ABUSE TRACKER

Gregory Aymond promised ‘to be transparent’ – but a Guardian investigation found that he hid allegations, and an expert questions whether it was against Vatican policy

A board which helps the Roman Catholic archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Aymond, evaluate abuse allegations against priests and deacons in six cases found clergymen to be credibly accused only for Aymond to ignore the findings and conceal them from the public, a Guardian investigation has found.

Aymond’s management of the cases in question as the leader of the US’s second-oldest archdiocese is outlined in a memorandum which attorneys for victims of clerical sexual abuse prepared and handed to law enforcement in the latter part of last year.

It exposes the latest damaging revelations in a decades-long scandal at the 230-year-old archdiocese, which has been shown to have gone to extreme lengths to cover up for a confessed child abuser….

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The Church’s ongoing failure to acknowledge fully the harm caused by sexual abuse continues to overshadow everything

Since Sinéad O’Connor’s tragic death, attention has been focused again on the moment when she ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992. According to her autobiography, Rememberings, the background was reading a brief article in an Irish newspaper hinting that children had been abused by priests. Their stories had not been believed by the police or the bishops to whom their parents reported the abuse.

Notice the language – hints and brief references. Although the media later did sterling work in revealing criminal abuse of children, initially it was timid and cautious.

The year 1992 was still two years before Fr Brendan Smyth was jailed in Northern Ireland for a horrendous trail of abuse. It was  View Cache

Melbourne archdiocese challenges legal ruling that would allow father of a choirboy to sue for damages

The Catholic church is seeking to challenge a legal ruling in Victoria that would allow the father of a choirboy to sue for damages over allegations of child sexual abuse by Cardinal George Pell.

The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, filed a claim against the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne and Pell. He claims to have suffered nervous shock after learning of allegations that Pell sexually abused his now deceased son in the mid-1990s.

Pell, who died in January, had five convictions for abusing the man’s son and another boy overturned by the high court in 2020. He always maintained his innocence.

The Catholic church tried to be excused from proceedings by relying on the Ellis defence, arguing the father could not sue because he was not the…

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Church of England look into allegation Bishop Graham Cray did not act on safeguarding concerns over Mike Pilavachi’s behaviour

A bishop and former chair of Soul Survivor is being investigated by Church of England officials amid allegations that he failed to act on reports of abuse, The Telegraph understands.

The Soul Survivor Watford Church was founded by Rev Canon Mike Pilavachi, a charismatic 65-year-old evangelical Christian with global influence. His Soul Survivor annual summer festivals attracted tens-of-thousands of teenagers until they ended in 2019.

In May, this newspaper published details for the first time revealing that he had emotionally abused his alleged victims, encouraging them to receive full-body oil massages on his bed and engage in vigorous wrestling matches.

The Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team (NST) and the Diocese of St Albans are currently carrying out a joint investigation into allegations surrounding Soul Survivor and Pilavachi – who has since been…

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Howard Hubbard and woman married in July at civil ceremony which may trigger a second chance at laicization

In an open letter on Tuesday, Aug 1 the retired Bishop of the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Albany announced his request to be laicized, or relieved of his obligations as priest and bishop, was denied by the Vatican in March,and he married a woman in July despite still being a Bishop. 

As Spotlight News reported in November, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard requested to return to the “lay state,” in a letter to Rome so he could marry, but the answer was unknown until his release.  

“In March, I received notice from the Vatican that my request had been denied. I was encouraged to wait patiently and prayerfully and to continue to abstain from public ministry until seven civil lawsuits against me alleging sexual misconduct had been adjudicated,” Hubbard wrote.

Spotlight News reviewed…

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Mandatory reporting laws “must apply to all religious settings” including the ‘seal of confession’, says NSS

There must be no religious exemptions to laws requiring child sexual abuse to be reported, the National Secular Society has warned.

The NSS has told the Home Office it must resist religious lobbying for sacramental confession to be exempted from new mandatory reporting laws.

The NSS’s warning came in response to a Home Office consultation on implementing a recommendation from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). IICSA recommended that people who work with children be legally obliged to report incidents of sexual abuse.

The NSS said mandatory reporting laws “must apply to all religious settings”, including the ‘seal of confession’.

During sacramental confession, which is held by the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations, an individual reports their ‘sins’ privately to a priest and asks for forgiveness.

In countries including Ireland…

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ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM PORTUGAL (CNS) — After a five-day trip to Portugal, which recently came to terms with its own clerical sex abuse crisis, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church must abandon its practice of covering up abuse and instead be “very open” about how it is confronting the crime.

During a news conference on the pope’s return flight to Rome from Lisbon, Portugal, Aug. 6, the pope said bishops who have not adopted a “zero tolerance” policy toward abuse need to “take charge of that irresponsibility.”

Pope Francis had met privately with abuse survivors for more than an hour Aug. 2 during his stay in Lisbon for World Youth Day; he told reporters they “dialogued about this plague” of abuse.

“The church used to follow the conduct that is followed in families and neighborhoods: it covers up,” he said, adding that addressing abuse must take in those…

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Convocar: Healing demands justice, restitution

Millions in cash contributions from the Archdiocese of Agana and its insurers have reached about 280 survivors of childhood sexual assaults by Guam priests and others associated with the Catholic Church, bringing a measure of “justice” and “healing” to those who have suffered from the abuses, some dating as far back as the 1950s.

Each abuse survivor reportedly received anywhere from about $40,000 to $100,000.

This is only the first of multiple rounds of payouts under a bankruptcy court-approved settlement plan that the archdiocese and its creditors worked on for years.

Lawyers representing the survivor-claimants got a certain percentage of each survivor’s settlement payment.

The amount of settlement payment depends, among other things, on the severity, length and frequency of the claimed sexual assault, according to survivors and those representing them.

Among the survivor-claimants were raped by priests once or multiple times, sometimes for a…

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So enmeshed is the Catholic Church in a culture of denial that no public discussion can even be contemplated on this issue

There are at least three ways in which Catholics look at wrongdoing, and each of these corresponds to the dominant attitude in society.

In this article, I will explore briefly these three different ways, and ask readers which way corresponds to their present mindset.

I will use the pedophile crisis as a common example.

To commit a sin

In traditional, medieval societies where religion is the determining factor, to do wrong is to break God’s law, to offend God, or more simply, to commit a sin.

Catholic moral theology of yesteryear went into contortions trying to define when sin was ‘mortal’, ‘venial,’ or just an occasional failing.

A mortal sin shattered the state of grace in one’s soul, kept one from validly receiving the sacraments, and could only…

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Rivarde says Reed told the victims that the sexual activity with him would provide the teens the “covering of Jesus” and “help them become a man.”

TERRYTOWN, La. — A Terrytown pastor and two-time convicted registered sex offender is in jail after allegedly raping two more teenage boys.

As The Times-Picayune reports, The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested and booked Terry Reed, 63, with new charges after he was accused of coercing a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old to sleep with him in the nude and engage in sexual acts.

A 19-year-old man contacted the sheriff’s office in June to report he was abused by Reed on several occasions over two years after meeting Reed through his church.

Reed is a pastor who ran Vessels of Christ Ministry out of his Terrytown home, JPSO spokesperson Capt. Jason Rivarde told Nola.com.

He was first arrested on June 29…

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ON BOARD THE PAPAL PLANE – Pope Francis insisted Sunday that restricting access to sacraments such as priestly ordination, as the Catholic Church does for women, and marriage, in the case of the LGBTQ+ community, is not a sign of close-mindedness.

In an airborne news conference, the pope also touched on his reasons for opting not to mention Ukraine out loud while in the famed Marian shrine of Fatima on Saturday, addressed clerical abuse scandals in Portugal, mental health struggles among youth and his own physical condition, insisting that despite a grueling foreign trip this week “my health is good.”

Francis made the comments to reporters during his return flight from an August 2-6 trip to Portugal, where he presided over World Youth Day, a massive gathering of Catholic youth from around the world instituted under St. Pope John Paul II.

Asked why the church was not a place of…

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A SURVIVOR who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the Illinois Catholic Church has spoken out about coming forward as a victim almost 50 years after he was molested by a priest.

Dan Ronan, now an Emmy award-winning journalist, was just an 11-year-old alter boy in the fall of 1971 when Father Thomas Gannon abused him after an evening mass at Saint Jerome Roman Catholic Church in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.

The church was down an altar boy that night, so Ronan had a hard time trying to do the job of two people.

As Ronan was in the church’s sacristy, a preparation room, getting ready to go home Gannon, who was in his mid-late 30s, came in.

“I could see immediately that he was in an angry mood,” Ronan exclusively told The U.S. Sun.

“He was probably six-foot-one and 240. He was a big boy. Big man…

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THE BISHOPS must never condone, tolerate or cover up child abuse among their clergy. In the Philippines, it is likely none have ever done it. Many try to pay off the victim’s families to drop charges. That priest will feel above the law, protected by the church and bishop, and will abuse more children.

