ABUSE TRACKER

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich and its parishes, along with its insurer Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, have filed a joint Chapter 11 plan of reorganization as the diocese seeks to emerge from bankruptcy.

The plan includes a $30 million trust fund for survivors of clergy sexual abuse. Contributions to the proposed fund would include $3 million from the diocese, and its parishes, $4.8 million from Catholic Mutual, and millions in proceeds from the sale of several school properties including the land at St. Bernard’s which sold for $6.5 million and the Xavier property for $2.5 million.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in July 2021, citing as many as 60 sexual abuse lawsuits against it. Since then, it has received approximately 142 additional claims from abuse survivors.

The diocese says the plan is meant to enable it to emerge from bankruptcy to continue its mission while also providing…

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• Survivor of abuse at Catholic-run schools cannot understand why church complaints body does not investigate allegations of physical assault
• Complaints body says it takes seriously all complaints of sexual abuse
• Does not say why it does not investigate physical abuse claims
• Survivor advocate calls for independent system

Warning: this story contains details of physical abuse

A man who survived and witnessed sexual and physical abuse at Catholic-run schools says the way the church investigates complaints of wrongdoing needs to change.

Brendon Bowkett reported the abuse to the church’s complaints body, but it said it only looked at sexual abuse, adding that physical abuse complaints were dealt with by the religious order involved.

Bowkett was abused when he was a schoolboy in Dunedin.

“My experience was short and sharp, so to speak, in terms of the sexual assault I experienced in the playground of St Edmund’s in the 1970s by the headmaster of…

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A Roman Catholic priest who has served numerous communities in central and eastern Newfoundland is going to trial on a charge of sexual assault.

Forty-nine-year-old Thomas Offong was charged in December of last year following an investigation by Holyrood RCMP.

They have only said the alleged incident occurred on November 23 of 2023 in Avondale, and involved a woman. There is a publication ban on her identity.

Offong has served in Avondale, Colliers, Conception Harbour and Burin, but also the Grand Falls-Windsor area.

The Crown is proceeding by summary conviction, the less serious route, instead of by indictment in the case.

The Bishop of Grand Falls, Rev. Robert Daniels, is urging people to reserve judgement until the court process is complete.

Offong has been relieved of his duties pending the outcome of the one-day trial, which is set for March of next year.

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A former teacher’s assistant at St. Joseph Catholic School in Muskogee, 19-year-old Jonathan Wiedel, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor in Indian Country.

The superseding indictment alleged that Wiedel sexually abuse four children under the age of 12 when he was employed at the Catholic school.

The crimes happened in Muskogee County within the boundaries of Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reservation.

The charges arose from an investigation by the FBI and the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office.

Wiedel will remain in the custody of the United States Marshal Service until his sentencing.

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In a surprising turn of events, the defamation lawsuit brought against Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and its former trustee chairman by former President Adam Greenway has come to an abrupt conclusion, with Greenway receiving none of the compensation he sought.

Seminary officials announced Monday, Sept. 9, they have signed an agreement with Greenway, who now lives in Florida, even though he has made repeated claims that his former employer defamed him and owes him millions of dollars. Part of that claim arises from his assertion that his firing from the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary left him unemployable.

Since his firing, Greenway has gone from a $300,000 annual salary at Southwestern to a variety of positions where he makes less than 10% of his former salary, according to court documents.

Greenway reportedly is working as a substitute teacher in a classical magnet school in Florida. He previously was dean of the Billy…

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There’s a prevalent misconception about abuse allegations that date back decades. Most people think that older accusations can’t ever really be proven one way or another. This is an ‘easy out’ for many – a way to throw up one’s hands, walk away, and feel OK doing so. But as we suggested when we used the word ‘misconception,’ we at Horowitz Law believe strongly that this notion – ‘No one will ever know the truth about these old allegations’ – is often simply not true.

Here’s a recent example from the ‘comments’ section of a major daily newspaper that reported about a recent abuse and cover-up lawsuit: “We face a conundrum here . . . there is no way to prove these allegations. We have nothing like DNA or a rape kit to provide the ‘smoking gun.’ It’s a shame that it can neither be proven or disproven.” Time and time again, we’ve heard and seen this sentiment expressed…

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The survivors also blasted Archbishop Cordileone’s decision to file for bankruptcy in the face of more than 500 lawsuits and said sex abuse plaintiffs are dying or giving up hope as the court process drags on.

For the first time in the San Francisco Archdiocese’s year-long bankruptcy proceedings, the court heard directly from a small group of survivors who were allegedly abused as children by Catholic clergy or while in the church’s care. 

For about two hours, standing just feet away from San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, the visibly shaken speakers recounted being sexually molested or raped by Catholic priests or other employees of the church. In many cases, it was the first time they’d publicly shared their stories.

“I’m 80 years old,” one survivor said as he addressed U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali. “I’m a retired fire chief, a former high school teacher, and I’ve been silent for over…

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Apollo Carreon Quiboloy was arrested Sunday after a two-week standoff with police

A well-known pastor in the Philippines was arrested on Sunday following a weeks-long standoff, and now the FBI is hoping to extradite him to the United States where he would face the possibility of life in prison stemming from allegations of sex trafficking and child abuse.

Apollo Carreon Quiboloy was arrested Sunday in the Philippines, according to NPR, CNN and CBS News.

Quiboloy, 74, is the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church and reportedly has a long relationship with former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, dating back to when Duterte was the mayor of Davao City, where Quiboloy’s church is based.

“No one is above the law,” the country’s interior secretary Benjamin Abalos wrote in a statement on Facebook, sharing Quiboloy’s mugshot.

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Philippine televangelist Apollo Quiboloy, accused of human trafficking and sex assault — including in Hawaii, was arrested this weekend in the Philippines after a two week stand-off between law enforcement and his followers.

The FBI may have considered apprehending Quiboloy in Hawaii years ago, but his arrest in Davao ended up being one of the most dramatic law enforcement dramas in the Philippines.

Thousands of Philippine police and military were met with a human blockade of Quiboloy supporters when they came to arrest him two weeks ago at the huge Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound.

Quiboloy and several aids finally surrendered early Sunday.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. gave credit to both Quiloboy and law enforcement.

“To his credit, he was still displaying a modicum of leadership to his followers,” Marcos said. “I will stress it was a very — how we say — involved police…

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He’s a famous pastor, with longstanding ties to the highest circles of power in the Philippines. But for the past two weeks, he’s also been a fugitive, and on Sunday he was arrested. Pastor Apollo Carreon Quiboloy faces numerous allegations of trafficking and child abuse. He’s also on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.

A massive police and military force was used to hunt for Quiboloy at the sprawling compound of his church, Kingdom of Jesus Christ, in an operation that began on Aug. 24. Hundreds of the pastor’s supporters formed human barricades to block search attempts. Suspecting a network of underground bunkers, authorities deployed sensing machines used after earthquakes to detect signs of activity underground.

The weeks-long standoff transfixed Filipinos, reminiscent of the way Americans viewed the Branch Davidian impasse near Waco, Texas. As in that 1993 case, Quiboloy is accused of operating a cult and using his power to…

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The Pope has addressed a crowd of 600,000 people, roughly half the population of one of the world’s most Catholic nations — East Timor.

Pope Francis  celebrated an open-air Mass for around 600,000 people in the Southeast Asian nation of East Timor on Tuesday.

The gathering took place at the Tasitolu coastal area, a place of historic significance where Indonesian forces were known to bury killed Timorese freedom fighters.

“I wish for you peace, that you keep having many children, and that your smile continues to be your children,” Francis said.

About half of the small island nation’s population attended the Mass.

The 87-year-old pontiff is on his longest overseas journey yet — a 12-day Asia-Pacific tour spanning the four nations of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

Why is the pope’s visit to East Timor significant?

The pope arrived on Monday for the three-day visit

East Timor gained independence…

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DILI – Catholic priests matter in East Timor. They matter a lot. Though the country is a 21st century and “modern” phenomenon, having become the first sovereign state of the 21st century when it gained its independence in 2002, it is in reality a traditional society grounded in the likes of faith, nation, community and family.

According to official figures, 98 per cent of its 1.3 million population is Catholic, and clergy here are revered, which arguably has as much to do with their priestly duties as it has with their roles as leaders and heroes of the country’s independence movement and bitter struggle for freedom.

In one sign of that deference, priests are referred to locally as Amu, a term which means “lord”. Such esteem, however, can result in a darker side, an example being how the few Timorese who come forward with charges of abuse or misconduct against clergy…

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‘We want to know what happened, what he went through,’ says daughter of Marius Tungilik.

An Inuk woman is fighting to get her father’s criminal complaint to the RCMP decades after he reported being sexually abused by a French priest.

But the police have denied Tanya Tungilik’s request under the Access to Information and Privacy Act (ATIP) even though Marius Tungilik and Johannes Rivoire are both dead.

“They want me to wait 20 years,” Tanya said from her home in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

“They say it is a matter of privacy.”

