ABUSE TRACKER

QUESTION CORNER Q: I read that Father Marko Rupnik (the famous mosaic artist who has been credibly accused of sexual abuse) was expelled from the Jesuit order but remains a priest. How does that work? (Flushing, New York)

A: First for some background, priesthood and religious life are actually two distinct vocations, even if they often go together in many cases. Religious life is a call to follow Christ more closely by living a vowed life in community according to the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. On the other hand, priesthood is a sacramental sharing in Christ’s mission of sanctification, with a priest being specially empowered to celebrate the sacraments, particularly by making Jesus truly present in the Eucharist.

There are male religious who are not priests, called religious brothers. Conversely, there are priests who are not members of religious communities. Still, there is no such thing as a…

How does safeguarding work now in the Church of England?

Every parish church, cathedral, church plant or other local church body has a safeguarding policy and a volunteer appointed to act as safeguarding officer. They are supposed to be a first point of contact for disclosures of abuse, promote good practice and training, and uphold the policies.

Then, each diocese also has a diocesan safeguarding adviser (DSA). This person, often with a background in social work or the police, is responsible for leading safeguarding training and advice in the diocese. They, and whatever team the diocese has, may manage directly cases arising from their area and liaise with other statutory agencies such as the police or social services if a particular case involves a priest or church officer. There has been controversy around the exact powers of the DSA and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has recommended they become…

ROME – Argentinian Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, Pope Francis’s pick as the new head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, has said that he originally declined the position in part because he feels incompetent in handling the clerical abuse crisis.

In a Facebook post Saturday, Fernández told his friends and followers that when the pope initially asked him to take over at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), “I gave him various reasons for saying no.”

“One of them is that the task includes the issue of child abuse, and I do not feel prepared nor trained for these issues,” he said, reiterating the point in a second Facebook post on Sunday in which he said the abuse crisis “pains and embarrasses us,” but insisted that “I do not feel qualified or trained to guide something like this.”

Currently the archbishop of…

A former Santa Fe priest is accused of sexually abusing a minor. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Daniel Balizan was arraigned in front of a federal judge this morning.

He’s accused of sexually abusing a minor from 2012 to 2022 while he was a priest of the Santa Maria de La Paz Catholic Church in Santa Fe.

Balizan is also facing two lawsuits, claiming he did the same thing to two other minors while at the Santa Fe church.

He’s being held at a half-way house until trial, and a date has not been set.

A spokesperson for Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, the Vatican’s newly appointed head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, responded to accusations that he has been soft on sex abusers by firmly denying the allegations.

In an email to CNA late Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of La Plata, Argentina, said that “the archbishop never expressed that he did not believe them [the victims], beyond what some blogs that issue free opinions may have said.”

“When asked by the journalists, the archbishop clearly responded that ‘when someone presents an accusation of this type, in principle, THEY ARE ALWAYS BELIEVED, but beyond that, an investigation and due process are necessary because the legislation itself establishes it,’” the spokesperson wrote.

Fernández, who turns 61 later this month, has served as the archbishop of La Plata since 2018.

As Pope Francis’ newest Vatican appointment, Fernández has faced significant criticism,  View Cache

A bishop accountability group that tracks sexual abuse in the Catholic Church released a statement July 1 voicing serious concerns about Pope Francis’ new appointment of Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández to head the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The group keeps an online database of sexual abuse by clergy on its website, BishopAccountability.org.

In its statement, written by co-director Anne Barrett Doyle, the group called Fernández’s appointment “a baffling and troubling choice” for a position that “will have immense power, especially when it comes to judging and punishing priests who abuse children.”

Fernández, who is almost 61, has served as the archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, since 2018.

Pope Francis announced Fernández’s appointment to the influential dicastery on July 1. A longtime personal theologian and ghostwriter for the pope, Fernández is expected to take up his new post in mid-September.

“As the new prefect of the Dicastery for…

Several survivors of alleged priest abuse and other advocates gathered in Orinda near the Church of Santa Maria.

The group protested an accused priest who is still ministering.

NBC Bay Area first reported on the story of Father George Mockel on June 30. He’s named in a “John Doe” lawsuit against the Oakland Diocese for allegedly sexually abusing a teenage altar boy in the mid-1970’s.

The bishop and Mockel deny the allegations.

The protesters who gathered in Orinda Sunday said they want Mockel suspended and more transparency from the church concerning accused priests.