Prosecutors must be independent, strong and determined to never give in to pressure and steadfastly uphold the law equally. The judges must deliver justice without fear or favor nor be intimidated by anyone in power, moral or civil, and deliver justice for the abused children.

While some cases of child abuse against priests in the Philippines have seemingly been frozen by some unworthy prosecutors and judge, not so in cases filed against non-clerical abusers. Many dedicated prosecutors and judges are actively doing that.

The brave and determined prosecutor in Zambales elevated the complaint of statutory rape…

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[VIDEO]

Pope Francis’ special envoys are investigating sex abuse allegations by the Catholic group “Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana” in Peru. A former member who reported the alleged abuse talks about his experiences.

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Following hernia surgery, pope says he is living a ‘normal life’

After driving home a message to young people for several days in a row that the church is open to everyone, Pope Francis on Aug. 6 reiterated that such a message includes LGBTQ people and all marginalized groups. 

“The Lord is clear,” the pope said in reflecting on who is welcome in the church: “The sick, the elderly, the young, old, ugly, beautiful, good and bad.” 

The pope’s remarks came during a 25-minute, in-flight press conference returning to Rome after a five-day trip to Portugal for World Youth Day, a major Catholic youth festival where more than 1.5 million pilgrims joined the pope during the final Sunday Mass. 

Throughout the visit, the pope continued to repeat the message that everyone is welcome in the Catholic Church — at one point getting young people to repeat after him…

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In his customary press conference aboard the return flight to Rome from Lisbon, Pope Francis spoke to reporters about a range of issues.

The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, invited the reporters to put their questions to the Pope, but first gave the microphone to Pope Francis. The Pope offered the journalists a short message of thanks for their coverage of the just-concluded World Youth Day experience, and gave his “Happy Birthday” greetings to Rita Cruz, one of the journalists present on the flight.

Here follows a working English transcription and translation of the press conference

Q: Aura Maria Vistas Miguel – Rádio Renascença:
Your Holiness, first of all thank you for your visit to Portugal. Everyone already considers it a success. Everyone is very happy, thank you for coming. I met a high-ranking police officer who told me that he had never seen such an obedient and…

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Jesmond Gauci’s lawyer says his presence in the studio was a ‘one-off’

A former priest who was convicted of violent indecent assault against a minor has been filmed hosting a children’s radio programme on a parish radio station.

Jesmond Gauci, from Xagħra, featured in a radio broadcast for the parish radio station, where he produced a religious programme aimed at children with the participation of other children and adolescents present with him in the studio. He currently serves as Radju Bambina’s programmes’ manager.

The broadcast in which he appears to host a programme accompanied by two adolescents, two young children and an adult woman, was streamed on the Xagħra parish’s Facebook page on April 6.

Gauci was suspended from the priesthood in 2014 when he was accused of committing sexual offences against three underage girls. The behaviour was brought to light after the grandmother of one of the girls had…

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Once again, an incident of large-scale sexual abuse of minors by religious figures has come to light.

This time the abusers were Catholic Church clergy members in Portugal. This latest example of abuse of minors by people in religious positions of power was preceded by similar scandals involving American Catholic priests and Southern Baptist pastors.

One has to wonder why there hasn’t been an outpouring of condemnation, boycotts and laws directed at these apparent “grooming” institutions.

Why aren’t the Proud Boys showing up armed in front of churches shouting at parents taking their children into such dangerous environments? Why aren’t legislatures across the land passing laws to outlaw performances by priests or pastors? If protecting children from the dangers of men in drag reading stories to young children is so potentially dangerous to impressionable children, where is the concern for children who seem far more likely to be abused by…

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A retired Catholic bishop with seven civil sexual abuse complaints pending against him in New York has married a woman in a civil ceremony in the state, after the Vatican told him to wait until the lawsuits are resolved.

The move puts the Vatican in a difficult position, and shines a light on both structural weaknesses of the Vatican’s recently adopted system for handling abuse and coverup claims against senior clerics and Pope Francis’s  approach to wayward clerics.

84-year-old Bishop Howard Hubbard, who led New York’s capital diocese of Albany from 1977 until 2014, denies the abuse allegations. He has admitted, however, to keeping accusations of abuse by priests carefully under wraps when he had the leadership of the Albany diocese.

In a 2022 deposition related to claims that arose under New York’s Child Victims Act – a “look-back window” law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on civil…

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San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on Friday revealed that it was “very likely” that the archdiocese would be filing for bankruptcy in the near future due to the hundreds of clerical abuse lawsuits that have been filed against it.

The prelate revealed the news in an announcement on the archdiocesan website Aug. 4 in which he noted that, following a 2019 California law that lifted the statute of limitations on certain sexual abuse claims, the archdiocese was ultimately served with “more than 500 civil lawsuits” related to clerical sexual abuse.

The “vast majority of the alleged abuse occurred in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and involved priests who are deceased or no longer in ministry,” Cordileone noted, while others involved “unnamed individuals or named individuals who are unknown to the archdiocese.” The archdiocese has been “investigating the best options for managing and resolving these cases,” Cordileone said.

“After much contemplation and…

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Facing over 500 child sex abuse lawsuits, the Archdiocese of San Francisco is on the brink of bankruptcy, a move aimed at addressing its mounting legal challenges.

In an announcement Friday, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone revealed that the Archdiocese is seriously considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as the Chronicle reported.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the “reorganization” one, so it would reportedly allow the corporate legal entity, the “Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco,” to freeze litigation, reorganize finances, and settle the lawsuits collectively, rather than individually.

The archdiocese said the decision wouldn’t affect its parishes and schools in the city.

Other nearby Catholic dioceses have already filed for bankruptcy protection — the Diocese of Oakland, facing 330 child sex abuse cases, filed for bankruptcy in May, and the Diocese of Santa Rosa, facing a backlog of legal cases, filed in March, according to the Examiner.

The new lawsuits…

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When a senior Vatican official arrived in Peru last month to look into the affairs of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, journalists in Latin America and Rome began speculating that the controversial institute might soon be dissolved, closing years of allegations against the group’s founder and other ranking leaders, and more than five years of Vatican-appointed oversight of the institute. 

Indeed, the late July arrival of Archbishop Charles Scicluna in Lima has triggered speculation about the future of the Sodalitium, as the archbishop — head of the canonical disciplinary section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith — is likely the Church’s most credible expert on clerical sexual abuse and misconduct, and an often-influential figure in the Roman Curia, and with Pope Francis.  

But as the visitation now draws to a close, it seems unlikely that the probe will spur major changes to the institute. While it is possible…

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Deeley is leading Maine’s 200,000-plus Catholics in an all-out war to block victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse from seeking reparations no matter when the abuse occurred.

In early June, the Vermont Supreme Court upheld a state law that says defendants’ rights are not violated by retroactively eliminating the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims.

Repealing time limits on when sex abuse lawsuits need to be filed allows survivors to seek delayed justice.

Here in Maine, Bishop Robert Deeley is leading Maine’s 200,000-plus Catholics in an all-out war to block victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse from seeking reparations in a civil courtroom for the harms and injuries inflicted upon them by the abuse and the failure of church officials to protect them – no matter when the abuse occurred.

It is not unexpected that Bishop Deeley would oppose the…

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LISBON, Aug 3 (Reuters) – A Portuguese town said on Thursday it would reinstall a billboard highlighting sexual abuse by clergy after facing heavy criticism for removing it on the day Pope Francis arrived in the country to attend a massive youth event.

Francis landed in Lisbon on Wednesday for the week-long World Youth Day, an event devised by the late Pope John Paul II for Catholics in their teens or early 20s and held every two or three years in a different city.Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport this ad

The event comes less than six months after a report by a Portuguese commission said at least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – over seven decades. The commission in charge said that was just the “tip of the iceberg”.

In the early hours of Wednesday, before Francis’ arrival, campaign group This Is Our Memorial put up…

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Tim Gioe, who was groomed as a child, is pressing for parental consent to be obtained before priests are left alone with children in New Orleans

Tim Gioe will never forget how his Roman Catholic priest, Patrick Wattigny, used their time alone when he was a boy. It was during these moments together – during the sacrament of confession – that Wattigny began grooming him for sexual abuse, of which the clergyman was recently convicted.

So now the 36-year-old Gioe and his wife, Sarah, who are raising three sons together, are advocating for schools and other parochial institutions to be formally required to obtain fully informed parental consent before priests are left alone with children to hear about – and forgive – their sins as part of what is also known as reconciliation.

The Gioes would also like for it to be required to offer parents the…

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(BCN) — The Catholic archbishop of San Francisco says the Archdiocese may seek bankruptcy protection because of claims for child sexual abuse filed against it.

Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone, in a letter to parishioners posted Friday on the archdiocese’s website, said that a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization “is very likely.”

“Chapter 11 would allow the archdiocese to reorganize its financial affairs to continue its vital ministries to the faithful and to the communities that rely on our services and charity,” Cordileone said.

The archdiocese sold excess property and drew on insurance to pay about $68 million to about 100 plaintiffs to settle claims filed under a 2002 state law, the archbishop said. In 2019, the state lifted a statute of limitations allowing about 500 additional sexual abuse claims to be filed, he said.

The bankruptcy move is coming now because “the judge assigned to us has set an imminent trial…

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“They have hundreds of millions of dollars in property. They’re not bankrupt. If they’re bankrupt, it’s morally,” said one man.

After hundreds of lawsuits were filed by alleged sexual abuse victims, the Archdiocese of San Francisco saying it likely will go bankrupt.

In a statement released Friday, the archdiocese said in part:

“For several months now, with the assistance of our financial and legal advisors, we have been investigating the best options for managing and resolving these cases. After much contemplation and prayer, I wish to inform you that a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization is very likely.”

“They have hundreds of millions of dollars in property. They’re not bankrupt. If they’re bankrupt, it’s morally,” said Joey Piscitelli.

News of the bankruptcy has frustrated people like Piscitelli.

Piscitelli says he was sexually abused as a child.

He now works with a group called SNAP, or the Survivors Network of those Abused…

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On August 4, 2023, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco issued a letter to parishioners in response to questions from The San Francisco Chronicle. The Archbishop wrote to the faithful, “After much contemplation and prayer, I wish to inform you that a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization is very likely.”

Everything about the bankruptcies of Catholic dioceses strikes us as wrong. It is all about protecting secrets first, and second, to reduce just compensation to the victims they have created. From one coast to the other, the same ruse is being used. First, minimize and cover-up child sex crimes, while keeping abusers in ministry. Then, fight against changes to the civil statute of limitations which would expose those crimes. Finally, when secular laws provide a window to justice, go to federal bankruptcy courts and pretend that they are out of…

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A Kings Mountain woman who served as a youth leader at a church has been charged with felony child sexual offenses, according to Kings Mountain Police.

Amanda Buchanan Justice, of Phifer Road, was arrested Thursday and charged with two felony counts of statutory sex offense with a child over the age of 15.

“On July 28th, 2023, Kings Mountain Police Department Criminal Investigation Division (CID) received a report of a sexual assault on a minor,” a press release said. “CID Special Victims Detectives investigated the incident further and interviewed the alleged victim. After consulting with the Cleveland County District Attorney’s Office, felony warrants were secured and served on Amanda Buchanan Justice, 35, of Kings Mountain.”

According to the release, Justice turned herself in to Kings Mountain Police on Thursday without incident and was transported to the Cleveland County Magistrate’s Office where she received a $20,000 bond.

By Thursday afternoon she…

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The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department announced Friday it arrested and charged a convicted sex offender and associate pastor of a church with new crimes. 

Robert “Bobby” Price faces 14 counts of criminal misconduct against children, including statutory sex offense on a child. The charges stem from alleged abuse of three boys between the ages of 9 and 15 from 2001 and 2011 when he was a youth pastor at a Concord church.

WCNC Charlotte reported in 2013 when Price was arrested for a separate child abuse case at the same church. He served 16 months in jail for the crime. 

“There’s always concerns, there’s a high rate of recidivism with those that are registered sex offenders,” CMPD Captain James Wright said Friday. Recidivism is when a convicted criminal relapses into criminal behavior.

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• Matthew Chicas was fired from his role as a Maths teacher at Xavier High School after he was arrested in April after allegedly photographing a boy in a bathroom
• On Wednesday, Chicas pleaded not guilty to charges including possessing a sexual performance by a child and unlawful surveillance 
• The boy claims he had been using the bathroom at another school when he saw a phone peer over the top of the bathroom stall he was in  

A teacher at a prestigious New York City school has been fired after allegedly trying to film an 11-year-old boy in a bathroom stall. 

Matthew Chicas has been indicted on charges including unlawful surveillance, possessing a sexual performance by a child and endangering the welfare of a child. 

Chicas had been a Maths teacher at the $21,000-a-year private school Xavier High School in Manhattan, when he allegedly filmed the youngster back in April. 

At the time, he…

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While he was being expelled from the Jesuit order on July 24, artist-priest Slovenian Father Marko Ivan Rupnik was in the middle of what many observers consider his greatest work, a set of mosaic panels covering the four main facades of the Basilica of Our Lady Aparecida in Brazil.

The fate of that project, like many of the accused sexual abuser’s others works of art, now hangs in the balance.

Inaugurated last year, the first of the massive mosaics has an area of 43,000 square feet. The work on another facade was advancing, while the remaining sides were still waiting for the intervention to begin.

But it all had to be suspended. In February, the Jesuits forbade Rupnik to continue his artistic work. With his dismissal, the Aparecida shrine has been “waiting for the Church’s guidance to decide” how it will conclude the intervention, according to a press statement sent…

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Italy’s justice minister has approved extraditing an Italian priest sought by Argentina on charges of murder and torture during that country’s last military dictatorship, but the priest has an appeal in Italian courts seeking to block extradition, a lawyer and rights groups said Thursday.

Attorney Arturo Salerni, who represents Argentina, told The Associated Press that Justice Minister Carlo Nordio on Wednesday signed off on the request to extradite the Rev. Franco Reverberi, an 85-year-old priest who served as military chaplain during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

However, according to an Italian human rights group monitoring the case, Reverberi is appealing his extradition to Italy’s top criminal court and a ruling isn’t expected for weeks.

The Argentine Embassy in Rome issued a statement Thursday evening confirming the approval of the extradition as well as Reverberi’s appeal that has put the process on hold.

Due to a clerical error, the…

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A new Catholic school president has been hired in the Kansas City Kansas Archdiocese despite his having been sued as an abuser in Arizona.

Is it possible he’s innocent? Yes. Is it likely he’s innocent? Doubtful. Has his selection and appointment been handled appropriately? Clearly not.

Phil Baniewicz is the new head of Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park KS. Archbishop Joseph Naumann and his staff have not been honest with parents and the public about the serious allegations against Baniewicz. And tragically, this type of continuing secrecy is what hurts victims, demoralizes Catholics and enables sex crimes against kids to keep happening.

Here’s the crux of this troubling situation: A priest and his colleague (Baniewicz) reportedly molested and threatened a boy. Another priest reportedly gave the boy liquor, watched the abuse and threatened him. A lawsuit against all 3 settled for six figures. The two priests were convicted and defrocked. But the Catholic lay…

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Pope Francis has arrived in Lisbon, Portugal, where he will address one of the country’s most devastating issues: sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The gravity of the situation was palpable as senior bishops listened to heart-wrenching stories shared by victims during a panel discussion last February.

In a shocking revelation, specialists recently disclosed on live television that a staggering 4,815 boys and girls, primarily aged between 10 and 14, have been victims of sexual assault by ordained, professed, and employed religious of the Portuguese Catholic Church since 1950. This announcement contradicted previous claims by high-ranking members of the church, who downplayed the extent of the abuse.

The response from the Portuguese Catholic Church has been criticized as inadequate and lacking urgency. Their slow and hesitant reaction prompted survivors to form Portugal’s first advocacy group, demanding financial compensation on behalf of the victims. This further tarnished the church’s reputation, which…

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The Archdiocese of San Francisco announced Friday that it will “very likely” file for bankruptcy as it faces more than 500 child sex abuse lawsuits.

In an open letter, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said he was “deeply saddened” by the abuse of children and added “the vast majority of the alleged abuse occurred” decades ago.

But recent reporting by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has uncovered new accusations against multiple San Francisco priests still in ministry.

The Catholic Church across California is being hammered by a wave of new lawsuits made possible by a recent state law. The Oakland and Santa Rosa dioceses have already filed for bankruptcy protection.

Victim advocates with the victims’ support group SNAP blasted Friday’s announcement, saying the wave of diocese declaring bankruptcy is about protecting secrets and reducing payments to abuse victims.

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The Archdiocese of San Francisco could soon declare bankruptcy, after more than 500 lawsuits have been filed against it in the last three years. 

In an Aug. 4 letter obtained by The Pillar before its publication, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone told Catholics that “a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization is very likely” for the archdiocese.

The filing would “allow the Archdiocese to achieve two very important goals. First, Chapter 11 is a process that brings all parties together in one place to resolve difficult claims fairly and equitably under the supervision of the bankruptcy court, allowing the Archdiocese to deal with the hundreds of cases collectively rather than one at a time,” the archbishop wrote.

