ABUSE TRACKER

The Office of the Bishop Diocese of Laredo announced the official dismissal of Rev. Michael (Juan Antonio) De Leon, pastor of Divine Mercy Catholic Church, after the Vatican rejected his appeal in June.

On June 30, 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith dismissed De Leon from the clerical state for reasons unstated, with him unable to perform mass in public.

The Vatican rejected De Leon’s recourse a year later, stripping his title as a priest. Bishop James A. Tamayo received news of this on Oct. 6, 2024.

“He can no longer present himself as a priest or celebrate the sacraments,” Tamayo said in an official statement.

During the process of his appeal undergoing review with the Vatican, the Diocese provided his full salary, health insurance and housing, benefits he now loses after leaving the priesthood. De Leon will continue to acquire benefits for the next six months…

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After accusing a priest of sexually abusing minors, Émilienne Sibomana has been imprisoned in Burundi for false accusations. Despite being acquitted in July, she remains in prison, in violation of her country’s legal procedures, according to her lawyers.

Acquitted but still imprisoned—that is the fate of Émilienne Sibomana, a Burundian woman who has been behind bars for nearly two years for false accusations after she accused a priest, who was also a school principal, of sexually abusing minors in the Archdiocese of Gitega, located in Burundi’s second-largest city with the same name.

The case began in January 2023. According to the appeal decision, which La Croix International obtained, Émilienne Sibomana, a secretary at a high school, accused the school’s principal during a public meeting of sexually assaulting some female students in his office. The day after the meeting, she was arrested and imprisoned for making false accusations.

La Croix International has confirmed that on…

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Topline The Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Wednesday said it has agreed to pay $880 million to settle claims of clergy sexual abuse dating back several decades, which the victims’ attorneys say is the largest such settlement with a Catholic archdiocese.

Key Facts

• The settlement covers 1,353 child sexual abuse claims dating back to the 1940s and filed after California’s Assembly Bill 218 was enacted in 2019, which allowed civil claims of older sexual abuse cases involving minors to be reopened.

• In a letter to the city’s Catholic residents, LA Archbishop José H. Gomez wrote: “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” adding that he hoped the settlement “will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.”

• Gomez said the church would fund the settlement by drawing from its “reserves, investments, and…

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Clerical celibacy is an issue that the ongoing final sessions of the Synod on Synodality should have discussed. However, the hierarchy continues to peripheralize it, despite its deleterious impacts on witnessing Christ and evangelizing.

Historically, the androcentric Roman Catholic Church has been mired in an endless crisis over clerical celibacy and chastity with pernicious implications, especially for its lay and religious women and children.

Apart from explicit violence against them by the celibate clerics, the hierarchy’s double standards of male sexual morality have placed the burden of blame, shame, guilt and sin on women survivors — the proverbial Eves, and have treated women in relationships with clerics as moral pariahs.

The abusive clerics have almost always emerged relatively unscathed as gentlemen of the cloth. Despite its claim of being the custodian of morality, the Church has reneged on accountability behind the smokescreen of theological and legal semantics.

In the Church’s…

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My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

I want to inform you that we have reached a settlement with men and women who survived childhood sexual abuse at the hands of priests and other clergy and individuals serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart. My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.

Most of the alleged acts of abuse covered in this settlement took place more than fifty years ago, with a number of the cases dating back to the 1940s. Some of these acts are alleged to have been committed by Archdiocesan clergy, some by lay people, and some by religious order priests and clergy from other dioceses who were serving here.

As you know, for many years now the Archdiocese has…

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The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced a massive $880 million clergy abuse settlement on Wednesday, a record payout that Archbishop José Gomez expressed hope would “provide some measure of healing” for abuse victims.

Lawyers for both victims and the archdiocese said in a joint press release that the near-$1 billion settlement would address 1,353 childhood sexual abuse claims filed against the California archbishopric.

The mediation process, conducted under retired California Judge Daniel Buckley, took roughly a year.

Abuse survivors filed the claims against the archdiocese following the state’s enactment of Assembly Bill 218, which offered victims a three-year window to file civil abuse claims that had otherwise gone beyond the statute of limitations. 

Gomez in a statement on Wednesday said the settlement — the largest ever for a U.S. diocese or archdiocese — would “provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”

It would also allow…

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The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades.

The settlement with 1,353 people who allege that they were abused by local Catholic priests is the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, according to experts. The accusers were able to sue after California approved a law that opened a three-year window in 2020 for cases that exceeded the statute of limitations.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has previously paid $740 million to victims. With the settlement announced Wednesday, the total payout will be more than $1.5 billion.

Attorneys still need to get approval for the settlement from all plaintiffs to finalize it, the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Committee said.

The agreement brings to an end most sexual abuse litigation against the largest archdiocese in the United States, though a few lawsuits against the church are still…

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An attempt to reinstate a priest laicised for the sexual abuse of minors by a top Vatican cleric has been decried by a leading Irish child protection campaigner Marie Collins, who warned children would have been put in danger.

The Vatican Secretariat of State tried to undo the laicisation of Ariel Alberto Príncipi, a former diocesan priest convicted of child sexual abuse while in Argentina, but was thwarted by Irishman Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith disciplinary section.

Archbishop Kennedy declared void the September order from the Secretariat of State to rescind the laicisation in one of the most controversial public clashes between Vatican departments in recent times.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Marie Collins said within the Vatican “there is a great emphasis on authority and power and obviously somebody thought that they had enough authority to overturn something that the…

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This month I want to share three distinct reflections with a common thread. 

1. The recent scoping enquiry into abuse perpetrated in schools run by Catholic religious orders revealed another very sad chapter in our Irish social history. The media follow up inevitably led to an avalanche of personal stories detailing the physical, emotional and sexual abuse suffered by many people during their school days, often in the distant past.

The state authorities and in particular The Department of Education now must decide where the enquiry process goes from here. There is an ongoing debate about the shape of any such enquiry. I can understand why some would want to limit the perimeters to ensure a more efficient outcome. However, any enquiry which does not include schools beyond those operated by Catholic leadership would be woefully unbalanced and unfair.

Such a limited scope could be open to the charge of…

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Attorneys representing the Plaintiff’s Liaison Committee and Kirk Dillman, Counsel for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced today that a settlement agreement in principle has been reached for the payment of $880 million to settle 1353 childhood sexual abuse claims filed against the Archdiocese after the enactment of California Assembly Bill 218 (AB 218) that provided a three-year window for the revival of civil claims of past sexual abuse involving minors.

“While there is no amount of money that can replace what was taken from these 1353 brave individuals who have suffered in silence for decades, there is justice in accountability,” said Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel in a joint statement. “We are grateful to the brave survivors who came forward to hold those responsible accountable and to protect the children of the future. We appreciate the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for acknowledging its failures that enabled and perpetuated the harm that came to these children and remain hopeful that the Archdiocese will be vigilant…

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The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to 1,353 people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, in the largest settlement by a U.S. diocese over decades-old abuse claims.

Archbishop Jose H. Gomez expressed sorrow for the abuse in announcing the settlement on Wednesday.“

I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” Gomez said in a statement. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.”

The Archdiocese began mediating the abuse claims after California enacted a law that allowed new lawsuits to be based on past instances of sexual abuse involving minors.

The California law and similar laws in other states have driven many large Catholic organizations to seek bankruptcy protection around the U.S. In California, the Archdiocese of San…

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The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to settle sex abuse claims made by more than 1,300 alleged victims dating back to the 1940s. 

“I am sorry for everyone one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” said Archbishop José H. Gomez in a statement. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.”

The settlement brings the overall amount the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has paid out to settle sex abuse lawsuits to nearly $1.5 billion, following a $660 million settlement with about 500 alleged victims in 2007.

Officials say the agreement in principle was reached to settle the remaining claims filed under Assembly Bill 218, which temporarily waived the statute of limitations for alleged victims to seek damages in sex abuse claims, allowing a three-year window for old cases to…

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The agreement, believed to be the largest single settlement of its kind by a Catholic archdiocese, will settle 1,353 claims of childhood sexual abuse.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to settle more than 1,300 claims of childhood sexual abuse. The sprawling agreement is believed to be the largest single child sexual abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese and comes after a state law provided a three-year window to revive past civil claims of sexual abuse involving minors.

Some of the claims date to the 1940s, and the acts are alleged to have been perpetrated byarchdiocesan clergy, lay people and religious order priests and clergy from other dioceses who were serving in Los Angeles, a letter from Archbishop José H. Gomez said. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the largest Catholic diocese in the United States.

“I am sorry for every one…

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The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades, in what an attorney said was the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, it was announced Wednesday.

After the announcement of the agreement in principle, Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement, “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart.”

