ABUSE TRACKER

In a potentially significant development for hundreds of survivors of childhood sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy and others, the Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday agreed to rehear its recent decision striking down a law that gave abuse survivors more time to file lawsuits.

The state’s high court said it would reconsider its 4-3 decision, which ruled as unconstitutional the state’s three-year “lookback window” for filing legal claims in childhood sexual abuse cases.

The vote to rehear the case was 5-2. Justices Jefferson Hughes and James Genovese dissented. Chief Justice John Weimer said he would order oral arguments “promptly during the month of May.” 

The court did not explain why it agreed to reconsider its March decision. Justices Scott Crichton and Piper Griffin were in the majority that rejected the lookback window in March but joined those in the minority — Weimer and Justices William Crain and Jay McCallum — in…

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A man who says he was abused by a former Chicago priest known as “Father Happy Hands” told his story following a settlement last month.

Larry Kubbins, 60, held a press conference opening up about the alleged abuse by the Rev. Daniel Mark Holihan, who died in 2016, and had a message for survivors across the world.

“It’s been a weight I’ve had for almost 50 years,” Kubbins said. “They need to not be afraid to report it. I was not smart enough to listen to my mother and walked away from it.”

Kubbins alleges Holihan sexually abused him twice — once at Our Lady of the Snows and once at a lake house belonging to Holihan in Wonder Lake. During the alleged abuse, Kubbins and the attorney general’s office said children would call Holihan “Father Happy Hands.”

“He couldn’t keep his hands off boys, he took me to the…

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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The Louisiana Supreme Court has granted a request to reopen and revisit a controversial opinion ruling that civil judgments against priests could not be awarded retroactively to adult survivors of child sexual abuse.

On May 10, the high court requested a rehearing in Bienvenu v The Society of the Roman Catholic Church, Diocese of Lafayette, and St. Martin De Tours Catholic Church, which was reversed and vacated in March.

Attorney Kristi S. Schubert, of the Lamothe Law Firm, LLC, recalls that “when the
Bienvenu ruling came out in March; there was an enormous public backlash. Abuse survivors
felt that the Court had robbed them of their last chance for justice. And Louisiana citizens were
outraged that the Court had granted child molesters an untouchable constitutional right to get
away with child rape.

Soon after the justices voted to…

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They ask: How many other sex offenders are active in the diocese? In a letter to Bishop Malesic, they express concern about his “carelessness” and urge him to take immediate action

For Immediate Release, May 10, 2024 

In the wake of revelations yesterday that two accused sexual predators are helping to lead Mass in Cleveland parishes, two watchdog groups are calling on Bishop Edward Malesic to act immediately to identify and remove all other diocesan personnel who might pose a risk to children and young people. 

Calling the news “alarming,” a co-director of BishopAccountability.org and a longtime Ohio leader of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) are urging Malesic to take “personal responsibility” for ensuring that only adults with clean records work at his parishes, schools, hospitals, and summer camps. 

In the last 24 hours, the public has learned of two accused sexual abusers serving in leadership posts…

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Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson this week announced legal action against the Archdiocese of Seattle over what the prosecutor said was a refusal to cooperate with the state’s ongoing investigation into an alleged cover-up of clergy abuse there. 

Ferguson’s office said in a Thursday press release and at an accompanying press conference that it was “initiating legal action against the Seattle Archdiocese” over the archdiocese’s alleged refusal “to comply with Ferguson’s investigation into whether the three Washington dioceses of the Catholic Church used charitable funds to cover up allegations of child sex abuse by clergy.”

The attorney general’s office said that pursuant to that investigation it had sent subpoenas to Washington’s three Catholic bishoprics — the Seattle Archdiocese as well as the Dioceses of Spokane and Yakima — but that the Seattle Archdiocese “refused to cooperate.”

Ferguson subsequently filed a petition in King County Superior Court demanding that the attorney general’s…

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The Catholic Accountability Project lined up pictures outside the Attorney General’s Office Tuesday of 151 clergy members in Washington who so far have been convicted of sexual abuse. The organization said they believe the AGO opened an investigation in August of three more bishops in the state. 

An investigation into three Washington dioceses of the Catholic Church became public Thursday for the first time after the state Attorney General announced legal action against the Seattle Archdiocese for failure to comply with a subpoena.

The Diocese of Spokane, Diocese of Yakima and Seattle Archdiocese were all first subpoenaed in summer of 2023 for an investigation looking into whether allegations of sex abuse by clergy was covered up using charitable funds, according to a news release from the AGO.

The investigation is now public as the state has moved to seek a court order to enforce the second subpoena against the Seattle…

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Washington state is suing the Archdiocese of Seattle in an effort to compel the institution to turn over documents related to sexual abuse allegations against its clergy, Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Thursday morning.

Ferguson said his office has been investigating child sexual abuse allegations made against Catholic Church clergy across Washington state dating back multiple decades, including in Spokane and Yakima.

“We have sent subpoenas to all three Washington diocese…so far all three refuse to cooperate,” Ferguson said during a press conference.

He added that it’s unusual for his office to have to ask a judge to force an entity under its investigation to turn over documents.

“The church has more information than is shared with the public,” Ferguson said. “It has released names, but has not released its files on these abusive priests. No one has read files. The purpose of our investigation is to uncover whether the…

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Yakima – The Diocese of Yakima, along with the Seattle and Spokane dioceses, has come under the investigative lens of Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The investigation focuses on whether these dioceses have used charitable funds to obscure allegations of child sex abuse by clergy members. While the Seattle Archdiocese has already faced legal action for non-compliance, the Yakima Diocese remains under close observation as the investigation progresses.

Attorney General Ferguson, expressing disappointment in the lack of cooperation from the Catholic Church, emphasized the need for transparency. “Washingtonians deserve a public accounting of how the Catholic Church handles allegations of child sex abuse, and whether charitable dollars were used to cover it up,” Ferguson stated. He stressed that the goal is to uncover the truth and provide a voice to the survivors.

The investigation was triggered by concerns that the Seattle Archdiocese had historical knowledge of abusive behavior by…

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 9 2024

Seattle Archdiocese refusing to cooperate with subpoenas

SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced his office is initiating legal action against the Seattle Archdiocese. The Archdiocese has refused to comply with Ferguson’s investigation into whether the three Washington dioceses of the Catholic Church used charitable funds to cover up allegations of child sex abuse by clergy.

The Attorney General’s Office sent subpoenas to the Seattle Archdiocese, the Diocese of Spokane and the Diocese of Yakima. The Seattle Archdiocese refused to cooperate. Consequently, Ferguson filed a petition to enforce the subpoena in King County Superior Court. The office is asking the court to hear the petition on May 22.

The Attorney General’s Office has a longstanding policy that it does not comment on investigations, including confirming whether they exist. Because the Seattle Archdiocese refused to comply with the office’s subpoena, the office now must seek…

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Offender was part of service lead by Bishop Malesic Groups that assist sexual abuse victims are outraged that the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland allows a convicted sex offender to help lead masses for months.

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Groups that assist sexual abuse victims are outraged that the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland allows a convicted sex offender to help lead masses for months. The advocacy groups question how this can happen in light of the church’s documented history with pedophile priests.

“I will praise you Lord,” could be heard in song on video of a mass from April 28 of this year. It was the voice of Keith Kozak, 44, from Brooklyn. News 5 Investigators found he has been on the alter at St. Thomas More Church, leading the congregation in prayer and song. “I shall not die but live…,” he sang during a mass there on April 21.

ADVOCACY GROUPS:…

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The Catholic church is refusing to cooperate with a Washington state investigation into whether it unlawfully used charitable trust funds to cover up sexual abuse by priests, Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Thursday, asking a court to force the Seattle Archdiocese to turn over decades of records.

The archdiocese called the allegations a surprise, saying in a statement that it welcomed the investigation and has been collaborating since receiving a subpoena last July. The archdiocese shares the state’s goals — “preventing abuse and helping victim survivors on their path to healing and peace,” it said.

“We have a good understanding of the content of our files and we have no concern about sharing them with the Attorney General lawfully and fairly,” the statement said.

Ferguson, a Catholic himself, told a news conference that the archdiocese has refused to provide even a single document that had not already been made public,…

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Lawrence Hecker pleaded the fifth 117 times as he detailed how the Catholic church protected him for more than two decades after he admitted to molesting children

Longtime New Orleans Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker received a special honor from the Vatican nearly 25 years ago despite having confessed to molesting children. Then, for another two decades, church leaders in the city strategically shielded him from law enforcement and media exposure – while also providing him with financial support ranging from paid limousine rides and therapeutic massages to full retirement benefits, according to his own, previously unreported testimony.

A sworn deposition Hecker gave in private in 2020 shows exactly how high-placed Catholic church officials in New Orleans let him keep his elevated position for years, even after they had been advised to oust him from the clergy and – much later – publicly acknowledged that he was a child predator.

