ABUSE TRACKER

On what would have been his priest abuser’s 100th birthday, Mark J. Williams says he visited the man’s gravesite to “let it go,” forgiving him for the pain he had caused.

“I told him I had to move on. I forgave him, and I told him that I knew God still loved him,” said Williams, now a forensic psychological clinician and special advisor to Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark.

“I can’t describe to you immeasurably the freedom, the interior freedom that I experienced from letting that go.”

Williams told the story as part of a presentation at a Harvard University “Faith and Flourishing: Strategies for Preventing and Healing Child Sex Abuse” virtual symposium that took place Thursday and Friday.

Williams was one of several Catholic leaders sprinkled into different parts of the conference, accompanied by leaders of other faith denominations, scholars, advocates, and survivors. A consistent message throughout, especially from Catholic…

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For the 14th consecutive year, during Child Abuse Awareness Prevention Month (April), the Diocese of Venice will be offering Mass to pray for the victims of abuse. The Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Frank J. Dewane and take place at 8 a.m., April 16, 2021, at Epiphany Cathedral, 350 Tampa Ave. W., Venice. The Mass will be live-streamed, and all are welcome to attend as we come together to pray for the victims of abuse.

“As Christian adults, we have a moral responsibility and are entrusted by God with the spiritual, emotional and physical well-being of minors and vulnerable adults,” Bishop Dewane said. “The Diocese of Venice is steadfast in its commitment to providing a comprehensive program to protect the most vulnerable from all types of abuse while raising awareness to prevent abuse from happening in the first place.”

In 1983, recognizing the alarming rate at which children continued…

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Archbishop William E. Lori is encouraging Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore to dedicate some time during National Child Abuse Prevention Month to pray for victim-survivors of abuse. At the same time, archdiocesan leaders are raising awareness about child protection through special prayer intentions at Mass, the distribution of information on child protection in parishes and an educational program in Catholic schools.

The archbishop will lead the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary for “healing and protection” from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore April 8 (see video below).

Auxiliary Bishop Adam J. Parker, a member of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People and vicar general of the archdiocese, will additionally offer a noon Mass April 12 to commemorate Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Mass will be livestreamed nationally on the U.S. bishops’ Facebook page…

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[Via Independent Catholic News]

In a message to religious leaders, scholars and experts from various fields participating in the international Symposium ‘Faith and Flourishing: Strategies for Preventing and Healing Child Sexual Abuse’, Pope Francis expressed his support and hope for the eradication what he described as “a profound evil.”

The three-day symposium which concludes on Saturday, was organized by Harvard University in partnership with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and the Catholic University of America.

In his message, the Pope expressed his trust that “by bringing together religious leaders, scholars, and experts from various fields in order to share research, clinical and pastoral experiences and best practices, the Symposium will contribute to a greater awareness of the gravity and extent of child sexual abuse and promote more effective cooperation at every level of society in eradicating this profound evil.”

Men and women of different backgrounds and histories…

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Activist organisations have welcomed the decision by the Anglican Church to launch an investigation into allegations of rape against one of the priests.

The church announced that a tribunal would hear the case involving allegations of rape by Reverend June Major against another cleric.

This followed protests and hunger strikes by Major since 2016, demanding that a tribunal be set up to investigate the alleged rape and be allowed to serve again as a priest.

Major said she hoped that the tribunal would also look into the role of the church in protecting the alleged rapist as he continued to minister in the Diocese of Cape Town.

The alleged rape incident took place in 2002 in Makhanda (Grahamstown) while Major was at theological seminary.

The case will be heard in terms of the church law, known as canons, and will involve public sessions.

However, Major said she was told that she…

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[Via National Catholic Reporter]

An independent investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against Catholic music composer David Haas in the years he held summer music programs at St. Catherine University in St. Paul shows that some members of Haas’ Music Ministry Alive team found his conduct uncomfortable, or were aware of “general comments” about his behavior.

Some of Haas’ actions appeared to be him engaging in grooming or predatory behavior, witnesses told investigators with trainED, a division of the Lathrop GPM law firm selected by the university to conduct the investigation.

But there was no evidence that complaints of any specific incident were made to St. Catherine University or any of its employees during the time Haas conducted Music Ministry Alive camps or was present at events on campus, from 1999 to 2017, the report said.

Becky Roloff, who is president of St. Catherine, said in a March 24…

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A former campus minister at Franciscan University of Steubenville has been charged with rape and sexual battery against an individual with mental illness placed under his care for mental health treatment.

The charges against Third Order Franciscan Fr. David Morrier were filed on April 7 in Jefferson County, Ohio. Morrier, 59, is charged with one count of rape and two counts of sexual battery dating from November 2010 through the spring of 2013.

According to the indictment, the alleged victim’s ability “to resist or consent was substantially impaired because of a mental or physical condition.” 

Morrier served as campus minister at Franciscan until 2014, which would include the time of the alleged sexual assault. 

A statement from Franciscan University said “the University has cooperated and will continue to cooperate fully with authorities concerning the conduct of Father David Morrier, TOR, prior to 2014.” 

“Franciscan University removed him permanently…

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[Includes a video of Kathryn Leehane’s four-minute testimony about abuse at Presentation School, which she gave in support of SB 1456, the Sexual Abuse-Free Education (SAFE) Act.]

I embarked upon a three-year mission to advocate for myself and the dozens of victims of childhood sexual abuse at my high school. Here’s my advice on how to confront a sexual abuse scandal at a K-12 school.

“After it was clear the board would not meet with us, I created a website, Make Pres Safe, to share the timeline of allegations of unreported abuse, support the survivors, and encourage the community to help us.” (Make Pres Safe / Facebook)

In October 2017, I wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post about the sexual abuse I endured at my private, Catholic high school and how it was mishandled by the administration. Though I didn’t disclose any names, dozens of people recognized…

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[Via the Canberra Times]

A Victorian man abused as a schoolboy by Catholic pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale and two teachers has won a $1.5 million settlement on the eve of the matter going to trial.

It was the early 1970s when the man, who can’t be named, joined Ridsdale’s long list of child victims, a list that would ultimately carry close to 70 names.

At the time Ridsdale was a priest of the Diocese of Ballarat in regional Victoria and lived at the presbytery next to St Alipius Boys’ School.

He was also the school’s chaplain but instead of offering spiritual guidance to his young charge he inflicted unspeakable acts of sexual abuse.

The then-schoolboy was also victimised by others at St Alipius – Christian Brothers teacher Gerald Leo Fitzgerald and Stephen Farrell, who taught him in years three and five.

Now, five decades after all that abuse, the schoolboy…

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Unfortunately, the Catholic Church has long had a reputation for not handling sexual abuse by its clergy in an acceptable fashion. There are articles, movies, and books that have been released concerning priests molesting children, as well as the church’s efforts to conceal the abuse. Several lawsuits have been filed against the Catholic Dioceses due to knowingly putting congregants at risk for sexual abuse and failing to warn victims.

The Catholic church is not the only religious organization guilty of hiding suspected and proven sexual abuse. The Protestant church is also guilty of moving abusers to other congregations and failing to warn members of the dangers of interacting with an abuser.

How Common Is Sexual Abuse in the Protestant Church?

A recent study sponsored by LifeWay Christian Resources reveals that 10% of Protestants under the age of 35 have left the church previously because they felt that sexual abuse and…

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A top USA Gymnastics official has threatened to remove approximately 40 former Olympians and U.S. national team members from Hall of Fame consideration if they do not contact the organization by April 15, a move described by Larry Nassar survivors as a heavy-handed attempt to punish them for speaking out about the sport’s culture of abuse.

In an email to former USA Gymnastics women’s program athletes Thursday, obtained by the Southern California News Group, Tom Koll, chairman of the organization’s women’s program committee, detailed the process for selecting the 2021 USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame class.

In the email, a follow-up to a similar April 1 email, Koll wrote: “I would respectfully ask you to reply to this email with an answer to the questions involving your willingness to be involved in the consideration process.”

