ABUSE TRACKER

Pastor defends computer expert who had 9,900 sexually explicit images of children

A Mississippi man who volunteered for his church’s media ministry is now facing two charges of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse images after federal officials found 9,900 sexual images of children on his personal computer, according to The Sun Herald in Biloxi.

A judge denied the man bail and had him immediately jailed, saying he was a flight risk and a potential danger to the safety of the community. Meanwhile, a church leader and family members maintain his innocence.

Cameron “Cam” Cotrill, 66, of Vancleave used his computer expertise to volunteer at Center Pointe Church in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

The district judge handling the case denied Cotrill bail, as he awaits trial in January. The judge cited substantial evidence against Cotrill, his potential threat to the community, his significant wealth, and his many…

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Just a few days after my 45th birthday, I had another dream about my childhood pastor.

This final dream was the coup de grâce: My great-grandparents’ home was ablaze. It was dark. Early morning still, and I was standing outside, talking on the telephone with him, and he essentially told me he was washing his hands of me and that, whether I believed it or not, he wasn’t the only abuser out there. That there were others. That I could go on and do what I needed to do. It was water under the bridge to him.

Before hanging up the phone, he told me he wouldn’t gift us the $10,000 we needed to rebuild. I never had asked him for any money. I am not asking for any now.

I awoke. Showered. Carried my kids off to school. Then stumbled onto an Ohio Capital Journal article published Aug. 17 about child sex abuse…

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A Catholic priest from Philadelphia was convicted today of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl in 2014. The victim described the assault as a “nightmare” in court. We applaud this brave survivor for reporting the cleric despite her suffering. Her bravery has helped to ensure that Catholic children and the public are safer. We hope that the cleric will receive the stiffest sentence possible for his crime.

 Fr. Armand Garcia pleaded guilty to corruption of a minor and unlawful contact with a minor stemming from the assault on this now-25-year-old woman. The priest was initially charged with rape, but agreed to a plea bargain taking that charge off of the table. The victim was an altar server at the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in the Andorra neighborhood at the time of the crime. The survivor had known the clergyman since she was 13 and he was a friend of her father’s. She…

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A Philadelphia priest has admitted to sexually abusing a teen girl who was once an altar server at his parish.

Fr. Armand D. Garcia appeared in a Philadelphia courtroom Oct. 23 to plead guilty to corruption of a minor and unlawful contact with a minor. He will be sentenced in January 2024.

The abuse took place while Garcia was a parochial vicar at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Philadelphia from 2014-2017.

The priest had initially been charged with rape; photographing, filming and depicting on a computer sexual acts; sexual assault; and corruption of a minor. According to the criminal docket, the first three charges were dropped, while Garcia entered a non-negotiated guilty plea for corruption of a minor and unlawful contact with a minor.

The victim, who was a 13-year-old student at the parish school when she met the priest, delivered an impact statement at the hearing, noting the…

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A mother is suing a shuttered Christian boarding school in Missouri, blaming her son’s death on a gang rape and other abuse he endured there.

Agape Boarding School has been subjected to a wave of litigation as a series of abuse allegations emerged, but the case filed this month and amended Monday in federal court by Kathleen Britt is believed to be the first wrongful death suit.

The suit said that mental health problems plagued Britt’s son, Jason Britt, after he left the private school, where several staffers subsequently were charged. The suit said he lifted weights obsessively and ingested copious steroids so he would become so strong that he never would be victimized again.

He grew so despondent that he wrote a suicide note. But heart and kidney failure were what claimed his life in February 2022.

“The saddest part of his case is…

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Pope Francis accepted the resignation of 59-year-old Polish Bishop Grzegorz Kaszak on Tuesday following public calls for him to step down over poor management of scandals involving priests in his diocese.

Kaszak, who had led the southern Polish Diocese of Sosnowiec since 2009, had recently faced blowback from local media for his response to a priest of his diocese allegedly being caught hosting an orgy with a male prostitute at the end of August.

In a letter posted to the diocese’s website Oct. 24, Kaszak said he requested his resignation from Pope Francis on Sept. 29.

“I also ask everyone to forgive my human limitations. If I have offended anyone or neglected anything, I am very sorry for it,” the bishop said.

The diocese said in a Sept. 22 press statement that it had become aware from media reports of an orgy held the night of Aug….

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The pope on Tuesday accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop whose diocese has been rocked by reports of a sex party involving a male prostitute in a priest’s apartment, as well as previous violent incidents involving his clergy.

The Vatican didn’t give a reason for why Bishop Grzegorz Kaszak was resigning as head of the diocese of Sosnowiec, in southwestern Poland. At 59, he is several years shy of the normal retirement age of 75.

But his diocese has been in the spotlight again after one of his priests was placed under criminal investigation for an Aug. 30-31 incident at his apartment in Dabrowa Gornicza that allegedly involved a male prostitute.

Polish media reported that one of the participants of a sex party at the home collapsed after overdosing on erectile dysfunction pills. The reports said the priest allegedly tried to initially bar paramedics from entering the apartment.

Waldemar…

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The Buffalo Diocese is offering up to $100 million to settle child sex abuse claims in its federal bankruptcy case.

As much as half of that would come from parishes, schools and other Catholic entities, while the diocese would also need to sell its Catholic Center on Main Street, the former Christ the King Seminary campus in the Town of Aurora and other properties.

More than three years since the claims were filed, none of the abuse victims has been compensated as the diocese, its parishes and insurance carriers attempt to negotiate a settlement with abuse victims.

Those details were revealed in court papers filed late Monday in which diocese lawyers sought a preliminary injunction to keep all sex abuse lawsuits against parishes and schools grounded while mediated negotiations in the diocese bankruptcy case continue.

Court papers said the $100 million does not include insurance funds, while suggesting that insurance…

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“It’s time to let juries decide these cases”

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Diocese of Buffalo claimed it will offer $100 million to settle child sex abuse lawsuits and is considering the sale of the Catholic Center, the former Christ the King Seminary campus and other real estate, according to documents filed in its federal bankruptcy case Monday.

However, lawyers representing child sexual abuse survivors say the preliminary injunction filed by the diocese is an attempt to prevent survivors from pursuing their cases against non-bankrupt entities and effectively silence survivors.

Declaring bankruptcy put a hold on all litigation against the diocese in state court. But that did not apply to its parishes and related nonprofits.

The unsecured creditors committee, made up of six abuse survivors, agreed to place a hold on litigation against non-debtor entities while participating in good faith negotiations.

The agreement expired on September 30 and the committee…

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Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández as a member of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, the Vatican department charged with authoritatively interpreting canon law, despite the pope’s September decision to excuse the cardinal from participating in his own department’s most sensitive legal work.

Cardinal Fernández’s appointment was announced in the daily Vatican news bulletin on Oct. 20. The appointment comes after Fernández was created a cardinal by Pope Francis in September, and assumed the role of prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in the same month.

While it is customary for DDF prefects to serve on the council, Fernández’s nomination is unusual. At the time of his appointment as DDF prefect, Pope Francis specifically urged him to focus on doctrinal matters and to leave the department’s legal work overseeing major canonical crimes in the hands of “competent professionals.”

On the day Fernández took office,…

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[See a PDF of the diocese’s original post here.]

For some time now, the Diocese has been actively engaged in mediation with the Creditors’ Committee, which represents the interests of abuse survivors. The Diocese’s insurance carriers have also participated in mediation as we work to establish a pool of settlement funds to provide some measure of restitution and, we pray, closure for survivors.

Any ultimate settlement will need to be funded by monetary contributions sourced from across our Catholic community, including from the Diocese, parishes, and other affiliated Catholic entities, as well as from available insurance assets. While confidential settlement discussions continue, our Catholic community must remain steadfast in supporting survivors and dedicating available resources to their healing. To that end, the Diocese, in close consultation with the priests who make up the parish steering committee, is making a commitment that the collective contribution of our Catholic community, not…

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The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo announced Tuesday it is pledging at least $100 million to survivors of sex abuse.

The diocese says that with the help of parishes and other affiliate Catholic entities, it will create a pool of settlement funds of at least $100 million.

The diocese also says that total does not include any insurance money.

According to official court documents, the diocese would contribute all of its liquid assets and likely need to sell the Catholic Center on Main Street in Buffalo and the Christ the King Seminary Campus in East Aurora.

The diocese released a statement, saying in part:

“We recognize that honoring this commitment will be challenging, but it is absolutely necessary that we do everything in our power to set things right, to move beyond this dark chapter in our history and move forward as together we work to rebuild and renew our church.”

…

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Le vicaire de Ruffec est mis en examen et placé sous contrôle judiciaire. La victime est un jeune garçon âgé de 9 à 11 ans au moment des faits, qui sont récents.

