ABUSE TRACKER

Half a dozen advocates gathered in front of the San Juan Basilica on Monday to call for change.

As Channel 5 News has reported, in the last two months, two Catholic priests were accused of sexual misconduct.

“We wanted to give voice to the survivors that are here and make sure people understand why it’s so hard for them to come forward,” Patricia Koo said.

Koo is the SNAP San Antonio Chapter Leader. SNAP stands for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Priest Fernando Gonzalez Ortega was arrested in February. He is facing five sex crime charges and is currently out on bond.

RELATED STORY: Valley bishop addresses criminal charges against local priest

Monsignor Gustavo Barrera is facing two sexual misconduct allegations. One of those allegations allegedly took place over 35 years ago.

Koo says it’s hard for a victim to come forward.

“We have…

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The Archdiocese of Mobile has approved a Catholic priest’s request for a leave of absence after he was accused of sexual misconduct and harassment, News 5 has learned.

The archdiocese announced this approval on Monday, April 22 on their Facebook page.

73-year-old Rev. David J. Tokarz, the pastor of Our Savior Parish, was arrested April 13 on a charge of sexual misconduct and harassment, according to previous reporting.

News 5 received a copy of the official complaint, which alleged Tokarz approached a woman and “initiated unwanted touching.”

According to the complaints filed in Mobile Municipal Court, two incidents allegedly occurred: one on March 2 and the other on March 6.

On March 2, the complaint alleges, “David Joseph Tokarz engaged in sexual conduct with the victim (name redacted) by hugging her but when he released her from the…

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The Spanish government approved today in the Council of Ministers a plan to implement recommendations made in a report on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. 

While recognizing some good points in the plan, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (known by its Spanish acronym CEE) issued a statement strongly objecting to what it called unfair treatment and discrimination against the Church by the government.

Before giving details of the government’s plan, the minister of the Presidency, Justice, and Relations with the Legislature, Félix Bolaños, extrapolating data from a survey commissioned by the People’s Ombudsman, estimated that in Spain there are about 440,000 adults who were victims of sexual abuse as minors, representing 1.13% of the adult population in Spain.

“Around half of these abuses would have been committed by [male] religious of the Catholic Church,” Bolaños claimed.

The bishops, however, noted that “reparation measures cannot be proposed…

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Retired Lawrence Hecker, 92, charged in New Orleans, has memory loss and should be re-evaluated at later date, report finds

A 92-year-old retired Catholic priest charged with strangling a teenager and raping him in a New Orleans church in 1975 has short-term memory loss that prevents him from assisting in his defense, according to a team of forensic psychiatrists whose findings could influence whether one of Louisiana’s most prominent cases of clergy abuse is ever tried.

In a report which has not been publicly released but was reviewed Tuesday by WWL Louisiana and the Guardian, the psychiatrists said the priest – Lawrence Hecker – should not be tried for now on rape, kidnapping, crimes against nature and theft charges until he is re-evaluated later.

However, the report found Hecker’s mental health is good enough that he could recover his competence to stand trial after a relatively short time. It called for him…

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A pastor and elementary school teacher in a small city on the shore of Puget Sound in Washington has been arrested and charged with nine counts of child molestation, according to Pierce County Superior Court records.

Jordan Henderson, a worship pastor at Wellspring Fellowship in Lakebay and teacher at public elementary school, was charged with nine counts of sexual molestation, involving children under 12 years old, court records reported. The 34-year-old pastor was arrested by Pierce County Sheriff’s office, following a two-month investigation, according to Fox 13.

Henderson’s father, lead pastor of Wellspring Fellowship, defended his son in a recent Facebook post on the church’s account.

“While some would have you focus on alarm bells and your greatest fears about what you do not know, I want to encourage you with confidence based on what I do know,” Lead Pastor Chris Henderson…

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Eric Dejaeger was granted bail Tuesday to a supervised facility in Kingston

A former Catholic priest who worked in Nunavut and has previously been convicted of dozens of charges of sexual abuse has been granted bail to a supervised facility in Ontario while awaiting trial on new charges. 

Eric Dejaeger, 76, faces eight counts of historical sexual assault. 

He was previously convicted of 32 offences for sexually abusing people in Igloolik, many of them children. 

The new charges are alleged to have happened while Dejaeger was working as a priest in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982, according to court documents. 

He was arrested in Kingston, Ont., and taken into custody in Iqaluit in June last year. 

Justice of the Peace Amanda Soper granted Dejaeger bail on the condition that he reside at Henry Traill Community Correctional Centre in Kingston, which is a community-based facility with 24-hour supervision. 

Dejaeger can leave the facility during…

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It’s finally spring, the time of year when most state legislatures are in session, debating new laws, adopting some, and rejecting others. And just as regularly as the grass turns green and the flowers bloom, lobbyists for well-heeled wrongdoers work to block bills that would let crime victims expose wrongdoers. This is especially true when the wrongdoers are institutions, and the wrongdoing is child sexual abuse.

Desperate to cover up their cover-ups, these wrongdoers and their highly paid lobbyists use sophisticated tricks. These tricks are designed to persuade elected officials, “Hey, the status quo is just fine. Things aren’t that bad. There’s no need to reform old laws or pass any new laws about child sexual abuse.” One of the most pernicious tricks they use, however, is not so sophisticated. It’s the old ‘don’t blame us’ notion.

In hopes of stopping civil lawsuits that expose well-hidden secrets and often still-dangerous predators, institutional wrongdoers hire lobbyists and insurers…

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A former youth pastor is facing multiple charges including indecent assault after he allegedly sexually molested a child at a Cumberland County restaurant. 

According to the Upper Allen Township Police Department, on April 7, officers responded to a local restaurant after several witnesses reported watching an older man sexually molest a young child in public. 

The suspect was identified as Roy Andrews, 76, from Mechanicsburg, who knew the victim from his previous involvement as a youth leader for a Hispanic church in Harrisburg called “Iglesia La Fuenta.” Andrews was a youth leader for the church from 2014 through 2022.

According to an interviewee, Andrews began picking up children in Harrisburg and taking them to a church in Mechanicsburg after attendance at Iglesia La Fuenta fell. This is allegedly why he was with the children on April 7.

Police viewed surveillance footage from the restaurant to corroborate the…

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A group of clergy sex abuse survivors in the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy case is asking U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Meredith Grabill to limit the legal fees that the church’s law firm, Jones Walker, is billing to the case.

Citing skyrocketing legal and professional fees on both sides, the abuse survivors claim in a new court filing that Jones Walker is dragging out the long-running case by padding its time sheets, making money off the church while abuse survivors wait for a settlement.

“Jones Walker has bloated its time, engaged in redundant work, and enjoyed maximum payment by ensuring that 54 of its lawyers (30 partners and 24 associates) billed the Archdiocese during this bankruptcy,” a lawyer for the survivors says in court documents filed April 19. “Every dollar paid to Jones Walker is one less dollar paid to the abuse survivors.”

According to court records, more than $36.3…

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Spain is to set up a fund, to be financed largely by the Catholic Church, to compensate an estimated 440,000 victims of decades of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, staff or teachers, the justice minister announced on Tuesday.

A report in October by Spain’s human rights ombudsman produced the estimate from a survey of 8,000 people. It recommended the creation of a state fund, accusing the Church of a lack of cooperation and seeking to “minimise the phenomenon”.

Justice Minister Felix Bolanos told reporters the Church, hugely influential in Spanish society and politics up to and beyond the end of a right-wing dictatorship in the 1970s, had failed over decades to address calls for reparations, and that its responses to the report had varied by diocese.

“We want to respond in order to prevent, to repair and to try to settle the debt that our society owes the victims,” Bolanos said.

…

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There are few jobs, Susie Lopez will tell you, more rewarding than teaching kids how to stand up to potential predators.

Lopez, who trains catechists for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Empowering God’s Children and Young People program, told the story of one girl in her community who was inappropriately touched by a schoolmate. When she had the courage to disclose that to an adult, she stopped the abuse not only for herself, but for others.

“She knew what to do,” said Lopez. “She told her catechist and the catechist reported it. From that, five other little victims came forward. They never said anything about it and it had been going on for half of the year.”

Unlike the first girl, Lopez explained, those victims hadn’t gone through something like Empowering God’s Children, which teaches youth about thwarting and reporting sexual abuse.

Lopez, along with Dea Boehme, Anita Robinson,…

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Catholic clergy sex abuse claims claims set to go before juries could wipe out available funds for the Diocese of Sacramento, leading it to seek protection through bankruptcy

The Diocese of Sacramento is the latest branch of the Catholic Church to declare bankruptcy under the weight of child sex abuse lawsuits, many of which involve claims that have gone unaddressed for decades.

The Bishop of Sacramento, Jaime Soto, issued a press release earlier this month, announcing that the diocese was filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection. The filing indicates the diocese faces more than 250 child sexual assault claims by victims dating back to the 1950s, which claim the assaults were at the hands of clergy and other Catholic Church employees.

