ABUSE TRACKER

West Belfast actress Geraldine Hughes is back in Belfast, directing a critically-acclaimed play about abuse in the Catholic Church.

Unreconciled is an autobiographical play written and performed by Pennsylvania-born Jay Sefton.

The one-man show tells the story of a teenage actor cast as Jesus in a school play directed by a parish priest.

It also chronicles his journey to speak out as a survivor of sexual abuse and navigate a reparations programme set up by the Catholic Church.

Ms Hughes said she wants to bring “important stories” to Belfast – stories she is “proud to tell and be associated with”.

She grew up in west Belfast in the 1970s and 1980s, before leaving for the USA to pursue an acting career.

“I’m really happy to be back at the Lyric Theatre,” she told BBC News NI.

“Belfast is special. Belfast is the best city.

“I travel for work, I go…

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A former teacher at a school in Southampton has been jailed after admitting non-recent sexual offences against three teenage girls.

Leo Norman, of Peartree Avenue, Southampton, was jailed for 14 months at a sentence hearing today (Friday 17 October) at Portsmouth Crown Court.

The 46-year-old was a teacher at St Anne’s Catholic School and Sixth Form College at the time of the offences, which took place between 2014 and 2019.

Norman had pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual activity with a girl 13 to 17 – adult abuse of position of trust, at a previous hearing at the same court on Monday 11 August.

Two impact statements were read out in court. They were from two of the women who were abused by Norman when they were teenage girls at the school, and they detailed the impact of Norman’s offending.

The court heard that some of the offending involved…

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English and media teacher Leo Normal, 46, has been sentenced after being found guilty of the sexual abuse of children at St Anne’s Catholic School and Sixth Form College in Southampton

A former teacher has been jailed for 14 months for the ‘shocking’ sexual abuse of three pupils at a Catholic school over a five-year period.

Predatory Leo Norman targeted the the teenage girls while working at the sixth form of St Anne’s School in Southampton, Hampshire, between September 2014 and June 2019. The English and media teacher was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court after pleading guilty to three charges of sexual activity with a child by a person of trust.

As well as the prison sentence, the 46-year-old, from Southampton, was handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years. He was told he abused his his position of trust as…

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Cardinal Marx and Bishop Bätzing are expected to feature in the study

A report will be published at the end of October assessing how prominent German Catholic leaders handled abuse cases while serving in the Diocese of Trier.

Researchers from the University of Trier will present Oct. 30 an interim report on the diocese’s response to sexual abuse from 2002 to 2021.

The report will examine the period when Cardinal Reinhard Marx, now Archbishop of Munich and Freising, led the Trier diocese. Marx was the Bishop of Trier from 2002 to 2007, when he was succeeded by Bishop Stephan Ackermann, who continues to lead the diocese.

Bishop Georg Bätzing, the chairman of the German bishops’ conference, served as vicar general of the Trier diocese from 2012 until he was named the Bishop of Limburg in 2016.

Ackermann, who oversaw the German bishops’ conference’s response to abuse cases from 2010 to 2022,…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany just agreed to pay $8 million to settle one case of sexual abuse committed by one of their former priests.

The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial on Monday.

The victim said he was just 11 years old when the abuse began. He claims Father Edward Charles Pratt molested him until he was 16 years old.

The victim filed a lawsuit against the diocese back in 2020, shortly after New York State’s Child Victims Act went into effect. That law removed time limitations that prevented old sexual abuse claims from going forward to court.

The law firm representing the victim told NewsChannel 13 this settlement is a sign of how strong the diocese believes the case is against them.

RELATED: Abuse cases against Diocese of Albany can proceed  

RELATED: Albany Catholic Diocese files for bankruptcy

“The fact…

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The verdict came a week after the same jury awarded $5 million in compensatory damages to a former student who said a monk assaulted him at the elite Catholic school.

The New Jersey jury that made history last week by awarding $5 million in damages to a Delbarton School graduate who claimed a monk sexually assaulted him decided Thursday not to impose further penalties on the elite Catholic prep school.

The four women and two men on the panel declined to award any punitive damages to the accuser, who has been identified only as T.M. during the more than five-week trial in Morris County Superior Court.

Nevertheless, in the aftermath of Thursday’s decision, T.M. released a statement calling the case a “seismic shift towards institutional accountability.”

“My hope is that by pursuing this nearly nine-year climb to justice, I can help others understand the profound and lasting…

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The ruling means a Catholic diocese will be shielded from a 1970s child rape claim at a N.H. summer camp, and other victims could be barred from bringing similar claims to court

A lawsuit claiming the Catholic diocese in New Hampshire was negligent in its failure to protect kids from sexual abuse in the 1970s cannot proceed to trial, the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday, finding that a statute of limitations lawmakers repealed in 2020 still applies.

The plaintiff, Randy Ball, who filed his lawsuit in 2023, alleged he was about 8 years old when a priest raped him in the mid-1970s at Camp Fatima, a lakefront summer camp for boys in Gilmanton Iron Works. That priest, the Rev. Karl E. Dowd Jr., was employed by the diocese as the camp’s director despite having previously been accused of fondling a teenager in Keene, N.H.

The statute…

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PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said he is about to send the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence a report that shows the church “did not respond well” to accusations of clergy sexual abuse of children over the past 70 years.

During an interview with Globe reporters, Neronha said he hopes to send the 400-page report to the diocese by the end of October. He said church officials are entitled to review the document before it’s released to the public, and the diocese could go to court to try to stop its release.

In 2019, the attorney general’s office and the Rhode Island State Police began a review of all files ofcomplaints of childhood sexual abuse collected by the Diocese of Providence since 1950. Over the past six years, the investigation led to new charges against a few priests, and produced…

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Mark Ford, extradited from Indiana to New Orleans jail, faces life in prison if convicted of sexual abuse charges.

NEW ORLEANS — A man working as a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans positioned himself as a mentor to a young disabled boy grieving two family deaths – and then exploited the proximity to abuse him for years, police allege.

Those details are contained in criminal court records generated by the arrest of Mark Francis Ford in Indiana in September as well as his subsequent transfer to the Orleans Justice Center jail, a process which was completed late on Tuesday.

Ford, 64, made an initial appearance in Criminal District Court on Wednesday as he became the latest figure to come under scrutiny during the New Orleans Catholic church’s long standing clergy molestation scandal. 

A magistrate commissioner temporarily ordered Ford held without bail.

Ford is one of several men who have worked…

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[Note from BA: This is an updated version of the article posted in yesterday’s Tracker.]

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s child protection board said Thursday the Catholic Church has a moral obligation to help victims of clergy sexual abuse heal. Financial reparations for the abused and tougher sanctions for the abusers and their enablers are essential remedies, it said.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors focused on the issue of reparations in its second annual report — an often sensitive topic for the church, given the financial, reputational and legal implications involved.

The report was significant — an official Vatican publication prepared with the input of 40 abuse survivors from around the world. It gave a voice to their complaints of how badly the church had handled their cases and highlighted measures they need to heal.

It contained the shocking revelation that the Vatican office responsible for one-third…

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The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors publishes its second annual Report, which presents guidelines for “informed listening” and for economic, psychological, and spiritual support to victims, while highlighting the need for more transparent communication, public acceptance of responsibility by the Church, and streamlined reporting mechanisms.

The Second Annual Report on Safeguarding Policies in the Catholic Church, published on Thursday by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, offers an operational vademecum, drawn up by actively listening to those who have personally suffered abuse.

The guidelines are intended to help ecclesial communities implement “restorative measures,” following step by step the reporting process and calling for its general simplification.

Recommendations include an initial “informed listening,” access to information about one’s case, and economic, psychological, and spiritual support. All of this is to be accompanied by transparent official statements that “acknowledge the harm caused” and publicly assume responsibility.

Archbishop Thibault…

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The commission’s report highlights the difficulties Pope Leo faces in trying to end clerical abuses and ensure abusers are held to account.

A Vatican commission set up to address the clerical sexual abuse crisis said on Thursday that the Roman Catholic Church was still too slow in addressing a problem that has plagued it for decades.

The commission called on church leaders to act more quickly and more transparently, and recommended that the church listened to, and involved, survivors as it worked to build trust after decades of scandal.

“Many times I have also asked myself that same question: Why so slow?” Msgr. Luis Manuel Alí Herrera, the commission’s secretary, said at a news conference to present its latest report on the church’s progress in dealing with abuse. “Sometimes I admit that I have been discouraged because I wanted the change to be more obvious, more radical.”

