ABUSE TRACKER

The Weekly Dispatch takes a deep dive into breaking events and issues of significance around our world and our nation today, providing the background readers need to make better sense of the headlines speeding past us each week. For more news and analysis from around the world, visit Dispatches.

For many Catholics around the world, reports in 1989 of physical and sexual assaults at an orphanage for boys in Newfoundland may have been the first time they ever heard of the abuse of children by Catholic clergy and male religious. As awful as those first reports out of the Mount Cashel Orphanage were, they would prove to be not the end of something—a horror story from an isolated place—but the beginning of a scandal that would eventually rock the global church.

Last week, what may be the final act of the Mount Cashel scandal concluded. The Catholic Register of Toronto…

Less than a week after an Oklahoma woman accused Gateway Church founder Robert Morris of abusing her when she was a child, the church settled a sexual harassment claim against a former Gateway pastor.

Rachel Childress filed a civil lawsuit in 2023 alleging sexual harassment and a hostile work environment while employed at Gateway. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount on June 21, according to court records.

Telephone calls to Childress’ attorney, Debra Edmondson, were not returned.

Childress’ lawsuit comes on the heels of another lawsuit reported by The Roys Report (TRR). In that lawsuit, Gateway Church was accused of concealing the sexual assault of a girl who attended the church.

Childress took aim at former pastor Aldean “Al” Pearson, accusing him of sexual harassment and alleging Gateway pastors failed to listen and act on her accusations. She also accused the megachurch of failing to promote her, saying they wanted a man…

A Dallas-area megachurch, whose pastor recently resigned amid allegations of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl, employs a pastor who was convicted in 2004 of a child sex crime, according to Texas Department of Public Safety records.

Stephen Wilson, a convicted sex offender, is prison ministries campus pastor at embattled Gateway Church.

Last month, Gateway Pastor Robert Morris resigned, after a woman came forward with allegations Morris had sexually molested her from 1982—1986, when she was 12 to 16 years old.

In 2004, Wilson, a former middle school teacher, pleaded guilty to attempted indecency with a child, a third-degree felony. He was sentenced to two years in prison and required to register as a sex offender for 10 years. He also forfeited his teachers’ license.

According to Gateway’s website, Wilson founded G3 Prison Ministries in 2008, a nonprofit “determined to spread the Word of God inside…

Matt Chandler’s Dallas-area megachurch employed his father for five years as a custodian, despite his father’s admission he had committed a child sex crime, a former elder at The Village Church Denton said.

Matt Chandler’s father, Steve Chandler, worked at the Denton, Texas, campus of The Village Church from 2007 to 2012. In 2015, the Denton campus became an autonomous church, The Village Church Denton.

In a statement read during a members meeting July 14, 2019, The Village Church Denton stated that Steve Chandler had committed a child sex crime 40 years prior. The statement said that staff at both the Denton campus and all locations of The Village Church became aware of Steve Chandler’s criminal past in 2009, yet he remained on staff for another three years.

Until this week, news about Steve Chandler’s criminal past and church employment was not…

Guam’s Archdiocese of Agana’s new leader, Bishop Ryan Jimenez, prepares to take on the role of archbishop as the institution has been dealing with sexual abuse allegations involving clergy members.

Bishop Jimenez, 52, who spent nearly 20 years in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, was appointed by the Vatican to become the Archbishop of Agana.

He will officially begin his new role on 15 August, filling the vacancy left by former Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes, who resigned in March 2023 due to a serious illness. The announcement was made on 6 July.

“When you’re new in your role, whatever leadership role, take the time to get to know people, the staff, the priests, the deacons, that community,” Jimenez said during a Tuesday news briefing with local media.

“I imagine myself visiting parishes, engaging in a conversation, and not make drastic changes.”

Jimenez expects mid-April of 2025 to implement any…

The allegations, which were shared in the ‘Bodies Behind the Bus’ podcast earlier this week, have sparked controversy online.

On an episode of the “Bodies Behind the Bus” podcast Wednesday (July 11), two former members of the Village Church Denton in Denton, Texas, alleged that church leaders employed a custodian for five years, despite knowing he had previously admitted to sexually abusing a child. The custodian, they said, was Steve Chandler, the father of Matt Chandler, lead pastor of its umbrella church at the time.

The allegations have sparked controversy online, with some calling the church’s decision not to inform the congregation until 2019 “unacceptable” and others calling for the resignation of Matt Chandler, a popular author and Acts 29 executive chairman. A few have drawn comparisons to Hillsong Church co-founder Brian Houston, who was charged in Australia with concealing his late father, Frank Houston’s, sexual abuse of a young man….

This year has seen a number of North Texas pastors become subjects of controversy, with some going as far as to step down from their positions. 

Multiple pastors have received allegations of sexual misconduct — with one even being charged — while other pastors face less clear allegations. 

Here is a look at all of the pastors facing controversy so far this year. 

Tony Cammarota of Stonebriar Community Church

The most recent incident became known this week when Stonebriar Community Church notified its members in an email that Tony Cammarota, who had been an associate pastor for 17 years, had been removed from his position due to a “moral failure.”

“He is deeply remorseful but his sin disqualifies him from serving on our staff as a pastor,” the email states.

While not addressing what that moral failure was, the church asked its membership not to speculate.

“And please…

A 74-year-old church pastor in Bergen County was charged Thursday with 21 crimes – 18 of them sex offenses involving a teen over several years, authorities said.

The Rev. Stephen E. Sweet, of Paramus, assaulted the teen, who was between the ages of 13 and 18, according to Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella.

The assaults allegedly occurred in River Edge, Paramus and Ridgewood, Musella said.

Sweet is pastor of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in River Edge. He was ordained and installed in 1997, according to the church website.

A woman who answered the phone at the church Friday said there was currently no one available to comment on the arrest or charges.

Musella said the prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit was contacted Thursday regarding the alleged sexual assault of a juvenile that had occurred in the past.

An investigation revealed Sweet sexually…

A pastor at a Weeki Wachee church was accused of sexually battering a teenage family member, the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office said in a release Thursday.

The girl told deputies that 55-year-old William Martinez gave her a THC gummy and a drink that tasted “funny” before touching her inappropriately and forcing her to touch him, the report states.

An out-of-state family member reportedly contacted the sheriff’s office in reference to the alleged sexual battery that occurred a day prior at a home in Brooksville.

Martinez, a pastor at Kingdom of Hope Ministries in Weeki Wachee, denied all of the allegations.

During the investigation, detectives executed a search warrant at the suspect’s residence in Brooksville where forensic evidence was collected. Blood and urine tests, submitted by the victim, showed the presence of alcohol and THC.

Following questioning, Martinez was arrested on two counts of Lewd and Lascivious Behavior of a Victim…

The man at the center of one of England’s most prominent church abuse scandals is now facing criminal charges.

Jonathan Fletcher, the former vicar of Emmanuel Church Wimbledon, has been charged with indecent assault and grievous bodily harm for incidents that occurred 25 to 50 years ago, during his decades of leadership in the Church of England.

The 81-year-old appeared Wednesday in Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court, just a mile from his longtime church in southwest London.

The charges follow several years of allegations against Fletcher and an independent investigation backing the claims. Starting in 2017, dozens of men recounted past instances of bullying, coercion, and inappropriate behavior by Fletcher. Their accounts include naked massages, ice baths, and sauna visits.

Fletcher was a high-profile evangelical voice in the United Kingdom, and the news came as “a kick in the guts,” one Christian wrote in 2021, describing the “disconnect…

The priest accused of sexually abusing boys at a Dubuque school in the 1980s has filed a motion asking for the judge to dismiss the charges against him.

In the motion, Father Leo Riley’s attorneys argue that the statute of limitations had expired before the charges against Riley were filed.

Riley is charged with five counts of sexual abuse. Prosecutors say he molested multiple altar boys while he served at Resurrection School in Dubuque from 1984-86. Riley’s attorneys argue in this latest motion, that the state would have needed to file charges against Riley before December 31st, 1989.

Riley was arrested last month in Florida, where he is serving at a Catholic Church. Riley is facing a lawsuit in Florida from a former student, who also claims Riley sexually abused him at a school there.