Soto indicates that the cost of resolving the lawsuits “far outstrips” the diocese’ available funds, and that the bankruptcy filing is the best way to compensate victims…

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MADRID (AP) — Spain on Tuesday approved a plan aimed at making reparation and economic compensation for victims of sex abuses committed by people connected to the Catholic Church.

It also announced the future celebration of a public act of recognition for those affected and their families.

The Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, said the plan was based on recommendations in a report by Spain’s Ombudsman last year. From that report he said it was concluded that some 440,000 adults may have suffered sex abuse in Spain by people linked to the church and that roughly half of those cases were committed by clergy.

Bolaños said the compensation would be financed by the church.

But in a statement Tuesday, Spain’s Bishops Conference rejected the plan, saying it discriminated against victims outside of church circles.

No details of how much or when financial compensation would be paid were released….

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There are days I’d like to go back to before the abuse-and-coverup crisis exploded into worldwide scandal, and that desire is perhaps the most pernicious of them all.

“I just want to go back to before,” says FBI Agent Olivia Dunham to Special Agent-in-Charge Phillip Broyles in the pilot episode of the science fiction series, Fringe (2008-13). Dunham is a good agent who found herself in the middle of something very big and very scary.

“I don’t think you can,” says Broyles, and then they’re away on a romp through five seasons of top-notch sci-fi that—like all real and really good sci fi—is a dramatization of fundamental theological questions.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that, of late.

I mean to say about the desire to go back to before, and about how we just can’t, and about how much of…

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Pope Francis initiated a “Synod on Synodality” in October 2021 “to enhance the communion, participation, and mission of the Church,” as reported by the Catholic News Agency. “It culminates in two more global assemblies at the Vatican. The first concluded on Oct. 28, 2023, with the finalization of a 42-page synthesis report. The October 2024 session is expected to produce a final report which will be presented to Pope Francis for his consideration in issuing any related teaching,” the Catholic News Agency further explained in an article dated Dec. 12, 2023.

In addition, 300 priests selected by their bishops will attend a meeting at the Vatican from April 28 to May 2, 2024, as part of the ongoing Synod on Synodality. “After parish priests were excluded from the first session of the Synod last October, they all highlighted the importance that they have a voice in the process, as well as the value…

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil – A German-born bishop emeritus in Bolivia had his house raided on Apr. 19 by prosecutors and police officers.

He is accused of a scheme to legitimatize illicit earnings in the department of Santa Cruz.

Agents of the anti-corruption unit of the prosecutor’s office raided Bishop Karl Stetter’s house and the office of lawyer Juan Miguel Zarzar, one of the attorneys of the Diocese of San Ignacio de Velasco. During the operation, the agents took several documents, a sum of money, and a vehicle.

A couple of months ago, Stetter’s finances came to the attention of prosecutor Gustavo Ríos, who said that one of the suspects in the alleged scheme owns 15 properties and 10 cars.

Ríos told the Bolivian newspaper El Deber that he identified financial fluxes that are not compatible with a bishop’s earnings, and that he and lawyer Zarzar will have to explain the origin of…

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Ksiądz Józef G., którego sprawę miał tuszować przed laty abp. Andrzej Dzięga, decyzją Watykanu, został wydalony ze stanu duchownego. Do września ubiegłego roku kapłan przebywał w więzieniu.

Sandomierski duchowy ks. Józef G., przed kilkoma dniami, został wydalony z kapłaństwa decyzją Stolicy Apostolskiej. Jak informuje portal “Więź”, który jako pierwszy napisał o sprawie, na przełomie 2005 i 2006 roku kapłan molestował seksualnie 12-letniego ministranta w jednej z parafii w Tarnobrzegu. Duchowny został za to skazany prawomocnym wyrokiem sądu państwowego na trzy lata więzienia. Na wolność wyszedł we wrześniu 2023 roku.

Józef G. może jeszcze odwołać się od wyroku karnego kanonicznego. Jeżeli by to uczynił, wyrok zostałby zawieszony, a mężczyzna formalnie pozostałby w kapłaństwie aż do rozpatrzenia odwołania przez Stolicę Apostolską.

“W  praktyce jednak – w sytuacji krzywdy wyrządzonej dziecku – nie ma szans na uwzględnienie odwołania” – podkreśla portal.

Abp. Dzięga przeniósł go do innej parafii

O dokonanym przez Józefa G. przestępstwie…

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The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests praised the Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo for releasing a list of people disqualified from working with kids but is hoping for even more information to be added to the list.

“It is always helpful for survivors when these lists are posted, especially for those who may be suffering alone and in silence,” the organization wrote in a Friday release.

The list includes people who have been “credibly accused” — though not necessarily convicted in a court of law, — violated a child-protection policy after warnings, failed as a mandated reporter to report allegations of abuse of minors, failed to act to prevent abuse they knew was happening, gave pornography to minors, possessed or used child pornography, physically abused minors or directed sexual abuse or sexual assault of minors.

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A Franciscan friar formerly connected to Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Durham and Duke University has been removed from public ministry after allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Rev. Patrick Tuttle served as associate pastor in Durham from 1996 until at least 2009, and he also taught seventh and eighth-graders while there.

Tuttle is now “living under the strict supervision of an independent monitor,” according to an April 4 statement from the friars of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Most recently in Georgia

The misconduct allegations arose four months ago, and Tuttle was soon removed as pastor at Holy Spirit Church in Macon, Georgia. After an investigation, the Province Review Board unanimously recommended he be barred from all public ministry and placed under supervision.

“During the independent investigation process and beyond,” the statement read, “the province has offered outside pastoral care and counseling services to the abuse…

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In the shadowed corridors of religious institutions, a disquieting truth lurks a truth that has fractured the very bedrock of communal trust on a global scale. This piece endeavors to illuminate this enigmatic darkness, delving into its labyrinthine depths to unravel the intricate tapestry of clergy sexual abuse: its prevalence, genesis, ramifications, and the crucial strides towards preemptive measures and restitution.

The Enigma Unveiled

An Epoch of Ecclesiastical Turbulence

Clergy sexual abuse is not a nascent quandary; its historical tendrils reach back through the annals of religious chronicles. However, it burgeoned into prominence during the latter echelons of the 20th century, as a cascade of revelations unveiled a systemic scourge ensnaring diverse denominations and faiths.

The Elusive Statistics

Quantifying the extent of clergy sexual abuse is an elusive pursuit, ensnared within the veils of underreported incidents and institutional subterfuge. Nonetheless, empirical studies allude to its pervasive grip within religious enclaves…

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A divided Louisiana Supreme Court ruled recently that legislation opening the courthouse doors to the victims of clergy sex abuse deprives alleged child predators and their enablers of due process of law.

It is not often that the Legislature speaks with one voice. But it did so in this case, based upon compelling evidence that the trauma of childhood sexual abuse lasts a lifetime. The court’s majority decision ignores this evidence and flouts the will of the legislature.

As explained in the dissenting opinion of Chief Justice John Weimer, the legislation clearly does not violate due process, any more than countless health and safety regulations that serve a rational public purpose.

In a footnote, the majority opinion states that the passage of time makes it impossible to mount a viable defense since witnesses have died and critical documents have been lost. In point of fact, the…

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The Michigan Supreme Court will rule in the coming months on whether decades-old sexual abuse and assault allegations can be resurrected in civil lawsuits.

The high court heard arguments last week over whether a 2018 law with a specific carveout for old claims brought by victims of serial sexual molester Larry Nassar also applies to individuals abused decades ago by clergy, school staff or other authority figures.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed by Brian McLain, who alleged he was abused by a priest, the Rev. Richard Lobert, when he was 16 and attended W.J. Maxey Boys Training School in Whitmore Lake.

McLain claimed the 2018 law allowed him to file suit within three years of discovering mental health conditions related to the alleged assault, regardless of when the actual assault occurred. The Diocese of Lansing, a plaintiff in the case, said that provision was meant to apply to…

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Arlington nuns at the center of a vicious dispute with the Fort Worth bishop have rejected a Vatican decree to place them under new authority, saying it amounts to a hostile takeover.

In a statement published Saturday, the nuns said the Vatican issued the decree without their knowledge or consent and that it could threaten individual nuns, the integrity of the monastery and its assets.

“We are not ‘things’ to be traded or given away in back-room deals, but women vowed to the exclusive love and service of Almighty God,” the nuns wrote.

The statement is the latest development in a bitter and extraordinarily public battle between the nuns and Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson that has played out in dueling statements and in civil court. It began last year when the bishop accused the head nun of violating her vow of chastity…

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By Christopher Landau -April 21, 2024111

Mike Pilavachi

These are testing times for anyone even loosely connected with charismatic life within, or adjacent to, the Church of England. To discover that a figure whose ministry was widely celebrated ‘used his spiritual authority to control people and that his coercive and controlling behaviour led to inappropriate relationships, the physical wrestling of youths and massaging of young male interns’ is proving seismic. The severe impact of Mike Pilavachi’s actions and behaviour has been underlined in the last few days, through the release of Matt and Beth Redman’s Let There Be Light documentary, and a poignant statement from Tim and Pete Hughes. 