“That could result in a faster resolution for hundreds of survivors, providing them with fair compensation and finally, hopefully, some peace and closure. Secondly, Chapter 11 would allow the Archdiocese to reorganize its financial affairs to continue its vital…

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On the occasion of World Youth Day in Lisbon from August 1st to 6th, 2023, 333 child figures were be placed in front of the imposing Cologne Cathedral. The small figures are draped in white-purple barrier tape, symbolizing the colors of innocence and the curia.

With outstretched hands, they point towards Cologne Cathedral, drawing attention to the church’s disastrous handling of victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse. Through the installation “Shattered Souls in a Sea of Silence,” artist Dennis Josef Meseg aims to “give more visibility and a voice to the victims.”

However, the installation doesn’t solely focus on the victims, but also casts a critical light on the perpetrators and accomplices. His intention is that they can no longer continue their wrongdoing under the church’s protection.

The decision to choose Cologne as the location and the timing during this year’s World Youth Day in Lisbon as the occasion for the installation is deliberate. It aims to…

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The billboard in Algés attesting to child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church and hastily covered up ahead of the Pope’s cavalcade passing has been allowed to return today – the municipality of Oeiras admitting the subject is too important to hide. It is not in exactly the same place, but there is only 200 metres difference. According to SIC television news today, the municipality “backed down following public indignation”. The official reason for covering the billboard up is that it had not been licensed by the municipality.

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Survivors of childhood sexual abuse must continue waiting for their day in court after the Pennsylvania General Assembly failed to meet the deadline to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot.

This failure continues nearly two decades of idleness, intrigues, and slip-ups that have blocked a measure that would give thousands of survivors a two-year window to seek monetary damages against their abusers and the institutions that shielded the accused. The window is necessary because the statute of limitations for those individuals to file suit expired.

The effort has taken different forms and has received various levels of attention in that time. But despite bipartisan support among current state lawmakers for the measure, disputes between the Democratic and Republican caucuses over whether to bundle the proposal with other amendments — including one that would expand voter ID requirements — sank its chances this year.

“I want to see…

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A fellow ran down to the courthouse this week and got hitched, which, in itself, isn’t any sort of a headline. This groom, however, happens to be Howard Hubbard, the former Catholic bishop of Albany – the capital diocese in the U.S.State of New York – who is still a cleric and a bishop even in retirement, and that makes his nuptials more than a little news story.

That Hubbard got married even though the Vatican had told him “No,” after he asked to be released from the clerical state and be permitted to contract marriage … well, that makes this an even bigger news story.

The reason the Vatican denied Hubbard’s request is that Hubbard has admitted under oath to keeping abuse allegations against priests away from police and under wraps, and is currently facing no fewer than seven separate civil lawsuits alleging he personally abused people sexually both…

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A Des Moines man is accused of sexually abusing a child inside a church.

Huy Nguyen was arrested Thursday on second-degree sex abuse charges.

A criminal complaint says Nguyen inappropriately touched an 8-year-old girl at Christ the King Catholic Church in July. Documents show the abuse happened while the two were seated on a piano bench.

In a statement to KCCI, a spokesperson for the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines said Nguyen “is neither an employee nor a volunteer at the parish.” The church’s pastor was notified and contacted law enforcement, according to the statement.

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Bruxy Cavey is a mess. That’s how Canada’s disgraced former megachurch pastor refers to himself on two new websites he said he started to be his therapy. Donations, however, are welcome.

“Hello friends, welcome to my therapy,” he wrote for the site named The Ghost of 1820. “My name is Bruxy . . . and I’m a mess. But I am also discovering that suffering, especially from self-inflicted wounds, can be a good teacher, and I am learning so much.”

Cavey was arguably Canada’s most well-known evangelical pastor. With his casual style and inclusive nature, Cavey grew Canada’s The Meeting House to 5,000 people across 19 locations.

However, last March, the church asked him to resign amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Two months later, police in the Canadian city of Hamilton charged him with one count of sexual assault. Then last August, The Meeting House’s independent investigation substantiated…

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30-year-old Kyle Robinson, who was an associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Indialantic was arrested July 28th on 2 felony counts of child molestation charges. He’s currently out on $30,000 bond.

According to his LinkedIn account, Kyle is a graduate of the Christian-based Liberty University with a Bachelor’s of Christian Ministry. He also lists himself as the Director of Operations for Sani Effect Environmental.

According to the arrest affidavit, the molestation had been going on for years with over 100 acts of abuse. The unidentified male in the report, described graphic details of the alleged abuse, and even began keeping a digital log of the events that often happened while visiting other cities on trips with Kyle.

The boy described that while traveling, Kyle would book hotel rooms with only one bed, forcing them to sleep together, where the abuse allegedly would take place. He states that Kyle would force…

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A convicted sex offender who is also a pastor at a local church has been arrested again for more counts of sexual crimes against children, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say.

Robert “Bobby” Price was arrested Friday morning and faces new charges for incidents between 2001-2011. Police said the victims met Price through the former King’s Way Baptist Church in Concord, where Price was a youth pastor.

He is now charged with 13 counts of indecent liberties with a child and one count of statutory sexual offense with children between the ages of 9 and 15 years old at the time of the incidents.

Police alleged Price committed the incidents in his car while driving the victims to and from the church, as well as at his home.

King’s Way Baptist Church in Concord is now closed, according to police.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE ON PRICE:

• Court documents indicate former pastor…

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A former teacher at a K-12 school affiliated with Liberty University has been charged with sexual misconduct with a minor—which was finally disclosed to students’ families last week, three months after the fact. But multiple parents say the school is minimizing the potential harm, and some details from administrators are in conflict.

Braxton Wyatt Carter, 29, faces charges in Campbell County, Virginia, of two counts of consensual sex with a child age 15 years or older. The charges stem from an alleged incident in 2019, case information shows. Records indicate Carter was jailed April 7 and bonded out the same day.

Carter taught at Liberty Christian Academy (LCA) in Lynchburg from 2017-2019. The school is partnered with Liberty University (LU), one of the nation’s largest Christian colleges, and reportedly has about 2,000 students. 

On July 28, LCA Head of School Dr. Mark Hine wrote in an email to…

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One of three huge billboards erected by activists to raise awareness of sexual abuse by clergy has been removed following the arrival in Portugal of Pope Francis, campaign group This Is Our Memorial said on Wednesday.

Francis arrived in Lisbon to attend the World Youth Day event, an event devised by the late Pope John Paul II for Catholics in their teens or early 20s and held every two or three years in a different city.

The event comes less than six months after a report by a Portuguese commission said at least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – over seven decades. The commission in charge said that was just the “tip of the iceberg”.

One of the three billboards was put up on the Almirante Reis avenue, one of Lisbon’s longest and busiest streets, and reads: “4,800+ children abused by the Catholic Church in Portugal”….

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Catholic dioceses across the United States are considering or already taking steps toward declaring bankruptcy (Chapter 11), partly in response to a flood of sexual abuse lawsuits filed after states adopted laws that eliminate or pause statutes of limitations. According to one researcher, 32 Catholic dioceses and religious orders have sought or emerged from bankruptcy since 2001, when the extent of the clergy sexual abuse crisis became more widely known. It’s like there’s some secret public relations playbook passed to every US Catholic official. And under the tab titled “Seeking bankruptcy protection,” the first bit of advice (i.e., ‘spin’) is something like: “Always claim – and relentlessly repeat – that you’re doing this to be FAIR to the victims.”

Look at what Ogdensburg, New York Bishop said when he filed paperwork just two weeks ago to seek Chapter 11 protection: “The diocesan bankruptcy establishes a process for…

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When an institution or employer is hit with a report of suspected child sexual assault, generally speaking, you can tell a lot about that institution by what its leadership does in its first response. Whether it’s a verbal or written report, direct or indirect, or criminal or civil case, here’s the rule of thumb you can use to at least initially decide whether the institution or employer cares about finding the truth or protecting itself. It’s very simple: Do they ask others for help? Or do they ask others for nothing?

If they ask you to do something, that’s a good sign. If they don’t, that’s a bad sign. When confronted with known or suspected child sex crimes, institutions and employers have a straightforward choice. They can beg their employees and the public to act. Or they can try to lull them into complacency. All too often, they chose the latter course.

The…

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Attorneys for survivors of Catholic clergy sexual abuse on Long Island say they are outraged the church in Syracuse has reached a settlement for $100 million while negotiations locally have dragged on for nearly three years. 

The Diocese of Rockville Centre says it’s “grateful” for the upstate settlement, but at home, any deal between the Catholic Church and survivors will have to be fair toward victims while also allowing the diocese to remain financially viable.

Either way, reaching a similar agreement anytime soon appears a long shot, according to attorneys on the case.

“Syracuse made a decision that they weren’t going to spend their money fighting survivors and the Diocese of Rockville Centre has apparently made the opposite decision,” said Jordan Merson, a Manhattan-based attorney who represents some of the survivors on Long Island.