Tanya said the RCMP also refused a request from the Public Trustee of Nunavut, which oversees her father’s estate and applied for the file separately.

Marius, who died in 2012 at the age of 55, went to the RCMP in 1993.

He accused Rivoire, who spent 30 years preaching in Nunavut as a member of the Catholic Missionary Oblates of…

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More abuse allegations have been made against Abbé Pierre, the late French Roman Catholic priest and campaigner who was long venerated as a modern-day saint.

In July, the Emmaus anti-poverty charity which Abbé Pierre founded said it had heard allegations of sexual assault and harassment from seven women and it believed them.

Emmaus has now decided to expunge Abbé Pierre from the organisation after 17 more women spoke out about having suffered abuse at his hands.

The priest, who died in 2007 aged 94, used to regularly appear in polls as one of the most popular French people of modern times because of his tireless work for the poor and homeless.

The Emmaus movement, which he founded in 1949, operates in more than 40 countries. In France, his caped and bearded figure became an emblem of Christian self-sacrifice.

Now, following a second release of witness statements gathered by Egaé, an independent…

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Under Mr Afzal’s guidance, the CSSA introduced regular audits of dioceses and religious orders as well as practical safeguarding guidance.

The chair of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency has stepped down at the conclusion of his three-year tenure.

Nazir Afzal was appointed chair of the agency in 2021 and has played an instrumental role in developing its structure and function.

His appointment was welcomed by members of the Catholic Survivors England group who said that they were “very encouraged” by Mr Afzal’s track record with victims and survivors.

Between 1970 and 2015, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse received more than 3000 child sexual abuse charges and complaints against about 900 individuals connected with the Church.

IICSA criticised the leadership of the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols in November 2020 over a lack of personal responsibility and compassion towards victims.

The Bishops of England and Wales commissioned an independent review…

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A Sister of St. Andrew, Josée Ngalula is the first African woman appointed to the International Theological Commission, the church’s premiere advisory body on theology and the church’s magisterium, notably the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. She is one of just five women theologians on the 28-member pontifical commission.

A professor of dogmatic theology at the Catholic University of Congo in Kinshasa, and several institutes in Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the Al Mowafaqa Ecumenical Institute in Rabat, Morocco, the 64-year-old is considered one of Africa’s leading theologians.

She joined the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Andrew after secondary school and took her first vows in 1983 and perpetual vows in 1993. She studied philosophy at the major seminary of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic…

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Pope Francis received a rapturous welcome from the tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor, one of the world’s most Catholic countries, where almost half the population turned out for an open-air Mass on Tuesday.

The 87-year-old leader’s visit marks the penultimate stop of a marathon trip through Asia and the South Pacific. Local authorities estimate that a crowd of 600,000 gathered for the pope’s Mass, the Vatican told reporters.

By early Tuesday morning, streets in the capital Dili were packed with cheering crowds, from elderly worshippers to babies in strollers, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pope.

Photos showed a sea of people carrying yellow and white umbrellas, the colors of the Vatican, as they tried to shield themselves from the sun, and at one point a man was seen hosing down the crowd with water to cool them down.

Some attendees had been waiting in the seaside…

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News release, September 6, 2024

Watchdog group pushes for Pope to help clergy sex abuse victims in East Timor

BishopAccountability.org begs Cardinal O’Malley to intervene

The group urges pontiff: ‘Say the abusers’ names’

Francis must exhort the Timorese to stop supporting the abusers, they say

“East Timor’s victims surely feel afraid and alone,” they say

A US-based watchdog group that documents the Catholic church’s abuse crisis is pressing a top church official with close ties to Pope Francis to urge the pontiff to advocate forcefully for clergy sex abuse victims when he visits East Timor beginning Monday.

In a letter emailed late Thursday night Eastern time [see full text below], the group asked Cardinal Sean O’Malley, in his capacity as president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, to “intervene on behalf of the forsaken Timorese victims.”

“Urge the Pope to be the victims’ champion,” wrote BishopAccountability.org to Cardinal O’Malley….

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The Roman Catholic Church played an important part in East Timor’s independence struggle. But one of its heroes from that time has been accused of sexual abuse.

Banners of Pope Francis had been unfurled across Dili, the capital of East Timor, its streets scrubbed and its walls freshly painted. Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to try to catch a glimpse of the man, who arrived on Monday. But in some corners of the city, the excitement had turned into misery.

Joana Fraga Ximenes stared at rubble in the district of Bidau that had been her home and a street stall, from which she sold sundries. Earlier this year, she said, the authorities had given her three days to move because the pope was going to be driven down her street. Eventually, they sent bulldozers.

“Why do we have to hide the poverty?” Ms. Ximenes, 42, said over…

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Pope Francis received a raucous welcome Monday as he arrived in East Timor to celebrate its recovery from a bloody and traumatic independence battle, even as he indirectly acknowledged an abuse scandal involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning hero.

Timorese jammed Francis’ motorcade route into town from the airport, waving Vatican and Timorese flags and toting yellow and white umbrellas — the colors of the Holy See — to shade themselves from the scorching midday sun.

“Viva el Papa!” they shouted as he passed by. The 87-year-old Francis seemed to relish the greeting, smiling broadly from the open-backed pickup truck and waving as he passed by billboard after billboard featuring his image and words of welcome.

The overwhelmingly Catholic East Timor, one of the world’s poorest countries, had eagerly awaited Francis’ arrival, which came on the heels of the 25th anniversary of the U.N.-backed referendum that paved the way for independence…

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Pope Francis arrived in the Southeast Asian nation of East Timor on Monday for a three-day visit including an open-air Mass expected to attract about half of the small island nation’s population.

The 87-year-old pontiff is on his longest overseas journey yet — a 12-day Asia-Pacific tour spanning the four nations of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

The Vatican said organizers expected crowds between 700,000 to 750,000 to attend the Mass on Tuesday — more than half of the nation’s 1.3 million population. The gathering was set to take place at the Tasitolu coastal area, a place of historic significance where Indonesian forces were known to bury killed Timorese freedom fighters. 

The Pope is expected to address East Timor’s authorities in a speech on Monday. 

Why is the visit to East Timor significant?

East Timor gained independence from its neighbor Indonesia in 2002 after a brutal, decades-long occupation. The country is among the…

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Pope Francis on Sept. 9 arrived on the small island of East Timor where he issued a broad condemnation of abuse, but stopped short of specifically addressing the church’s complicated record on clergy sex abuse in a nation that is the most Catholic country in the world, outside of the Vatican.

“Let us also not forget that … children and adolescents have their dignity violated,” said the pope at a meeting with government officials just hours after his arrival. “In response, we are all called to do everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people.”

Here in the former Portuguese colony, Catholicism remains a vibrant force on the island — as was evidenced by the tens of thousands who had taken to the streets of the capital to give Francis an ebullient hero’s welcome.

The pontiff’s Sept. 9-11 visit…

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DILI – As Pope Francis begins his brief, two-day visit to East Timor, one of the key underlying issues he will have to grapple with is the clerical sexual abuse crisis, as the nation reels from allegations against highly revered members of the clergy.

Pope Francis landed in East Timor, also called Timor Leste, on Sept. 9, after making visits to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea as part of a broader tour of Asia and Oceania that will also take him to Singapore.

In a speech to national authorities after his arrival in Dili Monday afternoon, Pope Francis made a veiled reference to the abuse issue, calling on authorities to “to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people.”

However, he did not apologize or link the abuse issue to the Catholic Church or to Church representatives.

“Let us not forget that…

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Summary

• Pope Francis on third leg of ambitious four-country trip
• Vatican expects 750,000 people for open-air Mass on Tuesday
• East Timor, population 96% Catholic, recently affected by abuse scandals

DILI, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Pope Francis arrived on Monday in East Timor, a predominantly Catholic nation in Southeast Asia, for a three-day visit that will include an open-air celebration of Mass the Vatican says could draw more than half the population of 1.3 million.

The 87-year-old pontiff is on an ambitious 12-day Asia-Pacific tour, his longest overseas journey yet. His trip to East Timor, one of two majority Catholic countries in Asia, is only the second such visit by a pope.

Francis arrived from Papua New Guinea, where on Sunday he delivered medical supplies to a small town on the edge of a vast jungle, in one of the most remote areas of the world.

He landed in East Timor’s capital Dili and…

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At least 17 more people have made accusations of sexual violence against a French monk who became a household name for his charity work, according to a report published Friday, prompting his charities to distance themselves from their founder.

A Capuchin monk since 1932 and an ordained Catholic clergyman since 1938, Abbe Pierre died in 2007 aged 94. 

Born Henri Groues, Abbe Pierre left behind a legacy as a friend to the poverty-stricken and founder of the charities Emmaus and the Abbe Pierre Foundation.

With his once saintly image already shaken by allegations of sexual abuse in July, the latest claims prompted his foundation to announce it will change its name and the Emmaus charity he also founded to announce the permanent closure of a memorial to the priest.

