesuit priest and psychotherapist Hans Zollner, who will continue as director of the new institute.The change in center’s status is significant.

“This transformation will…

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A recent bankruptcy court filing by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre sheds new light on the scope of sexual abuse by clergy who served on the North Fork, but critics say they believe an attached list of abusers omits the names of dozens more perpetrators. 

The April 15 filing documents allegations against some former local priests who hadn’t previously been publicly accused of abuse and offers new details about locations where incidents occurred here and elsewhere on the East End.

But attorneys representing victims of clergy sex abuse say the report excludes allegations leveled at prominent figures in the Catholic church on Long Island, including the late Bishop John McGann and Msgr. Alan Placa. 

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, Mass., whose work with clergy sexual abuse victims aided the 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting of the Boston Globe and was depicted in the Oscar-winning film…

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Two Midwest leaders of a national child abuse from clergy support group came to Rockford to protest in front of a Stateline church, telling the local diocese to come clean.

David Clohssey is the SNAP leader in St. Louis and Larry Antonsen is Chicago’s SNAP leader. They demonstrated in front of the Cathedral of Saint Peter while holding a list of priests who they say worked in the diocese and have been credibly accused of child abuse while the public has yet to be informed of those accusations.

“We found five credibly accused priests. Five credibly accused child molesters who are not on the Rockford’s bishop’s list which we think is frankly just appalling. Church officials have been dealing with this crisis for decades. They’ve had plenty of time to get it right. We don’t believe that these admissions are accidental,” Clohessy said.

The Rockford Diocese responded to these allegations,…

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The Wisconsin Department of Justice has launched an investigation into abuse by clergy and faith leaders.

The DOJ said it made contact with the five Catholic dioceses in Wisconsin and multiple religious orders with priests before Tuesday’s announcement.

“We’re conducting this review to get greater accountability and to promote healing for victims. We’re conducting this review to improve response to abuse and hopefully prevent future cases of abuse,” said Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.

Kaul’s team will work with five district attorneys in the counties where the Catholic dioceses are located, included District Attorney John Chisholm in Milwaukee County.

The initiative includes two main pieces: requesting and reviewing documents from dioceses and religious orders, as well as asking survivors and anyone with knowledge of abuse or the institution’s response to abuse to contact the DOJ.

“This is a pretty emotional day for me and I think a lot of…

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The state Department of Justice has launched a sweeping investigation of sexual assault in Catholic churches and orders across Wisconsin, Attorney General Josh Kaul announced Tuesday.

Kaul, a Democrat, said during a news conference that he wants to develop a full picture of clergy sexual abuse over the decades. He said the goal is transparency and a full accounting, and that his investigators will refer any new cases to prosecutors.

Officials in at least 22 other states have opened investigations into sexual misconduct within church hierarchies. Clergy sexual abuse survivors and their allies have long demanded that Kaul open a probe.

“I know there are survivors, friends and family members of survivors, supporters of survivors who have waited for years for a fair and independent review of clergy and faith leader abuse in Wisconsin,” Kaul said. “And that’s what we are announcing today.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last week…

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A Western Kentucky priest who was reinstated by the Vatican last week after two allegations of sexual abuse against a minor is still barred from entering a school.

In a statement posted to its website Monday, the Diocese of Owensboro announced Joseph Edward “Ed” Bradley, who served as dean of students and later principal of Owensboro Catholic High School in the 1980s, could resume priestly duties after the Vatican overrode a recommendation from Bishop William Medley that Bradley be suspended permanently.

Bradley maintains his innocence. 

The Vatican’s ruling vaguely noted that Bradley engaged in “imprudent behavior … throughout the course of his ministry in education.” It declared he is “forbidden to enter any primary or secondary school for a period of five years.”

For Cal Pfeiffer, a spokesman for the Kentucky branch of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), that raised an important question: “who…

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

“I am so happy I can hardly talk,” Father Bradley shared. “I’ve been on cloud nine.”

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.

“Having good friends like this that support me and are praying for me, that’s what has gotten me through it,” the priest added. “It has been very difficult. After two years, it was getting more and more difficult.”

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…

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SNAP stands for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

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We are continuing to follow developments out of the Catholic Diocese of Owensboro.

The Vatican reinstated Father Ed Bradley to his priestly faculties.

Bradley had been permanently suspended following two accusations of sexual misconduct.

Bradley appealed his suspension to the Vatican.

Now Rome has restored Bradley’s faculties as a priest with some restrictions.

We are now hearing from SNAP the ‘Support Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.’