…

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The new report is bigger and bolder than the initial pilot study.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors released its second annual global child protection report Thursday, underlining the need for reparations, sanctions for abusers, and clear communication when bishops resign after mishandling cases.

The 200-page “Annual Report on Church Policies and Procedures for Safeguarding” was released Oct. 16 in five languages and with a Vatican press conference attended by the PCPM’s new president, the French Archbishop Thibault Verny, who succeeded founding president Cardinal Seán O’Malley in July.

PCPM members believe the publication of the first annual report marked a breakthrough in the worldwide struggle against abuse in the Catholic Church. The second report is twice the length but has the same structure as the pilot study, with four sections, focusing respectively on local Churches, continental blocs, the Roman curia, and the Church’s wider child protection efforts. A 13-page executive summary accompanies the full text.

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Its report faults “the Church’s decades-long pattern of mishandling reports, including abandoning, ignoring, shaming, blaming, and stigmatizing” abuse victims.

This story has been updated.

The Catholic Church has been lax in fulfilling its “moral and spiritual obligation to heal the deep wounds” inflicted on victims of clergy sexual abuse for decades, according to a highly critical report released Thursday by the Vatican’s child protection commission.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ 200-page report called for tougher sanctions for abusers and their enablers; public acknowledgement of cover-up and mishandling of abuse cases; and reparations for victims going beyond financial compensation, to include invitations for them to help develop safeguarding procedures and professional psychological support for survivors.

The new report marks only the second from the commission since the late Pope Francis established it in 2014. The commission’s new report, coming a year after its first, draws on accounts from dozens…

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Vatican City (AFP) – Victims of clerical sex abuse still face “disturbing” retaliation from Catholic Church leaders for speaking out despite years of efforts to tackle the global scourge, a Vatican commission said Thursday.

In its second annual report, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors set out how local Catholic churches can better help survivors, highlighting “cultural resistance” that hinders action in many countries.

The document was drawn up with the contributions of 40 victims, who shared their personal stories — and who gave what the commission described as “disturbing accounts of retaliation” by Church leaders after they reported their abuse.

“My brother was a seminarian. The bishop told my family that my complaint could affect his ordination,” one recalled.

Another described how a priest in the local church publicly declared their family excommunicated after they reported the abuse.

Yet another recounted that the local bishop said nothing for…

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[Note from BA: This is an updated version of the Reuters article posted in yesterday’s Tracker.]

Summary

• Vatican commission criticises Church’s response to abuse victims
• Report highlights lack of transparency in bishop removals
• Italy is criticised for poor cooperation with Vatican commission

VATICAN CITY, Oct 16 (Reuters) – The Vatican’s child protection commission accused senior Catholic leaders on Thursday of being too slow to help victims of sexual abuse by clergy and implement new safeguarding efforts in an unusually critical internal report on the issue.For decades, the 1.4-billion-member Church has been shaken by scandals across the world involving abuse and cover-up, damaging its credibility and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

The new report, only the second by a commission founded over a decade ago, faulted Church leaders for not providing information to victims about how their reports of abuse were being handled, or whether negligent bishops had been…

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The study, conducted by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, is presented as a tool to assist in the creation of safe environments and advocates for a broader understanding of reparation beyond the economic issue.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has presented in Rome its second Annual Report on Church Guardianship Policies and Procedures. It is a comprehensive study aimed at prevention, assistance and knowledge of the facts that, in this edition, has counted with a much higher number of victims of abuse in ecclesial environments in all regions of the world.

The report, whose first edition published last year, this time focused on how the Church is doing with regard to existing reparation practices in the local Churches and their pastoral and theological foundation “understood as the Church’s responsibility to accompany victims/survivors on their journey of healing and reparation”. 

40 victims participating in the study

In…

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• Summary

• Vatican commission criticises Church’s response to abuse victims
• Report highlights lack of transparency in bishop removals
• Italy is criticised for poor cooperation with Vatican commission

The Vatican’s child protection commission criticized senior Catholic leaders in an annual report on Thursday for not moving quickly enough to help victims of sexual abuse by clergy and to implement new safeguarding efforts worldwide.

For decades, the 1.4-billion-member Church has been shaken by scandals across the world involving abuse and cover-up, damaging its credibility and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

The new report faulted Church leaders for not providing information to victims about how their reports of abuse were being handled, or whether negligent bishops had been sanctioned.

It also said the commission’s own requests for information about safeguarding protocols had not always been answered and the Italian Church had failed to provide full details.

“In many cases … victims/survivors report…

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A Vatican commission for the protection of children has said the mishandling by the Catholic Church’s leaders of sexual abuse allegations involving clergy is causing “ongoing harm” to victims, in a hard-hitting report released Thursday.

The report also called out parts of Italy and Africa for failing to implement robust anti-abuse measures.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which released its second annual report on October 16 called for greater transparency from the Vatican and noted with “concern” that survivors often perceive the church’s central administration as “lacking in sensitivity.”

The report is the first to be released since the election of Pope Leo XIV and it sets out the scale of the challenge for the American pope in tackling the scourge of sexual abuse of children and vulnerable people inside the Catholic Church. His predecessor, Pope Francis, took some important steps to tackle the abuse crisis but  View Cache

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The Vatican’s child protection board said Thursday the Catholic Church has a moral obligation to help victims of clergy sexual abuse heal, and identified financial reparations and sanctions for abusers and their enablers as essential remedies.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors focused on the issue of reparations in its second annual report. It’s an often sensitive topic for the church, given the financial, reputational and legal implications it imposes on the hierarchy.

The report was significant — an official Vatican publication prepared with the input of 40 abuse survivors from around the world and giving voice to their complaints of how badly the church had handled their cases, and their demands of what they need to heal.

It said monetary settlements were necessary to provide victims with needed therapy and other assistance to help them recover from the trauma of their abuse.

But it…

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In a note sent to the Lusa agency, the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP) announced that the commission includes Circuit Judge Maria Amália Pereira dos Santos, president of the 3rd Civil Section of the Guimarães Court of Appeal, and Pedro Vaz Patto, Circuit Judge at the Porto Court of Appeal.

The commission also includes lawyers David Silva Ramalho, a guest lecturer at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Law, Francisco da Cunha Ferreira, and Paulo Câmara, a law professor at the Portuguese Catholic University.

Two other law professors round out the seven-member commission for determining financial compensation: Francisco Mendes Correia from the University of Lisbon and Rita Lynce de Faria from the Portuguese Catholic University.

According to the note from the Portuguese bishops, the permanent council of the CEP, meeting on Monday in Fatima, disclosed the composition of the entity “which is developing the proposals for the financial compensation amounts designated…

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A nearly three-hour preliminary hearing Tuesday afternoon for the former pastor of the Summit Church resulted in probable cause being found for the felony charge of soliciting a minor via computer.

The charge will now proceed to the grand jury, after Tuesday’s ruling by Randolph County Magistrate Michael Dyer.

Kevin Curtis Jones, 33, appeared in an orange prisoner’s jumpsuit in Randolph County Magistrate Court Tuesday afternoon, represented by attorney James Hawkins Jr.

Jones is also charged with one felony count of distribution and exhibiting of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit activity. A hearing on that charge has been continued to a later date.

Jones is currently being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on two separate $50,000 cash-only bonds set by Magistrates Benjamin Shepler and Dyer.

The courtroom was full with approximately 20 people for Tuesday’s hearing, including family members of the alleged victim and a witness….

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12 News has received information after a pastor at an Elkins church was charged earlier this month with soliciting a minor and distributing material depicting minors in sexually explicit activity.

On Tuesday, 33-year-old Kevin Jones, who is a pastor at Summit Church in Elkins, appeared in Randolph County Magistrate Court for a preliminary hearing in this case. Jones’s attorney made motions to have his $50,000 cash-only bail altered and to have the charges thrown out. The magistrate denied those motions.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the alleged victim testified that she did not have sexual contact with Jones until after she turned 18 and that she wants to be in a relationship with him. Another female witness testified that she had contact with Jones when she was underage, but that the contact was not inappropriate.

An investigator in the case stated that they had found more than a million files on Jones’s…

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Deputies arrest man for crime at St. Agatha Catholic Church in Westchester

A 54-year-old man confessed to sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy at a church in Miami-Dade County’s Westchester area and said “the devil” made him do it, according to deputies.

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Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Alvaro Rios, who works as a server, shortly before 12:40 a.m. on Wednesday at his home in Cutler Bay, according to the deputies’ arrest report.

Rios followed the teenage boy to the restroom at St. Agatha Catholic Church, “rubbed” his back, “fondled his buttocks,” grabbed him by the neck, “kissed him on the lips,” and told him “he was beautiful,” according to Miami-Dade deputies’ arrest report.