Church officials denied that, and said they are still working toward a solution.

“We are grateful that the Diocese of Syracuse has…

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A year after the Massachusetts attorney general’s office told advocates that a report on clergy sex abuse was nearly complete, the investigation has still not been published as activists push for the “disappearing report” to come to light.

The advocates have been in the dark since last August, when then-AG Maura Healey’s office reportedly promised that the investigation into the Worcester, Springfield and Fall River dioceses had wrapped up — and that the report was about to cross the goal line.

But Healey’s office never released the report before she became governor, and new AG Andrea Campbell’s office has not published the report.

“It’s become this kind of disappearing report,” Terry McKiernan, president of Bishop Accountability, recently told the Herald.

“These reports are incredibly important and validating for survivors,” he later added. “And when you sit down with survivors to talk about these terrible things, I think you have a…

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Key points:

• Child abuse survivors are re-telling their stories to a WA parliamentary inquiry
• It is examining the experience of survivors as they seek justice
• Victims and advocates say they are being “re-traumatised” by the process

“Gutted. Betrayed. Used. Re-traumatised.”

That is how 70-year-old Gordon Batty felt when his civil court case against the Uniting Church over his alleged sexual abuse in the 1960s was permanently stopped.

Following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, he had been encouraged to pursue justice over his claims of abuse in several state institutions and Perth’s Methodist Homes for Children.

“I didn’t ask for any of this. We were invited,” he remembered of the decision to take legal action.

“I’d go as far as to say, we were virtually begged to let our demons out of the closet.”

But the proceedings came to a sudden halt when the church successfully applied for a…

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Pope Francis met with 13 survivors of clerical sex abuse on his first day in Portugal and urged the Church to listen to “the anguished cry of the victims.”

The emotional private meeting at Lisbon’s apostolic nunciature, or Vatican embassy, on Wednesday night was a moment of “intense listening” by the pope and lasted more than an hour, according to the Vatican. Representatives from Catholic institutions working for the protection of minors in Portugal accompanied the victims.

In a speech to Portuguese clergy immediately before the pope’s encounter with the abuse survivors, Francis acknowledged the “anger with which some people view the Church” due to “the scandals that have marred her face.”

Pope Francis called for “a humble, ongoing purification, starting with the anguished cry of the victims, who must always be accepted and listened to.”

The clerical abuse watchdog BishopAccountability.org issued a statement following the…

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A fellow ran down to the courthouse this week and got hitched, which, in itself, isn’t any sort of a headline. This groom, however, happens to be Howard Hubbard, the former Catholic bishop of Albany – the capital diocese in the U.S.State of New York – who is still a cleric and a bishop even in retirement, and that makes his nuptials more than a little news story.

That Hubbard got married even though the Vatican had told him “No,” after he asked to be released from the clerical state and be permitted to contract marriage … well, that makes this an even bigger news story.

The reason the Vatican denied Hubbard’s request is that Hubbard has admitted under oath to keeping abuse allegations against priests away from police and under wraps, and is currently facing no fewer than seven separate civil lawsuits alleging he personally abused people sexually both…

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Vatican turned down his request to be laicized; Bishop Scharfenberger calls the news ‘unexpected‘

After his request to be laicized was turned down by the Vatican earlier this year, Bishop Emeritus Howard J. Hubbard of the Diocese of Albany announced in a statement Aug. 1 that he was married in a civil ceremony.

“Last fall, after prayerful consideration and consultation, I applied to the Vatican to be returned to the lay state and to be relieved of my clerical obligations. In March, I received notice from the Vatican that my request had been denied,” Bishop Hubbard said in the statement titled, ‘A Letter to My Dear Colleagues and Friends.’ “I was encouraged to wait patiently and prayerfully and to continue to abstain from public ministry until seven civil lawsuits against me alleging sexual misconduct had been adjudicated.

“Shortly thereafter, the Diocese of Albany declared bankruptcy, as have six of the…

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Summary

• Pope in Portugal for global Catholic youth festival
• Francis meets victims of Portugal clerical abuse
• At least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy

Pope Francis on Wednesday said the Catholic Church needs a “humble and ongoing purification” to deal with the “anguished cries” of victims of clerical sexual abuse, who he met privately on the first day of his visit to Portugal.

Francis was speaking in Lisbon at the start of a five-day visit to the country in which he hopes to energize young Catholics during World Youth Day, the world’s largest Catholic festival.Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport this ad

Six months ago, a report by a Portuguese commission said at least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – over seven decades.

The crisis “calls us to a humble and ongoing purification, starting with the anguished cry of the victims, who must always be accepted and listened…

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Pope Francis holds a private audience with a group of 13 victims of clerical sexual abuse in Portugal, according to the Holy See Press Office.

Pope Francis met privately with victims of clerical sexual abuse in Portugal, Matteo Bruni, Director of the Holy See Press Office, confirmed in a brief statement to accredited journalists.

The encounter, on Wednesday, the first day of the Pope’s Apostolic Visit to Portugal to celebrate World Youth Day 2023, took place at the Apostolic Nunciature in a private context.

A statement by the Holy See Press Office Director said: “This evening, after concluding his institutional and ecclesial encounters, Pope Francis received in the Nunciature a group of 13 victims of abuse by members of the clergy who were accompanied by several Church organizations committed to the protection of minors.”

Mr. Bruni specified the meeting took place “in an atmosphere of intense listening and lasted over an…

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The Mississippi Court of Appeals has affirmed the 2022 conviction of a former Franciscan friar in the 1990s sexual abuse of a student at a Catholic school.

In a split decision Tuesday, a majority of the court found “no reversible error” in the conviction of Paul West, 63, who is Central Mississippi Correctional Facility.

Leflore County jurors in April 2022 found West guilty of one count of sexual battery and one count of gratification of lust. A judge sentenced him to 30 years on the first count and 15 years on the second count, to be served at the same time.

As first reported by The Associated Press in 2019, La Jarvis Love and his cousin, Joshua Love, had accused West of numerous instances of sexual abuse while they were students at St. Francis of Assisi School in Greenwood. The AP usually does not identify victims of sexual…

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Emeritus Bishop Howard Hubbard of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, N.Y., said he had married a woman after the Vatican declined his request to leave the clergy.

A retired Roman Catholic bishop in upstate New York who is a defendant in several sexual misconduct lawsuits said on Tuesday that he had recently married a woman after the Vatican denied his request to leave the clergy.

The retired bishop, Howard J. Hubbard, led the Albany, N.Y., diocese from 1977 until his retirement in 2014 and holds the title of emeritus bishop. He said in a statement issued by a public relations firm and addressed to his “dear colleagues and friends” that he and the woman had married in a civil ceremony last month.

“I have fallen in love with a wonderful woman who has helped and cared for me and who believes in me,” Bishop Hubbard, 84, said in…

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Officials at Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park are defending the hiring of the school’s new president following concerns by the school community over the president’s involvement in a sexual abuse civil lawsuit in 2005.

The hiring and subsequent questions by parents about the process prompted KSHB 41 I-Team’s Sarah Plake to learn more about his past and why parents at the school felt uncomfortable.

In a June 30 letter to the Bishop Miege community, the Catholic high school announced it had hired Phil Baniewicz as its new president.

The letter provided background on Baniewicz’s past. He was most recently President at Maur Hill-Mount Academy in Atchison, Kansas.

“Phil Baniewicz has been an exceptional leader for Maur Hill-Mount Academy. Mr. Baniewicz is a man with a deep love for Jesus and his church,” Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann said in the letter. “I…

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The church counselors couldn’t even help their own priests. Why would Coyne think those counselors could help the priests’ victims?

Commentaries are opinion pieces contributed by readers and newsmakers. VTDigger strives to publish a variety of views from a broad range of Vermonters. Commentaries give voice to community members and do not represent VTDigger’s views. To submit a commentary, follow the instructions here.

This commentary is by Maura Labelle of Colchester, a former resident of St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington.

Without question, Bishop Christopher Coyne of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington earned his promotion to coadjutor archbishop of the Diocese of Hartford, and promotion to simply archbishop in 2024.

The position was earned on the backs of clergy abuse victims in Vermont, who were largely ignored during his tenure here.

In an interview on the WCAX program “You Can Quote Me,” which aired on July 2, Coyne again showed…

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The pope will preside over a gathering of young people from around the world, mindful that the changes he has initiated in the Roman Catholic Church will depend on them.

Pope Francis, deep into his 80s, slowed by illness and aware that his window for bringing lasting change to the Roman Catholic Church is closing, arrived in Portugal on Wednesday for a weeklong meeting of the world’s young Catholics, in whose hands will rest the ultimate success or failure of his vision for a more pastoral and inclusive faith.