The organization works to support survivors and protect children. It also aims at exposing the truth. SNAP is a calling for more transparency in the Catholic church.

Father Ed Bradley was in leadership roles at Owensboro Catholic High School in the 1980′s when the incidents were alleged to have taken place.

He was suspended from public ministry in 2019 until the priest and his lawyers filed an appeal.

The Vatican, two…

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An Owensboro priest at the center of sexual abuse allegations talks about his recent reinstatement.

“I was overwhelmed with the news,” he said, recalling how he reacted to the reinstatement by the Vatican of his duties, which were restricted following two claims of sexual abuse made two years ago from his time working at Owensboro Catholic High School in the 1980s.

“It was the last thing on my bed at night before I fall asleep and it was the first thing on my mind in the morning,” he said.

The Diocese of Owensboro received the allegations in spring of 2019, and a Diocese Review Board found the allegations credible. Fr. Bradley appealed after the temporary suspension was made permanent by the diocese. Owensboro Police investigated the claims, but no charges were filed against him after prosecutors say the claims weren’t supported by evidence.

“I took a polygraph in Louisville from…

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From the Diocese of Madison:

On Monday, April 26, representatives of the Roman Catholic dioceses of Wisconsin, as well as Catholic major religious orders, met with the Wisconsin Attorney General via videoconference. The Diocese of Madison will review the Attorney General’s upcoming request as soon as it is received. The Diocese of Madison takes the issue of sexual abuse of minors very seriously and based on its own, ongoing initiative remains vigilantly committed to providing healing to any victims and their families, and to fostering trust based on its diocesan safe environment policies spanning two decades.

Background

The news of the sex abuse crisis in the United States’ Catholic Church made national headlines in 2002 and resulted in all of the bishops and dioceses of the United States setting forth and agreeing upon the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (Dallas Charter) (June, 2002) and the Revised…

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The Archdiocese of Milwaukee said on Tuesday that it is concerned that the Wisconsin attorney general’s planned review of reports of clergy and faith leader abuse could “re-victimize” abuse victims through renewed publicity.

“Although we will take a look at the specific details of the Attorney General’s request when it is received, we have concerns about the negative impact this could have on abuse survivors, because the publicity has the potential to re-victimize individuals,” Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff to Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee, said April 27.

“There is no evidence that the Church as a whole and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee hasn’t already taken all possible steps in addressing issues surrounding clergy sexual abuse. We also do not understand the legal basis for the inquiry. We also question why only the Catholic Church is being singled out for this type of review when sexual abuse is a societal issue,”…

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The nine defendants in the lawsuit, which include the diocese as well as Bishop Egan and Archbishop Rozanski, have opposed the request for a special judge.

Springfield, Mass. — Lawyers for an alleged abuse victim in the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts have asked the state’s chief justice to assign a special judge from outside western Massachusetts to the case, citing a potential for undue influence from people associated with the diocese. 

The alleged victim, identified as John Doe, claims he suffered trauma as a result of the diocese’s mishandling of an abuse allegation he brought against the late Christopher Weldon, Bishop of Springfield from 1950 to 1977. 

Doe, a former altar boy, alleges that Bishop Weldon, along with two priests of the Springfield diocese, repeatedly abused him in the 1960s, and that he first remembered his abuse in 2013. Bishop Weldon died in 1982. 

Doe alleges in a Jan….

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Latest incident involving a Medan school, has reignited calls to improve safeguards for children against sexual abuse by religious leaders.

A child molestation incident in Medan, North Sumatra has highlighted the need for schools and local authorities in Indonesia to better protect their students, particularly when the perpetrators are religious leaders, experts have said.

At a school in Medan, six female students came forward last month to allege that the institution’s male principal, who is also a Protestant priest, had sexually assaulted them.

Mira*, the mother of one of the alleged victims, told Al Jazeera that her 13-year-old daughter had been taken to a local motel on at least four occasions from the age of 11, where she was sexually assaulted.

“My daughter said that the principal told other staff that he was taking her to karate practice outside the school grounds,” Mira said. “When they got to the hotel,…

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As a kid, Fr. Bryan Massingale was an altar server at his predominantly-Black Catholic school. When he served at Masses with one priest in particular, nuns who worked at the school kept a close watch on Massingale and the other boys, never leaving them unattended.

Years later, Massingale saw that priest’s name on a list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse. It dawned on him that the sisters were trying their best to protect him and other children.

“If not for the efforts of those sisters, I could have been one of that man’s victims,” said Massingale, a professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University, in a panel on clergy sexual abuse in Black Catholic communities.