He initially faced public accusations of sexual abuse in 2015 when a former altar boy went…

With deep sorrow for the suffering of victims and survivors of abuse, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas announces that former priest Dennis Schmitz, who was laicized from the priesthood in 2005, has been the subject of additional substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors and adults over whom he held a position of authority. Schmitz served in a number of locations and capacities in the time frame of the abuse in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including St. Joseph, Shawnee; Bishop Miege, Roeland Park; St. Mary – St. Anthony, Kansas City, Kansas; St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, Lawrence; and as vocation director for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

In October of 2002, Schmitz was convicted of indecent liberties with a child that occurred in 1998. He was removed from parish ministry, and the church began the process of laicization. Schmitz was sentenced to 32 months…

Although efforts to pass a two-year window for child sex abuse survivors to file lawsuits against their abusers on otherwise outdated claims have seemingly stalled once again in Pennsylvania’s legislature, advocates for the measure are urging lawmakers to finish their roles to enact the measure before the effort must restart from square one.

The statutory window to allow lawsuits on time-barred claims of child sex abuse has long been sought by survivors as a means of naming abusers and holding both them and institutions accountable for the abuse.

But it faces an uncertain future in 2024 as lawmakers near a budget agreement, wrapping up their main work for the year and potentially embarking on a break for the summer ahead of elections.

Over the years, the statutory window has either stalled in the legislature or suffered from bureaucratic incompetence in 2021, which prompted the entire process to be restarted when…

He was a religion teacher and served as School President at the all-boys grammar school from 1994 to 2000.

More complainants have come forward accusing a priest from Monaghan Town of historical sexual abuse during his time as a teacher and president of a County Fermanagh school.

Canon Patrick McEntee, is on a leave of absence from his Co. Tyrone parish duties since 2022 to allow a safeguarding investigation to be carried out. Earlier in his career, the Monaghan priest was a Religion teacher at St Michael’s College in Enniskillen. He also served as School President at the all-boys grammar school from 1994 to 2000.

Last year, he was charged with sexual offences against two males in the Fermanagh area but denies indecently assaulting one complainant between 1988 and 1989 and also a single count of indecently assaulting another male between 1980 and 1981.Advertisement

Following his not guilty pleas, the priest’s…

The Fresno Diocese would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization “to address the substantial number of claims brought forth by victims collectively.”

What’s at stake?

Once the Diocese of Fresno reaches a settlement, survivors and other “creditors” will receive a share of the financial compensation, but abuse survivors and organizations say it falls short of addressing their life-long injuries.

Karen Lowart and her family have been devout Catholics their entire lives—her parents frequently hosted priests and bishops at their home, attended Mass every Sunday, and were educated in religious schools from kindergarten through college.

Lowart, 63, continued these traditions after having three children of her own, until her youngest son, Jason, revealed to his parents that he had been molested by a priest at the age of four at his grandparents’ northwest Fresno home. 

“When Jason walked in the room, everybody was excited that he was there, he was that…

Judge to decide if Catholic Church must release documents in priest abuse case

Efforts to uncover the extent of sexual abuse by Catholic priests will hinge on the decision by a judge on whether the church will have to turn over documents sought by Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

A court hearing is set for Friday afternoon as Ferguson seeks to compel the release of evidence pertaining to the sexual abuse of children by potentially dozens of priests.

Last summer, the attorney general began his investigation when he sent subpoenas to the archbishops of the dioceses in Seattle, Yakima and Spokane. Ferguson said they refused to share any documents that were not already publicly available, and in May he filed a petition in King County Superior Court to compel the Archdiocese of Seattle to comply with his subpoenas.

Church leaders have expressed surprise at the…

On Friday, officials at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., and in Rome received a letter from Seattle area survivors of child sexual abuse and their advocates. They’re asking top officials to investigate leadership at the Archdiocese of Seattle for allegedly failing to comply with the Washington State Attorney General’s investigation into the sexual abuse allegations against its clergy members.

The letter follows a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Bob Ferguson in May, an effort to compel the Seattle Archdiocese to turn over documents related to those sexual abuse allegations.

“The Church has more information than is shared with the public,” Ferguson said at a press conference about the lawsuit. “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 Church has misused charitable trust funds to cover up systemic sexual…

The laicized priest was sentenced to life in prison in November.

The Diocese of Toledo will pay out a seven-figure sum to three victims of priest sexual abuse after agreeing to a settlement.

The payout will go to victims of disgraced priest Michael Zacharias, who was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking by a federal jury in Ohio last May. His crimes, committed between 1999 and 2020, involved three victims, two of whom were minors when Father Zacharias began abusing them.

Konrad Kircher, a Cincinnati-area attorney who represented the victims, told CNA on Thursday that he was pleased with the results, which he called “a success” for his clients. 

“My clients were the three victims who testified in Zacharias’ case,” he said via phone. “When the criminal trial was over, I contacted the Diocese of Toledo and asked them to consider compensating my clients for what they had been through,…

Groups urge Pope Francis to investigate Archbishop Etienne for breaking new church law by refusing to comply with AGO subpoena

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 10, 2024

When: Thursday, July 11th, 11:00am

Where: St. James Cathedral, 804 9th Ave, Seattle, WA; AG Ferguson’s Office, 800 5th Ave #2000, Seattle, WA

Who: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse, members of the Catholic Accountability Project (CAP), Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

What: A press conference where survivors of clergy abuse and members of CAP will announce a complaint against Archbishop Etienne sent to the Vatican outside St. James Cathedral and march from the cathedral to AG Ferguson’s office to deliver thousands of pages of sexual abuse documents and evidence provided by church whistleblowers

Why: On July 26th, 2023, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson sent subpoenas to Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Yakima,…

[ Click here to see an image of the letter as it appears on the Seattle archdiocese’s website.]

July 11, 2024

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With the upcoming attorney general hearing, I feel an urgent need to address the accusations that the Archdiocese of Seattle is “not cooperating” with Attorney General Bob Ferguson regarding his subpoena, despite our efforts to be transparent and collaborative.

But first, I want to share a few facts about clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Seattle:

• Yes, we had clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Seattle. We have been proactively addressing it in a number of ways for more than 40 years. We take sexual abuse by Church personnel very seriously and we remain committed to preventing it, reporting it, supporting victim survivors and their families, improving transparency and finding paths towards healing.

• Yes, even priests who were…

Allegations about monks and staff at North Yorkshire private school were shared with Charity Commission

An inquiry into the running of a prestigious private school said it uncovered a string of “serious abuse allegations” committed against pupils by monks and staff within the last decade.

The Charity Commission’s report found “significant weaknesses” in the safeguarding, governance and management of the two trusts responsible for running Ampleforth College, a Catholic private school in North Yorkshire founded more than 200 years ago by Benedictine monks and Ampleforth Abbey.

The report said that the St Laurence Educational Trust and the Ampleforth Abbey trust “experienced difficulties” in reforming their safeguarding procedures, and warned: “They must continue to maintain high standards and ensure that going forwards there is a robust safeguarding environment that protects vulnerable people that come into contact with the charities.”

Ampleforth and its former prep school have been at the centre of multiple…

Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) –– 92-year-old former Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker was in Orleans Parish Criminal Court again on Thursday morning for a mental competency hearing. 

Hecker is facing aggravated rape and kidnapping charges for crimes that allegedly happened in the 70s. 

Defense attorneys and prosecutors have met in Judge Benedict Willard’s courtroom several times to debate Hecker’s competency. An attorney representing one of the alleged victims said, “This is what happens, people, when the hierarchy of the Catholic Church knows that children are being raped and covers it up.”

On Thursday, Dr. DeLand, a psychiatrist on the Sanity Commission, said that based on a more than 7,000-page report on Hecker’s health, she believes he should be tested for dementia, a process she initially said could take up to 60 days. 

The prosecution objected to further testing, arguing…

DUBUQUE COUNTY, Iowa (KGAN) — The former Dubuque priest accused of abusing altar boys in the 1980s is asking the court to drop his charges.

Court filings show lawyers for Leo Riley filed a motion to dismiss last week, arguing that the statute of limitations has passed.

However, according to court documents filed earlier this year, authorities said the statute of limitations was put on hold under Iowa law, based on a legal tenant called “tolling,” since Riley moved to Florida before the statute of limitations was up.

Riley is charged with five counts of second degree sexual abuse for the alleged abuse during his days at Resurrection Church.

At the time of the alleged abuse, Iowa’s statute of limitations was to be 10 years after the victim turns 18. Four former altar boys who say…

The Knights of Columbus has announced the Catholic fraternal organization will cover mosaics by ex-Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington and the Holy Family Chapel at the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut.

In a July 11 statement, the Knights said the decision came at “the conclusion of a careful and thorough process.”

The mosaics will be obscured by fabric “which will remain in place at least until the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issues its decision on the pending sexual abuse cases against artist Father Marko Rupnik.”

After that, the Knights said, “a permanent plaster covering may be in order.”