“I am happy to have come to Lisbon, this city of encounter, which embraces many peoples and cultures, and which, in these days, is even more global,” Francis told the country’s leaders in a speech on Wednesday morning in the Presidential Palace, adding that it had become “in a certain sense” a world capital, but also “the capital of the…

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Lisbon, Portugal — Pope Francis is in Portugal this week for what’s been called the “Catholic Woodstock” — the church’s “World Youth Day” festival. Hundreds of thousands of young people are taking part, and while the festival is a celebration, the pontiff started his visit by confronting the dark legacy of clergy sexual abuse in Portugal.

Francis wasted no time in addressing the biggest stain on today’s Catholic Church, meeting with sex abuse survivors behind closed doors on the first day of the summit. 

Arriving in Lisbon for the international celebration of faith, the pope quickly addressed the elephant in the room: A report issued earlier this year saying that nearly 5,000 minors had been sexually abused by Portuguese clergy since the 1950s.

Addressing a group of bishops, Francis blasted them for the “scandals that have marred” the church, and called for “ongoing purification,” demanding…

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LISBON, Portugal (CNS) — A Catholic Church that has grown weary in countries shaken by the clerical sexual abuse crisis and cultural trends toward secularism must look anew to Jesus to revive their “restless” enthusiasm for sharing the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

“Now is the God-given time of grace to sail boldly into the sea of evangelization and of mission,” the pope told Portuguese bishops, priests, religious and pastoral workers after praying vespers at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon Aug. 2, the first day of his trip to Portugal.

Using a wheelchair, the pope entered the 16th-century monastery to great applause, and the cheers that erupted when he stood to greet those present resembled those echoing from the pop concert taking place across the street for World Youth Day.

Pope Francis was greeted by Bishop José Ornelas Carvalho of Leiria-Fátima, president of the country’s bishops’ conference, before leading the prayer….

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Pontiff uses first speech to stress how scandal has “disfigured” the face of the Church

Pope Francis’ first speech yesterday on arrival in Portugal for World Youth Day left tough messages for priests, bishops and politicians. With large billboards strategically sited along his route into the capital – alluding to the horrors of historic child sex abuse within the Catholic Church – being hurriedly papered over, presumably to try and save the pontiff from discomfort, the 86-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church showed he had no illusions: the first evening here saw him meeting 13 victims of abuse at the hands of Portuguese clergy, “to ask for their forgiveness”, writes tabloid Correio da Manhã.

A brief statement issued by the Holy See said “the meeting took place in an atmosphere of intense listening and lasted more than an hour”.

The victims were accompanied by representatives of Church institutions, as well as…

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Pope Francis on Aug. 2 capped off his first day in Portugal by meeting with 13 clergy abuse survivors, tackling head on an issue that was expected to loom large over his five-day visit here. 

The meeting comes after an independent commission released a report earlier this year chronicling how Catholic clergy members in Portugal had abused more than 4,800 children since 1950. The report sent shock waves through the country and survivors blasted the sluggish response of the Portuguese hierarchy following the report’s release.  

In a brief statement the Vatican said that the private meeting, which was held at the Vatican’s Portuguese embassy, lasted over an hour and was a time of “intense listening.” 

Earlier in the day, during an address to the country’s priests and bishops, the pope alluded to the country’s abuse crisis where he lamented “our poor witness and the scandals that…

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Pope Francis meets with clergy sex abuse victims in Portugal – Response from Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, BishopAccountability.org 

When Pope Francis travels to a country where the clergy sex abuse crisis has erupted, he meets with victims, expresses shame and sorrow, and promises change. He did this during his 2015 visit to the United States, his visit to Chile in January 2018, his visit to Ireland in August 2018, and his visit to Canada in 2022. 

But when the Pope visits a country where the bishops are not reckoning with headlines about abuse, he does not meet with victims. He did not hold such meetings in Hungary, the Congo, Romania, or Panama, even though the church’s victims in each of those countries surely also number in the thousands.  

The Pope’s meetings with victims are about public relations, not change. And at this point in his papacy, the tactic is not…

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On the first day of an August 2-6 trip to Portugal, a country which recently has been embroiled in a clerical sexual abuse crisis, Pope Francis met a group of abuse survivors.

In a statement following the Aug. 2 meeting, the Vatican said the pope met with the group after his formal program for the day had concluded, and that 13 people participated in the meeting, which was held at the Vatican’s nunciature, meaning its embassy in Portugal.

Some representatives of church institutions charged with safeguarding efforts in Portugal also participated in the meeting, which according to the Vatican “took place in an atmosphere of intense listening” and which lasted roughly an hour, ending at 8:15 p.m. local time.

The meeting capped a busy first day for Pope Francis in Portugal, where he is attending the international World Youth Day event from Aug. 2-6, making stops in Lisbon and in…

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Pope Francis met with survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Portugal on Wednesday and blasted members of the country’s Catholic hierarchy for their response to the long-ignored scandal, which he said had marred the Catholic Church and helped drive the faithful away.

Francis dove head-on into the crisis roiling the Portuguese church on the first day of a five-day visit to Lisbon for the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day festival. His trip comes at a delicate moment for the Portuguese church; a panel of experts hired by Portugal’s bishops reported in February that priests and other church personnel may have abuse at least 4,815 boys and girls since 1950.

The Vatican said Francis met with 13 abuse victims for more than an hour at the Vatican Embassy and characterized the pope’s role in the meeting as…

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Pope Francis has held a private meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse during a five-day visit to Portugal.

In a statement, the Vatican said the gathering had been held on Wednesday in an “atmosphere of intense listening”.

A report this year concluded that at least 4,815 children had been abused in Portugal and that the Church had sought “systematically” to conceal the issue.

At an evening service in Lisbon, the Pope said the Church must listen to “the anguished cry of the victims”.

He added that the scandal “calls us to a humble and ongoing purification” and that widespread anger over it had contributed to a “growing detachment from the practice of the faith”.

The meeting, held at the Holy See’s diplomatic mission in Portugal, included 13 abuse victims and lasted more than an hour, the Vatican said.

Officials of the Portuguese Church responsible for the protection of minors were…

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Pope Francis has arrived in Portugal for a major youth festival. But Portugal’s investigations into past abuse of minors overshadowed his visit. He told clergy a “humble and ongoing purification” was needed.

The head of the Catholic Church landed in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon on Wednesday to take part in the first World Youth Day event since the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 1 million young people from over 200 countries were expected to show up to the global Catholic gathering.

The five-day-long event was launched by Pope Francis‘ predecessor to bring together young Catholics — teenagers and those in their early 20s — every two to three years. The last one took place in 2019.

Francis landed at the Figo Madura military air base on Wednesday morning, before heading to a welcoming ceremony hosted by Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

The 86-year-old pontiff’s visit to Portugal is his first trip…

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An 84-year-old retired bishop of Albany, who has been accused of sexual abuse and has unsuccessfully sought to be removed from the priesthood, said Tuesday he recently married a woman in a civil ceremony.

Emeritus Bishop Howard Hubbard made the surprise announcement during a tumultuous time for the Albany diocese. It filed for bankruptcy this year after a surge of lawsuits from people who say they endured sexual abuse as children, sometimes decades ago.

The current bishop of the upstate New York diocese said it did not consider Hubbard’s marriage to be valid.

Hubbard, who retired in 2014, has acknowledged covering up allegations of abuse by priests, in part to avoid scandal. He has adamantly denied accusations that he abused minors.OTHER NEWS

Hubbard last fall said he wanted to be laicized, or returned to the lay state, because he could no longer function as a…

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Filipa Almeida was 17 when she was sexually abused by a priest. She stayed silent for years but eventually found the strength to speak out and hopes a visit by Pope Francis to her native Portugal this week will remind the world of thousands of similar crimes.

“I lived with this secret for 22 years,” the 43-year-old told Reuters of her ordeal, which she said occurred during a religious training course. “It’s not easy to live with these experiences.”

She is one of at least 4,815 people who were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – in Portugal over 70 years, according to an investigation published in February. The commission in charge said that was just the “tip of the iceberg” and that more than 100 priests suspected of child sexual abuse remained active in church roles.

Speaking ahead of the pope’s arrival, scheduled for Wednesday morning, Lisbon Patriarch Manuel Clemente…

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Pope Francis arrived in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday for World Youth Day. The event, which is expected to see around 1 million people attend, is a festive gathering for young Catholics held every three years to encourage deeper connection with the faith.

Approximately 85% of Portugal’s population identifies as Catholic and the church is generally held in high esteem in Portuguese society. But the Pope’s trip comes as the church in Portugal is under fire over a 500-page report published in February investigating decades of sexual abuse by clergy members involving at least 4,815 children.

The report’s publication has caused shock in the Catholic county. “There was indignation,” says António Costa Pinto, a professor of political science at the University of Lisbon. “Even the President, who comes from the center-right and is Catholic, had a reaction of indignation.”