At the end of the email, Koll added: “If I do not hear back from…

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The psychologist taught us that what we remember is not fixed, but her work testifying for defendants like Harvey Weinstein collides with our traumatized moment.

Elizabeth Loftus was in Argentina, giving talks about the malleability of memory, in October, 2018, when she learned that Harvey Weinstein, who had recently been indicted for rape and sexual assault, wanted to speak with her. She couldn’t figure out how to receive international calls in her hotel room, so she asked if they could talk in three days, once she was home, in California. In response, she got a series of frantic e-mails saying that the conversation couldn’t wait. But, when Weinstein finally got through, she said, “basically he just wanted to ask, ‘How can something that seems so consensual be turned into something so wrong?’ ”

Loftus, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, is the most influential female psychologist of the twentieth…

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A 36-year-old inmate at the Lorrain Correctional Institution has been indicted in connection with the July 2019 shooting death of William R. Ross III.

Shawn Deveron Brookins, formerly of Trotwood, was named by a Jefferson County grand jury Wednesday in a one-count indictment charging murder with a firearm specification. Trotwood is about 10 miles west of Dayton. Brookins had been identified by Police Chief William McCafferty as a person of interest just days after police found Ross’s body in an alley across the street from the Market Square Apartments on South Seventh Street.

McCafferty had said security cameras captured footage of a female exiting an apartment, followed by two males wearing sweatshirts pulled up over their heads before Ross, 24, staggered out of a Market Square apartment.

Grand jurors also returned a true bill against David R. Morrier, 59, a mental health professional charged with maintaining a three-year sexual relationship…

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A financial flood from child abuse claims is coming, says a leading priest of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and a settlement is the dam to prevent “devastation to parishes.”

The Rev. Glennon Jones, vicar-general, wrote in a letter this month that progress is being made in collecting donations for a bankruptcy settlement involving hundreds of allegations of abuse perpetrated by priests and other clergy in the territory overseen by the archdiocese.

Jones’ letter, posted on the archdiocese’s website, gives insight into the severity of the situation and into the strategy to get out from under the dilemma.

Meanwhile, a mediator continues to work to bring the matter to a resolution.

If the bankruptcy doesn’t go through, Jones wrote, “nothing is safe from liquidations for legal costs and lawsuit settlements — churches, halls, schools. Nothing.”

James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney who represents a committee of abuse survivors in the…

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The Diocese of Ogdensburg is once again being taken to court over child sex abuse claims.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents as C.C., filed suit last week in state Supreme Court in St. Lawrence County against the diocese and St. Peter’s Church in Plattsburgh. The suit was filed April 1.

The plaintiff is a resident of New York state, according to the complaint. It remains unclear how old the plaintiff is now, but the suit alleges the claimed actions began in 1968 when he was 4 years old.

“The allegations are that the Diocese of Ogdensburg failed to protect our client from sexual abuse,” attorney Jeffrey M. Herman, who is representing the plaintiff, said in an email statement Wednesday. “I am determined to help this brave man share his story and begin the healing process. We are a voice for victims and our sole focus is to help victims…

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[Via National Catholic Reporter]

As religious leaders, scholars, experts and abuse survivors come together online to participate in a three-day international symposium on faith, healing and prevention, Pope Francis sent a message as part of a series of opening remarks for the event.

Pope Francis hopes that by bringing together people from “various fields in order to share research, clinical and pastoral experiences and best practices, the symposium will contribute to a greater awareness of the gravity and the extent of child sexual abuse and promote more effective cooperation at every level of society in eradicating this profound evil,” said the message, sent on behalf of the pope by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

The international and interreligious virtual “Symposium on Faith and Flourishing: Strategies for Preventing and Healing Child Sexual Abuse” was April 8-10. Hosted by Harvard University and its Human Flourishing Program, the symposium was also…

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Adam Exner previously testified in Kamloops sexual abuse case.

Former Vancouver Roman Catholic Archbishop Adam Exner will have to once more testify in B.C. Supreme Court regarding alleged church sexual abuse.

Plaintiff Mark O’Neill applied to the court to have Exner take the stand for the case in which O’Neill seeks damages for physical and sexual abuse he claims he suffered between the ages of 13 and 17 as a student at the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission between 1974 and 1978.

The suit names as defendants the seminary; Westminster Abbey Ltd.; the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver, a Corporation Sole; Emerick Lazar; Harold Vincent Sander aka Dom Placidus Sander; Shawn Rohrback and John Doe.

O’Neill alleges the office of the archbishop negligently failed to mitigate known risks posed by the other defendants and is vicariously liable for their conduct. 

Exner was not archbishop until the 1990s, but…

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[Includes a video of David Clohessy’s statement.]

A local support group applauds the Missouri Supreme Court over a new law, but it wants more from the Catholic Church. 

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, wants the bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph to add four names to the list of accused clergy. 

Clohessy said the church should publicly name priests accused of being predators. The Diocese disputes some of those claims against local priests.

“Our main mission is to protect kids and kids are protected when predators are jailed,” volunteer and abuse survivor David Clohessy said. “But often that can’t happened. So the next best option is kids are safer when predators are exposed.”

Although the four men have passed away, they are “credibly accused” abusers, Clohessy said, and are not on the list.

Clohessy said in the case involving Fr. Alexander Sinclair, the church reached…

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[Includes a video of David Clohessy’s statement.]

Survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests lauded a Missouri Supreme Court decision that will allow some circumstantial evidence to be presented in lawsuits.

A small group of volunteers with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests gathered Wednesday outside the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in downtown Kansas City.

“The Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling yesterday, essentially made it somewhat easier for victims to expose predators and protect kids through civil lawsuits,” said SNAP member David Clohessy. “Let’s be clear — Missouri has always been and remains a very tough state for victims to get justice in, but yesterday was progress.”

The St. Louis County case alleged that a priest associated with the Marianist Province and Chaminade College Preparatory abused a student in the early 1970s.

The high court said an expert could…

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The state House on Wednesday passed legislation that would open a window for lawsuits by survivors of childhood sex abuse without first seeking to change the Constitution.

The measure isn’t likely to move in the state Senate, where Republicans have said they think that the change to allow lawsuits can only be legally provided by amending the Constitution, a process that will take until 2023 at the earliest.

House Bill 951 passed the state House by a vote of 149-52. Unlike prior versions of the proposal, this legislation would allow survivors of abuse to sue public schools in addition to private schools and other private organizations.

Erica Wright, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County, said there’s no indication the Senate will act on the measure any time soon.

“Last month, the Pennsylvania Senate passed a constitutional amendment giving all victims of childhood sexual abuse a two-year…

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The Vatican teams up with Harvard University to host a virtual Symposium on preventing and healing child sexual abuse, an event which grew out of a bird’s nest presented to Pope Francis, according to Jennifer Wortham.

A bird’s nest can carry a powerful message: “All children deserve a safe and nurturing environment in which to grow.”

That simple, yet important, aim lies at the heart of a global Symposium entitled “Faith and Flourishing: Strategies for Preventing and Healing Child Sexual Abuse.”

The 3-day, online event kicks off Thursday, and is chaired by Jennifer Wortham, Dr.PH with Harvard University. Beginning on 8 April, it marks what she hopes will someday become the World Day for Child Sexual Abuse Prevention, Healing, and Justice, a proposal which she is launching at the United Nations in September.

Dr. Wortham—whose own family was deeply wounded by the pain of clerical sexual…

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A former Catholic archbishop has been ordered by a B.C. judge to give evidence in old sex-abuse case.

A former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver has been ordered by a judge to give evidence in old sex-abuse case, the second time he will have given evidence in such a case.

The case involves a man named Mark O’Neill alleging that he was physically and sexually abused when he was a student at the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission. He claims that several former Benedictine priests abused him while he was between the ages of 13 and 17, with the alleged incidents occurring between 1974 and 1978.

In a court application, he sought to have Archbishop Emeritus Adam Exner, who served as Archbishop of Vancouver from 1991 to 2004, to be compelled to attend an examination for discovery, a pretrial questioning of a witness.