There are many important areas for reflection in this tragic situation: the support offered to victims; the silence of certain leaders, churches or movements; the Church of England’s safeguarding and disciplinary processes;…

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It has been two weeks since the Vatican released Dignitas Infinita, its declaration on human dignity that included negative sections on gender identity and transitions. In that time, commentaries about what the document means for the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender and nonbinary people, have abounded. Posts today and tomorrow feature some of these commentaries. For all of Bondings 2.0’s coverage of the declaration and its reception, click here.

Archbishop Christopher Coyne, coadjutor of Hartford, emphasized in an interview both the church’s broad welcome, but also its teachings on gender. Connecticut Public Radio:

“[Coyne said,] Biology is biology. You’re either XX or XY. That’s a scientific fact. You can’t un-prove that fact.’ . . .

“‘You don’t have to pass a test to belong,’ Coyne said. ‘We walk with each other. We accompany each other. We don’t leave each other; we try to grow together.’ . . .

“Coyne said it’s important for the…

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Despite the many predator clergymen all over Latin America, prevention is not a priority for the Roman Catholic bishops in the region. Information about the crisis, how to file a report or how to seek assistance is, for the most part, hard to find if not absent in the websites of the Latin American Catholic Church.

Two weeks ago, Los Ángeles Press published a report on how many of the Roman Catholic dioceses in Mexico have met the goal of setting up a local commission to prevent clergy sexual abuse.

This week I present a basic comparison of how the 18 national conferences of Roman Catholic bishops deal with clergy sexual abuse in the Websites each of them sustain in their countries. The Catholic Church in Latin America is organized in the so-called Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopate, CELAM for short. It must be noticed, however,…

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Catholic places of worship across France are wondering what they should do with frescoes and stained-glass windows created by priests accused of sexual abuse.

On May 11, the shrineof Our Lady of Aparecida, in the eponymous city in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, will inaugurate its basilica’s newly decorated southern façade. For Father Eduardo Catalfo, the rector of the world’s largest Catholic complex after the Vatican in Rome, this will be a day of celebration, a chance to rally the masses and raise funds to continue his major construction project.

Not everyone shares his enthusiasm. A petition with over 5,000 signatures was recently launched to demand the removal of the mosaics created by priest and artist Marko Rupnik. His name won’t be familiar to those who regularly attend the big arty events in Basel (Switzerland), Venice (Italy) or Miami (US). Yet in the world of sacred art, he is…

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JEFFERSON CITY — A group of five individuals gathered outside of the Missouri attorney general’s office Monday morning to speak about recent reports of child sexual abuse at boarding schools across the state.

The press conference was led by David Clohessy, an abuse survivor and director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Clohessy said that the news conference aimed to “discuss recent revelations and reports of abuse at largely unregulated ‘faith-based’ boarding schools in Missouri.”  

“We firmly believe that where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Clohessy said. “And we believe Attorney General Andrew Bailey should act now, proactively, to prevent more abuse and more cover up in these institutions.”

SNAP said there’s been at least four abuse and cover-up scandals at boarding schools in Missouri. 

“Dozens of such ‘under the radar’ facilities have quietly moved to or opened across the state, in part to avoid regulatory…

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An independent monitor will oversee the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s handling of sexual abuse allegations under a settlement between the diocese and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The agreement announced Tuesday will address “years of mismanaging clergy sexual abuse cases,” James said.

Investigators with the attorney general’s office found that officials with the diocese failed to comply with their own sex abuse policies put in place after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002.

In one case, the attorney general said, a priest who admitted that he had repeatedly sexually abused minors was defrocked in 2007 but requested confidentiality. The diocese kept the abuse secret until 2017 when it announced for the first time that this priest had been credibly accused of and admitted to abusing children. The priest worked as a professor at…

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Though he hasn’t been employed by the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville for nearly a year, former Bishop Richard Stika continues to make his presence felt, contacting whistleblowers directly with threats of a lawsuit, including one who is a key witness in the sexual assault lawsuit against the church.

That lawsuit was filed by a former diocesan employee who alleges a former diocesan seminarian raped him and details how the diocese, led by Stika, interfered with the investigation and worked to discredit him. Knox News independently verified the interference, which led to the firing of an independent investigator.

As complaints about Stika’s leadership and handling of allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct piled up in the diocese, the bishop offered his resignation and it was accepted by Pope Francis in June 2023.

But Stika has continued to try to assert control over some of the priests in the Knoxville diocese. He sent a…

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Frustrated by continued abuse allegations at Missouri’s unlicensed Christian boarding schools, former students on Monday implored Attorney General Andrew Bailey to intervene.

In a letter delivered to Bailey’s Jefferson City office, several former students called on him to launch a state-wide investigation and warn parents about what they say has gone on inside some of these schools for far too long.

They also want Bailey to contact prosecutors in counties where the schools are located and urge them to conduct their own investigations.

“To spare more children the devastating life-long impacts of horrific abuse, we beg you — as emphatically as possible — to help expose, deter and prevent potential crimes and criminal cover ups at dozens of similar, largely-under-the-radar ‘schools’ in remote parts of Missouri,” the letter says. “Use your bully pulpit to publicly help expose these troubling reports and allegations.”

The Survivors Network of…

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Lawmakers faced a Friday deadline for Iowa victims to have full access to the Boy Scouts settlement

With just hours to spare and under pressure, Iowa House lawmakers passed and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law legislation temporarily lifting the state’s statute of limitations to allow Iowa victims of sexual abuse to receive full compensation from a national bankruptcy settlement with the Boy Scouts of America.

“Those who were sexually abused while in Boy Scouts should have the ability to receive the greatest amount of compensation available,” Reynolds said in a statement. “Even after an initial disclosure, it may take many more years before a victim is willing to file a legal action in a public court proceeding.

“We should not stand in the way of these survivors receiving their justified compensation. I am proud to sign this bill, and I hope it brings some sense of justice and closure.”

…

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“I’m not in charge, G-d is.”  words Milwaukee archbishop Jerome Listecki shared in April of 2015 when he was the spotlight story of our very first episode CBS 58 Sunday Morning.  9-years later and just a few weeks after he submitted his required retirement letter to Pope Francis, CBS 58 Sunday Morning caught up with the career clergyman again.

“There we go, okay,” said archbishop Listecki. The sky had already begun to darken as we stepped outside to view the eclipse.

“We can’t see anything out of these things (laughing),” archbishop Listecki said as he adjusted a pair of cardboard glasses.

Also gazing up with glasses were colleagues, some of whom have been serving with the archbishop since he was installed 14 years ago. “What I will miss most is being able to highlight and put a spotlight on the great things that so many of our people do,” he…

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Pastor who ‘violated a 15-year-old girl’ is on the run, prosecutor says

A 62-year-old man who served as a First Baptist Church pastor when a teenage girl accused him of giving her a spiked drink and sexually abusing her appeared in court on Saturday in the Florida Keys.

Rev. Monte LaVelle Chitty, a registered police volunteer, appeared before Monroe County Circuit Judge James W. Morgan III at the Marathon Courthouse wearing a light blue jumpsuit and handcuffs.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Chitty on March 4 after they found incriminating text messages to the girl including, “I prefer you pass out after I play not before” and “You can’t even remember what I did.”

He was released on a $75,000 bond.

“While you were out on bail, you committed a new crime,” Morgan said about his failure to appear in court.

According to deputies, Chitty…

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A historic Polish Catholic church in Buffalo, New York — one with a unique connection to St. John Paul II — is facing tens of thousands of dollars in bills that threaten to close the nearly-century-old structure.

Father Czeslaw Krysa, SLD, the parochial vicar of St. Casimir, said the Buffalo Diocese has given the church a deadline of August to pay its outstanding accounts. Among those is $55,000 in annual insurance costs, up recently from $32,000.

Joe Martone, a spokesman for the Buffalo Diocese, said that the diocesan vicar for renewal and development, Father Bryan Zielenieski, “communicated in February to the pastor of the family of parishes [of which] St. Casimir is a member that the church had entered a one-year evaluation period to determine its financial viability.”

“Our diocese is in a family of parishes model, and the families are currently evaluating all aspects of parish life including…

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The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office has opened an investigation into a McAllen priest who resigned after the Diocese of Brownsville on April 3 issued a statement that it had received an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor against the priest.

In a Friday afternoon statement, the DA’s office said that on April 4, another person contacted that office and also raised an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor against Monsignor Gustavo Barrera.

“The allegation is under investigation by the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office,” the statement reads.

This is the DA’s office’s first public comment on the allegations against Barrera, who formerly served at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in McAllen.

Attorneys representing Barrera previously released a lengthy statement denying the first sexual misconduct allegation, which reportedly occurred 35 years ago.

A timeline on the second allegation was not released.

