ABUSE TRACKER

Authorities said some of these materials had been manipulated by morphing or photoshopping original child sexual abuse materials with non-explicit images of minors.

WARNING: This story contains content that could be graphic or disturbing to some readers.

A Louisville middle school teacher could spend decades in prison after being accused of using his students’ photos to create and distribute child pornography. 

While working as a 7th and 8th grade religion teacher at St. Stephen Martyr Catholic School, 39-year-old Jordan Fautz distributed child sexual abuse materials to an undercover officer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky. Authorities said this happened in March 2022, November 2022, December 2023, and January 2024.

The Archdiocese of Louisville issued a statement on Friday afternoon saying Fautz was arrested and was a part-time religion teacher and member of the maintenance staff at the parish for nine years. 

Officials…

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A federal criminal complaint and arrest warrant were issued today charging 39 year old Michael E Stanbury, a Louisville school teacher with distributing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and distributing child pornography.

According to court records, in December 2023 and January 2024, Jordan A. Fautz, 39, while employed as a 7th and 8th grade religion teacher at St. Stephen Martyr Catholic School in Louisville, Kentucky, distributed child sexual abuse materials to a law enforcement officer working online undercover. Certain of these materials had been manipulated by morphing or photoshopping original child sexual abuse materials with other, non-explicit images of minors.  For example, in one such instance, the nude image of a minor victim depicted her face transposed by means of photoshop or morphing technology onto a different nude female’s body, effectively generating child sexual abuse material.

Fautz will be scheduled to make his initial appearance before a U.S….

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John Vermeer starts 14-month jail sentence after Supreme Court dismisses appeal

A former Chilliwack pastor is now in jail for child pornography charges following a lengthy, and ultimately unsuccessful, appeal process.

John Vermeer was convicted in 2021 for two charges each of accessing and possessing child pornography, after suspicious activity on his church’s network server (Main Street Church) was discovered. It was reported to police and an investigation found offences dating from 2010 to 2015.

He was found guilty of all four charges and handed a 14-month jail sentence in October 2021. Dozens of images of child porn were found on Vermeer’s personal laptop and his church office desktop computer.

“Mr. Vermeer possessed some of the most offensive, harmful and depraved forms of abuse on children,” Judge Andrea Ormiston said in reading her decision.

He appealed the convicted to the BC Court of Appeals, and released on bail. That appeal…

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When an aid organization hired agents to investigate her father’s violence, the resulting probe became her new nightmare.

Tania Culver Humphrey has spent most of her life grappling with her father’s secrets.

In public, her father, Ellsworth Culver, cultivated a reputation as a globetrotting Christian do-gooder. He taught schoolchildren in Cuba, ran missionary programs in the Philippines, and, in the early 1980s, co-founded the humanitarian nonprofit Mercy Corps with friends from the international aid world. At Mercy Corps, including the nine years he spent as its president, he built programs across three continents, conducted informal diplomacy in conflict zones, and received a medal from North Korea for organizing food and medical aid.

In private, he was sexually abusing ­Humphrey, his youngest daughter—at times raping her, choking her, and taking explicit photos of her, according to a lawsuit she eventually filed. The abuse, she says, began as far back as she can remember and…

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A Utah bishop explained the importance of the 2,000 year-old sacrament of Confession and its boundaries as his state’s legislators consider a bill that potentially could infringe on the seal of Confession. 

The “seal of Confession” means that a priest is not permitted to reveal anything the penitent discloses in the sacrament of Confession. If the priest does reveal or disclose any actions or sins confessed, he will be excommunicated. 

Currently in Utah, “religious leaders are not allowed to report a church member’s confession to law enforcement without the consent of the person confessing… House Bill 432 “would change that,” ABC 4 reported: The bill would allow clergy to “report ongoing abuse or neglect even if the perpetrator made a confession to the clergy member…”

However, it should be noted that if clergy in Utah hear of abuse outside of a confession,…

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Bishop Oscar Solis of the Diocese of Salt Lake City is urging lawmakers to protect the seal of confession when considering legislation that would change sex abuse reporting laws when the reporter is a member of clergy.

A proposed bill before the Utah Legislature would extend to members of the clergy the same legal protections when reporting sex abuse that are given to mandatory reporters. Essentially, the legislation would shield clergy from potential civil or criminal liability when reporting a potential abuser if he “reasonably believes that a child is the subject of ongoing abuse or neglect.”

Unlike similar proposals in 2020 and 2023, the bill would not make the priest a mandatory reporter and would not require the priest to report on information learned when hearing a confession. However, the protection from legal liability would extend to the priest if he were to do so.

Solis said…

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Santa Rosa Diocese goes public about Napa County Carmelite priest first accused of abusing a Rocklin girl in 2015 and later convicted of felony molestation.

In the eight-plus years since Napa County Carmelite Priest Mark Kristy was first accused of improper conduct with a girl at her Sacramento-area home, he has been arrested, convicted of a felony, jailed for six months and sentenced to five years of probation that he’s now serving in St. Helena.

His name, face, address and the legal description of his more-than-20-year-old crime — lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 — are duly posted on California’s Megan’s Law website, where sex registrants convicted of qualifying crimes are cataloged.

But until recent weeks, church officials made no effort to notify the public or parishioners about his presence in the community, despite the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “commitment to transparency and openness” in the…

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The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento has added a name to a list of clergy members accused of sexual abuse that now includes a priest who served in another Northern California diocese but was convicted of molesting a girl while visiting Placer County.

Mark Kristy, once a priest of the religious order Discalced Carmelite Fathers, has been removed from the ministry and lives in Napa County. Kristy was convicted of child sexual molestation and sentenced in 2022 to one year in jail, according to the diocese.

Officials of the diocese were informed of the allegations against Kristy in 2015. Kristy was accused of sexually touching the girl who was younger than 14 and sexually exposing her sometime from 2001 through 2004, according to the diocese.

Diocese officials said they reported the allegation to law enforcement and cooperated with authorities in Placer County, which eventually led to Kristy’s prosecution….

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The Vatican has received a report on an investigation into allegations that members of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference tried to cover up abuse in the Catholic Church. 

The Bishop of Chur, Joseph Bonnemain, has submitted the report covering accusations of harassment and covering up alleged abuse. 

+ Why Switzerland is losing its religion

The documentation collected as part of the preliminary canonical investigation, mandated in June 2023 by the Vatican, totals 1,800 pages, the bishopric of Chur said in a press release on Friday. A 24-page final report contains a series of conclusions and recommendations for Vatican officials. 

The bishopric of Chur has not provided information on the concrete results of the preliminary canonical investigation. Questioned by the Keystone-ATS agency, Nicole Büchel, communications manager, explained that she did not receive authorisation from Rome to reveal the content of the report. 

With the submission of the report, Bonnemain’s mission is…

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The church has admitted the abuse took place but denies it acted negligently or acted in a ‘high-handed manner’ over the claims

Warning: This story contains accounts of sexual abuse that may be disturbing for some readers

A Surrey man who says he was groomed and sexually assaulted by a priest and teacher at North Vancouver’s Holy Trinity Elementary School in the 1970s is suing the Catholic Church for negligence for failing to identify and stop the abuse.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver is named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with the estates of former priest John Kilty and a former teacher and coach.

In a response to the suit filed last summer on behalf of “John Doe,” the archdiocese admitted abuses took place but denied it was negligent or acted in “any high-handed, malicious, arbitrary or highly reprehensible manner” that could make it liable for damages. It…

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The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called on the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, to hold an open meeting for both parishioners and the public on the recent installation of Father John Pilcher

On Thursday, SNAP – the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests – called on the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas to hold an open meeting for both parishioners and the public. The installation of Father John Pilcher at Holy Trinity is the latest reason.

The Archdiocese placed Father Pilcher – accused of sexual assault of a minor in Topeka in 2021 but never charged – at the Holy Trinity Parish in Lenexa last month.Advertisement

It is one of the larger parishes and one of the largest parochial schools in the Archdiocese.

That move caused SNAP to speak out.

“We can see absolutely no harm, and we can see nothing…

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Dear Archbishop Naumann:

We urge you, in the weeks ahead, to hold at least one joint open and public meeting with us and anyone who cares about the safety of innocent kids and vulnerable adults in your archdiocese.

The goal: to give worried parents and parishioners an opportunity to question and hear from you directly on a matter of grave importance. It would give you a chance to more thoroughly explain why you believe your actions around alleged child molesters are not reckless and callous. And it would give you an opportunity to shed much-needed light on the controversil and opaque process you follow when reports of sexual violence are made against your staff.

Such a meeting would be historic. In the 35 years of SNAP’s existence, we know of no US bishop who has show such openness and courage. It would, we believe, deepen the respect that many of…

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Group for those abused by priests calls for reassignment of Lenexa priest

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A support group for those abused by priests is calling for the reassignment of a priest appointed last month to Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lenexa.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann appointed Father John Pilcher to Holy Trinity Catholic Church in January.