A Catholic fraternal organization founded by Blessed Michael McGivney in 1882, the Knights of Columbus has 2.1 million members in over 16,800 local councils, and its charitable fund has given out $100 million in grants to Catholic…

ROME (AP) – The Knights of Columbus, an influential Catholic charitable organization, announced Thursday that it will cover up its mosaics made by a famous ex-Jesuit artist accused of abusing women in a sign of solidarity with victims of abuse.

The world’s largest Roman Catholic fraternal group said the organization would for now place fabric over the mosaics at its shrine in Washington, and at a chapel at its headquarters in New Haven, Conn. A permanent plaster covering “may be in order,” depending on the outcome of the Vatican’s investigation into the Rev. Marko Rupnik, the group said in a statement.

Rupnik, whose mosaics grace some of the most important and visited Catholic shrines around the world, has been accused by over 20 women of psychological, spiritual and sexual abuses over decades.

The scandal about his alleged abuse has grown steadily, and implicated Pope Francis, since the Vatican and his Jesuit order long…

In his interview with EWTN News, Kelly said the Lourdes bishop’s intent to make a decision of some kind this spring galvanized the Knights to act at this time.

The Knights of Columbus announced Thursday they will cover mosaics by the accused abuser Father Marko Rupnik in Washington, D.C., and Connecticut, a dramatic move that represents the strongest public stand yet by a major Catholic organization regarding the former Jesuit’s embattled art.

The 2.1-million-member lay Catholic fraternal order said July 11 it would use fabric to cover the floor-to-ceiling mosaics in the two chapels of the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington and in the chapel at the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut — at least until the completion of a formal Vatican investigation into the Slovenian priest’s alleged abuse.

Patrick Kelly, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, told EWTN News Thursday the opaque material would…

NEW YORK – After a review process, the Knights of Columbus announced on July 11 that they will cover in fabric mosaic artwork by Father Marko Rupnik in worship spaces at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., and in the Holy Family Chapel at the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut.

The artwork was installed at each location in 2015. The artwork will remain covered at least until the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issues its decision on the pending sexual abuse cases against Rupnik, at which time a permanent plaster covering may be in order.

“The Knights of Columbus has decided to cover these mosaics because our first concern must be for victims of sexual abuse, who have already suffered immensely, and who may be further injured by the ongoing display of the mosaics at the Shrine,” Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly…

ST. MARYS — A growing Catholic sect has divided the small Kansas town of St. Marys between those who view the church’s influence as idyllic or disturbing.

Shops selling Bibles, crosses and modest garb line the main street, where parents stroll by with their children. American flags dangle to showcase patriotism. There are homes with manicured lawns and shade trees, and parks to play. And on the northern edge of St. Marys stands a 66,400-square-foot church, towering over the town.

The conservative Catholic sect that built the church has transformed life here since its arrival more than four decades ago. The Society of St. Pius X, also known as SSPX, rejects many modern ways of living, requiring modest dress for women, enforcing strict divisions between genders and encouraging large families. As members of the group have gotten into political leadership, they’ve imposed those beliefs, jettisoning books that mention LGBTQ+ people…

In an era of deep divisions in the church, newly ordained priests overwhelmingly lean right in their theology, practices and politics.

On a sunny afternoon in May, Zachary Galante was sitting in a conference room in St. Francis de Sales Seminary with several other young men, talking about what it meant for them to choose the Catholic priesthood in the year 2024. The next morning, they would make lifelong promises of celibacy and obedience, and they were palpably elated by the prospect.

“It’s a beautiful life,” Deacon Galante, soon to become Father Galante, said.

There was a time where the church “maybe apologized for being Catholic,” he said later in the conversation. He and the other new priests agreed they were called to something different: advancing the Catholic faith, even the parts that could seem out of place in an increasingly hostile world. “The church is Catholic, and so we should announce…

[See also the Episcopal Church’s Title IV Structure and Procedures.]

As it elected Bishop Sean Rowe its new presiding bishop at last week’s General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, the Episcopal Church adopted more than 20 resolutions related to Title IV, a section of the church bylaws that governs its response to allegations against clergy of abuse or misconduct.

Over the past year, a spate of public Title IV cases prompted concerns about the complexity and effectiveness of the denomination’s approach to clergy discipline, particularly in cases involving bishops’ decisions or misconduct of their own. Less than two weeks before General Convention, the denomination disclosed that three of the five presiding bishop nominees had faced current or prior Title IV complaints. (Rowe was one of the two nominees not listed in the disclosure.)

“There’s been a lot of activity and action of distrust by the wider…

A former counselor at Kanakuk Kamp in Branson is serving multiple life sentences for sexually abusing campers, but he will soon have a chance at parole. 

After serving 14 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, Peter Newman will appear for a hearing in front of a parole board in September. 

Thomas Carver, Newman’s defense attorney, says he expects the parole board to side with the many victims calling for Newman to stay in prison. 

“I’m sure because of the notoriety of this case, that there will be about a billion people show up at the parole hearings telling them not to let him go,” Carver said. Ex-camper sues Branson-based summer camp for allegedly concealing sexual abuse

While some victims of Newman’s abuse will address the parole board, others will not be able to. 

“I used to call him a survivor, but he didn’t survive. So now I refer to…

A youth minister from Oneonta has been arrested and accused of multiple sex crimes involving a child, including rape, sodomy and human trafficking.

According to court records from Blount County, 39-year-old Terry Lewayne Murphree of Oneonta is facing one charge of rape, nine charges of clergy having sex with a child, one count of electronic solicitation of a child, one count human trafficking 1st degree, one count traveling to meet a child for sex, three counts of sexual abuse 1st degree, and one count sodomy 1st degree.

The details in the complaint accuse Murphree of having sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl.

Murphree was arrested and booked into the Blount County Correctional Facility late Tuesday night.

We’ll update this story with more details as they become available.

A nun jailed for abusing vulnerable youngsters at an orphanage has had her prison term cut following an appeal.

Sister Sarah McDermott was given a three-year sentence for mistreating children at Smyllum Park between 1969 and 1981 following a six-week trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court in January.

Her co-accused, Sister Eileen Igoe, 79, and carer Margaret Hughes, 77, succeeded in their bid to have their sentences cut in May due to “insufficient” weight being given to their age.

Judges at the Court of Appeal agreed to cut McDermott’s sentence to seven months for the same reasons.

Lady Dorrian, Lord Mattews and Lord Docherty argued that the trio “present no future risk to the public,” describing the conviction as “punitive”.

Smyllum Park, in Lanark, has been at the centre of allegations of historical abuse.

During sentencing at Airdrie Sheriff Court, Sheriff Scott Pattison said there was no alternative to prison for…

An elderly nun who was jailed for abusing vulnerable youngsters at an orphanage has succeeded in a legal bid to cut her prison sentence.

Sister Sarah McDermott, 79, was given a three year term for mistreating children at Smyllum Park in Lanark from 1969 until 1981 when it closed.

She was sentenced following a trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court earlier this year. Her co-accused Sister Eileen Igoe, 79, and carer Margaret Hughes were also given three years behind bars.

The orphanage where the trio worked has been at the centre of allegations of historic abuse.

A number of former residents told Airdrie Sheriff Court they had been mistreated at Smyllum during a six-week long trial earlier this year.

One woman said she was beaten by McDermott, of London, after she reported witnessing her brother being sexually abused in a toilet in the orphanage.

She…

In short:

The Christian Brothers have bailed on a scheduled appearance before a committee into child sex abuse.

Child sex abuse survivors have slammed their decision, as well as WA’s Premier who implored them to answer questions about historical child abuse in the state.

What’s next?

One survivor has called for the Catholic Archbishop of Perth to intervene 

The Christian Brothers have been accused of hiding from public scrutiny and giving “bogus” reasons for a last-minute decision to not appear before a parliamentary committee inquiry into child sex abuse.

The religious order baulked at proposed questions about one of their now-deceased brothers allegedly abusing schoolboys in Western Australia, claiming it could compromise current civil child sex abuse proceedings.

The Christian Brothers Oceania provincial leader Brother Gerard Brady was slated to face questions in Perth on Thursday morning, but late yesterday afternoon confirmed he would not attend.

It’s a move that…

The lawyers for a man whose sexual abuse claims were blocked by a Michigan Supreme Court decision Wednesday called on the Legislature to change state law to allow for his claim and others like his to move forward in state courts.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Legislature’s recent allowances for late disclosures of sexual abuse do not apply to victims who were abused prior to the passage of the law in 2018, including Brian McLain, who alleged he’d been abused a Catholic priest in 1999.