“It wasn’t a…

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Legal analysts in Florida and around the country are closely following the developments in a case that hinges on whether or not a law that extends the statute of limitations in child sexual abuse cases should be applied retroactively. The lawsuit was brought by a Michigan man who claims that he was molested by a Catholic priest when he was a minor. The Michigan Supreme Court heard oral arguments from attorneys representing the plaintiff and defendant on April 16.

The timeline of events

The man alleges that he was molested by the priest at a juvenile detention facility in 1999. He was 16 years old at the time. The man says that he realized that he had been the victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest during a therapy session in 2020. He filed a lawsuit against the priest, the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Roman Catholic…

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A Chicago man, who a serial pedophile priest sexually abused, has settled his claim with the Chicago Archdiocese more than 40 years after the abuse took place.

A Chicago man, who a serial pedophile priest sexually abused, has settled his claim with the Chicago Archdiocese more than 40 years after the abuse took place.

The priest is Father Daniel Mark Holihan, who worked at Our Lady of Snows Parish in Chicago until 1990 and is accused of molesting dozens of parish children.

One report reveals there were at least 40 reported survivors.

Lawrence Kubbins, who is now 60 years old, says the abuse occurred from 1979-1980.

He is represented by attorney Michael Garabedian, who helped him get a settlement in the low six figures.

Father Holihan was removed from the Catholic Church years after accusations continued to be made against him. He was…

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Explorer posts, overseen by the Boy Scouts, are supposed to foster an interest in policing. They have faced nearly 200 allegations of misconduct.

[The Marshall Project is investigating abuse in police Explorer programs. Fill out this form to help us.]

STOUGHTON, Mass. — The last known person to see Sandra Birchmore alive was a police officer.

He stopped by her apartment days before the elementary school teacher’s aide, 23 years old and newly pregnant, was found dead in February 2021. The medical examiner later ruled her death a suicide.

The officer worked for the Stoughton Police Department, near Boston, where he first met Birchmore about a decade earlier through the agency’s Explorer post — part of a youth mentorship program run by local departments across the country.

He acknowledged having sex with her when she was 15, according to a court ruling citing the officer’s text messages. That document indicates that his…

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A Kansas City prayer room with ties to disgraced International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) Founder Mike Bickle, gathered Tuesday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of IHOPKC, despite the ministry’s ongoing sex abuse scandal.

Hope City, a prayer room, community center, and church, is led by Bickle’s sister, Lisa Stribling, and her husband, Ray. According to a leaked recording of the ceremony, Lisa Stribling and her son, Richy Bickle, spoke at the event. Stribling praised Bickle and upheld the so-called “prophetic history” of IHOPKC as a reason to keep the 24/7 prayer ministry going.

“It doesn’t matter if the lights are out and we have a candle, we’re going to be praying for revival until we see the things we’ve bled for come to pass,” said Stribling.

The event, which gathered more than 100 people also featured videos of disgraced “prophet” Bob Jones and…

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DUBUQUE, Iowa (KWWL) — A former Dubuque priest charged with 5 counts of second-degree sexual abuse is expected to make his initial appearance in court in Dubuque next week.

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Leo Riley was arrested in Florida and was charged with 5 counts of sex abuse.

Father Leo Riley is accused of sexually abusing young boys in the mid-1980s during his time with the Archdiocese of Dubuque. Riley moved to Florida in 2002.

Last month, Riley was taken into custody in Florida. He bonded out of the Charlotte County Jail on the condition that he face the charges in Iowa.

He’s expected to make his first court appearance in Dubuque on Monday, May 13.

A new criminal complaint details the alleged abuse from Riley from multiple victims who have come forward. The complaint is embedded below. Some of the accounts may be disturbing to some readers.

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A California pastor has been arrested following allegations he sexually abused two foster children under his care, according to a press release published by the Hesperia Police Department last week.

Jose Manuel Lozano, 54, served as a bilingual pastor at Zion Assembly Church of God in Hesperia, California, an affiliate church of Zion Assembly Church of God International, according to the LA Times. Hesperia is located about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Lozano was removed from his office at the church March 15, when the allegations became public, a church representative told the LA Times. The representative said the church doesn’t condone Lozano’s “ungodliness.”

The pastor was arrested on April 25 and faces felony charges of continuous sexual abuse of a minor, police said.

According to police, Lozano abused two girls, ages 10 and 16, while fostering them. Detectives believe there may be additional…

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Investigative Summary: Allegations of sexual misconduct against a former Lutheran pastor have split a North Austin congregation and sparked an extensive church investigation. KXAN spoke with people alleging abuse, dug into the pastor’s long history of ministry and followed the church’s effort to move forward with accountability and transparency.

AUSTIN (KXAN) – For decades, Dr. Helen Maidment carried mixed memories of Gethsemane Lutheran Church in North Austin.

On one side, there was the joy of a fulfilling spiritual and social life centered around the church. Her husband started a church camp, and they hosted parties with church friends.

“But in the shadows, there were things that weren’t so good,” Maidment told KXAN.

That was the other side: pain from the disturbing memory of a sexual assault, she alleges, by Gethsemane’s former pastor in 1998. Maidment said she pushed that memory to the back of her mind, but it weighed on…

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The diocesan priest at the center of the controversial destruction of a historic Vatican II altar at a parish in Cleveland’s Buckeye neighborhood was on leave from the priesthood for a decade following allegations that he “groomed” and attempted to sexually abuse a teenager, before being reinstated to ministry in 2012.

Fr. Jeffery Weaver initially asked for the leave in 2002, as reporting on the sexual abuse crisis peaked and he had admitted to an inappropriate sexual advance toward a young man.

Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon reinstated Weaver to active ministry in 2012. No explanation was given at the time of reinstatement. Lennon died in 2019.

The Cleveland Diocese’s website shows that since May 2012 Weaver has been “awaiting assignment.”

Nancy Fishburn, diocesan executive director of communications, confirmed in an April 9 email to National Catholic Reporter that Weaver “does not currently have a parish assignment,…

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Rev. Luis Camacho has returned to Guam after being off island for about nine years while a canonical investigation was underway related to his arrest in 2015, according to a release from the Archdiocese of Agana. 

“Father Luis’ priestly faculties remain in restriction. He has been notified that he is restricted from serving in any parish, school or archdiocesan office at this time. Apostolic Administrator Father Romeo Convocar is reviewing his case assisted by others in the archdiocese before any return to public ministry is considered,” the release stated.

Camacho was arrested in March 2015 after police officers found him in a vehicle with a 17-year-old girl at a beach in Hågat. He was charged with custodial interference, according to Post files.

The Archdiocese stated that Camacho resigned as pastor of the San Dimas & Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Malesso’ and the San Dionisio Catholic Church in Humåtak, and was prohibited…

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The Maryland Supreme Court has agreed to decide the constitutionality of a new state law that eliminated the statute of limitations for survivors of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits and allowed more people to sue the institutions that enabled their victimization.

The Child Victims Act of 2023 took effect on Oct. 1, 2023.

In a letter on Tuesday, Gregory Hilton, clerk of the Maryland Supreme Court, wrote that the case has been scheduled for oral argument in the September 2024 session. He also outlined a briefing schedule.

U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar previously sent a question about the constitutionality of the law to the Maryland Supreme Court arising from a lawsuit that a woman filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which alleges it was negligent and reckless and failed to protect her from sexual abuse in…

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Ricardo Reyes Mata, 34, served as parochial vicar of the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

A Dallas priest is accused of inappropriately touching two children, police said Tuesday.

Ricardo Reyes Mata, 34, a priest with the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, was arrested Monday on two counts of indecency with a child, Garland police said in a statement. Two children reported the inappropriate contact after the priest visited a home in Garland, police said. Detectives are working with the Dallas diocese.

En español:Cura católico de Dallas es arrestado por cargos de indecencia con dos menores en Garland

In a statement, the diocese said it immediately filed a report with Child Protective Services and law enforcement after becoming aware of allegations by a juvenile girl of inappropriate touching. The priest was also removed from public ministry, the diocese said, adding that no inappropriate activity was reported on diocesan property.

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Police in Garland, Texas, said today in a news release that they had arrested a priest from the Catholic Diocese of Dallas on two felony counts of indecency with a child. We are grateful that law enforcement has charged the clergyman. However, we are concerned that there may be other victims and we urge the Diocese to do outreach. 

The Diocese of Dallas said that it was made aware last week of accusations that Fr. Ricardo Reyes Mata inappropriately touched a juvenile girl at a residence in Garland. According to the Diocese’s statement, Church officials immediately filed a report with Child Protective Services and law enforcement. Fr. Mata was also removed from public ministry.