“My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered,” the archbishop added. “I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”

Attorneys for 1,353 people who allege that they suffered horrific abuse at the hands of local Catholic priests reached the settlement after months of negotiations with the archdiocese, the Los Angeles  View Cache

The settlement is the highest single payout by an archdiocese, experts said, and brings Los Angeles’s cumulative payout in sex abuse lawsuits to more than $1.5 billion.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest, has agreed to pay $880 million to 1,353 people who say they were sexually abused as children by Catholic clergy. The settlement, which experts said was the highest single payout by a diocese, brings Los Angeles’s cumulative total in sex abuse lawsuits to more than $1.5 billion.

The settlement was announced on Wednesday in a joint statement by lawyers for the plaintiffs and the archdiocese.

“I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.”

The settlement tops the previous high for…

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Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said her office is still waiting for court approval to release the results of an investigation into child sexual abuse at the Fall River, Springfield and Worcester Catholic dioceses.

Campbell told GBH News on Tuesday that she “inherited a report that was completed, sitting there. And now I’m doing what I can to see what we can do in terms of releasing it.”

The investigation began when Gov. Maura Healey was attorney general, but its findings have never been made public.

Campbell, who took office in 2023, said court approval is needed because the investigation relies, in part, on grand jury proceedings.

“In order to then get it out in the public view, you have to get permission, if all parties don’t agree to release it,” she said on Boston Public Radio.

Campbell would not say who objected to its…

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• The Archdiocese of Los Angeles had previously paid $740 million to victims in various settlements, bringing the total payout to over $1.5 billion.
• Archdiocesan officials have said the church has made great strides to prevent abuse.
• More than 300 priests who worked in the archdiocese in Los Angeles have been accused in public records of sexually abusing minors.

In what could be the closing chapter in a landmark legal battle, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades in the largest settlement involving the Catholic Church.

Attorneys for 1,353 people who allege that they suffered horrific abuse at the hands of local Catholic priests reached the settlement after months of negotiations with the archdiocese. The agreement caps a quarter-century of litigation against the most populous archdiocese in the United States.

The settlement leaves only a few lawsuits pending against…

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Two federal civil lawsuits, each seeking $75 million, accuse the Missouri dioceses of Springfield-Cape Girardeau and Jefferson City of covering up clergy sexual abuse in the 1980s and 1990s and also of enabling the priests who allegedly committed the abuse.

“We are treating this matter with the utmost seriousness and investigating the allegations,” Jefferson City Bishop W. Shawn McKnight said in a statement about the suit against his diocese that, he noted, concern “five allegations of misconduct that reportedly occurred decades ago.”

Lawsuits against Missouri dioceses

“None of the five priests named in the lawsuit are currently active in ministry in the Diocese of Jefferson City,” he said. “As always, our goals are to support healing and peace for any survivor of abuse, to bring abusers to justice and to implement safeguards to prevent harm.”

“These are all new allegations to us, including two that are leveraged…

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The Diocese of Scranton has permanently removed Martin M. Boylan from the clerical state following a lengthy canonical process that found him guilty of sexually assaulting minors. The decision, announced Tuesday, October 8, 2024, by diocesan officials, marks the end of an eight-year investigation into allegations against the former priest.

Canonical Conviction Following Allegations of Child Sex Abuse

Boylan, 76, was found guilty under canon law of sexually assaulting two children. However, the diocese received credible accusations from five individuals. The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith reviewed the case and authorized Boylan’s removal from the clerical state, which is the most severe penalty the Catholic Church can impose on a cleric.

Implications of Defrocking Amid Child Sexual Abuse Investigation

As a result of this decision, Boylan’s official relationship with the Diocese of Scranton has been permanently terminated. He is now prohibited from celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, or…

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A report into clergy abuse across multiple dioceses in Massachusetts, based on investigations that took place years ago under then-Attorney General Maura Healey, is still not available to the public. Andrea Campbell, who’s been the state’s attorney general since January 2023, said Tuesday that it’s out of her hands when or whether to release the findings.

Appearing on Boston Public Radio, Campbell fielded questions around why the office she’s led since January 2023 has yet to make the document public. Survivors and advocates told New England Public Media last year that investigators from the state attorney general’s office interviewed them 2021 about abuse within the Worcester, Fall River and Springfield dioceses.

Campbell asked the public to be patient with her, but did not put a timeline on when the report might become available.

“I take sexual abuse allegations — you know, I’m a mom of two boys — very…

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A Riviera Beach pastor accused of sexual assault emerged from the criminal justice system relatively unscathed. Deputies continue to investigate him.

When the pastor knocked, his parishioner answered. She welcomed Pheguel Pierre Louis into her home, unsettled by the disturbing dream he said he had about her the night before.

She was in trouble, Pierre Louis said, and he needed to pray over her.

The pastor, 40, and the woman, 23, gave the same accounting to Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies during separate interviews later. Their stories differed once they described what happened next, inside the house.

Pierre Louis said he “laid hands” on the woman’s forehead, something he told deputies he does often when praying over his congregants at New Jerusalem Church in Riviera Beach. The woman told investigators he ordered her to take off her dress, then rubbed oil on her body and…

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Police focus on the son of top Islamic cleric for assault on 18 girls

Police are investigating allegations that the son of Cambodia’s top Islamic cleric had raped and sexually assaulted 18 girls in a school dormitory after complaints were lodged online by students which prompted NGOs to reach out.

At least one girl is reportedly pregnant, while others have refused to attend the An-Nikmah Al-Islamiyah Institute in Phnom Penh, where the dormitory manager and son of Sos Kamri allegedly physically abused six female students and sexually harassed 12 others.

Sok Kamri, director of the Supreme Islamic Centre, defended his son, Sos Haimi, saying he had denied any wrongdoing and claimed rumors of such behavior were false. 

But he supported the investigation into the allegations in pursuit of ensuring justice for the victims.

“I have seen rumors and distribution on social media about the case of girl students being abused at Anniek Mak View Cache

Over the last few years there have been up to four “investigations” into the sexual abuse of minors in Spain. None of them has had sufficient credibility and thoroughness, but they are sufficient to assess the extent of this phenomenon in the country.

Related Priestly celibacy and sexual abuse

On the Ombudsman’s report

“We are all called to know the impact of abuse,” pope says

This morning the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, appeared in the Congress of Deputies before the Joint Committee on Relations with the Ombudsman to present in Parliament the “.Report on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church“. 

Almost everyone has been taken by surprise by this meeting, since it was a year ago, specifically on October 27, 2023 when Gabilondo and Francina Armengol, president of the Congress of Deputies, staged the delivery of the report with a staging in style. 

The political and ideological…

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If you’ve been sexually victimized by anyone at any time, please pay attention to today’s news about Bill Cosby.

“What’s new about Cosby? He’s been in prison for months and will stay there for years, right?”

That’s half right. He’s been incarcerated for sexual assault. But he and his lawyers were just in front of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Their claim: his conviction should be overturned.

And – brace yourself – they might win.

“But my situation is nothing like the Cosby case. Why should I care about this?”

Because the sordid Cosby saga reminds all of us who want to stop sexual violence that WE CAN TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED and WE CAN’T ASSUME SOMEONE ELSE HAS OR WILL ‘FIX’ THINGS FOR US.

And because the actions of judges, predators and defense lawyers remind us that

—predators are often incredibly determined

—they often pick and can afford smart lawyers

…

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Abusers come in all shapes and sizes. If you’ve ever heard someone say, “He’s in a wheelchair. He couldn’t hurt anybody.” or “The guy is old and frail. If ever he was a threat to kids, he’s surely not now.” How about, “He’s a bald, slow-moving, stoop-shouldered old man who can barely hear anymore. You seriously think kids are at risk around him?”

We at Horowitz Law hear these kinds of comments about elderly men accused of molesting kids. It’s always depressing when we do because remarks like this show a fundamental ignorance about how and by whom child sex crimes are committed. To rob a bank, you need a gun and a ski mask. To snatch a purse, you need to be strong and fast. To steal a car, you need some tools and some skills. But to molest a girl or boy, all you really need is cunning. In other words, your real weapon is nothing physical or material….

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A Catholic priest who ordered the destruction of evidence police later said could have aided a child pornography investigation started a new job with the church Monday.

The Rev. Barry Stechschulte, who resigned in July as pastor of St. Susanna parish in Mason, now is the parochial vicar for a group of seven parishes north of Dayton, Ohio. He will join at least three other priests in leading the parishes in Coldwater, Philothea, Fort Recovery and Sharpsburg.