The district attorney’s office did not say…

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Through the years, I have been much engaged studying the topic of sexual abuse by clergy – usually Catholic clergy – and have served as an expert witness in litigation. In such settings, I often encounter historical arguments and debates which raise for me some really significant questions about how we can know some important things in the past, and how far we can prove a negative. The implications run far beyond the specific issue at stake, and affect how we approach a great many historical topics and eras.

Specifically, this whole matter is a classic case study for any historians. It teaches us about the dangers of cherry picking historical sources. Moreover, we have to understand when such sources can or cannot give any kind of representative view of any topic whatever. Anyone who plans to study history has to grasp that idea of representativeness. Finally, we need to know when it…

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Most of Charm City’s historic Black Catholic parishes are on the chopping block in an archdiocese mired in legal troubles due to clerical sex abuse.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has released a new proposal that would cut the number of parishes in Baltimore City by nearly two-thirds, from 61 to 21. Black Catholic churches make up a quarter of those to be closed in the plan, which has not been finalized.

The archdiocese, the nation’s oldest, says the April 14 proposal—part of a sweeping diocesan realignment—is the fruit of extensive consultation, which will continue in the coming weeks.

“After nearly two years of listening, study, prayer, analysis and community weigh-in, the Seek the City to Come initiative has entered into the public comment phase. A recommended proposal was developed for the Catholic Church in Baltimore City to include investment and ministries, the realignment of parish communities designed to…

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Dismissing insurance company claims, including that sexual abuse is not considered bodily injury, a judge ordered them to pay out $345 million to men who were sexually abused by a Darlington teacher in the 1970s and ’80s.

The plaintiffs alleged that Roger Stifflemire, who taught English at the school in Rome, Ga., from 1974 to 1994, used his authority and influence as a teacher and dorm parent to obtain their trust, which he then exploited to sexually abuse them both on and off campus.

However, those allegations didn’t come to light until 2016. The Hidden Predator Act, passed in 2015, allowed the nearly 20 former students and their families to seek a civil penalty for the abuse.

The law allowed a two year window for childhood abuse victims to file a civil lawsuit which would have normally been outside the statute of limitations. Stifflemire has not faced a criminal prosecution…

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The nature of power and how the abuse of power has been dealt with in the past and present were the focus of an international conference in Rome attended by about a dozen scholars.

Experts in history, philosophy, sociology, political science, psychology and education came together at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University April 17-19 to present talks including: the effects of mass violence waged by colonial powers; the misuse of the memory of the Holocaust; sexual predation in the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages; and slave holding by Jesuits in the the United States.

Jesuit Father David Collins, a professor of history at Georgetown University, presented a case study of his order’s work in the United States with “large communities of descendants of those who were held in slavery by Jesuits to develop programs of redress, repair and racial healing.”

Their work started because a building on the Georgetown campus…

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Earlier this week, I was proud to join other brave survivors and caring advocates at a legislative hearing in Jefferson City. The topic: Eliminating or extending Missouri’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly statute of limitations on child sexual abuse.

https://missouriindependent.com/2024/04/15/survivors-of-childhood-sexual-abuse-ask-missouri-attorney-general-lawmakers-for-change/

Many spoke well and movingly. But among the most compelling was my long time friend Ken Chackes, who is one of the very most experienced – and compassionate – attorneys who help abuse survivors. I’m grateful that he’s given me permission to post his wise words here.

Read the testimony here.

David Clohessy

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A mental competency hearing for former New Orleans priest Lawrence Hecker has been rescheduled.

Hecker is accused of aggravated rape, kidnapping, crimes against nature and theft.

A grand jury indicted him in September 2023 after the discovery of a 1999 document containing what is believed to be his confession of sexually molesting and harming several teenagers between 1966 and 1972.

On April 4, Hecker underwent a mental evaluation.

Hecker’s attorneys were in court on Thursday, April 18, for the results of the mental evaluation. However, the defense claims they didn’t have enough time to review the report.

The next court hearing is set for May 23.

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A Knights of Columbus council has called for the removal of artwork by Father Marko Rupnik at a national shrine, following the disgraced priest’s decades-long legacy of sexual and spiritual abuse claims by multiple victims.

The Knights’ Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle Council 11302, based in Washington, reportedly adopted an April 9 resolution urging the fraternal organization’s executive leadership to remove and replace mosaics created by Father Rupnik for the St. John Paul II National Shrine, which the Knights established in the nation’s capital in 2011. The resolution was disclosed April 16 by The Pillar, which stated it had obtained a copy of the document.

The council requested that the Knights’ state and supreme councils “immediately make a public apology to survivors of Fr. Rupnik’s abuse for the Order’s continued inaction in addressing the matter of the mosaics in the Shrine.”

The Slovenian-born Father Rupnik, who was expelled from the Society of…

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Clergyman became a fugitive after skipping out on court date

Marathon pastor Monte Chitty appeared sullen, with his head down, as two uniformed sheriff’s deputies led him from a van into the Key West jail Friday following his capture in Texas earlier in the month.

Chitty, 62, was originally arrested by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on March 4, one day after deputies accused him of sexually battering a 15-year-old girl inside his church, First Baptist Marathon, located at 200 62nd St.

He posted a $75,000 bond and later became a fugitive after skipping out on an April 1 court hearing.

U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement captured him April 5 in the small town of Woodville, Texas after deputies said he “reportedly approached a Texas church group that was working with the homeless,” prompting a member of the group to call police.

…

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A Santa Clara County judge has cleared the release of a well-known nonprofit director who is accused of sexually abusing a girl for years during his former career as a youth pastor.

At a Friday morning bail hearing, Judge Hector Ramon approved the release of 47-year-old Brett Bymaster, who faces six felony charges for alleged sexual abuse of a girl from 2014-2019, starting when she was just 8 years old. Ramon imposed several release conditions, including ordering Bymaster to stay away from the alleged victim and children in general, confiscating his passport, and allowing police to search him at-will without a warrant.

Ramon cited state law that requires “clear and convincing evidence” that a defendant poses a future danger and that there aren’t bail conditions that could ensure community safety in lieu of pretrial detention.

“I don’t see that in this case. I see mostly speculation that this is likely to…

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A Pierce County elementary school teacher and volunteer worship pastor charged with nine counts of first-degree child molestation pleaded not guilty to all charges in court Friday.

Jordan Henderson, 34, was arrested at his Gig Harbor home Thursday by Pierce County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) deputies and booked into the county jail. The PCSD said five Evergreen Elementary School students, all girls, came forward and told officials the assaults happened at school during school hours. Deputies are asking other students who experienced inappropriate behavior to come forward.

“The defendant used his or her position of trust, confidence, or fiduciary responsibility to facilitate the commission of the current offense, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Washington,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents.

RELATED | Pierce County teacher arrested for child molestation; at least 5 victims

Henderson is accused of molesting and groping students under…

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List includes living, deceased members of Catholic church

Several former Michigan priests and non-clergy members have been blacklisted from working with children or youth as the result of an investigation by one of the state’s Catholic Dioceses.

The Diocese of Kalamazoo announced it’s “undertaking a thorough review and updating of all its policies protecting children and youth,” starting with the publication of a list of individuals disqualified from working with kids.

“These major updates and continued review of our diocesan policies are with three primary goals in mind,” said Bishop Lohse, “First, to protect the children and youth entrusted to us by creating safe environment in our churches, schools and apostolates; second, to work to educate our faithful and those in our community to recognize predatory and other behavior that puts children at risk; and third, to work toward eradicating all forms of child abuse.”

This list includes both clergy…

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The International House of Prayer-Kansas City, plagued for months by sexual abuse allegations against its founder Mike Bickle, plans to close its doors and open a new, smaller organization.

The news, first reported by The Roys Report, an online Christian media outlet, was based on a leaked recording of a Monday staff meeting at IHOP University and an email sent to staffers announcing the action.

“IHOPKC will be closing for good in a staggered fashion, with different things such as stipends, work emails, etc. being eliminated over the next couple of months to prepare us to close,” said the email, from “The Prophecy and Healing Leadership of IHOPKC.”

“The leadership feels the best way to resolve the issues is to close IHOPKC as an organization and shift to a more missional church structure in the future. This would still include night and day prayer with worship in the context of…

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IN a wooden chest of draws at home, I keep copies of The Catholic Leader.

Over the last decade, I’ve accumulated deep piles of the newspaper that report and reflect on one of the most testing of times for the Church.

Some could argue the last decade has been one of crisis for Catholics.

The fallout of a royal commission into child sexual abuse topped the list of headlines as I thumbed through old copies of the paper.

One of my first stories was a review of the film Spotlight.

The 2015 Academy Award winning biopic told the true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic archdiocese, shaking the entire Church to its core.

In a similar way Australia’s royal commission into institutional abuse shone a harsh light on a hierarchical Church structure that had protected paedophile priests…

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After an extensive investigation, with the full cooperation of diocesan leaders past and present, the Diocese of Brooklyn has entered into an agreement with the office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James that will improve on its two-decade child protection effort since the passage of the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (Dallas Charter) by the U.S. Bishops. As noted by the attorney general, “the Diocese and its leaders, including Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Bishop Robert J. Brennan, have fully cooperated with the Investigation and, both prior to and after its commencement, have voluntarily undertaken a number of important changes to the Diocese’s policies and procedures to help address the concerns that led to the Investigation and to prevent their recurrence.”