We commend the Diocese for this appropriate response. However, we also believe that this arrest shows us once again that the persistent claims from Church officials that the abuse scandal is a thing…

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Pope Francis has appointed Reverend James Mark Beckman as Bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, almost a year after the previous bishop resigned under pressure following claims he mishandled sex abuse allegations.

The Vatican announced the appointment in its Tuesday noon bulletin. As is usual, the announcement made no mention of his predecessor or the circumstances under which he left the post.

Bishop-elect Beckman is a priest of the Diocese of Nashville where he has served as pastor of Saint Henry parish since 2015, according to the announcement. He earned his master’s degree in religious studies from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium in 1989 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1990 for the Diocese of Nashville.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Richard Stika’s resignation last June, closing a turbulent chapter for the southern U.S. diocese that was marked by a remarkable revolt by some of its priests. They accused Stika of…

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In a six-man race for the Southern Baptist Convention presidency, one candidate made headlines over the weekend for his stance on the 42 sexual abuse lawsuits reportedly pending against the denomination.

Critics pounced when David Allen, a seminary preaching professor, called those lawsuits a “distraction” from the gospel imperative.

This set off a chain of social media posts, mainly on X, with Allen’s supporters and critics parsing what he did or didn’t say.

Sexual abuse survivor advocate Tiffany Thigpen shot back on X: “Actually, we ARE distractions because unlike you all, we refused to sit in the pit of despair. We believe in God’s justice and mercy We are reaching back despite our suffering to keep it from happening to others We ARE ministry. We ARE distracting the show. THAT is your problem.”

Clergy sexual abuse survivor David Pittman tweeted: “Thank you for exposing your heart by referring to us as distractions.”

Among Allen’s…

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The researchers carried out 82 interviews and four focus groups. The participants were drawn from 14 of the 22 Catholic dioceses and 16 religious orders across England and Wales.

The whole Catholic Church should listen more to the victims and survivors of clerical child abuse and the experience of affected parish communities and consider appropriate action, a new report says.

The Cross of the Moment report is based on research led by Durham University’s Centre for Catholic Studies. It is the first study of how the abuse crisis has impacted the whole Catholic community in England and Wales.

The report suggests that aspects of the culture and practices of the Catholic Church are implicated in how clerical child sexual abuse has happened. They also partly explain how the response of the Church has often failed, causing further pain and harm, described by victims and survivors as…

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Victims of spiritual or sexual abuse, some nuns and monks choose to leave their communities. After years of religious life marked by misconduct, finding balance and re-establishing a social life proves to be a real challenge.

When religious life, undermined by misconduct, turns into hell, leaving is just the first step. As abuses of power, spiritual abuses, and situations of dominance have been exposed in some religious communities in recent years, victims who have managed to escape face a monumental challenge: regaining the balance of an ordinary life.

“It was very violent to leave the monastic habit overnight,” explains Manon*, who left after ten years in a Benedictine community. The religious habit protects and exposes at the same time. Shedding it is a relief and a loss of identity. “It weighs on me, but it is a passport,” confides a sister currently struggling. “The first time I removed my veil,…

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The community of Île-à-la-Crosse had a special screening Monday of a short film about the survivors of the Île-à-la-Crosse boarding school who are trying to be officially recognized by both the federal and provincial governments and compensated for what happened, just like at Indian Residential Schools.

Metis Nation-Saskatchewan Vice-President Michelle LeClair explains that Île-à-la-Crosse, with its Metis students, was left out of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. She says that back in the 1840s it was a Catholic school funded provincially as well as federally, but the harms and the abuse were the same as at the Indian Residential Schools.  The students were called a number instead of by their names, they were not able to speak their language, and survivors suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

LeClair says when the residential schools were being recognized and compensated there just wasn’t the proper recognition at the time for the…

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Interview with a psychotherapist and victimologist who assists individuals who have left religious communities because of abuse

Isabelle Chartier-Siben, a physician and victimologist, serves as the president of the association “C’est à dire,” which supports victims of abuse, particularly within the Church. In an interview with La Croix’s Capucine Licoys, she discusses the care of religious individuals who have left deviant communities, a group she has been assisting for about 30 years.

La Croix: Many former religious abuse victims describe a control that continues beyond leaving the community. How does this mechanism work?

Isabelle Chartier-Siben: When a religious person leaves due to a change of vocation, there is a period of readjustment to the ordinary world. This can be a painful but surmountable stage. In deviant communities, the outside world is somewhat “paranoidized,” described as dangerous, perverse, and incapable of understanding their supposed privileged relationship with God. The victim ends up convinced of the superiority…

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A woman who was sexually abused by a Hillsong worship leader has refused to sign a settlement offer by the Australian megachurch because it included a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).  

On Thursday, Anna Crenshaw, daughter of a Pennsylvania pastor, told reporters outside of a court in Sydney, Australia, “I will not give up my voice. This has never been about money for me, but about justice and accountability, which we’ve not received this week.” 

According to NCA Newswire, the failed settlement would have required Crenshaw to sign an NDA. It also required Crenshaw to co-sign a statement saying that Hillsong had reported the assault immediately, which would conflict with her repeated statements in recent years. 

A former student at Hillsong College, Crenshaw, now 26, has stated that she was touched inappropriately by former Hillsong staff administrator Jason Mays at a party in early 2016.

In…

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Key Points:

• Christa Brown, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and a well-known advocate for reform in the SBC, publishes new book, “Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation.”
• In Q&A, Brown discusses how she’s grown more skeptical and less hopeful of change in the SBC despite recent steps that many others consider substantive.

It’s long passed the point at which Christa Brown gives the Southern Baptist Convention the benefit of the doubt.

A survivor of clergy sexual abuse and well-known advocate for reform, Brown initially sought change in a state Southern Baptist convention in Texas and then in 2006 shifted her attention to the entire Nashville-based SBC. Her attitude about her advocacy has changed over the years.  

“I will not apologize for my skepticism one bit. I think they have earned it, and it will be a long time before they re-earn any trust from me,” said…

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Three women are accusing the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and a megachurch in Houston of failing to protect them from a youth pastor who sexually abused them as minors, according to a lawsuit filed last month.

The women, referred to as “Jane Does,” allege the SBC and Champion Forest Baptist Church “invited, encouraged, and enabled a predator to be part of their trusted inner circle,” the lawsuit states. The women are asking for more than a million dollars in damages.

The women were 14, 15, and 16 when former youth pastor Timothy Jeltema started to sexually abuse them, the lawsuit states. The women claim the pastor took advantage of his position of power to do so.

Jeltema is currently in prison after pleading guilty to child sex crimes in 2022, The Roys Report (TRR) previously reported. He was sentenced to five years for two charges of online…

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While membership in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is down, participation in worship and baptisms went up in 2023. But a new statistical report found that many Southern Baptist Convention churches do little to address sexual abuse.

The bad news for Southern Baptists is that the denomination, the nation’s largest Protestant group, shrunk in 2023, with a drop of about a quarter-million people.

The good news, according to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual statistical report, is that the decline slowed from 2022. In addition, of those who remained, more went to church and more newcomers took the plunge to get baptized.

The SBC’s 2024 Annual Church Profile, released Tuesday (May 7), showed that membership dropped to 12.9 million members, the lowest since the late 1970s. Having peaked at 16.3 million in 2006, membership has been in decline ever since, with nearly 3.5 million members in total lost. About half of…

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Local committee suggests Ruyant Crescent be renamed Jak Zheii Place

A street in Inuvik, N.W.T., might soon have a new name.

Ruyant Crescent is a short residential loop in the town’s west end, named after Father Max Ruyant, a Catholic priest who ran Grollier Hall for more than 20 years. The hall was a government-funded boarding facility, established in the 1950s for children from the Sahtu, Beaufort Delta and Kitikmeot regions in the N.W.T and Nunavut.

Grollier Hall, which closed in the ’90s, was the site of “many acts of sexual and psychological abuse,” according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. Former students have also shared stories of children who died there.

Jak Zheii Place, the suggested new name for the street, was put forward by the town’s volunteer naming committee. The name means “blueberry” in Gwich’in, and was proposed after the committee sat down and…

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Legislation needed to limit use of stay applications and ensure justice for child abuse survivors, MP says

New South Wales parliament will consider a bill to further restrict churches and other institutions from using stay applications to prevent abuse survivors having their cases heard.

Last year, Guardian Australia revealed the widespread use of stay applications to permanently halt civil cases brought by survivors where perpetrators had died.

The Catholic church and other institutions effectively used the passage of time to block survivors from having their cases heard by arguing a fair trial was no longer possible.

The tactic was adopted despite clear evidence before the royal commission that significant barriers meant survivors took, on average, 22 years to come forward, and that institutions had themselves hindered justice by concealing abuse from law enforcement and destroying records.

The high court delivered a significant blow to the use of stays in November, finding…

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Many people believe that excommunication is the Catholic Church’s equivalent of capital punishment — the worst punishment that the church can impose on a believer. Some even see it as the earthly equivalent of being cast into hell.

