ABUSE TRACKER

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno is dealing with a new set of financial troubles, one that’s unrelated to the sexual abuse claims that last year prompted it to file bankruptcy — and this time the problem directly impacts former and current church workers.

Bishop Joseph Brennan sent a letter last month to members of its retirement plan saying their pensions will be reduced because the benefit is “significantly underfunded,” along with those of tens of thousands of other enrollees around the country.

He noted that accrued benefits under the plan were frozen effective June 30, meaning that despite their continued contributions, active employees’ pensions have not risen in value since then.

At the heart of the issue is an estimated $800 million gap between assets held by the pension fund’s manager and the liabilities it faces. If U.S. dioceses don’t greatly increase their contributions to the benefit — and…

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Legal point system valued one survivor’s abuse at $1.6 million. He received about $40,000.

Lee Forbes always intended to keep what happened to him a secret.

“Decades,” he said, when asked how long he stayed quiet about the abuse he incurred as a young Boy Scout.

“How do you sit and, you know, let the world know that you were a victim? It’s not comfortable,” Forbes explained.

See original article for video: Survivors of Boy Scout abuse frustrated by low payouts, long delays

Forbes, who was raised by a single mom in California, started in the Scouts when he was just a child — first as a Cub Scout and then as a Boy Scout with the Explorer Program. That’s when, he said, a young Scout leader, fresh out of the Navy, targeted him and sexually abused him.

“Somewhere between a year-and-a-half and two years. It was a very slow…

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A former youth pastor at a northern Virginia church appeared in court Monday after being indicted on charges of sexually abusing children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Authorities said Jeffrey Turner Taylor, 66, served as a youth pastor at a church in Falls Church from 1990 to 2002. During that time, Taylor allegedly groomed multiple boys by presenting his conduct as spiritual guidance.

“His alleged grooming behaviors included sexual horseplay, probing inquiries into the sexual secrets and habits of boys, and detailed revelations about his own sexual experiences,” the states attorney’s office wrote in a press release sent to 7News.

Authorities said Taylor allegedly took boys to ministry events in other states and countries with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and on several occasions sexually abused or attempted to sexually abuse multiple boys.

SEE ALSO…

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Tazewell County’s chief prosecutor tells 25News a former pastor’s conviction for distributing harmful materials to a minor does not rise to the level under state law of requiring he register as a sex offender.

Former Riverside Community Church lead pastor Michael Ritchason was charged late last year and eventually pleaded guilty to the least serious Class 4 felony.

“The offense of Harmful Material is not a registrable offense under Illinois law,” said Tazewell County State’s Attorney Kevin Johnson in a statement to 25News.

Ritchason, 48, pled guilty Sept. 10 to distributing harmful materials to a minor after authorities said he sent graphic photos of himself to a minor through Snapchat.

Ritchason was placed on two years of sex offender probation, which includes six months in the county jail. However, he will have to serve only the first two months if he successfully completes sex offender treatment.

Get 25NewsStreaming on your smart…

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Late one night in October 1992 television viewers across the United States watched – some in disbelief, others in anger – as one of the musical guests on Saturday Night Live did something shocking.

The guest was Sinead O’Connor. Paul Elie of Georgetown University recalled the scene in his 2025 book “The Last Supper.”

“She produced a photograph of Pope John Paul II, held it up the way a priest elevates the Eucharist, and tore it in half and then again and again, scattering the pieces on the stage.”

As Elie said, it was more than “a desecration of the pope.” It was a potent very public sign of the distance that had opened up between the Church in Ireland and the growing number of disaffected Catholics. 

Sinead O’Connor doesn’t immediately come to mind in the context of Church-State relations, even in circumstances where citizens of the State had turned…

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A Lebanon program for teen girls has closed its doors, Indiana’s I-Team has learned.

Refuge Girls Academy, formerly known as Teen Challenge, and its residents began moving out several weeks ago, according to an attorney for the program, Jeffrey Roberts.

“The parent organization determined that operating the Lebanon academy was unfortunately no longer tenable due to the present environment, namely, the resources required for a faith-based non-profit to defend a lawsuit filed by girls who were there, in some cases, up to a decade ago, now seeking eight-figure monetary sums, and its ability to secure necessary insurance coverage to continue operation,” Roberts said in an email to Indiana’s I-Team. 

“The girls who were in the midst of addiction treatment either returned home to their families or moved to other voluntary faith-based residential facilities with the help of the Indiana Teen Challenge staff who had been working with them in Lebanon,…

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Father George Ansel Smith sent for therapy in 1992, returned to work for nearly 20 years

A man who was abused by a notorious Catholic priest in Newfoundland is joining other voices calling on the church to release its records on abusive priests sent away for treatment.

The man can only be identified as John Doe. He was abused by Father George Ansel Smith as a young boy on the west coast of Newfoundland in the 1970s.

Court records show Smith was sent to the Southdown Institute — an Ontario therapy centre offering a range of services for priests dealing with issues ranging from depression and alcoholism to pedophilia — in 1992.

He returned to the priesthood for nearly 20 years, until John Doe and a dozen other men came forward with allegations starting in 2011.

“I think it should be exposed for everybody to see the truth,” John Doe…

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A new court filing claims the Archdiocese of New Orleans is not meeting certain nonmonetary obligations under its bankruptcy settlement with clergy sexual-abuse survivors.

Donald Massey, the settlement trustee, raises several concerns in his latest filing.

“ANO flatly refuses to conduct IRB investigations of the alleged perpetrators,” Massey alleges in the filing.

“It is believed that some of these clergy are still alive. Yet somehow, these individuals have not been investigated or added to the list,” the filing alleges.

As part of the court-approved settlement plan, the Archdiocese agreed to new child-protection measures and changes to how it handles reports of sexual abuse. Those provisions include reporting and investigation protocols, outside oversight, survivor protections and the creation of a public document archive. The filing says that archive is not yet publicly available, although the Archdiocese has begun providing documents to LSU for review and preparation, records show.

Massey also accuses…

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The church is in bankruptcy, and settlement negotiations could conclude this month

The Archdiocese of Baltimore’s ambitious effort to halve the number of Catholic churches in America’s oldest diocese has brought in nearly $10 million. Yet the plaintiffs seeking settlements from the church for decades-ago sexual abuse may never see that money — or millions more from properties soon to hit the market.

That’s because U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michelle Harner ruled earlier this year that the properties are separate from the archdiocese, and that their sale proceeds are not part of the bankruptcy estate available to pay sexual abuse survivors’ claims.

At stake is whether the archdiocese will have enough money to satisfy the survivors and settle the case that began on Sept. 29, 2023, when archdiocesan leaders filed for bankruptcy. And the clock is ticking — if the parties can’t reach a settlement in bankruptcy court by Sept….

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A newly released book is urging the Catholic Church to rethink how it communicates during clergy sexual abuse crises.

In “Truth Heals: Clergy Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church’s Response,” author Paulina Guzik argues that communications must be treated as a central part of safeguarding, not an afterthought.

Drawing on examples of both effective and failed communication from around the world, the book’s author, who is international editor for OSV News and professor of media studies and communications at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, Poland, said she wanted to fill the gap between existing safeguarding elements and one element that is visibly still pending — communications.

“From John Paul II to Francis, popes have helped transform — although slowly and quite often urged by external pressure — the Church’s law and culture. But clear guidance on what to communicate, how to communicate it and when…

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A former head pastor of a Downtown Peoria church is serving a two-month jail sentence after pleading guilty last week to sending illicit material to an underage person.

Michael S. Ritchason, 48, of Pekin, began serving his sentence Friday, a day after he pleaded guilty in Tazewell County Circuit Court to the single felony count of dissemination of harmful materials, a felony that could have sent him to prison for up to three years.

His actual jail time is about 30 days as he’s eligible for day for day “good-time” credit.Former Peoria pastor arraigned for dissemination of harmful materials

Instead, the former pastor at Riverside Community Church was sentenced to two years of sex offender probation, which mandates sex offender treatment. He also has restrictions on being around children as well as using the internet, according to court records.

He doesn’t have to register as a sex offender because…

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Carlos Ramos coached in a North Texas youth football league before his August arrest.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly named a church at which the accused allegedly volunteered. The identity of the church has yet to be independently confirmed by Chron or police.

A former assistant coach in a Texas youth football league and volunteer church youth leader has been arrested on charges of sexual abuse of a child 

On Tuesday morning, the Grapevine Police Department (GPD) announced that Carlos Ernesto Ramos, 39, had been brought in on Aug. 26 in connection with an alleged continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 that occurred in 2023. Detectives are investigating whether there may be additional victims. 

According to the police department’s statement, Ramos coached for an unspecified youth football league in North Texas from 2022 to 2024. Police also alleged Ramos volunteered as…

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Prosecutor Matthew Rodgers: ‘This case is about a side of the defendant he kept from the world’

The investigation of a former Geneva-area pastor in connection with alleged child sexual abuse material began with a tip from afellow church minister to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to court testimony Monday.

The former youth minister at the now-closed Rejoice Lutheran Church testified that in April 2023, she received text images and videos from the cellphone belonging to Michael C. Willis, 46, of Campton Hills, a pastor at the same church. The images were sent to the youth minister from Willis’s phone by a third party, according to testimony.