In a sign of lingering anger over the report’s findings, a giant billboard was put…

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A huge billboard raising awareness of sexual abuse by clergymen was put up overnight in Lisbon, just hours before Pope Francis was due to arrive in the Portuguese capital for the world’s largest gathering of young Catholics.

The World Youth Day event was devised by the late Pope John Paul II for Catholics in their teens or early 20s and is held every two or three years in a different city.

The event comes less than six months after a report by a Portuguese commission said at least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – over seven decades. The commission in charge said that was just the “tip of the iceberg”.

Francis, who will be in Portugal until Aug. 6, is expected to meet privately with abuse victims.

The billboard was put up on the Almirante Reis avenue – one of Lisbon’s longest and busiest streets –…

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Maryland may have paved the way or at least lit a fire under law enforcement officials across the US. In 24 US states, the highest ranking law enforcement officials (usually the Attorney General) have conducted or are conducting investigations and reports within Dioceses nationwide regarding child sex crimes. 

Downside: These have produced very few criminal prosecutions, almost without exception (see Michigan).

Upside: Most of them (except Kansas) have resulted in reports that shed sorely-needed light on how Catholic officials have dealt with and still deal with clergy sex crimes and cover-ups.

Downside: Some (perhaps most) are primarily based on church records, meaning that much about the crimes and cover-ups remain covered. Does anyone really think that most abuse cases reported to church figures had properly written notes by church officials, who then made written reports, and for years or decades, most of those reports were objectively written, carefully preserved, thoroughly organized,…

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A priest whose parishioners rallied around him when he was convicted of spying on people in a men’s toilet has resigned nearly 20 years after the offence took place.

Fr Patrick McGarvey, aged in his 50s, has hung up his clerical collar, to the shock of his community in Fanad, Co Donegal, saying: ‘I have nothing more to give’.

At a service last week, Fr McGarvey told his parishioners: ‘I am finished in Fanad.

‘I’ve nothing more left to give. The spark has gone.

‘It’s been a tough few years; it’s been a lonesome time. I need a good rest. I’ve discussed it with the bishop and my own family.

‘Where the future goes, I do not know,’ he added.

Local media reported that the news has left his parishioners ‘reeling’ as the priest was highly regarded throughout the Donegal peninsula.

He was equally admired in his former parish of…

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Pope Francis arrived in Portugal on Wednesday to open the first edition of World Youth Day since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of large gatherings, as he hopes to inspire the next generation of Catholics while coping with the church’s ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal.

More than 1 million young people from around the world were expected to attend the gathering in Lisbon, which takes place over several days.

Francis’ plane arrived on a dull, warm day in the Portuguese capital, though the skies were forecast to clear and temperatures were expected to hit 35 C (95 F) by the weekend’s final papal Mass. The pontiff, in a wheelchair, was met on the tarmac by Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa accompanied by two young children.

Busloads of pilgrims started arriving before Tuesday and braced for the high summer temperatures at the open-air events.

…

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They are soldiers fighting a war they did not choose. They are heroes.

Welcome

As August begins, it is good to be able to start the month with a new post for all my subscribers.

In particular, I wanted to start this month with a positive, affirming message. So this post is about why domestic violence and abuse victims and survivors deserve all our respect and support.

Societies and communities often make victims and survivors feel bad about what happened — as though it was somehow their fault, that they made the wrong choices, and that they did something to cause the abuse. This is exactly how the perpetrator made the victim-survivor feel too. Hearing the perpetrator’s narratives spoken by other people is particularly cruel and harmful.

This blog is going to show why the idea that victims and survivors are to blame is the furthest thing from the truth.

…

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A young Alabama Catholic priest placed under restriction by the Archdiocese of Mobile July 26 has been located in Italy, along with an 18-year-old woman with whom he had fled the country days earlier.

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office announced in a July 29 statement that 30-year-old Father Alex Crow and his companion had been tracked down by “a family member” of the young woman.

According to the sheriff’s office, “the young woman stated she went with him on her own free will.”

“It appeared that they were staying in separate bedrooms and the young woman insisted that there was no intimate relationship,” said Sheriff Paul Burch in the statement. “The investigation is still open and we are still checking into a few matters, however, there does not appear to be any criminal charges.”

The sheriff’s office also said that Father Crow, who had been a parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Parish in…

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The Mobile County District Attorney’s office is asking the public for information about a young Alabama Catholic priest who was publicly placed under restriction by the Mobile Archdiocese for walking away from his parish and reportedly leaving the country with a recent Catholic high school graduate for an exorcism.

The Archdiocese of Mobile issued a July 26 statement announcing that Fr. Alex Crow, 30, who had been parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Parish in Mobile, “abandoned his assignment in the diocese” and exhibited behavior “totally unbecoming of a priest.”

According to the statement, Mobile Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi told Crow that “he may no longer exercise ministry as a priest, nor to tell people he is a priest, nor to dress as a priest.”

The archdiocese also said that “due to the circumstances of his departure, we have reported this to the district attorney.”

Mobile County District Attorney communications director…

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A Baptist pastor at a small congregation in Madison has continued in active ministry around children as police investigated him for sexual abuse, a case that has led to law enforcement recommending charges to prosecutors of first-degree child sexual assault.

The investigation findings, concluded at the end of June, were enough for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to permanently revoke Bob Stine’s license to operate Midvale Baptist Church’s former Kid’s Best child care, citing child safety.

In their letter of revocation, the DCF cited the sexual assault police investigation findings, and substantiated allegations that threatened the health, safety, and welfare of the children at the facility. 

 Kid’s Best Child Care Notice of Revocation

State regulators and Madison police were tipped off in April that Stine was suspected of inappropriately touching children in his care while operating the church’s child care which was also…

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The Rev. Bob Stine, former president of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention, will be required to answer questions in court in September after police in Madison, Wisconsin, recommended he be charged with sexual assault.

The Dane County district attorney’s office said the case involving Stine, pastor of Midvale Baptist Church in Madison, is under review. No charges have been filed.

“The DA’s Office has received the referral from Madison Police Dept,” the DA’s office said in an email about Stine. “He is scheduled to appear for an Initial Appearance on 9/7/23 at 8:30 AM.”

Police have investigated allegations that Stine inappropriately touched children during a group visit to a state park in 2021, according to television station WISC in Madison. That investigation led the state’s Department of Children and Families to revoke the license for Kid’s Best Child Care, a day care run by Midvale Baptist, in…

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One woman is reflecting on a painful past. Now she hopes justice will be served for the Henning Pastor she says sexually abused her for years.

Last week Gary Arivett was arrested and is facing three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a family member under the age of 18. He has since been released after posting a $100,000 dollar bail.

The survivor says Arivett has been a pastor at Shiloh Apostolic Church in Henning for nearly 30 years. For her privacy, she does not want to be named, but says she and her sisters were abused for years.Teenager arrested in weekend Danville shooting investigation

“I would like him to not have access to children anymore in any capacity,” said the survivor.

She says the abuse first started for her at age 11, her younger sister was 6 years old.

“I just tried to move forward with my…

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As part of their ongoing probe into a scandal-plagued lay group in Peru, the Vatican’s top investigating duo has met with a Peruvian archbishop accused of land trafficking, as well as a group of peasants his community is alleged to have harassed.

Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu are currently in Lima, Peru, conducting an investigation into the Sodalitium Christinae Vitae (SCV), a society of apostolic life founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari in the 1970s.

Though allegations were made several years prior, scandals involving the SCV exploded in 2015, when Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz published their book Half Monks, Half Soldiers detailing years of alleged sexual, physical and psychological abuse by members of the SCV.

Figari himself was accused of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse within the community, including against minors. He was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2017 and prohibited from having further contact with…

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A deeply tangled tale must be followed by systemic reform and effective oversight.

For Americans, making sense of the Vatican trial of 10 defendants charged with financial crimes is nearly impossible.

The charges are a tangle of alleged corruption and misconduct. At the heart of the trial is a London luxury property investment that lost the Vatican almost $200 million. Then there are payments to a woman who was supposed to help free some nuns from kidnappers but allegedly spent the money on luxury goods, holidays and other extravagancies.

Finally, there were loans and other payments made to a charity run by a cardinal’s brother. Investigators found forged invoices and receipts introducing doubt as to whether the money was used for charitable purposes.

RELATED:Vatican prosecutors request a total of 73 years in prison for defendants in corruption trial

Next, there is the legal process…

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The Colorado Supreme Court in June struck down a 2021 law that sought to get around a state constitutional prohibition on reviving civil claims for which the statute of limitations has run out

Victims of child sex abuse in Colorado for whom the statute of limitations to file a lawsuit has run out would get another chance to have their day in court under a proposed change to the state constitution.