“He’s in ministry. He’s not supposed to be in ministry. He should have been suspended,” said Dan McNevin with the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. “The policy of the church is to suspend those who have been accused and to investigate…

The Archdiocese of Baltimore on Friday added the names of 42 people to its online list of priests and brothers accused of child sexual abuse.

One of the accused, the Rev. Michael Miller, taught religion at Archbishop Curley High School in the 1990s and was later arrested in Connecticut for possessing child sex abuse materials, according to the archdiocese.

Most of the people, 39 in total, were identified last April in the Maryland attorney general’s 464-page report on the history of child sexual abuse within the church. None of the 39 had served in the archdiocese for years, and 33 of them are dead, according to the church.

Archdiocese officials also added three additional names to the list; these three had not been identified in the attorney general’s report. They are Miller and the Revs. Phillip Linden and Joseph O’Meara.

The Baltimore Banner previously…

Archbishop Fernández’ appointment is significant in light of the Church’s ongoing synod process.

The appointment of Archbishop Victor Fernández to lead the Church’s doctrine office has set off an ecclesial earthquake. Not only has Pope Francis chosen a trusted theological adviser and fellow Argentinian to lead one of the most important Holy See offices, but he has announced a total overhaul in how the doctrine department does business. 

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the oldest department in the Roman Curia, is responsible for doctrine and discipline and was formerly known as the Holy Office responsible for the Inquisition.

During the 20th century, including under the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, it gained a reputation for investigating and silencing theologians. Some recent high-profile cases include Fr Jacques Dupuis, a Belgian Jesuit, and Fr Tony Flannery, an Irish Redemptorist, who said he experienced…

The priest selected by Pope Francis to lead Vatican investigations of child sex abuse helped cover up such abuse in Argentina, according to a watchdog group.

Victor Manuel Fernandez, 60, was chosen Saturday to lead the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse allegations against members of the clergy.

Bishop Accountability, a U.S.-based organization that tracks allegations against priests, called Fernandez’s appointment “baffling and troubling.”

“Fernandez’s recent handling of a clergy sex abuse case in his home archdiocese of La Plata raises great concern,” said Bishop Accountability co-director Anne Barrett Doyle. “In his response to allegations, he stood in stout support of the accused priest and refused to believe the victims.”

La Plata priest Eduardo Lorenzo was accused of child sex abuse in February 2019. Fernandez publicly backed the alleged perv and said the accusers had alternate motivations. While Lorenzo was investigated…

Pope Francis’s decision to appoint Argentine Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is “a baffling and troubling choice,” Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, said in a statement.

BishopAccountability.org hosts the largest public collection of information on the clergy abuse crisis.

“Fernández’s recent handling of a clergy sex abuse case in his home Archdiocese of La Plata raises great concern,” said Doyle. “In his response to allegations, he stood in stout support of the accused priest and refused to believe the victims.”

“Showing disregard for the safety of children, Fernández kept the priest at his parish post even as more victims came forward,” Doyle added. “For his handling of this case, Fernández should have been investigated, not promoted to one of the highest posts in the global Church. Nothing about his performance suggests he is fit to lead the Pope’s battle against…

Editor’s note: Join John Dougherty for a discussion of this and other films by visiting the Catholic Movie Club on Facebook.

July is Blockbuster Month at the Catholic Movie Club! Blockbusters are movies at their most maximalist: the ones that draw the biggest crowds and earn the biggest box office. Often they’re dismissed as empty noise, but they can also hold deep insights about God and life. So join me as we dig into some of the biggest summer movies of all time and search for the soul in the spectacle.

There is no better place to start than with the original blockbuster: “Jaws” (1975). Directed by the then-unknown Steven Spielberg, “Jaws” made a record-shattering amount of money, reinvented the summer movie landscape and still frequently appears on “best of” lists (including the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest American Films).

In “Jaws,” a ravenous great white shark prowls the waters…

A Maryland judge acquitted a former Catholic high school wrestling coach Friday in a sex abuse case.

Neil Adleberg, 75, of Reisterstown, had been charged with second-degree rape, second-degree attempted rape, sex abuse of a minor and sexual solicitation of a minor. His was the sole indictment stemming from the state’s attorney general’s yearslong investigation into child sex abuse and coverups within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Outside the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, Adleberg thanked his family and friends who stuck with him and the judge for his “attentiveness to the facts,” news outlets reported. The accusations prevented him from participating in Maryland wrestling and helping other young wrestlers, he said.

