ABUSE TRACKER

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CNS) — The Diocese of Orange has settled a sex abuse lawsuit involving a former vice principal of Mater Dei High School in 1978 for $3.5 million, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The settlement was reached last month for a victim who alleged he was sexually abused by Michael Harris, a former priest and vice principal of the school.

Diocese of Orange officials were prepared to go to trial in the case, but decided to settle, Diocese spokesman Jarryd Gonzales said.

“The Diocese vigorously defended this decades-old claim and was prepared to take it to trial,” Gonzales said. “However, all parties — the plaintiff, the Diocese’s insurers, and the Diocese — agreed that a pre-trial settlement was most beneficial to everyone involved. The Diocese’s insurers funded the settlement entirely, and we are grateful for their participation.”

The announcement came a day before the attorneys who represented the plaintiff were…

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The Diocese of Orange has agreed to pay $3.5 million to a man who alleges he was sexually abused by a former administrator at Mater Dei High School in the late 1970s.

The settlement concludes a lawsuit filed in 2019 against the diocese and brings the amount the Catholic Church has paid out in civil cases involving Msgr. Michael Harris to at least $10 million. Harris has denied molesting minors and was never criminally charged.

The man, identified in court documents as John Doe, wrote in a statement read by his attorney during a news conference Wednesday that he’s still trying to overcome the pain of the abuse he suffered more than four decades ago.

“Harris, Mater Dei and the Diocese of Orange made promises to me and promises to my parents,” the man said in the statement. “They promised I would be safe at school. They also promised I…

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The Diocese of Orange has agreed to pay a $3.5 settlement to a man who alleged he was sexually abused as a young teen decades ago while attending Mater Dei High School by former Monsignor Michael Harris, attorneys said Wednesday.

During a news conference announcing the settlement outside Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove on Wednesday, Dec. 18, victims rights attorneys alleged that their ongoing legal battle against the Diocese of Orange, which oversees Mater Dei, has unveiled “at least 13 child predators” who had worked at the campus over the years.

A once-popular and high-profile figure in Orange County, Harris served as principal at Mater Dei and Santa Margarita Catholic high schools before leaving the priesthood after the clergy scandal erupted more than two decades ago. Though Harris denied molesting minors and was never criminally charged, more than a dozen former students have accused him in lawsuits…

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A Messianic teaching ministry has become the second programmer to leave Daystar TV, following allegations the network’s president, Joni Lamb, covered up sex abuse, engaged in spiritual abuse, and entered into an “unbiblical” marriage.

Citing its “commitment to the authority of Scripture,” Love Israel, the international Bible teaching ministry of Baruch Korman, said it will sever its relationship with Daystar “as soon as possible” in a video today on YouTube.

“For us it was very clear, we cannot be who we are in the Messiah and take the positions we take in morality and in marriage and in stewardship, and continue to be associated with Daystar,” Korman said.

Previously, Canadian broadcaster Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson pulled her daily Daystar TV program, Laura-Lynn Live at the Eagle’s Nest, citing “ethical deficits” at the network.

Korman did not specify the moral issue with Daystar. However,…

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Eighteen months since Bishop Prince Singh’s two adult sons, Nivedhan and Eklan Singh, made allegations on social media that their father was guilty of physical abuse, alcoholism and emotional abuse, the head of the Episcopal Church has announced the misconduct complaints against Singh have been resolved.

Prince Singh, the former provisional bishop of the dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan who resigned in September 2023, will be suspended from ministry for at least three more years, according to the terms of an accord reached between Singh and Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe.

Singh has been the subject of two clergy misconduct complaints. One involved allegations that he physically and emotionally abused his wife at the time, Roja Suganthy-Singh, and his sons; drank alcohol excessively at home; and was publicly deceitful about facts regarding his divorce with Suganthy-Singh, now his ex-wife.

The second…

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A former priest accused of sexually assaulting one boy and groping another recently was granted a sentence modification, allowing him to return to his home country of Colombia.

Jaime Marin-Cardona, 56, appeared last week at state Superior Court in Danbury, where the disposition in his case was changed to a suspended nine-year prison sentence plus 45 months of conditional discharge.

Marin-Cardona originally was charged with — and pleaded not guilty to — three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, three counts of risk of injury to a child and three counts of illegal sexual contact after turning himself in to Danbury police on a warrant in January 2020.

The warrant alleged that he groomed two boys over the course of four years, and sexually abused one of them over the same period of time. The abuse allegedly began in 2014 — the same year Marin-Cardona…

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Former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has quit as a priest following an investigation into the Church of England’s handling of a sexual abuse case.

Lord Carey resigned after the BBC contacted him about allegations he allowed a priest, who had been banned over sexual abuse claims, to return to priesthood.

However, the 89-year-old mentioned his age when announcing his decision to stand down.

In his resignation letter, sent to the Diocese of Oxford on December 4, he said: “I wish to surrender my Permission to Officiate.

“I am in my ninetieth year now and have been in active ministry since 1962 when I was made Deacon and then Priested in 1963.

“It has been an honour to serve in the dioceses of London, Southwell, Durham, Bristol, Bath and Wells, Canterbury and finally Oxford.

“I give thanks to God for his enduring faithfulness but want to recognise the remarkable contribution…

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Former priest shot down a plea deal with parole Monday.

A Catholic priest with ties to West Texas, Austin and Louisiana failed to enter a plea with prosecutors before a Waco judge Monday, December 16. The disgraced religious leader is accused of sexually assaulting vulnerable members of his congregation.

In a news release issued by the Waco Police Department on July 16, former priest Anthony Odiong was arrested when child pornography was reportedly discovered in his possession during an investigation into accusations of sexual assault from former churchgoers under his spiritual advisement. According to reports from The Guardian, Odiong was set to plea guilty in exchange for a chance at parole after 20 years in prison.

Now, the once-priest is facing life behind bars, potentially without parole. In the months since they first announced Odiong’s arrest, Waco investigators uncovered at least eight alleged victims. Now, he’s facing several…

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Emotional and graphic statements were given on Friday from several survivors who are part of the sexual abuse scandal linked to the Oakland Diocese.

Their appearance in court was part of an effort by the judge overseeing the churches’ bankruptcy proceedings.

“Today’s session involved survivors of childhood sexual assault by priests at the Catholic Church giving their personal statements to the court and to the bishop,” said Attorney Rick Simons.

Simons represents numerous survivors in the sexual abuse scandal linked to the Oakland Diocese. The case was supposed to go to court last year. But the Catholic Church filed for bankruptcy in an effort to settle almost 350 claims. That paved the way for victim statements on Friday, something that doesn’t usually happen in bankruptcy proceedings.

“To give the survivors some voice in the process. We spent three years in state court with our lawsuits, with our survivors. We had…

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The Archdiocese of New Orleans, which remains locked in settlement talks for its long-running bankruptcy case, is selling three more properties as it raises cash that will eventually pay survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

The New Orleans-area properties include a historic former school in Faubourg Marigny, a vacant lot across the street from the Notre Dame Seminary and a five-bedroom Covington home along the Tchefuncte River that was used for clergy retreats. 

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Meredith Grabill approved the sales Monday, according to court filings. 

The properties will generate about $2.3 million for the nation’s second-oldest Roman Catholic diocese and come as church officials and abuse survivors work towards a financial settlement in the four-year-old case. Archbishop Gregory Aymond placed the local church under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2020 amid mounting claims of abuse, most of them decades old.

Earlier this fall, the church filed a reorganization plan, offering…

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State attorney general Dana Nessel’s investigation finds allegations dating back to 1950 against clergy in Lansing

Michigan’s top state prosecutor has issued a report outlining allegations against nearly 60 people in the Roman Catholic diocese of Lansing accused of sexually abusing children and vulnerable adults over the past seven decades.

The state attorney general Dana Nessel’s office published the report as part of a years-long investigation into clergy sexual abuse within Michigan’s Catholic dioceses.

The investigation, which began in September 2018, found that 48 priests, three religious brothers, one apparent former religious brother and four deacons are suspected of engaging in sexual misconduct in the Lansing diocese since 1950. The report includes victim interviews, tips, police investigations and documents seized from the diocese amid the reckoning with sexual misconduct among Catholic clergy.

Of the 56 people accused, 42 were ordained or incardinated by the diocese of Lansing. The number of offenders…

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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel this week released the fourth report in a series of investigations the state is conducting into abuse by Catholic clergy there. 

The attorney general’s report, released on Monday, looks at reported abuse in the Diocese of Lansing. Previous reports, released in 2022 and 2024, examined alleged abuse in the dioceses of Kalamazoo, Gaylord, and Marquette.  

As with the earlier investigations, the Lansing report looks at allegations of abuse dating back decades. The report includes “allegations of sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct, including grooming and misuse of authority against minors and adults.”

The attorney general’s office lists a total of 56 clergy and religious in its report, including two bishops, with more than 150 abuse allegations identified in the investigation.  

The majority of the individuals on the list, 37, are “known or presumed to be…

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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released the fourth of seven reports Monday related to a years-long investigation into clergy sexual abuse within Michigan’s Catholic dioceses.