“The victim explained he was disgusted by this action and ran out of the restroom,” a deputy wrote.

The teen told his mother and a family friend that the abuse happened…

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A Mooresville man has been charged with human trafficking and child sexual assault offenses after allegedly leading minors on a religious trip from Argentina to the United States, according to the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office.

On August 12, detectives learned of sexual offenses committed against two minors between May 2002 and June 2008.

The victims were both from Argentina and between the ages of 13 and 17 at the time of the offenses, officials said. They were reportedly part of a religious ministry led by the suspect, 50-year-old Luis Alberto Sosa, who was serving as a missionary pastor from Argentina.

The investigation revealed that Sosa brought the victims to the United States under the false pretense of a ministry opportunity and a “once-in-a-lifetime’ trip. At the time, Sosa was reportedly granted temporary guardianship over the children while they were traveling.

Over the course of two months, Sosa allegedly committed several…

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New Hampshire’s 2020 law abolishing deadlines for lawsuits alleging sexual assault cannot be applied retroactively, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The ruling came in the case of Randy Ball, who sued the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester in 2023 alleging he was raped by a priest at a summer camp in the 1970s. Under the law at the time of the alleged assaults, Ball had only until he turned 20 in 1986 to sue, but he argued his lawsuit was permissible under a 2020 amendment that removed the statute of limitations.

The amendment itself did not specify whether it could be applied retroactively, but the court ruled that doing so would violate the state Constitution, which gives private parties a vested right to a statute of limitations defense.

In upholding the dismissal of Ball’s lawsuit, justices said they were “acutely aware that victims of child sex abuse are some…

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Facing potentially devastating punitive damages on top of a landmark $5 million verdict, the headmaster of the exclusive Delbarton School testified that another large monetary award “could put us out of business.”

The Rev. Michael Tidd’s testimony came on Oct. 14 at the start of the punitive hearing phase of a civil trial brought by a 1977 graduate of the all-boys’ Catholic school in Morris Township. The suit, one of dozens of abuse cases pending against Delbarton, names the school and the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, which oversees it, as defendants, along with the Rev. Richard Lott, the former OSBNJ monk accused of the assault.

All of the defendants denied wrongdoing. But last week, a six-person jury unanimously found the student’s accusations to be true and that the abuse caused him lifelong trauma. They also agreed with the defense…

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“McKnight’s proposal is bold in more ways than one.”

Since Pope Leo’s May 8 election, attentive Catholics have been waiting eagerly for the pope to reveal his mind on some of the most important issues facing the Church today.

We have started to gain access to tidbits in recent weeks, especially through the release of portions of an interview Pope Leo conducted with Elise Allen.

From the interview’s text, we can see that when asked about sexual abuse in the Church, Pope Leo quickly affirmed that it is a “real crisis…that the church has to continue to address because it’s not solved.”

In brief but sophisticated remarks, the pope offered keen analysis of complex issues: the need for ongoing care of victims, who often suffer the effects of the abuse long after a legal or canonical case is resolved; that abuse is committed not only by clergy but by others…

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Bishop Robert Brennan announced on Oct. 14 the removal from ministry of Deacon Danny Rodriguez, who most recently served at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sunset Park, in the wake of an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor that took place approximately 20 years ago — an allegation that the Diocese of Brooklyn deemed to be credible.   

The removal of Deacon Rodriguez, whose legal name is Danny and not Daniel, means that he will no longer be allowed to minister at Mass or exercise any diaconate ministry, and his name will be added to the list of Credibly Accused Clergy on the Diocese of Brooklyn’s website.   

The decision to remove him was made on the recommendation of the Diocesan Review Board (DRB), the independent panel that investigates accusations of clergy sex abuse and submits its findings to Bishop Brennan.   

The DRB had been investigating…

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Five former pupils who claimed a priest groomed and abused them at a Co Down school are to receive more than £1.2m in combined damages.

The compensation forms part of settlements reached in their High Court actions over alleged historic sexual and physical assaults perpetrated by the late Father Malachy Finnegan.

Written apologies will also be issued to them from the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland as part of the resolutions, their solicitor disclosed.

The plaintiffs, who cannot be identified, sued the Diocese of Dromore and the Board of Governors at St Colman’s College in Newry over failures to protect them from the priest.

They all attended the school as young boys over a period spanning between 1972 and 1984.

During that time Fr Finnegan, who taught and worked at the college, subjected them to serious sexual, physical and emotional abuse, according to their case.

Lawyers for the…

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Five men who claimed a paedophile priest groomed and abused them at a school in Newry, County Down, are to receive a combined total of more than £1.2 million in damages.

The final settlements were reached in their High Court action over historic physical and serious sexual assaults inflicted by the late Fr Malachy Finegan.

The men will also be given a written apology from the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland on behalf of the Diocese of Dromore, their lawyer said.

The men, who cannot be identified, sued the Diocese of Dromore and the board of governors at St Colman’s College over failures to protect them from the priest.

The men were pupils at St Colman’s between 1972 and 1984.

The settlements do not involve any admission of liability by either defendant.

Finegan was accused of a wider campaign of child sexual abuse but never prosecuted or questioned…

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Clarence Barry Hungerford was in Marshall County Circuit Court on Tuesday for a status hearing. Hungerford is charged with tampering with physical evidence and unlawful use of electronic means within the commonwealth to induce a minor to engage in sexual or other prohibited activity.

The charges came in late June after the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office received a report from the family of an 11-year-old girl that their pastor, Hungerford, had asked her for pictures of her body.

Through a brief investigation, the sheriff’s office determined that Hungerford had contacted the child, and upon his arrest, Hungerford admitted to destroying his cell phone in an attempt to prevent the contents of it from being accessed.

While Hungerford is a Mayfield resident, he was the pastor of a church in Aurora, and kept a part-time residence in Marshall County, which is where MCSO stated he was at the time of the…

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DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton described the punishment as too lax and said his office will work to challenge the decision.

A former DeSoto Central High School assistant basketball coach and youth pastor has been sentenced to three years of house arrest for sexual battery of a child by a person of trust or authority.

Lindsey Whiteside was arrested Nov. 21, 2024, for the charge, according to DeSoto County officials. She was indicted on the charge by a DeSoto County grand jury on Dec. 13, 2024.

A copy of the indictment alleged that Whiteside had sex with an underage female between May 14, 2024 and Nov. 6, 2024.

“Prior to this indictment, Lindsey Whiteside served as a youth ministry leader and basketball coach—positions that carry a profound responsibility to protect and guide others. Sexual abuse and exploitation inflict lasting harm on victims, that often last for a…

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The drafters of Washington State’s SB 5375 made history on May 2, when Gov. Bob Ferguson signed it into law, shifting the state from one of most lenient on child abuse reporting to one of the strictest — especially concerning clergy and the Sacrament of Confession.

That history was muted on Oct. 10 when state and county prosecutors agreed to keep “information clergy learn solely through confession or its equivalent in other faiths” under protected speech.”

“Today’s agreement respects the court’s decision in this case and maintains important protections for children,” said Attorney General Nick Brown in a press release. “It keeps crucial portions of Washington’s mandatory reporting law in place, while also preserving the Legislature’s authority to address issues with the law identified by the court.”

The state agreed to include clergy as mandated reporters but carved out an exception preserving the privileged confessional…

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GLOUCESTER CO., Va. (BP) – A Virginia church is cooperating with authorities over a second case of unlawful sexual conduct by a former leader in as many months.

Zachary Thomas Ramaglino served Union Baptist Church in Hayes for a year as an assistant in the young adult student ministry and communications assistant. That included helping the student ministry director organize events, according to local reports. He was arrested on Sept. 4 on 20 counts of possession of child pornography.

An Oct. 3 statement by the church said Ramaglino left in January 2025 “as a result of continued integrity and performance issues regarding a lack of respect for authority, failure to complete tasks, and dishonesty regarding his work.”

Union Baptist was not aware of the charges against Ramaglino until July, the statement added, when investigators visited the church.

“We did everything in our power to assist the…

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The Catholic Diocese of Spokane removed a priest from ministry and asked police to investigate after he was accused of misappropriation of funds and sexual misconduct involving six women.

Catholic clergy across Spokane received a notice in April that Our Lady of Fatima’s priest, the Rev. Miguel Mejia, was accused of seeking sex from “vulnerable” women in exchange for money or other items, using parish funds to pay for sexual activities with women, stalking a woman at least once and using his power and status as a priest to harm them.