Archdiocese of Cincinnati spokesman Mike Schafer confirmed Stechschulte’s reassignment, which was effective Monday. Stechschulte did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Stechschulte admitted in a letter to St. Susanna parishioners in July that he’d ordered the destruction of a computer hard drive containing pornographic images while serving as pastor in 2012 at Holy Rosary Church in St. Marys, Ohio. He said he discovered the material on a computer that had been used…

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A priest in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has been reassigned to a parochial vicarship months after resigning from another parish after it became known he had destroyed possible child sex abuse material without notifying police. 

Father Barry Stechschulte was appointed parochial vicar of a family of parishes in the western part of Ohio, near the border with Indiana. That appointment went into effect on Monday, according to the archdiocesan website.

In July, Stechschulte announced his departure from St. Susanna Catholic Parish in Mason, Ohio, weeks after a bombshell media report revealed that in 2012 he ordered the destruction of a hard drive reportedly containing inappropriate pictures of children — and potentially child pornography — and then delayed reporting the incident to police. 

The pastor did not report the incident to law enforcement until 2018. In an apology to parishioners prior to his departure…

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Between 900 and 1,000 people have filed claims in the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy case, alleging they were sexually abused as children by people employed by the Catholic Church’s, a lawyer for a committee of abuse survivors, said during a hearing Tuesday.

The figure adds scope to the scourge of clergy sexual abuse in Maryland. Last year, the state attorney general’s office released a report documenting the torment of more than 600 children by 156 clergy and other church officials dating to the 1940s and spanning Baltimore and nine other counties. Officials maintained there likely were more victims than investigators had identified.

“Wow. Woah,” said David Lorenz, Maryland director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, after being informed of the estimate. “My heart sinks. There’s that many people that got hurt. It’s a stab in the heart. I wouldn’t have guessed it was that many.”

can get some help.””]

…

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Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced Monday that the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) is not filing an appeal of the decision by the United States Bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin denying DOJ access to sealed documents from the bankruptcy cased filed by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 2011 and closed in 2016.

According to Kaul, the Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative continues, and DOJ encourages anyone with information about clergy and faith leader abuse to make a report.

Attorney General Kaul issued the following statement:

“I am deeply disappointed that DOJ has not been authorized to access sealed documents from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s bankruptcy case that relate to allegations of abuse. As explained in our motion for access to certain sealed records, access to those records could have furthered the goals of the Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative, including the goal of…

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“If you take one thing away from today, I want you to know that I am a man with Down syndrome, and my life is worth living.”– John Franklin “Frank” Stephens, Athlete.

Note: Much of this post is historical, and past quotes represent viewpoints from that time. I believe today, the term “intellectual difference” is more acceptable. Please feel free to add your understanding of the correct terminology.

Warning: Descriptor of clergy abuse

It’s not the theology; it’s the sexual preference/propensity of the offender.

Recently, I have been asked to articulate what it is about the theology that leads a clergy member to abuse. Maybe the right question is not being asked. The former Boy Scouts of America had over 82,000 victims of abuse. Do we ask, “What was it about learning to tie knots that leads a man to abuse a Scout?” The same thing goes for K-12 educators….

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District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced Thursday that Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara (DOB 07/11/85), a priest in the Archdioceses of Los Angeles during the time of his crimes, pled no contest to one felony count of possession of child sexual abuse material. He also admitted all the charged special allegations, including that he possessed over 600 images of child sexual abuse material, including images and videos of prepubescent minors under the age of 12.

A member of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, Martinez-Guevara was associated with several churches, including Our Lady of Guadalupe in Oxnard.

“The defendant betrayed the law and the trust placed in him as a religious leader,” said District Attorney Erik Nasarenko. “Child sexual abuse material preys on the most vulnerable members of our society, and we will continue to ensure that anyone who engages in such heinous crimes is held accountable, no matter their position or title.”

Martinez-Guevara…

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Father Daniel L. George, a priest at Christ the King Catholic Church, has been arrested in connection with allegations of raping a 16-year-old girl. The arrest followed the issuance of a writ by the Monrovia City Court, prompted by a complaint from the victim’s parents.

According to court documents, the alleged abuse occurred repeatedly between April and October 8, 2024. Father George is accused of luring the minor to various locations, including Invincible Park and the church compound, where the assaults allegedly took place on multiple occasions, including at the girl’s own residence.

The complaint asserts that Father George not only sexually abused the girl but also threatened to kill her and her mother if she disclosed the incidents. This has reportedly left the survivor in “severe distress, pain, and trauma.”

The allegations violate Section 14.70 of Liberia’s Rape Law, which condemns sexual violence against minors. 

The arrest order, issued…

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A Catholic priest who previously stepped down from his position at a Mason church for his self-described actions in quietly destroying a computer that contained what a police report called “inappropriate content, possibly child porn” is being reassigned.

The Rev. Barry Stechschulte, formerly the pastor of St. Susanna Parish, is being reassigned to be the parochial vicar of seven churches in Mercer County, which is a rural county bordering Indiana and is north of Dayton.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati said that the appointment will go forward on Oct. 14.

Stechschulte stepped down in July after public outcry from parishioners about his involvement in an incident from 2012, when Stechschulte says he found the content on the computer of another priest.

This is described by a police report obtained by WLWT to have happened while Stechschulte was a priest at Holy Rosary in St. Mary’s, Ohio.

…

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During his pontificate, Francis has taken a series of actions to combat sexual abuse in the Church — as well as recognizing his own mistakes.

“This is a shame that all of us must take in hand today, [we must] ask forgiveness and solve the problem,” Pope Francis declared. It was his first speech in Belgium, on September 27, 2024, before the country’s authorities. Indeed, sexual abuse emerged as a major theme of Pope Francis’ trip. The Argentine pontiff met with 15 victims on the evening of that same day, and addressed the topic on various other occasions, including the press conference on the return flight.

For over 10 years, furthering efforts begun during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, Pope Francis has sought to wage an “all-out battle” against sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people in the Church.

Here’s a recap of the actions…

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Kenosha pastor accused of new crimes

A Kenosha pastor, already accused of sending himself revealing photos of a parishioner, is now charged with new counts involving a different victim.

The Brief

• A Kenosha pastor is charged with 10 new counts of capturing an intimate representation without consent.
• He was previously charged with two counts of the same crime involving a parishioner.
• After his arrest, police issued an alert that there may be more victims. The new victim then came forward.

KENOSHA, Wis. – A Kenosha pastor, already accused of sending himself revealing photos of a parishioner, is now charged with 10 new counts of the same crime involving a different victim.

Journey Church fired 41-year-old Gabriel Mills in light of the first set of allegations he faced. Now, prosecutors say he sent himself intimate photos of a different woman some time between October 2023 and September 2024.

Mills was arrested on Sept. 30…

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The Vatican Secretariat of State’s “extraordinary procedure” to reinstate a laicized priest, blocked this week by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, may prove to be the most significant Vatican story of the year.

Little is known, as yet, about why sostituto Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra issued an order trying to reinstate a man convicted of child sexual abuse by two interdiocesan tribunals in Argentina.

But his decision to do so, and the DDF’s move to publicly void the attempt, raises real questions about the role of Pope Francis, the rule of law, and the exercise of power in the Vatican.

—

According to canon law, Ariel Alberto Príncipi’s case was clear — convicted on multiple counts of abuse of minors by two local courts and laicized, his line of appeal was to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and ultimately to the pope personally, but…

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In more than 40 years of covering news of the Catholic Church, I have never encountered a Vatican story as wild as this one, nor one that is potentially—I stress, potentially—as revealing about the way the Vatican actually works.

First bear in mind that this story involves the sex-abuse scandal: an issue on which any sensible Catholic prelate by now recognizes the importance of getting things right; an issue on which Pope Francis has repeatedly promised transparency and accountability. And yet:

• A powerful Vatican dicastery overturned the sentence imposed by two ecclesiastical tribunals on a priest accused of abuse.
• But that dicastery had no authority to overturn the sentence, no role at all in the Church’s judicial process.
• Yet the diocese in which the priest had worked accepted that statement as authoritative. Until…
• Another powerful Vatican dicastery—the one that is responsible for disciplinary handling of sex-abuse cases—announced that the previous Vatican statement…

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Father Bruno Thévenin is the subject of extrajudicial criminal proceedings for abuse of persons and offenses against the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist. He has been banned from any ministry since Friday.

The bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux (Calvados), Jacques Habert, announced the news on Friday October 11 in a press release. Father Bruno Thévenin, priest of the diocese until 1975, made theobject “of an extrajudicial criminal procedure at the request of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.” In other words, it is an internal trial within the Church since it was judged at the officiality of Paris, which is the ecclesiastical tribunal responsible for dispensing justice.