Holy Trinity Catholic Church also has a school and daycare.

Concerns from parishioners and parents stem from a 2021 allegation against the priest involving sexual abuse of a minor.

The KBI and archdiocese found the allegation unsubstantiated. He was also never charged.

On Thursday, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP sent a letter to the archdiocese calling on Naumann to hold at least one joint open and public meeting.

Former SNAP National Director David Clohessy questioned a recent decision by the archbishop when he appointed Pilcher to Holy Trinity Catholic Church in…

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[VIDEO]

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Advocates for survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of priests are publicly asking the Kansas City archdiocese to remove two men from their jobs in Johnson County.

One is now a priest at a Lenexa parish with a parochial school, and the other is the president at a Roeland Park Catholic high school.

Both have faced accusations of child molestation in the past. One of them faced a lawsuit, but neither of them ever faced criminal charges.

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said it did investigations into both men, as did law enforcement, and could not substantiate the accusations.

The advocates group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said that doesn’t justify putting them back in jobs near children.

“This notion of innocent until proven guilty, that the standard we use to lock up people and deprive them of their…

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ROME – A key Vatican department charged with prosecuting sexual abuse against minors since 2001 said this week that while it’s also responsible for cases of abuse against adults with mental deficiencies, offenses against adults considered “vulnerable” for different reasons falls outside its jurisdiction and must be handled by other departments.

In a Jan. 30 “Clarification on Vulnerable Adults,” the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) noted that a series of 2010 amendments to Pope John Paul II’s 2001 motu proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela on series crimes reserved to the DDF gave the department competence over the abuse of persons with mental deficiencies.

A “dicastery,” in the argot of the Vatican, refers to a department or office. Likewise, in Vatican-speak “competence” means responsibility or jurisdiction.

According to Tuesday’s statement, with the 2010 revisions the DDF “acquired the competence to deal with crimes against the sixth commandment of the decalogue…

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ROME – A Vatican court Jan. 24 overturned the acquittal of a priest accused of sexually abusing a younger student at the Vatican’s St. Pius X Pre-Seminary, delivering a guilty verdict in a landmark case that marked the first ever to go to trial for alleged sexual abuse within Vatican walls.

Upon appeal from the prosecution, the October 2021 acquittal of Father Gabriele Martinelli, who was accused of abusing another student from 2007 to 2012 when he studied at the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary, was overturned by the Vatican’s appeals court.

Martinelli, initially acquitted due to a lack of evidence, this week was found guilty of “corrupting a minor” for sexual abuse committed between 2008-2009 and sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

The St. Pius X seminary, previously located inside a palazzo within the Vatican gardens, houses boys aged 12-18 who serve as altar boys at papal…

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Is the EC or SBC at Fault in the SBC Sexual Abuse Scandal

In a recent interview the President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Dr. Bart Barber, discussed the sexual abuse scandal in the SBC among other topics. In the interview Barber says,

“What the investigation found after looking hard to see if they could find a time when the convention or the executive committee knew about abuse and failed to report it, or facilitated an abuser being able to continue to abuse, they didn’t find any instances where the convention or the executive committee did that…”

Technically True

 Video Of Barber’s Remarks about the Sexual Abuse Scandal

Barber is technically correct. The Executive Committee (EC) and the SBC itself did not fail to report sexual abuse or facilitate abuse by moving ministers from place to place. While the EC and SBC as a whole…

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Two members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) gathered Thursday outside The Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Kansas City, Kansas, demanding the men to be removed from their roles and for the leader of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas to publicly address concerns about them.

The protest followed a letter Thursday to Archbishop Joseph Naumann, asking for the church leader to hold a public meeting with the group, worried parents and parishioners. In its letter to the archbishop, SNAP said a meeting of this nature could inspire similar meetings elsewhere which could lead to greater awareness of child sex crimes and hopefully even prevent them from happening.

“It would, we believe, deepen the respect that many of your flock have in you, and help create such respect where it is lacking,” the letter says.

The letter from SNAP and calls to action…

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The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued on Tuesday a “clarification” on the limits of its competence to prosecute canonical cases of clerical abuse against “vulnerable adults.” 

“The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith – since 21 May 2010 – has acquired competence to treat the crimes against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue committed by clerics with people who habitually have imperfect use of – reason [emphasis original],” the dicastery’s Jan. 30 clarification reiterated.

“Following the promulgation of the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi… the concept of vulnerable adult has been introduced into the canonical order, which includes ‘every person in a state of infirmity, of physical deficiency or Psychic, or deprivation of personal liberty, but also Occasionally, it limits its ability to understand or to want or otherwise resist the offense,’” the document continued.

“In this respect, it should be remembered that the definition of adult vulnerable integrates more extensive cases…

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The number of “debaptism” requests have reportedly spiked again after the television series Gotvergeten.

Belgian bishops at the consecration of Archbishop Luc Terlinden of Brussels (second from right) in September – the same month that a documentary on Church abuse provoked public anger.
Belga News Agency / Alamy

The Belgian Church, facing rising protests after a television film on sexual abuse and cover-ups in its ranks, has appealed against a government data protection agency ruling that the Diocese of Ghent must let a person be “debaptised”.   

When Catholics ask to have their names struck from baptismal records, officials usually add a note to their files saying they have renounced their baptism without taking the name off its official registry.

The Church considers baptism a permanent act that cannot be done away with, but the agency ruled in December that the plaintiff’s personal data record overrides the Church’s interest in preserving…

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The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento has added a name to a list of clergy members accused of sexual abuse that now includes a priest who served in another Northern California diocese but was convicted of molesting a girl while visiting Placer County.

Mark Kristy, once a priest of the religious order Discalced Carmelite Fathers, has been removed from the ministry and lives in Napa County. Kristy was convicted of child sexual molestation and sentenced in 2022 to one year in jail, according to the diocese.

Officials of the diocese were informed of the allegations against Kristy in 2015. Kristy was accused of sexually touching the girl who was younger than 14 and sexually exposing her sometime from 2001 through 2004, according to the diocese. Diocese officials said they reported the allegation to law enforcement and cooperated with authorities in Placer County, which eventually led to Kristy’s prosecution.

On Feb. 16,…

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Cases involving vulnerable adults who have an imperfect use of reason should be referred to offices of Roman Curia

In cases of a cleric sexually abusing a “vulnerable adult,” the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith investigates and judges only cases involving “persons who habitually have an imperfect use of reason,” the dicastery said in a note published Jan. 30.

Other cases involving vulnerable adults, including those in situations where their ability “to understand or will or otherwise resist the offense” is temporarily limited, should be referred to other offices of the Roman Curia, the clarification said.

While church documents issued in the past 15 years have included “vulnerable adults” as a special category in need of protection from clerical sexual abuse, questions have been raised about whether those persons should always be treated in church procedures in a way equivalent to children under the age of 18. For…

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Note: This story was updated to reflect Hintze’s position within Bravo Group.

A Cumberland County man and “stake president” of the Harrisburg area Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints was charged Wednesday by Pa. State Police after they say he failed to report child sex abuse accusations against a former bishop, Boy Scout leader and lawyer from central Pennsylvania.

Rhett Hintze, 50, of New Cumberland, was charged with one count of failure to report or refer child abuse in connection to the July 2023 charges against Shawn Gooden, a former bishop for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy in French Creek State Park in 2000.

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A nun linked to allegations of abuse at the Lourdes Home orphanage in Gozo decades ago died on Tuesday.

Mother Superior Carmelita Borg’s death was announced by the Santwarju Madonna ta’ Pompej Facebook page.

The Mother Superior for the Dominican nuns was responsible for the Lourdes Home orphanage in Għajnsielem where alleged abused took place.

Borg was responsible for the Lourdes Home orphanage during the 1970s and 1980s, with victims accusing her of turning a blind eye to the abuse they suffered.

Earlier this month, two women who had lived at the home decades ago, described harrowing experiences of sexual abuse by clergy and savage beatings from nuns in court.

The two women testified in a Constitutional case against the State presided over by Judge Mark Simiana, in which they claim the State had done nothing to safeguard their rights or care at the orphanage.

The women Rosanne Saliba…

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Some seven months after Daniel Savala, an itinerant minister and convicted sex offender  with ties to the Chi Alpha Campus Ministries sponsored by the Assemblies of God, was arrested for sexually abusing two boys, a Texas father has filed a lawsuit accusing the nation’s largest Pentecostal denomination of negligence that allowed his 13-year-old son to be abused by multiple men.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit filed in the Harris County Court last Thursday by Stephen Holt on behalf of his teenage son, identified only as L.H., are Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, College Station; North Texas Assemblies of God, and Mountain Valley Fellowship.

Holt is also seeking “monetary relief over $1,000,000” for the “harm” experienced by his son due to “the malice, gross negligence, …. or both of each of the defendants” under Texas law.

Savala, according to CBS affiliate KWTX, was…

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A survivor of child sex abuse himself, he has worked to extend the statute of limitations for others. He’ll finish out the year in office.