Willis, 46, was charged June 26, 2023, and later indicted on two counts of disseminating child child sexual abuse material, three counts of possessing child sexual abuse…

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Leaders in a local school district were aware of questionable incidents that occurred with a substitute teacher prior to his arrest for allegedly physically abusing a student.

Local 12 obtained the employee file of the Covington Public Schools substitute and discovered the incidents. We looked into the file because police arrested 61-year-old Bryan Bundy 11 days ago for “criminal abuse in the second degree with a child 12 or under.”

Police say the felony occurred when Bundy grabbed a non-verbal 5-year-old boy by the arm, dragged him down a hall, then flung him toward a wall. They say he kicked the boy’s communication device, striking the wall. Then, he kicked the boy towards the wall with his foot.

An open records request was filed with the school district to obtain Bundy’s employee file and found two previous incidents of potentially inappropriate behavior.

Bundy’s file showed he has been with Covington…

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Key Takeaways

• Texarkana police arrested 87-year-old Louie B. George II, longtime pastor of Oak Street Baptist Church, on a charge of sexual assault of a child, on September 9, 2026. 
• George is a pastor at a local church, and, according to authorities, was a pastor in the 1990s when the alleged victim attended the church as a child. 
• Investigators say they have since identified at least two additional alleged victims and are concerned there may be others who have not yet come forward.
• Civil lawsuits can help survivors to seek accountability from churches or other institutions that failed to take reasonable steps to protect them from sexual abuse. 

Authorities Arrest Louie B. George II

An 87-year-old pastor in Texarkana was arrested on a charge of sexual assault of a child on Wednesday, September, 9, 2026. 

The Texarkana Texas Police Department announced on Thursday, September 10, 2026,…

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A retired New Orleans Catholic priest, whose prolific sexual abuse of children in the local deaf community was known for at least four decades by the city’s archdiocese without meaningful consequence, has died after evidently falling in his Texas apartment.

Gerard Joseph “Jerry” Howell was found dead at about 5 p.m. on Sept. 8 by Austin Police Department officers who were responding to a welfare check on the block listed for the senior living community where he had been residing, the agency said in a statement. The statement – which didn’t name Howell but was provided when police were asked about his death specifically – said first responders had gone to the block to investigate a report that an 87-year-old individual had fallen. 

Local emergency medical services personnel soon arrived to provide medical aid to that individual, but he stopped breathing and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. 

The…

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A lawyer, who represented more than 25 sexual abuse victims or survivors of Ronald H. Paquin, said Monday the death of the 83-year-old former priest while in prison will bring “relief.”

Paquin, who was once assigned to St. John The Baptist Parish in Haverhill and St. Monica’s Parish in Methuen, died during the afternoon last Friday, Sept. 11, at Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said “Paquin sexually abused my clients as children from about 1973 to 1990.”

“The death of Father Paquin brings a measure of relief to many clergy sexual abuse victims and survivors because they feel as though Father Paquin will no longer be able to sexually abuse children and destroy innocent lives. With all due respect, society has not lost a great human being,” Garabedian said in a statement emailed to WHAV.

As WHAV reported at the time, Paquin…

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Born in Vélez-Rubio, Almería, Cristóbal López Romero became archbishop of Rabat in 2017 and was made a cardinal in 2019, later figuring among the possible successors to Pope Francis.

Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero has told the Catholics of Rabat that he is waiting for a Vatican hearing on sexual assault accusations against him, in a letter that also announced his eventual successor.

Writing “from Spain, but close in heart,” the archbishop of Rabat addressed his diocese on Saturday, September 12, to confirm the appointment of Father Mario León Dorado as coadjutor archbishop. The new title, he explained, means Dorado “will remain in the service of the diocese permanently,” after a short spell as apostolic administrator that began in early August.

López Romero framed the appointment as the answer to a request he had made well before the current crisis. He received it “with great joy…

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Bankruptcy courts and mediated agreements are venues of cold calculation designed to bring a measure of justice in the form of financial settlements, a term seductively suggestive of conclusion. When employed as a tactic in the Catholic Church’s ongoing sexual abuse scandal, however, it is clear that such settlements leave the faithful with far more questions than answers.

The legal processes accomplish what they are designed to do, exact a bit of retribution on behalf of victims. They do not, however, restore or transform survivors. They don’t erase haunting, debilitating memories. And they do little to address the most searing questions for which the faithful still await an answer: How did this happen? How could the chief shepherds allow the most vulnerable in the flock to be preyed upon?

As Charles Nadeau, a court-appointed representative of survivors, explained: “Bankruptcy is not inherently unjust. It exists to ensure…

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The Archdiocese of New Orleans disputed claims that it hadn’t probed abuse claims, calling them a ‘misrepresentation of the facts.’

The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy settlement between the Archdiocese of New Orleans and hundreds of clergy sex abuse survivors is questioning the local Roman Catholic Church’s commitment to provisions of the settlement aimed at ending decades of secrecy around child sexual abuse by clergy.

In a 45-page court filing on Monday, Don Massey, the independent trustee, told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Orleans that the archdiocese has “flatly refused” his request that they investigate 11 clergy members accused of child sexual abuse that surfaced during the bankruptcy claims review process.

Massey said the allegations against the clergy members were previously found by the archdiocese’s own Internal Review Board to be credible but that they were never added to the official credibly accused clergy list and that they…

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A sexual assault trial started Monday for a New Hampshire man whose arrest more than seven years ago kicked off one of the biggest youth detention scandals in U.S. history.

Former youth counselor Jeffrey Buskey, 60, of Litchfield, faces allegations involving four boys held at the Youth Development Center in Manchester in the late 1990s. In the first of his cases to go to trial, he is charged with 21 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault involving David Meehan, who was 14 when he arrived at the facility now called the Sununu Youth Services Center in 1995.

Meehan filed the first of more than 1,100 lawsuits alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades. His allegations led to the arrest of Buskey and another former worker in 2019, an unprecedented criminal investigation, nine additional arrests, and the establishment of a settlement fund to compensate victims.

As testimony got underway Monday, prosecutor Audriana…

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A former Massachusetts priest who was convicted of sexually abusing an altar boy died Friday afternoon at a Maine correctional facility, according to a statement from the Maine Department of Corrections.

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Parole Board of Canada imposes stricter conditions on Brian Boucher, 64

A former Montreal priest allegedly viewed suspected child sexual abuse material on public transit while serving his sentence for sexually assaulting two boys, says the Parole Board of Canada in a recent decision.

The board revoked 64-year-old Brian Boucher’s statutory release last week, concluding a series of incidents and new charges of child sexual abuse and exploitation material showed a return to what it called his “crime cycle.”

Boucher is serving an eight-year sentence for sexually abusing two boys he met through his work as a priest. He had been living at a Montreal community correctional centre since his statutory release in July 2024.

According to the board’s decision, authorities received a tip in April 2026 that Boucher had been seen viewing pornographic material, possibly child sexual abuse material, on public transit.

Boucher was arrested April 9 and charged…

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The Archdiocese of Chicago said it has paid out more than $400 million to abuse survivors, with the announcement coming on the heels of a St. Paul, Minnesota-based firm’s recent settlement announcement that also unveiled a national database of clergy it says are credibly abused of sexual abuse.

Attorney Jeff Anderson of Jeff Anderson and Associates said the latest $5.475 million in settlements, involving nine cases, were finalized in the two weeks ahead of his firm’s Sept. 10 announcement.

In a statement sent on the same day to OSV News, the Archdiocese of Chicago (for the first time) disclosed a figure related to its settlements.

“We have paid more than $400 million to survivors and continue to ask for survivors to come forward. They will be received with dignity and compassion,” said the archdiocese.

‘Incidents alleged to have happened 50 to 30 years ago’

“The ‘new’ settlements presented today arose from…

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Ronald Paquin was serving a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing an altar boy.

CHARLESTON, Maine —

Ronald Paquin died Friday afternoon at the Mountain View Correctional Facility, according to a statement from the Maine Department of Corrections. He was 83 years old.

Paquin was a defrocked priest from Massachusetts, serving a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing an altar boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s. He had previously served more than 10 years in a Massachusetts prison for sexually abusing an altar boy there. He was released in 2015 and then taken into custody in Maine.

On Monday, an attorney representing those who were abused by Paquin released a statement.

“Fr. Paquin sexually abused my clients as children from about 1973 to 1990 when he was assigned to either St. Monica’s Parish in Methuen, MA, or St. John The Baptist Parish in Haverhill, MA,” said Mitchell Garabedian. “The…

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A former priest convicted of sexually abusing a child in Maine roughly 40 years ago has died in prison.

Ronald Paquin was incarcerated at Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston.

The Maine Department of Corrections says he died in custody on Friday afternoon.

Paquin began serving a 16-year sentence in 2019. He was convicted by a jury for gross sexual misconduct, which happened in Kennebunkport in the 1980s.

He was convicted of similar charges in Massachusetts and spent a decade behind bars there.