People call for priests who abuse children to be excommunicated because they want the priests to receive the most severe punishment available. When a serial abuser such as former Jesuit priest Marko Rupnik is excommunicated for a related offense, they are shocked to hear that his excommunication was lifted a week after it was imposed.

What is going on here?

First, not all crimes demand excommunication. If you are found guilty of one that does, in some circumstances you are not excommunicated unless you knew what you’d done is an excommunicable offense and you persisted in the offense.

Actions that can lead to excommunication include violation (desecration) of the sacred species (Eucharist),…

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A Met cop has spoken out about her role in the investigation into historic child sexual abuse by a former priest and his recent sentencing.

James Murphy, 77, of The Alders Mallow, County Cork, Ireland was sentenced on April 29, at Inner London Crown Court.

Murphy pleaded guilty on February 16, at the same court to seven offences of indecent assault relating to four victims aged between five and 11. The offending took place between 1975 and 1988.

PC Helen French spent almost five years developing the case against Murphy, after one of his victims came forward to police in 2019.

PC French said: “My colleagues on the response team started to get reports against Murphy.

“Because the allegations involved a priest, we knew it was going to be a complex case and there was the potential of a large victim base.”

As the investigation progressed, officers established that…

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A former Santa Fe priest accused of sexually abusing a minor is expected to take a plea deal. Daniel Balizan was arrested last year after being accused of sexually abusing a minor between 2012 and 2022.

Balizan is accused of committing the abuse while being a priest for the Santa Maria de La Paz Catholic Church in Santa Fe. Federal court documents show Balizan is expected to take a plea deal later this month. He is still facing two lawsuits claiming he committed the same crime to two other minors while at the Santa Fe church.

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If you’re a Catholic in the state of Florida and you’re fed up with how the church hierarchy is or is not dealing with children’s safety, predator priests, and ill-advised secrecy, know you are not alone. If you’re sick of sitting in the pews and feeling helpless, there are ways to help make a difference, and we at Horowitz Law have many ideas. Let’s start with the three best steps you can take.

3 Steps to Take for Church Reform

1. Contact your state senator and state representative and urge them to repeal or reform Florida’s archaic, arbitrary, secrecy-guaranteeing, and predator-friendly statute of limitations.
2. Join a group that’s doing something (VOTF-Voice of the Faithful, SNAP-the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, BishopAccountability.org. If you don’t feel like joining, a donation is helpful.
3. Ask fellow Catholics and ex-Catholics if they ever saw, suspected, or suffered abuse….

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A bill meant to criminalize clergy from engaging in sexual relationships with parishioners they counsel will not advance this year.

Editor’s note: Sacramento Snapshot is a weekly series during the legislative session detailing what Orange County’s representatives in the Assembly and Senate are working on — from committee work to bill passages and more.

From Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, the bill sought to bring California in line with several other states that have included clergy and religious counselors among the list of people — like physicians, psychotherapists and certain counselors — prohibited from engaging in sexual acts with a patient or client. It said consent could not be a defense for clergy members accused of sexual battery and established misdemeanor and felony charges.

“Religious leaders are given an incredible amount of authority — moral authority and actual authority — in temples or churches or…

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) — Two New Mexico law firms have filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of El Paso for sexual abuse of children by priests.

The lawsuit alleges that catholic priest Fr. Lucio Lopez from the San Miguel Parish in San Miguel County, New Mexico (south of Las Cruces) abused a child weekly for two years sometime between 1959 and 1960.

According to the lawsuit, Lopez used his position to sexually abuse the child, convincing them the abuse was normal.

Lopez reportedly told the victim they had been “‘chosen by God’ to obey him and fulfill his sexual needs.”

The lawsuit also accuses the Catholic Diocese of El Paso and the San Miguel Parish of negligence for failing to prevent the abuse and ensure the safety of parishioners.

Huffman Wallace & Monagle LLC and Davis Kelin Law Firm LLC, the two firms representing the plaintiff in the lawsuit, released…

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil – One year after the diary of a Jesuit describing more than 80 cases of child abuse came to light in Bolivia, the Society of Jesus repudiated the accusation that it’s a “criminal organization” and that it shouldn’t be blamed for the crimes.

The Bolivian Community of Survivors of Ecclesial Sex Abuse, however, reaffirmed that the Jesuits have institutional responsibility for “systematically covering up” over 400 cases, arguing that superiors and provincials were aware of the crimes.

The diary of late Spanish-born Father Alfonso Pedrajas (1943-2009), known as Padre Pica, was first mentioned in a story published by Spanish newspaper El Pais in April of 2023. The article detailed how his writings were discovered by a nephew and then handed to the newspaper.

According to Pica’s diary, the first abuse happened in Lima, Peru, in 1964. Most of his crimes, however, took place when he worked at the John…

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The Baltimore Sun took home 20 first place prizes in the annual Maryland Delaware DC Press Association awards ceremony Friday held in Annapolis. The news organization also received multiple runner-up awards.

Stories singled out with the best in show designation included The Sun’s database of those accused in the Catholic Church of abuse who are beyond Baltimore’s archdiocese by Jonathan M. Pitts, Annie Jennemann, Maya Lora, Lia Russell and Cassidy Jensen, a man who served 34 years in prison for killing a teen who now mentors youth by Alex Mann, an examination of patients with dementia who have run ins with the police by Angela Roberts and Cassidy Jensen, a profile of Jonathon Heyward, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s musical director, by Mary Carole McCauley and a way of interactively exploring the more than 800 bills that passed the Maryland Assembly by Annie Jennemann.

Stories that won first place covered topics such as a Baltimore…

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The all-encompassing nature of church life can provide predators with the ideal cover for committing sexual abuse within congregations, abuse survivor and author Christa Brown said.

“Access and trust. Pastors and churches have both access to kids and enormous trust within the community and within the church,” Brown said during a recent “change-making conversations” webinar hosted by Baptist News Global and moderated by BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield.

Likewise, that trust makes it difficult for many to believe victims when they come forward, said Brown, who as a child was sexually abused by the youth pastor of her Southern Baptist congregation in Farmers Branch, Texas.

“People would like to believe this happens to kids who are lax in morals, but nothing could be further from the truth,” she said. “The truth is, what made me the most vulnerable to this type of predator was my own faith.”

Brown’s abuser exploited her devotion to…

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A former attorney and Mormon bishop in Vacaville is on trial for the sexual abuse of his then-11-year-old adopted daughter, and other church associates are giving some pretty damning testimony on the witness stand.

In today’s episode of It’s Often Clergy People and It’s Never Drag Queens embroiled in real-world child sexual abuse scandals, the Vacaville Reporter brings us the news of the ongoing trial of James Glenn Haskell, a former attorney and Mormon bishop who now faces 16 counts of child sexual abuse in a Solano County Superior Court. Haskell and his wife had four adopted children, all of whom have since been removed from the home.

The most troubling allegations involve the eldest daughter, who was 11 years old at the time of the alleged crimes. Wednesday’s witnesses included a Solano County Child Welfare Services employee who’d visited the home, and two friends of the family and/or church associates who…

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A New Hampshire jury awarded $38 million to the man who blew the lid off abuse allegations at the state’s youth detention center Friday, finding in a landmark case that the state’s negligence allowed him to be beaten, raped and held in solitary confinement as a teen.

David Meehan’s attorney said his client was “overwhelmed and overjoyed” by what he called the largest jury award in a civil case in New Hampshire history, though the state said the amount will be reduced to $475,000 under its law that caps damages.

“David now feels like he has a reason to live,” Rus Rilee, Meehan’s attorney, said.

Meehan, 42, went to police in 2017 and sued the state three years later. Since then, 11 former state workers have been arrested and more than 1,100 other former residents of the Youth Development Center in Manchester have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse spanning six…

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A former Santa Fe priest has agreed to plead guilty in a child sex abuse case, according to a federal court filing earlier this week.

Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys for Daniel Balizan announced in a joint motion filed May 1 that they had arrived at a plea agreement, although the details have not yet been released.

A federal judge is scheduled to decide later this month whether Balizan, who faces charges of coercion and enticement of a minor, will await sentencing on the abuse charges from his home in Springer or in a jail cell.

Many at Santa María de la Paz say they’re keeping faith despite the “shock” of the allegations. 

Daniel Balizan is accused of enticement of a minor with the intent to engage in sexual activity. 

The former pastor at Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Community was arrested last week on charges of sex abuse…

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An attorney closely involved with the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy case is advocating for a fresh strategy in addressing clergy abuse allegations. He proposes the appointment of a special monitor to oversee future abuse claims following alarming revelations from a recently released search warrant.

“Previous Archbishop’s knew other complaints and failed to report the abuse,” said Attorney Roger Stetter.