François-Xavier Grandpierre, vicaire de Ruffec, a été mis en examen, vendredi, pour agressions sexuelles sur mineur. CL révélait l’information ce mardi 24 octobre. On en sait un peu plus sur les faits qui sont reprochés à ce prêtre de 31 ans, qui a grandi en Charente.

Le parquet de Versailles indique que les faits se sont produits entre le 1er juillet 2021 et le 5 août 2023, « au préjudice d’une seule victime, un garçon âgé entre 9 et 11 ans au moment des faits ». On sait aussi que la jeune victime est « l’un des enfants d’une famille dont le mis en cause était proche ».

Le père François-Xavier Grandpierre, vicaire à Ruffec, est visé par une enquête pour atteinte sexuelle sur mineur, au parquet de Versailles….

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A 31-year-old priest from Charente was indicted for sexual assault on a minor under the age of 15, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from the Versailles public prosecutor’s office and the diocese of Angoulême, which suspended from all functions on Tuesday October 24. The indictment, pronounced on Friday, was accompanied by judicial review.

The facts occurred between July 1, 2021 and August 5, 2023, “to the detriment of a single victim, a boy aged between 9 and 11 years old at the time of the events, one of the children of a family to whom the accused was close”, declared the prosecution to AFP. Some of these events took place in Yvelines, where the victim’s family resides. Investigations are continuing to see if there are other victims.

Entering the seminary in 2015 in Bordeaux, the future priest then joined the Paris seminary, before becoming an educator in a boys’ school integrating musical…

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A priest in the bishop’s diocese was accused of holding a sex party in his church apartment that involved a male prostitute who lost consciousness.

Warsaw – A Polish bishop whose diocese has been badly tarnished by reports of a gay orgy involving priests and a prostitute resigned on Tuesday, the latest in a long series of sexual and financial scandals in Poland’s Roman Catholic Church.

Grzegorz Kaszak, the bishop of Sosnowiec in southwestern Poland, announced his departure after one of his priests was placed under criminal investigation in connection with reports last month that he had organized a sex party during which a male prostitute lost consciousness from an overdose of erectile dysfunction pills.

Gazeta Wyborcza, a liberal daily newspaper, reported in September that one of the priests at the gathering, held in a building belonging to the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels in…

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We’re here today outside a courthouse because this is where you go – if you were physically or sexually or emotionally abused in an institutional setting – this is where you go for justice, healing, closure, accountability and prevention, to the admittedly flawed but time-tested and transparent legal system. You find justice, healing closure, accountability and prevention in secular courts of law, not in the private offices of wrongdoers.

This is especially true when it comes to institutions that are private, independent and secretive and when they posture as religious or educational.

So more than anything, we want to beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers who saw, suspected or suffered any crimes or potential crimes at the Agape Boarding School to come forward and report the wrongdoing to people you can trust – your family, your friends, the police, a prosecutor, a therapist or a support group like ours.

When victims,…

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Mom sues because her son, gang raped there, is now dead

Unusual case names eight defendants; two of them are sheriffs

It also accuses a company that transports kids to such facilities

Victims also call for better laws & enforcement ‘to prevent more abuse’

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will
–announce the first-ever wrongful death lawsuit against a controversial, unlicensed, independent  and now-shuttered Baptist facility for ‘troubled teenagers’ in southern Missouri, and
–call on Missouri lawmakers to pass a new law that would expand the state’s civil statute of limitations on abuse which would enable more child sex abuse victims to expose those who commit or conceal child sex crimes in court.
–urge local and state law enforcement agencies to more aggressively investigate similar schools and more vigorously prosecute wrongdoers.

WHEN
TODAY, Monday, Oct. 23 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the federal…

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A former Philadelphia Police officer and a former Catholic Priest have been convicted in separate child sexual abuse incidents.

According to the District Attorney’s Special Investigations Unit, former Philadelphia Police Officer Patrick Heron and former-Catholic priest Armand Garcia were charged in separate criminal proceedings for various counts of sexual abuse allegations with minors.

Former Officer Heron pleaded guilty to 2 counts of Unlawful Contact with a Minor, 2 counts of Sexual Abuse of Children, Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse, Official Oppression, Kidnapping of a Minor, Indecent Assault, Forgery, and Stalking for five criminal cases brought against him by the Special Investigations Unit.

Former-Catholic priest Armand Garcia pleaded guilty to Corruption of Minors and Unlawful Contact with Minors, said the DA’s office and will be sentenced in January 2024. 

Officials say the Commonwealth court had been preparing to go on trial for over a decade for the allegations brought against Heron for the dozens of women and girls he abused, assaulted, intimidated, photographed, and attempted to…

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St. John’s man in his 70s was sexually abused by a Christian Brother at former Holy Cross school

The sky over St. John’s on this October morning is thick with dark clouds as a blue sedan slowly pulls into an unremarkable parking lot on Patrick Street. The older man at the wheel is expressionless as he guides his car to a stop.

He takes a second to compose himself, opens his door and plants his sneaker-clad feet onto the damp asphalt. Smartly, he stands erect.

Looking to the back of the parking lot, where Holy Cross all-boys school once stood, he feels a chill unrelated to the threatening skies overhead.

It’s the first time he’s stepped on this ground in 55 years — kept away by an invisible force field energized by pain, anger and shame.

‘This is where it happened’

“This is where it happened,” he says while sitting on a…

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The pope on Tuesday accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop whose diocese has been rocked for weeks by reports of a gay orgy involving a male prostitute in a priest’s apartment.

The Vatican didn’t give a reason for why Bishop Grzegorz Kaszak was resigning as head of the diocese of Sosnowiec, in southwestern Poland. At 59, he is several years shy of the normal retirement age of 75.

But his diocese has been in the spotlight for over a month after one of his priests was placed under criminal investigation for having allegedly organized a gay orgy at his apartment in Dabrowa Gornicza. Polish media reported that a male prostitute collapsed after overdosing on erectile dysfunction pills.

A prosecutor said the priest is suspected of “failing to provide assistance to a person whose life is at risk,” for having allegedly tried to bar police and paramedics from entering the…

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Victim told court that assault by Camille Piché ‘held me down’ for decades

WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​sexual violence or know someone affected by it. 

A former N.W.T. priest began a two-year sentence Monday for a crime dating back four decades. 

Camille Piché pleaded guilty in N.W.T. territorial court to indecent assault against a child while working as a priest in Fort Simpson, N.W.T. 

According to an agreed statement of facts read in court on Monday, Piché was working at the Sacred Heart Church in Fort Simpson when he developed a friendship with the victim’s parents and made regular visits to their home. 

On two of those occasions, in 1981 and 1982, Piché sat next to the victim on their living room couch. The victim was covered by a blanket and Piché admitted he put his hand under the blanket, under the child’s pants…

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Former Philadelphia priest Armand Garcia will plead guilty to sexually abusing a teenage girl in court on Monday.

Authorities arrested and charged Garcia back in 2019. He was a pastor at Saint Martin of Tours in Oxford Circle, but the alleged crime took place between 2014 and 2017 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the city’s Andorra section. 

Garcia also committed unlawful conduct with the same girl in his home in Delaware County, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said. He first met the girl when she was a 13-year-old altar server at the Immaculate Heart of Mary’s Elementary School.

The archdiocese put Garcia on administrative leave when the criminal investigation began in 2018. 

The DA’s Office said the girl is expected to deliver a victim impact statement in court. 

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A Roman Catholic priest appeared in the Family Court in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday charged with two counts of sexual offences.

The priest, a foreign national, was arraigned on two counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault and appeared on camera before Magistrate, John Ballah, sitting in his capacity as deputy president of the Family Court.

Media reports here said that the cleric is alleged to have committed unlawful sex acts on a teenage female and was not called upon to plead to the indictable offences. He has been granted and was granted bail to appear before the Family Court, whose president would conduct a preliminary inquiry.

The court would then decide if there was enough evidence to send the matter to trial before a judge and a jury.

The priest left the court in the company of a senior member of the Diocese of Kingstown, …

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The victim said Armand Garcia exploited her trust, raping and manipulating her for years.

A Philadelphia priest has admitted he sexually abused a 16-year-old altar server at a church in Andorra in what she described in court Monday as a “nightmare.”

The Rev. Armand Garcia, 54, pleaded guilty to corruption of a minor and unlawful contact with a minor in the abuse of the now-25-year-old woman, starting when she was 16 and an altar server at the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in the Andorra neighborhood.

The woman said in court Monday that she went to the priest, whom she knew since she was 13 and who was a friend of her father’s, in 2014 to confide in him about a personal matter and he “exploited” her trust, eventually assaulting and raping her.

“I was targeted, manipulated, and raped to the very end of my contact with him,” the…

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The former Mobile priest who in July fled to Europe with an 18-year-old woman who recently graduated from McGill-Toolen Catholic High School may soon have to leave the country when their travel clearance expires later this month.