Ordained in 1973, the accused was for a long time in ministry in the Paris region to carry out his missions within the Mission Thérèse association, which he himself founded. Several accusations have now been brought against him: abuse of people and offenses…

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Many Catholics on Long Island say they are relieved the long battle over compensating survivors of clergy sexual abuse is near its end, but they diverge on whether the ordeal has shattered their trust in the church.

For some, the scandal has left them deeply skeptical and disgusted by a church that covered up the abuse for years, and then — in their opinion — dragged its feet in reaching a settlement. After four years of negotiations in federal bankruptcy court, the Diocese of Rockville Centre agreed on Sept. 26 to pay $323 million to about 600 survivors of abuse that in some cases dated back decades.

Other Catholics on Long Island say that while the abuse scandal was horrific, it did not destroy their devotion to the church, which they still see as an institution doing much good.

Whatever their view, most Catholics interviewed by Newsday said they hope the…

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FLOODLIT.org has learned of a new wave of 91 child sex abuse lawsuits filed against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California.

Starting on Aug. 26, the Slater Slater Schulman LLP law firm filed 91 civil suits in 26 California counties, each on behalf of a different abuse survivor who says a Latter-day Saint official, employee or other leader sexually assaulted them, and that the church failed to protect them from harm.

In all, the lawsuits accuse 97 former Mormon leaders and church members of child sexual abuse, including:

• 20 bishops
• 20 elders
• 8 missionaries
• 5 high priests
• 6 teachers
• 4 counselors
• 3 youth leaders
• 1 stake president
• 30 other leaders/members

On Sep. 6, the law firm submitted a petition for coordination to the Riverside County Superior Court, requesting that it consider the 91 separate lawsuits as coordinated actions.

The petition said more lawsuits may be included in the future.

On Oct. 8, the Mormon…

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In “Fox Chase Boy,” a film based on his one-man show, Gerad Argeros speaks his truth for himself, for his friends who can no longer can speak for themselves, for anyone who needs to hear it.

It’s a hometown Philly crowd, and Gerad Argeros has them. The audience of his one-man show “Fox Chase Boy”is laughing, they’re shaking their heads. Regaling them in the cadence of Northeast Philadelphia, he’s speaking their language — the Phillies, the Eagles, cheesesteaks. Big, tight families, working-class childhoods, and funny stories. Argeros knows how to tell a funny story, f-bombs and all.

But he’s got another story, and it’s also what much of the audience has come to hear: “The last thing I want to talk to you about.”

About how, as a boy, he was sexually assaulted by a pedophile priest called “one of the Archdiocese’s most brutal…

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The lawyer representing some 200 survivors of abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests within the Archdiocese of St. John’s, is confident that they’ll get to the $105 million dollar settlement reached, even if the money currently isn’t there to meet that amount.

A substantial gap remains between the $105 million settlement, and the approximately $43-44 million currently available.

The Archdiocese has sold off properties to meet its legal obligation and the court process has also determined that that money can be accessed through general insurance policies carried by the church.

Geoff Budden, lawyer for the claimants, told VOCM Open Line with Paddy Daly, how they get to the $105 million settlement has yet to be worked out.

“There are a number of other defendants that could be responsible. There are religious orders that had some involvement within the Archdiocese, and the province certainly had some responsibility for Mount…

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Nearly 25% of members have left the North Texas church since its former senior pastor Robert Morris resigned after being accused of child sexual abuse.

Lawrence Swicegood, the lead spokesman for the Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro, said this week that Texas-based law firm Haynes and Boone is wrapping up its investigation into abuse allegations made public in June against former senior pastor Robert Morris.

“The inquiry by Haynes Boone will not be concluded until mid October early November,” Swicegood told me in response to questions via email. 

His remarks came as current and former Gateway members accuse the church’s leaders of being non-transparent when it comes to the investigation and financial responsibilities. Despite rumors to the contrary, Haynes and Boone spokesman Jacob Bourne on Thursday confirmed the firm is “still conducting its independent investigation, which the firm…

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A former volunteer at a church in Santa Rosa has been sentenced to 12 years and eight months in prison for sexually abusing a boy, starting when the victim was 12-years-old. Fifty-nine-year-old Drue Mordecai, who was convicted in early August, was sentenced on Wednesday. The crimes were committed between 2016 and 2020. Mordecai was initially charged with 28 counts but took a plea deal to plead no contest to fewer charges. Mordecai was recently featured in a Max documentary series called “The Truth About Jim,” which is about his father, Jim Mordecai, who graduated from Montgomery High School in 1960. The older Mordecai was accused of abusing and sexually assaulting several young women.

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As a child, Cindy Clemishire says she was abused in her family’s home. Decades later, her story led to the resignation of one of America’s most popular pastors.

Four months after Cindy Clemishire first offered damning details about sexual abuse she faced decades ago at the hands of former Gateway senior pastor Robert Morris, reverbations are still being felt across the North Texas religious community. Morris has stepped down in disgrace, many elders were removed from their positions, and thousands of members have left the Gateway family. 

This week, Clemishire opened up to Dallas Morning News about her childhood in Oklahoma, describing the years she was abused by Morris, a family friend who her parents welcomed into their home and treated like another cousin, allowing him to crash there while leading…

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A former Catholic priest, who was with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the time of his crimes, has pleaded no contest to the possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and several special allegations he was charged with, authorities announced Thursday.  

Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara, 39, a member of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit who was associated with numerous churches, including Our Lady of Guadalupe in Oxnard, admitted to possessing more than 600 images of CSAM, including images and videos of prepubescent minors under the age of 12, a news release from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office stated.  

He has since been removed from the ministry by the Archdiocese and his order, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese told KTLA shortly after his arrest last year.  

Prosecutors say the 39-year-old became the target of an investigation after dozens of reports were made to…

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A jury found an Inola pastor guilty of rape and two counts of lewd or indecent acts involving young girls Thursday morning.

4 years ago, Inola pastor Roy Shoop was arrested.

“I felt I was looking the devil right in the eye,” said Sheriff Scott Walton from the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office as he explained the moment he handcuffed Roy Shoop, “and I believe he was, and we put him right where he needs to be.”

Shoop was the pastor of the Cowboy Gatherin’ Church in Inola. The DA’s office said he and his wife have trained children to compete in rodeo events such as barrel racing and roping.

Walton said, “A situation came to an end last night that was four years in the making…and here’s my opinion, he was successful at playing courthouse lawyer games and buying himself 4 years of freedom, and last night it came to…

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Gabriel “Gabe” Mills, a former pastor at a megachurch in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was arrested for a new charge seconds after his preliminary hearing for previous charges.

Mills is now facing three counts of the Class 1 Felony capturing an intimate representation without consent, the Kenosha Police Department said in a statement.

Mills, a former guest experiences pastor at Journey Church, was at the preliminary hearing for accusations made in a criminal complaint filed last week.

The complaint accused Mills of sending nude photos of a woman from the phone of her husband to Mills’ phone, The Roys Report (TRR) previously reported. Mills allegedly searched for the intimate photos on the husband’s phone during a church life group meeting at Mills’ home. He then sent them to himself via AirDrop.

Now a second victim has come forward with similar allegations, police reported. Detectives said they found evidence on Mills’ phone that substantiated the second victim’s…

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A new report says Catholics in England and Wales have been deeply affected by the clergy sexual abuse crisis, with a third of Mass goers saying they reduced attendance to church or even stopped going altogether because of the issue.

Attitudes of Catholics in England and Wales to Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church was published by Durham University’s Center for Catholic Studies on Thursday.

The Catholic population in England and Wales makes up about 8 percent of the country, or just over 3 million people.

In 2016, the British Government set up an independent statutory inquiry known as IICSA: The Independent inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. When looking at the Catholic Church, the inquiry records over 3,000 instances of child sexual abuse connected to the Church between1970 and 2015. It also said abuse is not a “historical problem” since there have been more than 100 further allegations each year…

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BATON ROUGE — A national support group for victims of clergy abuse says the Diocese of Baton Rouge failed to disclose the names of all priests credibly accused of sexual abuse by victims.

The Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) identified the three as Henry Groover, who worked in Tickfaw and Hammond; Kevin Tripp, who worked at a Baton Rouge hospital; and Anthony Kiel, who worked at St. Francis Xavier.

SNAP says three abusive priests from other dioceses passed through the capital area and should be on the Baton Rouge list.

Groover committed suicide after being sued in 2017; the other two are listed by other dioceses as credibly accused.

“For many victims, if you can seek justice in court and you can expose the man who molested you even years later it is very very healing and validating and it brings closure and it brings justice,” David Clohessy,…

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LAFAYETTE, LA (KLFY) — A new lawsuit has been filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette following an alleged victim of the infamous former priest, Father Gilbert Gauthe, coming forward, accusing the dioceses of negligence.