Mark Rozzi got into politics to give survivors of child sex abuse such as himself a voice in Harrisburg.

But after 11 years serving in the Pennsylvania House, including a brief stint last year as House speaker, the Democrat from Reading is leaving politics less hopeful than he was when he started.

Rozzi, 52, quietly ended his auditor general campaign in December and told The Inquirer he has spent the last few months isolating himself during a particularly difficult bout of depression, a yearslong struggle caused by being sexually abused by a Catholic priest when he was a boy. He’ll serve the remainder of his term before leaving office at the end of the year.

“A lot of times, my…

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Washington state lawmakers are making another attempt to pass a bill that would require clergy members to act as mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect. Senate Bill 6298 aims to include clergy in the list of mandatory reporters in Washington, addressing a significant gap in the state’s current laws. Last year, the bill faced opposition from Catholic lobbyists, but this time, the bill’s main sponsor, state Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, hopes to find a compromise that will address concerns raised by Catholic representatives regarding the reporting of information obtained during confession.

Washington state currently stands among the five states where clergy members are not legally obligated to report incidents of child abuse or neglect. Recognizing the importance of closing this gap, lawmakers have reintroduced Senate Bill 6298 to rectify the situation. By mandating that clergy members report any suspected cases of child abuse or neglect, the bill aims to…

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They’ve been talking about married priests on X/Twitter lately.

A Vatican official brought up ending the usual requirement for priestly celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church as a possible way to help priests not feel the need to live “double live.”  He didn’t draw any links between celibacy and sexual abuse, but since he also investigates clerical abuse he mentioned how it’s changed his point of view. And people got to talking. The question was asked, as I’ve often heard it asked: could letting priests have a wife help prevent the horrific sexual abuse scandals that just seem to keep happening? And as I always do when it’s asked, I cringed.

I am all in favor of examining the expectation that priests should be celibate. There are many reasons it might be good to have a married priesthood more like they do in the Eastern tradition. But it’s…

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Co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie deliver a quietly devastating account of unpunished crimes committed by representatives of the Catholic Church.

[Note from BA: The residential school featured in this film was St. Joseph’s Mission. This review mistakenly refers to it four times as “St. John’s.”]

It’s altogether likely that many non-Indigenous people knew nothing about the abuse and disappearances of Native American children that occurred over decades in residential Indian schools throughout North America until those outages inspired a wrenchingly potent subplot last year for the Taylor Sheridan-produced TV series “1923.” But the truth behind that fact-based fiction is even more shocking, and infuriating, as detailed in “Sugarcane,” the remarkable film that received a well-deserved jury prize for documentary direction at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Indigenous filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat and co-director Emily Kassie show restraint and empathy while cataloguing the horrors that were endemic at the…

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It really is hard to tell what’s going on in Pope Francis’s Vatican, especially these days, but that’s because there’s plenty—too much—to see.

Heading into the weekend, Italy’s Domani published a piece detailing new allegations against the disgraced former Jesuit, Marko Rupnik–inexplicably and intolerably styled Fr. Marko Rupnik—extern of Koper diocese in his native Slovenia, currently resident in Rome and reported to be regularly seen at the Centro Aletti he founded in the early 1990s.

The allegations amount to physical assault and grievous bodily harm.

Basically, the victim alleges that Rupnik broke her right index finger during a “spiritual counselling” session. Maybe he did break the finger, maybe he didn’t. Both Rupnik and Ivanka Hosta (then-superior of the woman’s religious community) allegedly prohibited the victim from seeking medical treatment.

A fracture should show on x-rays, even at many years’ remove from the incident….

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(ANALYSIS) The hellish relationship began with a kiss — a strange exchange between a teenager preparing to become a Loyola sister and the Slovenian Jesuit who was already her confessor.

“The first time he kissed me on the mouth, telling me that this was how he kissed the altar where he celebrated the Eucharist, because with me he could experience sex as an expression of God’s love,” said “Anna” in an interview with the Italian news agency Domani.

The young priest was Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, who was already an artist on the rise. His artistic skills brought him to the Vatican in the late 1990s, and his sacred art has been celebrated around the world. However, he has been accused of sexual and spiritual abuse of Slovenian nuns, such as “Anna,” in the 1980s and ‘90s.

It was hard, said “Anna,” to grasp the meaning of lingering hugs after…

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Cardinal Gérald Lacroix of Québec has announced he will temporarily step aside from his duties, after he was named in court documents Jan. 25 in connection with a class-action sex abuse lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Québec in 2022.

A Jan. 26 statement from the archdiocese, issued in French, said that the cardinal would be “temporarily withdrawing from his activities until the situation is clarified.”

According to court documents, two incidents allegedly involving him reportedly occurred in 1987 and 1988 in Quebec City, when he was a religious brother. He is accused of inappropriately touching a 17-year-old girl on two occasions. The woman has not been identified.

The archdiocesan statement said Lacroix “categorically denies the allegations against him” and considers them “unfounded.”

“In the coming days,” the statement said, “he will send a personal communication” to the archdiocese “which will be relayed to the media.”

That personal message was…

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Cardinal Humberto Medeiros served the Church as priest and bishop in Texas and Massachusetts. An immigrant from the Azores he utilized his superior intelligence, administrative ability, and language skills to move up rapidly in Church ranks. His work with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, both nationally and internationally, especially with migrant workers, was notable. Medeiros faced a perfect storm of social, political and religious issues in Boston. The author argues that despite the challenges he faced in Boston, Medeiros was true to the Church and his personal moral code, seeking always to serve others rather than be served by them in imitation of Christ.

Richard Gribble has produced a meticulous portrait of Humberto Medeiros, one of the most notable, yet most frequently overlooked U.S. Catholic leaders of the post-1945 era. Gribble carefully weighs the sources and helpfully explores the various contexts in which Medeiros’ life and ministry unfolded. We…

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Alleged abuse survivors at People of Praise worry Michael Coney may block group’s handling of sexual abuse from becoming public

Survivors of alleged childhood abuse inside the People of Praise, a secretive Christian sect that counts Amy Coney Barrett as a member, are voicing concerns that the supreme court justice’s father, who was recently promoted to a new role, may seek to block information about the group’s historic handling of sexual abuse becoming public.

Barrett, a conservative justice who was appointed by the former US president Donald Trump, has never publicly disclosed her participation in the covenant Christian community, which some former members have compared to a cult.

Her father, Michael Coney, a Louisiana-based lawyer who worked for Shell and has been a longtime member of the PoP, was this month appointed to serve as the group’s new legal counsel. Coney has also been asked to take the helm of a…

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Eight survivors of institutional childhood sexual abuse have launched a class action against one of Australia’s most prominent sexual abuse law firms, which they allege failed to obtain proper compensation from the institutions responsible for their abuse.

In a group proceeding commenced in Victoria’s Supreme Court on Wednesday, former clients of specialist abuse law firm Waller Legal alleged that it failed to properly claim for their “loss of earnings” compensation when pursuing their legal claims, leaving some of them more than $1 million short of the compensation they were entitled to.

“It is alleged that Waller Legal settled claims for substantially less than what the claims were worth, on the basis that a category of compensation (economic loss) was not properly sought,” said a summary of the proceeding.

“The claim in this proceeding alleges that Waller Legal were negligent and were in breach of contract.”

Court documents state that the…

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Utah clergy could be allowed to report instances of child abuse or neglect even if the perpetrator told them during confession if the clergy member believes the abuse is ongoing, under a newly proposed bill.

Rep. Anthony Loubet, R-Kearns, spoke with KSL.com about his legislation — which has not yet been made public — saying it also provides legal protection to members of the clergy who decide to inform law enforcement of ongoing abuse.

“What my bill is trying to do is to at least give them those protections that others currently receive,” Loubet said of the civil and criminal liability protections. “So if they report, they don’t have to worry about getting sued for failing to report or being aware of neglect or abuse or anything like that.”

Loubet said he’s working to find a middle ground on the issue of penitent privilege, by giving faith leaders the option…

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A Canadian cardinal who is a close advisor to Pope Francis on Tuesday personally denied accusations he sexually assaulted a teenage girl in the 1980s, telling his congregation by video he has never behaved inappropriately towards anyone.

Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, the 66-year-old archbishop of Quebec, is facing claims of sexual assault dating back to 1987 and 1988, when the victim was 17, as part of a class action suit against more than 100 priests in the archdiocese.

Lacroix has been Quebec’s archbishop since 2011 and a cardinal since 2014. Since last year, he has served on the pontiff’s Council of Cardinal Advisors, which meets regularly at the Vatican.

“Never, to my knowledge, have I acted inappropriately towards anyone, whether minors or adults,” he said in a video filmed in his office.

“My soul and my conscience are at peace in the face of these accusations which I refute,” he said,…

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In light of a Protestant abuse study unveiled in Germany, a Catholic lay group has called into doubt the “persistent narrative of the Synodal Way attributing systemic causes of abuse to specifically Catholic factors.”