The attorney general also noted in the agreement, “the Diocese’s efforts from 2003 to the present to strengthen its policies and procedures were…

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In conjunction with the nationally observed Child Abuse Prevention Month held every April, the Diocese of Kalamazoo announces today that it is undertaking a thorough review and updating of all its policies protecting children and youth. A final and complete updated set of policies is expected this summer, but the first significant element was revealed today in the publication of a list of individuals disqualified from working with children or youth.

“These major updates and continued review of our diocesan policies are with three primary goals in mind,” said Bishop Lohse, “First, to protect the children and youth entrusted to us by creating safe environment in our churches, schools and apostolates; second, to work to educate our faithful and those in our community to recognize predatory and other behavior that puts children at risk; and third, to work toward eradicating all forms of child abuse.”

Shortly after his ordination as…

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The Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo is working on sweeping changes to its policy to protect children and youth with the first action being made Thursday, in the middle of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Bishop Edward Lohse announced a list of people being removed from eligibility of working with children in the catholic churches in the diocese. The people named in the list were accused of a number of different violations, including breaking the child-protection policy, failing to report allegations of abuse of minors, failing to prevent abuse they knew was happening, providing pornography to children, possession of child pornography, physical abuse of children, and sexually assaulting a child.

According to the Diocese of Kalamazoo, the allegations are credible. The diocese used a method for establishing credibility that required at least one of the following conditions to be met:

1. Legal proceedings
2. Canon law proceedings
3. Self-admission by the individual
4. Evidence that meets the “clear…

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New York Attorney General Letitia James announced an agreement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn to address years of reported mismanaging clergy sexual abuse cases and for failing to uphold the policies and procedures it adopted for investigating and responding to abuse complaints.

The agreement requires the diocese to take action to prevent and address allegations of clergy sexual abuse and reform past policies, including:

• Installing an independent, secular monitor who will oversee the diocese’s compliance with enhanced policies and procedures and issue an annual report on the Diocese’s handling of sexual abuse cases;
• Strengthening existing policies and procedures for handling sexual abuse cases to include expedited review timelines and transparency throughout the process;
• Creating new offices, committees, and positions within the diocese devoted to ensuring the safety of minors and other vulnerable communities; and
• Hiring a Clergy Monitor with law enforcement or counseling experience to develop and oversee abuse prevention…

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The Catholic Church in Brooklyn has finally agreed to clean up its own mess. Attorney General Letitia James announced an agreement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn on Tuesday, marking a significant step towards addressing the long-standing issue of clergy sexual abuse within the diocese.

This agreement, the second of its kind in New York, mandates comprehensive reforms and introduces independent oversight to ensure the diocese adheres to stricter standards in handling abuse allegations.

The settlement requires the Diocese of Brooklyn to overhaul its approach to managing sexual abuse complaints, including the implementation of a new system underpinned by an independent, secular monitor. This monitor will oversee the diocese’s compliance with enhanced policies and procedures and will issue an annual report assessing the diocese’s handling of sexual abuse cases.

Attorney General James highlighted the gravity of the diocese’s past failures and expressed confidence that the new measures would ensure…

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New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced that the Diocese of Brooklyn has agreed to “significant action” to address shortcomings in how it handles sexual abuse complaints. 

The diocese “knew about this pervasive problem” for years, James said upon making the announcement, but “did not adequately address allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct,” leading the organization to fail to “consistently comply with its own policies and procedures for responding to sexual abuse.”

In 2018, James’ office launched an investigation into the diocese. Among the failures highlighted by the investigation include an instance in which the diocese for more than a decade neglected to inform parishioners after a priest admitted to sexually abusing minors. 

In another case, the diocese “repeatedly transferred [a] priest from parish to parish” in order to avoid complaints of inappropriate conduct. 

Overall, the attorney general’s report on the inquiry cited nearly…

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Catholics who worship at parishes in Baltimore City have the opportunity to weigh in on the proposal for Seek the City, the archdiocesan process underway for nearly two years to change the footprint of physical locations in the city while emphasizing a Eucharistic vision and a renewed vision for the city church in Baltimore.

Geri Royale Byrd, director of the Seek the City to Come process, said the team and consultants are still listening, still taking feedback. “Seek the City to Come” is based on Heb 13:14: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.”

The Archdiocese of Baltimore follows other dioceses around the country that have looked at the number of parish sites in light of changing demographics, and the human and capital resources to continue ministering effectively.

Priests from the 61 parishes at 59 worship sites in the study area…

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The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has agreed to the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee its handling of clergy abuse cases, as part of a settlement with New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The agreement, announced on April 16, marks the second such accord secured by James with a Catholic diocese, following a similar settlement with the Diocese of Buffalo in 2022. Under the new terms, the independent monitor will be tasked with overseeing compliance with enhanced policies and procedures in the Brooklyn Diocese.

The monitor will also have to issue an annual report assessing the diocese’s handling of sexual abuse cases, which will have to be published on the diocese’s website.

In her statement announcing the move, James said it comes after an investigation by her office “found that the Diocese failed to consistently comply with its own…

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The American founder of an orphanage in Haiti pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to new federal charges accusing him of traveling from Miami to the island and sexually assaulting four underage boys under his care more than a decade ago.

But during his detention hearing in Miami federal court, a prosecutor said Michael Karl Geilenfeld “sexually abused 20 boys” at his orphanage and then threatened them not to say anything or they would be harmed.

“We have multiple people saying the defendant sexually abused them in the same way,” Justice Department prosecutor Eduardo Palomo told a federal judge.

Palomo argued that Geilenfeld, who was granted a bond by a magistrate judge in Denver before his recent transfer to Miami, should not be released before trial because he’s a danger to the community and a flight risk to the Caribbean.

U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz agreed, ordering that the 72-year founder…

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More than a year after the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s Chapter 11 plan of reorganization was confirmed, the archdiocese is back in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. A clergy sexual abuse claimant has filed a motion alleging church officials are violating a key non-monetary agreement with abuse survivors, about how the archdiocese lists priests accused of abuse.

The reorganization plan was approved in December 2022 and involved payment of some $121.5 million into a settlement trust and establishment of a new public archive of clergy sexual abuse documents.

According to the new motion filed by her attorneys, Mela LaJeunesse was sexually abused as a child by Fr. Richard Spellman beginning in approximately 1957. LaJeunesse eventually disclosed and received treatment for her abuse beginning in 2016, she filed a sexual abuse proof of claim in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case in May 2019, and she was compensated through the archdiocese’s…

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The Vatican Secretariat of State sent a formal statement to the French Embassy to the Holy See reaffirming that Pope Francis had sent a top Vatican official to investigate a French religious congregation and warning that interference by a French civil court in an internal church matter could be a “serious violation” of religious freedom.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, confirmed April 13 that the Vatican had sent an explanatory “note verbale” to the embassy highlighting several points in connection to a French civil court decision made public April 3.

The ruling by the one-judge tribunal of Lorient in France ordered 79-year-old Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, retired prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and the two religious who assisted him in the investigation to pay a former nun more than $194,000 for material damages, more than $10,000 for “moral prejudice” and more than $10,000 in legal costs…

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A Washington, D.C., Knights of Columbus council has called for chapel mosaics created by disgraced artist Fr. Marko Rupnik to be removed from the area’s St. John Paul II Shrine, which is sponsored by the Knight of Columbus fraternal organization.

The Cardinal O’Boyle Council 11302 passed a resolution April 9 calling on Knights leadership to remove Rupnik’s artwork from the shrine’s Redemptor Hominis Church and the Luminous Mysteries Chapel.

The resolution notes that Rupnik has been accused of sexually abusing religious sisters in the context of creating his works of art.

“O’Boyle Council calls upon the executive leadership of the Washington, DC State Council of the Knights of Columbus (State Council) and the executive leadership of the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus (Supreme Council) to renovate the Shrine such that the mosaics in both the Redemptor Hominis Church and the Luminous Mysteries Chapel created by Fr. Rupnik are…

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The International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) will be closing its doors and starting a new organization, following months of clergy sexual abuse allegations against its founder Mike Bickle, leaders announced at an internal IHOP University staff meeting yesterday.

A leaked recording of the meeting that The Roys Report (TRR) obtained reveals the organization is bleeding $500,000 a month due to donors being too connected to the now-permanently removed Bickle.

Leaders hope this move will limit IHOPKC’s liability regarding victims’ lawsuits, said Isaac Bennett, pastor of IHOPKC’s Forerunner Church, in the meeting. “We’re the people to sue at the end of the day,” said Bennett. “That produces significant liabilities there.”