Exner is not himself named…

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The Archbishop of Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki has called for a tightening up of Canon law on clerical sex abuse.

“Canon law on how to deal with priestly sexual abuse must be changed. It needs tightening, that is, the rulings must be made clearer and more explicit,” he said.

For example, the statute of limitations for sexualised violence must be extended and the “contradictions in canon law and in the German bishops’ conference’s guidelines on priestly sexual abuse must be eliminated”, he added. 

Woelki also criticised that in canon law, acts of abuse by priests were still merely regarded as a violation of the celibacy rule. “This is an eternal continuation of the wrong perspective,” he emphasised.

He also promised to ensure that no more files would be destroyed in his archdiocese. He had already given the order that this should be so, he said. “In doing so, however,…

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Into Account has received numerous reports from young women who describe grooming, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse perpetrated by Kent Peters of Newton, Kansas. Some of them reported that they were originally contacted and targeted by Peters when they were minors. The contact began at high school and collegiate sporting events and at Camp Mennoscah, where Peters was a longtime counselor and served on the board.

In the time since we have received these reports, Into Account has worked with the women to contact the organizations where Peters has had access to young women and girls, so that these organizations are aware of his patterns of behavior. These organizations are Bethel College (North Newton, Kansas), Camp Mennoscah (Murdock, Kansas),  Hesston College (Kansas), Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Church USA, Newton High School (Kansas), Goessel High School (Kansas), and Hesston High School (Kansas). There are now several investigations underway of Peters’ treatment of…

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University officials said they plan to strengthen sexual behavior protocols.

An investigation sponsored by St. Catherine University into its relationship with Catholic music composer David Haas, who for years held summer music programs there, confirmed that there were reports of sexual misconduct by Haas.

It also found that the school failed to mandate background checks on groups renting its facilities when Haas was there.

The investigation also found that Haas and Lori True, assistant director of Haas’ Music Ministry Alive (MMA) summer program, were aware that two of their team members faced sexual misconduct allegations: former Hawaii priest George DeCosta and Atlanta-based composer Paul Tate.

The investigative report, prepared by a legal team hired by St. Catherine’s, indicated that the Twin Cities-based Haas had an unusually privileged relationship with the St. Paul university.

For nearly 20 years at St. Catherine’s, MMA received support from a…

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A day late and a dollar short.

That was the phrase used by Dr Tom Doyle, a non-practising Catholic priest to describe the church’s apology, at the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care last month, to those damaged by clergy sexual abuse.

Dr Doyle has been researching this issue since the 1980s when, as a canon lawyer stationed at the Vatican embassy in Washington, he was one of the authors of a 1985 confidential report on clergy sexual abuse of minors written for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He has been involved with pastoral care and advocacy for victims and families and has also been a consultant and expert witness in civil and criminal cases in many countries. In March, he gave an extensive submission by video link to the royal commission as part of its public hearings on redress after abuse in faith-based institutions and the entities the…

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A 37-year-old man is accusing City Councilor Doug Lachance of using alcohol, drugs and his power both as mayor and as a prominent member of a local church two decades ago to groom and sexually abuse him when he was a teenager.

Andy Brooks has come forward to Foster’s Daily Democrat with his allegations, as has another man who alleges Lachance groomed him for similar abuse and treated him inappropriately when he was a teenager. Each man says they’ve relayed their allegations against Lachance — who was also a state legislator at the time — to the Rochester Police Department and the Strafford County Attorney’s Office.

While police and county officials say they’re actively investigating sexual assault allegations brought against Lachance, 56, they declined to disclose specific details about the ongoing investigation. However, Capt. Todd Pinkham and County Attorney Tom Velardi confirmed the investigation represents the reopening of a case that began…

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Father Hans Küng, the prominent and sometimes controversial Swiss Catholic theologian, died peacefully in his sleep in the university town of Tübingen, Germany, where he had lived and lectured since 1960, said a spokesman for his Global Ethic Foundation. He was 93.

Father Küng was one of the most outspoken Roman Catholic theologians and one of the sharpest critics of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. He had worked with and studied with Pope Benedict, then-Father Joseph Ratzinger, in Tübingen in the 1960s.

Along with Father Ratzinger, Father Küng was one of the youngest theological experts advising bishops at the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65, but not long after the council he stirred controversy with his views on papal infallibility.

Because of this he had his “missio canonica,” the license needed to teach Roman Catholic theology, withdrawn in 1979 and was no longer allowed to teach as a…

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Almost 600 child sex abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Catholic Church’s Diocese of Brooklyn since the passage of the state’s Child Victims Act in 2019 through the end of 2020, according to a recent analysis.

The 571 complaints filed against the Diocese, which covers Brooklyn and Queens, during the first 17 months of the act includes filings against 532 institutions under control of the religious district and 301 alleged abusers. Of those alleged abusers are 230 members of the clergy, according to a report published Tuesday by the legal firm Jeff Anderson and Associates, which represents 127 plaintiffs in the two boroughs.

“To every survivor that has come forward and every survivor that does: it’s an act of courage and we’re grateful to you, knowing that you have made a difference in protecting kids in the future and in helping other survivors come forward and share…

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As more and more children spend their days online, predators are doing the same. To help combat this issue, Sacred Heart Catholic Church is partnering with a Houston-based organization to train caregivers and kids on how to see the signs and prevent the next child victim.

The two-part training will begin on April 18 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 7:30 p.m. and will better prepare parents, teachers, and other caregivers to keep children safe from predators by empowering them to have conversations with their children about their online activities. The second part of the training will take place on April 25 at the same time and place and is designed to help children ages 13 to 18 keep themselves safe online.

Street Grace is a faith-based organization that started in Atlanta and expanded to Houston about two years ago. The church and the organization were paired when Street Grace…

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Msgr. Robert Oliver, a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, said last week that due to a “mix-up,” he was not told in advance that his service on the Vatican’s safeguarding commission was ending after six years.

Oliver had been secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) since its beginning in 2014. For the two years prior, he had been promoter of justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

On March 24, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had extended the terms of 15 members of the commission for a year, adding a member, Chilean survivor of clerical sexual abuse Juan Carlos Cruz, for a term of three years. Oliver’s term as secretary was not renewed.

Oliver said in a Good Friday homily in Boston on April 2 that he had learned the news from journalists as he was boarding a plane to come…

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Jeff Anderson & Associates on Tuesday launched a database they hope will aid child abuse survivors, law enforcement and fellow attorneys in their efforts to seek justice from the Catholic Church in New York State.

The virtual event featured a breakdown of statistics for all dioceses in the state, including the Diocese of Ogdensburg.

Anderson said the purpose of the report was, in part, “to identify those institutions and Catholic bishops across this country who have been complicit in allowing children to have been abused and to do what we can with each survivor, one at a time, to make sure that we are doing something today to protect kids tomorrow.”

2,801 Complaints

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to allow more survivors to come forward, the legislature passed a bill, signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, that extended the window to file claims under the Child Victims Act, regardless of…

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The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed a decision by a lower court that First Amendment protections shield religious employers from some lawsuits in certain cases of clergy abuse.

But the court also overturned part of the lower court’s decision, saying it erred in not allowing plaintiff John Doe to bring expert testimony backing his claims of intentional failure to supervise clergy before a jury.

The case now returns to the St. Louis County Circuit Court.

The decision came in the case of John Doe 122 v. Marianist Province of the United States and Chaminade College Preparatory Inc.

According to the 6-0 Supreme Court opinion, written by Judge Paul Wilson, Doe has said Marianist Brother John Woulfe, his counselor at Chaminade about 50 years ago, sexually abused him.

Doe filed suit against the high school in 2015, alleging negligent supervision and intentional failure…

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[Via Manchester News Leader]

A survivor of alleged sexual abuse when he was a child is suing the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office for allegedly withholding public records related to credibly accused Catholic priests within the Diocese of Las Cruces.

“For decades the national Catholic Church used New Mexico as a destination to hide pedophile priests, taking advantage of the unique cultural makeup of our communities, including their devoutness,” attorney Paul Linnenburger said in a news release.