Published on Jan. 25, the ForuM study identified 1,259 accused individuals and 2,174 survivors of abuse since 1946 within the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), according to a report by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. This study’s findings starkly contrast with the claims of an “alleged Catholic-specific dimension of sexual abuse,” stated “Neuer Anfang,” a German lay group critical of the Synodal Way.

The German Synodal Way, which voted for women’s ordination and transgender ideology, among other issues, linked its resolutions to the MHG Study, an investigation of clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Germany.

However, Neuer Anfang has stated…

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The Diocese of Orange and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have agreed to pay a combined settlement believed to be the largest ever in a sex abuse case filed on behalf of an individual against a religious institution. 

The case involving two of the most notorious sex predators in California reached a $10-million settlement on Friday, January 26, according to a local report from East Bay Times.

The case focuses primarily on the sexual crimes of Fr. Eleuterio Ramos and Fr. Siegfried Widera. 

In 2020, a piece of California legislation provided a three-year window during which the state would lift the statute of limitations for lawsuits regarding decades-old sex abuse cases. This week’s settlement resolves one of the first suits to go to trial since 2020. 

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, where Ramos first began committing sexual assault on minors almost immediately following his ordination, will pay out $500,000,…

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A pastor of a Racine church faces more than 75 years in prison after an investigation into alleged sexual assault of two different females.

Bernabe Leon Alvarez, 37, of Racine, is charged with two felony counts of sexual exploitation by a therapist, one felony count of repeated sexual assault of a child and one felony count of child enticement.

The four felonies carry a maximum possible prison term of 77 years, six months and a total fine of $225,000.

Leon Alvarez remains free from custody on a $10,000 cash bond.

The criminal complaint: Pastor accused of sexual assault by two females

First female interviewed

An investigator with the Racine Police Department and a forensic interviewer spoke to the first female last February. The now 18-year-old stated the defendant, the pastor of her former church, not identified in the complaint, began to assault her in August of 2020, when she was…

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Bishop William T. McGrattan, Bishop of the Diocese of Calgary and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, has issued the following statement regarding the recent allegations of sexual assault concerning His Eminence Gérald Cyprien Cardinal Lacroix, Archbishop of Quebec.

Bishop McGrattan’s full statement follows:

“On 25 January 2024, it was reported in the news that Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix’s name has recently been added to a list of clergy and pastoral workers who have been accused of sexual abuse in a class action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec. He has issued a statement and he has communicated his decision to withdraw temporarily from activities in his Diocese.

Within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has established a clear procedure that must be followed when an allegation is made against a Bishop, as outlined in Vos Estis Lux Mundi. The Bishops of Canada have set up a third-party reporting system…

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Holy Trinity Catholic Parish announced earlier this month that Father John Pilcher had been appointed as its senior associate pastor. Pilcher was accused of sexual assault of a minor while working in Topeka, but the Kansas Bureau of Investigation could not substantiate the claims and no charges were filed.

A Catholic church in Lenexa is facing pushback from some of its parishioners after appointing a priest who previously faced a sexual assault allegation.

Earlier this month, Holy Trinity Catholic Parish announced it had appointed Father John Pilcher as its senior associate pastor.

During Pilcher’s introduction at the church’s Jan. 13 mass, Pilcher brought up the allegation that was leveled against him during his previous stop at a Topeka parish.

“If you Google my name, you will find that back in 2021 when I was pastor at Mater Dei, an allegation was brought up against me,” he…

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The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver denies institutional problems protecting sexually abusive priests

Warning: This story contains disturbing details of sexual abuse.

The Archdiocese of Vancouver has admitted in court documents sexual abuse of a man by a priest and a Christian Brother and its vicarious liability for that but denied negligence for acting in any way that could attract legal punitive damages.

An unnamed man alleging sexual abuse by two Roman Catholic priests is suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver (RCAV), a Corporation Sole, the Catholic Independent Schools of Vancouver (CISVA) and the estates of two men.

In documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 23, 2020, John Doe alleges that North Vancouver Holy Trinity Parish pastor Father John Kilty, now dead, committed multiple acts of sexual assault and battery on him when he was six.

In a further amended response to civil claim filed on Dec. 13, the…

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Why am I posting this decades-old newspaper story here and now?

First, because so much about the early history of our movement to protect kids, expose predators, deter enablers and help survivors is nowhere to be found. (Much was pre-Internet and we in SNAP had our hands full just trying to deal with our trauma and the trauma of the hundreds of others who sought our help, even back in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, before the scandal erupted into national awareness).

Second, because the pastor’s quote here so clearly reveals how Catholic officials felt (and feel) about their institution and this crisis: “My objection was that they were passing out literature. That was detrimental to our faith, our church and to the priesthood itself.”

And third, because though I’ve said it hundreds of times directly to many of my survivor pals and colleagues, I’ve never used this space…

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Sexual assault and reproductive coercion share similar dynamics: both are forms of violence that intimately violate a person’s body. The Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse scandals and its attempts to coerce people’s reproductive decision-making by banning abortion and attacking contraception reveal a dangerous sexual sociopathology that fundamentally undermines the Church’s claims to moral authority on issues of sexuality.

By now, the stories are familiar and well documented. The 2006 documentary, “Deliver Us From Evil,” chillingly shows how Catholic bishops repeatedly relocated a priest named Oliver O’Grady from parish to parish in an attempt to cover up his rape of dozens of children. The 2005 Academy Award-winning film, “Spotlight,” dramatizes the true story of the Boston Globe investigative reporting team that exposed widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the 1970s and the cover up by the Archdiocese of Boston. In 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury published a 1,356-page…

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Texas lawsuit claims that the minor was a victim of a serial predator as well as student leaders in the campus ministry Chi Alpha.

A church in a Texas college town, a chapter of the campus ministry Chi Alpha, and its sponsoring denomination, the Assemblies of God, are being sued by a father who alleges that the leaders he entrusted to disciple his teenage son instead got him naked in ministry settings and used their positions of authority to sexually abuse him.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, follows a tumultuous several months for Chi Alpha. Since last spring, a serial predator has gone to jail for child sex abuse, chapter leaders across a half-dozen Texas universities have been dismissed, and the organization’s national director resigned.

The majority of the departing leaders had ties to Daniel Savala, a registered sex offender who groomed and…

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The father of a teenage boy in central Texas is suing the nation’s largest charismatic-evangelical denomination for negligence, saying one of its ministries gave his son’s alleged abusers “positions which engendered trust.”

The new lawsuit is the latest development in a widening sex scandal involving convicted sex offender Daniel Savala. The scandal has implicated the Assemblies of God (AG) and its sponsored college outreach, Chi Alpha Campus Ministries.

Since last spring, multiple reports have alleged that leaders of Chi Alpha, which operates on over 300 college campuses, allowed Savala access to students at several Texas chapters. 

The suit filed Thursday claims that Chi Alpha and its affiliates in central Texas allowed men, whom Savala had mentored, to have “authority and power over minor children.” This led to the abuse of multiple victims, the suit stated.

Plus, leaders allowed Savala to attend on-campus meetings, prey on young men, and subject college students “to his…

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State lawmakers hope a compromise in the proposed legislation will get Catholic lobbyists on board, a year after a similar bill died over the church’s backlash

After failing a year ago, Washington state lawmakers are trying again this session to pass a bill that would make clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect.

Senate Bill 6298 would add clergy to the list of mandatory reporters in Washington. And the bill’s main sponsor, state Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, hopes a compromise regarding whether clergy should still report information obtained during a confession will be enough to win over Catholic lobbyists, who proved to be the main obstacle to passing the law last year.

“I cannot handle the idea that a member of a faith community, a leader in a faith community, would stand on the sidelines when they believe a child is at imminent risk of abuse or harm,” Frame said…

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A Belgian Church official has told a parliamentary committee that the Vatican’s failure to laicize a bishop who admitted to abuse threatens to overshadow Pope Francis’ scheduled visit to the country.

Speaking at a Jan. 26 hearing of the Flemish Parliament’s committee investigating clerical abuse, Bruno Spriet addressed the case of Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who resigned as Bishop of Bruges in 2010 after admitting to sexually abusing a nephew.

Spriet, the general secretary of the Belgian bishops’ conference, said: “As we have communicated, his ecclesiastical file is in Rome. After all, according to canon law, only the Holy See can remove someone from the priesthood or episcopate.” 

“In recent years, the Belgian bishops have written several times to the Holy See (in 2017 and 2019) to speak out more clearly about ecclesiastical sanctions against Roger Vangheluwe.” 

“In their joint letter to Pope Francis in October 2023, they reiterated their demand for Roger…

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Let me share with you one of the worst and most important recent news stories that you’ve probably never heard about. Late last month, the Southern Baptist Convention settled a sex abuse lawsuit brought against a man named Paul Pressler for an undisclosed sum. The lawsuit was filed in 2017 and alleged that Pressler had raped a man named Duane Rollins for decades, with the rapes beginning when Rollins was only 14 years old.