“A very easy way to fix this would be to go back to amend that statute to simply add in one sentence saying that it applies retroactively. That would clean up all of this,” said Christopher Desmond, a chief appellate attorney at Ven Johnson Law who represented McLain.

The 2018 law, which the Legislature adopted after the sentencing of serial sexual molester…

Revelations by the author Alice Munro’s youngest daughter that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather as a child, and that Munro stayed with the abuser even after he was convicted of the assault, reverberated in Canada and across the literary world on Monday.

The story, told by Munro’s daughter Andrea Skinner in an essay in The Toronto Star and reported by the same newspaper, left many of Munro’s admirers reeling, wondering how a writer of her stature was able to keep such a secret for decades and how the revelations might impact her towering legacy.

“Alice was always kind of Saint Alice,” said Martin Levin, the former editor of the books section at The Globe and Mail. He heard “not even the faintest whisper or hint” of the news in his 20 years at the paper, he said.

For decades, Munro has been revered for…

Following the conviction of a former northwest Ohio priest in November 2023, the Toledo Catholic Diocese has agreed to pay out over $1 million to three sexual abuse victims. 

Michael Zacharias was convicted on Nov. 17, 2023 in federal court on five charges of sex trafficking: one count of sex trafficking of a minor; two counts of sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud and coercion; and two counts of sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud or coercion.

“It takes seconds to abuse a child and it takes a lifetime to overcome it,” said Claudia Vercellotti, who leads the Ohio chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Following the criminal court proceedings, the victims’ attorney, Konrad Kircher with Kircher Law, LLC, urged the Diocese to compensate with the victims. 

They did so, in a…

The Toledo Catholic Diocese has agreed to pay just over $1 million to three victims in a case where a Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to life in prison on charges related to child molestation.

Michael Zacharias, 57, was found guilty in May, 2023, of sex trafficking of a minor; two counts of sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, or coercion; and two counts of sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion.

During the trial, three male victims said Zacharias coerced them into allowing him to perform oral sex on them. The priest offered the victims payments for each sexual act, which allowed the victims to fund their respective opiate addictions. Zacharias was well aware of these addictions and exploited them to keep his victims coming back, said Claudia Vercellotti, who leads the Ohio chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“The…

When Tony Cutcher learned that I was investigating why he resigned from active ministry following a scandal in 2021, he did what few priests accused of improper behavior have ever done: An interview.

When Tony Cutcher learned that I was investigating why he resigned from active ministry following a scandal in 2021, he did what few priests accused of improper behavior have ever done: He sat down for an interview.

“My reputation is gone. The best I’m going to be able to do for the rest of my life is going to be some sort of low-level menial job — which I find frustrating, and I also think is sad,” Cutcher said during a June 7 interview. “Someone with my background, training and talents not being able to use them for the greater good because of these allegations.”

Cutcher asked the Archdiocese of Cincinnati if he could return to active…

Something fascinating is going on with Christa Brown’s memoir Baptistland.

I’ve been in book publishing for almost 30 years, a career that allowed me to see many sides of the publishing business. My last corporate role was as vice president and publisher of a major evangelical publisher owned by one of the “big five” publishers.

My time in publishing has paralleled the big change in recent decades — the digital revolution. When e-books first came on the scene, there was much hand-wringing that this new format would become the dominant one for book consumption. Publishers would lose significant revenue, retailers would go completely out of business, and even perhaps books would stop being read.

But none of that came true, not completely. The publishing business has changed a lot, but it’s still profitable. We still have physical retailers, although their numbers and market share are greatly reduced. And believe it or not,…

Spain’s Catholic bishops approved Tuesday a plan to compensate the victims of sexual abuse inside the Church whose alleged aggressors have died or whose possible crimes have been proscribed, an initiative the government and victims’ associations called lacking in real guarantees.

The Spanish Episcopal Conference did not provide an estimate on how many victims it could help. But last year the conference said it had found evidence of 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945 as part of its first public report after years of rejecting a comprehensive approach to investigating sexual abuse.

Seventy-five percent of the cases had occurred before 1990 and more than 60% of the offenders were dead, the conference said.

Last year a survey by Spain’s public Ombudsman office indicated that the total number of victims, including minors, could be much, much higher.

The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Argüello, said Tuesday in a…

The survivors committee and the Archdiocese of Baltimore continue to work together in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case toward the goals of compensating as many victims as possible equitably, allowing the archdiocese to continue its ministries and ensuring that policies and procedures are in place to prevent future incidences of child sexual abuse.

Paul Jan Zdunek, chairman of the survivors committee in the case, and Archbishop William E. Lori addressed local media July 8 to provide an update on the process, which began with the archdiocese filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 29, 2023. The first meeting between the archbishop and his team with members of the survivors’ committee was in December.

Zdunek said that the committee does not want to release the number of survivor claims until they have been reviewed. The claim filing deadline – known in bankruptcy court as the bar date – was May 31.

“This…

SNAP doubts sincerity: ‘We believe that the diocese is the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing’

The Archdiocese of Baltimore and abuse survivors are pledging cooperation through the bankruptcy process; however, some survivors feel left out of the process.

The archdiocese announced in September that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following numerous claims of child sex abuse by priests.

“Even though this process is tied to Chapter 11, it does not end the moral responsibility of the archdiocese to respond compassionately to those who have been harmed,” Baltimore Archbishop William Lori said.

The archbishop was joined Monday morning by Paul Jan Zdunek, who chairs the Creditors’ Committee of Survivors, for a news conference to say the archdiocese is working on procedures, mediation and prevention when it comes to abuse of children.

“We share the same goal of creating an environment, one that is rooted in…

A lack of clear understanding by school administrators about what constitutes grooming behavior was a key factor in the case of a former Baltimore County teacher who went on to teach at two Catholic schools despite a history of misconduct; that’s according to an investigative report from the Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education.

In 2022, Mark Planamente, 40, was charged with sexual solicitation of a minor. Last year, Planamente pleaded guilty to that charge and according to jail records is now serving a five-year sentence in Baltimore City Correctional Center. At the time of his arrest, Planamente was teaching at Sisters Academy of Baltimore, a Catholic school for late elementary and middle school girls in Southwest Baltimore.

He had previously served as a teacher at The Catholic High School of Baltimore and before that, in Baltimore County Public Schools. Planamente was found to…

Two speakers have pulled out of preaching at Gateway Church’s summer series following child sex abuse allegations against church founder Robert Morris. 

Joyce Meyer and Dr. Ben Carson were both scheduled to speak at the Dallas-area megachurch as part of a series titled “Let’s Dive In,” but have since cancelled. A source close to Meyer cited solidarity with abuse victims, and Carson said it was to allow for the church’s “healing process to take place.”

Morris resigned from the church’s top position on June 18, following Cindy Clemishire’s bombshell allegations she was sexually abused by Morris in 1982 when she was 12 years old. 

For multiple years, Meyer has been a regular speaker at Gateway Church, with the most recent message in May. A person close to Joyce Meyer Ministries shared anonymously late Monday night that Meyer has decided to stop teaching at Gateway Church in light of recent allegations against Morris.

“I…

French sales and distribution company Shellac will launch international sales for the upcoming Catholic Church sexual abuse documentary “The Deposition” at Locarno before releasing the film in France this October. Accompanying the announcement, Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer, seen above.

“The Deposition” is the story of a young boy named Emmanuel who, in 1993, told his parents that he was molested by a popular new priest in the village named Hubert. At the time, his parents chose to keep the boy’s allegations a secret.

Thirty years later, Emmanuel’s father, Robert, can no longer bear the guilt and confronts Hubert, who denies everything. Several months later, after speaking with a government-commissioned report on sexual violence within the Catholic Church, Emmanuel is encouraged to share his story with the authorities.

For over three hours, Emmanual shares his account with the local police, recording the entire encounter on his phone….

On the weekend of June 22-23, parishioners at St. Michael and St. Joseph parishes in Fall River, Massachusetts, were informed via a letter from Bishop Edgar da Cunha that their pastor, Fr. Jay Mello, was being put on leave for sexual misconduct allegations. The letter specified that no minors were involved and assured parishioners that he understood the gravity of the situation, writing, “This situation is distressing for all of us. Please know that my prayers are with all the faithful people of St. Michael and St. Joseph Parishes during this challenging time.”

Reports on the letter were shared by local news outlets, and a separate letter written by the superintendent of schools, Daniel Roy, was sent to parents of students who attend St. Michael’s parish school. This letter also assured recipients that no minors were involved. The letter…

A CATHOLIC priest and former youth leader facing ten counts of sexually abusing a child has been charged with attempting to interfere with a prosecution witness.