“The perpetrators and those that sheltered them relied on a vast network of secrecy for too long, and survivors have suffered the consequences. New Mexico was unwillingly made the front line in the sex abuse crisis by the Catholic Church and thus far our civic leaders have thus far failed to provide the support countless survivors here need. It is long since past time for transparency and accountability, and it is sad that…

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Archbishop Charles Chaput, who retired as the ordinary of Philadelphia a little more than a year ago, has just published his latest book.

The 76-year-old Capuchin is one of the leading American bishops driving “culture war” Catholicism in the United States.

And, as it was with his previous publications, the rollout of this new volume was a carefully planned operation.

There were interviews with the author to announce the book’s release and endorsements from a number of U.S. religious conservatives. They included clerics, journalists, academics and Catholic media celebrities.

Things Worth Dying For is the provocative title of the archbishop’s new work. And like his earlier books — and high-profile lectures — it is part of his ecclesial leadership style and effort to put forth a very particular vision for the Church and society.

Archbishop Chaput and many of his views need to be challenged. But most liberal…

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[Via Union of Catholic Asian News]

Archbishop Hesse offered his resignation after a report on the handling of clergy sex abuse cases in Cologne Archdiocese

Pope Francis has granted Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse a leave of absence from his duties, the Hamburg Archdiocese announced March 29. The archbishop recently offered his resignation after a report on the handling of clergy sex abuse cases in Cologne Archdiocese, where he served as director of personnel and vicar general.

In the interim, Msgr. Ansgar Thim, vicar general, will handle archdiocesan administration, reported German Catholic news agency KNA.

The question as to if or when the pope will accept Archbishop Hesse’s resignation remains open. The Vatican has so far not issued any statement on the case. Pope Francis now has time to unhurriedly decide about the resignation, KNA reported.

Further information was not available, a Hamburg Archdiocese spokesman said, adding that the pope had confirmed the…

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Boston College’s theology department chairman, Professor Richard Gaillardetz, has been cleared of allegations of sexual assault against a former classmate from over three decades ago, following an independent investigation.

In a statement provided to NCR, Boston College noted that the accusations against Gaillardetz “are not only not credible but are also false,” according to the law firm of DeMoura Smith LLP, which was retained by the Jesuit-run institution to investigate the allegations.

Gaillardetz will resume his duties in the department later this month.

In February, NCR first reported that Gaillardetz, professor of Catholic systematic theology and a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, had been accused by theologian Laura Grimes in a series of YouTube videos made public in January. The allegations date back to 1987 when the two were graduate students at the University of Notre Dame.

At the time,…

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The Pennsylvania General Assembly is again discussing legislation to aid survivors of childhood sexual abuse, which again faces an uphill battle to be passed.

The goal of several different proposed measures is to create a two-year window for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to sue their abusers, most notably Catholic dioceses across Pennsylvania.

The original measure, a constitutional amendment question that would have been posed to voters during the May 2021 primary election, has faced multiple setbacks.

The Pa. Department of State failed to advertise the constitutional amendment as required, forcing it to be pulled from the ballot in May.

An attempt to keep the amendment on the ballot through an emergency process failed in the state Senate on March 22.

Going through the constitutional amendment process from the beginning will take another two years, so the legislation’s original co-sponsors, State Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) and State Rep. Jim Gregory…

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As Southwest Baptist University looks for a new president to the lead the school in Bolivar, Missouri, a prominent group that advocates for victims and survivors of sexual abuse criticized the school’s trustees for naming a “controversial” minister as vice chair of the search committee.

Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, a group formed in 1989 to draw attention to clergy misconduct within the Catholic Church but that now also advocates more broadly for victims of clergy sexual abuse, issued the statement criticizing SBU on Friday (April 2). SNAP’s statement argued that “a Baptist minister accused of mishandling a child sex abuse case” shouldn’t be on SBU’s presidential search committee.

The election of Mike Roy as an SBU trustee previously sparked complaints in 2020 after advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse argued he mishandled allegations against a staff member while Roy served as pastor at First Baptist Church in…

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[Via Norwalk Reflector]

The University of Southern California has agreed to pay more than $1.1 billion to former patients of campus gynecologist George Tyndall, the largest sex abuse payout in higher education history.

The huge sum was revealed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court as lawyers for a final group of 710 women suing the university told a judge they had settled their claims for $852 million.

USC previously agreed to pay thousands of other alumnae and students $215 million in a 2018 federal class-action settlement. A group of about 50 other cases were settled for an amount that has not been made public.
The sole full-time gynecologist at the student health clinic from 1989 until 2016, Tyndall was accused of preying on a generation of USC women. After the Los Angeles Times exposed his troubled history at the university three years ago, the 74-year-old was stripped of his medical license…

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Lawsuits are piling up against the Waldwick school district by former students who say a high school teacher sexually abused them in the 1980s. 

Three men have come forward since November to accuse Michael Healy, a former substitute teacher and lunchroom monitor, of molesting them in bathrooms and hallways and on class trips. The abuse occurred under the nose of other school employees, the suits contend. 

The three lawsuits — the latest one filed last week in state Superior Court — place the district in an increasingly precarious legal situation, with an attorney for the three plaintiffs predicting that more alleged victims are likely to come forward. 

“My clients see these lawsuits as an opportunity to right some past wrongs,” said Madeleine Skaller, their attorney. “The abuse they endured had a very serious impact on the way that they’ve been able to live their lives.”

Efforts to reach Healy, who isn’t…

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Following aggressive verbal attacks on one of his bills at a hearing in February, Del. CT Wilson (D-Charles) struck back at Sen. Robert G. Cassilly (R-Harford), re-referring one of Cassilly’s bills back to its House committee on Monday evening, effectively killing it.

SB 610, which would have slowed the mandated phasing-in of accessible beds for disabled individuals in hotels and lodging establishments by one year, was one of just two of Cassilly’s bills to make it out of his home chamber during the 2021 legislative session.

Wilson’s motion to refer the bill back to the House Economic Matters Committee appears to be in retaliation for Cassilly’s harsh rhetoric during a Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee hearing on the Senate version of Wilson’s bill to remove the statute of limitations for child sex abuse survivors to pursue civil suits against their abusers.

In an interview Monday night, Wilson insisted that his motion…

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[Includes video report]

Fr. Michael Pfleger said he is “forbidden” to be present at “any public events or activities” until the investigation into accusations against the reverand is over. This includes any events that take place this Easter weekend.

Pfleger of St. Sabina Church on the South Side stepped aside from his duties in January after being accused of sexual abuse. 

Two brothers in their 60s said Pfleger sexually abused them in the 1970s.

In February, DCFS wrote in a letter to Pfleger that there was no evidence to support allegations accusing him of abusing two brothers in their early teens decades ago, but that it didn’t mean the claims are untrue.

The third accuser, who no longer lives in Illinois, said in the 1970s Pfleger gave him marijuana and liquor over a period of time and made an unwanted sexual advance on him when he was 18. 

“This week Cardinal Cupich sent a letter forbidding me under…

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Priests and senior clergy in England and Ireland, including Cardinal Vincent Nichols, have sent messages of support to LGBT+ Catholics hurt by the wording of a recent Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) statement about blessing civil partnerships, with some expressing sorrow and anger at the congregation’s “outdated” theology.

Representatives of St Nicholas of Tolentino Roman Catholic Church in Bristol, which ministers to the LGBTQ+ community, expressed their sorrow and pain at the statement and its “poor and outdated theology”. 

Signatories including the parish priest Fr Richard McKay said the CDF’s remarks “deny LGBTQ+ people’s identity and their God-given right to grow in love, to give and receive love. We rejoice in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the genuine Christ-given love and generosity that are clearly present in our same-sex couples. Their love for one another, flowing from them into the wider community in service and…

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When Norman Lamm, the longtime leader of Yeshiva University, died last spring at the age of 92, he took his secrets to his grave.