The report indicated that the investigation into the Diocese of Lansing, which began in September 2018, found that 48 priests, three religious brothers, one apparent former religious brother and four deacons may have engaged in sexual misconduct since 1950. Of the 56 total, 42 were ordained or incardinated by the Diocese of Lansing.

“By publishing these reports we are sharing their stories and validating their experiences,” Nessel said during a press conference Monday afternoon. “We hope this report provides a voice to those who have suffered in silence for so long.”

Diocese of Lansing Bishop Earl Boyea said he is deeply sorry that anyone was sexually abused or sexually assaulted by any clergy members.

“Having read this long and detailed report, my heart breaks for all…

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Just how long have Louisiana Catholic officials known about or suspected child sex crimes by their clergy? In these cases, a quarter of a century. That’s right: next month, we’ll welcome a new year – 2025 – which marks the 25th year since Louisiana bishops, chancellors, vicars general, and other top church staffers were told about reports that these clerics had hurt kids. And in each case, Catholic officials kept those reports secret for years or even decades.

1. Fr. Carmelo Ignatius Camenzuli In May of 2000, Baton Rouge church staff received a report that he assaulted at least one child in the early 1980s. Not until 2019 did the Baton Rouge bishop put his name on a church ‘credibly accused’ abusers list. Read more on Fr. Camenzuli. 
2. Fr. Patrick R. Kujawa In 2000, he was arrested in January of 2000 and charged with 62 counts…

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The lawyer for three children who were sexually abused by a MorningStar Fellowship volunteer told a judge Monday the church should not be dropped from lawsuits over claims of religious freedom

The hearing Monday was the first public court action in the case after The Herald exclusively reported last month MorningStar asked the cases be dismissed over ‘ecclesiastical doctrine’ — a claim that the separation of church and state bars the case against it.

MorningStar, located in York County near the North Carolina state line, is a large non-denominational congregation with hundreds of members. It runs MorningStar University and a K-12 school, according to its website.

Erickson Lee, 26, a former police officer in Cornelius, N.C., is serving a nine-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in September to sex crimes against children from a church youth group he ran for three years before he was arrested in 2023.

Lawyers for…

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Decision leaves Anthony Odiong on course for trial on charges that could carry a maximum of life imprisonment

A hearing at which a Roman Catholic priest with ties to Texas and south-east Louisiana was tentatively scheduled to plead guilty to criminal charges of abusing his authority as a clergyman to pursue sex with spiritually vulnerable female congregants was called off, court officers said Monday.

The proceeding in the state criminal courthouse of Waco, Texas, had been tenuously called as Anthony Odiong spent more than a month mulling a plea deal.

Though the terms have not been made public, the Guardian understood Odiong essentially was offered the chance to plead guilty in exchange for a possibility at getting parole after accruing 20 years in prison.

There were signs Odiong, 55, or his attorney indicated his willingness to plead out rather than be publicly tried on the charges because state prosecutors had prepared victims in…

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil – Pope Francis removed Argentine Father Justo José Ilarraz of the Diocese of Santísima Concepción in Tucumán from the priesthood on Dec. 11, in a surprising gesture that brought solace to the victims, who have been denouncing the priest since the 1990s.

Ilarraz is accused of abusing over 50 teenagers with ages varying from 12 to 14 when he worked at a seminary in the city of Paraná, between 1984 and 1992. The case was so scandalous that it was cited in the movie Spotlight (2015), about the team of reporters that revealed numerous cases of child abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston.

“The Diocese of the Santísima Concepción de Tucumán communicates that an administrative penal process was carried out against Father Justo Ilarraz, incardinated in this diocese, for crimes against the sixth commandment with minors (…), and after the appeal of the defendant was elevated to the Dicastery…

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LANSING, Mich. (WNEM) – Decades of abuse have been outlined in a report on the Catholic Diocese of Lansing.

Back in 2018, search warrants at seven dioceses uncovered countless documents and electronic evidence.

There have been over 300 pages of findings from the Attorney General’s (AG) office, a hefty find, and this is just report number four out of the seven dioceses across the state.

“We hope this report provides a voice to those who have suffered in silence for so long and shines a light on those alleged offenders,” said Michigan AG Dana Nessel.

She announced the release of a report from the Department of the Attorney General, concerning reports of sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct happening within the Diocese of Lansing.

“By publishing these reports, we are sharing their stories and validating their experiences. Criminal prosecutions are just one accountability metric,” Nessel said.

The report is 345 pages…

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There are 56 entries on the list, which includes 48 priests, three religious brothers and an apparent former religious brother, and four deacons; 42 were ordained or incardinated by the Diocese of Lansing.

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – On Monday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the release of a report by the Department of Attorney General regarding allegations of sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct that took place in the Diocese of Lansing.

The report, which was released to acknowledge the victims’ reports of abuse and document the Department’s findings, is 345 pages long and can be read in full at the bottom of this article.

It is a compilation of excerpts from the information obtained from multiple sources, including the tip line, victim interviews, police investigations, open-source media, paper documents seized from the Diocese of Lansing, electronic documents found on the diocesan computers, and reports of allegations disclosed by the…

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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a report Monday outlining allegations of sexual abuse by clergy in the Lansing Diocese of the Catholic Church. In some cases, the allegations date back to the 1950s.

There have been three criminal convictions among the 56 clergy named in the Lansing Diocese report. But, Nessel said, it is not possible to pursue criminal charges in most cases because clergy suspected of abuse have died, the statute of limitations has expired or victims don’t want to pursue cases.

But Nessel said it is still important to investigate these allegations and compile the available information as a service to the public and to victims.

“By publishing these reports, we are sharing their stories and validating their experiences,” she said in an online news conference. “We hope this report provides a voice to those who have suffered in silence for so long and shines…

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LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — The Office of the Michigan Attorney General released a report Monday detailing a sweeping review of allegations of sex abuse in the Lansing Diocese from 1950.

The attorney general says both minors and adults were sexually abused over the decades. The 1970s and ’80s were the peak times for the abuse according to the report.

The attorney general’s office says more charges could be filed, saying there are still open investigations.

The report is 345 pages and draws on an estimated 1.5 million documents seized on Oct. 3, 2018, as part of a statewide effort by Attorney General Dana Nessel to review the growing clergy abuse scandal and subsequent alleged cover-ups.

The report details allegations against individuals within the Lansing Diocese of the Catholic Church. In a news release, Nessel’s team reports the new detailed review includes “56 entries on this list, which includes 48 priests,…

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(CBS DETROIT) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released on Monday the results of a new report showing 56 people were accused of sexual abuse or other sex crimes against minors and adults at the Diocese of Lansing.

The report is part of an ongoing investigation that spans decades. Since taking office, Nessel has promised to use her department to make sure cases of sexual abuse and assault are fully reviewed.

Nessel also promised to release reports for all seven Catholic Dioceses of Michigan. Previous reports for the Diocese of Marquette, Gaylord, and Kalamazoo have already been published.

The Lansing report includes victim interviews, tips, police investigations, documents seized from the diocese, and more.

“Offenses involving sexual assault will not be permitted in any realm of life, and whether that’s in parishes around the state and country, or whether it’s in our government, that it should never be tolerated…

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Children were repeatedly abused by a monk belonging to the Cistercian community at Caldey Abbey, south Wales over many years

The Archbishop of Cardiff-Menevia has responded to the publication of the Caldey Abbey Review into allegations of childhood sexual abuse within the monastic community of Caldey Abbey on Caldey Island, Pembrokeshire, saying he is “profoundly sorry” and pledging that the cries of the victims “are finally being heard”.

Arcbishop Mark O’Toole said, “This report is heart-breaking but that heartbreak is nothing compared to the pain, suffering and trauma experienced by the victims/survivors.

“To you, I say how profoundly sorry I am for the abuse you suffered, especially that this happened within the Church and that the Church failed you in its response over so many years. I hope that having this opportunity to share your story, and to have it recorded, even after all this time, helps you personally, and…

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The appalling abuse committed by former Church of England rector David Tudor, highlighted in today’s BBC File on Four documentary, is a grievous breach of trust and we commend the courage of those survivors who came forward aware of the retraumatising affects this has had on their lives.

The BBC Programme reveals a catalogue of past safeguarding decisions, that allowed someone who was considered a risk in the 1980s to return to ministry in the 1990s. This should never have happened.

David Tudor who has most recently served in the diocese of Chelmsford, was suspended by the former Bishop of Chelmsford in 2019 following new information, and was prohibited from ministry for life by a Bishops Disciplinary Tribunal in October. The prohibition followed a full admission of guilt to disclosures of serious sexual abuse that were brought as a disciplinary complaint, relating to the time when he was a priest in the…

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A woman who has told the BBC how she was groomed by priest David Tudor has joined calls for the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell to resign over his handling of a sexual abuse case.

Mr Cottrell is just days away from taking charge of the Church of England, following the resignation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby over his management of a separate sex abuse case.