Friday’s allegations range from non-consensual touching of women’s breasts to “kissing by force”, “repeated sexual contact with a vulnerable person”, “repeated…

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino preacher accused of sexual abuse and human trafficking in the Philippines and similar charges in the United States surrendered Sunday to authorities in his religious complex in the south and flown to Manila where he was put in police detention, officials said.

Apollo Quiboloy and four other co-accused surrendered in the vast religious headquarters of their group, called Kingdom of Jesus Christ, in Davao city after the police gave a 24-hour ultimatum for them to give up, police said. Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos earlier said Quiboloy was caught by authorities.

Quiboloy and his co-accused were flown on a Philippine air force C-130 plane to the capital Sunday night and locked up in a heavily guarded detention center at the national police headquarters, where their mugshots and fingerprints were taken, police spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said in a news briefing.

“The Philippine National Police gave an…

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This week Los Ángeles Press goes back to Ciudad Juárez for an interview with a survivor of clergy sexual abuse, Leonardo Escárcega Velázquez.

Leonardo was a student at the Seminary of the Roman Catholic diocese of Ciudad Juárez. There he was victim of a sexual attack from a deacon.

The diocese of Ciudad Juárez provides no information about who was the deacon and what is his current status within the Roman Catholic Church or if they filed a report with the civil authorities or with their leaders in Rome.

Seminaries are places where young Roman Catholic males seek to become priests. To do so, the aspiring priests must do studies of philosophy and theology, roughly six or seven years of training on top of the equivalent to High School in the U.S. or the so called Bachillerato in the Mexican system.

Sadly, besides the formal curriculum there is a “hidden curriculum”,…

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Violent and emotional abuse are part of the dark tapestry of wrongs done to children by the State and its agents

For years afterwards, I thought perhaps I had dreamed it up: the narrow plank of wood, about the length of a metre stick, hacked off at an angle on one end and speared through the middle with a rusty nail. It must have been a leftover from a domestic DIY project that she came across and thought, yes, that will do nicely. And it did: one smart whack on the palm if we were merely bold, two strikes if we were really bad. When her colour was up or she had one of her headaches, you knew it was not going to be a good day.

I have other vivid memories of my early years in school: girls being slammed into the blackboard; girls having their chairs pulled out…

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Det Chief Superintendent Colm Noonan said the crimes are ‘insidious’ and have a ‘lifelong effect’

Gardaí have received over 160 contacts regarding the inquiry into historical sexual abuse in day and boarding schools since they first made an appeal on Wednesday.

Almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse made in 308 schools run by religious orders and spanning a 30-year period were disclosed to a Government-appointed inquiry, a damning report published on Tuesday revealed.

The scoping inquiry received information questionnaires from 205 survivors, mostly men, with more than 80 schools run by 24 religious orders named by the participants. Most incidents of abuse took place between the early 1960s and early 1990s, with the highest number of reported incidents occurring in the early to mid-1970s.

An Garda Síochána issued an appeal for anyone to come forward with information and report such crimes and said on Saturday that they…

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Standard of proof for claims for redress is on the ‘balance of probabilities’

An amendment to the law on time limits for legal actions over child sex abuse would assist victims of historic abuse in schools across the State in obtaining redress, a senior lawyer has said.

Solicitor James MacGuill, who has represented several survivors of child sexual abuse, noted the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 2000 previously provided for proceedings over child abuse to be issued within 12 months of the passage of that Act.

If a similar amendment was enacted in the wake of the report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools run by Religious Orders, that would be a practical step in assisting survivors in seeking redress, he said.

The standard of proof for redress is the civil standard of the balance of probabilities and, since 2021, the Department of…

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In 2002, the head of Timor-Leste’s church abruptly resigned and moved to Mozambique amidst claims he sexually abused young boys over a 20-year period.

Pope Francis has been called on to address child sexual abuse in the Catholic church during his upcoming visit to Timor-Leste.

The request, made by influential non-profit organisation BishopAccountability.org, asked one of the United States’ most significant archdioceses Cardinal Sean O’Malley to persuade the pope to speak out against sexual abuse during his trip.

Two prominent Catholic figures in Timor-Leste have been at the centre of sexual abuse allegations, including Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who was previously the head of the country’s Catholic Church. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 and is largely celebrated in Timor-Leste for being instrumental in the country gaining independence from Indonesia in 2002.

But Belo abruptly resigned the same year, citing poor health, and was sent to Mozambique…

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The president of East Timor sees Pope Francis’ upcoming visit as a prime opportunity to promote Asia’s youngest country on the world stage, not a time to confront the legacy of abuse by influential members of the clergy in the deeply Catholic nation.

During an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, President José Ramos-Horta also predicted progress soon on a major energy project with Australia, and urged China and the United States to act as “benevolent superpowers” as they compete for influence in the Southeast Asian country.

The 74-year-old former independence fighter and Nobel laureate returned to the presidency in 2022 with campaign pledges that included tackling poverty, creating jobs and improving political stability.

Francis is due to arrive Monday in the impoverished and youthful nation of 1.3 million people, also known as Timor-Leste, following visits to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Walls are still being dabbed with fresh paint and banners and billboards…

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After declaring bankruptcy three years ago due to abuse lawsuits, The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich has announced a plan for moving forward.

The diocese announced that it’s filing a joint Chapter 11 Reorganization Plan, in agreement with The Association of Parishes of The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich and the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America. The plan includes a $30 million trust for survivors of clerical abuse, while letting the diocese recover from bankruptcy, a Friday press release stated.

The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, representing survivors and other creditors, had reached an agreement with the Diocese of Norwich on a reorganization plan over a year ago, but the Committee abandoned and withdrew from that plan in June, and then filed its own plan, which the Diocese claims will “result in years of litigation, substantial legal fees, and uncertainty as to any recovery for the survivors,” the press…

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When Pope Francis becomes the first pontiff to visit an independent East Timor, he will confront a clergy beset by child abuse scandals that have been largely ignored by the deeply Catholic country’s freedom heroes.

Cases include Nobel-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who helped Asia’s youngest nation free itself from Indonesian occupation, but who the Vatican secretly punished over claims he had sexually abused young children for decades.

There are calls for the 87-year-old pontiff to speak out on child abuse when he lands in the former Portuguese colony Monday as part of his Asia-Pacific tour.

“We ask Your Holiness to encourage the leaders and the people of Timor-Leste to take more effective measures to prevent sexual abuse,” the Timor-Leste NGO Forum, a civil society coalition, wrote in a letter Wednesday to Francis.

BishopAccountability.org, a documentation centre on Catholic Church abuse, also called on the Vatican’s sexual abuse commission chief,…

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Gisèle Pelicot spoke of the horror of being told by the police that they had evidence her husband had drugged her for years and brought men into their home to join him in raping her.

If the sight of dozens of men accused of raping her, including her husband of many decades, upset Gisèle Pelicot, she did not let it show. She swept into a packed courtroom on Thursday with steely poise, her face composed, her eyes dry beneath sunglasses. Her adult children trailed behind her.

Then, she took the stand and told the court how the life she had built over five decades had quickly unraveled one morning in late 2020, when the police summoned her to a station in southern France. There, they told her that the man she considered the love of her life had been drugging her for almost a decade and inviting strangers to come…

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In court, the woman said she was traumatized not only by what prosecutors said happened to her mother but also by fear that she herself might have been abused.

Caroline Darian and her two brothers were frantically moving their mother out of the family house that had effectively become a crime scene when she was interrupted by a call from the police saying they had something to tell her in person. It could not wait.

She was already shattered by the news that the father she always believed was loving and supportive had been arrested on suspicion that he drugged and raped her mother, and that he allegedly brought other men to join him in violating her for almost 10 years.

What, she wondered that day in November 2020, could there be left to learn?

What came next was a new shock, Ms. Darian testified on Friday in her…

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The cases against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland are one of many that are taking an unusual length of time to receive a ruling in recent years.

Last fall, more than a dozen people who say they were sexually abused as children by members of Maine’s Catholic Church huddled in a hallway outside a Bangor courtroom.

Their lawyers had just appeared before Maine’s highest court to argue whether their lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland were constitutional. They began suing after Maine removed all time barriers for civil claims of sexual abuse.

The group expected they would likely be waiting anywhere from a few weeks to six months for a decision.

More than 10 months later, they’re still waiting.

“Today marks 301 days since we were before Maine’s Law Court to defend the constitutionality of the law that provides survivors of childhood sexual abuse with access…

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Professionals who provide deprogramming therapy to victims who have been lured into cults report that cult leaders often use blackmail and extortion to prevent recruits from breaking away from the fold. These cult leaders require members to “confess” their deepest secrets and vulnerabilities as a part of the grooming process and later threaten to use these secrets against those who fail to comply with cult practices.  While cults have fascinated screenwriters and journalists alike, the media has yet to report on what is arguably the largest ongoing sex cult system to date: the web of countless closeted homosexual bishops and priests who recruit, groom, and extort same-sex-attracted seminarians for sexual favors.