“I have represented more than 25 clergy sexual abuse victims or survivors of Fr. Ronald Paquin. Fr. Paquin sexually abused my clients as children from about 1973 to 1990 when he was assigned to either St. Monica’s Parish in Methuen, MA, or St. John The Baptist Parish in Haverhill, MA. The death of Fr. Paquin brings a measure of relief to many clergy sexual abuse victims and…

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Charleston, Maine – A former Massachusetts priest who was convicted of sexually abusing an altar boy died Friday afternoon at a Maine correctional facility, according to a statement from the Maine Department of Corrections.

Ronald Paquin, 83, was a defrocked priest from Massachusetts, serving a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing an altar boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s.

He had previously served more than 10 years in a Massachusetts prison for sexually abusing an altar boy.

“The survivors, the victims are relieved that he’s passed away because children are safer. There was no limit to his sexual abuse of children. It was awful. It was evil. It was disgusting. It was garbage,” said Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney for survivors of clergy sex abuse.

He was released in 2015 and then taken into custody in Maine, where he began serving his sentence in 2019.

Paquin served in…

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But some experts are hesitant to consider policy changes based on scattered reports of erroneous allegations.

More than 20 years after the abuse crisis first roiled the U.S. Catholic Church, the response this summer from one accused priest was dramatic and unprecedented. Father Michael Pfleger, the at-times controversial leader of a South Side Chicago parish, fiercely objected to an archdiocesan letter that disclosed an allegation of a decades-old incident of sexual assault on a child.

“Let me be clear, sexual abuse is wrong and I realize that the Catholic Church has a long history of not dealing with accusations and has spent a number of years putting strong policies in place, but I have said countless times I believe the current policy is wrong and unfair to the accused priest,” Father Pfleger wrote on July 11, responding in a statement to media the same day his suspension from ministry at the…

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Charleston, Maine — Ronald Paquin, the defrocked priest who served parishes in Methuen and Haverhill before being convicted of sexually abusing an altar boy, has died in prison in Maine.

Paquin, 83, whose case was a critical piece of a sexual abuse scandal that consumed the Archdiocese of Boston, died Friday afternoon at Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, according to a press release from the Maine Department of Corrections. No cause of death was announced.

The Catholic priest was portrayed in the movie “Spotlight” about the Boston Globe investigation into clergy sex abuse and served more than 10 years in prison in Massachusetts.

Following his release in 2015, he was taken in custody by Maine authorities and began serving 16 years in prison in 2019.

Paquin served at St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill from 1981 to 1990, and St. Monica Church in Methuen from 1974 to 1980.

…

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“Nobody’s paying that kind of money for something that didn’t happen,” said Marc Pearlman, one of the lawyers in the case.

The Archdiocese of Chicago recently settled out of court with nine people who accused eight Chicago-area priests of sexually abusing them decades ago.

The settlements, totaling $5.4 million, were all reached in the last two weeks, according to the attorneys representing the victims.

“Nobody’s paying that kind of money for something that didn’t happen,” said Marc Pearlman, one of the victim’s attorneys, during a Thursday news conference announcing the settlements. “This is validation that it happened.”

The allegations date as far back as the early 1970s and as recently as the late 1990s. The victims’ ages at the time of the abuse ranged from 6 to 14 years old.

The list of accused priests, most of whom have died, and their Chicago-area parishes are:

• Michael Cepon,…

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“Truth Heals”: Why the Church Must Put Victims Before Its Reputation

For the Catholic Church, the credibility crisis caused by clerical sexual abuse cannot be solved by finding better words after a scandal breaks. The deeper challenge is to change the way the institution listens, decides, accepts responsibility and communicates long before a crisis reaches the headlines.

That is the argument of Paulina Guzik, professor of media and communication studies at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, in her new book Truth Heals: Communication, Trust and the Catholic Church’s Response to Clerical Sexual Abuse. Drawing on five years of research, the book proposes a model in which communication is not a public-relations operation added to crisis management, but part of the Church’s responsibility toward victims and its own institutional reform.

Guzik’s starting point is deliberately uncomfortable: survivors must never be treated primarily as a legal, financial or…

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Charleston, Maine — A former Catholic priest from Massachusetts, who was serving a 20-year sentence for gross sexual misconduct, has died in a Maine Department of Corrections prison facility.

Ronald Paquin, 83, died Friday around 4:15 p.m. at the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, according to a release from the MDOC. His death was “attended by medical personnel,” the release stated. The Attorney General’s Office and the Medical Examiner were notified. 

In 2018, a jury convicted Paquin of repeatedly assaulting an altar boy in Maine during the 1980s. He was involved in the Boston Archdiocese abuse scandal in 2002 when the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigation exposed widespread clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups within the Archdiocese of Boston. 

Paquin was sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison, with 16 years suspended, followed by three years of probation. Two men testified that they were altar boys when Paquin invited…

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In October 2024, police detained Fr Jacek K. and two other men, one an active priest, Fr Dariusz L., the other a former priest, all from the Diocese of Sosnowiec, in a major investigation into sexual abuse of children by priests.

A Polish court sentenced a priest to 14 years in prison after he was found guilty of nine counts of sexual abuse against children and one of possession of child pornography.

On 9 September, the district court in Sosnowiec ordered the priest, identified under Polish law as Fr Jacek K., to pay almost 400,000 zloty (almost £80,000) in compensation to his victims and banned him from contacting them for 15 years.

The court also banned Fr Jacek K. from engaging in activities related to education and childcare for life. He denies the charges and can appeal the verdict.

Fr Jacek K was arrested in October 2024 and subsequently…

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Letters: The Chicago Archdiocese mishandled its response to allegation against the Rev. Michael Pfleger

I represent the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church. The recent letter by Leah Heffernan of the Archdiocese of Chicago (“Archdiocese’s investigations,” Sept. 2) highlights a real problem with the ambiguity and the reality of the archdiocese’s process.

Heffernan writes that when the archdiocese receives an allegation of sexual abuse by a priest, it “promptly assesses whether safety of children requires interim action, which may include temporary withdrawal from ministry and/or the ministry site, pending investigation, and announces it publicly.”

Heffernan’s letter falsely implies that the archdiocese actually did an assessment of whether the safety of children required the temporary removal of Pfleger from his ministry and the public announcement of that.

The archdiocese did not make any such assessment. It received the accusation July 6; the accuser says she…

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David Oakley, the Bishop of Northampton, is accused of raping a teenage girl in a presbytery and on a canal boat while working as a Catholic priest in the early 2000s

The Bishop of Northampton is seeking to have a court case in which he is accused of raping a teenage girl dismissed.

David Oakley, 70, is charged with indecent assault and two counts of rape in relation to the girl, who was aged 15 at the time. The alleged incidents of rape took place in February 2000 and February 2001, when he was in his mid-40s and working as a Catholic priest.

The defendant allegedly kissed the girl during a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, and then raped her in a presbytery and on a canal boat in Staffordshire, according to court documents.

Appearing at the Old Bailey in London on Thursday, Oakley, who is on conditional bail, spoke only…

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Msgr. Roger Landry has been restricted from public ministry after allegations of misconduct

The Diocese of Fall River, Mass., announced Friday that Msgr. Roger Landry has been restricted from public ministry after allegations of misconduct were made against the priest by “multiple individuals.”

There are no allegations involving minors, the diocese emphasized, but he has been accused of “violations of the Codes of Conduct for Priests for both the Diocese of Fall River and Archdiocese of New York.”

Landry, 55, is a widely respected and influential figure in the Church in the United States.

The priest serves as the national director of the Pontifical Missions Societies. He was appointed to the role in 2024, at which point he was also granted the title of Monsignor. He previously served for seven years as an attaché to the Holy See’s diplomatic corps as the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the…

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David Oakley’s case moves towards a dismissal hearing as serious allegations from his years as a Catholic priest remain unproven

The Bishop of Northampton, David Oakley, appeared at the Old Bailey on Thursday, 10 September, as his lawyers sought to have criminal charges against him dismissed. Oakley, 70, faces one count of indecent assault and two counts of rape involving a girl who was 15 at the time of the alleged offences in the early 2000s.

Oakley had been expected to enter pleas at the Central Criminal Court, but the charges were not put to him. Instead, the court was told that his defence had made an application to dismiss the case. Judge Trowler provisionally scheduled a hearing on that application for 4 January 2027.

David Oakley Charges Follow Staffordshire Police Investigation

The case follows an investigation by Staffordshire Police’s rape and serious sexual offences team. Oakley was arrested in…

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Skillet frontman John Cooper has shared how a painful split from the church he served for nearly 30 years plunged him into one of the darkest periods of his life, triggering depression, anger, debilitating hurt and a crisis of trust that ultimately helped shape the band’s new EP, After the Storm.

In an interview with The Christian Post, the  51-year-old Kenosha, Wisconsin, resident opened up about how, in recent years, his family endured a “very bad church abuse situation.”

According to the rocker, an increasingly authoritarian leadership structure left him, his wife, fellow Skillet member Korey, and their children ostracized from a congregation they had spent decades helping to build.