But Mr Cottrell has also come under pressure after a BBC investigation revealed that as Bishop of Chelmsford, he let Tudor remain in his post despite knowing he had been barred by the Church from being alone with children and had paid compensation to a sexual abuse victim.

Rachel Ford, who alleged she was groomed by Tudor while at school, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Mr Cottrell’s resignation would send a “warning” to people that “the old boys’ club” is over.

Mr Cottrell…

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The Anglican Church was once again shaken, following revelations concerning Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York, who is set to lead the institution temporarily. He is accused of having previously allowed a priest accused of sexual abuse to remain in his position.

The Church of England was once again embroiled in scandal December 16 following revelations about the man set to take temporary leadership—Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York.

The events, uncovered by a BBC investigation, date back to 2010, when Archbishop Cottrell—currently the second-highest figure in the Anglican Church—was Bishop of Chelmsford in southeastern England. He is accused of keeping a priest, David Tudor, in his role despite church-imposed restrictions forbidding him from being alone with children after multiple cases of sexual assault.

A priest accused of abuse by at least seven women

Responding to the BBC, a spokesperson for the bishop stated that Cottrell did not have the…

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A senior  UK bishop, who will soon take over temporarily as leader of the world’s Anglicans after a sex abuse scandal, faced calls to quit on Monday over his own handling of another case.

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the Anglican Church’s second most senior cleric, will take charge for a few months in the New Year following the resignation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last month.

Welby stepped down after an independent probe found he “could and should” have formally reported decades of abuse by a Church-linked lawyer to authorities in 2013.

The report found the Church of England — the mother church of Anglicanism — covered up the “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks”, which occurred in Britain, Zimbabwe and South Africa over several decades.

Now the Bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, has called for Cottrell to stand down over claims he too mishandled a…

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[PHOTO: Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell has rejected calls for him to resign over all alleged failings in dealing with a historical sex abuse case saying he did everything he could, suspending the priest in question at the first legal opportunity. Photo courtesy Archbishop of York/Diocese of York]

Dec. 16 (UPI) — The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, the Church of England’s second-highest bishop, hit back Monday at calls for him to resign over alleged failings in dealing with a historical sex abuse case saying he did everything he could, suspending the priest in question at the first legal opportunity.

Cottrell, who is in the running to take over from Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as the interim head of the church after Welby quit over his handling of a similar scandal, in a news release rejected allegations in a BBC investigation that he did nothing for more than…

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Dennis Finbow served in as a priest in Dogsthorpe in Peterborough in the 1980s and was convicted of three counts of indecent assault on a child last year

A former priest from Peterborough has had his clerical status removed by Pope Francis, 18 months after he was convicted of sexual abuse.

Dennis Finbow served in as a priest in Dogsthorpe in Peterborough in the 1980s and at the time he was a trusted member of the community.

But he hid a dark secret – one that was eventually revealed when he was convicted of three counts of indecent assault on a child last year.

Finbow was given a six and a half year prison sentence at Cambridge Crown Court in March 2023.

Now he has had his clerical status stripped from him by Pope Francis.

Bishop Peter Collins, the Bishop of East Anglia, said: “As I promised when Dennis Finbow…

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Those who protested outside Catholic churches believe they would have been arrested if such laws were in place

Survivors of clergy abuse have expressed deep concern at proposals to ban protests outside places of worship, with lawyer John Ellis saying a blanket ban would have seen him arrested outside a Sydney cathedral last year.

Anthony Albanese on Wednesday backed proposals in New South Wales and Victoria to ban such protests after an arson attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and antisemitic vandalism in Sydney.

Speaking about the proposals, the prime minister said he “cannot conceive of any reason, apart from creating division in our community, of why someone would want to hold a demonstration outside a place of worship”.

This rankled abuse survivors, particularly those who engaged in what they describe as a respectful demonstration outside St Mary’s cathedral in Sydney after George Pell’s death, and others who have tied ribbons…

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OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — Emotional and graphic statements were given on Friday from several survivors who are part of the sexual abuse scandal linked to the Oakland Diocese.

Their appearance in court was part of an effort by the judge overseeing the churches’ bankruptcy proceedings.

“Today’s session involved survivors of childhood sexual assault by priests at the Catholic Church giving their personal statements to the court and to the bishop,” said Attorney Rick Simons.

Simons represents numerous survivors in the sexual abuse scandal linked to the Oakland Diocese. The case was supposed to go to court last year. But the Catholic Church filed for bankruptcy in an effort to settle almost 350 claims. That paved the way for victim statements on Friday, something that doesn’t usually happen in bankruptcy proceedings.

“To give the survivors some voice in the process. We spent three years in state court with our lawsuits, with our…

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As the Church pushes for harsher drug laws in Italy, a series of cases suggest that the priesthood is hiding a problem of its own

“If you knew the right people, you would know it’s very common,” wrote a man on Grindr, the LGBTQ dating app. He was one of many users of the app who claimed to have witnessed, or participated in, drug-fuelled parties within the Catholic Church. Not all felt able to meet in person, but digging further I found men willing to disclose their identities and share their stories in full.

What initially sparked my curiosity was the news of a priest testing positive for cocaine after crashing his car on the highway in central Italy in March 2024, while driving home from dinner. Police withdrew his driver’s licence, but did not press charges. It was not the first such case for the priest, nor for the…

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A former Oklahoma pastor who worked at various churches has been arrested for sending a nude photo to a 14-year-old girl in Kansas.

James McMillan was arrested on December 9 on charges related to sending a nude photo—his second arrest in two weeks. He was arrested in November on charges of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 16. Court documents show McMillan is listed as the main suspect in multiple sex abuse cases going back to 2003.

McMillan, who is no longer pastoring, previously led First Baptist Church of Konawa, Oklahoma, and then Slaughterville Baptist Church. Slaughterville has since changed its name.

A TV Station in Oklahoma, KOCO 5, talked to former members of McMillan’s churches who said they were not shocked to hear of the charges against their former pastor. “Wasn’t surprised about this, but just sad that there were other victims,” said Lonnie Holland, a treasurer and…

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Order for each plaintiff to pay $50K security points to barriers for victims seeking accountability: advocate

Warning: This story deals with allegations of sexual assault.

A Manitoba judge has ordered two women who allege they were sexually assaulted by a Winnipeg church youth leader when they were teens to pay security for court costs in order to proceed with their lawsuit.

In a decision issued last week, a Court of King’s Bench judge sided with the defendants named in the lawsuit, who argued the women — two sisters now living in Alberta — should front the costs pending the outcome of the case.

Each of the two plaintiffs was ordered to pay a $50,000 security, according to the Dec. 6 decision by Justice Sarah Inness.

The sisters allege Daniel Wiebe repeatedly assaulted them over a period from 1974 until 1979, while he was a youth leader at the Nassau Street Church, formerly known as the Gospel Mennonite Church.

None of…

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St. Francis Catholic Church, the 127-year-old historic landmark and community center in the Mendocino County hamlet of Hopland, is being sold by the Diocese of Santa Rosa.

The move dashes hope of residents that the beloved Catholic church might reopen after being shuttered since the COVID pandemic.

St. Francis Church has a century-long presence in the heart of Hopland. It is an iconic all-white wood frame church nestled against the hills on the western edge of town within walking distance of the local Post Office and hostoric/restored Thatcher Hotel.

The planned church sale saddens but was expected by local supporters who have long felt St. Francis Church has been treated as a “stepchild” by diocesan officials.

For decades under the auspices of the St. Francis Guild, the historic church has had to rely on the generosity of community leaders and established local families to maintain the church constructed in 1897.

…

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In 2021, the discovery of unmarked graves at a Catholic-run Indian residential school in Canada unearthed long-suppressed truths about the forced separation, assimilation, and abuse inflicted on Indigenous children in these institutions. The revelation ignited national reckoning with a system designed to erase Indigenous cultures. This practice dates from 1831 when the first Canadian Indian residential school was opened, a practice that was even more commonplace in the United States where we opened over 400 residential schools. 

Sugarcane, co-directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is at once an epic drama and a multi-award winning documentary. In the film we see victims uncovering abuse and recovering from its trauma, drawing strength from the Williams Lake First Nation’s heritage through ceremony, the sharing of stories, community and culture. Now streaming on Hulu, nowhere in this film is the journey from a dark past to a brighter future more in evidence than in the family story of Julian…

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South Carolina’s Supreme Court is considering whether the Catholic Diocese of Charleston is exempt from paying damages resulting from lawsuits after an anonymous man accused the diocese of covering up his sexual abuse at the hands of two teachers in the 1970s. 

The case stems from a lawsuit filed in 2018 against the diocese and the local bishop by an unnamed man from Charleston.

According to the filing, the “John Doe” alleges that two teachers sexually assaulted him in 1970 while he was a student at what was then called Sacred Heart Catholic School.

In his lawsuit, the man asserted claims for relief based on the alleged sexual abuse at the school operated by the respondents named in the complaint. 

The diocese has claimed charitable immunity, arguing that under this legal doctrine, it is exempt from having to pay damages based on the conduct of its staff members. 