The story would be terrible enough if Pressler were simply an ordinary predator. But while relatively unknown outside evangelical circles, he is one of the most important American religious figures of the 20th century. He and his friend Paige Patterson, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, are two of the key architects of the so-called conservative resurgence within the S.B.C.

The conservative resurgence was a movement conceived in the 1960s…

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NEW YORK – Two of three priests named in a recent report on clergy sex abuse in the Diocese of Gaylord in Michigan, and who had been in active ministry, have now been restricted from presiding at any public celebration of Mass following a diocesan review of the allegations against them.

The decision by Bishop Jeffrey Walsh to impose the restrictions on Father James Gardiner and Father Raymond Cotter was made after Walsh met with Gaylord’s Diocesan Review Board Jan. 22, in what he described as a “long and intense meeting” to thoroughly review files and to discern outcomes.

The third priest in active ministry named in the report, Father Donald Geyman, will continue his current assignment as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Traverse City, Michigan, pending the outcome of an assessment and determination of a safety plan.

Walsh said the outcomes are his “best effort to…

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One of the Catholic Church’s leading doctrinal officials has reiterated his unusual call for the global institution to consider ending its millennia-long requirement that priests remain celibate, saying that allowing priestly marriage could be a means of preventing clerics from living dangerous double lives.

In an exclusive interview with National Catholic Reporter on Jan. 24, Archbishop Charles Scicluna said: “One of my worries is that people are put in a situation where they are comfortable with a double life.”

“This is not to diminish the beauty of celibacy or the heroic commitment of people who have accepted celibacy as a gift and live it,” said the archbishop, speaking in an interview at the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith for NCR’s “The Vatican Briefing” podcast. “But I think it is good that we discuss it.”

Earlier this month, Scicluna — who serves as both…

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Legally requiring a religious leader, like a Latter-day Saint bishop or Catholic priest, to report child abuse has failed to pass the Utah Legislature in two recent attempts. This time around, Republican Rep. Anthony Loubet hopes his bill addressing the problem makes it all the way to Gov. Spencer Cox’s desk.

Loubet’s approach doesn’t mandate ecclesiastical leaders to report abuse. Instead, it would give them the option to, even if a person “has made a confession to the clergy member” about perpetrating such abuse. They can also make a report if they have a “reason to believe that a child is, or has been, the subject of abuse or neglect,” even if it hasn’t been disclosed to them.

If a bishop, for example, reports abuse to local authorities, they would be granted legal protections if an investigation is launched. The bill’s language states it has to…

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Le cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix vient d’annoncer à ses principaux collaborateurs et collaboratrices qu’il se retire provisoirement de ses activités jusqu’à ce que la situation soit clarifiée. Il nie catégoriquement les allégations qui le visent depuis hier, qu’il juge sans fondement. Dans les prochains jours, il adressera une communication personnelle aux diocésains de Québec qui sera relayée aux médias.  

L’équipe diocésaine comprend cette décision qu’elle accueille avec tristesse : tout sera mis en œuvre par ses collaborateurs et collaboratrices afin de prendre le relais des tâches liées à la mission diocésaine.

Les autorités diocésaines continueront d’avancer dans le processus de l’action collective, dans le respect de la vérité et avec le souci d’offrir une réparation aux survivants et survivantes d’abus sexuels. 

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Court documents say Gérald Cyprien Lacroix touched 17-year-old without consent

As part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit against the archdiocese of Quebec, a high-ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church in the province is now facing allegations of sexual assault.

The class action lawsuit targeting the archdiocese was authorized in June 2022.

Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix has now also been named in court documents that were presented Thursday morning.

The class action now also names the Séminaire de Québec, a revered institution responsible for creating Université Laval, the first francophone university in North America. 

The alleged incidents involving Lacroix took place between 1987 and 1988 in Quebec City when the plaintiff was 17. Lacroix is accused of touching her without her consent. 

The woman is not named in the court documents.

From 1982 to 1987, Lacroix served as the secretary-general of the Pie-X secular institute in Quebec City. From 1985 to 1987, he was…

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ROME – After being named in a class-action sex abuse lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec, Cardinal Gérald Lacroix has denied the allegations against him but has announced his decision to step aside until the matter is clarified.

On Jan. 25, Lacroix was named in a class action lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Quebec in 2022, with court documents alleging that he inappropriately touched a 17-year-old girl on two occasions, in 1987 and 1988.

In a Jan. 26 statement, the Archdiocese of Quebec said that Lacroix “categorically denies the allegations against him” and considers the allegations “unfounded.”

However, they said the cardinal had decided to temporarily withdraw from leadership of the archdiocese and that they accepted the decision “with sadness.” In coming days, the statement said, Lacroix would “send a personal communication” to the archdiocese “which will be relayed to the media.”

With the charges, Lacroix was added to…

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Allegations of sexual abuse and grooming by Chi Alpha, a national campus ministry of the Assemblies of God, expanded significantly Jan. 25 with details alleged in a lawsuit brought by an unnamed minor in Texas.

Previously, allegations of sexual abuse have been lodged against two former Chi Alpha leaders — Daniel Savala and Chris Hundl — but the new lawsuit for negligence in care for a minor names additional alleged perpetrators. If the claims made in this lawsuit are proved true, the extent of sexual abuse within Chi Alpha will be far more widespread than earlier indicated.

Stephen Holt of Brazos County, Texas, is the father of a minor child named only as L.H. in the suit. Together, they seek more than $1 million in damages from the General Council of the Assemblies of God, North Texas District Council Assemblies of God, Mountain Valley Fellowship, and Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, College Station.

…

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Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, head of the Archdiocese of Quebec, has temporarily stepped aside from his duties as archbishop after being accused in a lawsuit of sexual abuse of a 17-year-old, allegations that the archbishop is strongly denying.

In a short French-language statement released on Friday, the archdiocese said that though Lacroix “categorically denies the allegations against him,” he is “temporarily withdrawing from his activities until the situation is clarified.”

According to the statement, Lacroix maintains that the allegations are “unfounded.”

The statement said, however, that archdiocesan authorities “will continue to move forward in the process of collective action, with respect for the truth and with a concern to offer reparation to survivors of sexual abuse.”

Lacroix, 66, is a member of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis. He has been a cardinal since 2014 and archbishop of Quebec since 2011.

The legal action…

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In light of a Protestant abuse study unveiled in Germany, a Catholic lay group has called into doubt the “persistent narrative of the Synodal Way attributing systemic causes of abuse to specifically Catholic factors.”

Published on Jan. 25, the ForuM study identified 1,259 accused individuals and 2,174 survivors of abuse since 1946 within the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), according to a report by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. This study’s findings starkly contrast with the claims of an “alleged Catholic-specific dimension of sexual abuse,” stated “Neuer Anfang,” a German lay group critical of the Synodal Way.

The German Synodal Way, which voted for women’s ordination and transgender ideology, among other issues, linked its resolutions to the MHG Study, an investigation of clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Germany.

However, Neuer Anfang has stated…

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A former South Side pastor appeared in court Friday, where he was expected to accept a plea deal for alleged child sex abuse, but the hearing was pushed back.

Jerry Jones is accused of abuse that allegedly took place during his time as a pastor at Apostolic Assembly Church in Morgan Park.

In court Friday, the judge ordered a “pre-trial investigation,” which typically takes 30 days to complete. During that time, Jones will be on a 12 hour daily curfew.

Lawyers for Jones’ complainants said it’s possible Jones could avoid time behind bars.

Jones is charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse from 2020 and was charged in 2023 with criminal sex abuse.

His next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 28.

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A 92-year-old former priest, Lawrence Hecker, who was arrested and accused of rape and kidnapping, is currently hospitalized in the ICU.

Hecker’s attorney told a judge in court Friday that Hecker tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago and was admitted for blood pressure issues and a UTI.

The prosecution in the case said Hecker’s ailments are treatable and that the hospital is working to discharge him.

It is unclear at this time when Hecker will be released from the hospital.

A status update in the case is expected on Feb. 23.

His trial is set for March 25, which was not changed in court Friday. The judge did not announce any delays due to Hecker’s health.

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Gerald Lacroix, who is close to the pope, has been archbishop of Quebec since 2011 and a cardinal since 2014

Cardinal Gerald Lacroix has been accused in Canada of sexually assaulting a female teenager, as part of a class action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec, court documents showed Thursday.

The 66-year-old Lacroix is facing claims of abuse dating back to 1987 and 1988, when the victim was 17, attorney Alain Arsenault, who is handling the suit, told AFP.

Arsenault said victims are feeling freer to speak out, and that those accused “were protected for a long time.” He expects more victims to come forward and join the suit.

Lacroix, who is close to Pope Francis, has been the archbishop of Quebec since 2011 and a cardinal since 2014. He has served since last year on the pontiff’s Council of Cardinal Advisors, which meets regularly at the Vatican.

The legal…

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Former Catholic priest Vincent DeLorenzo died Friday morning while serving a one-year sentence at the Genesee County Jail.