“We want to applaud this brave man for once again putting father gross’s name in the limelight. He, too, like these other priests, he too, is still alive and could still be a threat to kids,” said David Clohessy with Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. (SNAP)

The accusations against the diocese state they were or should have been aware of the risk in allowing Father Gauthe to remain a priest in the church and having access to children. The plaintiffs claim the Diocese and St. Mary Magdalen church in Abbeville pressured the victim’s family to remain silent about the abuse. Members of SNAP agree the diocese has a history of covering up…

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A priest in California has pleaded no contest to charges of possessing hundreds of images of child sexual abuse material, with his conviction coming just over a year after his arrest. 

The Ventura County district attorney’s office said in a press release on Thursday that Father Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara “pled no contest to one felony count of possession of child sexual abuse material.” He had been associated with several churches, including Our Lady of Guadalupe in Oxnard, California. 

As part of that plea, the 39-year-old priest also admitted that he possessed “over 600 images of child sexual abuse material, including images and videos of prepubescent minors under the age of 12.”

Martinez-Guevara was arrested in September 2023. In announcing the priest’s plea this week, District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said Martinez-Guevara “betrayed the law and the trust placed in him as a religious leader.”

“Child sexual abuse material…

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Nearly 300 victims — or their surviving loved ones — who suffered abuse at Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, N.L., during the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, or by Archdiocese of St. John’s clergy, will receive the initial disbursement of their long-awaited monetary restitution before the end of this month.

On Oct. 8, Justice Garrett Handrigan of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador granted an interim distribution of $20.9 million to claimants whose applications were approved by Global Resolutions, Inc., the Toronto-headquartered dispute mediation company that served as claims officer.

A further $1.7 million will be awarded once the estates of 38 deceased claimants submit the required testamentary documentation (notarized copies of last wills and testaments, death certificates).

Geoff Budden, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, told The Catholic Register that his clients view this development “as an excellent first step,” but they “wish us to do everything we…

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The government is to establish a statutory inquiry into historic abuse at day and boarding schools run by religious orders in Ireland.

The Irish bishops paid tribute to survivors of child sexual abuse who gave their testimony to Justice Mary O’Toole for the report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders.

At their annual autumn meeting in Maynooth, the bishops said the publication of the report was a further step “in shining the light of truth into our collective past”. 

The report, they said, exposed once again the “widespread abuse of our most vulnerable by those in whom parents had placed so much trust”.

Addressing the traumas of the past, the bishops underlined is “an indispensable part of the renewal of the life of the Church in Ireland”.

The government is to establish a statutory inquiry into historic abuse at day…

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Mohsin Meghji’s conduct in a separate case raised ethics questions as ex-judge he was linked to faces investigation

A nationally renowned business-turnaround expert hired to help resolve the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans’ contentious and costly bankruptcy – which has ensnared hundreds of clergy molestation survivors – is now facing scrutiny from the FBI after his conduct in a separate case raised ethics-related questions.

The Wall Street Journal published reporting on Mohsin “Mo” Meghji on Wednesday, the day he was due to complete an assessment on the viability of two competing archdiocesan restructuring plans drafted by the church as well as those to whom it is indebted, among them hundreds of victims of sexually abusive clergymen.

Church bankruptcy attorneys are proposing to settle the case – filed in 2020 – by paying about $125,000 to each of more than 500 molestation claimants, who in turn are demanding $2m per claim.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican’s doctrine office has mandated the laicization of an Argentine priest accused of sexually abusing minors, overturning a surprise ruling from the Vatican Secretariat of State that imposed limitations on the priest’s activities.

In an Oct. 8 communiqué published via the news service of the Argentine bishops’ conference, Archbishop John Kennedy, head of the disciplinary section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the information regarding the restrictions placed on a priest specified by the Secretariat of State were “voided” and confirmed previous rulings for his laicization.

The case involves former Argentine priest Ariel Alberto Príncipi, who was accused in 2021 of sexually abusing minors while performing “healing prayers” associated with a Catholic charismatic movement. In June 2023, a local interdiocesan court found Príncipi guilty of sexually abusing minors and ruled for his removal from the priesthood. This decision was upheld…

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In an Oct. 7, 2024, decision and order, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul R. Warren dismissed on its merits the Continental Insurance Company’s adversary proceeding against the Diocese of Rochester for breach of contract and denied the insurer’s application for an administrative expense claim.

Warren also ordered further in-person mediation among representatives of Continental, which also is known as CNA; members of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents abuse claimants; the committee’s counsel; and state court attorneys representing multiple abuse clients.

In a bench trial before Warren July 29-30, CNA argued that the diocese was legally bound by an unsigned proposal for a settlement agreement with CNA that the diocese had presented for court approval in May 2021, and that the diocese breached that agreement when it agreed to an alternative settlement with survivors that is incompatible with certain terms of the proposed CNA settlement.

Warren’s decision outlined numerous…

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Last June, I invited some young adult Catholics to my residence one evening for a discussion about the future of our parishes, our diocese and our church. They were in their 20s and 30s. Some were married, some still single. A few had young children at their homes here in Jefferson City, Mo., where they belonged to our cathedral parish.

At the time, we were beginning a small group discernment process created by our chancery staff. The process was designed to work across four sessions, guiding the faithful of our diocese to explore how the structures of our church can support their parishes as they seek to become thriving centers of charity and mercy—as revealed by Jesus in his teaching on the Beatitudes.Advertisement

The group gathered at my home was a sort of test; I wanted to see for myself how these discussions might go before we rolled out this…

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Many of the defendants who worked at Vancouver College, a private school for boys, had transferred from the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland

A former student at Vancouver College is alleging “organized and protracted psychological, physical, spiritual and sexualized abuse” while he was at the Roman Catholic private boys school in the 1980s.

The 58-year-old plaintiff — anonymized as V.C.A.B. in a lawsuit filed this week in B.C. Supreme Court — names the college, the Vancouver archdiocese, several employees of the college, and the Education Ministry as defendants.Article content

Many of the defendants were members of the Christian Brothers order and some were found guilty of sexual and physical abuses at the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland. They were transferred to Vancouver College and another Catholic school in B.C. before many of their offences at the orphanage came to light.

V.C.A.B.’s mother enrolled him in Grade 9 at…

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     Update–A Catholic priest has been convicted in Ventura County 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 Thursday.

     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 the time of the crimes.

     A special allegation was also found true that he possessed over 600 images of child sexual abuse material including images and videos of minors under the age of 12, mostly young boys.

     Martinez-Guevara became the focus of an investigation after several reports were made to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

     The court agreed that Martinez-Guevara could remove the GPS monitoring device he had been wearing since his release from the Ventura…

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LEICESTER, United Kingdom – A new report says Catholics in England and Wales have been deeply affected by the clergy sexual abuse crisis, with a third of Mass goers saying they reduced attendance to church or even stopped going altogether because of the issue.

Attitudes of Catholics in England and Wales to Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church was published by Durham University’s Center for Catholic Studies on Thursday.

The Catholic population in England and Wales makes up about 8 percent of the country, or just over 3 million people.

In 2016, the British Government set up an independent statutory inquiry known as IICSA: The Independent inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. When looking at the Catholic Church, the inquiry records over 3,000 instances of child sexual abuse connected to the Church between1970 and 2015. It also said abuse is not a “historical problem” since there have been more than 100…

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ROME – A former member of a Peru-based women’s lay consecrated group whose male branch is currently under Vatican investigation has expressed doubt about the group’s long-term future, voicing her belief that there was never any founding “charism” to begin with.

In an open letter published Monday in Spanish-language news platform Religion Digital, Rocio Figueroa, a former member of the Marian Community of Reconciliation (MCR), said the group’s recent effort to distance itself from allegations of abuse coverup are “despicable.”

The MCR is one of four entities founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, including the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), the Servants of the Plan of God (SPG), and the Christian Life Movement (CLM).

Figari in August was expelled from the SCV amid an ongoing inquiry by the Vatican’s top investigating duo, Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), and Spanish Monsignor Jordi…

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Alexandria diocese plans to file ‘prearranged chapter 11’ after settlement with victims to avoid ‘lengthy delays’

A Roman Catholic diocese in north-west Louisiana appears ready to join 40 other organizations of its kind in the US by filing for federal bankruptcy protection as the church’s worldwide clergy molestation scandal continues reverberating, according to a letter obtained by the Guardian.

But the diocese in question – that of Alexandria, Louisiana – is first aiming to reach a global settlement with those who already have pending clergy abuse claims demanding damages from the institution before it then files what it called a “prearranged chapter 11” financial reorganization. As the letter authored by local attorneys for the Alexandria church put it, the purpose of the strategy is to avoid “the lengthy delays and huge professional fees” incurred by the May 2020 bankruptcy filed by Louisiana’s archdiocese of New Orleans.