While many heterosexual seminarians and priests face reprisals for rejecting sexual advances and reporting abuse by homosexual superiors, an increasing number of homosexually-oriented seminarians are coming forward to describe how gay bishops and seminary leaders try to blackmail them…

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Two victims of alleged child sexual abuse by a MorningStar Ministries volunteer youth leader filed separate civil lawsuits this week, bringing the number of lawsuits alleging MorningStar leaders mishandled reports of sexual abuse to three. A similar lawsuit against Morningstar was filed last month.

On Thursday, Erickson Lee, the youth leader named in the civil lawsuits, failed to show for a court date in South Carolina for criminal sex-abuse charges with four victims, the Herald reported Friday.  When Lee, a former cop, didn’t appear, the judge issued a warrant for Lee’s arrest, the Charlotte Observer reported Thursday.

Lee turned himself in Friday for a now nine-year prison sentence—an additional year from the original plea deal of eight years due to his missed court date Thursday, according to the Herald.

The civil suits allege that leaders of Morningstar mishandled decades of sexual abuse by other…

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A CATHOLIC priest and self-proclaimed exorcist who worked as a youth leader in Jersey has denied ten charges of sexually abusing a child in the Island.

Piotr Antoni Glas (60), who now lives in Southampton, also denied a charge of perverting the course of justice when he appeared in the Royal Court yesterday.

Mr Glas, known as Peter when his Polish name is Anglicised, is alleged to have committed the crimes while he was working for the Catholic Deanery in the Island.

He is said to have placed the child’s feet against his face while he masturbated and placed the child’s feet on his face while holding the child’s head against his erect penis.

He was also accused of two counts of indecent assault on a child by kissing the child on the mouth.

Mr Glas appeared alongside David Richard Hick (69) of David Hick Antiques, who was also charged…

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IN THE Philippines and many other countries, children are under attack by the pedophiles and child abusers that use the uncontrolled social media platforms connected to the internet by Internet Service Providers (ISP) owned by the telecommunication corporations (telecoms).

The children are groomed, seduced, lured and entrapped. Many are sexually abused on live shows by video streaming to international customers for money done through the telecoms’ ISP servers. The child abusers are sometimes their own parents.

Many good parents are worried sick and helpless to protect their children from these criminals that are enabled by the telecoms and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, X and others. Children are lured by predators or their peer group to watch child sexual abuse images online on a mobile phone connected to the internet via the telecoms. As a result, many 10- and 12-year-old boys have and are sexually abusing girls as…

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THE OUTRAGEOUS case now in court against a Catholic priest in Cagayan province is still ongoing. He allegedly videotaped his acts of sex abuse of a minor over whom he had moral ascendancy and blackmailed her into continuing to have sex with him until she broke-down and begged others to help her escape his control over her.

He admitted the several sexual assaults but claims in defense that she gave consent which she repeatedly and vehemently denies. The suspect is in jail and the trial has huge international interest and could last until 2026.

According to the Women and Children Protection Unit, research shows that from2021 to 2022, a shocking 72 percent of all child abuse cases were committed by sexual assault, many initiated by grooming over the internet.

As many as 6,000 abuse cases were recorded in 2021, and in 2022 more than 6,600 cases were recorded. Other research…

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“The door is always open for them to come back or for new people to join us,” said the Diocese’s director of the office of worship.

In Western New York, there are about 550,000 Catholics, but some are considering taking a pause, or taking their faith elsewhere — at least for now.

The Diocese is in financial crisis, as it navigates bankruptcy to resolve roughly 900 sexual abuse claims.

To achieve its goal, the Diocese is selling property and merging or closing parishes and schools, among other things.

The Diocese faces other challenges: fewer priests, contributions, and parishioners.

These problems are nerve-wracking for some Catholics, who are considering switching to other denominations or pausing their participation with the Diocese, according to a pastor and some Catholics who spoke to News 4.Complete list of Catholic churches Buffalo Diocese plans to close or merge

“I think they’re leaving a church organization…

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A priest has been removed as the associate pastor of a Catholic school and church in Lincoln Park, amid an investigation into allegations of child exploitation and child molestation.

Cardinal Blase Cupich sent a letter to St. Josaphat Parish and School at Southport and Belden avenues, informing the parish that he asked Fr. Martin Nyberg to step aside from his duties after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services opened an investigation into the allegations against him, involving a “public penance service,” or a confession service.

“Father Nyberg, who has served your parish as associate pastor from July 1, 2024, strenuously denies the allegations,” Cupich wrote. “In keeping with our policies, we reported the allegations to civil authorities and offered assistance to the accusers. I asked Father Nyberg to step aside from ministry until civil authorities have completed their investigations and our Independent Review Board has presented its recommendations…

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“Any resources required will be made available to support each individual who has or may come forward to report a crime to An Garda Síochána”

In the three days since An Garda Síochána appealed for people to come forward to report crimes relating to historical sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders, they have received more than 160 contacts.

The garda appeal, made on Wednesday, came in the wake of the publication of the Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders.

The investigation, led by senior counsel Mary O’Toole, found almost 2,400 allegations of abuse were made about 884 alleged abusers in 308 day and boarding schools run by 42 Catholic religious orders across the country.

In Cork alone, there were more than 300 allegations of abuse against more than 130 alleged abusers in more than 30 schools.

…

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More than a dozen more people have made accusations of sexual violence against the late French humanitarian monk Abbe Pierre, according to a report published Friday. With Pierre’s once-saintly image already shaken by allegations of sexual abuse in July, these latest claims prompted his namesake foundation to announce that it would be changing its name and the Emmaus charity he also founded to announce the permanent closure of a memorial dedicated to him. 

At least 17 more people have made accusations of sexual violence against a French monk who became a household name for his charity work, according to a report published Friday, prompting his charities to distance themselves from their founder.

A Capuchin monk since 1932 and an ordained Catholic clergyman since 1938, Abbe Pierre died in 2007 aged 94. 

Born Henri Groues, Abbe Pierre left behind a legacy as a friend to the poverty-stricken and founder of the charities Emmaus and…

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When the Series Producer of RTÉ’s Doc on One first sat down to record an interview with Mark Ryan in London two years ago, it was a step into the unknown.

Mark was the first point of contact for Liam O’Brien on a documentary which would be broadcast just months later with the title ‘Blackrock Boys’.

Following his meeting with Mark, it became clear to Mr O’Brien as he started digging that events were occurring “behind the scenes” at a bigger scale in relation to the Spiritans.

Weeks later he interviewed David Ryan who revealed further details and “the depravity of what had occurred”.

“It was almost confessional, they both spoke for an hour, they were ready to tell their story,” he said.

Following the broadcast of ‘Blackrock Boys’, RTÉ’s Liveline programme was inundated with calls.

Victims and survivors of alleged historical abuse at schools around the country told their…

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Ireland will launch a commission to investigate sexual abuse following a report revealing 2,395 abuse claims since the 1960s

The Irish government is to set up an official commission of investigation into sexual abuse at schools run by Catholic religious orders after a preliminary inquiry highlighted widespread complaints over decades.

“This report concurs this isn’t just a church problem, but a society problem — there are wider cultural norms in play, not just religious ones,” said Gerard Gallagher, spokesman for the Dublin-based Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland, or AMRI.

“But we’ve been dealing with scandals involving the church for the past 30 years, and we’ve always encouraged the fullest cooperation with investigations,” he said.

The lay Catholic was reacting to the government-commissioned inquiry report, detailing 2,395 abuse claims at 308 order-run schools since the 1960s.

In an OSV News interview, he said the association had been…

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Since the publication of the Scoping Inquiry report on abuse in Catholic schools, various ministers have condemned what happened. They have rightfully called on the religious orders involved to pay restitution to their victims.

However, this is the same Government that has done nothing to implement a 2014 ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in favour of Irish citizen Louise O’Keeffe, regarding the abuse she suffered at national school.

This brave woman should not have been pushed all the way to the ECHR in a quest for justice. It is another case of deflect and deny by our Government.

Their obligation to the children who attended national schools is no more and no less than that of the religious orders they have now called out.

It appears some ministers would like Justice to peek out from under her blindfold to ensure the scales are tilted in their…

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Several religious orders have been given “legal advice” to stop participating in reviews by the Irish Catholic Church’s child abuse watchdog, over concerns about “data protection”. The National Board for Safeguarding Children in Ireland (NBSCCCI) believes that the law needs to be changed before religious orders can share personal data with it. It comes after the landmark Scoping Inquiry into historical sexual abuse in religious-run schools this week found that only 13 religious orders have been the subject of reviews of their child safeguarding since 2016. The inquiry looking at religious-run day and boarding schools in Ireland revealed almost 2,400 allegations of abuse, against 884 accused abusers, involving 42 religious orders. The period in question ranged from the 1960s to the 1990s. The wide-ranging 700-page report also examined the existing child safeguarding standards in the Catholic Church. And it has emerged that only 13 reviews have been published by the…

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In a significant turn of events, an array of Catholic Ursuline Boarding School documents related to the boarding school students of several Indigenous nations in Montana and Alaska will remain in Montana. Several U-Hauls loaded with everyday records, photos, ledgers, scrapbooks, and other archives were originally slated to transfer to the Catholic Jesuits in Boston, Massachusetts.