“The last couple of years have been something I never planned for,” Cooper told CP. “I will say the hardest years of my life since I was a teenager, since I really,…

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“Nobody’s paying that kind of money for something that didn’t happen,” said Marc Pearlman, one of the lawyers in the case. Four of the priests aren’t listed on the archdiocese’s list of clergy members it deems to have been credibly of sexual abuse.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has reached out-of-court settlements totaling $5.4 million with nine people who accused eight Chicago-area priests of sexually abusing them decades ago.

The settlements were reached in the past two weeks, according to the attorneys representing the victims.

“Nobody’s paying that kind of money for something that didn’t happen,” Marc Pearlman, one of the victim’s lawyers, said at a news conference Thursday. “This is validation that it happened.”

The accusations date as far back as the early 1970s and as recently as the late 1990s. The victims’ ages at the time of the abuse ranged from 6 to 14 years old.

The accused priests,…

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Chicago Archdiocese to pay $5.5 million to 9 abuse victims, attorneys say

The Archdiocese of Chicago will pay out more than $5 million to a small number of abuse victims after a recent settlement, attorneys said this week.

Lawyers with Jeff Anderson & Associates, a law firm that specializes in abuse cases, announced at a press event on Sept. 10 that they had settled with the archdiocese for $5.5 million to be paid out to nine survivors of abuse in the Church.

Attorney Jeff Anderson describe the development as a “tipping point and a turning point” regarding allegations of abuse in the archdiocese. He said the settlements were a matter of both “reckoning” and “accountability.”

“It is about the courage of every survivor with whom we and others have had the privilege to work to bring about change, change in the Archdiocese of Chicago and change across the state…

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Former Miss Hall’s School science teacher Matthew Johnson appeared at the Berkshire County Superior Court Thursday, pleading not guilty to one count of assault with intent to rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery over age 14. Johnson was released after his appearance in front of the judge.

“The defendant will be released on personal recognizance,” said the judge. “With the condition that he stay away and have no contact with the alleged victims in this matter.”

Now 70 years old and living in Norfolk, Connecticut, Johnson only spent one year at Miss Hall’s, beginning in 1993, before being dismissed before the end of the school year 1994. Martha Klay, whose daughter went to Miss Hall’s, has been following the charges against former staff members and came to court for Thursday’s arraignment.

“This whole thing has been a travesty,” said Klay. “We hope this is just the beginning.”

Klay…

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La institución rechaza la petición de una víctima de abusos mayor de edad, que alertó al cardenal sobre el párroco dos años antes de que fuera detenido por pederastia

El Arzobispado de Barcelona ha declinado toda responsabilidad ante la reclamación de una víctima mayor de edad que, en marzo de 2022, puso en conocimiento del arzobispo de Barcelona, Juan José Omella, los abusos sufridos por parte de un sacerdote que, tiempo después, acabaría siendo detenido por tocamientos a un menor. La víctima, J., denunció la inacción de Omella, quiso saber si se le abriría un proceso por esa supuesta pasividad y reclamó que se le reconozca el daño causado y “vías para curar la herida sufrida”. La respuesta de la vicaría judicial de la institución, a la que ha accedido EL PAÍS, rechaza de plano esas pretensiones: “No se observa daño causado por ninguna actuación ilícita dentro del ámbito canónico”.

…

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The well-known priest said he was innocent of any canonical violations; the allegations involved no claims of sexual misconduct ‘whatsoever.’

Monsignor Roger Landry, director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA and a longtime contributor to Church commentary and analysis at EWTN Global Catholic Network, said on Sept. 11 that he was taking a “temporary leave of absence” amid unspecified allegations from “multiple individuals.”

There were “no allegations involving minors,” the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts said on Sept. 11, while Landry in a statement further said there were “no allegations of sexual activity whatsoever.”

The Fall River Diocese where Landry serves as a priest said in its statement that it had received allegations that included violations of priestly codes of conduct for both the Fall River Diocese and the Archdiocese of New York, the latter in which Msgr. Landry currently serves.

Diocesan leaders…

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An 87-year-old Texarkana man is facing a charge of Sexual Assault of a Child following an investigation by the Texarkana Texas Police Department.

According to TTPD Facebook page, Louie George was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Bi-State Jail.

Read More: Former Texarkana Pastor Charged with Alleged Child Sexual Assault |

Because the case involves allegations of child sexual assault and remains an active investigation, police say they are limited in the amount of information they can release publicly at this time.

Investigators say George has served as a pastor at a local Texarkana church for many years and was serving in that role during the 1990s when the reported victim was a child attending the church.

Since the investigation began, Texarkana Texas Police detectives say they have identified at least two additional victims. Due to George’s long history with the church, investigators…

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Bishop David Oakley of Northampton was expected to enter a plea in a court hearing on Thursday, but the new motion will now be considered in January.

Lawyers for an English bishop accused of raping a minor have asked the court to dismiss the case.

Bishop David Oakley of Northampton appeared in court at the Old Bailey in London on Sept. 10. The bishop had been expected to enter a plea in the case, in which he is charged with two counts of rape of a minor, as well as indecent assault charges. The bishop appeared in lay clothes and is not currently in ministry, although he remains bishop of the diocese.

Instead, the court heard that a new hearing would be held on January 4 next year to consider a motion to dismiss the case. No details about the motion’s argumentation were read in court.

The bishop is currently…

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Bishop of Northampton David Oakley attended the Central Criminal Court at Old Bailey today facing charges of indecent assault and rape.

Oakley, aged 70, remained seated in the dock during the brief hearing in Court 9, which had been listed for plea and trial preparation.

However, the charges were not put. A date was fixed next January for a dismissal hearing.

Today’s appearance followed an earlier hearing at Westminster Magistrates in August, when he appeared by video link from his lawyer’s office. On that occasion, prosecutor Sarah Madden told the court Oakley and his alleged victim had started dating after a pilgrimage to Lourdes: “She recalls sex with the defendant on at least two occasions.”

Bishop Oakley was charged in June, when Staffordshire Police said, “A man has been charged following an investigation by our Rape and Serious Sexual Offences team. Bishop David James Oakley, 70, who is White British,…

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The Diocese of Palm Beach says an investigation substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct, abuse of power, and fraud against a Boynton Beach priest.

Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez announced the findings in a letter Saturday involving the Rev. Alex J. Vargas, who previously served as pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Boynton Beach.

Click here for the Diocese of Palm Beach statement:

https://cbs12.com/resources/pdf/b4261912-cc9e-41d0-9b83-e071055ac8e6-VARGASEnglishLetter090520261.pdf

The diocese said it was notified June 17 of “serious allegations” involving Vargas, according to previous reports. The matter was first reported to the Florida Department of Children and Families, law enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office before hiring an outside firm, Renaissance Associates, Ltd., to conduct an independent investigation.

Because there was no credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, the findings were presented to the diocese’s Adult Allegation Board for review.

The board determined there was insufficient information to…

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New details have been released regarding the arrest of a pastor accused of child sex crimes. Jorge Gonzalez Martinez of Iglesia Internacional Poder y Gloria in Edinburg, Texas, was initially arrested in July.

Editor’s note: This article refers to reports of child sex abuse that some readers might find triggering and/or disturbing. 

In July, Martinez, 49, was taken into custody at his church after an alleged victim came forward to report incidents that she said took place between March and April of 2025. A police report revealed that a child told someone at the church that Martinez had touched her inappropriately several times. After the incident was reported to the girl’s father, the father took it to authorities.

Martinez was charged with three counts of indecency with a child (sexual contact) and one count of indecency with a child (exposure). All four charges are felonies.

In August, Martinez was again arrested…

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A seventh man arrested in a prostitution sting involving a former Amarillo pastor was indicted.

A Randall County grand jury indicted Jerry Mac Rottenberry, 53, of Amarillo, on a charge of solicitation of prostitution.

Rottenberry was among eight men arrested during a June undercover operation

The other six men indicted are:

• David Austin Ritchie, 42, of Amarillo
• Jorge Luis Lopez-Najera, 24, of Amarillo
• William Theodore Bradley, 47, of Amarillo
• Travis Jordan Brooks, 35, of Clermont, Florida
• Kody Ray Dick, 37, of Amarillo
• Braiden Deion Sellers, 34, of Pascagoula, Mississippi

Ritchie was the senior pastor of Redeemer Christian Church at the time of his arrest. The church fired him after learning about the arrest saying it was “shocked and…

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A 41-year-old man is facing five charges of sexual assault and five charges of assault after police launched an investigation into a complaint about a staff member at a Saskatoon school.

According to police, officers received a report on May 26 alleging sexual interference — sexual contact between an adult and a person under 16 — involving a staff member at a school on Avenue N South.

Read more:

• Former Saskatoon Christian school principal trial hears testimony
• ‘Demonstrable level of anger’: SIRT says RCMP officer may have used too much force
• Former Christian school director handed five-month conditional sentence for assault with weapon charges

While police did not name the school in question, the address corresponds to St. Mary’s Wellness and Education Centre. The location was confirmed to 650 CKOM by Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools.

The Saskatoon Police Service said its child abuse unit…

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Attorneys with the law firm Pearlman & Anderson announced nine new settlements with the Archdiocese of Chicago over the past two weeks involving allegations of child sexual abuse by priests dating back decades.