…

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The alleged abuse took place when the child was between 10 and 12 years old, and got to know the priest through church youth activities.

A man claims that a Catholic priest sexually abused him at a Wayne church more than 30 years ago, in a lawsuit against the church and the Diocese of Paterson.

The plaintiff was 10 to 12 years old at the time and is suing Our Lady of the Valley Church for negligence, according to a northjersey.com report.

He alleges that Father Raymond J. Conlin had “unpermitted sexual contact” with him between the years of 1988 and 1991, while he was participating in youth activities at the church.

The lawsuit, which also lists five unnamed church employees, claimed the plaintiff was pressured to stay silent and that church leaders did not do enough to prevent the abuse. It also claims that the…

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Several clergy abuse victims confronted the Diocese of Oakland’s bishop in a U.S. bankruptcy courtroom on Friday, describing in searing detail how they were groomed, raped and “terrorized” for decades by Catholic priests across the East Bay.

The testimonials capped a two-day hearing for 15 clergy sexual assault victims to air their allegations in court while the Diocese of Oakland seeks to settle roughly 350 lawsuits filed against it in recent years. Last month, the diocese’s proposed paying at least $117 million into a trust for those victims over the next several years — an offer the victims’ attorneys roundly panned as “a scam and a sham.”

On Friday, several abuse victims stared directly at Bishop Michael C. Barber — sitting mere feet away — while imploring the diocese to do right by the hundreds of victims suing the church. Some of them had not yet…

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It’s not often we get some good news in the realm of sexual abuse. But recently, there have been a few developments in the often-grim world we address in this blog: the sexual exploitation and assault of others. The very notion that, in this arena of awfulness, there can actually be such a thing as ‘good news, may seem laughable at first. But no matter how depressed you might usually feel when you hear or read about sex crimes against the innocent and vulnerable, in the ‘big picture,’ there are always a few signs of progress.

We at Horowitz Law often find that taking note of those signs of progress can go a long way toward boosting our morale and motivation. We hope you find that to be the case as well:

• Fr. Lawrence Hecker: A 93-year-old New Orleans predator priest is going to jail. Fr. Lawrence Hecker pleaded…

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[Includes a 35-minute audio interview with Amanda Householder and David Clohessy.]

The closure of three Christian boarding schools in Missouri since 2020 is only a start, says Amanda Householder, whose parents ran the now-closed Circle of Hope Girls Ranch. Householder reflects on her upbringing at her parents’ unregulated boarding school, what happened after she escaped, and her feelings as her mother, Stephanie Householder, faces numerous charges of child abuse. We also hear from David Clohessy, the former national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Clohessy shares insights from a career of advocating for abuse victims, and why he is calling on Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to do more to expose other abuse situations in the state’s boarding schools.

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Anthony Odiong to appear Monday in court over charges he abused his position to pursue sex with congregants

A Roman Catholic priest who served under the command of church officials in Texas’s capital and Louisiana’s most famous city is tentatively scheduled to plead guilty Monday in connection to charges that he allegedly abused his position of clerical authority to pursue sex with spiritually vulnerable women whom he encountered during his work, according to criminal court records online.

Attorneys on both sides of the case pending against Anthony Odiong – who was understood to be mulling a plea deal in recent weeks – emphasized the tentative nature of the hearing set for Monday.

Details about exactly what Odiong would plead guilty to if the hearing actually took place – or what his sentence may be – were unavailable on Friday.

A statement from the Waco, Texas, district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Odiong,…

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The Archbishop of Cardiff-Menevia has apologised to people who were sexually abused by monks on Caldey Island.

Archbishop Mark O’Toole expressed his regret on behalf of the Catholic Church following the publication of The Caldey Abbey Review into allegations of non-recent childhood sexual abuse within the monastic community of Caldey Abbey, Pembrokeshire.

The archbishop said: “This report is heart-breaking but that heartbreak is nothing compared to the pain, suffering and trauma experienced by the victims/survivors.

“To you, I say how profoundly sorry I am for the abuse you suffered, especially that this happened within the Church and that the Church failed you in its response over so many years.

“I hope that having this opportunity to share your story, and to have it recorded, even after all this time, helps you personally, and especially to know that your anguished cries are finally being heard.

Archbishop O’Toole added: “You are very much in…

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Monsignor John B. Hagerty headed Prep in 1984-89 and died in 2013. During investigation of allegations, ‘several victims came forward to share their stories of abuse,’ Catholic Diocese of Erie says.

Key Points

• The Catholic Diocese of Erie has updated Monsignor John B. Hagerty’s name on its Public Disclosure List of priests and laypeople to state that he has been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse
• Hagerty, who died 11 years ago at 83, served in other roles in diocese in addition to leading Cathedral Prep
• Hagerty’s family says they have “zero doubt Monsignor is resting peacefully in God’s loving arms”

Nearly a year after it opened an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against a former headmaster of Cathedral Preparatory School, the Catholic Diocese of Erie has determined the claims to be credible.

The diocese has placed the name of Monsignor John B. Hagerty, who…

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An internal investigation report commissioned by the Paris Foreign Missions Society revealed 63 allegations of sexual violence perpetrated by the congregation’s priests between 1950 and 2024. However, the number is most likely greater.

An internal investigation report commissioned by the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP) yielded an initial yet incomplete assessment of how sexual abuse was addressed within the  missionary organization.

Published December 12 by the MEP, the report was conducted by GCPS Consulting, an independent British firm specializing in safeguarding against sexual abuse. It highlighted the urgent need for concrete measures to prevent sexual violence within the MEP.

Founded in 1658, the Paris Foreign Missions Society is a Catholic organization comprised of priests and laypople dedicated to missionary work abroad. The MEP has primarily evangelized in Asia for nearly four centuries.

The study covered 63 allegations from 1950 to the present, including eight substantiated cases involving 46 priests—representing 3% of the 1,491…

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Those are the regions where the Catholic church is growing fastest

In the shadow of the giant pillars that encircle St Peter’s Square, Nancy Samai sells visitors tickets to the Vatican Museums. A Roman Catholic, Ms Samai arrived in Italy 22 years ago after fleeing the civil war in her native Sierra Leone. As she works, she can see the very window from which Pope Francis greets pilgrims on a Sunday. Like many of them, she wonders whether one day the face that emerges from that window might be black. “If America can have Barack Obama as its president, then surely the next pope can be African,” she says. “That’s my dream. That’s what I’m praying for.”

Similar thoughts may occur to the 21 prelates whom Pope Francis will appoint as cardinals on December 8th. Those still below the age of 80 when he dies or retires will be eligible…

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Saint Ann’s School hired Winston Nguyen knowing he had been imprisoned for fraud. Then someone began soliciting graphic sexual images from its students.

Less than a month into Winston Nguyen’s teaching career at Saint Ann’s, an elite private school in Brooklyn, his eighth-grade students discovered that he was a felon.

While leading an algebra lesson, Mr. Nguyen had shown the class a TikTok video, which led the students, inevitably, to search for him on the internet.

What they found was a startling torrent of headlines from about four years before, when Mr. Nguyen had been charged with siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars from an older couple he worked for in Manhattan.

That evening, in October 2021, Vincent Tompkins, the head of Saint Ann’s School at the time, emailed class members’ parents, acknowledging the teacher’s criminal conviction and saying they had nothing to worry about.

“I can assure you that…

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The elite Brooklyn school commissioned an investigation after the arrest of Winston Nguyen, who is now accused of soliciting lewd photographs from students.

Top administrators at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn knowingly hired a felon to teach math and then “shamed” teachers, students and parents who expressed discomfort with his conduct “as racist or not progressive,” according to a scathing report released on Tuesday.

The teacher, Winston Nguyen, is now accused of soliciting lewd images from students and faces 11 felony charges, including using a child in a sexual performance, promoting a sexual performance by a child and disseminating indecent material to a minor.

But the report said that while its students were facing a barrage of online requests for naked pictures and videos, the school was treating Mr. Nguyen as a valued employee whose unusual behavior was ignored or explained away.

“In some instances,” the report…

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The founder of a Maine youth theater and former Catholic school teacher faces another 30 years behind bars for sexually abusing children.

Henry Eichman, 64, of Tophsam pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland to sexually exploiting children, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

That comes after a Brunswick landscaping business employee discovered two laptops and several hard drives hidden under a kayak on the company’s property in August 2022. The worker opened the devices and discovered files depicting the sexual abuse of children, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The worker recognized Eichman, a former employee of the company, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

A subsequent review of the devices found more than 500 images and videos of child sexual abuse, including videos showing Eichman setting up recording devices and sexually abusing four children between 2014 and 2016, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Eichman was already…

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The Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay $950,000 to another person who said they were abused by the Rev. Daniel McCormack.

A lawsuit filed by attorney Lyndsay Markley claimed that in 2004, the plaintiff in this case was sexually abused several times by McCormack while participating in the SAFE, or St. Agatha’s Family Empowerment Program, at St. Agatha Church, 3147 W. Douglas Blvd.