It’s considered win for area tribes whose children attended the former Ursuline Academy starting in 1912, because keeping the archives at home in Great Falls History Museum allows easier access to area descendants researching their family histories.

“The ever-increasing need for research and documentation of our Tribal encounters and associations with others is becoming more urgent each passing year,” Steve Lozar, Confederated Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreille, said in a statement to the museum. “Having a centralized repository with access to family historical records would be of the greatest value to all who desire…

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Over a decades-long period, more than 30 Catholic priests and missionaries moved to remote island nations after they had allegedly abused children in the West, or had been found to do so.

[See also the groundbreaking series Runaway Priests in the Dallas Morning News: Untouchable (links to 18 articles); Safe Harbor (4 articles); In the Shadow of the Vatican (7 articles, including one about Fr. Julian Fox); Too Much Tolerance (3 articles); and 2 Priests, 1 Former Cleric Leave Jobs Abroad.]

Pope Francis will be welcomed by children bearing flowers, a 21-gun salute and a candlelight vigil after he lands in Papua New Guinea on Friday. It will be the first papal visit in three decades to the Pacific Islands, a deeply Christian region — but one that has played a little-known role in the clergy abuse scandal that has stained the Roman Catholic Church.

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• “I am conscious that, behind every paragraph is the experience of real people who, as children, suffered abuse and violence in a place where they should have been safe” Bishop Doran

I have been reading through the Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders. It is not easy reading by any means, but I am conscious that, behind every paragraph is the experience of real people who, as children, suffered abuse and violence in a place where they should have been safe. They have the right to tell their story. The tragedy of the report is not simply that there are so many of them, but that so many of them had to carry their experience alone for so many years, before they felt sufficiently free to tell someone else.
 
While the report relates specifically to Religious-run schools, it would be naive…

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Bishop Kevin Doran of Ireland emphasized abuse victims “have the right to tell their story” after the publication of a report looking at sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders in the country.

The Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders was released earlier this week, and said there were 2,395 allegations of sexual abuse in respect of 308 schools recorded by the religious orders that ran those schools.

The allegations were made against 884 alleged abusers, around half of whom have died.

Most of the abuse cases occurred between the early 1960s and the early 1990s, with the highest number of reports happening in the early to mid-1970s.

“I am conscious that, behind every paragraph is the experience of real people who, as children, suffered abuse and violence in a place where they should have been safe,” Doran said…

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Bishop Kevin Doran, President of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has released a statement expressing closeness to victims of sex abuse and stressing that measures have been put in place in Catholic schools to ensure the safeguarding of all children.

The statement, together with a separate statement from the Catholic Education Partnership, followed the publication in Ireland of a Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders.

Actions, not words

In his statement, Bishop Doran emphasises that “real people” endured abuse in places meant to protect them and notes the tragedy that many survivors had to carry their pain alone for years before speaking out.

While the report focuses on religious-run schools, the Bishop warns against being “naive in the extreme” in thinking that child abuse wasn’t also present in other schools across society.

Bishop Dolan also notes that the dioceses…

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Ireland’s Catholic Church and wider society are in shock following revelations on 3 September that an inquiry has uncovered significant numbers of uncovered cases of child sexual abuse in Catholic religious schools.

A total of 2,395 allegations were found relating to 308 schools, involving 884 alleged abusers, over half of whom are now deceased. The inquiry called on the Irish Government to set up a redress scheme and that religious orders should contribute.

Seventeen special schools – schools for children with disabilities or behavioural difficulties – recorded 590 allegations involving 190 alleged abusers, a particularly high percentage.

The cases relate to at least 22 of the Republic’s 26 counties, and involve schools run by 24 religious orders.

Regarding allegations involving the more major orders: there were 820 allegations in respect of 132 schools run by the Christian Brothers; 329 allegations at six schools run by the Spiritans (formerly Holy Ghost Fathers); and 294…

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Societal shock is useless unless it stimulates the right response. Over three decades we have heard deeply disturbing reports about repulsive abuse by members of the Catholic church.

Restitution or atonement, if they came at all, were nowhere near proportionate to the monstrous harm done. Once again we hear a minister insist that religious orders “must put their hands up and come forward” to play their role in uncovering abuse and dealing with redress for victims. Justice Minister Helen McEntee may mean what she says, but we have been here before.

No matter how despicable the crimes, the outrage, anger, reproach, helplessness and revulsion are nothing new. Even messages of empathy and gestures of contrition, without commensurate follow-through, ring hollow.

We are failing, and will continue to fail, as long as the meaningful acts that might make a difference in putting back together the broken lives of survivors are missing.

…

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A NUMBER OF people who gave testimony to the scoping inquiry into sexual abuse in religious schools described how they felt they couldn’t tell anyone what was happening to them when they were children because of the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland at the time. 

In some cases, survivors described being intimidated and threatened to remain silent, including some being told they would go to hell or be killed. 

The scoping inquiry revealed almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse of children in schools run by religious orders. There were 844 alleged abusers in over 300 schools run by 42 religious orders across the country.

The report of the scoping review, which was published on Tuesday evening, details the harrowing testimony given by survivors.

The majority of them told the inquiry that they were not able to tell anyone they were being abused due to feelings of shame, thinking…

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Just weeks ahead of his visit to Belgium in late September. victim of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church penned a letter to Pope Francis appealing for more to be done for survivors.

Published in Le Soir, the letter urges the Pope to understand the survivors’ pain and outlines their demands. “Despite your clear and convincing approach on this subject, you have never addressed us, the victims, or more precisely all the survivors,” the signatories wrote. “Isn’t it time to send this vital message to the world, which so many shattered lives need, often without realising?”

Pope Francis is set to have a private audience with sexual abuse survivors during his visit to Belgium. “This encounter should not be the end of the story, but rather the beginning of a sorely needed journey of liberation for hundreds of thousands of people,” the letter continued.

The letter further proposes numerous…

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The letter was published ahead of Mr Francis’ visit to Belgium in September, where the pope plans to meet with victims of the church.

ultiple victims of sexual abuse committed by the Catholic Church in Belgium have called on Pope Francis to recognise their suffering in an open letter published on Thursday.

“Although you have repeatedly taken up this subject with clarity and force of conviction, you have never addressed us, the victims or more precisely the survivors – as a whole,” said the open letter published by local media.

“Isn’t it time to send the world this precious missive that so many shattered lives need, often without them even knowing it?” the letter said.

Published ahead of the pope’s visit to Belgium later in September, where the pontiff is planning to meet with victims of the church, the letter by six survivors detailed their demands to the pontiff.

The…

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The move comes as the civil case remains open on appeal before the Maryland Supreme Court, which is set to hear oral arguments this month.

Lawrence Bell, a Black Catholic deacon in Maryland accused of sexually abusing a child decades ago, has been cleared by the Archdiocese of Washington to return to ministry. He was named in a civil action filed by an anonymous party in October 2023.

Cardinal Wilton Gregory announced the news on July 17 in a letter to parishioners at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, noting that all canonical and civil procedures were properly followed in the investigation.

“After careful review and consultation, I have not seen any evidence that supports the allegations made in the John Doe lawsuit,” he wrote. “Accordingly, I have made the determination to lift the precautionary restrictions that had been placed on Monsignor Mellone and Deacon Bell, effective…

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A lawsuit filed in Ontario, Canada, earlier this year accuses Father Thomas Rosica, CSB, a once-prominent media figure, of sexually abusing a younger priest more than two decades ago — an allegation Rosica denies.

Rosica was CEO of the Salt and Light Media Foundation for 16 years and a prominent writer, speaker, and media figure before resigning from a number of senior positions in 2019 following reports that many of his written works contained significant plagiarism.

Rosica was also formerly an English-language spokesman for the Vatican and president of Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario.

In a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of Justice in London, Ontario, on March 1, the plaintiff claims Rosica “sexually abused, assaulted, and molested” him about 24 years ago while in a position of “authority and trust,” and that Rosica’s religious community, the Congregation of St. Basil, “took no steps to stop the behavior or to…

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The Diocese of Scranton announced on Thursday the removal of the Rev. John Ruth after the Diocesan Review Board concluded that allegations that the priest had inappropriate sexual contact with a minor appeared credible.

Ruth, 65, was suspended and removed from ministry as of Sept. 4 due to the sexual abuse claim, which was reported to have occurred from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s.

The Diocese of Scranton said it conducted an investigation and an initial review by the Diocesan Review Board found the claim appeared credible.