The settlements total more than $5 million and involve eight Catholic priests, all of whom are deceased. According to the attorneys, the alleged abuse occurred while the priests served at schools and parishes in Chicago, Homewood, Chicago Ridge, Chicago Heights, Wilmette and Morton Grove.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

Attorney Marc Pearlman said the value of the settlements reflects recognition of the survivors’ claims.

“The number represents validation. Nobody is paying that kind of money for something that didn’t happen,” Pearlman said.

The attorneys said some of the priests involved already appear on the Archdiocese of Chicago’s list of clergy members against whom credible accusations of sexual abuse have been made, while…

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A federally subsidized housing complex in West Warwick no longer bears the name of a credibly accused clergy member identified in a sweeping report earlier this year, detailing decades of child sexual abuse and systemic coverup.

The complex, located near Sacred Heart Church, has been renamed Wakefield Manors, reflecting the street on which it sits instead of priest Monsignor Anthony DeAngelis.

DeAngelis was among dozens of clergy members named in Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s report on credibly accused clergy members in March.

For abuse survivor and advocate Ann Hagan Webb, witnessing the name come down was an emotional moment years in the making.

“This whole year has been a series of weights off my chest,” Webb told 12 News.

Webb said she was surprised by family and friends in late August when they brought her to the property without telling her what was happening.

“As he…

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At one of Catholicism’s most iconic places of worship, Pope Leo XIV will be met with plainly decorated aluminum panels hiding a sinister secret: scores of artwork designed by a disgraced priest accused of abusing more than two dozen women, mostly religious sisters. 

The specter of Fr. Marko Rupnik, the once-celebrated Jesuit priest whose artwork adorns Catholic churches, cathedrals, seminaries and shrines the world over, has loomed over Leo’s coming visit to Lourdes Sept. 26-27, where his mosaics decorate the facade of the basilica at the sanctuary’s center. 

Allegations of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse committed by Rupnik went public in 2022 and set off a churchwide reckoning over what to do with his artwork, which decorates churches from the world’s farthest-flung corners to inside the Vatican.

Ahead of Leo’s visit, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes said that all the mosaics will be entirely covered indefinitely,…

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Tomorrow, Thursday, September 10th, Jeff Anderson & Associates and Pearlman and Anderson will host a press conference to:

• Announce nine new sexual abuse settlements in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
• Reveal never-before-shared data on sexual abuse perpetrators and settlements in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
• Introduce the Catholic Clergy Offender Finder, a new, dynamic tool designed for the public and media to find information about clergy abusers.

EVENT DETAILS:

WHEN: Thursday, September 10, 2:30 p.m. CT

WHERE:
The Wit Hotel | Room: Wilde II and II
201 N. State Street, Chicago, IL 60601

LIVE STREAM:
The press conference will also be live-streamed via YouTube.

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Sickened. Furious. Fed up. That’s how I felt this summer when I came across a news story about a pastor arrested for sending nude pictures to a teenager on multiple occasions.

I probably wouldn’t have given much thought to this case, as I must confess a level of desensitization at the alarming rate of such stories appearing these days, and because the offender doesn’t belong to my convention of churches.

But this time, the pastor exposed for exposing himself had been a visiting speaker at the Christian school my kids have attended. He had delivered a sermon the week of my daughter’s graduation. We had watched him extend an invitation and call students to come forward and get right with God, to recommit their lives to holiness. According to the police report, it was the very next day that this pastor initiated (not for the first time) a criminal interaction with a…

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Anselm Grün and the pathology of therapeutic rehabilitation

The architecture of institutional cover-ups within the Church has long relied on a specific and devastating weapon: the language of therapeutic rehabilitation. For decades, when a cleric confessed to the devastation of sexual abuse, the institutional reflex was not the swift administration of justice, but a discreet transfer to a specialised facility. The goal was too often not the absolute protection of the vulnerable, but the restoration of the system’s human capital.

The recent allegations emerging from the Independent Commission in the Archdiocese of Paderborn regarding Father Anselm Grün OSB expose the dark heart of this practice. Grün is not merely another cog in the ecclesiastical machine. He is a global brand – a Benedictine monk whose prolific writings on inner healing, spiritual accompaniment and psychological wholeness have made him an icon of modern Christian spirituality, read far beyond the boundaries of…

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Anselm Grün in der Kritik wegen Umgang mit Missbrauchsfall

Zurück in die Seelsorge trotz Missbrauchsvorwurf? Anselm Grün hielt offenbar einen weiteren Einsatz eines beschuldigten Priesters für möglich. Die Debatte reicht inzwischen über Grüns persönliche Rolle hinaus.

Anselm Grün (81) ist einer der bekanntesten katholischen Ordensleute Deutschlands. Millionenfach verkaufte Bücher, Vorträge über Spiritualität und Lebenshilfe. Mit dem Thema sexueller Missbrauch in der Kirche wurde der Benediktiner bislang, wenn überhaupt, als Beobachter in Verbindung gebracht. Nun wirft ein mehr als 30 Jahre alter Fall Fragen zu seinem eigenen Umgang mit einem beschuldigten Priester auf. 

Ausgangspunkt ist der aktuelle Jahresbericht der Unabhängigen Kommission zur Aufarbeitung sexuellen Missbrauchs im Erzbistum Paderborn. Die Kommission schildert darin den Fall eines Vikars, der 1990 bei einer kirchlichen Freizeit sexuelle Handlungen an einem 16-Jährigen vorgenommen haben soll und diese später im strafrechtlichen Ermittlungsverfahren einräumte. Gegen den Priester erging später ein Strafbefehl. 

Gespräch im Recollectio-Haus 

Nachdem die Familie des…

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The Archbishop of Barcelona received the first alert about the Guinardó parish priest in 2022, dismissed it as a “moral matter” and referred him to a psychologist. In September 2024 he admitted that “an unresolved question” remained about the priest. The priest was arrested in November of that year.

The case of Father Jorge Alexander P., detained in November 2024 by the Mossos d’Esquadra for touching an adult and a minor, once again puts the spotlight on Cardinal Juan José Omella’s handling of the matter. According to El País, which reportedly had access to the full file, the Archbishop of Barcelona received the first alert about the priest in March 2022—more than two years before his arrest—and decided not to open any canonical process. In a second conversation with the same victim in September 2024, the cardinal himself acknowledged: “I have always been left with an unresolved question about this priest.”

…

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Le cardinal Marc Ouellet c. Paméla Groleau

Tenu au palais de justice de Montréal, le procès pour diffamation intenté par le cardinal Marc Ouellet contre l’ex-agente de pastorale Paméla Groleau a duré sept jours. Le jugement qu’a rendu le juge Martin Castonguay de la Cour supérieure du Québec compte 52 pages. La conclusion de ce texte (12 lignes, 4 paragraphes) déclare que «le cardinal Ouellet a été victime de diffamation de la part de Madame Groleau»

En établissant et en rédigeant son jugement, un juge doit nécessairement effectuer un tri parmi une multitude d’éléments présentés lors des audiences d’un procès ainsi que parmi les nombreux documents soumis par les parties. Mais quiconque connaît un peu l’univers religieux et a assisté aux longues journées d’audiences de ce procès ne peut s’empêcher de noter quelques omissions et même d’éprouver certains malaises à la lecture du jugement rendu public le 31 août 2026.

…

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Pastor John-Paul Miller’s marriage to Mica Miller was dissected in Netflix’s docuseries Death of a Pastor’s Wife, though their marital problems have continued to come to light after a former church member alleged that he abused his late wife in several ways.

“It was sexual and mental abuse he was putting Mica through,” Bruna Pabon, a friend of Mica, claimed to People on Wednesday, September 9. “He wouldn’t let her sleep. He would splash water on her face and pull off the covers. She couldn’t take a trip because he couldn’t go two days without getting physical. He was basically using her for sex. That was the whole marriage.”

Pabon, 34, added that Mica initially strove to be an obedient wife, but her growing self-respect and desire for independence ultimately challenged John-Paul’s wishes.

John-Paul’s attorney did not immediately respond to Us’ request for comment regarding Pabon’s…

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The priest has been deemed “unsuitable for ministry” for the time being, the diocese said after an inquiry by a diocesan review board.

The Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida, said an internal inquiry substantiated allegations that one of its priests committed sexual misconduct and abuse of power, among other accusations leveled against him. 

Diocesan officials learned in June that Father Alex Vargas was the subject of several “serious allegations,” Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez said in a Sept. 5 letter to the diocese.

The diocese reported the allegations to law enforcement, Bishop Rodríguez said, after which it launched its own independent investigation headed by an investigating agency. 

That investigation was ultimately presented to the diocese’s adult allegation board; Bishop Rodríguez noted that there were no credible allegations leveled against Father Vargas regarding the abuse of minors. 

The diocesan board determined it credible that Father Vargas had committed sexual misconduct, “financial…

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A group of more than 200 victims of spiritual abuse and their relatives is asking Pope Leo XIV to take concrete steps to prevent and respond to instances of spiritual abuse within the Church.

In a Sept. 7 letter, published in La Croix, the group asked the pope to clearly define spiritual abuse in canon law, establish independent bodies to receive reports of spiritual abuse, and ensure that new postulants in religious communities receive training about their own rights and responsibilities.