However, Boz Tchividjian, an attorney who represents multiple Jane Does who’ve accused Bickle of clergy sexual abuse, told TRR that IHOPKC is in “fantasyland” if it thinks closing down and starting a new organization protects its assets from lawsuit. To try to…

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Never underestimate what one small act of compassion can do. That was Antonia Sobocki’s message to the faithful gathered for Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Wheeling April 7.

She was there to represent LOUDfence, a campaign of awareness and support for victims of abuse which began in a small, rural English church and has now spread across the globe with its message of healing.

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston became the first diocese in the U.S. to participate in LOUDfence, which began with Mass that morning celebrated by Bishop Mark E. Brennan. Sobocki and the many survivors of abuse present were welcomed by the bishop, who expressed his support of the campaign.

“We are deeply honored we are now here for the very first time in America,” Sobocki told the congregation. “No matter where we are in the world, we are one holy Catholic and apostolic church. We…

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A San Jose youth pastor has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a minor, police said. 

Brett Bymaster, 47, was taken into custody in the Central Valley in Manteca on Thursday, following a months-long investigation by San Jose Police Department’s child exploitation detectives.

SEE ALSO: American Canyon teacher arrested second time on child sex abuse charges

Investigators said the alleged sexual assault began in 2014, when the suspect served as a youth pastor at the River Church Community located on Lincoln Avenue.

“During the course of the investigation, an adult female survivor disclosed that an adult male suspect sexually assaulted her multiple times between 2014 and 2018 when she was a minor,” police said in a press release.

In a statement to KTVU, the River Church said that Bymaster was employed there from 2014 to 2019 and that the suspect was at the center of a…

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According to reports in the Italian media, the erstwhile star prosecution witness in the Vatican’s “trial of the century” for various financial crimes has been confirmed by Pope Francis in his role as an adjunct prosecutor for the Vatican’s supreme court.

Assuming the reports are correct, some observers likely will be tempted to see the confirmation as a reward for the role Italian Monsignor Alberto Perlasca played in the convictions of Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight other defendants, despite critical questions raised at trial about Perlasca’s credibility and judgment.

First published by the Italian site “Dagospia,” the reports suggest that Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin has sent a letter to the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court in the church’s system of canon law, indicating that Perlasca “has been confirmed” in his role as an adjunct Promoter of Justice, meaning a prosecutor.

Though Parolin’s letter apparently did not specify, it’s widely…

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The Vatican Secretariat of State sent a formal statement to the French Embassy to the Holy See reaffirming that Pope Francis had sent a top Vatican official to investigate a French religious congregation and warning that interference by a French civil court in an internal church matter could be a “serious violation” of religious freedom.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, confirmed April 13 that the Vatican had sent an explanatory “note verbale” to the embassy highlighting several points in connection to a French civil court decision made public April 3.

The ruling by the one-judge tribunal of Lorient in France ordered 79-year-old Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, retired prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and the two religious who assisted him in the investigation to pay a former nun more than $194,000 for material damages, more than $10,000 for “moral prejudice” and more than $10,000 in legal costs…

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A woman has accused a 73-year-old Mobile priest of fondling her and kissing her without consent, which led to his arrest Saturday on charges of sexual misconduct and harassment.

Fr. David J. Tokarz turned himself in Saturday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was booked into Mobile Metro Jail late Saturday morning and released on $1,500 bond a few hours later.

Tokarz, 73, is the pastor at Our Savior Church in Mobile and has been in the priesthood for 32 years.

WALA reported Monday that Tokarz is alleged to have hugged the woman on March 2, during which is rubbed his hands on her breasts and patted them. Four days later, Tokarz is accused of kissing the woman on the lips in the church rectory, without her consent.

The Archdiocese of Mobile released a statement following…

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The arrest of a Catholic priest stems from allegations that he fondled a woman and forced an unwanted kiss on her during separate incidents last month, according to court records.

Mobile police arrested David Joseph Tokarz over the weekend after a magistrate issued an arrest warrant charging him with sexual misconduct and harassing communications, according to Mobile Municipal Court records. Tokarz, 73, was pastor of Our Savior Catholic Church on Cody Road in west Mobile.

The alleged victim made a sworn statement on Friday alleging that Tokarz hugged her on March 2. As he released her from the hug, he rubbed his hands on her breasts and patted them, according to the allegations.

The second alleged incident occurred on March 6 after a meeting in the rectory, a church building where priests live. The woman alleges that he kissed her on the lips without consent, according to court records.

Sexual…

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Results of an investigation issued by New York Attorney General Letitia James highlights both shortcomings and positive initiatives taken by the Diocese of Brooklyn in its handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations over the past 22 years. 

The 75-page document, published on April 16, focuses on allegations since 2002, when the Catholic Church first set up a comprehensive set of procedures, still in place today, called the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” 

It found that the diocese, on multiple occasions, did not always complete investigations in a timely manner, properly monitor clergy with credible abuse allegations against them, or be transparent with parishioners about a priest’s status. 

Her report also said that the Diocese of Brooklyn “failed to consistently comply with its own policies and procedures for responding to sexual abuse.”

The report states that diocesan leadership — specifically Bishop Robert Brennan and Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio…

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A secular monitor will oversee the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s compliance with new and stronger sexual abuse policies as part of a settlement agreement with Attorney General Letitia James.

The agreement was announced Tuesday as a means to address what James’ office called “years of mismanaging clergy sexual abuse cases” and failure to adequately investigate and respond to accusations of sexual abuse. 

The Office of the Attorney General opened an investigation of all eight Catholic Dioceses in New York back in 2018. 

During that investigation, the OAG reportedly found that the Brooklyn Diocese — which oversees 211 churches and 84 schools across Brooklyn and Queens – was not adequately protecting children from sexual abuse, and was not complying with its own longstanding procedures for responding abuse allegations in the church. 

The Diocesan Review Board sometimes delayed its investigations, per the OAG, and held different…

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Diocese Required to Make Comprehensive Reforms to Improve Response to Sexual Abuse Complaints and Will Comply With Independent, Secular Oversight
Agreement is Second Reached by AG James to Address Pervasive Mishandling of Sexual Misconduct Within the Catholic Dioceses of New York

New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced an agreement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn (the Diocese) to address its years of mismanaging clergy sexual abuse cases and for failing to uphold the policies and procedures it adopted for investigating and responding to abuse complaints. Instead, the Diocese applied inconsistent standards to evaluate the credibility of an abuse allegation, delayed investigations, and failed to adequately monitor priests who were accused of sexual abuse.

The agreement requires the Diocese to take significant action to prevent and address allegations of clergy sexual abuse and reform past policies, including:

• Installing an independent, secular monitor who will oversee the Diocese’s…

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Mary Dispenza spent years as a nun and working in the church before her buried memories rose to the surface. It was the start of her long journey towards justice and peace

Mary Dispenza was almost 50 when she experienced her first flashback. At the time, she was in a workshop entitled Sexual Misconduct on the Part of the Clergy, which she had been asked to attend as part of her job in pastoral support for the Roman Catholic archdiocese in Seattle. To this day, she isn’t sure what words unleashed that memory.

She recalls only how clammy her hands became and how the room suddenly started spinning as she saw her seven-year-old self being lifted on to the lap of a priest in a dark, empty auditorium. She knew in an instant who he was.

Dispenza urgently wanted to leave that workshop, but she sat through to the end. “I didn’t fall…

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A Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York has asked a judge to end its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after failing to get support from about 530 sex abuse survivors on a proposed $200 million settlement of their claims against the diocese.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, which serves about 1.2 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said on Friday that its bankruptcy had “run its course” after abuse survivors “overwhelmingly” voted against the diocese’s offer.

“The Diocese sincerely hoped that its offer of $200 million—in addition to very substantial insurance assets—would be accepted by the creditors,” the diocese wrote in a motion to dismiss filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan.

James Stang, an attorney representing abuse survivors in the bankruptcy, said that the diocese’s failure to reach a deal was “unprecedented.”

In other Catholic bankruptcies, abuse survivors were allowed to propose their own bankruptcy…

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Ugly news broke last week from our friends at The Remnant, that Arnaud Rostand, former U.S. District Superior (2008 through 2014) for SSPX has pled guilty to sexually abusing seven “young boys.” It appears that the disgraced priest attempted to blame the SSPX for this, by claiming that he had “denounced himself” to the SSPX multiple times since 1998.

Michael Matt says that he will continue to support and defend the SSPX. OnePeterFive will do the same. But we agree with Mr. Matt when he calls on all Trads to unite the clans against this evil:

[N]o priest should ever be enabled to harm kids and get away with it—whether he is FSSP, SSPX, ICK, diocesan, etc. Surely, every layperson, every parent, every Traditional Catholic on the planet can agree with that!

As one community of believers, let us beg the SSPX to address this issue immediately.

Whether or not any blame can be…

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When she couldn’t get the elevator at her Denver hotel to work, Angie Witt started to panic. She just wanted to get back to her room, and yet the lift refused to budge. A tide of dread and fear rose around her in the elevator car.