Lamm died of natural causes while a defendant in a high-profile sexual abuse lawsuit, before he could testify and provide what the plaintiffs and their lawyer say is “significant evidence” regarding a coverup in the 1970s and 1980s at the high school affiliated with the Modern-Orthodox Yeshiva University.

Now, amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the 47 plaintiffs are trying to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“It is vital that we be granted the opportunity to scrutinize key administrators and staff members who were in the know, before it’s too late,” said one of the plaintiffs, Mordechai Twersky, 57, in an email. “We’re determined to see this through and attain a semblance of justice for that which was done to us.”

The plaintiffs and their lawyer,…

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Conference organizer discusses why interdisciplinary approach is important, her own reconciliation with her faith

Preventing and healing child abuse involves more than medical care or social work. For many, particularly those whose abuse involved religious figures, it must incorporate faith as well. “Faith and Flourishing: Strategies for Preventing and Healing Child Sexual Abuse,” an online symposium on April 8, will bring together survivors, public health experts, and religious leaders from various traditions to explore best practices for confronting and ending such abuse as well as promoting recovery. The event, on the occasion of World Day for Child Sexual Abuse Prevention, Healing, and Justice, will feature the Rev. Dr. Denis Mukwege, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and is co-sponsored by the Harvard Divinity School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the World Council of Churches, the United Nations, and the Vatican, among others. Jennifer S. Wortham, executive director of…

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A priest who lived in Hanover was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in jail in the Superior Court of Justice in Walkerton for sexually abusing a child.

Mervin Perera, 73, was found guilty Jan. 30 of touching a girl for a sexual purpose, after a trial in Walkerton. He appeared in person in a Walkerton courtroom but the sentencing was conducted by videoconference.

Perera has appealed the court’s decision and was released immediately after he was sentenced, his lawyer, Scott Cowan said after the hearing. Perera is governed by release terms which include non-association with the victim.

Perera served as a Roman Catholic priest for many decades, is retired and is no longer living in Hanover, Cowan said.

The trial heard evidence from the victim and her family, none of whom may be identified under a court-ordered publication ban, to protect the victim’s identity.

Sentencing submissions were made Feb. 4,…

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A newly filed lawsuit alleges that Kevin Gugliotta, a priest in the Newark Archdiocese, sexually abused a boy at a Union County parish in 2006, a few years after church officials decided he could not be punished for alleged abuse from decades earlier when he was a Boy Scout leader.

Newark Archdiocese officials have said they had no authority to punish Gugliotta after first hearing about allegations against him in 2003 because he was not yet a priest at the time of the alleged abuse, which had occurred in the 1980s.

After those 2003 allegations, Gugliotta worked another 13 years as a priest — and oversaw youth ministry at one parish, according to court documents — until archdiocesan officials removed him from ministry after his 2016 arrest on child pornography charges in Pennsylvania, where he now lives and is listed on the state’s sex offender registry.

Gugliotta, who had also served at times in…

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On Monday 9 March 2021, a video of a man assaulting a young girl went viral. The incident occurred in the upscale Cairo neighbourhood of Maadi. The CCTV footage quickly sparked outrage within Egyptian circles, serving as a reminder of the everyday sexual violence and abuse Egyptian women and girls face.

As a trained pharmacist and community health worker serving immigrant communities in Canada, I have been closely following the many events that affect the lives of Egyptians living in Canada and America. Observing Egyptians abroad and how they interact with events around them is key to building healthier and sustainable communities that add to the mosaic of such plural societies abroad.

Egyptians abroad are not immune to the systemic issues which contribute to the rampant sexual violence in Egyptian communities. Sally Zakhari, an Egyptian-American living in Florida, USA has been battling the Coptic Orthodox Church for…

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Every week, The Post runs a collection of letters of readers’ grievances — pointing out grammatical mistakes, missing coverage and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong and, occasionally, offer praise. Here, we present this week’s Free for All letters.

Regarding the March 18 Style article “The father, the son and the holy Cuomo mess”:

Would The Post portray a Muslim politician of questionable morals as an imam? A Jewish politician of the same as a rabbi? I certainly hope not. But, if not, why is it acceptable to portray New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), a man accused of moral error who happens to be a Catholic, as a Catholic priest, surrounded by a halo, holding a Holy Bible and in a gesture of blessing? For what reason is the headline of the story — a play on the words with which Catholics proclaim their belief…

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A federal judge on Wednesday denied the hiring of a financial advisor, which would have cost up to $75,000 a month, in the Archdiocese of Agana’s two-year-old bankruptcy case.

The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which includes survivors of child sexual abuse by dozens of Catholic priests on Guam, filed the application to hire a financial advisor last year.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood’s March 31 decision denies the committee’s application to employ Ankura Consulting Group LLC as their financial advisor.

The judge said the denial is based on the same reasons stated in her April 24, 2020 order in which she reminded the parties in the bankruptcy case “that the Debtor here is not Lehman Brothers,” referring to a global financial services firm.

At the time, the judge was already inclined to deny the application, saying the debtor, or the archdiocese, “simply cannot afford it.”

“It has…

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Membership in houses of worship, whether it’s a mosque, synagogue, or church, dropped below 50% for the first time since Gallup started polling for information.

The decline of religious membership in the United States was the subject of a new poll from Gallup this week, which, according to the survey, marked a milestone this past year.

“In many ways, it’s not surprising. It fits the pattern that we’ve seen in the last years,” said Jonathan Lawrence an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Canisius College.

“Typically, younger people don’t feel as connected to their religious organizations,” he added, compared with 58 percent of Baby Boomers and 50 percent of Generation X, those aged 41 to 56. The Gallup survey found that only 36 percent of millennials had a defined membership.

But Dr. Stan Bratton, CEO of the Network of Religious Communities, a multi-faith organization…

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Tensions between abuse survivors and insurers have always been high. Dr Julie Macfarlane, a distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law (Emerita) at the University of Windsor and the director of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project, explains why this might not be changing any time soon.

I believe insurance companies, and the lawyers who work for them, depend on failed claims for their business model. In other words, their legal defence strategy is inherently adversarial and positional, and aims to minimise or deny loss.

In the last 15 years, some insurers have recognised another important strategy – settling cases is less costly than fighting them all the way to court. Alas, this message is continuously undermined by the legal profession’s addiction to winning.

Some would say it is naïve to ever imagine an insurer embracing a genuine commitment to settlement other than in cases they know they will…

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KRAKÓW, Poland – After the Vatican sanctioned two retired bishops in Poland, abuse victims say it’s a good start, but may be too little, too late.

On Tuesday, the Vatican imposed sanctions on emeritus Bishop Edward Janiak of Kalisz and Archbishop Sławoj Leszek Głódź of Gdańsk. The two had been featured in the ground-breaking documentaries “Hide and Seek” (2020) and “Tell No One” (2019) by the Sekielski Brothers.

The filmmakers documented how, for years the bishops ignored sexual abuse by the clergy in their dioceses, refusing to help victims or even properly investigate accusations.

Both retired prelates have now been ordered to live outside their former dioceses and are forbidden to participate in public religious celebrations or lay meetings.

They are also required to pay an “appropriate amount from personal funds” to the St. Joseph Foundation, an institute established by the Polish Church to help victims of ecclesial sexual abuse.

…

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The number of Catholics and permanent deacons in the world has shown steady growth, while the number of religious men and women continued to decrease, according to Vatican statistics.

At the end of 2019, the worldwide Catholic population exceeded 1.34 billion, which continued to be about 17.7% of the world’s population, said an article published March 26 in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

It marked an increase of 16 million Catholics — a 1.12% increase compared to 2018 while the world’s population grew by 1.08%.

The article contained a handful of the statistics in the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, which reported worldwide church figures as of Dec. 31, 2019. It also announced the publication of the 2021 “Annuario Pontificio,” a volume containing information about every Vatican office, as well as every diocese and religious order in the world.

According to the statistical yearbook, the number of Catholics increased in…

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Although “nearly one-third of American adults (31.7%) say they were raised Catholic, only about one in five (20.8%) identified as Catholic” in a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. “The share of adults who identify as Christians fell from 78% to just under 71%” between 2007 and 2014. But “within Christianity the greatest net losses, by far, have been experienced by Catholics,” according to the “America’s Changing Religious Landscape” study.