“The Diocese of Scranton’s ‘Policy for Response to Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors,’ and the United States Conference of Catholic ‘Bishop’s Charter for Protection of Children and Young People,’ both have a zero-tolerance policy for the sexual abuse of a minor and require the removal from ministry of any cleric or other religious, upon determination of a credible claim of…

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[Click on the following links to view the Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders, by Mary O’Toole, SC, June 2024, released September 3, 2024:

Title Page, Acknowledgements, Glossary, Table of Contents

Volume 1: Executive Summary – Introduction – What Survivors Have Told Us

Volume 2: The Extent of Allegations of Sexual Abuse in Irish Schools – The Context of Sexual Abuse in Irish Schools

Volume 3: Lessons of Past Inquiries into Child Abuse

Volume 4: The Current Child Protection Framework – Implementing Outcomes Sought by Survivors – Recommendations Based on Survivors’ Views

Volume 5: Appendices, including lists of total allegations and total accused persons organized by Religious Order Schools, Special Schools, Community Schools, and Christian Brothers Data.]

Nearly 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse across hundreds of Ireland’s religious-run schools have been documented in…

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More than 200 people, mostly men, gave detailed and often graphic accounts of the abuse they suffered and witnessed in more than 80 schools

“When it happened on Monday and Tuesday you knew you were lucky because that meant you were off Wednesday and Thursday,” said one. “But you were probably back on for the Friday … it felt like a monster behind you.”

As part of the Government’s scoping inquiry, 205 people, mostly men, completed questionnaires on their experiences of abuse in more than 80 schools, across at least 22 counties, run by 24 religious orders.

Of those, 149 later gave interviews or written testimonies about the abuse they suffered.

They described being “molested, stripped naked, raped and drugged amid an atmosphere of terror and silence”, the report says, describing the recollections as “distressing and often harrowing to read”.

“He’d get through as many of us…

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Survivors of sexual abuse within the Catholic church are calling on the Maryland Attorney General to complete his investigation into abuses in all Maryland churches.

They also want the church to drop its challenge to a Maryland law that eliminates the statute of limitations for victims. 

The Archdiocese of Washington, which controls several churches in Maryland, is fighting to keep the statute of limitations with arguments before the Maryland Supreme Court scheduled for next week. 

Survivors Speak

“To me, it’s my life goal to protect children from the abuse that I suffered, and we can do that going forward. The church says on one hand they want to support us and with the other hand, they want to take the law away” said Teresa Lancaster, a victim of abuse by Father Joseph Maskell whose story has been highlighted previously on WJZ and nationally in The Keepers, a Netflix…

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Calls to establish Commission of Investigation without delay and include all schools

A scoping inquiry report into sexual abuse at schools run by religious orders has been welcomed by survivors as they feel they are “not alone and their stories can be believed”, a solicitor representing victims has said.

Avril Scally, who is representing a number of survivors, said the report had been welcomed as “the level of abuse is now out in the open”.

Ms Scally, who is partner at law firm Lavelle Partners LLP, said: “One survivor told me that ‘a burden has been lifted off his shoulders’. The survivor’s voices, long silenced by fear and shame, must now be heard and respected.

“This report is only the beginning of a healing process for them, a necessary journey towards accountability.”

An initial scoping report published this week found a systemic culture of abuse in…

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Testimony from victims details instances of abuse in 308 schools, including special education facilities, spanning 30-year period

Almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse made in 308 schools run by religious orders and spanning a 30-year period have been disclosed to a Government-appointed inquiry, a damning report published on Tuesday revealed.

In the scoping inquiry’s report, which detailed a systemic culture of abuse in religious-run day and boarding schools throughout the country, 2,395 allegations of abuse were reported against 884 people. Of those accused of abuse, less than half are still alive, according to the report.

It is likely that the true number of allegations made is much higher, the report noted, given the level of underreporting of childhood sexual abuse.

The inquiry also revealed that a high number of allegations are concentrated in special education schools, where there were 590 allegations recorded in 17 institutions involving 190 alleged…

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The government’s scoping inquiry found almost 2,400 allegations of historical sexual abuse by hundreds of schools run by religious orders across Ireland.

A commission is set to investigate sexual abuse at Irish schools run by Catholic religious orders after a preliminary probe found almost 2,400 allegations of historical abuse, the government said.

Education Minister Norma Foley described the preliminary investigation’s report on Tuesday as a “harrowing document, containing some of the most appalling accounts of sexual abuse”.

The inquiry found there were 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across all parts of the country between the years 1927 to 2013. More than half of the people accused of abuse are now dead.

Most of these allegations were reported by 42 orders which formerly ran schools or still do across Ireland, and 17 special schools also recorded 590 allegations involving 190 alleged abusers.

The scoping inquiry heard interviews or received written…

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Inquiry disclosed a disproportionately large number of allegations at these institutions

One of the most disturbing findings in the scoping inquiry report in religious-run schools, published on Tuesday, was that a quarter of the 2,395 abuse allegations made by survivors of 308 schools originated in just 17 special needs schools.

A total of 590 allegations involving 190 alleged abusers were made by victims from the 17 schools, a disproportionately large number among the total 884 accused from all 308 schools.

The single highest incidence of abuse reported to the inquiry concerning a single institution was at Lota, a special school run by the Brothers of Charity at Glanmire, Co Cork. There were 166 allegations of abuse made against 50 alleged abusers by people who were at the school.

Dr Margaret Kennedy, a consultant on disability, abuse and child protection who is familiar with…

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The subject always deserves consideration, but two recent articles on sex abuse within the church are worth discussion. The first, published by Crux, declares — sadly, to the surprise of no one — “Abuse crisis in the Catholic Church shows no signs of abating.” The second came via OSV News: Catholics in the Sicilian city of Enna are protesting a diocesan cover-up of abuses against minors, committed by a local priest while he was still a seminarian, between 2009 and 2013.

The Italian court found Father Guiseppe Rugolo guilty of “the sexual abuse of two young teenagers … fully aware that he could count on the support of the religious leadership,” adding that Bishop Rosario Gisana of the Diocese of Piazza Armerina was “well aware for many years of the reports made concerning the abuse suffered by [these victims].” Damningly, audio recordings entered into evidence at Rugolo’s trial revealed the…

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On a previous occasion, orders pledged half but costs spiralled and the State’s share rose

As the country comes to terms with the illumination of yet another dark chapter from its past, several decisions await the Government – or more likely, say insiders, the next one – which will be closely watched by abuse survivors but will also have far-reaching financial implications for the State.

Minister for Education Norma Foley has said that a group of senior officials will now consider the report and recommend how the Commission of Investigation should proceed. Senior sources involved in preliminary discussions on the issue say the senior officials’ group will also consider the nature and scope of any redress scheme that will see victims receive compensation payments. But while few dispute the necessity for a redress scheme, there is growing alarm across Government at the potential costs…

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A redress scheme for victims of sexual abuse in schools cannot wait until a full inquiry is completed, the Taoiseach Simon Harris said yesterday, suggesting an acceleration of compensation proposals which have not yet been agreed by Government.

While there is general agreement in Government that a redress scheme for victims will be necessary, there is growing concern at the potential costs which some senior figures fear could run into the billions.

Senior sources pointed out that the Government has not decided on a redress scheme and a senior officials group will have to make recommendations on the Commission of Investigation before any plan for compensating victims is agreed.

But the Taoiseach’s comments suggested impatience with a more cautious approach when he told reporters in Kyiv, Ukraine, that compensation for those abused in religious-run schools could not be “parked” until after a full statutory inquiry into the abuse…

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An Garda Síochána appeals to victims to come forward but says there may be limitations as to the action it can take in some cases

Statements expressing sorrow from religious orders who ran schools implicated in past child sexual abuse will be “hollow words” if they are not followed by commitments towards redress for survivors, Taoiseach Simon Harris has said.

Compensation and redress for those abused in religious-run schools could not be “parked” until after a full statutory inquiry into the abuse was completed, Mr Harris said.

An initial scoping report by Mary O’Toole SC, published this week, found a systemic culture of abuse in religious run day and boarding schools, uncovering thousands of cases where children were allegedly sexually abused by those in positions of power.

In response to the scoping report the Government has committed to establish a full Commission of Investigation into past…

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Survivors of child sexual abuse in Maryland on Wednesday demanded expediency from the state attorney general in its investigations of the Catholic dioceses of Washington and Wilmington, Delaware.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, told reporters at a news conference that they hoped the Maryland Office of the Attorney General would release a report soon on child sexual abuse committed within the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington, both of which operate in several Maryland counties.

David Lorenz, Maryland director of SNAP, said he hoped the attorney general’s report on the abuse in those outposts of the Catholic Church would resemble the report that office released on abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Released last April, that document spanned more than 400 pages, detailing the abuse of more than 600 children by 156 clergy and others in the church, dating to the…

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Attorneys for Lawrence Hecker, charged with raping teen in 1975, urge judge to declare him incompetent to stand trial

The retired Catholic priest and self-acknowledged child molester Lawrence Hecker’s trial on rape and kidnapping charges – scheduled for 24 September – could be significantly delayed yet again after a medical report on the 92-year-old’s mental health has been filed in court.