The letter was written on behalf of 214 victims or family members of victims from 37 religious communities in France.

It includes three named signatories — Bénédicte Nolet de Brauwere, a former sister of the Community of the Lamb; Fr. Gabriel Laguarigue de Survilliers, a former brother of the Congregation of St. John; and Fabio Barbero, a former brother of the Monastic Family of Bethlehem, of the Assumption of…

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• New laws to give survivors of child abuse better access to compensation
• Reform to get around conduct by religious orders that avoid paying victims
• Regulations will first be used to ensure payment on behalf of Christian Brothers entities

The Cook Labor Government will draft regulations to ensure victims of historic abuse at the hands of Christian Brothers are better protected in compensation claims if the order argues it cannot afford to pay.

The regulations will apply to the Christian Brothers religious order which went to court in June over its debts.

The Cook Labor Government has been concerned the Christian Brothers gave away and sold substantial assets to the Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia (TEREA) which was named after the Christian Brothers’ founder.

TEREA paid as little as $1 for valuable pieces of real estate and now holds $2.3 billion of assets.

The regulations would ensure…

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A Denver family is suing St. John’s Church and School, alleging that its lead pastor pressured their then-13-year-old daughter to recant her account of being sexually assaulted by the church’s music director in 2022, rather than reporting the allegations to police. The girl, now 17, says she was assaulted by Diego Marroquin, a music director at the Wash Park congregation, and that when her family came forward, church leadership accused her of lying instead of acting to protect her.

According to The Denver Post, the lawsuit alleges that Lead Pastor Andrew Farhat ordered the girl to keep quiet, accused her of lying about being raped, and pressured her to recant her allegations after meeting with her, her father, and Marroquin. The suit, filed under Colorado’s Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act, includes claims for negligent hiring and supervision, false imprisonment, and emotional distress against St. John’s Church and…

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A former student and her parents are suing St. John’s Lutheran Church and School in Denver, alleging church and school officials failed to protect the girl from a music director who they say sexually assaulted her when she was 13 and then failed to properly respond when concerns about the alleged assault surfaced.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Denver District Court, also accuses St. John’s of failing to properly screen and supervise Diego Marroquin, who worked as the church and school’s interim music director and technical coordinator.

But in a letter sent Saturday to church and school families, St. John’s strongly disputed several of the allegations, particularly claims that Pastor Andrew Farhat or other staff members accused the girl of lying, pressured her to recant or failed to report suspected abuse.

“Two staff members independently reported quickly and appropriately to authorities as required by Colorado’s mandatory reporting laws,”…

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A former missionary with an Ohio-based ministry pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges that he sexually abused two boys in Haiti, reaching an agreement with prosecutors that could lead to a prison sentence of at least 25 years.

Jeriah Mast, 45, of Millersburg, Ohio — who told police in 2019 he had molested more than 30 boys in Haiti and four children in Ohio — entered the plea before Judge Donald C. Nugent in federal court in Cleveland.

Under the plea agreement, Mast and prosecutors agreed that an “appropriate” sentence would be between 25 and 33 years, though the judge would have final say. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 15.

Mast took trips to Haiti for mission work between 2002 and 2019. That included several years of work for the Millersburg-based Christian Aid Ministries, which coordinates missionary activities supported by Amish, conservative Mennonite and related church groups. Mast belonged to a…

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Brian Boucher’s case will return to court in November

A former Montreal priest who has been charged with possessing and accessing child sexual abuse material will stay detained until his next court appearance in November.

Brian Boucher’s lawyer told a judge Tuesday that her client has waived his right to a bail hearing.

The 64-year-old was sentenced in 2019 to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting two boys, after being found guilty in one case and pleading guilty in the other.

The abuse took place at two churches, between 1995 and 1999 in the case of one victim and between 2008 and 2011 in the other.

• Former Montreal priest imprisoned for sexually abusing boys facing new charges

Boucher was granted statutory release in 2024 and was serving the remainder of his sentence in the community at an approved residential facility before his arrest on the…

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The Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS), responsible for developing safeguarding procedures and coordinating responses to clerical and religious sexual abuse complaints, says safeguarding in the New Zealand Catholic Church has undergone a “positive culture shift.” Survivors say that claim is contradicted by what happens when they actually come forward.

“Our members who have approached NOPS report a familiar pattern of being ignored, sidelined, delayed and left without justice,” says Richard van der Hulst, a trustee of SNAP Aotearoa. His comment follows the Wellington Archbishop Paul Martin’s recent decision not to uphold his complaint to NOPS, which alleged a coverup in the Hamilton Diocese.

Van der Hulst says Martin did not uphold his complaint on the basis that records had been destroyed by the Church and the allegation therefore could not be proven.

“Stop congratulating yourselves and start listening to survivors,” says van der Hulst.

The comments follow a 4…

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There were calls for an independent investigation into the scale of abuse in the Church in Lithuania in 2023 after the chancellor of diocesan curia in Vilnius was convicted of possession of child abuse images.

Lay activists repeated their call for an independent commission to investigate abuse within the Lithuanian Church after two further criminal cases against priests for sexual offences against minors.

The Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office announced the cases on 11 August. Tadas Švedavičius, 56, pleaded guilty to committing total of 34 sexual offences against minors between 2002 and 2025, while 51-year-old Ryšardas Peciunas, charged with possession of child abuse images, denies allegations.

The Archdiocese of Vilnius issued a statement pledging cooperation with the law enforcement and said it would conduct canonical investigations. Both clerics were immediately suspended from their duties. However, the archdiocese claimed that church authorities only learned about the allegations from prosecutors.

This prompted an…

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The Diocese of Palm Beach began investigating reports of sexual misconduct involving the Rev. Alex Vargas of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in June.

The Diocese of Palm Beach has officially removed the Rev. Alex J. Vargas from St. Thomas More Catholic Church near Boynton Beach following an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

Bishop Manuel Rodríguez announced in a Sept 6. letter that the investigation, launched in June, found insufficient evidence that Vargas had sexually abused a minor.

However, investigators found enough evidence to sustain allegations of sexual misconduct, abuse of authority, financial malfeasance and violations of the church’s code of conduct.

Rodríguez emphasized that Vargas’ removal is not a determination of guilt. Vargas will participate in a canonical judicial process that will determine whether the allegations are substantiated.

“I recognize that this news may be troubling and difficult to understand,” Rodríguez wrote. He said members of the…

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An insurance company has agreed to pay $30 million to settle abuse claims on behalf of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, narrowly avoiding a jury trial.

The claims at issue date from the 1960s through the late 1980s, centering on former diocesan priest Thomas P. Adamson, who was dismissed from the clerical state in 2009 and died in 2019.

The case highlights continued tension between dioceses and their liability insurers in covering such claims, with the latter now often pushing back on payouts.

In an Aug. 27 letter, attorney Timothy W. Burns of Burns Bair, the firm representing the diocese’s settlement trustee, advised Judge Nancy Buytendorp of the Winona County District Court that an agreement had been reached between his client and United States Fire Insurance Company in the matter.

Will address abuse claims filed against diocese

The $30 million settlement will address abuse claims filed against the diocese, which concluded…

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A St. Louis pastor convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl inside his Baltimore church nearly two decades ago is set to become Missouri state overseer of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International next week, a promotion that places a registered Tier 3 sex offender atop a state branch of a fellowship claiming roughly 2 million members. Timothy D. Price III, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of St. Louis, is scheduled for installation as the fellowship’s Missouri state overseer on September 16, according to facts confirmed in reporting on the appointment.

Price pleaded guilty to second-degree rape in May 2008 and was sentenced that August to seven years in prison, according to reporting by The Roys Report. He was 31 years old at sentencing. Charging documents from February 2008 cited by the Baltimore Sun detailed how Price had obtained permission from the victim’s mother…

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A second Southern Baptist church in South Carolina has made headlines recently for allowing a registered sex offender to participate in congregational ministry.

Ministry Watch reported Aug. 31 that Brookwood Church in Simpsonville recently disqualified an adult male from serving in any capacity in the church, saying: “The man is a registered sex offender in South Carolina who was convicted in Georgia in 1983 for two offenses: Enticing a child for indecent purposes and child molestation.”

Brookwood Executive Pastor of Strategy J.C. Thompson said the man was “forthcoming” about his criminal history when he began attending the church in 1999, and that “church leaders set boundaries for his participation at the church.”

“Those boundaries included prohibiting him from volunteering in children’s or student ministry areas and requiring ministry leaders working with (him) to be fully informed about his background and committed to following the established parameters,” Thompson said in a statement.

In an email…

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In short:

The Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia, is looking to part ways with the Christian Brothers after agreeing to take on its child abuse payouts.

In June, the order announced it was running out of money for survivors and applied to stop all litigation on compensation claims, some of which were in the final stages.

What’s next?

A lawyer says survivors may have to wait up to two years to receive settlements due to new legal barriers. 

The national organisation set up by the Christian Brothers, which runs 61 Catholic schools across Australia, is considering severing its ties with the order amid mounting tensions over compensation to victims of child sexual abuse.