“This is wrong,” said the Rev. Darrin Connall, vicar general for the diocese, in an interview. “And it’s tragic.”

Many of Mejia’s former parishioners, including the church’s bookkeeper, continue to support the priest and question the veracity of the evidence against him.

Parishioners and priests all gathered at a meeting in June, according to a transcript and recording obtained…

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The agreement represents a major victory for Catholic bishops, who challenged the law’s constitutionality.

In a major victory for Catholic bishops, the state of Washington has agreed to abandon its effort to force priests to report child abuse they learn of in confession — or face imprisonment for failing to do so.

The state’s agreement Friday came in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma by the bishops of the Washington’s three Catholic dioceses in which they pointed out that the law would force priests to break the seal of confession, which results in automatic excommunication, to report abuse, or face up to 364 days imprisonment and a $5,000 fine for breaking the law.

A federal judge had issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law days before it was to take effect on July 27, saying that requiring priests to report child abuse revealed during confession violated the U.S….

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Dennis Finbow used his position within the church to abuse children throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He has been described as a ‘prolific’ offender.

A former priest who used his position to abuse children has had his prison sentence extended by 11 years. Dennis Finbow was convicted in early 2023 for sexually abusing a child in the 1980s while offences in the most recent case date back to 1974.

The 77-year-old claimed all the allegations against him were “nonsense” in police interview. However, he later admitted multiple offences and on Friday (October 10), at Cambridge Crown Court, he had his current sentenced extended.

He admitted touching a boy in 1974 at a school where he was teaching, prior to being ordained. He also abused an altar boy between August 1984 and August 1985, a girl between February 1984 and February 1985, a girl between 1987 and 1991 and a third…

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Following lawsuits from the DOJ and local bishops, Washington will no longer require faith leaders to report child abuse admissions made during confession.

Officials in the state of Washington have agreed to water down a child abuse law after pressure from the Trump administration and local Catholic leaders.

Catholic bishops and the Trump administration had filed lawsuits seeking to overturn a bill signed by Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat and a Catholic, that required faith leaders of all denominations to report allegations of abuse they received in private religious settings — including confession. Though the Catholic Church has a documented history of enabling child sexual abuse, the sponsor of Washington’s bill said the legislation was inspired by reports of abuse within Jehovah’s Witness churches.

Catholic leaders have argued that being forced to report admissions made during a confession amounts to religious…

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Spokane Diocese points to “overwhelming evidence” — but parishioners question Bishop Thomas Daly’s motivations

Emily Chapman could feel a pressure rising inside her. In the gym at Our Lady of Fatima, the Catholic church where she works, the Spokane Diocese was recapping how a leader of the parish, Father Miguel Mejía, had allegedly abused his powers as a priest to have “consensual and nonconsensual sex” with multiple women.

They said he stalked a woman. That he gave money and gifts to women in exchange for sex. That he paid to have phone sex with a woman in jail — potentially misusing parish funds to do it.

At least five women had come forward about the priest’s behavior. Eight members of a review board tasked with looking at sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Diocese of Spokane had concluded that “overwhelming evidence” backed the women’s accounts.

Chapman was one of those…

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Five judges have been selected to oversee the trial.

The Vatican announced on Oct. 13 the appointment of five judges for the canonical trial of disgraced former Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik, accused of sexually abusing several adult women.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) officially announced that it had appointed five judges to oversee Rupnik’s trial. It said the appointments had been made Oct. 9.

The Vatican has been criticized over the slow pace of progress in the case against Rupnik, after the first allegations against the former Jesuit became public in December 2022, with Pope Francis finally lifting the statute of limitations to try the case in October 2023, amid immense public pressure.

Rupnik, a former Jesuit from Slovenia, is the creator of mosaics installed in dozens of high-profile chapels, cathedrals, and basilicas in Europe — including the Vatican — as well as Latin America and the United…

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ROME – The Vatican announced on Monday that a panel of judges has been appointed to hear the case of Father Marko Rupnik, a Slovenian priest accused of serial sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse of dozens of victims, after a review of evidence that lasted two years.

In an Oct. 13 communique, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) said that a panel of five judges have been appointed to hear the case against Rupnik, a former Jesuit and celebrity artist whose works still adorn shrines and chapels around the world.

The DDF in its statement said that the panel is composed “of women and clerics who are not part of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and who do not hold any office in the dicasteries of the Roman Curia.”

“This is for the purpose of better guaranteeing, as in any judicial process, the…

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Group says Mark Francis Ford’s work history also has several red flags, including entering a program known for treating pedophilia, though he claimed he was there due to problematic spending

An Indiana man charged with molesting a disabled child while working as a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans for several years beginning in 2004 should be listed as a credibly accused clergy abuser by various institutions for whom he ministered, says the director of a church accountability organization.

Mark Francis Ford, once a member of the religious order colloquially known as the Vincentians, ministered within the archdiocese of New Orleans as well as the dioceses of Dallas and Gallup, New Mexico, after his ordination in 1992. He is accused of raping a boy whom he met through a program that he helped start in New Orleans named God’s Special Children – which serves youths who are disabled – before and after the…

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A statement released by the Dictastery for the Doctrine of the Faith announces that women and clerics from outside the former Holy Office and Roman Curia will serve on the panel judging the former Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik, accused of abuse by several religious sisters.

The Vatican has announced the appointment of five judges to oversee the canonical trial of former Jesuit priest and renowned artist, Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, who has been accused by several adult consecrated women of psychological and sexual abuse.

In a statement released on Monday, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said the judges were appointed on 9 October, 2025. The tribunal will be responsible for examining the serious allegations against Fr. Rupnik, who was dismissed from the Society of Jesus in June 2023 following multiple accusations.

According to the statement, the judicial panel is made up of women and clerics who are not members…

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ROME (AP) — The Vatican took the unusual step on Monday of announcing that it had named judges to decide the fate of a famous ex-Jesuit artist, whose mosaics decorate basilicas around the world and who was accused by more than two dozen women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse.

The case of the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik badly tarnished the legacy of Pope Francis, given suggestions that the the Jesuit pope, the Jesuit religious order and the Jesuit-headed Vatican sex abuse office protected one of their own over decades by dismissing allegations of misconduct against him.

The Vatican office that manages clergy sex abuse cases, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the five judges named to hear the Rupnik case include women and priests who are external to the Vatican bureaucracy.

It said that such composition was “done in order to better guarantee, as in any…

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October 12, 2025

The Archdiocese of Chicago distributed the following letters to the community of St. José Sánchez Del Rio Parish:

St. José Sánchez Del Rio Parish (English, Spanish)

[The letters have been cached by BishopAccountability: English, Spanish]

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CHICAGO (WLS) — A priest from Mexico who has visited Chicago is accused of sexually abusing a minor in the city years ago, the Archdiocese of Chicago said in a letter on Sunday.

Father Ernest Tovar-Trejo is from the Diocese of Tampico, Mexico.

Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, says the father celebrated Mass without the proper permission at Maternity of the Blessed Mother Church on West North Avenue in Humboldt Park.

Father Tovar-Trejo been told he can not minister as a priest while he is under investigation.

“Our responsibility for the welfare of the children entrusted to our care is of paramount importance to us,” a statement from the Archdiocese read in part. “The Archdiocese of Chicago encourages anyone who feels they have been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious or lay employee to come forward. They will be received with dignity and compassion.”

No further information was immediately…

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CHICAGO — A priest of the Diocese of Tampico, Mexico, has been accused of sexual abuse of a minor during past visits to a Chicago parish, according to a letter sent to the parish by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago.

Cardinal Cupich’s letter was addressed Saturday to St. José Sánchez Del Rio Parish, located in Humboldt Park on the city’s Northwest Side. The parish is home to the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church and affiliated Catholic School.

In his letter, Cardinal Cupich states, “I write to share troubling news about Father Ernest Tovar-Trejo, a priest of the Diocese of Tampico, Mexico, who has visited Maternity of the Blessed Mother Church for short periods in past years and occasionally celebrated Mass there without obtaining proper permission.

“The Archdiocese has received an allegation against Father Tovar-Trejo of sexual abuse of a minor during his visits to Chicago…

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A former student who says he was sexually abused decades ago at the elite catholic Delbarton School in New Jersey was awarded $5 million by a jury this week. 

The verdict on Wednesday came after a five-week trial in Morris County Superior Court, where the anonymous victim, T.M., claimed a monk from the Benedictine Catholic middle and high school sexually abused him on New Years Eve in 1975.

Delbarton, located in tony Morristown, where tuition is $48,725 a year, said in a statement this week that they were “extremely disappointed in the verdict in this trial.” 