A court-ordered psychiatric evaluation diagnosed Hecker with dementia, saying he has “good days and bad days”, according to a statement from his defense team. The defense attorneys Matthew McLaren and Eugene Redmann issued a statement Tuesday urging judge Benedict Willard to declare Hecker incompetent to stand trial.

Willard has not determined whether Hecker can be competently tried.

The report by the doctors Sarah Deland and Janet Johnson was filed in the court record on Tuesday but was not immediately available. McLaren and Redmann said the definitive dementia diagnosis “will…

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[Click on the following links to view the Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders, by Mary O’Toole, SC, June 2024, released September 3, 2024:

Title Page, Acknowledgements, Glossary, Table of Contents

Volume 1: Executive Summary – Introduction – What Survivors Have Told Us

Volume 2: The Extent of Allegations of Sexual Abuse in Irish Schools – The Context of Sexual Abuse in Irish Schools

Volume 3: Lessons of Past Inquiries into Child Abuse

Volume 4: The Current Child Protection Framework – Implementing Outcomes Sought by Survivors – Recommendations Based on Survivors’ Views

Volume 5: Appendices, including lists of total allegations and total accused persons organized by Religious Order Schools, Special Schools, Community Schools, and Christian Brothers Data.]

Almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse were recorded by 308 schools run by religious orders

The…

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An Irish state inquiry uncovered a “truly shocking” level of sexual abuse at religious schools, primarily those run by the Catholic Church, over nearly a century with 2,395 allegations, the government said on Tuesday.

The preliminary “scoping inquiry” found 884 alleged sexual abusers at more than 300 schools across the country between 1927 and 2013. Most of the cases occurred from the 1960s to the 1990s, the government said.

This step will be followed by a commission of investigation that is likely to find additional cases, Education Minister Norma Foley told a news conference.

“The level of abuse is shocking. It is truly shocking, and so is the number of alleged abusers,” Foley said.

The preliminary inquiry was based on records held by religious institutions and the testimony of victims. It is the latest in a series of reports in recent decades into allegations of abuse and mistreatment by priests and…

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Inquiry to follow preliminary investigation unearthing 2,400 allegations of historic abuse

The Irish government is to set up a statutory commission of inquiry into sexual abuse at schools run by Catholic religious orders after a preliminary investigation found almost 2,400 allegations of historic abuse.

The investigation, led by a leading barrister, Mary O’Toole, documented 844 alleged abusers in 308 schools run by 42 religious orders across the Republic of Ireland.

One hundred and thirty seven people who participated in her inquiry completed in-person interviews and 12 provided written submissions.

Most of those who took part were men in their 50s and 60s.

The Irish education minister, Norma Foley, described the report as a “harrowing document, containing some of the most appalling accounts of sexual abuse”.

The inquiry was launched in 2022 after an RTÉ radio documentary highlighted historic sexual abuse at the fee-paying Blackrock College, a Dublin school associated with…

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The representative body for Catholic orders across Ireland said it is “deeply sorry” that victims experienced abuse in religious-run schools.

The Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious in Ireland (AMRI) said it “welcomes” the publication of the Scoping Inquiry Report into historical sexual abuse in Catholic-run schools from 1927 to April 2023.

The report reviewed allegations of historical child sexual abuse, made against religious, lay staff, and clergy.

In a statement, a spokesperson for AMRI said: “We acknowledge the courage and bravery of the victims and survivors.

“We are deeply sorry that they experienced abuse in religious-run schools.

“We are acutely aware that sharing personal, sensitive, and traumatic experiences can cause additional pain and suffering.

“We recognise that we can never know the depth of the pain and suffering survivors have endured and continue to endure.

“AMRI actively worked with those of its members who are involved in running schools to facilitate…

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Father Naveed Thomas was removed from pastoral responsibilities following allegations of rape

A rape-accused Catholic priest, who was removed from pastoral duties in Pakistan, has been arrested on charges of criminal intimidation after he allegedly threatened to kill Bishop Indrias Rehmat of Faisalabad.

Father Naveed Thomas was arrested on Aug. 31 after additional district and sessions judge Amjad Ali Bajwa canceled his bail over a case filed by Adil Masih, a security guard at the Faisalabad Bishop’s House, on Aug. 14.

The priest was taken into custody from the court, said the Faisalabad Bishop’s House media coordinator Ijaz Bhatti.

On Aug. 9, when denied permission to enter the bishop’s house, Thomas became angry and “started hurling abuse at the bishop, took out a pistol and threatened to kill him,” Masih said the complaint filed at Rail Bazar police station in Faisalabad.

Thomas demanded about US$12,500 and later uploaded a…

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MorningStar Ministries president Rick Joyner said that “evidence is mounting” that the South Carolina prophetic ministry’s former president Chris Reed engaged in physical sexual misconduct in a statement to the ministry’s congregation Sunday.

“There’s a lot of evidence and it’s mounting that, yes, there was physical stuff that happened,” Joyner said. “Evidence is mounting, and I don’t know where it’s going to lead, but we’re not going to cover up anything.”

Joyner also admitted Sunday that he allowed Reed to be acting president of MorningStar during a “restoration” process for Reed’s 2021 misconduct with an adult student.

Also, on Saturday, Justin Perry, a former MorningStar pastor and leader, said in a public statement  that Reed became acting Morningstar president just a couple months after Morningstar’s board learned of Reed’s misconduct. Perry said that’s why he resigned from Morningstar in 2022, after 20 years of involvement with…

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The deeply Catholic country is struggling to come to terms with historic cases of child rape by Catholic clergy.

This week, Pope Francis embarked on an 11-day trip to Asia, which will include visits to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore. For the past year, there have been rumors that he might add a visit to Vietnam following significant diplomatic efforts by the Vatican and Hanoi. The Communist Party of Vietnam has managed the not-too-difficult task of securing the Vatican’s silence over its repression of religionists, but it seems that Francis’ entourage deemed a trip to a communist state a little too much for the aging pope.

We’ll see if he confronts a far more difficult issue when he lands in Dili. In September 2022, Dutch journalist Tjiyske Lingsma published an article in De Groene Amsterdammer detailing how Nobel Peace Prize-winning East Timorese independence hero Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo…

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As part of his long trip to Asia and Oceania, Pope Francis will be visiting the small nation of East Timor from September 9 to 11 — the second visit of a pope to the territory, but the first since East Timor was formally recognized as independent in 2002. 

While small as a nation, East Timor is in fact the most Christian country in Asia, with around 90% of the population professing Catholicism (the Christian population of the Philippines is bigger in real terms, but lower in percentage), which could explain the pope’s trip. 

But a look at the recent history of the region shows that the connection between the Church and the East-Timorese goes much deeper than simple demographics.

In 1930 the population of East Timor was around 4% Catholic. By the 1970s, after the Church invested heavily in education and mission, that increased to about 30%. Then, in…

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[Click on the following links to view the Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders, by Mary O’Toole, SC, June 2024, released September 3, 2024:

Title Page, Acknowledgements, Glossary, Table of Contents

Volume 1: Executive Summary – Introduction – What Survivors Have Told Us

Volume 2: The Extent of Allegations of Sexual Abuse in Irish Schools – The Context of Sexual Abuse in Irish Schools

Volume 3: Lessons of Past Inquiries into Child Abuse

Volume 4: The Current Child Protection Framework – Implementing Outcomes Sought by Survivors – Recommendations Based on Survivors’ Views

Volume 5: Appendices, including lists of total allegations and total accused persons organized by Religious Order Schools, Special Schools, Community Schools, and Christian Brothers Data.]

The scoping inquiry into allegations of abuse at schools run by religious orders has…

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Minister for Education Norma Foley has announced that a Commission of Investigation is to be established, following a recommendation in the Report of the Scoping Inquiry set up to examine historical sexual abuse in day and boarding schools run by religious orders.

The Scoping Inquiry has been told of some 2,395 allegations of historical sexual abuse, involving 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across all parts of the country between the years 1927 to 2013. Most of these allegations have been reported from the records of some 42 religious orders who currently or previously ran schools in Ireland.

The establishment of a State inquiry into historical sexual abuse is one of a number of recommendations made by Senior Counsel, Mary O’Toole in her report to the Minister.

The Scoping Inquiry organised a Survivor Engagement process where those who had experienced sexual abuse in day and boarding schools run by religious…

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There were almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse in more than 300 schools run by religious orders in Ireland, according to a report commissioned by the Irish government.

The Education Minister Norma Foley said it was the first time the scale of abuse had been disclosed, and it was “truly shocking”.

The Irish cabinet has agreed to establish a full statutory investigation, following the findings of the “scoping inquiry report”, which was published on Tuesday evening.

At a news conference, Ms Foley said the report found there were 884 alleged abusers in 42 orders which formerly ran schools or still do.

‘Real number of allegations likely to be more’

The primary source of data on allegations of sexual abuse was the religious orders and the schools themselves, the report said.