FLINT, Mich. (WJRT) – A former Flint-area priest serving a one-year jail sentence for a child sex crime died in custody Friday morning.

Vincent DeLorenzo pleaded guilty last April to one count of attempted first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a young male attending a funeral service at Holy Redeemer Parish in Burton in the 1980s.

He was about halfway through his one-year sentence at the Genesee County Jail when his attorney, Mike Manley, says DeLorenzo became ill last weekend. Authorities transferred DeLorenzo to an area hospital, where he died Friday.

Manley thanked the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office for acting compassionately to make sure DeLorenzo received appropriate end of life medical care.

DeLorenzo admitted to sexually assaulting a 5-year-old boy after a funeral service for the boy’s deceased family member.

During his 20-year…

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Fr Alfonso López Benito, 80, was found dead at his apartment in Valencia

The body of an elderly priest accused of paying male migrants for sex was discovered naked in bed in his Spanish apartment.

Alfonso López Benito, 80, a former canon of Valencia Cathedral, was found deceased on Tuesday by a friend and janitor who had gone to pay him a visit.

A postmortem found he had died by suffocation and had likely been dead for several days.

A 40-year-old South American man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Described as a Peruvian immigrant, he was said to have tried to use the priest’s bank card in a local bar.

Police have theorised that Fr Benito’s death could have been the result of a violent argument between lovers.

Fr Benito had allegedly been asked by the Archbishop’s office in Valencia to stop bringing lovers to his home, which was…

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Forum Study suggests church features prized by German Protestants facilitated rather than prevented sexualised violence and continue to hinder full disclosure

Berlin – For 500 years, German Protestants have been quietly confident that theirs was the better Christian church: a participative and democratic antithesis to centralised, clerical Roman Catholicism.

But a bombshell report on Thursday into sexualised violence and institutional cover-up presents a very different – yet wearingly familiar – story.

After four years of work, the Forum Study suggested many church features prized by German Protestants had aided and abetted – rather than prevented – sexualised violence in the past, and are hindering full disclosure in the present.

Even at 871 pages, the report’s authors conceded their report is an incomplete first attempt to cast light on abuse within Germany’s EKD, a federation of 20 autonomous Protestant and Reformed churches with 13,000 parishes and 19 million registered members.

At…

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For Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, the tinted windows were the giveaway.

Back in 2003, the windows of the official car were darkened for the area’s highest-ranking Catholic priest so that passersby and protesters could not see who was inside. Recently, O’Malley admitted there is a metaphor there somewhere for the state of the church when he took over the once politically and socially powerful Boston Archdiocese, which was reeling from the uncovering of its botched handling of clergy sexual abuse.

“We were in a terrible crisis,” O’Malley told the Globe recently. “I think we’ve come a long way from there towards establishing a sense of peace.”

Boston, for so long a bastion of American Catholicism, was ground zero for what would be a global crisis. More than 1,400 people would come forward to say they were sexually abused by a priest, deacon, or…

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A veteran campaigner has called on Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan to give an “immediate” and “detailed explanation” for his defrocking of the former president of St John’s Seminary in Waterford & Lismore.

Tony Gribben of the Dromore Group said the sacking of a priest is a serious matter and the people of Waterford & Lismore deserve an explanation for the move. Bishop Cullinan’s failure to explain the sacking “generates suspicion and intrigue”.

In a statement this weekend, Bishop Cullinan said he commissioned an inquiry into Fr Michael O’Connor, a priest of the Diocese of Waterford & Lismore, in accordance with church procedures.

Fr O’Connor was president of St John’s College in Waterford city for nine years between 1985-1994. The seminary closed in 1999 due to dwindling vocations.

The Irish Independent understands that Fr O’Connor has been out of ministry for nearly 25 years when the process was undertaken.

While no priest in the…

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Riding on the wave of public outrage, the phrase ‘treating all survivors fairly’ has quickly become the go-to tagline in the US Catholic Church’s PR playbook. We seem to hear it all the time, especially when a Catholic official is weighing or seeking Chapter 11 protection in the face of potentially startling disclosures about clergy sex abuse and coverups that would likely come through civil lawsuits. This raises an interesting question we’d like to ask every US bishop, one that we’ve never seen any Catholic official answer in any convincing way. Note:  Deadlines for diocesan bankruptcies are approaching soon in Maryland and northern California.

High-Profile Church Authorities Emphasis on ‘Fair Treatment’

Given the frequency of the statement, it is essential to revisit some of the quotes from prominent Catholic figures:

• Connecticut Bishop Michael Cote in 2021: The diocesan bankruptcy filing will “assure all survivors are included…

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Immanuel Baptist pastor calls for independent inquiry into church’s handling of sex abuse allegations

Immanuel Baptist Church Lead Pastor Steven Smith on Friday called for an independent, third-party investigation into the congregation’s handling of sex abuse accusations.

Although an inquiry being conducted by the church’s insurance company is ongoing, Smith on Friday described that as merely a “necessary first step.”

“The past two months at Immanuel Baptist Church have been marked by swirling accusations, allegations, conflicting accounts, divisiveness, confusion, even anger,” the pastor wrote in a statement Friday addressed to the “Immanuel Family.”

“I have tried to provide helpful information and to answer questions as they were asked — but the wide range of emotions and confusion have persisted.

“This is why I have proposed that we hire a fully independent firm with expertise in sexual abuse to conduct a thorough investigation and assessment of these matters. A firm with…

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Robert Corfield, a man who abused a boy in Canada in a secretive Christian church in the 1980s, has spoken publicly about what happened for the first time.

He was confronted by the BBC as part of a wider look into claims of child sexual abuse spanning decades within the church, known as The Truth.

His name is one of more than 700 given by people to a hotline set up to report sexual abuse within the church.

The sect says it addresses all abuse allegations.

The church, which has no official name but is often referred to as The Truth or The Way, is believed to have up to 100,000 members worldwide, with the majority in North America.

The potential scale of the abuse has been captured through a hotline – set-up last year by two women who say they were also sexually abused by a church leader when…

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Patrick Kearon, the newest member of the body that governs The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has said he would like see the faith better care for sex abuse victims

The newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ top governing body said every faith — including his — must do more to protect victims of sexual abuse and help facilitate a healing process.

Last month, Patrick Kearon, 62, became the first new member since 2018 named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the body which oversees the business interests and global development of the faith widely known as the Mormon church.

Speaking to The Associated Press on Tuesday, Kearon, who was raised in England and converted to the faith as an adult, outlined the global, compassionate approach he would take on a range of sensitive issues from the border crisis to the LGBTQ…

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“In the exercise of my responsibility as Bishop of Waterford & Lismore, and to provide clear information to the faithful of the Diocese, I am publishing the following statement in the interest of the spiritual and pastoral integrity of the Diocese:

I commissioned an inquiry into Father Michael O’Connor of the Diocese of Waterford & Lismore in accordance with Church procedures. This process involved referring the case of Father O’Connor to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican. The result of this inquiry is that Michael O’Connor has been dismissed from the clerical state, and therefore he is no longer a priest.

This decision is solely based on the outcome of this Church inquiry. I will not be making any further comment on the matter.”

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A former president of a seminary in the diocese of Waterford and Lismore has been dismissed from the priesthood following an internal inquiry, the bishop of the diocese has confirmed.

The inquiry into Fr Michael O’Connor, who was president of St John’s College in Waterford city for nine years, was initiated “in accordance with church procedures,” Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan said in a statement.

Commissioning the inquiry involved referring the case of Fr O’Connor to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, which is responsible for defending Catholic doctrine and was formerly known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“The result of this inquiry is that Michael O’Connor has been dismissed from the clerical state, and therefore is no longer a priest,” Bishop Cullinan said.

“This decision is solely based on the outcome of this church inquiry,” he said, before adding that he would…

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Over 1,259 employees of the Protestant Church of Germany have committed sexual abuse since 1946, according to an independent report published Thursday. The study also found that at least 2,225 individuals have been victims of the abuse.

Researchers examined documents from the 20 regional churches of the Protestant Church of Germany (EKD) as well as Diakonie Germany, the church’s social welfare organization. The report analyzed approximately 4,300 disciplinary files, 780 personal files and 1,300 additional documents regarding all employees of the church, from clergy members to youth leaders.

Many of the personal files from the regional churches were not available to researchers, and the authors of the study therefore believe the total number of cases is even higher. The authors estimated that at least 3,500 people within the church have committed sexual abuse, with a third of the perpetrators being clergy members. The authors further estimated that over…

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Upon appeal from the prosecution, the October 2021 acquittal of Father Gabriele Martinelli, who was accused of abusing another student from 2007 to 2012 when he studied at the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary, was overturned by the Vatican’s appeals court.

Martinelli, initially acquitted due to a lack of evidence, was this week found guilty of “corrupting a minor” for sexual abuse committed between 2008-2009, and sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

The St. Pius X seminary, previously located inside a palazzo within the Vatican gardens, houses boys aged 12 to 18 years old, who serve as altar boys at papal Masses inside St. Peter’s Basilica. It was established by Pope Pius XII in 1956 to house young men and boys from Italian dioceses who felt a potential call to the priesthood.