 Mobile attorney Christine Hernandez, a representative of the young woman’s family, said Wednesday Alex Crow, who was defrocked by the Archdiocese of Mobile over the summer, recently applied for residency in Italy, where he and the young woman have lived since the summer.

Because Italian authorities denied that application, Hernandez said Crow and the young woman will have to leave the country before their 90-day stay ends in the final weeks of October.

Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said Thursday afternoon he had “no knowledge” of the Italian government denying Crow’s request, but thought they made the right decision.

“I would hope they would deny that knowing the controversy surrounding him coming there,”…

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Retired Bishop Tod D. Brown, the third bishop of the Diocese of Orange, died early Oct. 15 at Providence St. Joseph Hospital after being hospitalized, according to the diocese. He was 86.

Msgr. Tuan Joseph Pham, a close friend of the late bishop, told the Los Angeles Times the prelate died after a long battle with lymphoma.

Bishop Kevin W. Vann, who succeeded Brown as shepherd of the diocese, said in a statement he was “deeply saddened” to announce the passing of his predecessor, who retired in 2012.

“With his tireless spirit and witness to Christ, Bishop Brown faithfully served the people of the Diocese of Orange since 1998 when Pope St. John Paul II appointed him bishop and ordinary of our diocese,” said Vann, who remembered especially “his kindness to me when I was a newly ordained priest years ago.”

In the fall of 1981, then-Frs. Brown and Vann…

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A spokesperson for the church said it does not vet the therapists its bishops recommend and pay for, saying “it is up to church members” to “make their own decisions.”

Co-published with The Salt Lake Tribune

When health care workers sexually abuse their patients in Utah, survivors confront obstacles to justice: in the law, in the courts — and in the culture as a whole.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

This story discusses sexual assault.

Three additional men have come forward to say a therapist recommended and paid for by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints touched them inappropriately during counseling sessions related to struggles with their sexuality. The men’s statements follow allegations by three others, previously reported by The Salt Lake…

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Father Paschal Morlino removed as pastor of St. Benedict Church in southwest Baltimore

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is confirming a settlement with a priest in Baltimore accused of sexual harassment.

The archdiocese said it learned about the claims on Thursday involving Father Paschal Morlino, who is the pastor of St. Benedict Church in southwest Baltimore. Within 24 hours, the priest was suspended from any duties in public ministry. His removal was announced Sunday to parishioners.

Next to St. Benedict, a 90-year-old towering church, is the Father Paschal Center off Paschal’s Way. A parishioner and volunteer who asked to remain anonymous told 11 News it’s where she worked alongside the popular priest at the food pantry.

“(I saw) him every day. I know what kind of person he is. I knew the person that was the accuser,” the parishioner said.

In a statement, the archdiocese said someone filed a complaint in…

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As the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy begins to work its way through the legal system, court officials have selected a group of sexual abuse victims who, with an assist from several attorneys, will eventually negotiate settlement terms for the hundreds of fellow survivors.

Known as an unsecured creditors committee, the seven victims will play a key role throughout the archdiocese’s bankruptcy — a process that is expected to last years.

In a typical bankruptcy, meaning one that is not based around allegations of sexual assault and child abuse, such a committee is composed of people or financial institutions who hold liens or have outstanding invoices against the debtor. They’re in line behind secured creditors, who have collateral such as real estate. Unsecured creditors sometimes get as little as pennies on the dollar for what they’re owed.

But in cases where the debt…

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A High Court bid launched by the Catholic Church is set to have far-reaching consequences for personal injury claims in Victoria. Source: Herald Sun.

A legal challenge is seeking to block the parents, siblings, friends and families of abuse victims from suing for damages. If successful it would prohibit “secondary” victims from seeking damages against a range of organisations for psychological injury.

They could include the state government, WorkSafe, the Transport Accident Commission, schools, clubs, kinders, religious organisations and social and cultural groups.

The case centres on a claim brought by the father of a dead former choirboy who claims his son was assaulted by Cardinal George Pell.

Cardinal Pell was convicted, then acquitted, of abusing the choirboy now at the centre of this landmark case. The former choirboy died of a heroin overdose in 2014 having never disclosed allegations of abuse to his parents or authorities.

The choirboy’s father is…

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Two Vatican trials are coming to a head this week and posing uncomfortable questions for the Holy See, given they both underscore Pope Francis’ power as an absolute monarch and the legal, financial and reputational problems that can arise when he wields it.

On Wednesday, the Vatican’s former in-house auditor was in court for a hearing in his 9.3 million euro wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the Holy See. Libero Milone says Vatican police forced his resignation in 2017 under the threat of arrest, after he was told Francis had “lost faith” in him over his zealous attempts to audit Vatican monsignors.

The Vatican secretariat of state has objected to being named as a defendant in the suit, arguing it had nothing to do with Milone’s hiring or resignation and that the city state’s tribunal had no place getting involved.

The rationale: The pope hired Milone and…

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During Saturday’s Synod briefing, speakers highlight topics ranging from the role of women to the defense of minors and vulnerable individuals, as participants prepared to recite the Rosary and pray for peace in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday evening.

At nine in the evening on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square, the recitation of the Rosary takes place with a prayer intention for peace. A special appeal for was launched on Friday in the Synod Hall “to help the young people, in a Middle East that is bleeding, not to lose hope and not to have as their only perspective for the future that of suffering or leaving their country”, and “to provide these young people, as a Church and as pastors, with the instruments to reach peace.”

Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and President of the Synod Information Commission, highlighted this at Saturday’s briefing with journalists, which…

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The so-called ‘singing priest’ received a four-year sentence in December 2022 for abusing survivor Alan Nolan, 51, and two other boys in the 1980s.

And Gardai have now submitted new files on the monster to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The files being analysed relate to three males and one female.

If charged, it could mean Walsh spending more time in jail after his expected release date in 2027.

Details of the files were also confirmed by brave abuse survivor Darren McGavin, 51, who revealed he’s working as an advocate with four other victims of the priest.

He hopes the four men will also make statements against Walsh.

Depraved Walsh — who used the cover of the Catholic Church to prey on innocent children — has started to admit his crimes when he has been hit with fresh charges over the last six years.

Since 1995, the beast has been convicted of…

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The Pennsylvania governor made a name for himself by exposing sexual misconduct and cover-ups

A sexual harassment scandal had once again consumed Harrisburg.

Allegations against a Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Mike Zabel, from both a lobbyist and a fellow House member had sparked urgent calls for his resignation and reignited widespread outrage at a male-dominated Capitol culture that seemed to let the powerful act with impunity toward women.

On March 3, Gov. Josh Shapiro weighed in.

“Let me be very clear where I stand. People deserve to be safe and free from harassment wherever they work,” the new Democratic governor told the Philadelphia radio station KYW. “I think it’s critically important for those who come forward to be able to share their truth and have it investigated fairly and properly.”

He said the investigation of the Democrat from Delaware County “should be done swiftly. And I think the [House] Speaker…

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A German bishop participating in the Synod on Synodality challenged the idea that the Catholic community in his country is at odds with the universal Church — and reasserted that it will continue to play a role in the ongoing discussions in Rome about the Church’s future.

Speaking at the Synod press briefing Saturday afternoon, Bishop Franz Josef Overbeck of Essen acknowledged that others have expressed concerns to him regarding the Catholic Church in Germany’s controversial “Synodal Way.”

“Many people have asked me, ‘Are you still Catholics and part of the Catholic Church?”, said Overbeck, one of the German Bishops Conference’s three delegates to the universal Synod, and a major proponent of the German Synodal Way. “And I say, ‘Yes, of course, we are Catholics, and we are here to stay.”

Begun in 2019, the Synodal Way is a non-canonical initiative of the German bishops’ conference and the Central Committee…

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Four men who say they were sexually abused by clergy gathered outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Thursday to announce their group sent a formal complaintwith the Vatican, charging that Springfield’s bishop “harms his flock.”

The group also sent a letterto Bishop Thomas Paprocki asking that they be allowed to speak at a Diocesan gathering later this month. “We think that would be a long overdue, welcome gesture on his part, and we think that it would encourage other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward. Kids are safe when abuse is reported or abuse is not reported in a climate…of fear and shame,’’ said David Clohessy, former national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and volunteer director of the Missouri group.

The other letter is in response to a new process by which laypeople can report to the…

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My husband and I are both Episcopal priests. While wearing a clerical collar, he has often been insulted by strangers, called a “pedophile”, “child-molester” and worse. Why? Because people assumed he was a Catholic priest. This is beyond heartbreaking to him and to me, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by our family pediatrician as a girl in my native New York.

We both deeply love the Church, not just the Episcopal Church, but the Church as a whole. Jesus called the Church to be a light to the nations and a vision of the Kingdom of Heaven. By extension, we believe that when the Church, by the actions of those in direct control, acts against the will of God by abusing children, it needs to be called into account, both morally and legally.