It was in September that…

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Roman Catholics have been so traumatised by their church’s clerical abuse scandal that a third of previously regular mass-goers have stopped attending — and many are so ashamed of their church’s track record on abuse that they do not admit to being Catholic.

These are the findings of a survey by Durham University which also shows that the drop in mass attendance means a drop in income from collections — at a time when the Catholic church is spending more money on safeguarding and has also been financially hit by paying compensation to victims of abuse.

The survey, commissioned by the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, also found that more than three-quarters of Catholics thought the church needed to make further reforms to prevent more cases of child sexual abuse, while a third of regular mass-goers think the bishops have not handled the crisis well.

The findings come…

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The child sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church has contributed to a third of Catholics in England and Wales reducing their attendance of Mass or stopping going altogether, according to a new report by Durham University.

Over 3,000 adults who identify as Roman Catholic – and sampled as representative of the Catholic population in England and Wales – responded to the YouGov survey commissioned by the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, as part of a wider research project called “Boundary Breaking” that looked at the implications of the abuse crisis for the Catholic community.

Carried out in June and July 2022, the study aimed to gauge the attitudes and impact of child sexual abuse on so-called “ordinary” Catholics. The sample included “regular” churchgoers (classed as attending at least once a month) and “occasional” (classed as attending less than once a month), as well as those who do not go…

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“There is a conviction that the Church needs to make changes to prevent such abuse happening in the future.”

One in three Catholics who previously went to Mass have reduced their attendance or stopped going altogether as a result of the child sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, according to a new report by Durham University.

There has also been a corresponding fall in the number of financial donations, with a third of Catholics who previously donated no longer giving money to the Church.

The YouGov survey was commissioned by the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University as part of a wider research project, “Boundary Breaking”, where researchers are looking at the implications of the abuse crisis for the Catholic community.

More than 3,000 adults who identify as Catholic responded to the questionnaire, with 79 per cent saying that the Church needs to change “a great deal” to prevent…

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It was a Mass that seemed meant to brighten our dimming hopes.

On holiday in Portsmouth, U.K., my husband and I found Sunday Mass at the city’s modest Catholic Cathedral of St. John and slipped into an empty pew, expecting nothing beyond what is ordinary in our weary local diocese.

When the pipe organ sounded and the (surprisingly good) choir intoned the entrance hymn, things became very different, indeed. The pews had filled with beautiful young migrant families from Africa and India, and as the congregation sang out in vibrant voice, the diversity of the parish was reflected in the 13 (!) altar servers — children and young adults reflecting the whole color palette of humanity and rendering reverent service to the liturgy.

There were bells and smells — the Novus Ordo with a smattering of Latin in the Gloria and the Agnus Dei. There was a young concelebrant and…

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“Llegó el tiempo de ponerle fin a la estupidez colectiva del Sodalicio” “El Sodalicio es manejado por un grupo de delincuentes y seguido por personas estúpidas que sin tener la intención de hacer daño lo hicieron y encima se perjudicaron a sí mismos” “Humberto de mi alma, no fue por inexperiencia, fue porque tenías lavado el cerebro y te convencieron de que maltratando a los otros los hacías recios y buenos soldados” “Para una víctima, el abuso no es del “pasado”, sigue en el “presente”. Sólo si una víctima es escuchada, creída y validada por la comunidad el trauma puede comenzar a curarse” “Querido Rafael, la ‘cruz’ que sientes como injusticia otra vez es la cruz de la estupidez de no darte cuenta que has encubierto, difamado y seguido a delincuentes”

A los que señalan que lo que está sucediendo al Sodalicio es un acto de venganza por parte de…

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In a highly unusual ruling, the Vatican in September rescinded the laicization of an Argentine priest who had been found guilty of sexual abuse of minors.

But on October 7, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) announced that the September statement was void, and the priest’s laicization remains in effect.

The rare public dispute between Vatican offices puts the DDF in conflict with the Secretariat of State. Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, the secretary of the DDF, issued a reminder that his office is responsible for disciplinary cases involving priests accused of abuse, and the Secretariat of State is not involved in that process.

The DDF—and in particular the disciplinary section headed by Archbishop Kennedy—has sole authority for the handling of sex-abuse cases. But as sostituto—in effect the Pope’s chief of staff—Archbishop Pena Parra wields enormous influence. So when the Argentine diocese of Rio Cuarto received a message from…

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[Editor’s note: This story contains details of child sexual abuse. If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673).]

A man who has said he was sexually assaulted by a priest from Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Humboldt has filed a lawsuit against the church and the Catholic Diocese of Memphis, alleging that the church and diocese actively covered up the priest’s abuse.

The lawsuit comes nearly a year after The Commercial Appeal identified Joel Wiggs as a priest with multiple complaints lodged against him. Despite The CA confirming three of those complaints — one from 2002, 2013 and 2019 — Wiggs was not part of the diocese’s list of “credibly accused” priests as of 2020.

According to the lawsuit, Wiggs was ordained as a priest in 1949 and worked at Sacred Heart in…

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The former director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests held a protest outside of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Alexandria on October 8.

“I cringe at the phrase that’s sometimes used when people say ‘Did you lose your faith,’ and the honest truth is…no, I did not lose my faith. I lose my car keys, but I didn’t lose my faith. My faith was stolen from me,” said David Clohessy.

Clohessy has been a member of SNAP for 30 years now. He grew up in Missouri and said his parish priest abused him during his adolescent years of 12 to 16.

“It was always late at night, just the two of us usually on out-of-town trips, camping or skiing or canoeing,” he said. “I would wake up in the middle of the night and find him on top of me, pushing against me and frankly I was…

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Two victims of sexual abuse by a priest came together in front of St. John Cathedral Catholic Church to call for increased transparency from the Lafayette Diocese regarding priests accused of sexual abuse. Displayed prominently were the names of accused priests, drawing attention to ongoing concerns within the community.

David Clohessy, former national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and a victim himself, led the effort. He urged the diocese to include three additional names, written on a sheet of paper he held, to a public list of credibly accused abusers.

Clohessy criticized the diocese for its legal maneuvers against victims seeking justice. In June, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the state’s “look-back” law, which extends the deadline for sexual abuse victims to file lawsuits by three years. Following this ruling, three lawsuits were filed in Lafayette just days later.

The gathering reflects a community’s demand…

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Two victims of priest sex abuse and an activist, during a protest Wednesday on the sidewalk in front of St. John Cathedral in Lafayette, called on Catholics and others to spread the word about a Louisiana law that gives abuse victims three years to sue their abusers and the Catholic Church.

The state Supreme Court in June upheld a Louisiana law, approved in 2021 and amended in 2022, that extended until June 14, 2027, the deadline for sex abuse victims to sue.

The Catholic Diocese of Lafayette had challenged the 2021 “look back” law, arguing in court that it violated due process rights. The Supreme Court disagreed.

Priest abuse victim David Clohessy, former long-time national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and currently volunteer SNAP Missouri director, called on the public to spread the word about the extended deadline to sue. He especially encouraged Catholics, who sometimes…

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Brother Edward English, who first became know after the Mount Cashel orphanage abuse scandal, is named in another case.

A B.C. man is alleging he was subjected to sexual abuse and physical violence while a boy at a Vancouver Roman Catholic school.

V.C.A.B. (his name has been anonymized) said in an Oct. 7 Supreme Court of B.C. notice of civil claim that he suffered organized and protracted psychological, physical, spiritual and sexualized abuse by various lay and religious teachers and staff when he was a minor and a student at Vancouver College, a private Roman Catholic all-boys school between 1980 and 1984.

Named as defendants are Vancouver College Limited (VCL), the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver A Corporation Sole, Brother Gerard Gabriel McHugh, Brother Edward English, Brother Michael Anthony Maher, Brother Basil Blom, Brother Ronald H. MacKenzie, Brother David B. Burton, Brother Joseph Pascal Rowland, Joseph Burke, John Kavelac and the…

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The Vatican has authorized the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to remove a priest from the clerical state after an investigation found he sexually assaulted two children years ago.

Martin Boylan “has been dismissed from the clerical state at the conclusion of a disciplinary process authorized by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) at the Holy See,” the Diocese of Scranton said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Boylan, 76, was removed from priestly ministry in 2016 after he was accused of sexual assault of a minor. The diocese would subsequently receive four more allegations against the priest, all of which were investigated and submitted to the DDF.