Relations between the Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia (TEREA) and the Christian Brothers have become strained after the order did not disclose relevant information about its financial position.

For nearly a decade, the Christian Brothers…

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[See also the letter by Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez.]

Boynton Beach FL – The Diocese of Palm Beach says an investigation substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct, abuse of power, and fraud against a Boynton Beach priest.

Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez announced the findings in a letter Saturday involving the Rev. Alex J. Vargas, who previously served as pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Boynton Beach.

The diocese said it was notified June 17 of “serious allegations” involving Vargas, according to previous reports. The matter was reported to civil authorities and law enforcement, and Renaissance Associates, Ltd., was hired to conduct an independent investigation.

Because there was no credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, the findings were presented to the diocese’s Adult Allegation Board for review.

The board determined there was insufficient information to substantiate an allegation of sexual abuse.

However, it found…

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[See also the letter by Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez.]

The Diocese of Palm Beach released an update in regard to alleged misconduct against one of its reverends.

The Diocese of Palm Beach announced on Saturday, Sept. 5, that following an independent investigation, it determined that there was insufficient information against Reverend Alex J. Vargas of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Boynton Beach to substantiate or prove the allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The diocese added there was sufficient information to substantiate allegations of sexual misconduct, abuse of power, authority and/or office, financial malfeasance and violation of the code of conduct including provisions relating to sexual contact, harassment, conflicts of interest and administrative responsibilities against Vargas.

The Diocese of Palm Beach said Renaissance Associates, LTD, a law firm based in New York, conducted the investigation.

The findings of the investigation were presented to the Adult Allegation…

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A$30 million settlement has been reached related to sexual abuse claims filed against the Diocese of Winona.

Jeff Anderson & Associates PA in St. Paul announced Thursday the settlement with U.S. Fire Insurance Co., the diocese’s largest insurer.

The firm stated the settlement will impact more than 145 people who filed claims against the diocese for sexual abuse.

“U.S. Fire Insurance denied, delayed, and, for business reasons, chose to oppress survivors in bringing closure and making settlements,” attorney Jeff Anderson stated in the settlement announcement Thursday. “U.S Fire and the entire insurance industry is now required to reckon in a way like never before.”

The diocese itself, which filed for bankruptcy in 2018, previously agreed to a $28 million settlement for the sexual abuse cases in 2021. That settlement included parishes and schools and insurers LMI and Interstate, but not United States Fire.

Three of the sexual abuse cases resulted in…

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It’s been a year since survivors of childhood sexual abuse in one of our upstate communities received some closure. More than 11,000 civil suits were filed under the Child Victims Act in New York, including hundreds against the Catholic Church. But Sept. 5 of last year, a judge ruled on the settlement for survivors in Rochester.

“I held myself together for years during that, and I listened to stories. They were horror stories,” Carol DuPré said. “You can’t get more personal than the kind of things that were brought into that courtroom.”

She’s referring to stories about sexual assault and abuse. DuPré was abused by her priest when she was 15 years old. She was a part of a six-year lawsuit as insurance companies fought against the diocese’s bankruptcy claims. Throughout the longer part of Carol’s battle, she wore black to mourn what she and thousands of others across the…

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Pope Leo XIV will hold a private meeting with victims of sexual abuse during his visit to Lourdes, France, on September 26 and 27, but no association or collective will participate as such in the meeting. This was confirmed by the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Jean-Marc Micas, who explained that the decision was made to receive the selected individuals individually due to the high number of requests.

“No collective, neither from Bétharram nor from any other place,” will be invited to the meeting, Micas specified this Friday during a press conference dedicated to the preparations for the papal visit. The location, time, and final composition of the group will remain confidential to protect those who have agreed to participate.

The French Episcopal Conference (CEF) has indicated that seven victims will be received by Leo XIV, although Micas noted that the number still needs to be finalized. Among the participants could…

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The settlement is expected to involve the more than 145 victims of sexual abuse whose claims had been delayed by the diocese’s 2018 bankruptcy and other factors.

Attorneys for survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of southeast Minnesota priests announced Thursday a $30 million settlement with the Diocese of Winona-Rochester’s largest insurer.

Jeff Anderson & Associates, a St. Paul-based law firm representing clients in clergy sex abuse cases, announced it had reached a deal with U.S. Fire Insurance Company, saying the insurance company had yet to pay out claims in dozens of sex abuse cases filed against the diocese.

“U.S. Fire Insurance denied, delayed, and for business reasons, chose to oppress survivors in bringing closure and making settlements,” attorney Jeff Anderson said in a release. “U.S. Fire and the entire insurance industry is now required to reckon in a way like never before.”

The Minnesota Star Tribune reached out…

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The settlement process resolved roughly 100 claims, brought by people who said they were sexually abused as children by clergy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

Lawyers say Maine’s Catholic diocese agreed to settle claims brought by people who said they were sexually abused by clergy as children but were unable to sue, following a ruling from the state’s highest court, only if dozens who could sue agreed to drop their cases.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court struck down a state law in 2025 that made it possible for people with decades-old claims to sue for child sexual abuse, following an appeal by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland arguing that the diocese and other entities had a “vested right” in being protected from the older claims.

Dozens of people who had come forward before then, saying they had been abused by…

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For 15 years, the Healing Garden of the Archdiocese of Chicago has offered a calm, beautiful place, a place of growth and rebirth, to offer respite and an opportunity for healing in response to clerical sexual abuse of children.

Now a National Healing Garden is expected to be dedicated on the campus of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., next year, said Michael Hoffman, a victim-survivor who spearheaded the construction of the Chicago garden and is leading the effort to establish a national garden.

Hoffman, chairman of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Hope and Healing Committee, said the idea for a national garden started about five years ago, coming out of consultations with the National Catholic Restorative Justice Initiative.

Since then, the other victim-survivors of clerical sexual abuse, clergy, officials from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and from the Catholic Project have formed a working group to…

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Nearly 900 survivors of clergy abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo will soon receive ballots to vote on a $362 million settlement that has been years in the making.

Bankruptcy Judge Carl Bucki finalized an amended settlement in federal court late last week. The diocese is expected to mail ballots to survivors by Friday.

“There’s a great sense of relief that it is coming to an end,” attorney Steve Boyd said.

Boyd represents 380 area survivors.

The settlement totals $362 million, with $150 million coming from the diocese and $176 million from insurance carriers.

“They went back and worked on it back and forth until it got to the point where the judge ruled that it was sufficient. It did have enough information for the people to vote,” Boyd said. “And then I think the hope and the expectation is that the people are going to vote for the…

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A Covington principal and assistant principal accused of failing to comply with the state’s mandatory reporting law both pleaded guilty to charges in court Wednesday morning.

Tanya Barth and Lauryn Faciane both pleaded guilty to charges of failing to report the abuse of a child. Faciane pleaded guilty to two counts.

Both were sentenced to probation in consultation with the victims’ families.

Barth and Faciane worked at E.E. Lyon Elementary School in Covington, according to the school’s website.

The law requires school administrators to promptly report suspected abuse, neglect and other incidents involving children to authorities.

At the time of the incident, Covington police said the charges followed an investigation conducted by the department’s Criminal Investigations Division.

At the time of their arrests, the Department of Children and Family Services, the Louisiana Department of Education, and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education were notified of…

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The program has been a fixture of the Church calendar since 2000, when it was launched by St. John Paul II.

The Vatican is hosting its annual formation course for newly appointed bishops from Sept. 2-10, bringing together 147 prelates from five continents to strengthen ecclesial communion and provide practical tools for the exercise of episcopal ministry.

The program has been a fixture of the Church calendar since 2000, when it was launched by St. John Paul II. Described by Vatican media as a condensed “master’s program” for new bishops, it is designed to foster the exchange of experiences among pastors from widely differing cultural, social, and ecclesial contexts while offering practical guidance for governing local churches.

This year’s participants come from countries across Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America, including Algeria, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua…

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After decades of fighting to obtain justice, 145 people who were sexually abused by Catholic clergy and staff in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester will be paid $30 million in a settlement agreement reached with the largest insurer of the diocese.

“This is a breakthrough and powerful moment in time in getting justice for survivors,” said Jeff Anderson, whose law firm, Jeff Anderson & Associates, represented the sexual abuse survivors.

Anderson told MPR News the settlement with the United States Fire Insurance Company covers incidents of abuse dating back to the early 1960s, and some of the survivors began filing claims against the diocese back in the early 1980s.

“I am so proud to stand with these courageous survivors — to have first put it to the bishops, and now to the insurance industry that has refused to abide by their obligations to the survivors and to the bishops themselves,” Anderson…

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The Minnesota diocese paid out another multimillion-dollar settlement several years ago.

Insurers for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, will pay an additional $30 million to clergy-abuse victims there, with the payout coming several years after the diocese itself already settled with victims for another multimillion-dollar sum.

The settlement was announced on Sept. 3 by the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates. The law firm, which represents abuse victims around the country, said the settlement will apply to more than 145 survivors.

The Winona-Rochester Diocese filed for bankruptcy in November 2018 and settled with abuse victims there in 2021 for $28 million. The law firm said that settlement included contributions from two diocesan insurers — LMI and Interstate — but did not include a payout from the diocese’s largest insurance company, U.S. Fire.