Abuse scandals involving the pre-seminary erupted in 2017 when former altar boys went public with allegations…

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Lawsuit names Quebec cardinal in late 1980s abuse

Canadian Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, a senior adviser to Pope Francis, has been named in a class-action lawsuit accusing him of sexual assaults in 1987 and ’88. The suit accuses Lacroix of sexually touching a female teenager without her consent on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reports. A new filing adds more than a dozen suspects and 46 people who say they were victims to the original suit against the Catholic Archdiocese of Québec, which was filed in 2022. Alain Arsenault, the lawyer handling the suit, said those accused “were protected for a long time,” per AFP, and now feel freer to speak out. The law firm said the suit includes 147 people who say they were sexually assaulted by a total of more than 100 priests.

Lacroix, 66, is on a temporary leave of absence from…

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Joliet Diocese faces financial struggles, announces closure of Catholic institutions

The Joliet Diocese, encompassing Will, DuPage, and Kendall counties, has declared the closure of five churches and two schools, citing financial constraints and a decline in mass attendance. The decision, attributed to “budgetary issues,” comes after a year-long evaluation process that stirred discontent among the faithful.

Bishop Ron Hicks’ office has pointed to diminishing mass attendance and financial challenges, yet remains silent on the profound impact of the decades-old priest sex abuse crisis on these closures. The diocese has been grappling with the aftermath of the abuse scandal for over two decades, with over 70 clerics accused of child molestation listed publicly.

While millions have been spent on legal settlements with victims, Bishop Hicks has chosen not to disclose the total financial burden or engage in discussions about the topic, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times in September.

In the…

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Bhopal: Fr Anil Mathew of the Congregation of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate was released from jail after he secured bail in the case in which he was accused of running a children’s home unlawfully. He was initially charged under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. Police later charged him for engaging in conversion attempts at the facility under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, an anti-conversion law.

During the inspection carried out by the chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and a team of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) at the children’s home at Tara Savania village, about 20 km from the Bhopal, it was revealed 26 children were missing from the facility.

However, the priest’s counsel argued that they had gone back to their respective homes after presenting letters of request from their…

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In a podcast Thursday, Charisma Media CEO Stephen Strang repeatedly called exposure of alleged clergy sexual abuse by Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC), a “spiritual attack.” He further claimed that “to burn the ministry to the ground is just the tool of Satan.” And he expressed hope that Bickle “reemerges in ministry stronger than . . . before.”

Strang used the strong language during his interview with IHOPKC Executive Director General Kurt Fuller on Strang’s podcast, the Strang Report.

Strang also stated that “charges were leveled about Bickle” on October 7—“the same day that Hamas attacked Israel.” (The first meeting with IHOPKC leaders concerning Bickle’s alleged clergy sex abuse was on Oct. 9, according to members of the so-called “advocate group,” working with alleged victims of Bickle’s.)

“This persecution is coming from within the Christian community,” Strang alleged. “. . . There…

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A just released report commissioned by the German Protestant Church (EKD) in 2020 estimated that over 9,300 children and young people were sexually abused since 1946 by 3,500 perpetrators, a third of which were members of the clergy. The EKD is an umbrella organization of 20 regional churches, representing 19.2 million Protestants in the country.

SNAP welcomes the publication of this report on the appalling extent of clerical sex abuse – even if it exposes the depth of depravity that prevails in yet another faith community. We believe that it is always a good development to have these crimes exposed. We are also grateful that more is being done in Germany to identify victims, compensate them adequately, punish perpetrators, and put in place safeguards to ensure that such crimes cannot be repeated.  

The study results are based on an examination of around 4,300 disciplinary files, 780…

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Woman taking action against Society of Divine Word gives up right to anonymity before court hearing in Tokyo

A Japanese Catholic allegedly raped by a priest from the Society of Divine Word (SVD) congregation and who is suing the order for covering it up has revealed her name publicly during a court hearing, says a report.

Tokie Tanaka, 63, a nurse residing in Tokyo, said during a press conference on Jan. 23 that she decided to reveal her identity after she was inspired by another victim, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Jan. 24.

Tanaka was referring to a former Ground Self-Defense Force member, Rina Gonoi, 24, who publicly reported sexual abuse at the hands of her colleagues while using her real name.

“I haven’t done anything wrong. Why do I need to hide?” Tanaka said adding that the move from Gonoi to go public with her name was “courageous.”

“Speaking out under…

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A 40-year-old man has been arrested by police in Spain on suspicion of murdering Fr. Alfonso Benito López, an 80-year-old priest who was found dead in his apartment, on Tuesday, 23 January. 

According to official sources quoted by local press, the suspect was arrested after using the victim’s bank card in a bar in Valencia, the coastal city where the crime took place. He was found in possession of the bank card and Fr. Alfonso’s mobile phone. 

The Spanish priest was found lying on his bed by the building’s janitor, on Tuesday.

Suspicion of foul play was aroused immediately, when the janitor received a text message from the priest’s phone only minutes after having discovered his corpse. Other friends and acquaintances had received messages in the previous days, saying that the priest was going to be out of town for a week to deal with personal matters. 

Local police…

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The Oblates of the Virgin Mary have not responded to questions about the status of Fr. David Nicgorski, a priest accused of misconduct in spiritual direction, and of sexually assaulting a religious sister.

Since The Pillar reported on the priest last week, Nicorgski has been accused of hearing confessions invalidly, in a diocese where he was prohibited from priestly ministry. 

And The Pillar has learned that other allegations against the priest have likely been raised at the Vatican.

The Pillar reported last week that Fr. David Nicgorski had been prohibited by the Vatican from offering spiritual direction for a five-year period — which began last year — after several women religious accused him of sexually manipulating and coercing them in spiritual direction, and, in one case, accused him of committing sexual assault.

But while the case has sparked widespread discussion among U.S. Catholics, the Oblates of the Virgin Mary have declined to say whether Nicgorski…

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I am writing this letter to address the issue in the Louisiana Supreme Court on prescription, or the statute of limitations, on child sexual abuse. As I have said before, this is not a political issue. This is a human issue.

When we allow and support abusers to get away with these heinous acts because of a loophole in the law, we support the abuse. I trust that the Louisiana Supreme Court will make the right decision in supporting the lookback window which is supported by scientific evidence. This is not about an insurance claim but a claim to change our society for the better. The children abused grow into adults with trauma and, if it is not properly addressed, they suffer until the day they die.

I dealt with my abuser and his lawyers holding the issue of prescription over my head, which retraumatized…

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The Mississippi Supreme Court will not consider an appeal from a former Franciscan friar who was convicted in 2022 in the 1990s sexual abuse of a student at a Catholic school.

The court decision was announced Thursday, and it means the conviction of Paul West remains in place.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals ruled in August that it found “no reversible error” in the conviction. West’s attorneys then asked the Supreme Court to further examine the case. Justices did not explain their decision not to do so.

West, 63, is in the 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…

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Cardinal Gerald Lacroix is facing charges dating back to 1987 and 1988, when the victim was 17, as part of a class action suit

A Canadian cardinal who is a close advisor to Pope Francis on Friday “categorically” denied accusations he sexually assaulted a teenage girl in the 1980s, but he will step back from his duties, the archdiocese of Quebec said.

Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, the 66-year-old archbishop of Quebec, is facing claims of sexual assault dating back to 1987 and 1988, when the victim was 17, as part of a class action suit against more than 100 priests in the archdiocese.

Lacroix has been the archbishop of Quebec since 2011 and a cardinal since 2014. Since last year, he has served on the pontiff’s Council of Cardinal Advisors, which meets regularly at the Vatican.

“Cardinal Gerald Cyprien Lacroix has just announced to his main collaborators that he is temporarily…

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The archbishop of Quebec, Canada, Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, has been accused of abusing a 17-year-old teenager almost four decades ago.

The allegations are included as part of a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Quebec and were made public in court on Thursday.

As reported by the AFP news agency and according to lawyer Alain Arsenault, who is representing a group of plaintiffs against the Archdiocese of Quebec, the accusation dates back to 1987 and 1988, when the alleged victim was 17 years old.

Arsenault said he expects additional victims to join the lawsuit, which originated in 2022 and initially involved 101 people who were allegedly “sexually assaulted” by priests and laypeople since 1940.

The new court documents, AFP notes, list 46 new alleged victims, bringing the total number of people suing the archdiocese to 147.

Lacroix, 66, is a member of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope…

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Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, one of the top Roman Catholic clergymen in Canada, on Friday stepped down temporarily after he was named in a class-action lawsuit against the church that alleged sexual assault.Local media said Lacroix’s name had been added to a list of alleged perpetrators filed in a Quebec court on Thursday.In a statement, the Quebec diocese said Lacroix, 66, had announced to co-workers he was temporarily withdrawing from his activities until the situation could be clarified.