On Sept. 29, 2023, Archbishop William E. Lori, of the Archdiocese of Baltimore (AOB), disclosed the…

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Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration agreed to pay $295,000 in taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment complaint from a female former deputy secretary involving a former top aide in his office, according to documents obtained through the state’s Right to Know Law.

The 14-page document, signed on Sept. 5, stipulated that neither the commonwealth nor the governor’s office would be held liable for any wrongdoing regarding the allegations she made against Shapiro’s former Secretary of Legislative Affairs Mike Vereb.

The agreement contains a clause barring both sides from discussing the matter; however, it allows for the settlement to be released if there is a legal requirement, such as the Right to Know Law, to do so.

The settlement reached through the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission mediation process closes the matter, barring any litigation or charges arising from the woman’s claims against the governor’s office. PennLive is…

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Rory Lott was just 8 years old when a priest allegedly molested him as he laid in a hospital bed with injuries from a car accident.

Lott healed from his physical injuries long ago, but he said he’s never been able to escape the mental torment over the abuse in 1966.

“It just changed me. I can’t describe it,” said Lott. “That scar is still there. It’s been with me over 50 years.”

Lott was also among an estimated 850 people who filed abuse claims against the Buffalo Diocese in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

More than three years since the claims were filed, none of the abuse victims has been compensated as the diocese, its parishes and insurance carriers attempt to negotiate a settlement with abuse victims.

“I just want this over,” Lott said. “Everything’s at a standstill.”

All parties in the mediated talks are under a confidentiality agreement,…

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Which is worse: That someone leaked a report alleging Liberty University has mishandled and covered up sexual abuse for years, or that Liberty University appears to have mishandled and covered up sexual abuse for years?

According to Liberty President Dondi Costin, the leak is an intentional effort to malign the Baptist school founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr. And according to him and other supporters, this is further evidence of the Biden administration’s attacks on religious conservatives.

Cindy Warren, who is part of an alumni group seeking to hold the university accountable, tweeted Oct. 16 on X: “As one of the people who filed the first Clery Act complaint 18 years ago, I’m gonna go ahead and say this isn’t the government trying to make LU look bad. LU has done an excellent job of that on their own. I was a super Republican when we filed that report btw.”

Also,…

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As the Vatican’s “trial of the century” lumbers towards its expected conclusion before the end of the year, it’s becoming increasingly clear that in rendering a verdict, the three-judge panel hearing the case isn’t just being to asked to choose between guilt or innocence for the ten defendants.

In fact, the judges are also facing a choice between two competing narratives, which, in summary form, might be expressed as “conspiracy” versus “ineptitude.”

On the one side is the story being told by chief prosecutor Alessandro Diddi, the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice, which is a tale of a large-scale criminal conspiracy to defraud the Vatican involving shady Italian financiers, corrupt Vatican officials and advisors, and, last but certainly not least, the pope’s own former chief of staff, Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

On the other is the narrative propounded by the defense, and put in epigrammatic fashion yesterday by Cataldo Intrieri, a…

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THE government is failing young victims of sexual abuse through its “piecemeal” and “underwhelming” responses when issues are raised, a major children’s charity said today.

The NSPCC said there was “little sign of meaningful change” 12 months after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The inquiry looked at 15 areas, scrutinising institutional responses to child sexual abuse – including investigations into abuse in Westminster and the Anglican and Catholic churches.

Earlier this year, IICSA chairwoman Professor Alexis Jay and panel members highlighted “deep concern at the government’s inadequate response” to their recommendations and predicted that action may be deferred indefinitely “for the sake of other political priorities.”

They suggested that the government had claimed to accept some of the inquiry’s recommendations “through what is little more than a very weak and, at times, apparently disingenuous official response.”

Responding to the report in May, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said…

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The alleged sexual abuse took place during the 1970s and 1980s, a court has heard

A West Berkshire GP committed “intensely terrifying” sexual abuse on a young boy in the 1970s and 1980s – before allegedly making a confession to a monk years later, Reading Crown Court has heard. Dr Robin Borthwick, 78, is accused of historic sexual abuse, facing four counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Dr Borthwick has been deemed unfit to stand trial due to his health and is absent from the trial of facts at the crown court, the jury were told as the case proceeded on Thursday. The court heard that Dr Borthwick allegedly sexually abused the boy at a GP surgery and in two other locations during the 1970s and 1980s.

Taking to the witness stand on Thursday (October 19) as…

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A notorious former Christian Brother has been sentenced for a second time after admitting to further historic abuse against boys at Catholic schools in Victoria.

Key points:

• John Laidlaw, 84, will likely die in jail after being sentenced over further abuse of students at Christian Brothers College schools
• Judge Helen Syme told the court Laidlaw’s crimes were an abuse of power and trust 
• It is the second time Laidlaw has been sentenced over sexual offending against children

John Laidlaw, 84, appeared in the Melbourne County Court via video-link from prison today, after pleading guilty to nine charges — including indecent assault — arising from offending against students between 1966 and 1990.

During that time, Laidlaw was a teacher at a variety of Christian Brothers College (CBC) schools, including St Joseph’s at Warrnambool and St Kevin’s at Toorak, Melbourne.

The victims, who cannot be identified, were referred by Judge Helen Syme using pseudonyms.

The court heard the victims were…

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Three years after declaring bankruptcy, the Diocese of Rockville Centre said Thursday it had failed to reach a settlement with 600 survivors of clergy sexual abuse as an Oct. 31 court-imposed deadline crept closer.

The diocese said it had been offering the survivors an average of at least $400,000 each, but attorneys for the survivors said that was far too little. The attorneys said they expect the cases to now be sent back to state civil court, where awards could be even higher.

Legal fees in the protracted proceedings have reached $100 million, according to attorneys.

Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the diocese, said in a statement: “The Diocese, parishes, and related parties have made their highest and best settlement offer in the amount of $200 million” to be divided among the survivors.

“This offer would provide survivors with the largest settlement of any diocese in a chapter 11 bankruptcy case to date:…

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Linda Malat Tiburzi, one of a dozen victims abused by Catholic Community Middle School teacher John Merzbacher in the 1970s who in the aftermath of her vicious assault and life of turbulence went on to become an advocate for victims of such abuse, was found dead Oct. 17 in her Glen Burnie home. She was 62.

“We think it was a heart attack,” Dianna C. Hughes, Ms. Tiburzi’s aunt who helped raise her, said.

“She was an amazing and a very talented and smart person and I don’t think people realized that the abuse took all of that away from her,” Mrs. Hughes, of Locust Point, said. “She was a very giving person and had a heart that wanted to help people.”

Linda Marie Malat was born in Baltimore and raised in Locust Point. After her mother left the family, she was reared by her grandparents and aunt.

“We have…

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Oct. 19, 2023
His Eminence Christophe Cardinal Pierre
Papal Nuncio
3339 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008

Dear Cardinal Pierre:

“The Diocese of Springfield’s handling of child sex abuse allegations is a story of failed leadership—leadership that allowed clerics to sexually abuse children in the diocese for decades. Through it all, men leading the diocese for 50 years chose to protect the reputation of the church and its clerics, rather than attempt to ensure the physical and mental well-being of its children.”

“As a result, children of the diocese suffered through decades of child sex abuse, the impact of which continues to this day.”

So wrote Illinois’ highest ranking law enforcement professional, Attorney General Kwame Raoul, following a nearly five-year investigation into clergy sex crimes and cover ups across the state.
Into this horrific situation stepped Bishop Thomas Paprocki twelve years ago. He knew Springfield had been a troubled diocese. (In fact, one of his…

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In the early 1990s, Stephen Stack of Troy began to study for the priesthood in the Springfield Catholic Diocese.

After receiving his master of divinity degree from Mundelein Seminary but before he was ordained, Stack entered a psychological program to address problems of social anxiety and depression.

There he was first able to address his own history of sexual abuse.

He detailed for the first time publicly Thursday a succession of sexual abuse starting by his brother three years older than Stack, now 61. That brother had been allegedly sexually abused by a deacon in the family’s church, Sacred Heart in Granite City.

Another younger brother, Stack said, was sexually abused by the Rev. William Weerts, a priest of the diocese who in 1986 pleaded guilty to sexual abuse charges and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Stack, speaking at a Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests press conference in front…

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Church has been granted special leave to appeal Victorian judgment that found Ballarat diocese was vicariously liable for abuse of child

The Catholic church has won the right to challenge in the high court a landmark Victorian ruling forcing the church to take on greater liability for the actions of paedophile priests within its ranks.

In the past two years, the Victorian courts have delivered and upheld an unprecedented ruling that the Ballarat diocese was vicariously liable for the abuse of a five-year-old child known as DP at the hands of assistant priest Father Bryan Coffey.

Vicarious liability is typically used to hold employers responsible for the wrongful or negligent actions of their employees during the course of their employment – even where there is no fault on the part of the employer.