The survey also showed that – since 34% of Catholics were Latino and 8% Black, Asian or other – the number of white Catholics had fallen to less than 12% of the population.

An update on the “America’s Changing Religious Landscape” study was published in October 2019. “Catholics no longer constitute a majority of the U.S. Hispanic population …. 47% of Hispanics described themselves as Catholic, down from 57% a decade ago,” Pew stated. This decline occurred while the U.S….

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The disgraced bishop of Palmerston North, Charles Drennan, still retains his title, but must follow conditions imposed on him by the Vatican, a commission has heard.

Cardinal John Dew apologised to victims of abuse from the Catholic Church at the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care on Friday and he also discussed Drennan’s resignation.

Drennan resigned as Palmerston North bishop in October 2019 after allegations involving an inappropriate relationship and harm of a young woman who was not a minor.

Drennan has not been laicised, which is the loss of clerical character but not the same as resignation, and remains a bishop, but must operate under conditions imposed by the Vatican.

“He was to move out of the diocese of Palmerston North and find accommodation outside the dioceses,” Dew said. “He is not to participate in any public ministry whatsoever.

“He is not to wear any episcopal attire or similar…

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“They (the Vatican) have all the information from the investigation. I really don’t know why he is still a bishop,” says Cardinal John Dew of Wellington

New Zealand Cardinal John Dew is wondering why former Bishop Charles Drennan of Palmerston North, who resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct with a young woman, still remains a bishop.

Pope Francis October 4 accepted Drennan’s resignation over allegations of engaging in “unacceptable behavior of a sexual nature.” The behavior was not with a minor, nor criminal.

The New Zealand Catholic Church’s independent investigation body, the National Office of Professional Standards, had already contracted a licensed investigator to undertake an investigation under the oversight of Cardinal Dew, archbishop of Wellington.

Both Bishop Drennan and the young woman participated in the independent investigation.

Cardinal Dew in answer to questions from counsel Sally McKechnie at the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care pointed out that the…

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The retired archbishop of Gdansk and ousted bishop of Kalisz are banished from public events and fined for covering up sex abuse cases

The Holy See has placed sanctions on two controversial bishops in Poland following investigations that revealed both prelates badly mishandled cases of priests who sexually abused minors.

Archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glódz, who led the Archdiocese of Gdansk from 2008 until his retirement last August at age 75, was charged with “negligence”.

Bishop Edward Janiak, who was appointed to the Diocese of Kalisz in 2012, was forced to resign last October. But he had already been stripped of his authority last June for mishandling numerous cases of clergy sex abuse and the diocese was put under the leadership of a temporary administrator.

The Polish Bishops’ Conference said the Holy See ordered both men to leave their former dioceses. The Vatican also informed them they could not participate in…

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Victims of childhood sexual abuse want to offer a rival reorganization plan for the Scouts, saying they haven’t come up with a viable settlement

Victims of childhood sexual abuse are challenging the Boy Scouts of America for control of the youth group’s multibillion-dollar bankruptcy case, saying they can save scouting’s future while compensating those who have suffered from its history of abuse.

An official committee representing sex-abuse victims said that because the Boy Scouts have been unable to come up with a viable settlement offer, victims themselves should be able to float a competing chapter 11 plan.

“The committee filed this motion because abuse survivors are not fairly treated under the Boy Scouts proposed plan,” said James Stang, lawyer for the committee.

The Boy Scouts have said they need to exit chapter 11 by the end of the summer for financial reasons, but don’t have the support of victims’ groups,…

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Victims try new tactic: writing to church employees

Group finds two more local predators; total is now nine

Diocese is ‘silent’ about 1 who was ousted 2 years ago

SNAP nicknames Jeff City Bishop ‘Minimum’ McKnight

Stats: Mid-MO diocese has most abusers per parishioner

WHAT:

Holding signs, childhood photos and a large map of Boone County at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will disclose that

• ten credibly accused predator priests are/were in Boone Co.,
• mid-MO has the highest rate of predator priests in the state, and
• bypassing mid-MO’s bishop, the group is writing to dozens of Boone County church staff about predator priests.

The victims will also demand that Jeff City’s Catholic bishop

• tell the public more about a priest accused two years ago,
• add more priests to his ‘credibly accused’ website list, and
• post more details about all child molesting clerics, like other bishops do (like photos and…

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[VIDEO]

The battle to reform the Catholic Church has been plagued by a long-running sexual abuse crisis. Author, historian and journalist James Carroll argues that male dominance is the root cause of the church’s issues. His new memoir, “The Truth at the Heart of the Lie,” links his own crisis of faith as a priest to the history of the church itself. He joins Michel Martin to discuss his call for reform.

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Cardinal John Dew told a royal commission of inquiry that the Catholic Church in New Zealand is ashamed and saddened that people suffered abuse while in its care.

The cardinal spoke during opening statements by the Catholic Church at the second phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care’s hearing on redress in Auckland March 22.

“Our hope is that this commission will lead us and help us to be a better church — and that is a church (in which) this disgrace of abuse will be addressed, will cease, and our church will always be a church that gives life and hope. That’s our mission as a church.

“It is always to give life, the life that Christ offers us. We know that, in this, we still have much to learn.”

In preceding days, the hearing heard from representatives of the Salvation Army and the Anglican…

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In 2018, when the Pope visited Chile, he dismissed as “slander” the allegations of Juan Carlos Cruz that a bishop had covered up abuse by Fernando Karadima. 

Cruz and two others had bravely come forward with details of abuse perpetrated against them by Karadima, then a highly-respected and powerful priest. They had faced attacks, criticism and a refusal from the church hierarchy to believe them. 

Following his Chile trip, Francis realised he had made a bad misjudgment, commissioned an investigation, and apologised to Cruz and the other survivors. 

Three years on, Cruz, an international advocate for survivors of clerical abuse, has been appointed by the Pope as a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. It is quite a turnaround and comes seven years after two Chilean cardinals managed to block an earlier attempt to appoint him to the safeguarding advisory body. 

The reversal is…

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A federal bankruptcy judge has temporarily blocked three dozen Child Victims Act cases against area Catholic parishes and schools from moving forward in State Supreme Court.

The judge put the 36 cases on hold until Oct. 1, saying their advancement now would threaten the Buffalo Diocese’s bankruptcy reorganization effort.

“At a time when the vast majority of interested parties are working to find a way for the debtor to reorganize, the distraction of state court litigation for the benefit of a few will endanger the prospects of an outcome for the benefit of everyone,” said Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York in a written ruling Wednesday.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2020 automatically stopped 260 Child Victims Act lawsuits against the diocese from advancing in state courts. Catholic parishes, schools and other entities that are separate nonprofit corporations…

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The state legislature passed a bill which allows survivors of sexual assault to sue their perpetrators no matter how much time has passed. The bill eliminates the statute of limitations in civil cases.

Survivors have been trying to pass the bill for 30 years, telling their stories year after year. This year, a state lawmaker was among them.

“I was 14 when I was raped, and I remember every single moment,” Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet said on the floor of the House. For years, she told no one. She broke her silence as her bill appeared in danger of failing. She says sexual assault causes lifelong trauma.

“For the first time since I was 14, and I’m 48, I am able to do things I haven’t been able to do because of the attack. Every relationship – every single relationship – after that experience was impacted.”

Yet, she says,…

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Last fall, in my capacity as chair of the Independent Task Force on the Response to Sexual Abuse within the Diocese of Springfield, I wrote an op-ed providing an overview of the work the task force was undertaking with emphasis on the stakeholder input that we would be seeking.

I write now to affirm that the task force has been actively engaged and has made excellent progress in our data collection endeavor and in other phases of our work.