“I have to regain that reputation somehow,” Adleberg said. “The wrestling community in Maryland, in my opinion, has suffered a little bit because for the year and a half that I’ve been waiting for a trial. I…

A Roman Catholic priest removed last year from his parish church in Santa Fe was arrested Thursday on a federal charge alleging that he sexually assaulted a boy in 2012.

Daniel Balizan, 61, a former pastor at Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Community in Santa Fe, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury for a reported case of child sexual abuse in August and September of 2012, according to the indictment.

Balizan is scheduled for his first appearance on Friday before Magistrate Judge Jennifer Rozzoni in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. If convicted, Balizan faces 10 years to life in prison.

A Tennessee man filed a lawsuit in 2022 alleging that Balizan sexually assaulted him a decade ago when he was 15 years old. The alleged abuse occurred on the premises of Santa Maria de la Paz Church, where Balizan served as pastor from 2012 to 2022,…

Then a professor at Notre Dame, the supreme court justice was on a board that selected Jon Balsbaugh to head the Trinity Schools

A senior administrator of Christian private schools closely linked to People of Praise, conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett’s controversial faith group, abruptly resigned from his post earlier this year following complaints that allegations of teacher misconduct had been mishandled.

Jon Balsbaugh, an influential figure within the Christian education movement, was appointed president of Trinity Schools in February 2017, after being selected by a board of trustees that included Barrett, who was a professor at Notre Dame at the time.

Trinity is closely affiliated with People of Praise, the covenanted Christian charismatic community that has counted Barrett as a lifelong member. Her role as a trustee of Trinity from July 2015 to March 2017 is controversial in part because she served at a time when the…

‘No one would remove Caravaggio’s paintings because of his grave moral mistakes’

The Gozo diocese has said it is “distinguishing between the artist and the work of art” following the expulsion from the Jesuits of the famous artist priest Marko Rupnik, who is behind the mosaics that adorn Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary,  in Gozo.

Catholic commentators have raised the question of what should be done with Rupnik’s art after he was accused of “spiritual, psychological or sexual abuse” of multiple women, including nuns, over the course of more than 30 years. 

Asked a similar question, the spokesperson for the Gozo diocese told Times of Malta that one had to distinguish between the artist and the work of art.

“No one would ever imagine removing Caravaggio’s paintings because of the grave moral mistakes he committed. Even though we are here speaking of sacred art, the same argument applies,” he said.

A similar conclusion was…

The Brothers of St. John Community in France published on June 26 the findings of its internal investigation into a system of sexual and spiritual abuse initiated and propagated by its founder, Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, a charismatic figure who died in 2006.

The 800-page report, titled “Understanding and Healing: Origins and Analysis of Abuse in the St. John Family,” revealed that since its foundation in 1975, 167 people have been victims of abuse committed by 72 brothers — about 8% of all the brothers belonging to the community since its creation.

In a press release, the brothers stated that the majority of incidents have been committed against adult women in the context of spiritual accompaniment and that they range from inappropriate language to rape.

The fruit of a three-year investigation, the report was commissioned after the release, at the community’s general chapter in 2019, of a…

A U.S.-based group that tracks how the Catholic hierarchy deals with allegations of sexual abuse by clergy says Pope Francis made a “troubling” choice in appointing an Argentine prelate to a powerful Vatican office that handles such cases.

On Saturday, the Vatican announced the pontiff had picked Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernández, archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, to head the Holy See’s watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy. Its mandate includes handling sex abuse allegations lodged against clergy.

BishopAccountability.org, a 20-year-old Massachusetts organization that maintains an online archive of abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, said in a statement that the prelate in 2019 refused to believe victims who accused a priest in the La Plata archdiocese of sexually abusing boys.

Francis “made a baffling and troubling choice,’’ the group said in statement emailed late Saturday in the U.S., citing how Fernández handled the case.

“In his response to allegations,…

The Archdiocese of Baltimore added more than 40 names to its public list of Catholic Church staff credibly accused of sexually abusing children, including for the first time deacons, nuns and lay teachers.

The additions, approved at the direction of Archbishop William Lori, mark the largest single expansion of the archdiocese’s credibly accused list since it first published 57 names in 2002 as part of its response to the national clergy abuse scandal. With Friday’s update, the church’s list now runs to more than 180 names.

Although the vast majority of newly added names already were known publicly — 41 of 42 had been published either in news reports or in the Maryland Attorney General’s Office report on eight decades of clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups in the archdiocese — the church said the move demonstrated its commitment to transparency.