In addition to expressing “genuine compassion for any victim of abuse,” Delbarton and church officials said that they “do not believe damages awarded in this case are either fair or reasonable.”

“Crucially, the jury unanimously found that St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School did not violate the New Jersey Child Sex Abuse Act,” the letter…

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The $5 million jury verdict in favor of a Delbarton School graduate who said he was sexually assaulted by a monk a half-century ago could have vast implications for one of New Jersey’s most prestigious private schools, as well as scores of other clergy abuse lawsuits, according to those who followed the landmark trial.

While every case will turn on its own set of facts, the verdict “will give the plaintiffs of other cases much more confidence to bring their cases forward,” said Del Russo, who led the prosecutor’s unit dealing with sex crimes.

The case, brought by a now-grown student identified in court only as “T.M.,” was watched closely as it was the first implicating the Catholic Church in a child sex abuse case to go to trial since New Jersey laws changed in 2019 to extend the statute of limitations on such claims. Hundreds more are pending in…

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Following a detailed inquiry, the police said the allegations were found to be true and arrested the priest under relevant sections of the POCSO Act.

A 75-year-old temple priest has been arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for allegedly sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl inside a temple near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu.

Police said the incident took place last month at a temple in Thiruvalanchuzhi, a shrine under the control of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department

The accused, Viswanatha Iyer, who had been serving as the temple’s chief priest for several years allegedly sexually abused her. On September 8, the 13-year-old survivor had come to the temple with her family for darshan. When she went alone to the hundi (offertory box) area to make an offering, the elderly priest allegedly misbehaved with her.

Following a detailed inquiry, the police said the allegations…

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On Thursday, Saskatoon priest Janko Kolosnjaji was sentenced after being found guilty of sexual assault of a minor back in February of this year.

Back in 2023, a 13-year-old girl who remained nameless during this case got a job cleaning St. George Ukrainian Catholic church with her newly-immigrated Ukrainian family. The young girl went by herself to get a vacuum when Kolosnjaji asked the girl for a hug.

The girl went on to describe the hug as lasting for 15 to 20 seconds before he raised her chin and kissed her on the lips, adding that after the kiss, he mentioned how beautiful her eyes are.  According to prosecutor Sheryl Fillo, this was the girl’s first kiss.

Kolosnjaji described the scene a bit differently, sharing he heard a noise in the storage closet and went to check on the girl. He said when he entered, she seemed scared, so…

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Woman told police that sexual contact happened as he offered her ‘spiritual direction’

A former Catholic priest with the St. Cloud Diocese has been accused of sexual misconduct with a woman while being her spiritual adviser.

Aaron John Kuhn, 47, of Wadena, was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct Monday in Stearns County District Court.

According to the charges, he “wrongfully and unlawfully engaged in sexual penetration with another person (and) the actor was or purported to be a member of the clergy.”

A woman told law enforcement she had sexual contact with Kuhn between September 2019 and October 2022 while he was providing her “with spiritual direction,” according to the Stearns County Attorney’s Office. She said Kuhn used his role as a spiritual adviser to manipulate and pressure her into engaging in sexual acts. Additionally, she reported that the abuse escalated over time and that she repeatedly asked Kuhn…

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Painting himself as “rejected and persecuted,” the Rev. Mark T. Barclay is praying for financial help from his parishioners to keep his ministry afloat and thriving. Meanwhile, son-in-law James P. Randolph is awaiting his return to prison for once again preying on a minor.

Barclay, 73, is the televangelist founder of Mark Barclay Ministries and Living Word Church, 2010 N. Stark Road in Midland County’s Lincoln Township. The organization describes itself as “a worldwide gospel ministry with a prophetic voice in end times alerting God’s people with God’s Word of righteousness through every available means in every available place.”

The church has been mired in controversy since July 2023, when the first of three men associated with it — elder Brandon S. Saylor — was charged with sexually abusing children. That November, self-professed youth minister Randolph faced similar charges.

A jury on Aug. 29, 2025,…

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A Peoria pastor was arrested Wednesday in Pekin on charges of disseminating harmful material to a juvenile.

Michael S. Ritchason, 47, a co-lead pastor at Riverside Community Church in Downtown Peoria, was arrested Wednesday after the Pekin Police Department investigated allegations that he had provided “harmful materials” to a juvenile.

According to the police department, they received evidence of an ongoing dissemination of the materials on Oct. 5. Their department of investigations began looking into the matter, which led to Ritchason’s arrest Wednesday.

In a statement, Riverside said that at his direction, Ritchason asked to be removed from his duties as lead pastor while he dealt with a “alleged serious matter.” They also said that their eldership team will make a further statement Sunday.

As of Thursday morning, Ritchason remained listed on Riverside’s website.

The case has now been referred to the Tazewell County State’s Attorney’s Office for prosecution.

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A former mayor and pastor in South Carolina is accused of inappropriate conduct with a vulnerable patient inside a hospital room.

Johnnie Waller, a former mayor of Calhoun Falls, is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

A release from the Greenwood Police Department said Waller is “a community member known to visit patients under a pastoral role.”

Police said they were called to Self Regional Healthcare on Sept. 27 after a staff member reported seeing “a situation in a patient’s room that prompted immediate concern and led to notification of security and law enforcement.”

According to police, the staff member reported that Waller was in the room of a long-term patient under the care of the Department of Social Services.

Police said the patient involved has been in the hospital’s care since early 2025 and had been formally deemed to lack decision-making capacity by multiple physicians.

“Due to the nature…

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The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) condemns in the strongest possible terms the decision by Washington State officials to exempt clergy from the state’s mandatory reporting law, allowing religious officials to withhold knowledge of child rape and sexual assault when learned in the confessional.

“This is a shameful day in Washington’s history,” said SNAP spokesperson Sarah Pearson. “Governor Ferguson and Attorney General Brown have bypassed the legislature to appease powerful church lobbyists. They have chosen to protect the institutional church instead of children, survivors, and the vulnerable.”

SNAP called the move a “devastating betrayal” of public trust, warning that the exemption creates a dangerous double standard. “Every teacher, doctor, therapist, and social worker in Washington is required by law to report suspected abuse,” the group noted. “But clergy are now given a license to conceal rape and sexual assault. There is no compromise when it comes to…

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A former priest in the Diocese of East Anglia has today been sentenced to 11 years for a number of non-recent sexual offences against children.

Dennis Finbow changed his plea to guilty in July of this year in relation to offences involving multiple children between 1975 and 1992.

The 77-year-old appeared at Cambridge Crown Court today (Friday October 10).

He was sentenced in relation to 15 counts of indecent assault against five victims – three females and two males – including three who were eight and nine years old at the time he abused them.

The court heard powerful victim impact statements from each of the survivors, who spoke of how Finbow had “shattered the trust placed in him” and that the psychological effects of his abuse had “reverberated” through the rest of their lives, with devastating effects on their mental health, personal relationships and careers.

In his sentencing remarks,…

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Randolph County authorities have filed an additional sex crimes charge against an Elkins pastor.

Kevin Curtis Jones, 33, of Elkins, was charged Tuesday with Distribution & Exhibiting Material Depicting Minors Engaged in Sexually Explicit Activity.

Jones has been in jail since Oct. 2 when he was charged with allegedly using a computer to solicit an underage girl. Authorities said Jones, the pastor at Summit Church, used a phone to seek a “clandestine relationship“ with the girl in December 2023,

According to the original criminal complaint, the girl attended Jones’ church. She is now older than 18.

Jones’ bail remains at $50,000. He’s being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday.

The Mountain Region Drug And Violent Crime Task Force is handling the investigation.

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A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for 15 counts of indecent assault on two males and three females, most of whom were under the age of 16 at the time of the offences.

In July, Dennis Finbow, 77, who is already serving a prison sentence for abusing a girl while working in Peterborough, admitted to further child abuse offences between 1975 and 1992.

At Cambridge Crown Court on Friday, Judge Philip Grey commended the victims for their courage in coming forward.

Sentencing Finbow, formerly of Martlesham, near Ipswich, the judge said: “You were a manipulative and predatory paedophile who made use of a climate of excessive trust and deference.”

Finbow was jailed for six and a half years in March 2023 for touching a girl while she was in bed in the 1980s.

The court was then told that when he was voluntarily interviewed, he described…

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Washington state has dropped its efforts to require clergy to report child abuse or neglect when the information is revealed during the rite of confession, but left other provisions intact, designating priests and bishops as mandatory reporters.

The decision settles a lawsuit over a state law, Senate Bill 5375, that would have required clergy members to disclose information learned about child abuse, even if they learned about it during the rite of confession.