The church, however, has long argued that priests like Coffey were not formal employees, allowing it to dodge…

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[Expanded version of an article posted earlier today in Abuse Tracker]

Nuns from the Antonio Próvolo Institute, investigated for sexual abuse of deaf children, acquitted by court; Victims’ lawyers criticise court and say they will appeal.

Two nuns and seven other female employees accused of complicity in years of sexual abuse of minors at the Antonio Próvolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in Mendoza Province were acquitted by a court Wednesday of sexual abuse and rape.

The ruling, broadcast on public television, concluded a trial of two-and-a-half years in a case that has shocked the home country of Pope Francis.

This is the second trial in the case for crimes committed between 2004 and 2016 at the Próvolo Institute. In November 2019, Horacio Corbacho and Nicola Corradi, two priests in charge of children at the centre, were jailed for more than 40 years each for sexual abuse, including…

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Deerfield Academy recently reached a six-figure settlement with a former student who brought claims of sexual abuse by a math teacher during the late 1980s — the latest in over a dozen similar claims settled by the prestigious New England boarding school.

The former male student claimed that Peter Hindle, a Deerfield faculty member from 1956 to 2000 and now deceased, sexually abused him at least 20 times by repeatedly climbing through his dorm room’s window when he was about 16 years old, according to the former student’s lawyer Mitchell Garabedian on Wednesday.

The former student was not identified, but Garabedian said that the abuse happened between 1989 and 1990 and that the prep school did not take action after the former student told his counselor of the abuse. The settlement was described as being in the “low six figures.”

Deerfield Academy in a statement said…

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With an exodus of young people, the Polish church may be facing the ‘Irish scenario.’

In Poland’s parliamentary elections this month, Law and Justice, the right-wing populist party that has ruled the country for the last eight years, still got the biggest share of votes nationwide, with 35%, but not enough to keep the party in power, even with the help of its natural partner, the far-right libertarian Confederation party’s 7%. Instead, Law and Justice’s main opposition, the Civic Coalition, led by Donald Tusk, announced its plans to create a coalition government with the New Left and the Third Way parties, which got the support of 54% of voters.

The three parties’ coalition will likely push through significant changes in the political landscape, reversing polarizing Law and Justice measures on immigration and reproductive rights. But this turnabout was prefaced, and probably caused, by a watershed shift in the once unassailable position…

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Two nuns and seven other female employees of an Argentine institute for deaf children were acquitted by a court Wednesday of sexual abuse and rape.

The ruling, broadcast on public television, concluded a trial of two-and-a-half years in a case that has shocked the home country of Pope Francis.

Two priests in charge of children at the Antonio Provolo center — Horacio Corbacho and Nicola Corradi —  have been convicted and handed sentences of more than 40 years each for sexual abuse, including rape, of some 20 minors.

The victims were aged four to 17 when the crimes were committed from 2004 to the closure of the institute in 2016.

The institution’s gardener, Armando Gomez, has also been jailed for 18 years for sexual abuse, and a former altar boy pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of five children.

Several staff were taken into custody after allegations of abuse first…

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Interpretation of canon law allows rapists to go free after short period of ‘prayer and penance’

A ruling from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has placed a rapist priest back on the job in Africa, and canon law helped that to happen.

On July 1, 2023, Fr. Hilary Ngome, who confessed to raping at least one 13-year-old girl, was fully returned to ministry by a Vatican decree, according to Bp. Michael Miabesue Bibi, prelate of the Buéa diocese in Cameroon. He announced the decree in a public letter dated Aug. 23, 2023.

Priest Admits to Rape

According to an affidavit from the family, in August of 2018, Fr. Ngome, then a parish priest of St. Martin de Porres Parish in Likomba, asked a young girl to clean his residence. When she came to clean his room, he forced her onto the bed and raped her.

…

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Questions are swirling among parishioners at Saint Benedict Church in Baltimore after the removal of their longtime pastor over a secret $200,000 settlement he paid five years ago.

Was their leader falsely accused? How can they clear his name? What does the future hold for the historic parish in Southwest Baltimore?

Another question looms large over the controversy. How does a monk come up with $200,000?

The Rev. Paschal Morlino paid the money through a private attorney to a man who accused him of fraud and sexual assault. The Archdiocese of Baltimore removed Morlino for not disclosing the settlement, and church officials are now investigating the source of the money.

In a wide-ranging, 90-minute interview with The Banner last week, Morlino confirmed the payment while denying the allegations against him. He has not been charged with a crime.When asked where the settlement money came from, he offered…

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John Doe #50 wanted to live to see justice.

He sat on his bed across from me with weathered hands resting on tired legs. The sun beamed through the bedroom window behind him, hiding his teary eyes with a darkened silhouette.

It had been 70 years since he was thrown to the wolves at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, but he could still close his eyes and go to that place without a moment’s notice. 

We spoke in December 2020, as the country’s top court was mulling the question of whether the Catholic church should be responsible for the abuses of the Christian Brothers who ran the orphanage. 

He’d been waiting for that answer since 1999, when he was one of four men to step forward as lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit seeking to hold the church responsible.

“There’s a lot of our guys who have died,”…

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There’s reason for concern about the future of Catholic elementary education in Western New York.

Strains are well-publicized – present and future litigation and settlement costs of the bankruptcy case following 900 sex abuse claims against the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, a significant decrease in subsidies by the diocese and steep enrollment declines over the last decade – but the extent of the anxiety is open to debate among current and past leadership in the diocese’s education sphere.

Their general mission is the same: that a faith-based Catholic education remains available for Western New York children amid a time of turmoil and rebuilding trust within the Catholic Church.

But they do not agree how to get there.

Michael LaFever, retired superintendent of Catholic schools in the Buffalo Diocese, paints a bleak picture that recently closed schools in Wellsville and  View Cache

Church of the Holy Family will host the Mass on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at 10 a.m.

The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Assistance Ministry will hold its 12th Annual Hope and Healing Mass at 10 a.m., on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023, at Church of the Holy Family, 1080 W. Roosevelt Rd. in Chicago. (editor’s note: to protect the privacy of victim-survivors who will attend the Mass, media are asked to not film or photograph their faces).

“From my earliest days as a bishop, I have been committed to putting the victims at the center of my ministry and I will continue to apply the highest level of vigilance to these efforts and to further strengthen our safeguards against abuse,” said Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago. “On behalf of the archdiocese, survivors of clergy sexual abuse will forever be in our prayers, and we have dedicated ourselves to rooting out…

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The Boy Scouts of America has received a U.S. bankruptcy judge’s approval to pay about $245 million in fees to lawyers and financial advisers who crafted the youth organization’s $2.46 billion settlement of sex abuse claims.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein in Wilmington, Delaware, late on Tuesday mostly approved final fee applications from more than two dozen law firms and advisers who worked on the bankruptcy case. The overall bankruptcy fees could end up closer to $275 million, based on outstanding requests for payment from other groups that participated in the bankruptcy.

Silverstein had decried the “staggering” legal fees racked up in the case in 2021, when the number crossed the $100 million threshold.

White & Case, which served as lead counsel during the Boy Scouts’ bankruptcy, received the highest fee award, at $71 million. Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones, which represented the official committee of abuse claimants, received…

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To defend itself from a lawsuit, the Vatican Secretariat of State made an argument Wednesday that could cause problems for the criminal defense efforts of former secretariat official Cardinal Angelo Becciu.  

The secretariat’s lawyers argued that since 2015, the department’s finances were subject to oversight from the Vatican’s auditor general, who was appointed by Pope Francis.

The problem?

In his criminal trial, Cardinal Angelo Becciu has argued the opposite.

Lawyers for the Vatican Secretariat of State argued in court Oct. 18 that that the Holy’s See’s auditor general held legal oversight of the secretariat’s financial affairs, from the time an auditor was appointed in 2015. 

The concession came during the closing hearing of a lawsuit filed against the department by Libero Milone, the former auditor general of the Vatican, who was forced to resign in 2017 after being accused by Cardinal Angelo Becciu of “spying” on the private financial affairs…

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Gov. Josh Shapiro scored a lot of his political clout in one arena — the idea that sexual abuse allegations need to be taken seriously.

As Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Shapiro stood with adult victims of child sex abuse as he unveiled a statewide grand jury’s report. He detailed decades of abuses within the Catholic Church and challenged the state’s bishops to respond with change.

“Stand up today and announce your support for these common-sense reforms. That’s the test that will determine whether things have really changed or if it will just be business as usual when the dust settles,” he said.

It was a gauntlet that needed to be thrown down. Shapiro was right to issue his challenge.

Five years later, do those words come back to him?

On Sept. 27, Shapiro’s secretary of legislative affairs, Mike Vereb, submitted his resignation. It comes four months after a May 26 complaint was…

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You’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, so that explains the hosannas swirling around for Bishop Tod D. Brown.