A search warrant affidavit signed last week by Scott Rodrigue, a special victims investigator with the State Police, detailed disturbing allegations. It revealed that certain victims were transferred among priests and recounted the ordeal of a victim of Father Lawrence Hecker, who reported his rape shortly after it happened. Despite the report, no legal action was taken.

Furthermore, the affidavit mentioned that Hecker, who is currently awaiting trial, was diagnosed as a ‘pedophile’ by a psychiatrist. Yet, he was released and reassigned to another parish.

According to Stetter, the protracted…

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Religion Unplugged believes in a diversity of well-reasoned and well-researched opinions. This piece reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily represent those of Religion Unplugged, its staff and contributors.

Over 35 years ago, when I became the director of a small but growing support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, I vowed to never “rank” the pain of any victim. 

“It’s all horrific,” I told myself.

Every survivor is hurt differently and heals differently, I quickly realized, and nothing could be gained by assuming or believing that one was “hurt worse” or was “more vulnerable” than another. Though it may seem counterintuitive, I believe, a child who was groped over his clothing once may be just as traumatized as another child who was raped repeatedly.

The first real challenge to this belief came in the early 1990s when I heard from several…

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A well-known warrior in the #ChurchToo movement reveals in a new book how she escaped from an abusive Texas home and an abusive Southern Baptist church.

Christa Brown, a former Texas appellate attorney, is revered as perhaps the best-known of the brave women (and men) who blew the whistle on abusive clergy and coverups at churches in the powerful Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). She began her quest at age 51, by bravely sharing her own story of being repeatedly sexually abused as a teen by her youth pastor, Tommy Gilmore, the man she’d gone to for counseling at her church in Farmers Branch. She first came forward as a whistleblower in 2009.

“I think I was ahead of things. That was before #MeToo and #ChurchToo and all of that,” she says. While still running a busy Austin law practice, Brown for years collected and shared stories of others who sought help…

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Defense attorney tries to introduce 32 hours of sermons into evidence

After the prosecution rested its case against a Wichita Falls pastor accused of sexually abusing three young girls, church members took the stand to testify for the defense Friday.

Ronnie Allen Killingsworth, 78, was indicted on six counts of indecency with a child in connection with incidents involving three girls between 2000 and 2011.

Killingsworth was free Friday from jail on $150,000 in bonds.

The victims testified earlier in the trial that sexual abuse happened in the pastor’s office at Rephidim Church in Wichita Falls.

Texas Ranger Matt Kelly was on the stand Friday in 78th District Court to testify about his investigation into the case.

He told the jury he talked to the suspect’s son, Allen Killingsworth, a detective with the Wichita Falls Police Department. Kelly testified Allen Killingsworth questioned the validity of the alleged victims’ accusations and…

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Authorities have expanded an investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans to include senior church officials suspected of shielding predatory priests for decades and failing to report their crimes to law enforcement.

Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant last week at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse.

The search signaled a new phase of the investigation that will seek to determine what particular church leaders, including Archbishop Gregory Aymond and his predecessors, knew about claims that the warrant describes as “ignored and in many cases covered up.”

“The Archdiocese of New Orleans has been openly discussing the topic of sex abuse for over 20 years,” Bill Kearney, an archdiocese spokesman, said in a statement. “In keeping with this,…

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Priests in the Archdiocese of New Orleans allegedly transported children out of state to abuse them.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has come under fire as the target of a Louisiana sex-trafficking probe, according to an 11-page search warrant made public Tuesday. But a recent ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court might stand in the way of any victims seeking to hold the church accountable.

The document requested that the archdiocese hand over “ANY and ALL documents that pertain in any way to the sexual abuse of a minor by clergy members employed or otherwise associated with the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” specifying that those records violate the state’s child sex-trafficking laws.

The warrant also demands any and all communications between Gregory Aymond, the archbishop of New Orleans, and “ANY department within the Vatican pertaining to child sexual abuse.”

Aymand reportedly led a cover-up…

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Religion Unplugged believes in a diversity of well-reasoned and well-researched opinions. This piece reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily represent those of Religion Unplugged, its staff and contributors.

Over 35 years ago, when I became the director of a small but growing support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, I vowed to never “rank” the pain of any victim. 

“It’s all horrific,” I told myself.

Every survivor is hurt differently and heals differently, I quickly realized, and nothing could be gained by assuming or believing that one was “hurt worse” or was “more vulnerable” than another. Though it may seem counterintuitive, I believe, a child who was groped over his clothing once may be just as traumatized as another child who was raped repeatedly.

The first real challenge to this belief came in the early 1990s when I heard from several…

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A pastor was arrested after being accused of sexually abusing his two foster daughters, California deputies say.

Jose Manuel Lozano, 54, was booked into jail Thursday, April 25, on a continuous sexual abuse of a minor charge, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a May 1 news release.

After investigations, deputies said they believe the Hesperia man, a pastor at a local church, sexually abused his foster daughters, ages 10 and 16.

Lozano led services at Zion Assembly Church of God Hesperia, a branch of Zion Assembly Church of God International, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Zion Assembly Church of God International did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on May 3.

A representative told the Los Angeles Times that the organization “condemns Lozano’s ‘ungodliness’ and that he was removed from office March 15, when the allegations came to…

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Authorities have expanded an investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans to include senior church officials suspected of shielding predatory priests for decades and failing to report their crimes to law enforcement.

Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant last week at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse.

The search signaled a new phase of the investigation that will seek to determine what particular church leaders, including Archbishop Gregory Aymond and his predecessors, knew about claims that the warrant describes as “ignored and in many cases covered up.”

“The Archdiocese of New Orleans has been openly discussing the topic of sex abuse for over 20 years,” Bill Kearney, an archdiocese spokesman, said in a statement. “In keeping with this,…

View Cache

A well-known warrior in the #ChurchToo movement reveals in a new book how she escaped from an abusive Texas home and an abusive Southern Baptist church.

Christa Brown, a former Texas appellate attorney, is revered as perhaps the best-known of the brave women (and men) who blew the whistle on abusive clergy and coverups at churches in the powerful Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). She began her quest at age 51, by bravely sharing her own story of being repeatedly sexually abused as a teen by her youth pastor, Tommy Gilmore, the man she’d gone to for counseling at her church in Farmers Branch. She first came forward as a whistleblower in 2009.

“I think I was ahead of things. That was before #MeToo and #ChurchToo and all of that,” she says. While still running a busy Austin law practice, Brown for years collected and shared stories of others who sought help…

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Three months after a lawsuit against the Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver over alleged clerical sexual abuse was settled out of court, six more accusers have come forward and have filed their own lawsuits.

The allegations are leveled against John Kilty, a priest at North Vancouver’s Holy Trinity church and elementary school from the 1940s until the 1980s.

Kilty has since died.

Five men and one woman, who can’t be identified, are behind these latest lawsuits.

All six were students at the elementary school in the 1960s and 1970s and allege being sexually assaulted at Kilty’s home and during field trips.

Their lawyer emphasizes the six filings are separate and are not a class action lawsuit.

“We respectfully view class actions for sexual abuse survivors as highly problematic.”

The reason they are problematic, according to a report cited by the lawyer, is that in a class action, class members have a…

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Marko Rupnik is credibly accused of molesting 25 nuns, some in blasphemous occult rituals.

ope Francis is facing an avalanche of pressure to defrock Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, a celebrity priest and personal friend of the pope, after the ex-Jesuit’s artwork was prominently displayed at a Mass for the installation of the papal ambassador to the US on April 21.

Rupnik, a world-famous mosaic artist, has been credibly accused of sexually, physically, emotionally, and psychologically abusing at least 25 nuns — sometimes in groups, and sometimes forcing them to drink his bodily fluids from a consecrated chalice.

While global outrage over the allegations forced Francis last October to lift the statute of limitations preventing Rupnik from facing a church trial, the Vatican has thus far failed to reveal if it has begun judicial procedures against him.

Rupnik Artwork on Book of the Gospels

A cascade of complaints was unleashed on…

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A Hesperia pastor is in police custody following an investigation into allegations he sexually abused two minors under his care as a foster parent.

Jose Manuel Lozano is awaiting trial at the High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto, where he is being held in lieu of $5-million bail. Investigators described his alleged victims as girls ages 16 and 10.

The 54-year-old Hesperia resident led bilingual services for a predominately Latino and Spanish-speaking congregation at Zion Assembly Church of God Hesperia, an affiliate of Zion Assembly Church of God International, headquartered in Tennessee. A representative from the latter said in an interview that the organization condemns Lozano’s “ungodliness” and that he was removed from office March 15, when the allegations came to light. He was arrested last week.

Pastors at neighboring churches said they were shocked and dismayed upon hearing of Lozano’s arrest.