Systemic racism in the Catholic Church compounds the impact of the sexual abuse crisis on Black Catholics and makes it more difficult for Black survivors to speak up…

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A senior leader of the Reform movement whose rabbinic privileges were briefly suspended two decades ago for “personal relationships” that violated ethical codes in fact sexually harassed or assaulted at least three women, including one who was a minor when the misconduct began, an independent investigation by Manhattan’s Central Synagogue has found.

Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, who was senior rabbi at Central from 1972 to 1985, resigned his position as president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2000 after the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis ruled that his relationships had broken its rules. But neither CCAR or HUC provided details of the misconduct at the time, leaving the impression that Zimmerman had simply had consensual affairs, and he went on to serve as vice president of the Birthright Israel program and rabbi of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons.

Now, lawyers hired by Central have found credible…

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Corissa McCalister, 21, has been charged with two counts of sexual battery

An Ohio teacher and coach has been arrested after authorities allege she sexually abused a 15-year-old student she was driving home from a track meet.

Corissa McCalister, 21, has been charged with two counts of sexual battery, PEOPLE confirms.

According to WTOV-TV, McCalister was a Spanish teacher at Central Catholic High School in Steubenville, Ohio. She also coached both cross country and track. It was her first year of teaching.

Authorities say that abuse occurred on March 30, when McCalister drove the student home from a track meet at a rival school. Sheriff Joe Myers told WTRF that McCalister parked her car at the Harrison County Fair ground in Cadiz, Ohio. She and the student allegedly had sexual intercourse in her parked car.

Charging documents obtained by WTRF state the student’s…

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Last month, my husband David French and I published a report describing how one of the largest Christian camps in the world reacted to repeated red flag warnings about the inappropriate behavior of a counselor in ways that we described as troubling and inadequate. Pete Newman, who had been a Kanakuk Kamps director, was convicted in 2010 on seven counts of sexually abusing young boys and is now serving two consecutive life sentences plus 30 years. 

However, no camp leadership has resigned, been fired, or been held accountable for their inaction towards a decade of Newman’s nudity and parental complaints, even though they promoted Newman and made him the focal point of promotional materials.

Though this is one of the worst Christian sex abuse scandals in American history, the story had never garnered much attention. Based on civil suits—Kanakuk President and COO Doug Goodwin couldn’t even guess how many had been filed—we…

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New pedophile priests are exposed

Five are not on Rockford’s ‘accused’ list

One was convicted but is still in a parish

Another reportedly admitted child sex crime

And church officials call 2 ‘credibly accused’

Victims urge cooperation with IL AG probe

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose the names of five proven, admitted or credibly accused abusive clerics who were in the Rockford diocese but are NOT on the official Rockford diocese ‘accused’ list.

They will also disclose and discuss another predator priest who was just ‘outed’ by the diocese last month.

And they will blast local Catholic officials for their “continued secrecy and deceit.”

Finally, they will urge anyone who “saw, suspected or suffered” clergy sex crimes to call the Illinois Attorney General who is conducting a statewide investigation into such crimes and cover ups in the Catholic church.

WHEN

…

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The trial for Geoff Drew, the Cincinnati Catholic priest accused of raping an altar boy decades ago, has been rescheduled for October.

The priest’s trial had been scheduled to begin Monday.

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

Cincinnati police arrested Drew 21 months ago. He’s being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center on $5 million cash bond.

Drew worked in Beavercreek, Dayton and Liberty Twp. during his career. He was pastor at St. Maximilian Kolbe Liberty Twp. from 2009 to 2018 before he was transferred to St. Ignatius of Loyola in Cincinnati, from which he was suspended in July by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

“It is our expectation there will not be a trial on Monday and a new date will be picked. However, a new date has not yet been selected. I can’t speak to whether or not…

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Flagging “novel questions of law” that will require at least a month-long trial, lawyers for a Chicopee man abused by a former Catholic bishop want the state’s chief justice to assign the case to a single judge, one from outside western Massachusetts to avoid undue influence.

In a recent filing in Hampden Superior Court, the lawyers say the man, identified in court documents as John Doe, faces the risk of being further traumatized by the legal process as he seeks to prove not only his sexual abuse by the late Christopher J. Weldon in the early 1960s, but that employees of the Springfield diocese, including former Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, blocked his attempts to bring the molestation to light.

Further, the plaintiff’s legal team says that due to the complex story it seeks to present, a judge specially chosen to preside will be able to master its details,…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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