Piotr Antonio Glas (60) – who used to specialise in exorcisms – appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday [8 JULY] to face one count of perverting the course of justice.

Mr Glas was previously charged with offences that are said to have happened while he was in ministry in Jersey – eight counts of gross indecency with a child and two charges of indecent assault on a child.

The charges were deemed to be too serious for the Magistrate’s Court and have been sent to the Royal Court.

Mr Glas’s court appearance yesterday related to him contacting a third party and asking them to interfere with a prosecution witness.

Originally from Poland, Mr Glas is described on Wikipedia as a fundamentalist priest and former…

In short: 

Parishioners at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat came together with survivors of institutional child sexual abuse and their supporters on Saturday to re-tie ribbons to the fence.

Individuals have since targeted the fence and removed or cut the majority of the ribbons. 

What’s next? 

The Diocese of Ballarat and Loud Fence members will continue discussions on plans for a long-term memorial on cathedral grounds. 

Just days after parishioners, survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, and their supporters gathered in a show of solidarity to tie colourful ribbons to a Ballarat cathedral fence, the majority have been cut and removed.

The gathering took place on Saturday at St Patrick’s Cathedral in the regional Victorian city, west of Melbourne.

Three days later, the majority of the ribbons had been cut and removed from the fence in two separate targeted attacks.

The action has devastated Ballarat community members and church leaders,…

Bishop Christopher Saunders appeared in Australian court July 8 for a bail hearing, as the former bishop of the Diocese of Broome awaits trial on 28 criminal charges, including alleged sexual abuse.

Saunders, 74, attended court Monday in Broome, his former diocese, after prosecutors filed for a change to his bail conditions. 

In a hearing last month, prosecutors argued that the bishop’s bail conditions, which prohibit contact with alleged victims and witnesses, should be changed, to include additional possible witnesses to the case, and to bar the bishop from returning to Broome to prevent accidental encounters.

Magistrate Deen Potter ruled on that motion July 8, deciding that none of the extra names appearing on the potential witness list appeared “especially vulnerable,” and Saunders’ bail conditions would remain unchanged — with the judge even allowing for the possibility of accidental encounters between them and the bishop in the town.

Saunders was…

This week, we filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Seattle alleging for our client who was sexually abused by three adults at St. John Catholic School in the 1980s.

The survivor in the lawsuit, R.C., suffered sexual abuse by a priest, Father Edward Boyle, and his coaches, John Schade, and Terry McGrath from 1981 through 1985, while he was a student at St. John Catholic School in Seattle. Each of the alleged perpetrators worked at St. John in the 1970s and 1980s, and all have been previously accused of abusing children.

Father Boyle has faced accusations of sexual abuse for more than a decade. In 2005, an Everett man sued the Archdiocese of Seattle claiming that Boyle abused him for more than ten years, starting in 1956. Eleven years later, in 2016, the Archdiocese of Seattle identified Boyle as a priest who has been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

…

[See also the AG’s Petition and the Archdiocese of Seattle’s Opposition to the Petition. We provide brief excerpts of the amicus brief below. See also the full text.]

This amicus brief provides additional information to the Court as it considers the Washington Attorney General’s Petition to Enforce Investigative Subpoena.

There are conditions specific to Washington State and its three Catholic dioceses which create a special need for an investigation and report by the Attorney General. Many such investigations and reports have already been done elsewhere in the United States, often after disagreements about document production have been resolved. The record shows that the Archdiocese of Seattle’s own reviews of its documents have not yielded comparable results, and that other dioceses have recently shown more transparency. (pp. 1-2)

*

ISSUES ADDRESSED BY AMICUS

A. Whether AGO investigations are beneficial and depend on documents.

B. Whether the unique situation…

Andrea Skinner said in The Toronto Star that her stepfather sexually abused her at age 9, and that her mother stayed with him after she learned of it.

Andrea Robin Skinner, a daughter of the Canadian Nobel laureate Alice Munro, said her stepfather sexually abused her as a child — and that her mother knew about it, and chose to stay with him anyway.

Skinner, who is now an adult, detailed these accusations in an essay in The Toronto Star on Sunday. According to a separate article in The Toronto Star, Skinner went to the Ontario police, and in 2005, her stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, was charged with indecent assault against her. He pleaded guilty.

By then, he was 80 years old. He got a suspended sentence and probation for two years. Munro stayed with him until he died in 2013.

Because of her mother’s fame, Skinner…

The head of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the chair of a committee that represents survivors of sexual abuse vowed on Monday to work together to reach a fair and equitable settlement in the church’s bankruptcy case.

Archbishop William Lori and Paul Jan Zdunek, chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, held a joint news conference at the offices of Brown, Goldstein & Levy in Baltimore to provide an update on what’s happening in the case. They said they’re looking to move into mediation to reach agreements on the number of sexual abuse claims filed in the case, compensation for survivors, and policies and protocols to further protect children.

“We share a goal of creating an environment, one that’s rooted in mutual trust, and one that will enable us to work together constructively, and hopefully quickly, to come to an agreed-upon plan,” Lori said. “Today’s news conference…

[Includes statement by SNAP’s David Lorenz.]

Both the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the committee representing survivors of sex abuse said they have not gone through mediation just yet.

It’s not clear how much money survivors of the sex abuse scandal will receive. That could take another year.

“We are also here to make sure survivors are paid fairly and that children, most importantly, are protected going forward,” Paul Zdunek, chairman of the Survivors’ Committee, said.

The number of those who have filed claims against the archdiocese is more than 700. Archbishop William Lori said while the process has been painful, they would do their best to provide appropriate compensation.

“We will work constructively, with the committee and the mediation team to arrive at what the final settlement will be and we will do our best to provide appropriate compensation,” Lori said.

The archdiocese originally filed for bankruptcy in September 2023 amid…

The Archdiocese of St. John’s must pay over $104 million to 292 survivors of abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage during the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s or at the hands of archdiocesan clergy.

Individual settlements for successful claims range between $55,000 to $850,000. The average net claim award value is approximately $356,000 per plaintiff.

Globe Resolutions Inc., the mediation company appointed as claims officer, disallowed 65 applications. However, the denied claimants will have 45 days to file an appeal after they receive their official Notice of Determination. Meanwhile, 10 cases are still pending a decision.

Lawyer Geoff Budden, whose firm represented 219 of the 367 petitioners, has worked towards July 5, the date the settlements were published by court-appointed monitor Ernst & Young Inc., for nearly a quarter century. He told The Catholic Register that the aggregate sum of $104 million is “where I would expect almost 300 men with…

Baltimore Archbishop William Lori struck a unified tone with the chair of the committee representing sex abuse victims in the Catholic Church’s bankruptcy case at a news conference Monday, as both men acknowledged the number of survivors who filed claims is not yet known.

Lori and Paul Jan Zdunek, chair of the creditor’s committee of survivors, told reporters that they shared the goal of promoting an efficient bankruptcy process that ends with fair compensation for survivors, a detailed set of protocols to prevent future child abuse and an ability for the church to continue its mission.

“It is shared the goal of creating an environment rooted in mutual trust that permits us to work together constructively, and hopefully quickly, toward an agreed-upon plan,” Lori said. “Today’s news conference is also about a public declaration of our intention to work together on behalf of victim-survivors.”

The public show of unity comes…

[See also the background to this dispute.]

A contentious court hearing between two Virginia Beach Catholic school families whose relationship fell apart over child sex abuse allegations ended Monday with some misdemeanor charges filed against one family being dismissed and others upheld.

Monday’s hearing in Virginia Beach General District Court was held after Marin Jakawich filed criminal complaints against former friends Tim and Meredith Hatchell. The two families met several years ago through their children, all of whom attended St. John the Apostle Catholic School in Virginia Beach.

Even the nature of the two families’ relationship was at odds on Monday. While the Hatchells told Judge Sandra Menago they’d been so close that they’d routinely seen each other four to five days a week over the past four years, and presented photos of them on multiple vacations together, Jakawich referred to the Hatchells as “acquaintances.”

Both sides, however, agreed that…

The exact number of Catholic church abuse survivors remains unknown as claimants in the Archdiocese of Baltimore bankruptcy case are being vetted.

“That will eventually drive the rest of the process and inform the rest of the process,” Paul Jan Zdunek, chair of the creditor’s committee of survivors, said.

Zdunek and Archbishop William Lori held a press conference Monday to give an update on the case ahead of a mediation process.