The former head of the Catholic Diocese of Orange died Sunday at age 86 from lymphoma. Obituaries — including in this paper — noted his role in purchasing the former Crystal Cathedral in 2011 to make it a new base for Orange County’s 1.3 million Catholics. Online testimonials from the faithful praised his passion for Christ, his humor and his collaborative approach in leading a sprawling, multicultural diocese.

They also touched on Brown’s role in the sex abuse scandal that has permanently scarred the Catholic Church.

In 2004, as the bishop faced dozens of civil lawsuits filed by people who claimed that diocesan employees — priests, principals, lay teachers, school counselors —had sexually abused them over the past six decades, he published the Covenant With the Faithful. This…

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One year after being accused of ignoring “red flags” of sexual abuse for decades, well-known author and pastor of Denton Bible Church in North Texas, Tommy Nelson, has announced he’s retiring.

In a letter to his congregation, Nelson stated, “I’ve never felt anything quite so strongly as the need to transition now to the next generation.”

He added, “A church like Denton Bible Church needs to always be, to always exist. A church that is fundamental, premillennial, Calvinistic, dispensational, discipleship-focused, elder ruled, complementarian, and ‘non-woke’ must continue.”

Fox4 News in Dallas-Fort Worth noted that Nelson’s letter was sent on October 4, “exactly one year to the day after our Fox 4 investigation aired.”

The investigation concerned the abuse of multiple teenage girls by former Denton Bible Church Junior High Minister Robert Shiflet.

Shiflet was sentenced in 2021 to 33 months in…

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Spirit Unbounded met over the weekend in Rome, while the Synod of Bishops was taking place.

The source of the “plague” of child sexual abuse in the Church is the “traditional devaluation of children”, the theology of priesthood and mythical image of the priest promoted by Pope John Paul II, according to canon lawyer Dr Tom Doyle.

He recalled a deposition he attended in which a bishop, when asked about the victims of a paedophile priest in his diocese, said, “Little boys heal.” Doyle said, “That sentence – that concept manifests the fundamental ignorance of the hierarchy about the damage done and the effects of sexual violation on the young. None of them have ever had children. If you have never had children, you cannot properly appreciate the damage that is done by sexual abuse.”

The former Dominican said protecting the institution seems to be “the ultimate value, not the…

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One would think that when someone’s behavior is found to be dishonest or unforthcoming, they would suffer consequences. What if those dishonest people were clerics? In the old days, when the church had the Inquisition, the church could sentence “bad” clerics to prison, torture, or death. Those days are long gone. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Not only does the Pope refuse to severely punish bishops who have committed or concealed clergy sex crimes, but he refuses even to let complicit bishops resign. 

We at Horowitz Law are not making this up. Several prelates, here in the US and elsewhere, have admitted their wrongdoing and offered to step down. Most of those offers go ignored. More often than not, Pope Francis lets bishops who admit their actions have hurt children, and abuse victims remain on the job with no consequences whatsoever. It’s mind-boggling. 

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A Benedictine monk has been suspended from ministry after the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore recently became aware of a payment he made several years ago to settle sexual harassment allegations.

Last week, Father Paschal Morlino was dismissed from his position as pastor of St. Benedict Church in southwest Baltimore, where he served for nearly 40 years and became known for his longstanding efforts to help residents of poor neighborhoods surrounding the church.

The archdiocese learned about the settlement Thursday when reporters for The Baltimore Banner inquired about it, officials said in a statement Sunday. They said they immediately opened an internal investigation and decided to dismiss Morlino.

“He is no longer permitted to celebrate Mass or engage in public ministry in the Archdiocese,” the statement said.

Morlino, 85, has returned to Saint Vincent Archabbey in Pennsylvania, the oldest Benedictine monastery in the country, after both the Baltimore archdiocese…

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New recordings raise questions about archbishop’s response to accusations against VM Wheeler, attorney and church benefactor

More than 10 months after he pleaded guilty to child molestation and after his victim received a substantial financial settlement, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans has at last acknowledged that deacon VM Wheeler was a credibly accused child molester.

Wheeler, a prominent attorney and church benefactor who died this spring, was ordained in 2018 by the New Orleans archbishop, Gregory Aymond. Over the next four years, Wheeler would be accused of molesting a 12-year-old boy in the early 2000s, suspended from ministry, arrested on suspicion of raping the child, charged with aggravated sexual battery, accused in a lawsuit of trying to pay the victim $400,000 to stop working with police, and – in December 2022 – plead guilty to indecent behavior with a juvenile.

Still, Aymond would not make Wheeler the 78th cleric on…

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On a Jewish holiday and the sabbath, Oct. 16, 1943, German forces rounded-up more than 1,250 men, women and children in Rome for deportation to extermination camps in Poland.

Those who were Jewish — 1,022 of them — were detained for two days just 700 yards from St. Peter’s Square in an Italian military residence near the Tiber River. That Pope Pius XII was “silent” about this tragic event and many other crimes of injustice and persecution by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy was a major topic of discussion at an international conference in Rome.

Catholic and Jewish scholars came together for the landmark gathering at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University Oct. 9-11 to discuss new research coming out of the recently opened Vatican archives of Pope Pius XII’s pontificate before, during and after World War II and the Holocaust.

More than 16 million documents have been made available to researchers…

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Sean Munro told family he was abused by former Mount Cashel teacher Joe Burke

It’s been one year since Paddy Munro held her son as he shivered, emaciated, in a hospital waiting room. A full year since he slipped out of the observation room and back to a dilapidated hotel on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. One year since the worst day of her life — when she got a phone call saying her son was dead.

Sean Munro fought to vanquish his intrusive thoughts for more than 20 years, his family says. He struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder, body dysmorphia, alcoholism and more. At the root of it all, his mother says, was what happened in a small office at a Vancouver private school in the 1980s — with a teacher who they believe never should have been there.

“I want to go back and I want to do more,” Paddy says….

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Spirit Unbounded met over the weekend in Rome, while the Synod of Bishops was taking place.

The source of the “plague” of child sexual abuse in the Church is the “traditional devaluation of children”, the theology of priesthood and mythical image of the priest promoted by Pope John Paul II, according to canon lawyer Dr Tom Doyle.

He recalled a deposition he attended in which a bishop, when asked about the victims of a paedophile priest in his diocese, said, “Little boys heal.” Doyle said, “That sentence – that concept manifests the fundamental ignorance of the hierarchy about the damage done and the effects of sexual violation on the young. None of them have ever had children. If you have never had children, you cannot properly appreciate the damage that is done by sexual abuse.”

The former Dominican said protecting the institution seems to be “the ultimate value, not the…

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On Oct. 3, The Guardian reported that the FBI has interviewed several former members of the South Bend-based People of Praise with regard to allegations of sexual abuse and cover-up within the organization. The story includes disturbing new claims from a woman who alleges that People of Praise leadership coached her mother not to press charges against a member who allegedly sexually abused her from the age of three. That man allegedly remained in the People of Praise and was even housed with a family who had a 6-year-old child. 

While the People of Praise is a private organization, their past and present members have jobs in the community and interact with the public every day. It is in the public interest, and a matter of public safety, that the People of Praise report who in their organization past or present has been credibly accused of child sexual abuse. This is especially important in light of these new allegations, because they imply that credibly accused perpetrators may not have any legal trail. The legal system provides protection for the public by requiring offenders to register…

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I am deeply saddened to announce the passing of Bishop Emeritus Tod David Brown. On the morning of October 15, our community bid farewell to a remarkable man who dedicated his life to the service of God and his fellow human beings. Bishop Brown passed away at St. Joseph Hospital, leaving behind a legacy of faith, compassion, and tireless dedication to the Diocese of Orange.

Bishop Brown’s journey in the service of the church began in 1998 when he was appointed by Pope St. John Paul II as the bishop and ordinary of the Diocese of Orange. His tenure as a bishop marked a significant chapter in the history of the Diocese, as he led the community with unwavering dedication, commitment, and a deep sense of spirituality. One of the many aspects that made Bishop Brown special was his tireless spirit and unwavering witness to Christ. He approached his role with…

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When Turner Casey, 56, first spoke to a reporter at The Commercial Appeal about having been sexually abused as a child by a Catholic priest in Humboldt, Tennessee, he wondered who else had been abused by the same priest.   

“I’m 99.9% certain I couldn’t have been the only one,” said Casey, who now lives in Louisiana.

In the weeks following that phone call, as Casey spoke to friends and family about the possibility of his childhood abuse coming to light in an article, he learned something he’d never expected: His younger brother, who died in 2021, was likely also abused by the same priest.

Today, Casey knows he can’t change what happened to him or could have happened to his brother, but he wants people to know that Joel Wiggs, once a well-respected priest at Sacred Heart Parish in Humboldt, shouldn’t be held in esteem in the small town’s…

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore has removed Benedictine Father Paschal Morlino as pastor of St. Benedict in Southwest Baltimore and has suspended his faculties to function as a priest following revelations that he entered into a financial settlement with a man who accused him of sexual assault.