There were 2395 allegations of sexual abuse recorded in respect of 308 schools, though the report warns that the real…

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The Government has accepted the recommendation to establish a commission of inquiry while a redress scheme for survivors will also be required

The survivors of horrific sexual abuse at schools run by religious orders have made it clear what they want from the Government – a statutory inquiry and a redress scheme.

They left the decision as to exactly what shape the inquiry, and the scheme, should take to the scoping inquiry chaired by Mary O’Toole SC. Its report, published on Tuesday, said it was aware of 2,395 abuse allegation in 308 schools run by religious orders and fears that many more remain unreported. Some 182 survivors spoke in detail to the inquiry about what happened to them between the early 1960s and the early 1990s.They told of their strong belief that this could not have gone unnoticed by staff and other members of the…

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[Click on the following links to view the Irish Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders, by Mary O’Toole, SC, June 2024, released September 3, 2024:

Title Page, Acknowledgements, Glossary, Table of Contents

Volume 1: Executive Summary – Introduction – What Survivors Have Told Us

Volume 2: The Extent of Allegations of Sexual Abuse in Irish Schools – The Context of Sexual Abuse in Irish Schools

Volume 3: Lessons of Past Inquiries into Child Abuse

Volume 4: The Current Child Protection Framework – Implementing Outcomes Sought by Survivors – Recommendations Based on Survivors’ Views

Volume 5: Appendices

1. Survivor Engagement Guide to Potential Government Responses

2. About the Survivor Engagement Process

3. Survivor Engagement Participant Information Booklet

4. Report on Child Protection for the Scoping Inquiry by Dr. Helen Buckley

5. Report on…

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Work on preparations for the inquiry by officials, including legislation to be brought before the Oireachtas, will begin shortly

The Government has formally agreed to establish a statutory inquiry into the sexual abuse of children at day and boarding schools.

Work on preparations for the inquiry by officials, including legislation to be brought before the Oireachtas, will begin shortly and there is also expected to be extensive consultations with survivors of abuse.

The proposals were brought to the Government on Tuesday morning by Minister for Education Norma Foley following agreement among the three Coalition party leaders on Monday night.

It is understood that the Government intends to set up a Commission of Investigation, in line with the report’s recommendations. Discussions on the terms of reference will take place over the coming weeks, it is expected, but the recommendation from the scoping report is that all types of school should be…

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Dioceses that are currently in or heading toward financial bankruptcy have already suffered from decades of moral bankruptcy that led to these monetary woes.

Recently, a friend expressed his frustration with the Justice for Survivors Act signed in the California legislature in 2023. This Act ends the civil statute of limitations for minors who have experienced sexual abuse. While my friend vehemently agrees that abusers ought to get their reckoning, he took issue with the preponderance of claims related to clergy who were long deceased. The result of this preponderance is the necessity for several dioceses in California to file for bankruptcy, while more teeter on financial turmoil. In his mind, why should the Archdiocese of Los Angeles be under financial strain due to the actions of priests who passed away decades ago?

My friend posed an interesting topic for me to reflect on. Being a financial professional who has worked in…

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When people think about seminary formation, they may think primarily about classes in theology and philosophy – along with, perhaps, some basics in canon law, and practical classes like how to deliver a good homily.

But in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, there’s another element to seminary formation worth mentioning.

Three years ago, The Saint Paul Seminary introduced what it calls “process groups” as part of its propaedeutic year – the first year of seminary formation, which is dedicated to prayer rather than academics.

During the propaedeutic year, the seminarians do not take classes. They undergo an intense process of discernment, fasting from media and computers.

And at The Saint Paul Seminary, they also participate in process groups, consisting of about eight seminarians each, and which are focused on talking through challenges the men experience in their lives – including relationships and mental health, along with struggles in studies or…

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A statutory inquiry is to be set up in sexual abuse by Catholic clergy at some of the top schools in the country.

Blackrock College and Belvedere College have been rocked by admitted allegations of sexual abuse that was not tackled by management.

Cabinet decided today to establish the investigation, which is short of a a public inquiry.

A report is going out to survivors today, former teenage pupils who are now in their late 50s and 60s.

The terms of reference are to be drawn up for the inquiry which officials stressed will have strong powers, with representatives of the Spiritan order, which ran Blackrock, and the Jesuits, controlling Belvedere, expected to fully cooperate.

A scoping report that went to Cabinet made harrowing findings, sources said, with many other religious-run schools also the subject of allegations.

The scale of the alleged abuse opens a new front from Diocesan sexual…

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[Includes link to brief trailer with clips of statements by survivors David Schappelle, David Lorenz, and Eva Dittrich.]

Survivors, Advocates Join Legal Team Before September 10th Arguments

Summary

The consortium of Greater Baltimore law firms comprised of civil rights litigators from Jenner Law, Grant & Eisenhofer, and Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico will hold a comprehensive litigation update-news conference on September 5th prior to the upcoming (September 10th) Maryland Supreme Court arguments on the constitutionality of the Child Victims Act of 2023 (CVA). Joined by several survivors-plaintiffs, advocates and the team will review the history of the legislation, and litigation (in state and federal courts), and the devastating impacts on generations of childhood sexual abuse survivors. They will also present the inaugural screening of “Survivors Stories: At the Crossroads of Justice,” a video featuring several leaders in the fight…

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A Slovakian priest who’s spent the last twenty years in Italy has announced that he’s leaving the priesthood in order to marry a woman with whom he said he’s “madly” in love, and with whom he’s expecting a child who’s been diagnosed with a serious heart condition.

The decision, which was announced Sunday by Bishop Marco Brunetti of the northern Italian diocese of Alba, who praised the “great transparency and sense of responsibility” of 44-year-old Father Tomas Hlavaty, who will now be formally removed from the priesthood and returned to the lay state.

The case has renewed debate over priestly celibacy, in part because, by all accounts, Hlavaty was a popular pastor whose departure has been publicly lamented by Catholics in the six small towns he served, including the mayor of one of those communities.

In an interview with La Repubblica, Italy’s most widely read daily newspaper, Hlavaty described the circumstances…

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Any journalist who’s ever worked a beat cultivates as many contacts as possible, but usually there’s that one source you rely on more than others – the figure whose intelligence, integrity and reputation mean that when the chips are down, it’s the voice you always want front and center.

For the first fifteen years or so of my career covering the Vatican, for me that go-to figure, especially on anything involving Catholic theology, was Jesuit Father Gerald O’Collins, who became not just a valued source but a good friend.

His Aug. 22 death at the age of 93, therefore, left me profoundly sad. More than that, it leaves the entire Catholic Church impoverished, at a time when his sanity, balance, and lack of rancor will be especially missed.

I first met O’Collins in the mid-1990s, when he was already two decades into his 33-year run on the theology faculty of…

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Father Frank D. Almade had just a smidge of the maverick about him.

A thought leader and pastor in the Catholic Church, he was focused less on giving sermons and more on taking up the mantle for the vulnerable, the hungry and for the alleged victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy.

Since his ordination in 1978, Father Almade was best known for his social ministering, as a co-founder of the Jubilee Soup Kitchen in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, author of “Just Wages for Church Employees,” a book borne of his Ph.D. thesis, and as a board member at Catholic Charities for more than 35 years.

He had, as Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik put it, “a unique ability to see things as they truly were.”

Before his retirement last summer, Father Almade served in many parishes over the years, overseeing mergers in places like St. John Fisher in…

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Many dioceses have failed to follow Jakarta archdiocese in implementing a protocol to protect vulnerable people

Catholic women activists want Pope Francis to address sexual violence within the Church during his four-day visit to Indonesia, where many dioceses have not implemented steps to deal with such crimes.

Pope Francis’ arrival in Indonesia on Sept. 3 should “strengthen the Church’s resolve on protecting women and children,” said Theresia Iswarini, a Catholic activist and the commissioner of the state-run National Commission on Anti-Violence Against Women.

During his pontificate, Francis initiated several policies to prevent sexual violence in the Church. However, many dioceses in Indonesia have failed to implement them, Iswarini noted during a discussion on “Voices of Catholic Women Activists Ahead of Pope Francis’ Arrival” on Aug. 30.

“They [dioceses] must immediately draft and implement protocols to boost the protection of women and children from sexual violence,” Iswarini demanded.

…

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Arnoldus Yansen thought for certain he was going to become a Catholic priest, just like his older brother, cousin and uncle.

He attended St. Peter Major Seminary, a bastion of priestly vocations located in the middle of a jungle on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in Muslim-majority Indonesia. Known familiarly as Ritapiret Seminary, St. Peter Major has produced 13 bishops, more than 580 diocesan priests and 23 deacons in nearly 70 years of existence.

But Yansen won’t be among them. He tried to shake off what he thought were last-minute jitters before entering the priesthood. Instead, Yansen took off his clerical robes for good and joined the hundreds of prospective priests who resign or fail to take up Catholic vocations every year in Indonesia.

“I felt like I didn’t fit in anymore and that I would be able to do more if I left,” said Yansen, 26, who is now…

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