The attorney general’s report identified 36 priests, brothers, nuns, deacons…

In an unexpected and highly significant move, Pope Francis has appointed the Argentine theologian and archbishop Victor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández as the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican announced today.

Pope Francis wrote a letter to the new prefect in which he told him in Spanish, “As prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, I entrust to you a task that I consider invaluable. It has as its main purpose to safeguard the teaching that comes from the faith ‘to give reasons for our hope, but not as an enemy who critiques and condemns.’ (Evangelii Gaudium, 271).”

“The dicastery that you will preside over in other epochs came to use immoral methods. Those were times when more than promoting theological knowledge they chased after possible doctrinal errors. What I expect from you is something without doubt much different,” Francis…

Pope Francis has named an Argentine theologian and prolific author who decades ago wrote a book on the healing properties of kissing to be the Catholic Church’s new doctrinal chief, one of the Vatican’s top posts.

A Vatican statement on Saturday said Francis had chosen fellow Argentine Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez to be the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF).

The DDF, modern-day successor of the notorious Inquisition which persecuted heretics, is tasked with promoting and safeguarding doctrine on faith and morals. It monitors theological work to make sure it adheres to Church doctrine and issues guidance, clarifications, and corrections.

In an apparent reference to the Inquisition, known for torture and executions in Medieval times, Francis said in a letter to Fernandez that in the past the department had used “immoral methods” and itself made doctrinal mistakes.

The powerful post of DDF prefect was held…

The controversial Argentine theologian Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández is the new prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Vatican announced July 1 that the Archbishop of La Plata would succeed the 79-year-old Spanish Jesuit Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer as head of the dicastery, as well as president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and the International Theological Commission. Fernández, who will take up the role in mid-September, is the first Latin American to serve as the dicastery’s prefect.

Since Francis’ election in 2013, Fernández has been known as an influential papal theological adviser. He has been described as the “ghostwriter” of several papal documents, including the 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia, which sparked intense debate with its reference to the admission of divorced and remarried Catholics to Holy Communion. 

Alongside the announcement of the appointment, the Vatican released a July 1 letter from Pope Francis to the…

A Texas judge has dismissed a Carmelite monastery’s civil lawsuit against Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson.

Without comment, Tarrant County District Court Judge Don Cosby, sitting in Fort Worth, issued a ruling June 30 granting the Fort Worth Diocese’s motion to dismiss the monastery’s complaint, which accused Olson of theft, defamation, and abuse of power.

In response, Matthew Bobo, attorney for the Carmelite nuns of the Most Holy Trinity Monastery in Arlington, Texas, said his client would appeal the decision.

“We are shocked, extremely disappointed, and respectfully disagree with Judge Crosby’s decision,” Bobo said in a statement.

“This decision indicates that anyone who goes into a Catholic church in Texas can be required to turn over his mobile device, the church can make a copy of all of its contents, keep them for an indefinite period of time, trounce private citizens’ constitutionally-protected civil liberties, and that the Catholic Church may…

The announcement on July 1 that Pope Francis has named Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández to lead the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith was accompanied by a letter the Holy Father addressed to the Argentine theologian.

While Fernández’s appointment came as a surprise to many, the pope’s letter also has attracted attention because of what it reveals about Francis’ vision for the dicastery, one of the most important and powerful offices in the Roman Curia.

The pope says in the letter that the dicastery at times has promoted pursuing “doctrinal errors” over “promoting theological knowledge.”

“What I expect from you is certainly something very different,” Francis said. “I ask you as prefect to dedicate your personal commitment in a more direct way to the main purpose of the dicastery, which is ‘guarding the faith.’”

Quoting from his first apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, which Fernández reportedly helped to draft, Pope Francis…

Pope Francis on Saturday chose a bishop who is a trusted theological advisor from his native Argentina for one of the Vatican’s most powerful positions — head of the watchdog office that ensures doctrinal orthodoxy.

Francis named Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernández, the archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, as the prefect, or chief, of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Fernández has been nicknamed the “pope’s theologian″ since he is widely believed to have helped author some of Francis’ most important documents.

The Dicastery, or department, enforces orthodoxy of church teaching and disciplines theologians deemed to have strayed from Catholic doctrine in their lectures or publications. But it has taken on considerably more importance to rank-and-file faithful as the stain of pedophile priests spread across the globe in recent decades. Among the department’s duties are evaluating and processing sex abuse…

New prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith publicly defended and retained priest with multiple allegations: Statement by Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, BishopAccountability.org

Pope Francis has appointed a fellow Argentine, Archbishop Victor Fernández, to head the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). The Pope and the archbishop know each other well; Fernández has been called one of Francis’ “closest collaborators.”