“It just reminds us of all the ways…

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The Acharya (Hindu religious teacher ) who had previously helped a rape victim in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, is now facing allegations of sexually abusing several minor boys under his care.

In a shocking revelation, Madhya Pradesh police booked a priest and a caretaker for allegedly sexually abusing minor boys at an ashram in Ujjain. 

The Ashram priest identified as Acharya Rahul Sharma was booked on Wednesday, May 1.

The Acharya (Hindu religious teacher) who had previously helped a rape victim in 2023 in Ujjain is now facing allegations of sexually abusing several minor boys under his care. According to the local police in Ujjain, 19 boys filed a complaint, who alleged instances of sexual harassment at the ashram. 

As per the police statement, the probe was launched into the matter after three boys came forward with the initial complaints, leading to Sharma’s arrest. Thakur, the caretaker, is absconding and authorities…

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Pope Francis’ motu proprio Vos estis lux undi turns five years old this month. 

First promulgated for an experimental period of three years and now in permanent force, the letter delegates the Holy See’s power to investigate Church leaders who have no superior other than the Pope himself – chief among them diocesan bishops – to a metropolitan archbishop, in cases where that Church leader has been accused either of sexual abuse or of mismanaging abuse cases.

The provisions of Vos estis concerning to metropolitans bear a strong resemblance to a plan presented to the USCCB by Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, himself a metropolitan archbishop, in 2018. 

Known as the “Metropolitan Model,” Cupich’s plan proposed that metropolitan archbishops, together with their review boards, should normally handle allegations of misconduct made against bishops within their province.

The plan was presented at the USCCB’s 2018 Fall General Assembly as an alternative to the conference’s proposal, vetoed…

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[See also the text of the search warrant.]

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has made headlines in recent days, as Louisiana police officers executed a sweeping search warrant related to a child sex trafficking investigation.

The criminal investigation involves the archdiocese’s handling of sexual abuse allegations, reaching back years.

What’s going on in the archdiocese? And what happens next? Here’s what we know:

What is included in the search warrant?

The search warrant, signed last week, instructs the archdiocese to provide all sexual abuse allegations it has received, along with relevant archdiocesan correspondence, documentation, and priest assignment records.

This includes correspondence between archdiocesan leaders and the Vatican, as well as lists of credibly accused clergy, personnel files, and financial records.

What is the reason for the warrant?

An affidavit in support of the warrant cites a years-long FBI investigation into sexual abuse allegations in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

During…

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In just the past few weeks, there has been a lot of action and news about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups in Louisiana, especially in the New Orleans Archdiocese. 

Here’s what’s happening in the Pelican State:

• The state’s largest Catholic jurisdiction – the New Orleans Archdiocese – is in bankruptcy.
• That process has become the second-costliest and third-oldest of all the 40-odd Catholic bankruptcy cases.
• New Orleans archdiocese is target of child sex-trafficking inquiry
•  The New Orleans archdiocesan headquarters was raided by state law enforcement seeking abuse records. (Two years ago, in 2022, the FBI launched its own reportedly ‘sweeping‘ investigation.)
• The archdiocese has been issued a surprisingly broad subpoena. 
• One of the archdiocese’s most notorious predator priests – an admitted molester – won’t go on trial for his crimes.

All of this, keep in mind, has happened over just the past few weeks. But all of this news may be…

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[See also the text of the search warrant.]

The Louisiana State Police and the FBI are investigating whether Archdiocese of New Orleans officials — including archbishops — covered up child sex trafficking by clergy over several decades, with some alleged victims reportedly taken out of state to be abused and marked for further exploitation among clergy.

On April 25, the state police executed a comprehensive search warrant on the archdiocese for documents related to a widening investigation into how the archdiocese has handled allegations of abuse.

The warrant — a copy of which OSV News obtained following the document’s April 30 release — cites potential violation of the felony of “trafficking of children for sexual purposes” as the reason for its sweeping access to archdiocesan records.

Probable cause for the warrant was based on the testimony of law enforcement official Scott Rodrigue, a state police investigator also assigned to the…

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Whenever Catholics are faced with the very human failures of the institutional church, we must answer a difficult question: Why do we stay? The church is our home, the community in which we encounter Christ. At the same time, we can’t ignore the many skeletons in the ecclesial closet: clerical sex abuse, financial scandals, the dark history of residential schools, the church’s complicity with colonialism, the slave trade, and fascist regimes in Europe and Latin America. Choosing to stay in the church means existing in the tension between its grace and its fallibility, and making peace with it.

“Philomena” (2013) is a film that wrestles with one of the church’s historical failures: the Magdalene Laundries of Ireland. (The film, which is directed by Stephen Frears and written by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, is based on Martin Sixsmith’s non-fiction book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee.) Operated largely by Catholic convents from…

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A new report on the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in England and Wales says the Church’s response to the victims and survivors of abuse “is not yet adequate or complete.”

The report issued on April 30 by Durham University is titled The Cross of the Moment, and opens by saying it explores “the impact and implications of clerical child sexual abuse (CSA) in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.”

The Day of Prayer for Victims and Survivors of Abuse was observed on April 30 in England and Wales.

A government-established inquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in England and Wales said in 2020 that “real and lasting changes to attitudes have some way to go if the Roman Catholic Church is to shake off the failures of the past.”

The report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in England and Wales found that between…

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“They have done it again. It is a kind of obsessive mantra every time they need a smokescreen to distract from the real problems we have and to which they so clumsily and insidiously apply their tortuous governance.”

That is how the archbishop of Oviedo, Jesús Sanz Montes, began a letter released this week titled “The Accusing Rattle” in which he responds to the socialist government’s announcement of an exclusive plan to address sexual and power abuses committed within the Catholic Church.

In the opinion of the prelate, the country’s executive “has tried to focus in a biased and manipulative way on the problem of pedophilia as something attributable only to the Catholic Church, which represents an exclusive and improper singling out and leaves unprotected the majority of those who have suffered this terrible scourge.”

The Franciscan archbishop encouraged people to denounce “the deceitful,…

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Father Leo P. Riley, a priest working with the Diocese of Venice is facing capital sexual battery charges.

The charges stem from alleged incidents in Iowa, where he previously worked in the 1980s.

According to the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Riley was ordained a priest in 1982 in Iowa. In 2002, he requested to transfer to Florida to be closer to his parents. He moved to Venice in 2005.

Riley was a priest at Saint Charles Borromeo in Port Charlotte in the early 2000s. He is currently assigned to San Antonio Catholic Church, which is also in Port Charlotte.

Archbishop Thomas Zinkula of the Archdiocese of Dubuque in a statement said the first allegation of abuse committed by Father Riley was made in December 2014. The claim dated back to 1985.

In 2014, Riley was in Florida and the Archdiocese reported it to the Dubuque County Attorney’s Office.

“It is the…

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[See also the text of the search warrant.]

An investigation into the Archdiocese of New Orleans entered a new phase last week, when Louisiana State Police raised allegations whether former archbishops might have acted criminally by keeping the sexual abuse of children secret for decades.

The allegations, contained in documents connected to a search warrant, for the first time raised the possibility of a criminal case against former local church leaders or the archdiocese itself. Bringing such a case, however, could present a formidable challenge for prosecutors, according to legal experts and authorities on the Catholic church.

Nearly two dozen other states have empaneled grand juries and issued sweeping reports since 2018 detailing thousands of complaints against priests and deacons in local Catholic dioceses, and implicating church leaders in the coverup, according to Terry McKiernan, executive director of Bishopaccountability.org, which tracks clergy sex abuse worldwide. 

A…

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The all-male priesthood is no small matter

Otto Preminger’s film The Cardinal was released in 1963, when I was ten years old, so I guess it was some years later that it appeared on TV. I recall watching it with my mother. I watched many movies with my mother.

Early on, there’s a scene where a young priest tells his pregnant sister’s doctors that they must let her die in order to save her unborn child. I turned to my mother in disbelief. Would that really happen?

“Oh yes,” my mother assured me, placidly enough. “That’s the rule in the Catholic Church. The baby’s life comes before the life of the mother.”

Until then, I’d always pestered my mother about having another baby. I was the youngest of three and the only girl. I wanted a sister. But after seeing The Cardinal, I prayed she would never again take that risk. I knew…

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A FORMER priest from Ireland has been jailed following an investigation into the non-recent sexual abuse of young boys in London in the 1970s and 1980s.

In February, 77-year-old James Murphy, of The Alders, Mallow, Co. Cork pleaded guilty to seven offences of indecent assault relating to four victims.

At Inner London Crown Court on Monday, he was sentenced to 31 months behind bars.

The court also heard Murphy had previous convictions for 11 counts of indecent assault against five boys in 1977.

“Murphy used his position of power as a priest to prey on and take advantage of young boys — and some of their lives have been swathed with despair and anger, ridden with frustration and pain,” said PC Helen French from the Met Police.