According to an Oct. 15 statement by the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the archdiocese and the Benedictines were made aware of the settlement Oct. 12 after The Baltimore Banner inquired for a story it was preparing about the allegations.

The archdiocese immediately conducted an internal investigation and decided within 24 hours to remove the priest’s permission to celebrate Mass or engage in public ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Father Morlino, a longtime and popular pastor of St. Benedict, has returned to his religious community, St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pa. 

The archdiocese and the Benedictines intend to conduct further investigation, according to the statement. 

…

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BAR DATE OCTOBER 20 2023

U.S. BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
In re:  The Roman Catholic Bishop of Santa Rosa, Case No. 23-10113

Notice of Deadline for Filing Claims:  October 20, 2023
YOU MAY HAVE A SEXUAL ABUSE CLAIM OR OTHER
CLAIM AGAINST THE DIOCESE OF SANTA ROSA

On March 13, 2023, The Roman Catholic Bishop of Santa Rosa aka Diocese of Santa Rosa, (“Debtor”) filed for protection under Chapter 11 of Bankruptcy Code.

If you were sexually abused by any person connected with the Debtor, you must file a claim so as to be received by October 20, 2023, or otherwise you will be forever barred, estopped, and enjoined from asserting such claim against the Debtor.

Claims based on acts or omissions of the Debtor that occurred before March 13, 2023, must be filed on or before the applicable bar date, even if such claims are not now fixed, liquidated,…

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The non-religious proportion of the population is steadily growing in Switzerland, as in most Western countries. In a society with cutting-edge medicine, social insurance and coaches for all areas of life, the churches are becoming increasingly obsolete – so what do church leaders say about that?

At this rate, non-believers will soon be in the majority in Switzerland. People with no religious affiliation are the group that has grown the most over the past 50 years, reaching almost a third of the population in 2021 – almost as much as the proportion of Catholics, according to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

In 1970, virtually everyone in Switzerland was Christian, with half being Protestant and half Catholic. While Catholicism has managed to lose fewer adherents in absolute numbers as a result of immigration, the dwindling trend is similar for both communities, with things speeding up since the 2000s.

Atheists, agnostics and those…

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A group of devout Catholics is withdrawing its $2.3 million offer to buy the chancery property in Agana Heights where the late Pope John Paul II, who later became a saint, stayed overnight in 1981.

That’s because The Phoenix Foundation, despite all its best efforts, has been unable to raise the full amount to complete the purchase from the Archdiocese of Agana within days of the Oct. 17 federal bankruptcy court-approved extended deadline.

This means the prime property, with a sweeping view of Hagåtña and the bay, will be in the market for sale once again.

Its sale is part of the court-approved deal to settle the clergy sex abuse claims and get the archdiocese out of bankruptcy. The property’s appraised value is $2.3 million.

“We’re heartbroken to withdraw our offer to purchase the property. All we wanted is to help preserve the significance of the chancery property, where the…

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‘The hard lesson is this: many of us take pride in our religiosity, but many others are also betrayed by it’

Religious abuse happens, whether we admit it or not. And it comes in many forms.

It can be verbal or emotional, but religious abuse also often comes with sexual abuse.

Scholars have already offered many definitions about religious abuse, but three elements are salient: “the misuse of spiritual authority, the act of taking advantage of a follower, and the harm it brings to the victim.” 

Crucial here is the role of the religious authority. Often involved are priests, pastors, ministers, and other leaders who manipulate their followers into submission. They successfully do so through control, humiliation, threats, and intimidation. 

Because they are in effect representatives of God (or God himself), the shame they engender among their victims is much deeper.

Thanks to the national coverage surrounding Socorro Bayanihan…

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The life and crimes of paedophile Jimmy Savile is under the spotlight once again and one of the main themes of drama The Reckoning is his supposed devotion to his Catholic faith

Jimmy Savile hid behind many things to commit his horrific sex crimes including endless charity work and an apparent fun-loving personality. But one other major trait he used for his own sordid good was his apparent devotion to the Catholic faith.

As shown in the newly released BBC drama into his life The Reckoning, the beast regularly attended mass and even sexually abused at least one young girl in a Catholic church during services. Due to his charity work and faith, he was given a papal knighthood by Pope John-Paul II in 1990.

The Steve Coogan-starring drama delves into the paedophile’s life, in which he regularly calls…

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Bishop Emeritus Tod David Brown, who became known for settling one of the largest sexual abuse cases brought against the Catholic Church, has died, the Diocese of Orange announced.

Brown died early Sunday at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Orange after a long battle with lymphoma, said Msgr. Tuan Joseph Pham, a close friend. Brown was 86.

Brown was the third bishop for the Diocese of Orange, which was created from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1976, and the first California bishop to settle sex abuse claims against Catholic clergy. He was instrumental in the $100-million settlement of a lawsuit brought against the Roman Catholic diocese by 90 victims and established protocols that increased training and background checks for all clergy and lay employees.

The 2005 settlement was, at the time, the country’s largest payout by the church to alleged victims of sexual abuse. Under the settlement,  View Cache

The more I read about Pope Francis and President Joe Biden, the more I realize that they are similar.

I mean, both are Catholic, and that’s where the similarities end, right?

That may be the case for most, but they are quite similar in how they are covered by the mainstream press.

Let me explain.

Without getting too much into the weeds here, Biden has been dogged by multiple scandals involving his troubled son Hunter. You wouldn’t know that, however, from much of the mainstream press coverage of this presidency. Journalists remain too concerned with former President Donald Trump — how could they not? — and the recently-averted government shutdown.

Conservative media have covered Hunter Biden’s alleged wrongdoings and shady business practices since the 2020 presidential election. That was when the public was were told by the mainstream press that Hunter’s woes were based on Russian misinformation. Here we are…

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Gemma Hickey led a pilgrimage to Rome to ask Pope Francis for a zero-tolerance policy for abusive clergy

A Newfoundland advocate for sexual abuse victims and LGBTQ issues didn’t get the result they wanted from a recent pilgrimage to Rome — but says they won’t stop trying.

In late September, Gemma Hickey, in a group with 10 other clergy abuse survivors and allies, carried an eight-foot cross on a 120-kilometre trek to Rome in the hopes of convincing Pope Francis to agree on a zero-tolerance policy for clergy who commit abuse.

When the group reached Rome, Hickey told CBC News, they handed their message to a Vatican representative but were later told the letter never made it to the Pope’s desk.

“All I know is that I’ll do whatever I can to raise awareness,” Hickey said.

September’s walk was inspired by a 2015 trek by Hickey: 908 kilometres across Newfoundland, with the goal…

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About 200 survivors of church hurt and abuse, church leaders, and allies gathered at the Restore Conference this week for “incredibly powerful and necessary conversations” surrounding abuse and failed leadership in evangelical faith communities.

The two-day conference was organized by The Roys Report (TRR) and hosted at Judson University, a Christian college in Elgin, Illinois. Attendees came from 32 U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, England, Malawi, and the Netherlands. 

Attendee Dan Goulson, host of the Dear Christians Podcast who drove from nearby Geneva, described the first day of Restore as, “Incredibly powerful and necessary conversations that need to be had in every circle of Christianity.” First day topics included recognizing spiritual abuse, rehabbing from the addiction to leadership, how evangelicals’ harmful teachings on sex enable abuse, and surviving beyond white evangelical racism. 

Laura Barringer, co-author of popular book A Church Called Tov and one of 10 speakers on Friday, stated upfront in her…

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The recent scandal about alleged abuse that happened 20 years ago at a Christian school in Switzerland has brought Christian schools in the country under suspicion.

That is what Markus Zuberbühler, managing director from Initiative für Christliche Bildung, the umbrella organisation of Christian schools in the country worries about.

The Christian school CS Linth (previously called Domino Servite) was accused of corporal punishment and abuse that would have taken place at the end of last century. Several Swiss media reported about the case and many focused on Christian schools in Switzerland in general. As a result, some media placed these free schools under “general suspicion of pressure and control”, a press release of the Initiative für Christliche Bildung reads.

The organisation says to “deeply regret the abuses and condemn corporal punishment and violence in any form”, as “violence against children does not correspond to a modern understanding of…

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore launched an investigation into Rev. Paschal Morlino after he admitted the payment to The Baltimore Banner

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has dismissed the Rev. Paschal Morlino, the celebrated “urban monk” of Southwest Baltimore who led St. Benedict Church for decades, following the recent disclosure that he paid $200,000 to quietly settle allegations of fraud and sexual assault.

Morlino’s abrupt removal as pastor of St. Benedict’s was announced Saturday to parishioners, and it comes amid an investigation by The Baltimore Banner that brought details of the 2018 settlement payment to the attention of archdiocese officials.