First, as we announced at a press conference on Jan. 8, we engaged the services of Stop It Now!, an independent professional organization in Northampton, to conduct focus groups with survivors of clergy sexual abuse. Obviously, there is no more important group from whom we need input than the men and women who have been sexually victimized by priests and other diocesan employees. We expect to…

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SEXUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS continue to make headlines, and subsequent media coverage indicates that ministry leaders tend to be unprepared for child sexual abuse issues.

Unfortunately, this lack of awareness is not unusual.

Earlier articles in this series introduced topics that church leaders must understand and apply, if children are to be effectively protected from this known risk. (To access them all, download the Stop Sexual Abuse eBook.) This writing is intended to guide ministry leaders to current resources providing a more thorough coverage of the critical concepts introduced earlier in the series. 

As Christ-followers, attorneys and child sexual abuse experts, we created MinistrySafe to raise awareness and provide effective resources to prevent sexual abuse in ministry contexts. We believe it’s imperative that ministry leaders better understand sexual abuse in order to prevent it, properly respond to it, and provide appropriate care for abuse survivors.  

How can future ministry…

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Attorney for two brothers accusing Pfleger of abuse says CPD is looking at a fourth possible complaint.

There is a possible fourth person alleging abuse by St. Sabina’s father Michael Pfleger.

Attorney Eugene Hollander, who is representing two brother alleging abuse over 40 years ago, tells The Bruce St. James Show on WLS 890-AM, that in addition to the brothers, there is a third unnamed accuser and possibly a fourth.

“First of all, we have not just the brothers, but a third victim has come forward and said that he was sexually assaulted by Father Pfleger,” Hollander said. “Additionally, I’ve been in communication with the Chicago Police Department, a detective, who told me there is in fact a fourth victim who made a complaint to DCFS and it was turned over to the Chicago Police Department.”

Hollander adds he has no additional details about the complaint.

Meanwhile, his two clients…

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Two men who claim St. Sabina’s activist priest the Rev. Michael Pfleger sexually abused them in the 1970s took lie-detector tests.

Two men who say St. Sabina’s activist priest, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, of sexual abuse in the 1970s have taken lie-detector tests in hopes of strengthening their accusations.

On Tuesday, Attorney Eugene Hollander also told WLS AM 890 morning show host Bruce St. James the brothers who are now in their 60s “wanted to use every means at their disposal to get the truth out there and show the St. Sabina community, the Archdiocese of Chicago and the independent review board that they’re telling the truth,” about their claims Pfleger assaulted them in the 1970s.

Hollander said the victims also want Pfleger to submit to a lie-detector test.

“We want Father Pfleger to tell the truth here,” he said. “We want him to submit to a polygraph exam.”

Pfleger’s…

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Such tests are not admissible in Illinois courts, however

Two brothers who accused St. Sabina Church leader Rev. Michael Pfleger of sexual misconduct say they have taken and passed lie detector tests in wake of what they described as attacks on their credibility, but Pfleger’s attorneys are raising their own questions.

The brothers, who live in Texas and spoke exclusively to NBC Chicago, said they chose to take polygraph exams on their own to help quell credibility concerns sparked by members of St. Sabina Church. Such tests are not admissible in Illinois courts, however.

“We can’t even get our own community to believe,” the older of the two brothers said.

The brothers, who are in their 60s and have not yet publicly identified themselves, have accused Pfleger of sexually abusing them decades ago. They allege that Pfleger groomed them as children and abused them at Chicago-area rectories. Their attorney, Eugene Hollander,…

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A startling fact jumps out when you review the list of priests credibly accused of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Camden New Jersey: Many of them are still alive.

So one or more of them could have raped a girl yesterday, groped a boy last night or is grooming an unsuspecting family full of kids right now.

The only silver lining here is that since they’re alive, they might still be prosecuted, convicted, jailed and kept away from kids.

This is one reason why you should come forward now if you saw, suspected or suffered ANY wrongdoing by ANY current or former Camden area clerics.

There are actually LOTS of reasons to come forward now. But here’s one you may not be aware of: victims of Camden clergy face an impending deadline.

On June 30, 2021 the Camden diocesan bankruptcy window closes. If you come forward before…

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On today’s program: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse may have to wait two more years for a chance to sue their abusers; the organizer of a Pittsburgh “Stop Asian Hate” protests explains why it took a mass shooting for some to mobilize; and a local theater group is using the postal service to share art with others.

[AUDIO — Some survivors of sexual abuse are still waiting for the chance to sue perpetrators
(0:00 — 7:30)]

Commonwealth residents who were the victims of clergy sexual abuse could end up waiting two years or more before they get special legal window to pursue civil cases against their abusers. 

This came after the Wolf administration failed to provide proper public notice of an amendment passed by the legislature to be on the May ballot.

Then the state Senate halted an emergency measure to amend the state constitution. 

“After careful consideration, it has been determined…

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Eleven years later, an investigation by David and Nancy French plus a site for victims try to grasp the extent of predatory behavior by a longtime camp director.

Former Kanakuk director Pete Newman has been in prison since 2010 for abusing boys from the popular Christian summer camp, but a recent report and petition say the public still doesn’t know the extent of the child sex abuse that went on there.

While 19 victims were identified in the initial investigation against Newman, a civil complaint tallied at least 57, and a prosecutor in the case estimates there could be hundreds over Newman’s 15 years at the Missouri camp, according to a report published Sunday by David French and Nancy French through the conservative outlet The Dispatch.

The Frenches’ investigation noted how the number of Kanakuk victims who have come forward over the years remains unknown. Many have been settled complaints with…

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Readers with long memories will recall that, when the Internet arrived it had an immediate impact on important subjects that rarely received adequate coverage in mainstream media.

Take religion, for example. The lower cost of publishing online led to an explosion of forums, listservs, newsletters, online “radio” channels, podcasts and weblogs. Some failed or evolved into new forms — consider the long and complicated histories of Beliefnet and Patheos — and others became, well, normal.

Now, in the “cancel culture” era, it’s clear that another example of online evolution is affecting serious coverage of religion, as well as other complicated topics.

I am referring to the controversies surrounding Substack and the myriad newsletters and alternative publications thriving there. For a sample of the fea paranoia surrounding Substack, click into this thread from a professor at the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry or read between the lines of this…

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The inside story of how Kanakuk—one of America’s largest Christian camps—enabled horrific abuse.

The first thing you need to know about Pete Newman is that people loved him. He has olive skin, dark hair, and thick eyebrows that generated good-natured “unibrow” teasing. Girls wanted to date him, guys wanted to be him, and children wanted to follow him.

He was a camp director at Kanakuk Kamps, one of the largest Christian camps in the world. Kanakuk is an immense operation. Since its founding in 1926, it claims to have served more than 450,000 campers. Its main campus is located outside of Branson, Missouri, but it has international reach. Every summer approximately 20,000 kids pass through its gates, and the institution is particularly prominent with the Evangelical elite. 

Newman was the camp’s rock star. A person who went to Auburn University with Newman said, memorably, “If Jesus and Pete walked into…

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The Archdiocese of Port of Spain said an investigation has found there to be no evidence to support or substantiate the claims made by a woman against a priest in an online video.

Earlier this month, the Catholic Church announced a probe into the claims made by the woman.

In the five-minute viral video, the woman accused the priest of misusing his office in a number of ways.

She claimed that after being unjustly fired from her job as a security guard at the church, she felt compelled to speak out. 

In a statement on Tuesday, the Archdiocese of Port of Spain said an independent investigation by a team of professionals was conducted, and a detailed report submitted.

It said the investigation has found there to be no evidence to support the woman’s claims.

The church added that it is concerned for the well-being of all persons involved and will continue to…

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The RC Archdiocese of Port of Spain has cleared a priest of allegations made against him by a woman.

On Tuesday, the archdiocese issued a public notice, which it shared on its social media accounts, including Twitter and Facebook.

It said further to the publication of an online video making allegations against the RC priest, what it described as an independent investigation by a team of professionals had been carried out, and a detailed report submitted.

“The investigation has found there to be no evidence to support or substantiate the claims made in the video,” the notice said.

“The Church is concerned for the well-being of all people involved and will continue to provide prayerful support. Gratitude is extended to the persons who assisted in the investigations.”