Markley wrote that she has secured more than $9 million in settlements against the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Catholic Bishop of Chicago just for people claiming abuse by McCormack.

“This one individual left unchecked, harmed this man, and so many others.  It’s unconscionable,” Markley said in a news release, “and I anticipate additional cases against McCormack to come.”

The Archdiocese declined to comment on the $950,000 settlement announced Wednesday.

McCormack is alleged to have molested at least 25 boys. He spent two years in prison, and…

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A Catholic priest who was convicted of child sexual abuse has been stripped of his clerical status.

Dennis Finbow, of Martlesham, near Ipswich, Suffolk, was jailed in March 2023 for six and a half years for abusing a young girl in the 1980s while he worked in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough.

Following the conviction, Pope Francis has removed Finbow’s clerical status and rights as a Catholic priest

Andrew Lord, a solicitor from Leigh Day who represents survivors of abuse, said: “While no action can fully erase the harm Finbow caused, we are encouraged that the Catholic Church is taking measures to hold him accountable.”

Prioritise safeguarding

Finbow, who had also served in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, had retired and not been in active ministry since 2001.

After a trial at Huntingdon Crown Court in January 2023, he was told he would be on the sex offenders’ register for life.

Bishop Peter Collins, from…

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If the Archdiocese of Milwaukee embraced the same level of transparency over child sex abuse as other large Catholic institutions, the number of names on its public list of religious figures with abuse allegations deemed credible would nearly triple, a review by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Chicago Sun-Times found.

The archdiocese’s list of “restricted priests” – or those no longer in ministry and, dead or alive, who have credible allegations of abuse – is among the least comprehensive of the 31 archdioceses in the United States that maintain a public accounting of the abuse crisis, the review by the news organizations found. 

On its website, the Milwaukee Archdiocese lists only priests who were ordained through the archdiocese, saying it can’t adequately verify or rely upon lists compiled by others. That means its list excludes religious order priests and brothers, as well as priests ordained in other dioceses…

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The Abbot of Caldey Abbey, a remote Welsh island monastery, has issued an apology following an independent review into historical child sex abuse by a late monk.

Father Jan Rossey apologised for the “great suffering” endured by children who were sexually abused by Father Thaddeus Kotik, who died in 1992 and the “culture of secrecy and cover-up” that kept it hidden.

The review, led by Jan Pickles, a former assistant police and crime commissioner, investigated allegations of abuse from the late 1960s to 1992. Victims included both boys and girls, many pre-pubescent, who either lived on or visited the island as children.

The investigation found Kotik used tactics such as offering treats and babysitting to groom children and their parents, enabling years of abuse, some of which persisted as families returned to the island.

The report highlighted repeated failures by the abbey’s leadership to report allegations to authorities, despite victims…

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South Carolina’s highest court is evaluating whether a long-defunct state law protecting charities from lawsuits exempts the Catholic Diocese of Charleston from paying damages in a decades-old sexual abuse case at the former Sacred Heart Catholic School in the early-1970s.

The case, filed in 2018 in the wake of a massive class action settlement against the diocese in the 2000s and 2010s, weighs whether the diocese was negligent and subsequently sought to cover up sexual abuse claims by a pre-teenaged John Doe while attending classes at Sacred Heart between 1969 and 1971. 

Both teachers involved, an attorney for the plaintiff said Dec. 10, died long ago, leaving the John Doe in question to seek compensation from the church itself.

Cardinal Newman student sexually assaulted by football team, called racial slurs, lawsuit claims

The church is claiming immunity under an obscure and long-defunct legal change exempting charitable organizations from liability beyond claims based…

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A former priest has been sentenced to a year in jail and 10 years on the sex offender registry after he pleaded no contest to possessing child pornography.

Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara, 39, pleaded guilty in October to a felony count of child sexual abuse material, as well as several special allegations, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release:

• Aggravated possession of child pornography, containing more than 600 images
• The crime involved a large quantity of contraband
• Victim was vulnerable
• The manner in which the crime was carried out indicates planning, sophistication or professionalism

In addition to his sentence of 365 days in jail, two years of formal probation and 10 years on the sex offender registry, Martinez-Guevara was given a suspended two-year prison sentence to serve if he violates probation. Catholic priest charged with possession of child porn

Martinez-Guevara, a Roman Catholic priest who served…

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By the time Barbara Jo Jones went away to a missionary boarding school at age six, she could speak two languages. But as a missionary kid born and raised in Nigeria, she didn’t have the words to describe the ordeal of a school employee sexually abusing her. And if she did tell someone, she knew she would get in trouble and risk her parents’ ministry. 

So she stayed silent.

Now, 60 years later, that silence around the abuse at Hillcrest School in Jos, Nigeria, may be finally, fully broken. Eight Christian organizations have agreed to fund a third-party investigation of all the allegations against the school from its founding in 1942 to the present. Victor Vieth of the Minnesota-based Zero Abuse Project will lead the inquiry.

“It feels hopeful,” Jones said. “It’s in the open. There’s no pretending that it didn’t happen.”

Former Hillcrest students spent three years pushing for…

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A polygamist religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual “wives” including 10 underage girls was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Monday for coercing girls as young as 9 years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults, and for scheming to kidnap them from protective custody.

Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the sect once led by Warren Jeffs, had pleaded guilty to a yearslong scheme to transport girls across state lines for his sex crimes, and later to kidnap some of them from protective custody.

Under the agreement, Bateman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for sexual activity, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment, and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which is punishable by up to life imprisonment. He was sentenced to 50 years on each count, to…

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A church with deep roots in West Michigan and congregations around the world turned 100 this year. Instead of celebrating its centennial, the Protestant Reformed Churches in America is struggling with what it has called the “private sin” of child sexual abuse and decades of covering up for abusers, including church leaders and school teachers.

A recently released report obtained by Target 8 found dozens of cases of child sexual abuse within the Protestant Reformed Church, or PRC, and accused the church of violating state laws that require clergy and educators to report child abuse.

A police report obtained by Target 8 shows that even recently, leaders in a PRC church in Ottawa County encouraged members not to notify authorities to report physical or sexual abuse within the church or among families of the church. That church’s pastor was convicted in 2022 of assault after teenage girls accused him of…

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Following allegations of sexual misconduct, Messianic Jewish scholar Michael Brown is taking time off from his public ministry, according to Brown’s ministry, The Line of Fire.

“We have strongly encouraged Mike that he does no public ministry,” said Scott Volk, board member for The Line of Fire in a statement to The Roys Report (TRR). “He’s cancelled speaking engagements for the months of November and December. And from my understanding, he normally writes numerous articles a week. He’s not doing that.”

Brown’s board said it did not know if Brown would also take a break from his radio and podcast ministry.

TRR reported Monday that a woman, using the pseudonym “Erin,” said in 2002, when she was 21 and Brown was in his 40s, Brown crossed several physical boundaries with her.

On multiple occasions, Brown held her hand, smacked her bottom with his hand, and kissed her on the lips, she said….

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Please see original article for videos

A local priest has been removed from public ministry after News 5 Investigators started asking questions and parents of a local Catholic school raised red flags about his past.

The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland said the priest was investigated “by law enforcement and church authorities” for “alleged conduct” with an 18-year-old, and there have been published reports on that since 2002.

The priest got his job back in 2012, but now we’ve been getting calls from parents upset because they had no idea of his past.

He hasn’t been charged with a crime, so we’re not naming him. However, the diocese did take action recently after concerns came to light.

PRIEST SAID MASSES, HEARD CONFESSIONS FOR TEENS

The Lyceum is a Catholic school in South Euclid for 7th through 12th graders. We saw students coming off a bus last month and going into the…

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Denis Nolan (71) formerly of The Presbytery, Rathnew, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of oral rape and 36 counts of sexual assault

A former priest who was sentenced to an additional five years for the “predatory” rape and abuse of a schoolboy over 20 years ago – having previously been jailed for 19 years for similar offences relating to three other victims – has had his most recent jail term halved on appeal.

Denis Nolan (71) formerly of The Presbytery, Rathnew, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of oral rape and 36 counts of sexual assault on dates between 1994 and 2000 at locations in Dublin and Wicklow.

Nolan was aged between 42 and 48 at the time of the offending, while the victim was between 11 and 17 years old.

The court heard the abuse included inappropriate touching,…

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A former Roman Catholic priest who served in Ventura and Los Angeles County churches has been sentenced to 365 days in jail after he pled no contest to possession of child sexual abuse materials.

Ventura County prosecutors say Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara had more than 600 images in his possession when he was arrested in 2023. He became the focus of an investigation after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received multiple reports that he had some of the sexually explicit images.

Martinez-Guevara was a priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. One of the churches he served at was in Oxnard.

In addition to the year jail sentence, the 39-year-old man was sentenced to two years probation and will be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

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The criminal statute for failing to report suspected abuse — a misdemeanor — expires after one year. This means school officials who enable abuse by remaining silent face virtually no accountability.