Voters would have to approve the amendment, which comes in response to a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in June striking down a provision in a 2021 law that gave victims of child sex assault dating back to the 1960s a three-year window to sue their abusers and the institutions that allowed their abuse. 

The court ruled the law, Senate Bill 88, violated a provision in the constitution prohibiting the General Assembly from reviving a claim for which the statute of…

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Bishop Emeritus Howard Hubbard — who continues to defend himself against multiple abuse allegations from his time leading the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany from 1997 through 2014 — says he got married to a woman in July in a civil ceremony and continues to ask the Vatican to release him from the priesthood.

The 84-year-old Hubbard released a public letter Tuesday, reiterating his request to the Vatican to be relieved of clerical obligations, a request that was denied in March. Hubbard says he married a woman “who has helped and cared for me and who believes in me” and wants the marriage to be recognized by the church.

Hubbard says he is now a retired citizen and asks for privacy in his new phase of life, while acknowledging it could be years before the legal matters are concluded.

Hubbard faces lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse and protecting other…

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Albany’s bishop emeritus asks media outlets to “respect our privacy as a couple”

ALBANY — The Vatican has rejected the laicization request made last year by Albany Bishop Emeritus Howard J. Hubbard, who served as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany for 37 years and has seen his legacy tainted by the organization’s handling of child sexual abuse cases.

Hubbard, in an open letter provided to the Times Union on Tuesday, confirmed that he had “fallen in love with a wonderful woman who has helped and cared for me and who believes in me,” adding that they were married last month.

His personal relationship with the unidentified woman was apparently a factor in his decision last year to request to be laicized, a move that came eight years after 84-year-old Hubbard had retired as the longest-serving bishop for the 14-county diocese. He has also faced his own allegations of…

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The Buffalo Diocese faces more pressure to make a deal with child sex abuse survivors after Catholic dioceses in Rochester and Syracuse recently took major steps toward exiting their Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, according to legal experts.

The Syracuse Diocese announced Thursday it will pay abuse victims at least $100 million, and possibly more, through insurance funds, while Rochester last week negotiated a new deal with victims that now includes some insurance money, and would pay at least $126 million toward a settlement.

Five years later, despite promises to do right by abuse victims, the diocese has not paid a penny in damages to an estimated 900 people who filed claims alleging they were sexually abused by priests or other diocese employees.

The proposed deals in Rochester and Syracuse still must be approved by a vote of victim creditors and confirmed by a federal bankruptcy judge, but they provide the…

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In an in-depth interview, we look at the life and legacy of the groundbreaking musician Sinéad O’Connor, who converted to Islam and also started using the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat in 2018. O’Connor died last week at the age of 56 and was known for her music as much as for her outspoken activism. In 1992, she performed Bob Marley’s “War” on Saturday Night Live, then proceeded to rip up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live TV to protest systemic child abuse in the Catholic Church, of which she was a survivor. The move provoked widespread uproar. O’Connor was also an ally to LGBTQ communities, an opponent of police brutality on some of her earliest records, a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, and marched for abortion rights decades before it was legalized in Ireland. We are joined by Jamie Manson, president of advocacy group Catholics for Choice, and Allyson McCabe, music…

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Although at least 4,815 people were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – in Portugal over 70 years, no reparations are plannedPope Francis due in nation Wednesday, but while expected to meet some victims, over 100 suspect priests are said to still be active in church roles

Filipa Almeida was 17 when she was sexually abused by a priest. She stayed silent for years but eventually found the strength to speak out, and hopes a visit by Pope Francis to her native Portugal this week will remind the world of thousands of similar crimes.

“I lived with this secret for 22 years,” the 43-year-old said of her ordeal, which she said occurred during a religious training course. “It’s not easy to live with these experiences.”

She is one of at least 4,815 people who were sexually abused by clergy – mostly priests – in Portugal over 70 years, according…

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The world’s largest gathering of young Catholics kicked off on Tuesday in Lisbon, with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the globe flocking to the Portuguese capital for the event’s highlight, Pope Francis, who will arrive on Wednesday.

Pilgrims have been arriving to attend World Youth Day over the last few days and will stay in schools, gyms, fire stations and with families, with many planning to sleep in the open before the closing Mass on the riverside Parque Tejo on Aug 6.

The cross-cultural festival, which actually runs for nearly a week, is held every two to three years and was initiated by the late Pope John Paul.

The celebrations will take place against the backdrop of a sexual abuse scandal in the Portuguese Church, in which at least 4,815 were found to have been abused, largely by priests, over the past 70 years. Francis is expected to…

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Maryland may have paved the way or at least lit a fire under law enforcement officials across the US. In 24 US states, the highest ranking law enforcement officials (usually the Attorney General) have conducted or are conducting investigations and reports within Dioceses nationwide regarding child sex crimes. 

Downside: These have produced very few criminal prosecutions, almost without exception (see Michigan).

Upside: Most of them (except Kansas) have resulted in reports that shed sorely-needed light on how Catholic officials have dealt with and still deal with clergy sex crimes and cover-ups.

Downside: Some (perhaps most) are primarily based on church records, meaning that much about the crimes and cover-ups remain covered. Does anyone really think that most abuse cases reported to church figures had properly written notes by church officials, who then made written reports, and for years or decades, most of those reports were objectively written, carefully preserved, thoroughly organized,…

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The Syracuse Catholic Diocese will pay $100 million to hundreds of survivors of sexual abuse, as part of a bankruptcy case that began three years ago.

The announcement was released jointly last Thursday by the Roman Catholic Diocese and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, a group of seven survivors appointed by the federal government to act as fiduciaries for the 375 involved, about one-third of whom are in Syracuse and represented by several attorneys, including Cynthia LaFave of Albany.

LaFave called the settlement incredibly significant “for all of the survivors of sexual abuse all across the United States.” And particularly important here, where “not only has the Syracuse diocese admitted what has happened in that diocese,” it’s also paying out the second largest settlement in the nation by a bankrupt Roman Catholic institution.

Minnesota-based attorney Taylor Stippel called it “monumental” for her Syracuse clients, most though not all of…

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The world’s largest Catholic gathering, a week-long religious festival known as World Youth Day, kicks off in Lisbon on Tuesday, a day before Pope Francis arrives on his first foreign trip since recent surgery.

Around 300,000 people are expected to attend the opening mass at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) at the hillside Eduardo VII park, which offers sweeping views of the Portuguese capital and the Tagus river.

Pilgrims roamed around Lisbon ahead of the mass, waving national flags in the air and singing Catholic anthems from their home countries.

“It’s going to be extraordinary, all this Christian youth coming together,” said Gabriel Forestier, a 28-year-old engineer from Amiens in northern France.

Francis is set to arrive in Lisbon on Wednesday morning to celebrate World Youth Day, which is actually a week of religious, cultural and festive events held about every three years in a different city.

The 86-year-old pontiff is…

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In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI issued a pastoral letter apologizing for hundreds of years of sex abuse by clergy in Ireland, he also failed to offer any suggestion that the church’s policy toward abusive clergy would change. This did not sit well with Sinéad O’Connor, whose career had been permanently damaged 18 years earlier when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live.” 

In an opinion essay for The Washington Post in response to Benedict’s letter, she was blunt. Irish Catholics, she wrote, “are in a dysfunctional relationship with an abusive organization.”

Today, when many Catholics around the world feel the same way, we can more easily understand that in her willingness to sacrifice her career for the sake of the truth, she was prophetic. But like so many other women throughout history, she suffered greatly for…

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ROME – It was Oct. 27, 2007, when police in Lima gathered at the city’s famed Plaza San Martin after receiving a tip saying a fair-looking man was hanging around the area talking to minors and then taking them to a hotel.  According to the tip, the man would give the minors money to undress, be photographed, and then be groped and/or engage in sexual activity.

That man eventually was identified as Daniel Bernardo Murguía Ward, a member of the Sodalitium Christinae Vitae (SCV), a society of apostolic life founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari in the 1970s.

Murguía was detained that day after enticing a minor to join him at a nearby hotel, where police burst into the room he had rented and found the child half naked with their pants down while Murguía was holding a digital camera, which contained explicit photos of the minor as well as two…

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LISBON — After Portugal was picked to host Pope Francis and hundreds of thousands of young Catholics for a World Youth Day gathering that opens here this week, local bishops scrambled to demonstrate they were instep with what Francis has proclaimed as a new era of accountability for sexual abuse within the church.

“It was like cleaning the house before the visitor arrived,” said the Rev. António Pedro Monteiro, a Catholic chaplain.

The bishops financed an independent commission to examine a long-evaded question: How many people in Portugal had been victims of church predators? The result was a nearly 500-page report released in February — similar to audits elsewhere in Europe and the Americas — that determined at least 4,815 children had been abused since 1950. The bishops commended “this difficult and dramatic work” and expressed hope that it “marks a new beginning.”

Critics say that commitment was…

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