The Holy See authorized the Scranton Diocese to adjudicate the matter. The priest was ultimately found guilty of two instances of sexual abuse of a minor. The DDF “reviewed the findings and authorized the Diocese of…

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The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith overturned on Monday the Vatican Secretariat of State’s attempt to reinstate a priest laicized for the sexual abuse of minors in Argentina, setting up the most public clash of competence between Vatican departments in years.

According to a statement released by an Argentine diocese, Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, head of the DDF’s disciplinary section, declared void a September order from the Secretariat of State, which tried to reverse the laicization of Ariel Alberto Príncipi, a former diocesan priest convicted of child sexual abuse.

The DDF’s decision this week directly countermands a September 23 order signed by the sostituto of the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, who serves functionally as the pope’s curial chief of staff.

The unfolding events of the Príncipi case could also indicate that the DDF will insist on its exclusive competence to address cases of clergy abuse…

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The Diocese of Sion has outlined an action plan to deal with sexual abuse. The measures detailed on Tuesday in a press release are designed to put the victim at the centre of any approach.

The Diocese of Sion’s action plan aims to professionalise its counselling system, improve record-keeping and prevention, and enhance collaboration with victims’ associations. In concrete terms, abuse counsellors for the French-speaking part of the diocese will be trained on these aspects at the Institut Catholique de Paris, while a code of good conduct designed to prevent any abuse will be presented to pastoral workers.

A new flyer, entitled “Dare to talk about it”, details the four main places where victims of sexual abuse in the Church can be “listened to, supported or directed”. The document is being distributed to parishes, according to the diocese.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-politics/swiss-diocese-of-sion-criticised-for-dealings-with-victims-of-sexual-abuse/80433964

These measures follow the publication and presentation in June of the…

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A group representing survivors of clergy sex abuse is pushing for the Diocese of Lake Charles to add additional names to its list of credibly accused clergy members.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, commonly known as SNAP, are visiting cities in Louisiana to call for transparency in the Catholic Church.

The push comes after the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld a law giving sex abuse victims more time to file lawsuits against their perpetrators.

SNAP wants Louisiana dioceses to add certain priests to their lists of credibly accused clergy. These priests’ names appear on lists of abusers elsewhere.

SNAP wants four names added to the Diocese of Lake Charles’ list:

• Alfred Dean, who worked at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Welsh in 1989 and 1997, was included on the Baltimore Archdiocese’s credibly accused list in 2003 and the…

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A detained Philippine pastor who is also wanted in the United States for sex trafficking children registered Tuesday to run in next year’s senate elections.

Apollo Quiboloy, an ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte, is a self-proclaimed “Appointed Son of God” whose sect claims millions of followers.

The 74-year-old was arrested last month and is currently detained in Manila and facing charges of child abuse, sexual abuse and human trafficking. One of his lawyers filed his candidacy paperwork.

“He wants to be a part of the solution to the problems of our country. He is running because of God and our beloved Philippines,” lawyer Mark Christopher Tolentino said.

Quiboloy pledges to promote laws that are “God-centred, Philippine-centred and Filipino-centred”, Tolentino told journalists after submitting the candidacy papers to election officials.

The circumstances are not without precedent.

In May 2022, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada won a senate seat while on trial for…

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Former Catholic Priest Facing Additional Charges as Several Women Come Forward

Father Anthony Odiong, a former Catholic priest associated with Waco and West, has been indicted again on multiple sexual assault charges. A McLennan County grand jury returned a four-count indictment on Thursday, September 26, 2024, alleging that Odiong assaulted a woman repeatedly between 2008 and 2011, according to KWTX.

Catholic Priest Facing Serious Sexual Misconduct Charges with Severe Consequences

This latest indictment follows an earlier one on September 12, where Odiong faced three counts of sexual assault involving two separate women. The new charges are classified as first-degree felonies, carrying potential penalties of up to life in prison due to the victim’s marital status at the time of the alleged incidents.

Ongoing Incarceration Amid Multiple Allegations of Sexual Assault

Odiong, 56, is currently held in the McLennan County Jail under bonds totaling $2.5 million. He is also dealing with…

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The 27-year-old was convicted of molesting his juniors at a seminary on Catholic-majority island of Flores

A former major seminarian in Indonesia has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing minors at a seminary.

Engelbertus Lowa Sada, 27, was held guilty of molesting 10 students at the St. John Berchmans Mataloko Minor Seminary on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores.

Judge Theodora Usfunan at the Bajawa District Court in Ngada Regency also imposed a fine of 500 million rupiah (US$30,000). The inability to pay will result in an additional six months in prison for Sada.

The former seminarian was further ordered to pay 24.8 million rupiah as restitution to the minor victims. The Oct. 2 order was made public on Oct. 7.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan, a Catholic lawyer and coordinator of Indonesian bishops’ Advocacy and Human Rights Forum, said Sada got away with a “lighter”…

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A public prosecutor’s office in Switzerland has closed an investigation into alleged inappropriate conduct toward young people by an abbot who serves as a member of the Swiss bishops’ conference.

The Swiss daily newspaper Blick reported Oct. 6 that Beatrice Pilloud, the Attorney General of the Canton of Valais, had confirmed the closure of the case against Abbot Jean Scarcella, the 72-year-old head of the Territorial Abbey of Saint-Maurice.

As a territorial abbot, the canonical equivalent of a diocesan bishop, Scarcella is one of the nine members of the Swiss bishops’ conference. 

The abbot stood aside from office last year, pending the results of a canonical preliminary investigation into the allegations. The results of that investigation are currently being studied in Rome.

The Blick newspaper said the reason for the case’s closure was unclear because Scarcella, a member of the Swiss Congregation of Canons Regular of Saint Maurice of Agaune, had…

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A priest who resigned following a scandal within the Diocese of Greensburg earlier this year will now be reassigned to parishes in Lower Burrell and New Kensington.

The Rev. John Moineau had resigned as pastor of parishes in North Huntingdon and Irwin back in May after he transferred an employee with a lengthy criminal history record to Immaculate Conception Cemetery.

The employee, identified as Shon Harrity, was arrested in May and accused of raping a child under 16. Authorities say Harrity has a history of criminal sexual activity dating back decades.

Harrity’s wife was also charged and accused of being aware of her husband’s crimes.

Police have determined there was no criminal activity in the case but an internal investigation found Moineau and three other parish employees did violate church policy.

Moineau will begin working for four parishes, under supervision, effective on Oct. 23.

The three employees in the investigation…

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A former pastor at 2|42 Community Church has yet to be bound over to circuit court after being arrested on charges of surveilling an unclothed person, using a computer to commit a crime and tampering with evidence.

William Johnson was arrested in September after confessing to church leadership he’d placed a hidden camera in a bathroom meant for staff and volunteers multiple times over the last two years.

More:Police: 2|42 pastor confessed to targeting individuals with bathroom camera for two years

The confession came after a staff member discovered the camera and reported it to church leadership. Johnson was fired and the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office was notified. Johnson’s home was searched and all electronic devices seized.

According to LCSO, all known victims have been identified and notified. In an interview, police said, Johnson admitted to placing the camera “intermittently for the past two years, targeting…

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The Diocese of Scranton has dismissed a priest who served in Stroudsburg and Honesdale, among other assignments, after he was found guilty under canon law of sexually assaulting two minors.

Martin M. Boylan’s dismissal is “the most severe penalty that the Catholic Church can impose on a cleric,” the diocese said in a press release issued Tuesday.

“As a result, Boylan will never again exercise priestly ministry in any capacity. He may no longer celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or administer any of the Church’s sacraments. His relationship with the Diocese of Scranton in any official capacity is now permanently ended,” the diocese said.

Boylan was removed from ministry on April 1, 2016, the diocese said, after an accusation that he had sexually assaulted a minor. Between then and October 2023, the diocese received four more accusations against Boylan of sexually assaulting minors.

The diocese said it investigated all five accusations,…

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[Includes video]

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. — An attorney known for representing sexual abuse victims in the Boston area during the Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal is questioning the decision to reassign a Westmoreland County priest to a new set of parishes despite the Diocese of Greensburg saying that the priest broke church law.

“Actions speak louder than words, but the catholic church is just using the words,” Mitchell Garabedian told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek.

Bishop Larry Kulick announced the decision to reassign and move Father John Moineau on Monday.

“He didn’t do his job, he should face the consequences of that,” Garabedian said.

Bishop Kulick said Moineau broke church law when he said he personally reviewed the clearances for a man who worked at a church cemetery when they were renewed in 2020 — but didn’t.

That man, Shon Harrity, was accused of sexual assault of a minor…

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Three lawsuits have been filed in Lafayette since June against the Diocese of Lafayette and churches over alleged sexual abuse of minors that occurred decades ago, including an alleged victim of former priest Gilbert Gauthe, who admitted to sexually abusing more than two dozen children in a plea deal in the 1980s.