The disturbing investigation published in The Courier Journal reveals an alarming pattern that parallels what I uncovered in 2002 when representing 243 survivors of clergy sexual abuse against the Archdiocese of Louisville. Twenty years later, our institutions continue enabling predators while our laws leave survivors without recourse.

The article documents at least 80 cases of alleged sexual misconduct by Kentucky school coaches in 15 years. Like the Catholic Church cases, we see the same institutional failures: turning a blind eye to warning signs, allowing abusers to quietly resign and move to new schools, and using non-disclosure agreements to maintain silence.

As I wrote last December, the science is clear — most survivors are…

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Update–A Catholic priest was sentenced Monday in Ventura County to one year in the Ventura County Jail and then two years of formal probation for being convicted of possession of child sexual abuse material.

     The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office says that 39-year-old Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara was convicted by the court after pleading no contest to the charge in October.

     Because of credit for time already served in jail, Martinez-Guevara will serve far less than the one year sentence.

     He will begin his jail sentence on January 13th.

     The judge also ordered him to register as a sex offender for ten years.

     If Martinez-Guevara violates any terms of his probation he could find himself back behind bars doing even more time.

     Martinez-Guevara was a member of the Archdioceses of Los Angeles and was associated with several churches including Our Lady of Guadalupe in Oxnard during…

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Victims of child sexual abuse were treated in a heartless, hostile and cruel way by monks on a remote island, a safeguarding review has found.

One survivor said the way she had been treated since her time on Caldey Island, off Pembrokeshire, has made the effects of the abuse “a million times worse”.

The review said frequent allegations of abuse had been made but not followed up on or reported to police, and the lack of challenge had enabled a monk to abuse children over four decades “in plain sight”.

Caldey Abbey commissioned the report, and its new abbot apologised for the pain and suffering caused.

Rebecca lived on Caldey Island for the first five and a half years of her life.

Between the late 1960s until 1992, a resident monk, Father Thaddeus Kotik, sexually abused children who lived and visited the island, a review said.

Rebecca…

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More than 50 children who visited a remote holy island off the coast of Wales were raped or subjected to vile sex abuse by paedophile monks, a leaked report reveals.

Children as young as three were allegedly groomed and attacked in ‘plain sight’ on Caldey Island, a picturesque tourist spot off the Pembrokeshire coast.

For more than 100 years, the island has been home to Caldey Abbey and a small community of Trappist monks. It receives up to 60,000 visitors a year.

In April, an independent review was launched after several people came forward to report allegations of historic sex abuse, dating back more than 60 years. 

The review found that monks, and men with criminal records who claimed to be monks, were able to join the monastery without checks.

They hid behind their ‘chosen’ religious names to carry out the horrific attacks, which took place while children were on…

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The funeral of Bishop Richard Sklba in Milwaukee was marked by a protest from abuse survivors, who accused him of relocating abusive priests.

[Click here for video.]

Funeral services were held on Wednesday for Bishop Richard Sklba, a longtime bishop in Milwaukee.

Bishop Sklba, who died last month, was a Racine native and served as the auxiliary bishop in Milwaukee from 1979. He worked under at least three archbishops.

Before the funeral Mass, survivors of clergy sexual abuse organized a protest outside the church. The group accused Bishop Sklba of relocating priests who had abused children from one parish to another. They distributed pamphlets to attendees outlining their accusations against the late bishop.

Peter Isley, a clergy sex abuse survivor, voiced his concerns at the protest, stating, “You cannot put the devastation, the horror, and the misery that unfortunately this man was responsible for and bury it in a…

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In his first public speech since announcing his resignation, the archbishop of Canterbury struck a “frivolous tone” that left childhood abuse victims “dismayed” and “disgusted.”

“Whether one is personally responsible or not,” a head had to roll, said the archbishop, Justin Welby, on Dec. 5. He added that “there is only, in this case, one head that rolls well enough.”

An independent report, the Makin Review, found Archbishop Justin Welby should have reported serial child abuser John Smyth to the police in 2013. But despite reports of “abhorrent” abuse, Welby failed to take sufficient action.

So, yes, according to the report, Welby bore responsibility, as did other leaders in the Church of England.

Before his death in 2018, Smyth is believed to have inflicted physical, sexual and psychological abuse on more than 100 boys and young men in England, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The report described Smyth’s abuses as “prolific,…

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In a year of wretched public apologies, Justin Welby beats even Gregg Wallace

Is a crap apology worse than no apology at all? Gregg Wallace, until Friday a strong contender for the worst public apology of the year, is not of course unusual in his struggle to act convincingly remorseful. Justin Welby, the outgoing archbishop of Canterbury – despite being one of the great institutional apologisers of all time – now seems likely to take the British title; internationally the clear winner is South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol. Even Wallace could tell him that when you’ve carelessly imposed martial law, it’s important to apologise to everyone, not just “the people who were very surprised”.

Plainly, there are differences in style. The Wallace apology, the only one the 60-year-old has yet supplied for insulting “middle-class women of a certain age”, not only made the elementary mistake of apologising “for any offence…

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[See video.]

WDSU Investigates has uncovered new court records linked to convicted rapist Lawrence Hecker.
Warning: the details in the records are graphic.

According to the records, one victim said he met Lawrence Hecker at a seminary pool and was later raped.

Records show extensive evidence from 1996 to 2012 in the court file.

The documents outline the graphic abuse of about a dozen people, all with similar stories, according to court records.

The records state in 2022, the victim was interviewed by the FBI. The victim indicated that while attending Saint John Vianney Prep School (“St. John Prep”), he began working next door at St. Theresa of the Little Flower Church (“St. Theresa”) in New Orleans.

The victim stated that when he was not working at St. Theresa, he often hung out and worked out in the converted workout room in preparation for trying out for sports teams. He…

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NEW ORLEANS — WDSU Investigates has obtained documents sealed in a case involving New Orleans clergy sex abuse.

The documents paint the picture of abuse from about a dozen victims of a former New Orleans priest, Lawrence Hecker.

After his historic guilty plea this week, one of Hecker’s accusers is speaking up to let sex abuse survivors know there is hope. The man WDSU spoke with did not want his identity revealed.

Warning: The details in this story are graphic.

“Passed around like meat, and we all suffered,” the victim said. “It is impossible to describe.”

WDSU asked what his reaction was to Hecker pleading guilty.

“It brought a great deal of resolution to what we have been dealing with,” he said.

The victim shared his most vivid memory from almost 60 years ago when he says Hecker took him to a local pool to swim naked.

“He came up…

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The resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury has returned the spotlight to the permacrisis of abuse in religious communities. Welby resigned after an independent review found the Church of England had covered up serial abuse by John Smyth QC.

The review described Smyth’s abuse of more than 100 young boys as “prolific, brutal and horrific. His victims were subjected to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks.” The report found that this was not just a case of Smyth as a “bad apple”, but of systemic institutional failings in the church. Similar themes were found in a 2020 report into safeguarding in the Anglican Church.

As noted by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, this problem is not limited just to the Church of England but affects other religious institutions in the UK, and beyond.

The church can be seen as a form of “closed community”. These take on different…

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Robert Levins felt a sense of relief at word that hundreds of Catholic clergy sex abuse survivors on Long Island, himself included, had finally reached a court settlement with the Diocese of Rockville Centre. 

The agreement, approved Wednesday by a federal bankruptcy judge, closed a four-year court battle pitting 600 survivors against the diocese, the nation’s eighth largest. Payments from the $323 million settlement will likely start going out to survivors early next year.

Whatever money, or sense of empowerment, eventually comes to Levins, it won’t match the emotional price exacted since a trusted family friend, a Franciscan brother based in Port Jefferson, sexually molested him and his two brothers in the mid-1970s.

“This entire process in a way has also revictimized myself and probably others because we had to relive this so many times,” Levins, 63, told Newsday.

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

• A $323 million settlement between 600 clergy sex abuse survivors and the Diocese of Rockville Centre…

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As faithful members mourn the closure of their Catholic churches (Saying goodbye to a Catholic Church — and a link to my family’s past, Nov. 21, 2024), others view them through the lens of the longstanding failure and mistrust of leadership.

St. Stanislaus in Fells Point was my family’s church. Founded in the 1800s as a cornerstone of Polish immigrant life, the church of my maternal and paternal grandparents was a place of daily worship, life celebrations and the funerals of beloved family members. St. Stan’s closed in 2000 due to dwindling attendance. Its closure was painful to Baltimore’s Polish community, many of whom had dispersed beyond Fells Point.

For all the fond memories, there was also a dark side to the church. The 2023 Maryland Office of the Attorney General report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore noted clergy sexual abuse at St. Stanislaus…

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Sexual assault and rape survivors and those who support them came forward last week to urge lawmakers to pass a bill that would criminalize “grooming,” which they said could have saved lives had it existed years ago.

House Bill 322 creates the crime of “grooming” in Ohio, which would be charged as a first or second degree misdemeanor, except in circumstances where the victim is younger than 13 and other offenses are also committed, such as supplying alcohol or drugs to the victim or having a previous sexually oriented offense conviction. The combination of the crimes would result in felony charges, according to the bill.