“It’s not just the number. It represents so many people who have been harmed,” Archbishop Lori said. “Really, the aim is to help provide a path toward healing in their lives.”

The archbishop and a chairperson representing abuse victims say it’s too early to say how many have filed claims, as many of the hundreds still need to be vetted.

Archbishop Lori described the claims received as, “stories of abuse, the misuse of power, the stories…

Classic slasher movies are notorious for the plot twist in which the villain, believed to be dead, pops back up for one last stab of the knife or lunge of the chainsaw. The take-away is that just when you think the scary part is over, get ready for another jolt.

It’s a lesson which, in a different guise, chief Vatican prosecutor Alessandro Diddi is learning the hard way right now.

Last December, Diddi, the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice, finally won convictions in the celebrated “trial of the century,” a multi-headed hydra of a case that required a whopping two and half years – not to mention 69 witnesses, 85 court hearings, and millions of pages of files and documents – to end in guilty verdicts against Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight other defendants for various alleged financial crimes.

Granted, the verdicts remain on appeal, and granted, Diddi has faced…

When Pope Francis tapped Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández to head the Vatican’s doctrinal office on July 1, 2023, he wasn’t just naming his longtime Argentine theological adviser to one of the church’s most powerful roles. He was also reenvisioning how that department would operate in the modern world and attempting to ensure that his reforms might outlast his own papacy.

Accompanying the announcement of Fernández’s appointment in the Vatican’s daily bulletin was a letter articulating that as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, he should actively promote the work of theology and new ways of evangelization rather than replicating past “immoral methods” that sought to control or punish theologians.

“The text of the letter that the pope wrote to the new prefect is in some ways an epoch-making event,” Italian theologian Andrea Grillo told the National Catholic Reporter. “It marked the official…

Rome – The decision by the U.S. bishops conference to dramatically slash its staff for the department responsible for implementing some of Pope Francis’ top priorities has been called “very disappointing” and “somewhat duplicitous” by one of the pontiff’s newest archbishops in America.

“I am very disappointed,” said Archbishop Christopher Coyne of Hartford, Connecticut. He said he was surprised that less than two weeks after the U.S. bishops’ met for their annual spring assembly that the conference’s leadership decided to move forward with major layoffs in its social justice department.

“We were led to believe that it would continue to be a vibrant part of the conference,” Coyne told the National Catholic Reporter on June 29. “At no point was any discussion made or talked about in terms of significant employee cuts. … It comes across as being somewhat duplicitous in terms of what was actually…

[A useful three-minute video summary of the $104 million compensation package, with clips of an interview with the attorney who represented 92 of the 292 claimants. The claimants will receive an average of $356K, with a base of $55K and a high of $850K. Most claimants were abused at the Mount Cashel Orphanage, run by the Irish Christian Brothers, with others abused at parishes and schools in the Archdiocese of St. John’s. When the archdiocese was found liable for the abuse in 2021, it filed for bankruptcy, but has been able to put together only $40 million by selling off church properties. The hope is that insurance and additional sales will cover the difference. The video also shows images of the orphanage and video of its demolition.]

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s has been ordered to pay more than. $100 million to victims of abuse. Lawyer Bob Buckingham…

The proposal comes amid cases of doctors accused of sexual abuse and the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal.

A bill that would expand the scope of certain sexual offenses under Massachusetts law perpetrated by a health care provider or a member of the clergy is making its way through Beacon Hill.

The bill also would add rape of a patient or client by a health care provider, indecent assault and battery on vulnerable persons in law enforcement custody, and indecent assault and battery on a patient or client by a health care provider to definitions related to sexual offenders.

The Massachusetts House approved the bill last week.

The proposal comes amid cases of doctors accused of sexual abuse and the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal.

The bill would establish that anybody who holds themselves out to be a health care provider or clergy member, and who commits an indecent assault and battery…

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a pharma case could have major effects on a New York diocese’s negotiations for bankruptcy and clergy sex abuse settlements.

The Rochester Beacon reported that the Diocese of Rochester filed for bankruptcy nearly five years ago in response to New York’s Child Victims Act, which removed the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse cases for two years. 

The Act resulted in roughly 485 claims in the Diocese’s bankruptcy from people who maintained they were sexually abused by clergy or other Church officials when they were children.

Since filing for bankruptcy, the Diocese has been involved in years of negotiations and discussions to settle the child sex abuse claims, but a June 27 U.S. Supreme Court case that blocked OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan could affect how the Diocese proceeds with its own bankruptcy reorganization plans to…

The Prime Minister is defending the government’s attitude towards survivors of abuse, as it emerges one of his ministers did not read a report into the abuse of a group of survivors he met.

Christopher Luxon fronted media in Ashburton on Friday, where he conceded he had not yet read the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care.

In his defence, Luxon only received that report last week.

The same cannot be said of Doocey, who was late last year sent a copy of the Royal Commission’s interim report into the systemic abuse of the Brothers of St John of God in Christchurch from the 1950s until the 1990s.

The report, titled Stolen Lives, Marked Souls, was released publicly in August last year.

RNZ has learned Doocey, one of the ministers with responsibility for assessing the Royal Commission’s recommendations, was then sent the…

Signs of the times. The Viganò phenomenon highlights a significant post-Vatican II rift within Catholicism. While Viganò’s conspiracy theories are troubling, the main concern is the silent schism of disengagement and potential backlash against synodal decisions.

Will there be a Viganò schism? Surely not a schism like the ones in the handbooks of Church history. But news that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had summoned Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to answer to charges of schism reveals something of this Catholic moment and Catholic culture.

From 2011-2016, the Italian archbishop served as apostolic nuncio to the United States, and in August 2018, he accused Pope Francis of abuse cover-up in an attempt to overthrow his papacy. Since then, he has released a series of increasingly extreme statements about the pope, the Vatican, and the authority of the Second Vatican Council from undisclosed locations and via the internet….

The Roman Catholic Church has been ordered to pay settlements totalling $104 million to 292 survivors of historical abuse in Newfoundland and Labrador, including those at the now infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s.

The decision Friday was met with relief, hurt and even grief by survivors who’ve endured a decades-long fight for justice, said lawyer Geoff Budden. His firm represents more than 200 survivors of abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage from the 1940s to the early 1960s.

“Some get validation from this,” he said in an interview. “They are happy that they were believed, that their claims were accepted and they’re going to receive compensation … but it triggers. It brings back memories, and it’s a struggle.”

And the fight is not over, he said: the church doesn’t have enough money to pay the settlements.

The totals published Friday include claims from Mount Cashel and other…

The Vatican on Friday excommunicated its former ambassador to Washington after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable outcome for Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. The conservative had became one of Pope Francis ‘ most ardent critics and a symbol of the polarized Catholic Church in the United States and beyond.

While once enjoying support in the Vatican and U.S. church hierarchies, the Italian archbishop alienated many as he developed a fringe following while delving deeper into conspiracy theories on everything — from the coronavirus pandemic to what he called the “Great Reset” and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Vatican’s doctrine office announced the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday and informed Vigano of its decision on Friday.

It cited Vigano’s public “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him, and of the legitimacy…

A French bishop has put off any decision on whether to remove mosaics by an ex-Jesuit artist accused of abusing women, saying that they will stay for now on the Lourdes shrine but that eventually they should be removed

A French bishop has put off any decision on whether to remove mosaics by an ex-Jesuit artist accused of abusing women, saying that they’ll stay for now on the Lourdes shrine but that eventually they should be removed.

The mosaics will no longer be lit up each night during the evening prayer, Lourdes Bishop Jean-Marc Micas said in a statement Tuesday. But he told the French Catholic daily La Croix that he had decided not to remove them now because he didn’t want to “tear the church apart.”

“My deep, formed, intimate conviction is that they will one day need to be removed: they prevent Lourdes from reaching all the people for…

The court found sexual abuse was perpetrated by priests and other church officials at the orphanage starting in 1940 and continued over the course of several decades.

The Catholic Church is to pay 104 million Canadian dollars ($76 million) to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse from eastern Canada, according to a statement released Friday.

In 2020 the Archdiocese of St. John was found liable for one of Canada’s largest child sex abuse scandals, at Mount Cashel Orphanage, a now-defunct boy’s orphanage in Newfoundland and Labrador province.

The court found sexual abuse was perpetrated by priests and other church officials at the orphanage starting in 1940 and continued over the course of several decades.