TRUSTED FIGUREHEAD

Murphy’s offending against the four victims — aged between five and 11 years old at the time — took place between…

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A former priest who is a key witness in a sexual assault lawsuit against the Diocese of Knoxville has filed a complaint against one of the diocese’s attorneys, Knox News has learned.

The Rev. Brent Shelton, who suddenly left St. Mary’s Parish in Oak Ridge last year after he was told he was being transferred by former Bishop Richard Stika, filed a complaint April 3 with the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. The board oversees attorney conduct.

Shelton, 53, sees the reassignment as retaliation from Stika, who resigned in June 2023 under a cloud of mismanagement accusations and questions about his mentorship of a former seminarian who is accused of raping a former church employee. Shelton was a whistleblower in that case after serving in Oak Ridge since 2015.

Shelton says diocesan attorney Gino Marchetti erred in 2022 by not filing documents Shelton had provided in a timely manner. Marchetti missed a deadline…

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[See also the text of the search warrant.]

A criminal investigation into the Archdiocese of New Orleans is based on a suspicion that it may be linked to child sex trafficking, according to allegations presented in a search warrant granted to Louisiana State Police.

The affidavit requesting the search warrant, first obtained by the New Orleans-based WWL Radio, alleges that multiple sex abuse victims provided statements that claim they were transported to other parishes and outside of Louisiana, where they were sexually abused. It further alleges a scheme within the archdiocese in which abused children were instructed to provide “gifts” to certain priests, which were meant to signal that the children were targets for sexual abuse.

According to the allegations in the affidavit, multiple victims reported that they were brought to the New Orleans Seminary, where they were instructed to “swim naked in the pool and would be sexually assaulted or abused.” It also alleges that investigators found that…

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Authorities have expanded an investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans to include senior church officials suspected of shielding predatory priests for decades and failing to report their crimes to law enforcement.

Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant last week at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse.

The search signaled a new phase of the investigation that will seek to determine what particular church leaders, including Archbishop Gregory Aymond and his predecessors, knew about claims that the warrant describes as “ignored and in many cases covered up.”

“The Archdiocese of New Orleans has been openly discussing the topic of sex abuse for over 20 years,” Bill Kearney, an archdiocese spokesman, said in a statement. “In keeping with this,…

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The Catholic bishop of Monterey, whose district includes San Luis Obispo County, said his diocese could go bankrupt amid of flood of lawsuits alleging childhood sexual abuse.

In a letter to parishioners April 18, the Most Rev. Daniel E. Garcia said after the state reopened the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse in 2020, the Diocese of Monterey “received approximately 100 lawsuits alleging childhood sexual abuse” between the 1950s and 2002.

“The issue of sexual abuse of minors has been one that deeply saddens and disturbs all of us,” Garcia wrote in the letter. “It is an on-going human problem that has touched many families and all kinds of public and private organizations including, most sadly, the Catholic Church. These actions are never acceptable.”

Garcia added the diocese is committed to “helping those touched by childhood sexual abuse by those working for the Church of Monterey.”

In 2019, the…

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[See also the text of the search warrant and affidavit.]

For the first time, Louisiana law enforcement officials are digging deeply into allegations that former New Orleans archbishops, the highest-ranking officials in the state’s Catholic hierarchy, knew about child sex abuse by priests and deacons and tried to cover it up.

The claims are contained in an extraordinary 11-page affidavit supporting a search warrant that was served by State Police on the Archdiocese of New Orleans last week. In it, investigators say that, while looking into clergy sex abuse in a joint probe with the FBI, they uncovered documents that “back the claim that previous Archbishops, not only knew of the sexual abuse and failed to report all the claims to law enforcement but spent Archdiocese funding to support the accused.”

The affidavit, released Tuesday, details allegations of sex abuse dating back decades. Among the claims: That clergy transported victims…

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Louisiana state police recently served sweeping and unprecedented search warrant

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans is the target of an active child sex-trafficking investigation, according to a sweeping and unprecedented search warrant Louisiana state police recently served on an organization that for decades has been submerged in the global church’s clergy molestation scandal.

The clerk at the state criminal courthouse where the warrant was signed released the 11-page document on Tuesday. It makes clear that troopers involved in a pending rape prosecution against one priest came to suspect that that case was part of a broader pattern of “widespread sexual abuse of minors dating back decades” that was “covered up and not reported to law enforcement”.

In a stunning assertion made under oath, troopers said they had already recovered documents that “back” the notion that “previous archbishops, the highest-ranking official in the archdiocese, not only knew of the sexual abuse…

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LSP obtained new search warrant for documents from Archdiocese of New Orleans

WDSU Investigates has obtained a copy of a search warrant from the Louisiana State Police in connection with the Archdiocese of New Orleans sex abuse scandal.

The warrant was signed last week when WDSU was there when State Police met with the Archdiocese over the warrant.

The search warrant is requesting all documents, letters, emails, transfers, and assignment records linked to the New Orleans Archdiocese sexual abuse investigation.

The warrant specifically asked for any and all complaints of sexual abuse received by the Archdiocese.

WARNING: Details from the search warrant may be considered graphic and upsetting to some. Viewer discretion is advised.

The warrant also seeks to obtain all personnel files for clergy members, which would include reassignments or transfers from those listed on the Credibly Accused list.

The warrant includes documents related to the financial records associated…

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I’m not going to copy the full article but suggest you read the whole thing. I will highlight some of the takeaways from the report.

Guardian’s New Orleans Archdiocese Story.

Louisiana state troopers are investigating child sex trafficking at the New Orleans Catholic Archdiocese. Yep, not just child sexual abuse but actual trafficking. Here’s a few quotes from the article. But like I said it’s worth reading the whole thing.

The clerk at the state criminal courthouse where the warrant was signed released the 11-page document on Tuesday. It makes clear that troopers involved in a pending rape prosecution against one priest came to suspect that that case was part of a broader pattern of “widespread sexual abuse of minors dating back decades” that was “covered up and not reported to law enforcement”.

The warrant requires the Archdiocese to turn over all communications about child sexual abuse….

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A New York state appeals court has given an insurer for the Archdiocese of New York the go-ahead to pursue a lawsuit contending it should not have to indemnify the archdiocese in hundreds of lawsuits over sex abuse the insurer claims was “expected or intended” — a ruling the archdiocese has called “extremely disappointing” and “wrongly decided.”

On April 23, five justices of the First Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division unanimously overturned a December 2023 order from a lower court that had dismissed the lawsuit brought forward by a group of Chubb insurance entities, who had issued more than 30 liability policies to the archdiocese and several of its parishes, schools and entities between 1956 and 2003; the group anticipates having to pay out money for more than 1,500 abuse cases.

“The case is now sort of back alive, but it isn’t a determination of…

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Students were told to use confession to report abuse “to cloak the abuse in sacramental secrecy,” a notice of civil claim alleges.

A B.C. man is suing a seminary, abbey and the Vancouver Roman Catholic archdiocese for priest sexual abuse he alleges took place.

The man, now 56, and known as SCK#4 in court documents, said in a B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim filed April 19 he attended Grade 8 at the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission between September 1981 and June 1982.

Named as defendants are the Seminary of Christ the King; Westminster Abbey Ltd.; the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, a corporation Sole; Harold Sander, also known as Father Rev. Placidus; Rev. Father Dunstan Massey; Francis Chan Leprozo; and B.C.’s Ministry of Education and Child Care.

Sander and Massey are deceased, according to the court documents.

SCK#4 is represented by lawyer Sandra Kovacs.

The claim said Sander was…

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The report paints a picture of a damaged community which has yet to come to terms with the scandals that have beset the Church in the past 30 years.

The culture, habits and practices of the Catholic Church have played their part in the sexual abuse crisis and so need to change, according to a new study from the University of Durham.

A fear of scandal, a tradition of silence and secrecy, together with a culture of clericalism and a lack of accountability are all highlighted in the report as helping to cause abuse remaining hidden for generations and exacerbating the trauma felt by victims. It urges not only Church leaders but the entire Catholic community to counter the habits that allowed abuse to linger for so long.

The report, The Cross of the Moment, has been produced by Durham’s Centre for Catholic Studies after four years of research which included…

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Florida’s bishops are welcoming a new law that allows public schools in the state to have volunteer chaplains.

The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, which represents bishops in the state’s seven dioceses on public policy matters, did not take a position on the bill while legislators debated it earlier this year.

“However, we recognize the good that chaplains can do in schools by helping students to address their spiritual and emotional needs. We are pleased that parents will determine the services their children will receive in districts that choose to establish chaplaincy programs,” said Michelle Taylor, associate director of communications for the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, in an email message to CNA on Tuesday.

The measure, which takes effect July 1, requires public schools and charter schools that establish such a program to publish on their websites a list of volunteer school chaplains and their religious…

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Allegations that a Charlotte County priest sexually abused children during his time in Dubuque, Iowa have dominated conversation in the Suncoast.