“He categorically denies the allegations against him,” it said. The lawsuit, authorized by the court in 2022, represents more than 100 people who were alleged to have been sexually assaulted by 88 priests and staff working at the Quebec diocese starting in 1940.It also names Marc Ouellet, a former Vatican cardinal from Canada who stepped down from his position last year. Last December, Ouellet, 79, said he was suing a woman who accused him…

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This is the first installment in a three-part story.

When the words “sexual assault” and “evangelical” are used in the same sentence, does the sexual assault scandal that has roiled the Southern Baptist Convention come to mind? In August 2022, the SBC announced it was under investigation by the Department of Justice; it was just the latest tumble in a years-long, but well-deserved and long overdue downfall.

In February 2019, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News collaborated on “Abuse of Faith,” a sprawling six-part series that exposed a massive cover-up of sexual assault in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. In response to outcry among Southern Baptist pastors, the Convention asked the investigative firm Guidepost Solutions to determine the extent of the cover-up.

Guidepost released its report in May 2022. It makes for horrifying reading. Though Guidepost was only tasked with investigating cases dating after the turn of the century, it ultimately uncovered…

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The Diocese of Orange and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have reached a combined $10 million settlement in a clergy child sex abuse case involving two of Orange County’s most notorious predators, attorneys with a high-profile sexual abuse law firm announced on Friday, Jan. 26.

The settlement — which includes $9.5 million from the Diocese of Orange and $500,000 from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles — heads off what was expected to be among the first to go to trial of a massive wave of lawsuits filed against Roman Catholic dioceses statewide by now-adult survivors who were given a three-year window under state law to file civil complaints regarding decades-old abuse.

It is believed to be the single largest settlement received by an individual against a religious organization, said attorney Morgan Stewart, whose Irvine-based firm — Manly, Stewart & Finaldi — represents more than 200 alleged clergy sexual abuse victims across…

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A Canadian cardinal and key ally of Pope Francis has been named in a class action sexual abuse lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec, with the specific charge being that he inappropriately touched a 17-year-old girl on two occasions in 1987 and 1988.

Cardinal Gérald Lacroix’s name was added to a list of alleged perpetrators in the class action suit in court filings Thursday. The lawsuit was authorized in 2022, and covers anyone who was sexually assaulted by personnel of the Archdiocese of Quebec since 1940.

Lacroix becomes the second Canadian cardinal to be named in the lawsuit, after allegations were lodged against Cardinal Marc Ouellet in 2022 over alleged inappropriate touching said to have occurred in 2008. A Vatican investigation later found “no grounds” for any action against Ouellet, who filed a counter-suit against his accuser for defamation in December 2022.

Ouellet’s accuser later claimed that two other women…

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Pastor, author, and Christian entrepreneur, Mike Breen, has resigned as lead communicator at Apex Church in Dayton, Ohio, over alleged “sexual misconduct” with a “vulnerable” church member.

That’s according to a Jan. 15 statement from 3DMovements (3DM), an international coaching ministry for churches and pastors that Breen founded in 2004. Breen is no longer associated with 3DM. However, he leads a similar organization now, called Discipling Culture Collective.

“Mike Breen carried on an extended sexual affair with a vulnerable member of (Apex) church, which he has been leading,” the 3DM statement read. “Mike has confessed to the allegations of sexual misconduct and resigned from his leadership position at Apex.”

The 3DM statement added that Apex Church hired an independent agency to investigate the allegations against Breen. The investigation reportedly “found evidence that Mike also abused his power through bullying and intimidation,…

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An American founder of a Haitian orphanage forced four boys who lived in the institution to engage in sexual acts more than a decade ago, a prosecutor said Friday.

Michael Geilenfeld, 71, is a “dangerous, manipulative and cunning child sexual predator” who for decades has preyed on poor children while working abroad as a missionary, Jessica Urban, a prosecutor with the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, said during a detention hearing in Denver federal court.

Her statements marked the first time authorities have disclosed details of the investigation that led to Geilenfeld’s Jan. 18 indictment in Florida on charges of child sexual abuse. Urban, speaking via a video feed, offered the evidence to support her argument that Geilenfeld should not be released on bond as his case proceeds. She said authorities fear he or his supporters will try to intimidate victims to prevent them from testifying…

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[See also the letter by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann]

Parents at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lenexa are alarmed and asking questions over this month’s appointment of a priest — alleged in 2021 of sexual abuse of a minor – as the parish’s new senior associate pastor.

The group also has concerns about how they learned about Fr. John Pilcher’s appointment and his background. They first heard the news on Jan. 13 when Pilcher disclosed it to the congregation during Mass.

“I want to be totally transparent,” Pilcher said during his homily, which was recorded and posted on YouTube. “If you Google my name, you will find that back in 2021 when I was pastor at Mater Dei (Catholic Church in Topeka), an allegation was brought up against me.”

That allegation involved the sexual abuse of a minor. The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said…

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At least 1,259 people working for the Protestant Church of Germany have committed sexual abuse in the last decades and at least 2,225 victims were affected by the abuse according to an independent report published Thursday.

The numbers are based on the study of documents and files from the regional churches and the Lutherans’ diaconal relief and social welfare organization, known as Diakonie.

However, the authors said they were not able to analyze the personnel files of all pastors and deacons within the church, but primarily disciplinary files. They estimated that the real number of perpetrators is much higher, with nearly 3,500 people who have committed sexual abuse, German news agency dpa reported.

“It’s the tip of the tip of the iceberg,” said Martin Wazlawik from Hannover University, who coordinated the study on sexualized violence in the Protestant Church in Germany.

The church commissioned the study in 2020 and financed…

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More than 9,000 children and teenagers are estimated to have been sexually abused in Germany’s Protestant Church since 1946, according to a new report. Critics say these findings reveal only the “tip of the iceberg.

[See the report.]

The number of victims of sexual abuse in the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) is much higher than previously thought, according to a new report published on Thursday.

Commissioned by the EKD in 2020 for around €3.6 million ($3.92m), the report constitutes the first comprehensive study into sexual abuse of children and young people in the EKD since the end of World War II, and its findings represent a huge increase on the 900 previously known cases.

What the report into abuse in the Protestant Church said

The independent researchers said that at least 1,259 perpetrators commited acts of sexual abuse upon 2,174 victims. 

However, the number of unavailable files meant that the…

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An Italian priest and ex-altar boy has been convicted to 2 years and 6 months in prison for committing sexual abuse against a minor, a student he was tutoring in a vocational institute.

The Vatican has handed down its first-ever conviction for sexual abuse committed on its grounds to an Italian priest, Gabriele Martinelli, 31, who had previously been acquitted of the same and other crimes for lack of evidence.

Martinelli is a former student of Saint Pius X Pre Seminary, a vocational institute in the Vatican that hosts the pope’s altar boys. In 2020, he was first tried in court for sexually abusing a seminary student he was tutoring in August 2010, but the case has failed to find him guilty of the charges.

That initial verdict was reversed on Tuesday, when a Vatican court found Martinelli guilty of abusing the trust of the student and forcing him to…

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In 1968, Pope St. Paul VI promulgated the encyclical letter Humanae Vitae, closing the discussion about whether the Roman Catholic Church should revise its stance on birth control. Paul offered several reasons for reiterating the church’s long-standing prohibition, one being that, in his opinion, the use of contraception would lead to the depersonalization of women. 

The document states, “A man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.” 

Today, conservative Catholics frequently reference Paul VI’s prognostications in an attempt to connect sexual abuse and misconduct with the phenomenon of contraceptive use. 

In July 2018, the National Catholic Register published a…

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Lawmakers hope a compromise will get Catholic lobbyists on board

After failing a year ago, Washington state lawmakers are trying again this session to pass a bill that would make clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect. 

Senate Bill 6298 would add clergy to the list of mandatory reporters in Washington. And the bill’s main sponsor, state Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, hopes a compromise regarding whether clergy should still report information obtained during a confession will be enough to win over Catholic lobbyists, who proved to be the main obstacle to passing the law last year. 

“I cannot handle the idea that a member of a faith community, a leader in a faith community, would stand on the sidelines when they believe a child is at imminent risk of abuse or harm,” Frame said in a legislative committee hearing discussing the bill Thursday. “I really hope this is the middle path.”

…

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Backtracking in proposed legislation keeps children at risk

On Thursday, January 25th, the Human Services Committee of the Washington state Senate will hold a public hearing on SB 6298 , “an act relating to the duty of the clergy to report child abuse or neglect.” This new bill has been introduced following the failure of previous legislation (SB 5280 ) that included an amendment that made members of clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse, without offering an exception for information about a child that may be at risk for abuse that was obtained during private pastoral communication.

 Under pressure from Catholic bishops , state Senate lawmakers have introduced a new bill that bypasses the amendment to the previous legislation brought by the House Human Services, Youth, & Early Learning Committee, by putting the clergy exemption back into the bill. If they succeed, clergy will be effectively exempt from reporting child abuse and neglect…

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