The feeling had been building since she had landed at Denver’s airport. It was the first time she’d returned to Colorado after years of avoiding the place. Witt had suffered years of sexual abuse as a child here, and returning had triggered horrific memories, she said in a recent interview. It all threatened to overwhelm her.

“I was very scared,” she said. “I was so scared that I couldn’t figure out how to make my elevator work.”

She had come on a mission. She’d be going to the Colorado State Capitol to testify in favor of SCR-001, a measure that could open the door…

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Man reveals child abuse horror on church trip to holiday island where kids were ‘dragged off into dark’ by pervert catholic priests

• EXCLUSIVE:  As a child, Kevin O’Connell was ‘abused’ on Caldey Island
• Decades later, Kevin is now fighting for justice for the island’s victims

Located three miles off the South Wales coast, the shimmering island of Caldey is in many ways every child’s dream holiday destination. 

With rolling green countryside, imposing cliffs and white sandy beaches, the island’s physical beauty leaves little to the imagination and routinely welcomes thousands of excitable children onto its shores every year. 

However, many are unaware that the island’s chocolate box aesthetics hide a chilling secret: a dark history of sexual abuse against infants ‘as young as three’ stretching back over 50 years and irrevocably tied to the secretive community of Catholic monks that inhabit the rock.

In the decades that have passed since the…

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The Louisiana Supreme Court’s recent opinion determined that a civil judgment against a priest by victims who are now adults could not be applied retroactively.

The opinion on Bienvenu v The Society of the Roman Catholic Church, Diocese of Lafayette, and St. Martin De Tours Catholic Church. In the 2018 case, Bienvenu and several other plaintiffs, ages eight to 14, came forward, accusing a priest of sexual molestation between 1971 and 1979.

Since the filing, the Louisiana Legislature has addressed the state’s civil code as it relates to civil action related to sexual or physical abuse of a minor resulting in permanent impairment, permanent physical injury, or scarring, and how far in the past retroactive damages can be sought.

After several judgments and appeals, the defendants submitted a written application to have the issue reviewed by the Louisiana Supreme Court. The justices obliged, stating, “The sole…

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Hundreds of clergy sex abuse survivors have “overwhelmingly” rejected the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s final offer of $200 million to settle their lawsuits after more than three years of bankruptcy court proceedings.

In a federal bankruptcy court filing on Friday, the diocese said it was moving to dismiss the proceedings, though it was unclear if the judge would accept the motion and what would happen next.

“The Diocese embodied its best and final offer to creditors in a proposed plan of reorganization, which included $200 million to compensate abuse claimants,” the diocese said in court papers. “Claimants have overwhelmingly voted to reject that plan, however. This chapter 11 case has run its course, and it should now be dismissed.”

The final day for voting by survivors on the proposal was Friday, and results were expected to be released on Monday. But the diocese filed its motion immediately as the voting…

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For the men who survived “evil” sexual and physical abuse in a Catholic boys’ home in Christchurch, last week was the first time authority figures gave them a reason to smile.

The reserve and street named after Marylands School is being renamed Validation, in recognition of the decades it took for abuse survivors to be believed.

The school was run by St John of God, a Catholic order, from 1955 until 1984 for boys with learning difficulties – or “naughty boys”, as survivor Eddie Marriott puts it.

He and several other survivors spoke to the Waihoro Spreydon-Cashmere-Heathcote Community Board on Thursday in favour of getting rid of the name Marylands. After the board unanimously agreed, the room broke into applause.

Marriott, Peter Wall and Adam Powell told The Press they had not dared to expect the vote to succeed, after years of horrific abuse and then decades of…

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A former Church of England priest has been given an eight-year sentence for sexual offences against a girl and woman in Sussex during the 1970s and 1980s, following a Sussex Police investigation.

Meirion Griffiths, 81, formerly of Coachwood Way, Maddington, Perth, Western Australia, was sentenced to a total of eight years imprisonment at Portsmouth Crown Court on Friday 21 February.

He had been convicted on 13 January after a six-day re-trial, of two counts of indecent assault against a girl then in her late teens in the mid-1970’s, one of them involving multiple occasions, and two counts of indecent assault against a woman then in her mid-twenties in 1982.

He had been found not guilty of two counts of indecent assault, one against each of the women.

At Winchester Crown Court on 7 August 2019 a jury had failed to agree on verdicts over the same six counts against…

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“Joannès Rivoire left a legacy of intimidation, fear and horror to his victims. His victims will now begin healing from his death,” Inuk elder says.

A priest accused of sexually abusing Inuit children in Nunavut decades ago has died in France after a long, undisclosed illness.

The Oblates of Mary Immaculate, including the Oblates of Lacombe Canada and the Oblate Province of France, say Joannès Rivoire died Thursday. He was in his 90s.

“We sincerely regret that … Rivoire never made himself available and will never face the charges that were laid against him. We further regret that efforts for him to be formally removed as a priest were unsuccessful,” he said in an emailFriday.

A recent independent review of the claims against Rivoire supported allegations that the priest assaulted six children in Nunavut.

Rivoire arrived in Canada in 1959. He stayed in the North until January 1993, when he…

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Authorities in California arrested a man this week for allegedly posing as a fake priest and stealing from numerous churches across the US.

Riverside County deputies say Malin Rostas used the alias of “Father Martin” to get access to churches and allegedly rob them.

The 45-year-old New York native was apprehended during a traffic stop and was booked for an outstanding felony warrant in Pennsylvania.

Police say additional charges are expected to be filed soon.

Investigators say there may be more victims linked to Rostas.

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A Catholic priest in Mobile was arrested today on two misdemeanor charges, 

Rev. David Tokarz, 73, a pastor at Our Savior Catholic Church in West Mobile, was arrested on the charge of sexual misconduct and harassment or harassing communications, according to the Mobile County Metro Jail Log.

He reportedly was booked into jail at 11:20 a.m. and released three hours later on bail.

News 5 contacted the Archdiocese of Mobile about this matter. Here’s the statement a spokesperson released:

“The Archdiocese of Mobile is aware that misdemeanor charges have been brought against Fr. David Tokarz, Pastor of Our Savior Church in Mobile, by an adult woman. Since this is an active legal matter, questions about the charges should be referred to Fr. Tokarz’s attorney.

“We ask for your prayers for all affected by this situation.”

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“The Catholic Church of Portugal announced on Thursday that it will pay financial compensation to victims of sexual abuse of children in the church,” the report said.

The payment amount will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

A report by a church-funded Portuguese commission in February 2023 found that at least 4815 minors had been sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – over seven decades.

The report’s authors said their findings were the “tip of the iceberg,” and commission chairman Pedro Strecht added that more than 100 priests suspected of sexually abusing children remain serving in the church.

The following month, after the report emerged, the church announced a series of steps to tackle child sexual abuse, but was heavily criticized for not taking stronger action.

It is noted that the Catholic Church offers victims of sexual violence to independently submit requests for compensation. A special committee will determine…

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The Holy See said Saturday it formally protested to France after a court there ruled that a former high-ranking Vatican official was liable for what the court determined to be the wrongful dismissal of a nun from a religious order.

The Lorient tribunal on April 3 ruled in favor of the nun, Sabine de la Valette, known at the time as Mother Marie Ferréol. The court issued a scathing denunciation of the secretive process the Vatican used to kick her out of the order, the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit, after an internal investigation.

The case is highly unusual, because it represented a secular civilian court essentially determining that the Vatican’s in-house canonical procedures grossly violated the nun’s fundamental rights.

In a statement Saturday, the Vatican said it had formally protested to the French embassy that it had received no notification of any such verdict, but…

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The Holy See on Saturday confirmed that it had sent a diplomatic letter to the French embassy over a French court ruling involving a Canadian cardinal’s alleged wrongful dismissal of a nun.

A French court in Lorient, in Brittany, earlier this month had fined Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, along with several other parties, for the October 2020 wrongful dismissal of Sabine Baudin de la Valette, whose religious name was Mother Marie Ferréol.

Baudin de la Valette, 57, had reportedly lived in the French monastery since 1987 without any significant incidents, but in 2011 she denounced “serious abuses and facts” happening in the community.

She was dismissed from the community after a visit from Ouellet. It was never made public what exactly the Vatican accused her of, though the former sister reportedly said the dismissal decree “accused her of having an evil spirit but gave no concrete reasons.”

…

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Court orders resentencing due to mistake that may have led to higher term

The convictions of a former Macomb County priest for molesting a teenage boy has been upheld by the state Court of Appeals, though he was ordered to be resentenced due to a judicial error.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel applauded the affirmation of the convictions of Neil Kalina, 68, who was found guilty by a Macomb Circuit Court jury of two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for his actions in 1984 involving a 14-year-old boy whose family attended St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township, where Kalina worked. Second-degree sexual conduct involves contact.

“I am proud of the work of our prosecutors to secure these sentences against sexually abusive former priests within the Catholic church,” Nessel said. “To see these convictions withstand appellate scrutiny reinforces my appreciation of their efforts.”

Kalina was one of 11 clergymen…

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The New York-based Sisters of Life have reported to the Vatican that a priest groomed and manipulated sisters while providing spiritual direction to members of the community. 