A woman in a video which began circulating on social media a few weeks ago accused the priest of getting her fired “for…

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On a practical level, retired Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia said he wrote his new book, “Things Worth Dying For: Thoughts on a Life Worth Living,” because his publisher was actively “trying to get me to write in my old age.”

He has three previous books — on living the Catholic faith in a post-Christian world, rediscovering the basics of the faith and living our Catholic beliefs in political life to serve the nation.

In his new 240-page work, just published by Henry Holt, he tackles life’s central questions: why we’re here, how we can “live and die meaningfully” and “the important things we Christians should be willing to die for.”

Archbishop Chaput told Catholic News Service he hopes that after reading his latest book, “anybody who is a serious Christian will take the Gospel more seriously, their lives more seriously and the world around…

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Bill headed to Polis’ desk would eliminate statute of limitations for child sex cases

Colorado will give recent and future sexual assault survivors, including those molested as children, unlimited time to sue their abusers. But a separate effort to give victims of historic abuse an opportunity to take legal action remains pending and uncertain.

State lawmakers on Tuesday sent Senate Bill 73, which would eliminate the civil statute of limitations for sexual assault cases, to Gov. Jared Polis, who says he will sign the measure into law.

Legislation eliminating the civil statute of limitations for sexual assault cases has repeatedly failed in the Colorado General Assembly, including at least three times in the 15 years preceding the 2021 lawmaking term. But following a 2019 report on widespread child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Colorado, the effort gained new steam.

“I’m truly speechless,” said state Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta…

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Reports says many survivors will need ongoing supports when State body closes down

The need for funding to support survivors of abuse to be “guaranteed” and “not voluntary” is among the recommendations for Government in a report evaluating the work of the State body set up to help them.

The findings of the review were sent to the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee, which has been examining the organisation.

The report outlines how Caranua did not receive any public funding for its work providing grants relating to housing, education, health and wellbeing for survivors of child abuse in church-run institutions.

Instead, it was funded by the voluntary contributions sought by the Government from religious organisations in 2009 following the publication of the Ryan report on abuse.

The report on Caranua said that the funding from congregations was provided on an “ad-hoc basis” and this approach caused “particular issues for Caranua in…

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Survivors of abuse and the network groups that support them all agree on one thing: The urgent need for an independent statutory body to oversee the redress process for victim

They want the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care to make a recommendation to the government as soon as possible and not wait for its redress recommendations due by the end of the year.

The commission in late 2020 held the first of two public hearings on redress after abuse in faith-based institutions, New Zealand’s churches and entities they control.

The first heard from survivors and the most recent, which ended on Monday, was the turn of the Salvation Army and the Anglican and Catholic Churches to respond.

What the survivor networks says

The Network of Survivors of Abuse in Faith-Based Institutions said current processes were fatally flawed.View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island has sold its headquarters for $5.2 million in an effort to compensate its creditors.

The property in Rockville Centre, at 50 North Park Ave., was purchased by Synergy Holding Partners, which includes a five-story office building and a parking lot, said Sean P. Dolan, director of communications for the Diocese. 

As part of the agreement, the diocese will continue to occupy the building until August 31, while it completes its transition to new facilities. 

The diocese, home to 1.4 million Catholics on Long Island, declared bankruptcy in October after it was hit with more than 200 lawsuits under the state’s Child Victim’s Act which covers victims of sexual abuse. 

Although Dolan said the monies will be used to pay creditors, he did not specify if the money would be used to pay off the many lawsuits under the Child Victim’s Act.

The…

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Senate Bill 73 is on its way to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk and would eliminate Colorado’s six-year statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims

Colorado will give recent and future sexual assault survivors, including those molested as children, unlimited time to sue their abusers. But a separate effort to give victims of historic abuse an opportunity to take legal action remains pending and uncertain.

State lawmakers on Tuesday sent Senate Bill 73, which would eliminate the civil statute of limitations for sexual assault cases, to Gov. Jared Polis, who says he will sign the measure into law.

Legislation eliminating the civil statute of limitations for sexual assault cases has repeatedly failed in the Colorado General Assembly, including at least three times in the 15 years preceding the 2021 lawmaking term. But following a 2019 report on widespread child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Colorado, the effort gained new steam. 

…

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Six months before his death, the Vatican cleared a former prominent cleric on Staten Island of sex-abuse charges that previously were deemed credible in an independent review process sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York, according to reports in Catholic New York.

The Holy See restored the good name and priestly status of Monsignor Francis Boyle several months before his death on March 13 and years after his stunning fall from grace amid the Roman Catholic church’s sex-abuse scandal.

Monsignor Boyle was a priest for about 40 years when he was named a monsignor in 1995 while at Blessed Sacrament R.C. Church in West Brighton, where he assumed the pastorship in January 1991. He retired in July 2004 and transitioned to the role of pastor emeritus for the parish.

The monsignor, who held powerful positions within the archdiocese for decades, died at age 91 after residing at St. John Vianney…

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A Louisiana appellate court ruled the Diocese of Lafayette must give information to a woman’s lawyer who has filed a lawsuit against the church and a former priest. 

The Third Circuit Court of Appeal said in its ruling last week that the diocese must respond to some questions before a Lafayette Parish judge can rule whether the lawsuit was brought forward in a timely fashion. 

The questions are being asked by the lawyer of a woman, named only as TM Doe, who is suing the Diocese of Lafayette and Msgr. Robie Robichaux for damages after the woman claimed Robichaux abused her as a teen. 

Robichaux was placed on leave in October 2018 after sexual abuse claims were brought against him. At least two victims have come forward and reported sexual abuse against Robichaux. He was on the Diocese of Lafayette’s list of credibly accused priests that was released in April 2019.

What…

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Following its bankruptcy filing last year, the Diocese of Buffalo, New York has cut spending on some of its Catholic schools. 

The cuts are part of broader cost-saving measures, which include nearly $10 million in reductions in operations expenses such as pastoral costs, ministerial support, and religious development. 

The Buffalo News reported that the diocese spent $3.8 million on bankruptcy-related expenses in its first year of bankruptcy. This amount nearly rivals its budget for the diocese’s 34 Catholic elementary schools.

The subsidiaries for the diocese’s schools are funded by school assessment fees, which are taken from parishes without education systems and then redistributed to parishes with schools.

The diocese collected $1.9 million in assessment fees taken from March until August last year. It has provided about $460,000 in elementary school funding since the diocese filed for bankruptcy in February 2020. 

Charles Mendolera, executive director of financial administration for the diocese,…

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Unfortunately, a few unscrupulous boarding school operators have exploited a loophole in the law to further their sick desire to abuse children.

Missouri and South Carolina are the only two states in the nation that do not require licensing or regulation of faith-based boarding schools. As a result, sexual abuse and other types of abuse have occurred.

Rep. Rudy Veit, R-Jefferson City, is looking to close this loophole, and he’s finding support among his House colleagues.

As we recently reported, Veit is sponsoring House Bill 557 to require “child residential homes” to notify the Missouri Department of Social Services of their existence and compliance with regulations intended to protect the safety of children in the residence.

The House unanimously passed the bill. Now, we ask the Senate to also support this important bill.

Our recent story on the bill shows one example of the need: This month the Missouri attorney…

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Facility is owned by the Sisters of Mercy

St. Patrick’s Nursing Home in St. John’s is still owned by the Sisters of Mercy, but their properties are not tied to the Catholic archdiocese, which is going through a financial restructuring.

Congregational leader Sister Elizabeth Davis said Tuesday the order’s properties are separate from the Archdiocese of St. John’s.

The Sisters of Mercy own St. Patrick’s Mercy Home, and Eastern Health partners with the Catholic order to use the facility to operate its long-term care program, Eastern Health said this week.

If Eastern Health no longer required use of the property, it would go back to the Sisters of Mercy. Eastern Health has not been involved in any discussions about buying the property.

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador owns St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital, which was originally a Catholic hospital operated by nuns.

A total of 34 public schools are still…

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