The settlement means Catholic priests are not required to report information learned during confession.

“This is a landmark settlement. Washington state has promised not to force clergy into making an impossible choice between either obeying their faith or complying with civil law,” said William Haun, senior counsel for Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “By agreeing not to enforce the law in what would have been an unconstitutional way, Washington state has left that sacred trust…

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Clergy in Washington will remain mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect, but prosecutors will not enforce the law when abuse is disclosed solely during religious confession, according to a new agreement filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.

The development comes as the state faces two federal lawsuits and an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The agreement, which awaits a judge’s approval, was submitted by the Washington attorney general’s office and plaintiffs who sued the state over a new law passed this year. It aims to resolve key constitutional questions about how far mandatory reporting requirements can extend into religious practice.

Senate Bill 5375, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in May, added clergy to the list of mandatory reporters, joining other professions like health care workers and school personnel. The law, however, did not include an exemption for information shared during confession, prompting pushback…

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A jury in New Jersey has awarded a man $5 million in damages for a sexual assault that occurred at a Catholic school there nearly 50 years ago. 

The Morris County jury ruled unanimously that the plaintiff, a man in his 60s identified as “T.M.,” was entitled to the damages. It held that Father Richard Lott, who at trial last month denied the allegations, was 35% liable for the assault, while the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey was found 65% liable. 

The $5 million represents compensatory damages in the case. The jury will decide on Oct. 14 whether or not the Benedictine order will pay punitive damages, according to local news reports. 

In a statement on Oct. 8, Headmaster Father Michael Tidd, OSB, of the Delbarton School, which is run by the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, said the institution was “extremely disappointed in the verdict.”…

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The Diocese of Lincoln has limited a priest’s assignments after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor 32 years ago.

According to a statement released on Sept. 19, a woman came forward alleging that she was sexually abused as a minor in 1993 when Fr. Scott Courtney was a seminarian in Lincoln.

The diocese said it immediately reported the allegations to local law enforcement. No criminal charges were filed.

The diocese also conducted its own independent investigation and consulted the diocesan review board. From there, Bishop James Conley limited Courtney’s ministerial assignment to providing spiritual support to the retired priests of the Diocese of Lincoln.

Courtney has denied the allegations and is entitled to the presumption of innocence, both under state, federal and secular law, the diocese said.

“The Diocese of Lincoln remains committed to the protection of our most vulnerable members, especially young adults and children,” the diocese…

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Delbarton School graduate was first in New Jersey to win civil trial against Catholic institution

A New Jersey jury awarded $5 million in damages Wednesday to a Delbarton School graduate, known only as T.M., who alleged he was sexually abused by a Benedictine monk nearly 50 years ago.

The verdict marks the first time a civil sex abuse case against the Catholic Church has gone to trial in New Jersey. A trial in the punitive damages phase of the case is expected to start next week.

The jury decision could pave the way for dozens more lawsuits tied to Delbarton School and St. Mary’s Abbey, advocates say.

Billy Crane, a former Delbarton student who previously settled a similar case alongside his twin brother, called the verdict a “day of justice” and praised the jury for reaching a decision based on “overwhelming evidence.”

“This is a high watermark,” Crane said in…

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After two weeks of testimony and two days of deliberations, the verdict on the historic sex abuse case involving Delbarton School is in, according to a report from nj.com.

On Wednesday, a jury found that the plaintiff, only identified as T.M., is entitled to $5 million in compensatory damages from The Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, which operates the all-boys prep school, and former Delbarton Monk Rev. Richard Lott, the report reads.

Patch has reached out to attorneys regarding the ruling, but they are unable to comment at this time, they said.

The report added that the jury found The Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey 65 percent liable for the abuse and Lott 35 percent liable.

Additional punitive damages may be awarded at a hearing next week.

The case, T.M. v. Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, was the first clergy sexual…

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The Catholic Diocese of Lincoln released a statement last month regarding sexual abuse allegations against a priest.

According to the diocese, a woman came forward alleging that she was sexually abused as a minor in 1993, when Father Scott Courtney was a seminarian in Lincoln.

The diocese said they promptly reported the allegations to local law enforcement, but no criminal charges were filed.

An internal investigation was launched within the diocese and the diocesan review board was consulted.

As a result, Bishop James Conley has limited Courtney’s ministerial assignment to providing spiritual support to the retired priests of the diocese.

According to the diocese, Courtney has denied these allegations.

“The Diocese of Lincoln remains committed to the protection of our most vulnerable members, especially young adults and children,” the diocese said in a statement. “We take all allegations of misconduct seriously and have protocols in place specifically designed to…

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[See also a PDF of the letter.]

Dear Delbarton Community,

We previously wrote to you about the civil trial in a sexual abuse lawsuit against St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School in Morris County Superior Court when jury deliberations commenced on Monday.

Today, the verdict in this case was announced, finding St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School liable for plaintiff’s damages. The jury awarded total damages of $5 million of which St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton are responsible for 65%, or $3.25 million.

Crucially, the jury unanimously found that St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School did not violate the New Jersey Child Sex Abuse Act, meaning we did not know of the alleged abuse and there was no intentional misconduct. The jury will reconvene next week to determine if any punitive damages are to be added to this verdict.

We are still extremely disappointed in the verdict in this…

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A former student at the elite Delbarton School in New Jersey who said he was sexually assaulted a half-century ago by a monk at the school has been awarded $5 million in damages.

The historic verdict in the first civil trial against the Catholic Church in New Jersey was reached by a panel of four women and two men Wednesday after less than two days of deliberation.

“We are extremely disappointed in the verdict in this trial,” the school said in a statement shortly after the verdict was announced. “We do not believe that the damages awarded are either fair or reasonable, and our legal representatives are considering all legal options.”

There was no immediate comment from the former student, who had been identified only as T.M. during the five-week trial in Morris County Superior Court, or his lawyers who have been barred by…

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‘Prodigal priest’ served in Tuba City and Page parishes

[See also the article as printed.]

A former Catholic priest who served in Diocese of Gallup parishes in the western region of the Navajo Nation has been arrested in Indiana and jailed on sex abuse charges.

            Mark Francis Ford, 64, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Portage, Indiana, Sept. 25, on a warrant obtained by the New Orleans Police Department. Ford, a resident of Portage, a city about 40 miles southeast of Chicago, is currently an inmate in the Porter County Jail, awaiting extradition to Louisiana, according to Brian Fair, Deputy U.S. Marshal, Eastern District of Louisiana, in a phone interview Thursday. Ford is a former Vincentian religious order priest who left the priesthood. Fair confirmed Ford faces felony charges of four counts of first-degree rape, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of sexual battery, and…

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It took him his whole life to tell his story. 

Now in his 60s, his long fight ended on Wednesday in a Morris County courtroom.

A former student of the Delbarton School, who claimed he was sexually assaulted more than 40 years ago by one of the Benedictine monks who operate the Catholic boys prep school, was awarded $5 million in compensatory damages on Wednesday, following a landmark trial that sought to hold the high-profile institution to account.

Attorneys for the victim, identified by his initials only, told jurors that Delbarton had failed its mission by tolerating and ignoring a culture of sexual abuse that was clearly evident as far back as 1954. Lawyers for the school, the Benedictine order and Rev. Richard Lott, the former monk accused in the assault, maintained it never happened.

After 14 days of testimony and two days of deliberation, the…

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A Catholic priest in the Diocese of St. Cloud has been charged with sexually abusing a woman for several years. 

Prosecutors in Stearns County charged Aaron Kuhn, 47, of Wadena, with one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. 

The criminal complaint alleges that Kuhn sexually abused the woman multiple times while he was providing her with spiritual advice over nearly three years, from November 2019 to October 2022.

According to the complaint, the victim told police that Kuhn used his role as a spiritual advisor to manipulate her and pressure her into sex. The complaint says the victim reported that the abuse escalated over time, although she repeatedly asked Kuhn to stop.

Kuhn was charged by summons. Court records do not list a lawyer representing him. His first court appearance has not yet been scheduled.

Kuhn was a pastor at Mary, Mother of the Church Area Catholic Community, a collection…

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A Catholic priest was charged in Stearns County District Court Tuesday, Oct. 7, for alleged sexual abuse of a woman seeking spiritual guidance.

The St. Cloud Police Department began investigating the suspect, Aaron Kuhn, 47, after it received a tip Aug. 1, 2024, according to the criminal complaint. He was the pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church Area Catholic Community at the time.

Bishop Patrick Neary placed Kuhn on full administrative leave, according to a Diocese of St. Cloud statement.