Leo P. Riley is facing charges in Iowa and last week a former St. Charles Borromeo student came forward. “John Doe” accused Father Riley of abuse when he was attending the Port Charlotte Catholic school in the early 2000s.

Baylor professor Dr. David K. Pooler, sat down with ABC7 to talk about the effects of sexual abuse in the church and how to prevent it and recognize it. Dr. Pooler is the Director, Adult Clergy Sexual Abuse: Advocacy & Research Collaborative at Baylor’s college of Social Work.

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The priest, of Cork, Ireland, admitted offences against boys as young as five

James Murphy, 77, carried out the assaults while based at churches across south London, including Sydenham, New Addington and South Croydon.

The cleric, of The Alders Mallow in Cork, Ireland, was jailed for 30 months in 2000 after he admitted to abusing seven boys in south London between 1975 and 1988 who were as young as five.

James Murphy, 77, carried out the assaults while based at churches across south London, including Sydenham, New Addington and South Croydon.

The cleric, of The Alders Mallow in Cork, Ireland, was jailed for 30 months in 2000 after he admitted to abusing seven boys in south London between 1975 and 1988 who were as young as five.

Murphy accepted guilt when confronted with the evidence but denied further allegations relating to one of the victims.

Officers found much of the…

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Hollywood, the USA Gymnastics team, Penn State, the Boy Scouts: Sexual abuse has proved pervasive across institutions. And when it comes to faith groups, no creed, structure, value system or size has seemed immune.

“We’ve got to stop saying that could never happen in my church, or my pastor would never do that,” said David Pooler, a professor of social work at Baylor University who researches clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse of adults.

With more victims coming forward and more research done on abuse within religious contexts, the evidence has shown that when sexual abuse happens in a place designated not only safe, but holy, it’s a unique form of betrayal — and when the perpetrator is a clergy member or spiritual leader, the abuse can be seen as God-endorsed.

As the scope of this crisis has been revealed, houses of worship and religious institutions…

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House Bill 125, which targets adult church leadership, staff members, or volunteers who make sexual contact with minors, passed both sections of the Alabama Legislature this past week and now awaits a signature into law by Gov. Kay Ivey.

HB125’s text makes it “unlawful for a member of the clergy to commit certain sex acts with an individual under 19 years of age, or a protected person under the age of 22 … under certain circumstances.” The bill also allows for penalties under the law.

This would include ordained, licensed, or commissioned minsters, pastors, priests, or rabbinical leaders. Sexual intercourse or sodomy of a minor would be a Class B felony. Solicitation, harassment, or enticement of a minor under the guidelines of the law would be a Class C felony, as would the transmission of obscene or sexual matter to that minor.

Violations could be punishable with…

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From the documents KTVE/KARD gathered, we know that on Thursday night, right before midnight, Reverend Kenneth Sapp of Arcadia was arrested after allegedly exposing himself to an undercover officer in the public restroom at the Stoner Boat Launch in Shreveport, Louisiana. The 63-year-old is the pastor of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Ruston, Louisiana.

According to police in a probable cause statement, Sapp was also found to be in possession of 30 grams of suspected marijuana, 21 grams of suspected meth, multiple glass pipes, and an unlabeled bottle of pills. Officers also found a handgun in Sapp’s possession. Sapp was booked into the Shreveport City Jail Friday morning and transferred to The Caddo Correctional Center early Saturday morning. His bond was set at $21,000 and he was booked on obscenity, open container, and 5 different drug charges.

On Monday, KTVE/KARD did reach out to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church for a…

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A Catholic priest allegedly spent $40,000 of church money on Candy Crush and slot machine apps.

A Pennsylvania Catholic priest was accused of stealing $40,000 from a parish and using the money to play games on his phone. According to CBS News, citing a criminal complaint and affidavit of probable cause, Lawrence Kozak allegedly spent over $214,000 on his Apple ID, with just under $44,000 of that amount charged to a credit card associated with the parish.

Authorities claim he racked-up the charges over a three year span, using the some of the cash to play games like Candy Crush Saga, Pokémon Go and virtual slot machines, according to the network.

Per CBS, the slot machine apps named in the complaint were the following:

• Cash Frenzy
• Willy Wonka Vegas Casino Slots
• Wizard of Oz Slot Machine Game

The network noted that these apps do not award real money for…

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 In a phone conversation between ABC7′s Jordan Litwiller and Charlotte County priest Leo Riley, he made it clear that the allegations against him are not true.

“Whenever you see a loved-one suffering, it’s painful,” said his brother Michael Riley.

Michael says these allegations don’t match up with the man he has known his whole life.

“He has a heart of gold, and he is probably one of the kindest people you can imagine,” Michael said.

Despite the five people who have claimed to be abused by Leo, Michael’s support for his brother is unwavering, saying, “People can say things, that doesn’t mean it’s true.”  

But sexual abuse victims advocate David Pooler from Baylor University says, in cases like this, it often times is.

“Generally, people don’t make up abuse stories because they themselves then have to go to court and have to testify, they have to be scrutinized by the public in various…

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For the rector of the world’s second largest church after St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, May 11 will be a day of celebrating the inauguration of the southern facade’s mosaics, all created by Fr. Marko Rupik.

But alleged victims of the disgraced former Jesuit and many faithful are not in celebratory mood. In the midst of a heated debate on what should be done with Fr. Rupnik’s mosaics across the globe, OSV News asked whether the art can be separated from the alleged acts of abuse by the Slovenian priest-artist and what should be done with his mosaics decorating iconic churches across the globe.

In December 2022, Rome’s Jesuit headquarters, following media reports concerning alleged abuse by Fr. Rupnik, admitted the preliminary investigation found allegations credible as early as in 2019, and in 2020 he was excommunicated for “absolution of an accomplice,” referring to when…

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Several peasant farmers claiming legal and physical harassment by a Catholic group in Peru currently under investigation by the Vatican were received by the archbishop of Lima over the weekend, shortly after receiving further complaints from the group.

On Sunday, Archbishop Carlos Castillo of Lima met with members of the peasant farming community of Catacaos in Piura, who travelled to Lima after receiving what they said were new threats from an organization associated with the scandal plagued Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).

In a video message shared on social media, Fiorella Martinez, whose husband Guadalupe Zapata Sosa was apparently killed defending their land from outsiders seeking to drive them out, voiced gratitude for the meeting with Castillo, which took place after Mass in the city’s cathedral.

Martinez thanked God and the Peru Coordinator for Human Rights “for having given us the opportunity to present ourselves here,” saying she is still “looking for justice…

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Although a letter from Bishop Daniel Garcia of the Diocese of Monterey dated April 18 states that he’s writing “on an important topic: the sexual abuse of minors,” it’s notably about how the diocese is contemplating filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a move that church critics say would delay sexual abuse cases filed against the diocese and would likely limit what those who were abused could collect in financial compensation should they prevail in court.

The diocese was named as defendants in approximately 100 lawsuits filed between January 2020 and December 2022, Garcia reported, alleging child sexual abuse occurring between the 1950s and 2002. The lawsuits were filed during a three-year window created by California Assembly Bill 218, the Child Victims Act, which allowed people claiming to have been sexually assaulted as minors to file civil lawsuits even though the statute of limitations had previously expired.

A large volume of…

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The bishop of the Diocese of Monterey said that they are contemplating filing for bankruptcy after being named as defendants in around 100 new lawsuits alleging childhood sexual assault.

The major announcement came via a letter from Bishop Daniel Garcia to parishioners dated April 18. The letter says these incidents occurred from the 1950s to 2002.

The lawsuits were made during a three-year window from 2019 to 2022 created by the Child Victims Act, which reopened the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse victims.

Garcia now says that the diocese is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The reasoning was that “this would allow all victims to be compensated from the limited funds the Diocese has and will be allocated in an equitable manner.”

They, along with other Catholic dioceses in California, have had to consider filing for bankruptcy due to the Child Victims Act.

Speaking in person, Deacon…

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HB125 targets adult church leaders, staff, and volunteers who make sexual contact with minors, similar to legislation directed at teachers.

House Bill 125, which targets adult church leadership, staff members, or volunteers who make sexual contact with minors, passed both sections of the Alabama Legislature this past week and now awaits a signature into law by Gov. Kay Ivey.

HB125’s text makes it “unlawful for a member of the clergy to commit certain sex acts with an individual under 19 years of age, or a protected person under the age of 22 … under certain circumstances.” The bill also allows for penalties under the law.

This would include ordained, licensed, or commissioned minsters, pastors, priests, or rabbinical leaders. Sexual intercourse or sodomy of a minor would be a Class B felony. Solicitation, harassment, or enticement of a minor under the guidelines of the law would be a…

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