A lawsuit against the insurer had been working through the courts, the Anderson law…

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Key Points:

• A West Warwick housing complex was renamed after its namesake, Monsignor Anthony DeAngelis, was accused of child sexual abuse.
• The buildings, formerly “Monsignor DeAngelis Manor I and II,” are now named “Wakefield Manors.”
• The name change followed the RI attorney general’s report detailing decades of abuse by clergy members in the Diocese of Providence.
• Abuse survivor Ann Hagan Webb, who was molested by DeAngelis, witnessed the removal of his name from the facade.

Ann Hagan Webb thought she was meeting a friend for an early morning coffee in West Warwick, the town where she grew up and lost her innocence.

What she did not expect to see when she arrived on Monday, Aug. 31, was the removal, from the brick facade of what until that day had been known as “Monsignor DeAngelis Manor I and II,” of the name of the clergyman…

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Ian Cornish used a dating up to chat and meet up with a child of just 13

An ex-teacher who used to work at a prestigious Surrey private school has been banned from the profession for life after being convicted of child sex offences.

A panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency heard that Ian Cornish, who was employed at Ewell Castle School, used a dating site to chat and meet up with a child of just 13.

The panel reports that what followed was a series of “sexualised communications”, meetings between them as well as “sexual activity.”

Following a police investigation and prosecution, Cornish, 70, pleaded guilty to three offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

The offences were meeting a boy under 16 following grooming, arranging/ facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and engaging in sexual communication with a child.

In January 2023, Cornish was sentenced to four…

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A 30-year-old physical education teacher in Southampton is standing trial on charges of sexual misconduct involving a 16-year-old student. The defendant has entered a plea of not guilty to all four counts.

A physical education teacher from Southampton, England, is currently facing trial at Winchester Crown Court on charges involving an alleged sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student. Bronwen James, 30, stands accused of four counts of sexual activity with a minor, allegations she has formally denied.

The prosecution, led by Edward Culver, outlined a series of events that allegedly began after the teacher accepted a social media request from the student. According to court testimony, the initial digital interactions between the two evolved into a flirtatious exchange. Prosecutors claim that these communications eventually led to private meetings, including an encounter at Weston Shore where the pair allegedly kissed in a vehicle.

Details of the Prosecution’s Case

During the opening of…

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A Hanover High School teacher appeared before a judge Friday morning and was denied bond after being charged with soliciting a minor and sexually exposing himself.

Ronald Wayne England, 44, was arrested at his home Thursday after Henrico Police executed a search warrant.

He is charged with soliciting a child under 15 and sexually exposing himself.

CBS 6 reporter Kelsey Jones got court documents that reveal disturbing online conversations investigators claim took place between England and a minor through a dating app called “Pure.”

Messages show what court documents describe as a back and forth between England and a child under the age of 15 in July and August.

Henrico Police received a tip in June from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a possible child solicitation incident.

England has worked as a teacher at Hanover High School since 2018.

School leaders say he previously worked as…

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ABC13 has learned that a one-time employee of Cypress Christian School is facing multiple charges in Georgia over allegations of sexual misconduct with an underage boy.

Jared Barber has been charged in Bryan County, Georgia, with grooming a minor, criminal attempt to commit grooming a minor, and electronically furnishing obscene material to a minor.

Court records allege the allegations against Barber began in July 2024 and continued until April 29, 2026.

The indictment against Barber came down on Aug. 18, according to those records.

Cypress Christian School sent ABC13 a statement saying they first received “information concerning Mr. Barber” on April 29 of this year.

“The school reported the matter to Texas authorities, terminated his contract that day, and removed him from all contact with students (on April 29),” read part of that statement.

The school declined to elaborate on what roles Barber had while employed at Cypress Christian School.

…

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Professor and therapist David Pooler was known for advocating for abuse survivors. Some of those survivors say he violated their trust.

A leading expert and advocate in the field of clergy sexual abuse at Baylor University is now himself accused of personal and professional misbehavior with abuse survivors.

An independent investigation, initiated by a national nonprofit that helps survivors of adult clergy abuse, found “credible” evidence that David Pooler, therapist and professor at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, engaged in “verbal or virtual sexual misconduct.”

That allegedly included making sexualized remarks and disregarding personal and professional boundaries at multiple times and places with women he knew had been abused.

The report was commissioned by the nonprofit Restored Voices Collective, a clergy abuse survivor support organization that Pooler served as an advisory board member. A firm called Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, or GRACE,…

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The Vigo County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement addressing the arrest of Daniel Willis, a Terre Haute pastor accused of possessing child sexual abuse material, following inquiries about his past ties to the agency.

Willis, 62, of Terre Haute, was arrested Monday and charged with 10 counts of possession of child sex abuse material (underage of 12/bondage), Level 4 felonies, according to Indiana State Police.

Investigation and arrest

Indiana State Police said the investigation began in early 2026 after investigators received tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and a second company that was not named.

Indiana State Police, with assistance from local and federal agencies, served a search warrant at Willis’ home and at the church where he serves as senior pastor, according to police. Indiana State Police identified Willis as a pastor but did not name the church he is connected to. It is unclear…

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A Twin Cities law firm known nationally for representing victims of clergy sexual abuse today announced a settlement with an insurance company that had refused to participate in previous settlements involving the Catholic Diocese of Diocese of Winona-Rochester

New Settlement Involves 145 Clergy Abuse Survivors

A news release issued by Jeff Anderson & Associates says U.S. Fire Insurance has agreed to a $30 million settlement that will benefit 145 victims of clergy sexual abuse. The cases were included in a previous $28 million settlement with the diocese in 2021 that covered the church and two of its insurers.

Insurance Company Had Declined Earlier Settlements

“U.S. Fire Insurance denied, delayed, and for business reasons, chose to oppress survivors in bringing closure and making settlements. U.S. Fire and the entire insurance industry is now required to reckon in a way like never before.” – Jeff Anderson

Three Abuse Cases Went…

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Parishes in the New York diocese will also undergo a notable bankruptcy proceeding called “rapid pre-pack Chapter 11.”

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The Diocese of Winona-Rochester has reached a $30 million settlement with its largest insurer nearly eight years after filing for bankruptcy in 2018.

The settlement with United States Fire Insurance Company will impact more than 145 survivors of sexual abuse who filed claims against the diocese in the bankruptcy. This follows an earlier $28 million settlement reached in February 2021 that included the diocese, parishes and schools, and two other insurers but did not include U.S. Fire.

“It’s time – the landscape versus the insurance industry has shifted,” said Jeff Anderson.

The latest settlement comes after three survivors won jury verdicts against the diocese in 2025. Doe 254, who was abused by Fr. Joseph Cashman in the 1970s when he was 15 to 18 years old and a student at Lourdes High School in Rochester, was awarded $7.6 million after a trial in Olmsted County in June 2025. Doe 539,…

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About a dozen survivors of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Diocese of Portland on Wednesday publically called for accountability following the diocese’s legal settlement with a large group of survivors last month.

In 2021, Maine passed a law that allows survivors of sexual abuse to bring civil lawsuits against older cases. Before this, survivors could not bring forward lawsuits if the abuse happened before the late 1980s.

According to attorney Michael Bigos, who represented several survivors, the Portland diocese has resolved more than 100 child sex abuse claims made against it since 2021. He said the survivors have been between the ages of 35 to late 80s and are about equally men and women. In late August, according to Maine Public, the diocese settled with 42 survivors.  

The terms of the settlements are undisclosed.

In July, Bishop James T. Ruggieri released a statement saying the diocese will continue to…

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I worked in senior staff positions in Catholic dioceses for twenty-seven years. For nearly all of them my duties included, in part, dealing with the legal, political, and media fallout of clergy sex abuse. A favorite theme of those years, from plaintiffs’ attorneys to the mainstream press, was the hypocrisy of a Church that preached sexual purity while harboring a tribe of sex predators. It was an ugly experience, but not an unwarranted one. As a parent myself, I believed that the punishment of abuse perpetrators and those who knowingly protected them was only just—Roman collar or not. So was ample compensation for their victims.

What struck me as much less just, and laced with an even bigger helping of hypocrisy, was the refusal of public authorities—including my own state’s then–attorney general, Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro—to acknowledge the same or worse abuse problems in their own institutions, and deal with them…

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A federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Lexington adds new details to the case against Lincoln County youth pastor Jason Coulter.

According to an affidavit filed by an FBI Special Agent, Coulter contacted the Kentucky State Police on Aug. 14 and said he wanted to confess to crimes. The affidavit states Coulter told investigators he communicated with the 17 year-old-girl through TikTok and Snapchat.

The complaint alleges Coulter told investigators he exchanged explicit messages and images with the teenager over about six weeks in spring 2026 and that they met twice for sexual activity, once at a park in Mercer County and once in his vehicle in Lincoln County.

The affidavit states the girl later told Kentucky State Police that she and Coulter engaged in sexual activity on two occasions and exchanged nude images through Snapchat and TikTok.

Federal prosecutors allege Coulter used online platforms to persuade,…

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