“The diocese is cooperating with authorities and encourages all victims of abuse to come forward,” the statement reads. “Bishop Neary asks that people keep everyone affected by this situation in prayer.”

Kuhn’s administrative leave and criminal charges come after investigators talked with the woman, who alleged that she and the suspect had sexual relations multiple times. The alleged incidents took place between November 2019 and October 2022 when Kuhn…

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Local parents who say their son was bullied, battered, and sexually assaulted at Central Catholic High School are suing the school and want to see a change in policies.

The parents held a news conference on Wednesday to talk about the case and to highlight “anti-bullying month”.

They filed a lawsuit against the school earlier this year, saying the school allowed their son to be subject to bullying — sexual assault — and hazing in a room called “the cage” several times.

“The cage” is a slang term used by students to refer to the athletic locker room and not an actual cage.

The student’s parents want the school to adopt zero-tolerance policies for bullying and hazing.

“So, the case is live, there’s litigation pending. If there’s nothing to hide with regards to the cage, why not let us come take a picture, why not let us inspect it?”

The…

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Four years after the launch of an investigation to look at the breadth of abuse by faith leaders in Wisconsin, Attorney General Josh Kaul is still collecting reports from the public.

Since its launch, the clergy and faith leader investigation has brought charges against several people, and resulted in hundreds of reports gathered from religious organizations across the state.

“We’ve taken a consistent approach throughout the initiative, which is to follow the information where it leads,” Kaul said in an interview. “And what we are committed to doing is ensuring that any report and any information we put out is based on the facts.”

But as the years stretch on, some have started to question why the investigation is taking so long, and when a final report will be released.

Here’s what we know about the ongoing investigation.

What exactly is the investigation looking at?

The Department of Justice launched…

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[Note: This survivor impact statement was spoken by Colleen Garbarini on September 12, 2025, during the third day of a survivor impact hearing in the Albany diocesan bankruptcy, at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, James T. Foley United States Courthouse, in Albany.]

I appreciate the opportunity to share with you all today.  I spent many years being quiet and remember the threats that were made if I wasn’t quiet.  After decades of intense trauma focused therapy, I now know I am safe today.  There is no shame that falls on me when I share what happened.  That shame falls on the perpetrator of the abuse I suffered and on the institution that covered it all up.  The shame is with the diocese.

When the child victims act became a thing, I had no desire to file suit.  I thought how brave anyone was who could, but that wasn’t me.  Why would…

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Fry bread — a staple made of the simple ingredients once rationed to Native people during U.S. government-forced relocations to reservations — was both a metaphor and on the menu at “Acknowledging the Sacred Ones,” a Sept. 26-28 Province VIII Episcopal Church Women’s retreat at Good Shepherd Church on the Shoshone Bannock Reservation in Fort Hall, Idaho.

“It (fry bread) comes out of colonial heritage,” said the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, former vice president of The Episcopal Church House of Deputies, who addressed the gathering attended by more than 50 women lay leaders from Los Angeles, Navajoland, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Hawaii, Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Alaska. The three-day retreat focused on the disproportionately high numbers of murdered and missing Native people, The Episcopal Church’s involvement in residential boarding schools and the Doctrine of Discovery.

Although the bread, made of flour, baking powder, salt and lard, “comes out of a sense of…

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The Catholic Diocese of Chalan Kanoa in the Northern Marianas (CNMI) has issued a sweeping update to its child protection policy, aligning with US church standards and Commonwealth law in a bid to prevent abuse and strengthen accountability.

The new framework, promulgated by decree of Bishop Romeo Convocar, establishes a zero-tolerance policy for clergy or church workers found guilty of abusing minors.

A single act of sexual abuse now results in permanent removal from ministry, with dismissal from the clerical state pursued where warranted.

The policy requires mandatory reporting of suspected abuse to CNMI civil authorities.

Under the Commonwealth Code, all clergy, employees, and volunteers are mandated reporters and must first notify Child Protective Services or the Department of Public Safety before informing diocesan officials. The sacramental seal of confession remains the only exception.

To bolster prevention, the diocese has introduced annual safe-environment training, strict background checks for clergy, employees,…

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As the Pontifical Commission for the Protection Minors concluded its Sept. 29-Oct. 3 assembly in Kraków, “following five days of intensive dialogue, reflection and strategic planning,” it prepares to publish its second annual report Oct. 16.

It’s “much better than the first,” Teresa Kettelkamp, adjunct secretary of the commission and retired Illinois State Police colonel, told OSV News. 

“The statistical data is much stronger, which was one of the criticisms of the first annual report, which was a pilot,” said Kettelkamp, who helped build safeguarding procedures in the church in the United States. She headed the then-newly established U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection for six years, from 2005 to 2011.

New report to be focused on survivors

While the 2024 annual report assessed safeguarding elements in several countries, especially in the Global South, this time it will be focused on…

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The former executive director of a faith-based addiction organization in the Twin Cities pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing child sexual abuse material.

Drew Brooks, 67, of Roseville, was charged in May with 12 counts of possessing pornographic work involving a minor. If his plea petition is accepted at sentencing, nine of those counts will be dropped.

Brooks’ sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 24. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted authorities in 2022 about the dissemination of child sexual abuse material stemming from Brooks’ address. Several more tips came in between October 2023 and April 2024, according to the complaint. 

Last October, authorities searched Brooks’ home, seizing computers, flash drives and printed abuse material found in his home office, the complaint states. 

Authorities said they found three dozen printed images of abuse material, 21 of which…

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A blog post on The Wartburg Watch helped expose decades-old abuse by Gateway Church founder Robert Preston Morris, who pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of lewd acts with a child. He was sentenced to a 10-year suspended sentence, including six months in jail.

The post featured Cindy Clemishire, whom Morris admits to abusing as a child. Clemishire calls herself a “victim turned survivor,” but says it took time, support, and the Christian conservative blog to help her find her voice — and realize she wasn’t alone.

Editor Dee Parsons says the post quickly became the site’s most viewed, sparking national media attention, Morris’ resignation, and ultimately criminal charges.

“I think we are uncovering centuries of shame,” Parsons said. “Cindy, in her courage of coming forward, and the great people in Oklahoma enforcing their laws have just put their foot down and said, ‘no more, this stops, and it…

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• The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to launch an investigation into possible misconduct by “legal representatives” involved in sex abuse litigation.
• The vote follows a Times investigation that uncovered plaintiffs who said they were paid to sue the county in cases that were part of a historic $4-billion settlement.

Los Angeles County launched an investigation Tuesday to determine whether a record $4-billion sex abuse settlement approved this year may be tainted.

County supervisors unanimously approved a motion to have county lawyers investigate possible misconduct by “legal representatives” involved in the recent flood of sex abuse litigation against L.A. County. The county auditor’s office also will set up a hotline dedicated to tips from the public related to the lawsuits, according to the motion.

“It is appalling and sickening that anyone would exploit a system meant to bring justice to victims of childhood sexual abuse,” said Supervisor…

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A new lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Miami has revived a notorious case involving a former Catholic priest convicted of a string of sex offenses more than a decade ago.

The most recent lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in June, is only the latest accusing the Catholic Church of failing to protect multiple underage boys from ex-priest Father Neil Doherty, a serial sexual abuser who was employed by the Archdiocese as a priest from 1969 until 2002 when he was removed.

“He is probably the most prolific pedophile priest in U.S. history. He sexually abused, we think, thousands of kids over the course of about 40 years,” said Daniel Ellis, senior lead attorney at Herman Law, the firm representing a victim identified only as John Doe 8 to protect his privacy.

According to the lawsuit, Doherty groomed and raped the victim around 1995 when he was around 16…

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Abuse survivors seek dismissal of church’s bankruptcy case, calling latest filing a delay tactic

The Archdiocese of Baltimore was back in court on Monday as a judge weighs whether to grant a dismissal of its bankruptcy case.

The hearing came after the church filed for charitable immunity, which would make it immune to having to use its own assets to pay survivors. Abuse survivors told 11 News they call the move one more delay tactic and the survivors requested a dismissal of the church’s bankruptcy case.

“Just when you think you may have been reaching the end of the Catholic Church’s road of hypocrisy, they manage to pave another 50 miles,” said Frank Schindler, an abuse survivor.

“They want the bankruptcy protection and the exemptions, too, and they’re not compatible. They can’t have it both ways,” said Teresa Lancaster, an abuse survivor.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy two…

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Back in 2000, a Michigan entrepreneur named Ron DeHaas co-founded Covenant Eyes, an anti-porn internet accountability software program that has since grown to more than 2 million users.