“On Thursday when an inquiry was made by The Baltimore Banner, the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Benedictines were first made aware of a settlement that had been entered into by Benedictine Fr. Paschal Morlino some years ago,” the archdiocese said in a statement. “The Archdiocese immediately engaged in an internal investigation…

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A priest who was placed on leave by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona- Johnstown in 2017 due to a claim of abusing a minor being made against him was arrested on child pornography charges earlier this week.

The Rev. Anthony Petracca Jr., 67, from Allegheny Township, Blair County, faces 31 felony counts of possession of child pornography and one count of criminal use of a communication facility, according to a release sent out by the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry.

Petracca as of Wednesday was unable to post bail that was set at $25,000.

“Make no mistake that possession of child pornography is an insidious form of child abuse that exploits and harms the children involved,” Henry said in the press release. “The defendant is accused of contributing to that exploitation and mistreatment of children. These are serious charges and we will do everything in our power…

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An investigation into allegations against a former pastor of a County Londonderry church, and counselling for those affected, will cost about £30,000.

Causeway Coast Vineyard (CCV) is an evangelical church based in Coleraine and has about 1,400 members.

According to CCV the allegations primarily relate to Alan Scott, a senior pastor there until June 2017.

The church said he “did not respond” when the allegations were put to him.

An interim review commissioned by the church identified “manipulation, inappropriate comments, narcissistic behaviour, and certain occurrences of public shaming and spiritual abuse”.

Although Alan Scott did not respond, the current pastor at the church, Neil Young, has apologised for “any of my actions that have caused pain”.

Some of the details are contained in the church’s annual accounts, which have just been published.

The accounts said that the trustees of CCV had allocated £15,000 to cover the cost of the review…

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Stephen Bates pleads guilty to several charges

The former pastor of a Nashua church is on his way to prison after pleading guilty Thursday to the manufacture and possession of child sex abuse images.

Stephen Bates, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of the manufacture of child sex abuse images and 10 counts of possession of such images.

In court, one of Bates’ victims spoke via Zoom, saying that the former pastor robbed her of her innocence.

“Within a split second, I felt like I had lost all my innocence, and trust in all men,” the victim said.

The emotion was heard in her voice as she faced her abuser in court.

“To curl up at night, and wonder if living is really worth it,” she said. “I couldn’t understand why someone would want to hurt me like this.”

Also in the courtroom were some members of his former church,…

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 A pastor in Oregon was in custody on Wednesday after he was accused of inappropriately touching two girls in his congregation, authorities said. 

Christopher Michael Pruitt, 39, of Beaverton, was indicted on six counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of third-degree sexual abuse in Washington County, according to county jail records.

Pruitt allegedly touched two juvenile girls who were members of his small congregation at Our Father’s House Ministries Church.

Pruitt originally operated the church out of his home in north Beaverton before recently moving the church to north Portland, the Beaverton Police Department said.

Detectives believe Pruitt may have more victims and urged anyone with information to contact Det. Patrick McNair via email at pmcnair@beavertonoregon.gov or by phone at 503.526.2261.

Pruitt was apprehended on Oct. 5 and was being held at the Washington County Jail, where he remained in custody as…

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A 97-year-old woman is being charged with sexual offences that allegedly occurred more than 50 years ago at St. Anne’s Indian Residential School, where she worked as a nun. 

Similarly, last year a 92-year-old a former priest was charged in Manitoba with indecent assault for an incident that was alleged to have happened more than 50 years ago at the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School in Manitoba.

He was the only person charged after a decade-long RCMP investigation into claims of abuse at the school — one of the most expensive RCMP investigations in the history of the province.

Are these charges being laid now to buttress the narrative many priests and nuns were abusers? Is that narrative true?

The complete list of every person convicted of any crime that occurred at all of the approximately 143 residential schools and hostels that operated between 1883 and…

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AT FIRST glance, it looked like part of a carnival.

The black iron railings outside St Peter’s Church in Kirkbampton village, west of Carlisle, were a blaze of colour, with silk ribbons of red, blue, pink and yellow fluttering gently in the breeze along its entire 30ft length.

It was a crisp and bright November morning in 2020.

This was the scene of Cumbria’s first ever ‘loudfence’ event – an idea as powerful as it is simple: attached to each of the ribbons tied on the railings was a message for church leaders – messages from survivors of sexual abuse.

Those who troubled to read them may have been shocked as they read and heard – possibly for the first time – the voices of abuse surivors, saying they must never be silenced, and telling church leaders that abusers must not be protected.

Most poignant, perhaps,  was a 14-word statement,…

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Stewards of Pope Francis’ Catholic church lean more towards “neo-Marxism” than its roots in biblical doctrine, writes Rocco Loiacono.

A scathing article written by the late Cardinal George Pell was published a day after his passing in January, which described a key Catholic Church leadership group as a “toxic nightmare”.

The Synod on Synodality is where mostly bishops from the religion conduct a series of meetings with Pope Francis to forge a direction for the church.

But Cardinal Pell said documents from the gatherings were “couched in neo-Marxist jargon”.

Moreover, in his Campion College lecture in August last year Cardinal Pell said the Synod was “largely irrelevant to the preaching of the gospel and the threat of decline, being more concerned with redistribution of power”.

In opening the Synod process in 2021, Pope Francis called for the Catholic Church to “encounter, listen and discern”.

But the meeting avoided any mention…

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Claude Leboeuf, a SNAP Leader in Rhode Island, recently received a settlement from the Catholic Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts. With the help of his attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, Claude was able to prevail despite the fact that the statute of limitations in his case had expired. Claude, who is now 70, had repressed his memories of being abused at the age of 8 by the Rev. James Porter. The Falls River priest pleaded guilty in 1993 to assaulting 28 other children in the Diocese.
 We applaud Claude’s bravery, and we hope that his example will encourage other, still-silent victims to come forward to family, friends, therapists, groups like ours, or law enforcement, to seek counsel and to pursue justice. Claude demonstrates that it is never too late for a victim of sexual assault to speak out, regardless of how long ago the crime occurred. Not every survivor will have Claude’s level of success, but…

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Survivors of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and teachers harshly criticized the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s decision to file for bankruptcy during a public call Thursday with the local archbishop.

Over roughly three hours of discussion, victims and their family members described how their experiences as children haunted their adult lives. At times, they said the archdiocese demonstrated a lack of transparency and commitment to reaching an equitable settlement with them.

The tele-meeting was the second public call between the Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and a committee of creditors representing survivors who filed suit against the local Catholic district.

In an opening statement, Cordileone condemned sexual abuse and said the victims’ stories had left him “moved and deeply saddened.”

“These acts have no place in any society—especially within the church, where there should be a greater sense of security and compassion,” he said. “I pray every day for…

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The U.S. bishops’ conference on Tuesday announced the candidates for the leadership of six standing committees, and for the officer position of secretary, to be voted upon at their November plenary meeting.

The conference has been roiled by serious debate in recent years — and more debates over politics, healthcare, and finances are coming. 

But the nominees announced Tuesday for officer and committee posts indicate much more about the cohesion of the U.S. bishops’ conference than about its divisions, suggesting that while the conference has been the locus of fractious debate in recent years, the debate has been lopsided, with the majority of bishops seeming to adopt a similar theological worldview.

The nominations also suggest that some U.S. bishops may have disengaged from their conference — and that in the years to come, the bishops’ conference could face a mounting challenge to its central role in the life of the Church.

…

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A Blair County man has been arrested on multiple charges related to the possession of child pornography.  Anthony Petracca Jr., 67, is charged with 31 felony counts of possession of child pornography, and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.

Petracca was arrested at his and bail was set at $25,000.

“Make no mistake that possession of child pornography is an insidious form of child abuse that exploits and harms the children involved. The defendant is accused of contributing to that exploitation and mistreatment of children,” said Attorney General Henry. “These are serious charges and we will do everything in our power to protect children and hold those who take advantage of them accountable for their crimes.”

Petracca was formerly a Catholic priest in Pennsylvania. He was placed on leave by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in 2017 following allegations of misconduct. He has not been permitted to work as…

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UPDATE |

Blair Co., PA (WJAC) — Authorities are providing additional details about the arrest of a Hollidaysburg-area man following a months-long child porn investigation.

Investigators say Anthony Petracca Jr, age 67, was reportedly a former Catholic priest in Pennsylvania.

Officials say in 2017, he was allegedly placed on leave by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown following allegations of misconduct.

Make no mistake that possession of child pornography is an insidious form of child abuse that exploits and harms the children involved. The defendant is accused of contributing to that exploitation and mistreatment of children,” said Attorney General Michelle Henry. “These are serious charges and we will do everything in our power to protect children and hold those who take advantage of them accountable for their crimes.

Authorities say that since 2017, Petracca has not served as a priest or been in contact with children.

Petracca was arraigned on 31…

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