Under the bill, grooming could be charged when an adult engages in a “pattern of conduct” with a minor that “would cause a reasonable adult”…

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The Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest, led by Cardinal Péter Erdő, has announced that well-known priest András Pajor has been barred from all clerical activities following serious allegations. This marks the second high-profile case involving church figures with close ties to the government in recent weeks.

In its statement, the Archdiocese explained that a complaint had been filed with its Child and Youth Protection Service, leading to a preliminary investigation. Pending its outcome, Pajor was suspended and later requested to be relieved of his duties due to his age and health.

According to Válasz Online’s report, he has since been retired, although the investigation and restrictions remain in place. Additionally, the matter has been reported to the police.

Known for his political allegiances: Fidesz, Russia András Pajor, a parish priest from Zugló, has been a controversial figure in Hungary, openly campaigning for Fidesz, criticizing opposition parties, and promoting anti-migrant and pro-Putin conspiracy…

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“By imposing a Litany of Lament recognizing sins of sex abuse on an unprepared audience, NZ bishops made all churchgoers complicit in the sex crimes of priests and their own coverups of those crimes”, the author of this column denounced.

The failure of New Zealand’s Catholic bishops to be “accountable or transparent to their congregations and the broader community about the nature and extent of abuse,” as reported by the nation’s Abuse in Care Inquiry (Whanaketia 7, 8:698), reached an unprecedented level recently. 

Nationwide, at the end of Sunday Mass, November 17, the celebrant intoned: “We lament the crimes and sins of sexual, physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse perpetrated by clergy against children, young people, and vulnerable adults.” The people had to respond: “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” Thus, by crafting a Litany of Lament and imposing it on an unprepared audience, the…

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ROME – Among the twenty new Princes of the Church who received their red hats yesterday from Pope Francis was Cardinal Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio, who’s been the Archbishop of Lima in Peru since 2019.

To suggest the 74-year-old Castillo may face the stiffest immediate challenge of any of the new cardinals is, I’ll concede, a bold claim. After all, his fellow inductees include Cardinal Ladislav Nemet, the first cardinal in the history of Serbia, an overwhelmingly Orthodox nation where locals traditionally haven’t exactly been wild about “the Church of Rome,” and Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu of Tehran, Iran … ’nuff said.

Yet when Castillo gets back to Peru, he will find waiting a criminal case against a Vatican official with implications for diplomatic immunity and Vatican sovereignty, religious freedom, the Vatican’s capacity to manage scandal and misconduct, and the willingness of Catholic clerics everywhere to answer the bell when…

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The funeral of Bishop Richard Sklba in Milwaukee was marked by a protest from abuse survivors, who accused him of relocating abusive priests.

[See video here.]

Funeral services were held on Wednesday for Bishop Richard Sklba, a longtime bishop in Milwaukee.

Bishop Sklba, who died last month, was a Racine native and served as the auxiliary bishop in Milwaukee from 1979. He worked under at least three archbishops.

Before the funeral Mass, survivors of clergy sexual abuse organized a protest outside the church. The group accused Bishop Sklba of relocating priests who had abused children from one parish to another. They distributed pamphlets to attendees outlining their accusations against the late bishop.

Peter Isley, a clergy sex abuse survivor, voiced his concerns at the protest, stating, “You cannot put the devastation, the horror, and the misery that unfortunately this man was responsible for and bury it in a hole…

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An elderly priest’s guilty plea exposes the church’s history of shielding predators in its midst for decades

In the case of serial child molester and retired Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker, the cover-up failed.

But it wasn’t for lack of trying by a coalition of high-ranking church officials and sympathetic judges, who prioritized the predator’s comfort above justice for his innumerable victims until the evidence against him was so overwhelming that – rather than stand the humiliation of a public trial – he pleaded guilty last Tuesday.

The 93-year-old’s decision not only saddled him with an automatic life sentence. It also exposed how Catholic bureaucrats in Hecker’s home town of New Orleans, one of the church’s strongholds in the US, repeated the same sins that produced an eerily similar scandal in Boston two decades earlier – events later immortalized in the Oscar-winning film Spotlight.

This is the only conclusion to draw from years of…

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Increased attention to sexual violence within the Catholic Church has led to a rise in the number of reports, according to a KU Leuven study released on Saturday.

The study, which surveyed 97 victims, found that just over half (53%) experienced violence between 2020 and 2024.

This rise is attributed to improved reporting mechanisms and media coverage, which have encouraged past victims to come forward. Most of the reported incidents (86%) occurred between 1950 and 1989, with a peak in the 1960s. However, four recent cases have been reported since 2020, according to Professor Wim Vandewiele’s report.

More than 10% of the victims reported experiencing sexual violence before 2012, especially between 2000 and 2012 when the Halsberghe and Adriaenssens commissions and the 2010 Special Parliamentary Commission were active.

One-fifth of the reports concern the period between 2012 and 2020, when ten reception points and the Arbitration Centre were operational.

Additionally,…

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The Archdiocese of Agaña has published a list of 48 known church associates who have been accused of child sexual abuse in lawsuits filed with Guam courts.

Archbishops, a bishop, priests, lay persons and nuns are among those compiled in the list, which is posted online at: archagana.org/disclosures.

“We treasure our young ones. We nurture and protect them and want them to have confidence that the adults around them will look after their welfare,” Archbishop Ryan Jimenez said in a Friday afternoon statement announcing the list’s posting.

Names were derived from 331 separate lawsuits filed in Superior Court of Guam and District Court of Guam, based on a list compiled by law firm Razzano Walsh & Torres for the archdiocese.

Publication of the list is a requirement of the archdiocese’s settlement of nearly 300 sex abuse lawsuits brought, according to a memo attached to the list.

Any…

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The Archbishop of Canterbury has been condemned by victims of the Church of England abuse scandal for a speech they say made light of serious safeguarding failures.

In his first public speech since announcing his resignation last month, Justin Welby told the House of Lords a head had had to roll after a review criticised failings in the handling of the scandal.

Abuse victims say they were “dismayed” and “disgusted” by the speech, saying it made no mention of remorse for survivors and struck too “frivolous” a tone with jokes.

The Makin review found Mr Welby “could and should” have reported prolific child abuser John Smyth to the police in 2013 and criticised the Church for not doing enough to prevent further abuse until he died.

Speaking in the Lords on Thursday, the archbishop said: “The reality is that there comes a time if you are technically leading a particular…

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Raymond Zwiefelhofer was convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material.

Former elder of secretive 2×2 Christian sect sentenced to 120 years in prison

An ABC News investigation into the 2×2 Church, a Christian sect so secretive most people have never heard of it, has uncovered allegations of child sexual abuse and coverups.

An ABC News yearlong investigation into the 2×2 Church, a Christian sect so secretive most people have never heard of it, has uncovered allegations of widespread child sexual abuse and subsequent coverups.

During the investigation, ABC News spoke with dozens of alleged victims of child sexual abuse across more than 30 states.

As part of the ongoing investigation by law enforcement, Raymond Zwiefelhofer was convicted of 10 counts of possessing child sexual abuse material and was sentenced to 120 years in prison last month.

“In total, there were 87 files that were determined to be child sexual abuse…

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Reader advisory: Some accounts of sexual assault in this story contain explicit details and strong language that some may find upsetting or objectionable.

Since this story first published in 2020, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna pleaded no contest to nine counts of sexual battery and one count of attempt to dissuade a witness. The rest of the charges were dropped.

At a hearing in Fresno County Superior Court in April, he apologized to the survivors and the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.

“I ask that they forgive me for what I did,” Castañeda said through a translator. “I did not know of the impact that it was to them, because of everything that I caused them, emotionally, humanly and as a Christian.”

A judge had ordered the priest be sent to prison for up to 90 days for an evaluation to determine whether he should be given probation or…

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A former priest who was raped as a teenager by a vicar has called for the Archbishop of York to resign.

Matthew Ineson was abused in the 1980s by Trevor Devamanikkam, who was a priest at St Aidan’s Church in Bradford at the time.

Mr Ineson told senior clergy, including the then Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, about his experiences in 2013, but the Church of England’s own review later found it had failed to act on his claims and Lord Sentamu was removed from ministry last year.

Current archbishop Stephen Cottrell, who, in October, called for Lord Sentamu to be re-admitted, told the BBC he took his “commitment” to survivors of child sexual abuse “very seriously”.

Devamanikkam was charged with six sex offences after Mr Ineson told the police the vicar had raped him as a 16-year-old, but took his own life in June 2017 before the case reached…

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Case seeks compensation for victims of Father Angus McRae

A class-action lawsuit attempting to hold the federal government responsible for sexual abuse suffered by children at the hands of a military priest at an Edmonton army base has been certified in the Alberta courts.

The case alleges that the federal government allowed a Canadian Armed Forces chaplain, Capt. Angus McRae, to sexually abuse children who were living on armed forces bases with their families. McRae, who died in 2011, served at bases across Canada before he was convicted of sexual crimes against children. 