As DDF prefect, Fernández will have immense power, especially when it comes to judging and punishing priests who abuse children. It will be up to Fernández to implement and enforce Pope’s zero tolerance pledge. To do this, he will need to make child protection and justice for victims his highest priority. 

But the Pope has made a baffling and troubling choice: Fernández’ recent handling of a clergy sex abuse case in his home archdiocese of La Plata raises great concern. In his response to…

The Archdiocese of Baltimore added 42 names to its list of those accused of child sexual abuse, but some survivors told WJZ the church should have made them public long ago. 

It is one of the biggest expansions of the list since the archdiocese began publishing it 21 years ago.

WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren spoke to Dave Lorenz of the Survivors Network of Those Abuse by Priests.

“They had to be forced into revealing these names by the Attorney General and by supporters and by the press,” Lorenz said. “All three combined have made them so embarrassed that they had to publish these names.”

Thirty-three of the newly-named people on the list are dead.

Many were included in the Maryland Attorney General’s landmark report detailing decades of abuse within and enabled by the church.

“All of this is simply rubbing salt into the wound,” Lorenz said….

The list of priests and brothers accused of child sexual abuse grew by dozens of names, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced on Friday.

| VIDEO ABOVE: Attorneys to sue archdiocese over child sex abuse (May 2023)

The archdiocese voluntarily began publishing its online list in 2002. The addition of the names comes after Baltimore Archbishop William Lori made a recommendation to the Independent Review Board and is an acknowledgment of the Maryland attorney general’s recommendation that the archdiocese expand the list.

“Today’s transparency and culture of child protection in the church certainly does not erase the untold trauma, deep pain and lasting anguish of those who have been impacted by child sexual abuse,” Lori said in a statement.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office spent years on an investigation before it released a report in April that paints a damning picture of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which is the oldest Catholic…

A representative of Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests visited Peoria on Friday to publicize the names of 10 priests who are not on the Peoria Catholic Diocese’s list of those credibly accused of sexual abuse.

“We want church officials in Peoria to publicize these names,” St. Louis resident David Clohessy, a representative of SNAP, said while standing outside the Peoria Diocese offices Friday afternoon.

Beside Clohessy, Darin Buckman, a former Chillicothe resident and an abuse survivor, held a list of names.

“We are asking the bishop to come clean and list every single child-molesting cleric — proven, admitted and credibly accused — who was, or is, in the diocese, whether it was for two decades or two days. Because that’s what the bishop promised, that’s what will protect kids, that’s what will help heal victims, and that’s what will help restore the faith of so many disillusioned Catholics.”

A representative of  View Cache

Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial on criminal sexual abuse charges in Massachusetts, a mental health expert hired by the state said after examining the disgraced ex-prelate.

The update in the case could lead to the dismissal of the first criminal charges against McCarrick, 92, following several accusations of sexual abuse of minors and seminarians, which led to his removal from the clerical state in 2019. Criminal sexual assault charges filed against McCarrick in Wisconsin in April are still pending, as are a number of civil lawsuits.

McCarrick is charged in state court with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14 relating to allegations that he sexually abused the teenager who was a family friend at a wedding ceremony in the 1970s at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. 

That teenager was identified by NorthJersey.com in February as James…

Kenneth Lewis, 62, entered the plea Thursday to a felony count of aggravated sexual abuse in a deal with Cook County prosecutors that saw other charges against him dropped, including predatory criminal sexual assault.

A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting a boy more than two decades ago at an Evanston hotel.

Kenneth Lewis, 62, entered the plea Thursday to felony aggravated sexual abuse in a deal with Cook County prosecutors that saw other charges dropped, including predatory criminal sexual assault, court records show.

Lewis was immediately sentenced by Cook County Judge Anjana Hansen and will be required to register as a sex offender for life after his release.

Known as “Father Ken,” Lewis was charged in 2018

The former Tulsa, Oklahoma, pastor was accused of sexually assaulting the 13-year-old boy on a trip in the summer of 2001,  View Cache

The Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled Friday that a state law that extended time limits for filing suit against priests who molested children does not also change the time limits for filing suit against church higher-ups who supervised the offending priests.

The high court upheld a ruling by a Superior Court judge who had dismissed three lawsuits against officials of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence brought by people who said they were abused by priests when they were children.