A total of 292 victims will receive payouts ranging from 55,000 to 850,000 Canadian dollars, according to the report seen by AFP.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young has been tapped as a third-party intermediary to determine…

The abuse crisis at The Meeting House church is so bad, they literally cannot meet anymore out of fear of what may happen

You know your church is having problems when you tell your congregation that upcoming services have to be canceled because no insurance providers will work with you because of all the sexual abuse, and that means all in-person interactions have to be put on pause.

That’s the actual I-shit-you-not situation going down at The Meeting House, one of the largest and most influential churches in Ontario, which billed itself as “a church for people who aren’t into church” (the theological equivalent of girls saying they’re not like other girls). It appealed to a lot of people tired of traditional churches, including lots of young people, and rapidly became one of the largest vessels in the province for spreading Christianity.

The church was led by Bruxy Cavey, who took…

Luke Cunningham, a former youth pastor at four Texas churches who was arrested June 19 by United States marshals, now faces a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for alleged international and interstate sex trafficking.

The investigation concerns allegations he sexually abused students on out-of-state and international mission trips while he served on staff at a Lubbock megachurch.

BNG reported and independently verified FBI involvement on June 27 but withheld this specific information to protect the identity of potential victims and preserve the investigation’s integrity.

In a bond hearing July 1, Lubbock County prosecutors revealed details of Cunningham’s alleged abusive behavior. Several local media organizations reported this information, including Lubbock NBC affiliate KCBD.

Prosecutors argued Cunningham is a violent offender who slapped and choked his victims into unconsciousness.

Prosecutors argued Cunningham is a violent offender who slapped and choked his victims into unconsciousness. They also claimed he is a manipulator and serial…

A former Lexington pastor is facing multiple sexual-related offenses after allegedly having sex with a minor for over one year, according to court documents. Zachary King, 47, is facing charges of first-degree rape, third-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, third-degree sodomy, first-degree sexual abuse and procuring or promoting the use of a minor by electronic means, according to court records. Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office confirmed King was a former executive pastor of LexCity Church.

King’s arrest citation says resigned after being confronted by church staff in reference to allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a minor. King consented to an interview with a detective and admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old minor beginning in January 2023 and lasting until April 2024. The sexual encounters happened at his home, the minor’s home and at the former pastor’s church, according to court documents. King’s arrest citation didn’t say specifically where he was…

Four Gateway Church elders, including Robert Morris’s son, have temporarily stepped down from their positions with the Dallas megachurch.

Gateway Church founder Robert Morris resigned from the church’s top position on June 18, following Cindy Clemishire’s bombshell allegations she was sexually abused by Morris in 1982 when she was 12 years old. 

Kevin Grove, Steve Dulin, Gayland Lawshe, and Pastor James Morris volunteered to take a temporary leave of absence, according to a June 28 statement on Gateway Church’s website.

The move follows the recommendation by Haynes & Boone, the law firm investigating the Morris allegations, that any elder with a potential conflict of interest step down temporarily. The recommendation applies to any elder related to Morris and elders who were on the Board from 2005 to 2007.

This is the time period when Clemishire says she reached out to Robert Morris and at least one Gateway elder about the…

Mistakes and political fights have long delayed an amendment to give sexual abuse survivors a chance to sue the perpetrators. Now, the effort might fail again.

A long-awaited constitutional amendment that would give survivors of childhood sexual abuse a chance to sue their abusers will not be on the November ballot unless lawmakers advance it in the next month.

Members of the divided legislature remain deadlocked. They broadly agree that voters should be given an opportunity to consider such a proposal, but are divided on how to advance it.

Democrats who control the state House want to send to voters a single question about opening the lawsuit window, while Republican leaders say the abuse amendment should be advanced alongside other GOP priorities, including an expanded voter ID requirement.

The issue has been before the body for nearly two decades and came tantalizingly close to reaching voters several years ago only…

Church told to pay $104 million for abuse in N.L.

The Roman Catholic Church has been ordered to pay settlements totalling $104 million to 292 survivors of historical abuse in Newfoundland and Labrador, including those at the now infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s.

The decision Friday was met with relief, hurt and even grief by survivors who’ve endured a decades-long fight for justice, said lawyer Geoff Budden. His firm represents more than 200 survivors of abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage from the 1940s to the early 1960s.

“Some get validation from this,” he said in an interview. “They are happy that they were believed, that their claims were accepted and they’re going to receive compensation … but it triggers. It brings back memories, and it’s a struggle.”

And the fight is not over, he said: the church doesn’t have enough money to pay the settlements.

The…

Settlement figure is more than double what church has raised so far through property sales

A third-party insolvency monitor has put forward a sum of $104 million to pay the victims of sexual abuse by Newfoundland and Labrador clerics, but it’s not certain how much money will actually flow to hundreds of claimants. 

A four-page document filed with Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court by George Kinsman, a senior vice-president of Ernst & Young, puts the net claim award at $104,074,667. 

Among the 367 claims filed, 292 have already been accepted, while 65 were disallowed and 10 are considered pending. 

The document says the average payment to a claimant is $356,417. 

The document, released Friday, is the latest step in a saga that started in 1987 with charges against one priest and would expand to a series of scandals that closed the Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s and recently forced…

The diocese of Trier reports on the status of the processing and prevention of sexual abuse. There are some interesting figures.

Sexual abuse – Diocese of Trier pays almost 500,000 euros to victims

The Diocese of Trier paid nearly 500,000 Euro in compensation for victims of sexual abuse last year. According to the “Annual Report 2023 Prevention – Intervention – Reconciliation” presented in Trier, there were 26 requests for recognition of suffering granted. Among them were several so-called hard cases, where victims each received sums of 50,000 Euro or more.

Since the revelation of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in 2010, the Diocese of Trier has paid out a total of 2.7 million Euro in compensation. The report, the second of its kind in the Diocese of Trier, also lists therapy costs for victims: These amounted to a total of approximately 143,000 Euro, of which almost…

Twin cities, Ciudad Juárez and El Paso share the pain brought by clergy sexual abuse, but their bishops’ responses are vastly different.

Although twinned by their location, the Roman Catholic dioceses of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez offer contrasting and contradictory responses to clergy sexual abuse.

In El Paso, bishop Mark Seitz published a list of clergy abusers, publicly apologized, and has compensated victims, while José Guadalupe Torres Campos harasses the victims in Ciudad Juárez.

hat Ciudad Juárez and El Paso are united by something more than the common history of the founding and the separation that came after the war of 1846-8, does not prevent their citizens from being aware of the many differences between the twin sister cities at the border.

The differences do not end or begin with language, currency, the way of measuring distances or temperatures. They can be seen dramatically in the stories of clergy…

A bill that would expand the scope of certain sexual offenses under Massachusetts law perpetrated by a health care provider or a member of the clergy is making its way through Beacon Hill.

The bill also would add rape of a patient or client by a health care provider, indecent assault and battery on vulnerable persons in law enforcement custody, and indecent assault and battery on a patient or client by a health care provider to definitions related to sexual offenders.

The Massachusetts House approved the bill last week.

The proposal comes amid cases of doctors accused of sexual abuse and the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal.

The bill would establish that anybody who holds themselves out to be a health care provider or clergy member, and who commits an indecent assault and battery on a patient, client or individual during diagnosis, counseling, or treatment could be punished by imprisonment for…

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has been declared excommunicated for schism by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Vatican dicastery, however, opted not to remove him from the clerical state, though canon law does not exclude that penalty.

The decision had been widely expected after the former nuncio to the United States refused to participate in the trial against him, saying that he “did not recognize the authority” of the dicastery or its prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, or Pope Francis.

The archbishop has stated that he does not recognize the legitimacy of Pope Francis and said, “I reject and condemn the scandals, errors and heresies of Jorge Mario Bergoglio,” adding, “with this ‘Bergoglian church,’ no Catholic worthy of the name can be in communion.”

The dicastery had summoned Archbishop Viganò to present himself or submit a defense on June 20 and said he had the right to appoint…

ROME (AP) — The Vatican has excommunicated its former ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable end for the firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis ‘ most ardent critics and a symbol of the polarized Catholic Church in the U.S. and beyond.

The Vatican’s doctrine office imposed the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday and informed Vigano of its decision Friday, a press statement said.

It cited Vigano’s “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”

The Vatican excommunication means that Vigano is formally outside the church, and cannot celebrate or receive its sacraments, for having committed one of the gravest crimes in canon law: schism. A schism occurs when someone…

In a rare trial, the Vatican acted against Carlo Maria Viganò, a former ambassador to the U.S. and one of Pope Francis’s most vociferous internal critics.