Gauthe’s is believed to be one of the first publicized cases of priest sex abuse in the country and the first to be criminally indicted, decades before such scandals surfaced elsewhere in the country. He served 10 years of a 20-year sentence in jail. According to news reports from 2019, he was living in San Leon, Texas, not far from Galveston.

The three lawsuits followed a June Supreme Court decision that upheld a state law giving abuse survivors a three-year window to sue for damages. The legislature in 2021 gave abuse victims three years to sue their abusers…

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The Diocese of Scranton defrocked a priest found guilty under church law of sexually abusing children, permanently ending his priesthood with its most severe penalty, the diocese said Tuesday.

Martin M. Boylan, 76, who most recently served at St. Patrick Parish in West Scranton until his removal in April 2016, will never again exercise priestly ministry in any capacity following his dismissal from the clerical state after he was found guilty under canon law for the sexual assault of two minors, according to a statement from the diocese. As a result, Boylan is no longer allowed to celebrate Mass, hear confessions or administer any of the church’s sacraments.

Boylan declined to comment when reached by phone Tuesday afternoon.

The Vatican authorized the disciplinary process through the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Holy See.

Boylan’s dismissal concludes a canonical process launched eight years ago.

He has not…

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SCRANTON – Martin M. Boylan, formerly a priest of the Diocese of Scranton, has been dismissed from the clerical state at the conclusion of a disciplinary process authorized by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Holy See.

Boylan’s involuntarily dismissal from the clerical state was imposed after having been found guilty under canon law of the sexual assault of two minors. As a result, Boylan will never again exercise priestly ministry in any capacity. He may no longer celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or administer any of the Church’s sacraments. His relationship with the Diocese of Scranton in any official capacity is now permanently ended.

This penalty concludes a canonical process that began eight years ago.

On April 1, 2016, then-Father Boylan was removed from priestly ministry following an accusation of the sexual assault of a minor. Using the procedures in canon law and its Policy for…

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Martin Boylan, accused of sexually abusing five children, exhausted his appeals, diocese says

SCRANTON, Pa. — A former priest accused of sexually abusing children Diocese of Scranton has been permanently defrocked, diocesan officials said Tuesday.

The process authorized by Catholic Church’s disciplinary arm concluded against Martin M. Boylan, more than eight years after the church first removed him from priestly ministry.

Boylan, 76, was found guilty under canon law of sexually assaulting two children, but he was credibly accused by five. The diocese referred the allegations to law enforcement, as well. Boylan has not been criminally charged, records show.

Once convicted under canon law, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the arm of the Roman Curia that oversees discipline, reviewed the case and authorized Boylan’s removal from the clerical state, which the diocese said is the most severe penalty the church can impose on…

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Three years after a landmark French clerical sexual abuse report was published, a member of the commission that released it told OSV News the testimonies he heard had a great impact on him and that he remains in touch with those affected, helping them move forward.

Stéphane de Navacelle, 44, a lawyer and member of the New York and Paris bars, was appointed member of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, known as CIASE for its French acronym, in 2019. The commission was set up by the French bishops’ conference and the Conference of Religious of France. Chaired by senior civil servant Jean-Marc Sauvé, CIASE submitted its conclusions in Paris on Oct. 5, 2021, after an almost three-year investigation.

The report estimated that 330,000 children in France had been sexually abused since 1950 and provided the country’s first accounting of the crisis. According to Sauvé, Catholic authorities…

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A victim of clergy abuse as a child and member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) was in Lake Charles Tuesday to talk about how healing and validating it can be for victims when church officials admit a priest as credibly. He said a new state law could lead to more abuse victims coming forward. 

“I was abused for about four years in the central Missouri Diocese of Jefferson City by our assistant pastor, Father John Whiteley,” said David Clohessy of SNAP Missouri. “He molested me and my brothers.” 

Clohessy was 11.  One of his brothers went on to become a priest, was placed on the credibly accused list, civilly sued and has been suspended.

 Clohessy and other SNAP members, including a Lake Charles man who started the organization in Boston, are going to Alexandria, Baton Rouge and Lafayette with their message of a tougher approach. 

…

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October 08, 2024

Abuse victims blast Baton Rouge bishop

He’s hiding at least three ‘credibly accused’ abusive priests

Other church officials say allegations against the men are ‘credible’

SNAP: “If church officials are hiding them, what else might they be hiding?”

Support group also alerts child victims to unusual new legal opportunity

New law means that anyone molested at any time by anyone can now sue

‘By coming forward, the wounded can protect the vulnerable,’ victims say

WHAT

Using sidewalk chalk, while holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will write on a sidewalk the names of three publicly accused child molesting clerics who are NOT on the Baton Rouge Catholic bishop’s ‘credibly accused’ list and thus remain largely ‘under the radar.’

They will also urge 

—Catholics and others to “spread the word” about an unusual new Louisiana law that will make kids safer by enabling victims of childhood sexual…

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October 07, 2024

Victims blast Alexandria bishop on child abuse

They say he’s “concealing four publicly accused priests“

Other church officials admit charges against them are ‘credible’

SNAP: “If church officials are hiding these guys, what else might they be hiding?”

Support group also alerts child victims to unusual new legal opportunity

New law means that anyone molested at any time by anyone can now sue

‘By coming forward, the wounded can protect the vulnerable,’ victims say

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sexual abuse victims will

—disclose four publicly &/or ‘credibly accused’ priests who were in the Alexandria diocese but are NOT on the local Catholic bishop’s official ‘accused’ list, and

—write their names – and names of other alleged pedophile priests – on the sidewalk with chalk.

The victims will also urge 

—Catholics to “spread the word” about a new Louisiana law that “helps protect kids and expose predators” by enabling “anyone abused…

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On a Sunday morning, the pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, took the stage with his wife to reassure their congregation.

“Lisa is the only woman I’ve ever been with, and I’m the only man she’s ever been with — and I say ‘been with’ in a biblical sense,” said Ed Young, who founded the church in the late 1980s.

About 4,000 people were in the room, with thousands more watching online. The pastor added, “We don’t have to worry about any sexual skeletons in our closet coming from the past.”

In normal circumstances, it was the kind of claim that many churchgoers would hope went without saying. But in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year, a pastor with a clean reputation is not to be taken for granted.

The Youngs’ joint sermon came in late June, days after Robert Morris, the founder of the nearby Gateway Church, resigned…

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A deep, institutional corruption and a near-total aversion to accountability have condemned church leaders to an endless loop of disrepute.

Whenever Missouri megapreacher Mike Bickle received prophecies from God, he tended to shout the good news from the rooftops. But there was one recurring vision that he only shared with a few people. In the early 1980s, Bickle—who would go on to found International House of Prayer in Kansas City—confided in Tammy Woods, the 14-year-old who was babysitting his children, that his wife Diane would die and “that we could be together,” a prelude to his repeatedly sexually abusing her. The founder of the outrageously successful church certainly felt that God had his back. He had the same vision over a decade later, when he told his 19-year-old female intern that his wife would die and that they would get married.

But maybe…

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The Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, has filed bankruptcy, following several previous rounds of abuse claim settlements over the past 14 years, and is facing more than two dozen additional civil court claims with few resources left to compensate alleged victims.

Bishop John J. McDermott announced the filing “with a heavy heart” in an Oct. 1 video message and letter posted to the diocesan website, saying the decision to file for Chapter 11 protection had been made “following an extensive period of prayer and consultation.”

He stressed that the bankruptcy filing “involves only the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington” and “does not include” the diocese’s 63 parishes “and other associated agencies,” adding that he hoped “the process will have little impact upon our parishes and ministries.”

According to the bishop’s Sept. 30 affidavit to the bankruptcy court, the diocese’s parishes in 2006 were redesignated under Vermont civil law as charitable trusts, having previously been part of the diocese’s “corporate sole structure” since…

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The recent trend of prominent church leaders stepping down for misconduct, abuse and moral failures hasn’t died down.

Arguably one of the biggest stories of the summer in North Texas continues to develop well into the fall, as yet another North Texas church leader has made news for the wrong reasons.

David Scarberry, who serves as a staff “evangelistic outreach leader” at Revival City Church in McKinney according to church watchdog site Watchkeep, was arrested last week and charged with continuous violence against family, a charge he told KERA was the result of “false accusations.”

Scarberry’s story doesn’t end with these latest charges, however. KERA also reported that Scarberry “spent five years in an Oklahoma prison after he was found guilty of using an offensive weapon in a felony and for two additional drug felonies in 2002,” and that “[h]is ex-wife filed for the domestic abuse protective…

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