The priest, Fr. David Nicgorski, has previously been accused of misconduct in spiritual direction, and of sexually assaulting a religious sister. His own religious order, the Oblates of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has declined to clarify the priest’s status.  

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According to sources with knowledge of the case, the Sisters of Life filed a report to the Vatican about Nicgorski earlier this year, after The Pillar reported that the priest had groomed sisters in another religious community during spiritual direction, leading in one case to an alleged sexual assault. 

Sources said that Nicgorski allegedly acted inappropriately with members of the Sisters of Life during spiritual direction in the 2000s, in one case seriously sexually manipulating a sister under his direction. 

A Vatican investigation could lead…

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Pope Francis on Saturday sided with a group of Peruvian villagers who have complained that companies linked to a powerful South American church group have tried to evict them from their land using lawsuits and obscure land titling schemes.

In a video recorded at his residence in the Vatican, the Pope sent a message of support to members of the San Juan Bautista de Catacaos farmers community in northern Peru, who have been fending off lawsuits from companies associated with the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae since 2014.

“I know what happened to you,” the Pope said in Spanish. “Defend your land and don’t let them steal it.”

The Sodalitium is a lay group that runs schools and spiritual retirement centers in several South American countries, but is also involved in real estate, agriculture and construction companies.

The conservative group was founded in Peru in 1971 and gained thousands of members in…

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Pope Francis Saturday sent a brief video message to a group of peasant farmers in Peru who assert they’ve experienced legal and physical harassment at the hands of an organization linked to a scandal-plagued Catholic movement called the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).

In his video message, Pope Francis greeted the “peasant communities of Piura,” where the community lives, saying, “I know what happened to you.”

“Defend your land, don’t let it be stolen,” he said, thanking the community for what they do and assuring them that “I am praying for you from here, and I am close to you, and with pleasure I give you my blessing.”

He closed his message asking for prayers, and told the community to have “courage, and go forward!”

Saturday marked the 446th anniversary of the peasant farming community of Catacaos in Piura, which for years has faced a legal battle with a handful of companies operated…

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Rev. Johannes Rivoire, a former Nunavut priest accused of sexually abusing multiple Inuit children, has died.

Rev. Ken Thorson, the head of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate order headquartered in Ottawa, confirmed in an email that Rivoire, a Roman Catholic priest, died Thursday after a long, unspecified illness.

The 93-year-old spent more than 30 years working as a priest in several Nunavut communities. He was a member of the Oblate order, a religious order within the Roman Catholic Church.

Rivoire left Canada for his home country of France in 1993, around the time RCMP began investigating allegations against him.

The first three charges were laid against Rivoire in 1998. Challenges with extradition led the Crown to stay those charges in 2017.

One new charge of historical indecent assault was laid against Rivoire in 2022.

None of the charges were ever tested in court.

Through a lawyer, Rivoire denied the accusations as recently as 2022.

…

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Joannes Rivoire, a priest from France who was accused of sexually abusing Inuit children when he served at the mission in their Canadian Arctic community, has died after a long illness, officials said Friday.

The Oblates of Lacombe Canada and the Oblate Province of France said that Rivoire, who was in his 90s, died on Thursday. He had lived for years at a care home in Lyon, France.

An Inuit community in northern Canada has long sought Vatican’s assistance to get Rivoire extradited. He ministered to Inuit communities until he left in the 1990s and returned to France. Canadian authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in 1998 over several counts of sexual abuse.

Rev. Ken Thorson with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Lacombe Canada said in an email that the death may be difficult news for those who advocated for the priest to face justice in Canada.

“We sincerely…

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A judge in Argentina ruled that two bishops and two priests were liable for gender-based discrimination and violence toward a group of Discalced Carmelite nuns.

Argentine Judge Carolina Cáceres Moreno issued an 87-page ruling April 4 that said the cloistered nuns of the Monastery of St. Bernard in Salta were subjected to psychological, verbal and physical abuse by Archbishop Mario Cargnello of Salta, retired Bishop Martín de Elizalde of Nueve de Julio, Father Ignacio Loyola Pinto de Sancristóval and Father Lucio Ajaya.

“I conclude and affirm that the Carmelites have suffered acts of gender violence in the institutional sphere of the religious, physical, psychological and economic type for a period of more than 20 years,” the judge said in her ruling, according to the Argentine newspaper La Nación.

The judge ordered the four accused clergymen to undergo psychological treatment and training “in order to modify their behavioral patterns.”

Pope Francis…

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A civil court judge in Argentina’s Salta province ruled in favor of the Carmelite sisters in Salta, the provincial capital, in a case of gender-based violence against the local archbishop, Mario Antonio Cargnello, a bishop emeritus, and two priests, ordering them to undergo psychological treatment and training on gender issues in addition to an existing restraining order.

The case involves the Discalced Carmelite sisters of San Bernardo convent, who have been in conflict with the archdiocese for years. In addition, the bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Nuevo de Julio, Martín de Elizalde, is also among the defendants along with the judicial vicar, Father Loyola Pinto y de Sancristóval, and Father Lucio Ajaya.

According to the Argentine news site Infobae, the issue underlying this situation is the conflict over the alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary to María Livia Galliano de Obeid in Salta, a phenomenon that…

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Speakers at the conference said the institution still has a lot to do to better inform victims during canonical trials.

Two decades after the Vatican was first forced to reckon with the clerical sexual abuse crisis, church experts on Thursday (April 11) addressed the institution’s failures to safeguard victims, promote transparency and guarantee a safe trial.

For years, sexual abuse victims lamented that church trials under canon law fail to inform them about not just the proceedings but also the sentence. Despite Pope Francis’ efforts to reform church law and inject transparency into the institution, church officials and experts agreed much more still needs to be done.

“The church is called to speak the truth and to be true. It can’t play hide and seek with itself,” said the Rev. Jordi Pujol, a theologian teaching communications at the Pontifical Holy Cross University in Rome. The excessive prudence in addressing sexual…

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A group of Western New York parishioners sent a letter to Pope Francis about concerns with the Buffalo Diocese under Bishop Michael Fisher’s leadership.

What You Need To Know  Five WNY parishioners wrote a letter to Pope Francis with concerns about Buffalo Diocese Bishop Michael Fisher
 They cited a decline in attendance and fewer services
 Fisher said this is all part of a restructuring after the Diocese declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020, before he became Bishop in 2021
Fisher said he is open to any investigation that may come of the letter

“He’s failed miserably, both at the spiritual level and at the secular level,” said parishioner Michael Taheri. “It’s just a train wreck in this community.”

Taheri and four others wrote a letter to Pope Francis calling for Fisher’s removal and an investigation into operations, citing the closure and sale of parishes, a decline in attendance and fewer services.

All this…

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“I have to be careful I can’t comment on that, because we have the court confidentiality, but we’re in the midst of our mediation. There’s no one that wants to get out of this more than I do,” said Bishop Michael Fisher when asked about an upcoming decision in federal bankruptcy court.

It has been four years since the Buffalo Diocese declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The diocese filed in February 2020 while facing a mountain of lawsuits involving clergy sexual abuse.

On Monday, a federal bankruptcy court judge could allow individual cases to proceed in state court. They have been on hold while the diocese and survivors attempted to negotiate a settlement.

The diocese objects to the move. Survivors argue the diocese is attempting to delay the process. At least 15 survivors who filed lawsuits against the diocese have died while waiting for justice.

In total, plaintiffs filed more than…

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The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office arrested a former youth pastor in March on charges of sexually assaulting multiple children over the course of three decades.

The former youth pastor has been identified as Hipolito Gomez-Perdomo, 65, of Fort Collins. He was involved with the Vida Abundante church in northern Fort Collins, where he served as a youth pastor. Before that, Gomez-Perdomo lived in Fort Morgan and Houston.

Because of his position and the pattern reported by several victims, police are concerned that there may be additional victims who have yet to come forward.

“Sexual assault inflicts serious physical and mental harm on victims. It can be difficult to come forward, especially if the perpetrator is in a position of trust,” said Larimer County Sheriff John Feyen. “I’m grateful for the courageous young women who spoke up in this case. Their voices matter. At LCSO, we believe survivors deserve to be…

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Yesterday, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed Neil Kalina’s two Second-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct convictions, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Kalina was charged and convicted following the Attorney General’s statewide clergy abuse investigation.

Neil Kalina, 67, formerly of Shelby Township, was sentenced in July 2022 after a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old child in 1984. He was a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township from 1982-1985. He is currently incarcerated at the Cooper Street Correctional Facility in Jackson.

“I am proud of the work of our prosecutors to secure these sentences against sexually abusive former priests within the Catholic church,” Nessel said. “To see these convictions withstand appellate scrutiny reinforces my appreciation of their efforts.”

The court additionally remanded the case to the trial court for resentencing after ruling in Kalina’s favor that a technical error occurred in constructing his sentence when the Court considered acquitted conduct in tabulating an appropriate…

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