The representative plaintiff, Bobby Bees of Vancouver, wants to hold the federal government accountable for failing to stop the abuse, the dark memories of which torment him daily.  

“I went through so much hell,” said Bees, 52, in an interview with CBC. “My entire childhood after that was just torn apart.” 

The $60-million claim seeks to hold…

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Investigation into the 38-year-old man began when a missionary couple reported finding spy cameras inside their mobile home, police say.

An associate minister in Grapevine has been arrested by police, who are accusing him of possessing child pornography and using spy cameras in a home, officials said.

Arturo Alarcon, the 38-year-old associate minister at 121 Community Church in Grapevine, was charged with possession of child pornography and invasive visual recording, according to police.

Investigation began, police say, when a missionary couple reported finding spy cameras inside their mobile home, which is used by the church to house families in need.

According to the arrest affidavit, the family staying there found two alarm clocks and two wall plugs labeled “Bug Control” containing hidden cameras inside the devices. Another associate minister with the church, Elvis Gallegos, reportedly told police these items weren’t provided by the church and he wasn’t sure who put…

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There is a need for impactful revision and action on clerical sexual abuse under canon law

In 2021, the Vatican announced revisions to the Code of Canon Law’s Penal Sanctions in the Church — which includes clerical sexual abuse (CSA) and other crimes — considered the most profound, following much deliberation and earlier patchy reforms.

The reforms seek to restore justice, reform offenders, and repair scandals. They stem primarily from survivors, backed by rights-based movements, media and national justice systems demanding decisive Church action.

Church experts, too, have been canvassing more substantive changes to earlier reforms.

However, three years after the last revisions, CSA continues with impunity, especially in the Global South. Theologically, sexual abuse is defined as a sin against God and humans (moral failing), and not a crime committed in a society (legal concept).

Sin is a matter of conscience that compromises the relationship with God. It can…

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Daniel Mayfield still facing over 160 charges across multiple counties in SC

Daniel Kellan Mayfield, a former youth pastor at First Baptist Church Gowensville in South Carolina, this week pleaded guilty to federal charges for possessing illegal child sexual abuse images.

The 36-year-old pleaded guilty on November 21 to one count of possession of illegal child sexual abuse images, according to reporting by The Christian Post. The crime carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Mayfield is also facing over 160 charges across multiple counties in South Carolina.

In the summer of 2023, Mayfield was arrested for voyeurism for filming a victim while she was showering in her mother’s home. The victim noticed a light shining outside the window, and when she stepped outside to investigate, she saw Mayfield in the yard.

The victim’s sister arrived in…

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A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Diocese of Jefferson City on Thursday due a lack of action by the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit, filed in September by five Missouri adults, accused Jefferson City-area Catholic priests of sexual abuse. Four of the plaintiffs claim they were abused as children, and the fifth said they were abused as an adult.

The lawsuit named the diocese and Bishop Shawn McKnight as defendants. After it was filed, McKnight sent a statement saying none of the priests in question are were active in the diocese at the time of filing.

In a ruling Thursday, Judge Douglas Harpool said the plaintiffs had not met deadlines set by another judge for serving the defendants with court papers. They also did not meet a deadline for responding to an order to show cause.

For those reasons, Harpool dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning…

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One man among a group suing the Archdiocese of St. Louis for allegations of sexual abuse, and its cover-up, has dismissed his claim that a man alleged to now be a Kansas City deacon abused him in the 1980s, online court records show.

However, Ralph Wehner, a Kansas City deacon, remains suspended from ministry while church officials investigate the claim, a Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese spokesperson said. A man identified as W.C. in court documents dismissed his claim of abuse by Wehner on Nov. 21.

The lawsuit, filed July 24, accuses St. Louis church officials of covering up abuse by clergy and staff for decades. Dozens of plaintiffs are listed on the suit.

One plaintiff, W.C., alleged that “Brother Ralph Wehner” had groped and fondled him at least three times when W.C. was a teenager.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Todd Mathews, said in an email that W.C. voluntarily dismissed…

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In 2012, Boz Tchividjian, grandson of famed evangelist Billy Graham, drove to the Lynchburg, Virginia, airport in his family minivan to pick up Stephen Jones, great-grandson of fundamentalist Bob Jones Sr.

The meeting, though planned, was highly improbable.

Known for banning interracial dating into the 21st century and having rules too rigid even for Graham, a former student who left after one semester, Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, is typically wary of outsiders. So it was a shock when Stephen Jones, then president of Bob Jones, invited Tchividjian’s nonprofit Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, known by its acronym GRACE, to examine the university’s handing of sexual abuse allegations.

The invitation came in the wake of the 2011 Penn State sex abuse scandal and amid nationwide conversations about institutional cover-up of sexual abuse. While BJU never stated a specific reason for…

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The B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit alleges the plaintiff was abused by a clergyman and Scout leader in Bella Bella.

A B.C. man is alleging a priest and Scout master sexually abused him as a child in Bella Bella.

Bertram Wayne Brown names the United Church of Canada and Scouts Canada in a Nov. 18 B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim signed by Preszler Law lawyer Christopher McDougall.

The claim alleges Father Tom York, also allegedly a Scout leader, abused Brown at Darby Memorial Church in Bella Bella, 500 km northeast of Vancouver.

It alleges York abused Brown between the ages of seven and nine at the church and while on Scout outings “on a repeated basis, increasing in frequency, nature and intensity as time progressed.”

“The perpetrator’s behaviour constituted sexual abuse, sexual battery, and sexual assault,” the claim said. “The institutional defendants are vicariously liable for the wrongful actions of the…

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The good news is that a number of the most prolific and problematic San Diego predator priests are dead. The bad news, though, is that they’ve left in their wake countless deeply wounded and very likely still struggling victims. One of those predator priests is Fr. Gregory Sierra Sheridan, a native of Spain.

Most child molesters gravitate towards a specific gender. Sometimes, an abusive priest who targets girls is caught and is then transferred to an all-boys school, for example, in the naïve hope that maybe his sexual compulsions will be magically cured or at least held in check (because the gender he seems to prefer is less available). History has shown that this approach rarely works, of course.

But Fr. Sheridan seems to be among a smaller group of abusers: the ones who are more indiscriminate and assault both boys and girls in similar numbers.
That means…

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A court has approved a Roman Catholic diocese’s settlement with sexual abuse survivors, which is the largest such payment in New York state history. 

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, based on Long Island, New York, published a statement Wednesday noting that it had reached a $323 million settlement with survivors of sexual abuse: “We are grateful to God that on December 4th, the court confirmed the Plan that resolves and ends the Bankruptcy Case for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, all our parishes, and related ministries.” 

“For the sake of abuse survivors and the [Catholic] Church’s mission on Long Island, we pray that the Plan brings some measure of healing to survivors and allows the [Catholic] Church to carry on the saving mission of Jesus Christ,” a spokesperson for the diocese added. “Victim survivors of child abuse deserve our respect, our prayers, and our pastoral support….

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The Diocese of Rockville Centre on Wednesday said a bankruptcy court had approved its record abuse settlement of $323 million, which officials said will bring “some measure of healing to survivors” of clergy abuse.

The New York diocese announced in September that it had reached the massive settlement for abuse victims after a four-year-long process that included an earlier offer that the survivors had rejected.

On Wednesday U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn approved the settlement, greenlighting the payout that includes contributions from insurers and diocesan churches.

The Rockville Centre Diocese said in a statement that it was “grateful to God” for the approval.

“For the sake of abuse survivors and the Church’s mission on Long Island, we pray that the plan brings some measure of healing to survivors and allows the Church to carry on the saving mission of Jesus Christ,” the statement said.

“Victim survivors of child abuse deserve…

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A Catholic diocese on New York’s Long Island has seen its long-running bankruptcy filing finally concluded, enabling hundreds of sexual abuse claims to be settled.

“We are grateful to God that on December 4th, the court confirmed the Plan that resolves and ends the Bankruptcy Case for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, all our parishes, and related ministries,” said the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, in a statement.

Chief Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York signed off on the settlement, preliminarily announced in September and said by the diocese to total “just over $323 million.”

That amount includes “insurance contributions, Diocesan assets and sale proceeds from Diocesan property, and contributions from parishes and other related entities,” said the diocese in its statement. “The Diocese, parishes and other related entities contributed a total of $234.8 million. Insurance companies contributed a total…

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Jesuit Father Hans Zollner — the founder and director of the Institute of Anthropology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and a former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — joined several safeguarding experts in releasing a joint proposal in Rome Nov. 18 advocating a change in church law on the handling of sexual abuse cases.

Specifically, the proposal — co-written by members of the institute and the Seattle-based Ending Clergy Abuse human rights organization — called for a global extension of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ protocol of permanently removing from ministry credibly accused priests or deacons.

That norm, established in 2002 alongside the USCCB’s “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” with the Vatican’s permission, at present only applies to the Catholic Church in the U.S.

In a Dec. 3 email to OSV News, Father Zollner shared his insights regarding the challenges…

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