ROME — The Vatican on Friday excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, exacting a severe punishment on the most vociferous internal critic of Pope Francis for refusing to recognize the authority of the pope and liberal reforms made by the Roman Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Such drastic steps are exceedingly rare in the church and illustrated the extent to which Viganò — the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States — is perceived to have crossed a line. He has called on the pope to resign and excoriated him in harsh terms, including calling him “a servant of Satan.”

Viganò’s punishment suggests that Francis, who has faced conservative criticism since early in his papacy, may be losing patience with…

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the disgraced former papal nuncio to the United States who questioned the legitimacy of Pope Francis and the authority of the Second Vatican Council, has been found guilty of schism and excommunicated, the Vatican announced on July 5.

“His public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council are well known,” stated a Vatican bulletin that announced the ruling.

The decision of Viganò’s excommunication was widely expected following the archbishop’s June 20 announcement that he had been charged with schism by the Dicastery for the Doctrine for the Faith and that he would not be cooperating with the Vatican penal process.

At the time, Viganò said he would not comply with the…

The Vatican doctrine office announced Friday that it had found Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò guilty of the canonical crime of schism and declared his automatic excommunication.

A July 5 statement from the Holy See press office said that the verdict of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) was reached on Thursday and communicated to the former papal nuncio to the United States Friday.

The statement said: “On 4 July 2024, the congress of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith met to conclude the extrajudicial penal process referred to in canon 1720 CIC against the Most Reverend Carlo Maria Viganò, titular Archbishop of Ulpiana, accused of the reserved delict of schism (canons 751 and 1364 CIC; art. 2 SST).”

“His public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and…

The Vatican has officially excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith announced Friday.

Viganò was found guilty of the canonical crime, or delict, of schism, or the refusal to submit to the pope or the communion of the Church, at the conclusion of the Vatican’s extrajudicial penal process on July 4.

The Vatican’s doctrine office announced the “latae sententiae” excommunication (automatic excommunication) on July 5, citing Viganò’s “public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”

The former papal nuncio to the United States is now excommunicated, the most serious penalty a baptized person can incur, which consists of being placed outside the communion of the faithful of the Catholic…

Zachary King, pastor at multiple megachurches including LexCity in Kentucky has been charged with rape and sexual abuse of a minor.

The 47-year-old was arrested on Monday.

According to the office of Attorney General of Kentucky, Russell Coleman, King was booked in the Fayette County Detention Center and charged with several offences including rape, sexual assault and procuring or promoting use of minor by electronic means. 

King has reportedly resigned from Lexington City Church after members confronted him about the allegations.

At his arraignment on Tuesday, despite his lawyer asking for a $50,000 bond for his release the judge ordered it be $250,000 which he will have to pay 10% of.

Local news site Lex18.com reported that King confessed in an interview with Coleman’s office that he “engaged in a sexual relationship with a minor over the course of the last year and a half”, adding that it had begun when she was 15 in January 2023 and…

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a pharma case could have major effects on a New York diocese’s negotiations for bankruptcy and clergy sex abuse settlements.

The Rochester Beacon reported that the Diocese of Rochester filed for bankruptcy nearly five years ago in response to New York’s Child Victims Act, which removed the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse cases for two years. 

The Act resulted in roughly 485 claims in the Diocese’s bankruptcy filed by people who maintain they were sexually abused by clergy or other Church officials when they were children.

Since filing for bankruptcy, the Diocese has been involved in years of negotiations and discussions to settle the child sex abuse claims, but a June 27 U.S. Supreme Court case that blocked OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan could affect how the Diocese proceeds with its own bankruptcy reorganization plans…

The changes come as the denomination prepares to welcome a new presiding bishop with a history of bringing abuse to light.

As it elected Bishop Sean Rowe its new presiding bishop at last week’s General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, the Episcopal Church adopted more than 20 resolutions related to Title IV, a section of the church bylaws that governs its response to allegations against clergy of abuse or misconduct.

Over the past year, a spate of public Title IV cases prompted concerns about the complexity and effectiveness of the denomination’s approach to clergy discipline, particularly in cases involving bishops’ decisions or misconduct of their own. Less than two weeks before General Convention, the denomination disclosed that three of the five presiding bishop nominees had faced current or prior Title IV complaints. (Rowe was one of the two nominees not listed in the disclosure.)

“There’s been a lot of activity and action of…

The Archbishop of Canterbury has withdrawn an award given to Soul Survivor founder Mike Pilavachi after an investigation upheld safeguarding concerns.

Pilavachi received the Archbishop’s Lambeth Award in 2020 in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to evangelism and discipleship amongst young people in the United Kingdom”.

The Soul Survivor movement was founded by Pilavachi in 1993 and reached thousands of young people each year with its summer music festivals. 

Giving the award four years ago, Archbishop Justin Welby said Pilavachi had “shaped a spirituality and discipleship for generations of young people in which the primacy of worship, evangelism, provision for the poor, ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit and a love for scripture are non-negotiable”.

“This award for evangelism recognises that, above all, Soul Survivor has been the place where tens of thousands of young people have found faith. What is more, Mike has exercised this ministry with exemplary…

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications are digesting a robust rebuke by the Pope’s key point-man on clerical sexual abuse, the steely Irish American Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley OFM Cap.

Last week, the head of the Vatican’s communications department Paolo Ruffini strongly defended the continued use by his office of the art work of Jesuit artist Marko Rupnik who has been accused of appalling crimes of abuse against adult females.  His case is being investigated by the Vatican’s DDF.  The use of the art is highly contentious given victims say it’s a continuation of the abuse and a reminder of it.

In what seasoned PR professionals could only describe as a car crash intervention, Mr Ruffini told journalists that discontinuing the use of Fr Rupnik’s art of the Holy See’s website “is not a Christian response”.

“As Christian[s], we are asked not to judge,” he said, asking the journalists: “Do you…

The Catholic leader responsible for a world-famous and much beloved Marian healing shrine in France has ordered measures to lower the visibility of mosaic artwork by an accused serial rapist, but has stopped short — for the time being — of ordering the removal of the art.

Father Marko Rupnik is accused of abusing dozens of victims — most of them women religious — over several decades, much of which he spent in Rome at the Centro Aletti art institute he founded in the early 1990s.

Rupnik’s accusers say the removal of Rupnik’s art from places of worship is necessary because the abuse they suffered was part of Rupnik’s “creative” artistic process, making the art particularly ill-suited to sacred space.

Other victims of sexual abuse say the presence of art bearing the signature of a notorious abuser — especially one who escaped justice for so long as Rupnik did —…

The former Jesuit priest is under Vatican investigation after having been accused by women of spiritual and sexual abuse

As the commission discerning whether Father Marko Rupnik’s mosaics stay or go from the facade of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in the French sanctuary of Lourdes completed its work, no definitive decision was reached.

For now, the mosaics will stay, the sanctuary announced July 2, but “it will eventually be necessary” to remove them, the bishop of Lourdes told La Croix.

At the same time, artwork by the priest, who is under Vatican investigation after having been accused by between 20 and 40 women of spiritual and sexual abuse, with accusations made public in 2022, is still being installed around the world.

In France, the commission on the Rupnik art was established in 2023 by Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes and included a prosecutor, a…

While opinions divide on the future of the works of mosaic priest Marko Rupnik, accused of sexual abuse, columnist Katie Prejean recounts what she did with a work by the artist she purchased by mistake.

I accidentally bought a piece of Marko Rupnik art while in Rome last month.

I saw a lovely Divine Mercy medal in a gift shop right by my hotel, and priced at only eight euro, it seemed like a steal. I’ve long had a devotion to the Divine Mercy, I did not have a medal to wear on the chain around my neck, and I thought it’d be appropriate to add one while on this trip to Rome for the World Meeting of Human Fraternity.

An hour later, as I was adding the medal to my chain, I took it out of the small display box and realized, to my horror, that on the back of…

Bishop Advocates for Removal of Marko Rupnik’s Art in Lourdes Amid Abuse Allegations

In response to allegations of abuse against the artist Marko Rupnik, the Bishop of Lourdes has expressed a personal stance favoring the removal of Rupnik’s mosaics from the revered sanctuary. This perspective aims to respect and support the victims of the alleged abuses by the former Jesuit.

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of the Diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes released a statement on July 2, 2024, highlighting the sensitive issue of retaining Rupnik’s artwork, which is prominently displayed at the entrance of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.

The bishop underscored the pain and trauma that these mosaics evoke for the victims, citing that many have voiced their distress over the artworks’ continued presence.

In the statement, Bishop Micas recounted the formation of a commission between May and October of the previous year. This commission, comprising abuse…