The idea, he said at the time, was to protect his teenage stepsons from sexual temptation online. Its effectiveness has been lauded by many, including Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson.

But this past Aug. 13, one of those stepsons was arrested at a meeting spot in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he thought he would find a 14-year-old girl interested in having sex with him.

Instead, Thomas Wideman, 38, encountered officers from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, including a female detective who had been posing as a teenage girl online.

The Roys Report (TRR) attempted to contact DeHaas for comment but did not receive a response.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Wideman began communicating with the detective, Sgt. Anna…

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Work is ongoing to secure financial contributions from religious and secular bodies for survivors of historical institutional abuse.

The work comes after the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) revealed sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the homes from 1922 to 1995.

Sir Anthony Hart, who chaired the inquiry which revealed shocking levels of abuse in that period recommended a permanent memorial, compensation and an official apology to the victims.

Asked for an update on progress at the Assembly on Monday, deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said they have received financial contributions from some, and talks are ongoing with others.

“Victims and survivors of historical institutional abuse have endured unimaginable pain and suffering over many years,” she told MLAs.

“We are committed to ensuring they get the redress that they deserve.

“Payments have been received from the Good Shepherd Sisters, Barnardos, De La Salle Order and the Diocese of Down and Connor in…

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Houston Christian University, formerly Houston Baptist University, has terminated the employment of Jay “Bobby” Spencer, associate provost for online learning. HCU is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

The move came following a news article from online outlet The Roys Report alleging Spencer’s abuse of a recent graduate of Liberty University in the late 1990s.

The original Roys Report article, published Sept. 23, features an interview with Rachel Beck, a 1996 Liberty graduate who went on to work at the school as an admissions counselor.

Beck claims she was sexually harassed by the school’s then-president John Borek. When she reported the harassment to Spencer, who was then a Liberty vice president, she says Spencer began grooming her and soon made unwanted sexual advances. 

The two began a sexual relationship that was discovered in August 1998 and labeled an affair, according to The Roys Report.

Beck moved back home to…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford is seeking to work with survivors of Church-based abuse as part of a new initiative to help shape its safeguarding policies and practices.

The Survivors Reference Panel is being created by the diocese to put the real-life experiences and testimonies of survivors at the heart of its work to protect against all forms of abuse.

Through establishing this new panel, the Diocese of Salford seeks to work closely with those hurt by the actions of the Church in the past, to ensure the voice of survivors plays an integral role in how it safeguards against all forms of Church-based abuse, and how it continues to provide meaningful support and healing to those affected.

This latest initiative offers an additional dimension to progress already achieved with Healing through Community, which provides counselling-specific services to survivors. Whilst healing and support remains available through this valued service,…

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore filed a form Chapter 11 plan of reorganization on Friday, October 3 with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland, which proposes to provide compensation to victim-survivors of child sexual abuse committed by a number of clergy and employees of the Archdiocese over many decades. The form plan confirms the Archdiocese’s longstanding commitment to contribute to the healing of those harmed through monetary compensation, pastoral accompaniment and strong and effective child protection policies.

This present version of the plan proposes that the Archdiocese of Baltimore and affiliated Catholic entities, including parishes and schools, would contribute a combined $33 million to the Survivors Compensation Trust plus all insurance assets available to provide coverage for claims made by victim-survivors to settle the claims filed in bankruptcy court. While the Archdiocese of Baltimore continues negotiations to monetize the insurance assets to be contributed, the Archdiocese believes…

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he Archdiocese of Baltimore was back in court on Monday as a judge weighs whether to grant a dismissal of its bankruptcy case.

The hearing came after the church filed for charitable immunity, which would make it immune to having to use its own assets to pay survivors. Abuse survivors told 11 News they call the move one more delay tactic and the survivors requested a dismissal of the church’s bankruptcy case.

“Just when you think you may have been reaching the end of the Catholic Church’s road of hypocrisy, they manage to pave another 50 miles,” said Frank Schindler, an abuse survivor.

“They want the bankruptcy protection and the exemptions, too, and they’re not compatible. They can’t have it both ways,” said Teresa Lancaster, an abuse survivor.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy two years ago, and survivors said they feel it was done in bad faith to…

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Today, I’m sharing a conversation I had a few weeks ago with Ann Yeong, for her podcast, Becoming Me, about spiritual abuse within the context of evangelization. We talk about how a distorted image of God can lead to a distorted evangelization where we “proclaim God in a way contrary to God himself.” We also discuss the critical role of personal integrity and the healthy use of authority for those in positions of spiritual leadership. It was so good to have this conversation with Ann. I hope you enjoy listening.

Listen here or on your favorite podcast app: https://www.catholicthirdspace.com/p/23-ann-yeong-spiritual-abuse-in-evangelization

Ann Yeong is the Founder of Integrō Formation and the host of the Becoming Me podcast. Ann has over 15 years of experience in human and spiritual formation in the Catholic Church in Singapore. She served as Director, Youth & Young Adults Office in the Church of…

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Scores of people suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the homes from 1922 to 1995.

Work is ongoing to secure financial contributions from religious and secular bodies for survivors of historical institutional abuse.

The work comes after the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) revealed sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the homes from 1922 to 1995.

Sir Anthony Hart, who chaired the inquiry which revealed shocking levels of abuse in that period recommended a permanent memorial, compensation and an official apology to the victims.

Asked for an update on progress at the Assembly on Monday, deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said they have received financial contributions from some, and talks are ongoing with others.

“Victims and survivors of historical institutional abuse have endured unimaginable pain and suffering over many years,” she told MLAs.

“We are committed to ensuring they get the redress that they deserve.

“Payments have been received from the…

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A Free Press investigation reveals how dozens of Catholic dioceses are subverting the Child Victim Act, stopping lawsuits in their tracks and pressuring victims to accept pennies on the dollar.

The first person to sue the Rockville Centre Catholic Diocese after the passage of New York’s Child Victims Act was a man named Richard Tollner. It was August 2019, and New York was one of seven states that had created a law giving sex abuse victims a limited window to bring lawsuits no matter how far in the past the abuse had taken place.

Tollner, who is now 66, said that he had been raped—and molested multiple times—by a priest, beginning when he was 15 at St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary, in Uniondale, New York. The priest, Monsignor Alan J. Placa, was the “dean of discipline” at the school on Long Island, where Tollner grew up. In 1977, when he was 17, he…

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After joining a multi-state lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has announced that following the filing of the lawsuit, the DOJ has now dropped its plan to impose illegal conditions on nearly $1.4 billion in Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants. Earlier this year, the Trump Administration, disregarding the clear letter of the law and intent of Congress, declared that states would be unable to access VOCA funds – used to support victims and survivors of crimes – unless they accede to the Trump Administration’s extreme immigration priorities. 

“As Michigan’s Attorney General, one of my main responsibilities is to protect crime victims and fight for their justice,” Nessel said. “The Trump Administration’s attempt to place unlawful conditions on critical VOCA funding threatened to deny survivors the support they need to heal and rebuild their lives. Those conditions would have also required that victims’ detailed…

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In the twentieth century, Marcial Maciel was the greatest criminal in Catholic Church history, and equally its greatest fundraiser, says journalist Jason Berry about this abusive priest, the subject of a new documentary. Think of those two things together. Crime and fundraising. The new film about Maciel explains how the Catholic Church tolerated this abuser for fifty years. Even the popes protected him. The investigations show Maciel abused at least sixty minor children, including his own children. Nonetheless, Maciel never faced any legal penalty. No trial, no conviction, no time in jail, no justice. Maciel’s history reminds us how reluctant the church has been to protect children against sexual abuse.

Maciel was born in Mexico in 1920 and decided he wanted to be a priest. Not just any priest, however. From his youth he wanted to create his own order of priests, one that would follow his own ideas of the…

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Gisèle Pelicot returned to court in France on Monday, 10 months after a mass trial in which 51 men were convicted, most of them for raping her while she was deliberately sedated. The case deeply shocked the country and established her as an international feminist icon.

One of those men, Husamettin Dogan, 44, has appealed both the ruling and the sentence. The second trial, which is being held before the Court of Appeal in Nîmes, in France’s south, will be decided by three judges and a nine-person jury.

Ms. Pelicot, now 72, arrived moments before the trial opened to a crush of flashing cameras, accompanied by her youngest son, Florian. While her much-anticipated presence was not required, Ms. Pelicot’s lawyers said that she had felt compelled to attend the entire process, as she had for the last trial.

“She feels it’s her responsibility to be there,” said Stéphane Babonneau, one…

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