Ruling draws the line of who is a perpetrator

The Supreme Court ruled that the General Assembly, when it changed state law to extend the time limits, clearly drew a distinction between those who perpetrated sexual abuse against children and those who were not actual perpetrators.

More:Can the Diocese of Providence be sued over clergy sexual abuse? Appeal argues it was a perpetrator

“The alleged conduct of the…

As the Diocese of Oakland attempts to seal the names of accused clergy during its ongoing bankruptcy case, NBC Bay Area has learned two working East Bay priests are among those alleged to have abused children in a recent wave of civil lawsuits.

At least two priests actively serving Catholic parishes in the East Bay are among hundreds of Bay Area clergy being accused of abusing children in a flood of recent lawsuits.

On a legal call with its bankruptcy creditors last week, the Diocese revealed two of its accused priests are still in ministry, according to a plaintiff’s attorney and a former Oakland priest who were on the call.

One of the active priests now facing abuse allegations is Fr. George Mockel, the current pastor of Santa Maria parish in Orinda, which NBC Bay Area has confirmed through a review of state court records.

In a civil lawsuit filed last…

Less than a month after finalizing the ouster of one of its largest churches for having women pastors, the Southern Baptist Convention has lost another of its biggest congregations.

Elevation Church — a North Carolina-based megachurch that draws thousands of worshippers to its multiple campuses and has wielded a strong influence on contemporary Christian worship music — sent notice to the SBC on June 26 that it was withdrawing its affiliation.

Elevation’s letter didn’t state a reason. Elevation Pastor Steven Furtick’s wife, Holly Furtick, preaches at Elevation to men and women, and has links to her sermons on her website.

The Baptist Faith and Message — the denomination’s statement of faith — says the office of pastor is limited to qualified men. Influential Southern Baptist leaders have said that preaching is inextricably linked to the role of pastor.

Earlier in June, the SBC representatives overwhelmingly voted at their…

Diocese of Oakland priest accused of child sexual abuse in a current lawsuit still in ministry in Orinda

As far as SNAP can tell, the faithful were never alerted and the cleric was never suspended

Survivors’ group wonders why the promises of the Dallas Charter were ignored?

Victims and advocates urge Bishop Michael Barber to be transparent with the parishioners of his Diocese and the public and explain why this happened

WHAT: Holding signs at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and advocates will:

— Discuss whether the failure of the Diocese of Oakland to remove an accused priest from ministry while the claim is still pending, along with the recent motion in bankruptcy court to hide the names of those sued in the civil window, is part of a deliberate strategy to keep information about child sexual abuse secret;

— Urge Bishop Michael Barber to come clean to…

The adult sons of Michigan Episcopal Bishop Prince Singh have publicly accused their father of physically abusing them throughout their childhoods, and the bishop has requested a formal church investigation of the allegations.

Singh, the former Bishop of Rochester, has served as bishop provisional of the combined dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan since 2022.

Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry’s office acknowledged the request for an investigation under Title IV of the canons, and issued a statement saying: “Please be assured that these allegations are being taken seriously, and that Bishop Curry has been in contact with Bishop Singh’s sons and his ex-spouse during the past several months.”

“It is my firm belief and hope that the investigation will determine that I have not broken my vows to the church and my adherence to the canons,” Singh said in a message to…

(REVIEW) America got a glimpse of the happy Duggar family in an hour-long special, “14 Kids and Counting,” way back in 2004. They kept having kids, soaking up viral fame in the reality TV era and raising questions about big families, home schooling and Christianity in America.

Americans would become so captivated by this well-behaved Christian family that 10 seasons of “19 Kids and Counting” would showcase the happy family. However, behind the smiling faces were dark secrets and a religion that resembled a cult. These were the real lives of the Duggar children, who are now growing up and starting families of their own. 

“Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” is the latest docuseries from Amazon Prime that focuses on the family and its connections to the nonprofit organization Institute in Basic Life Principles, created by an unordained teacher named Bill Gothard, who was based in the Chicago suburb of…

A 76-year-old Bill Gothard reportedly told teenager Emily Anderson that he loved her, put a hand on her thigh, then took her by the hand and escorted her up to his office. All the while, a man was there, working on his computer and witnessing Gothard’s grooming for abuse, Anderson says.

For the first time, Anderson, an alleged victim of Gothard’s sexual abuse, is publicly naming the male witness she described in the hit Amazon docuseries “Happy Shiny People.” The witness is David Waller, brother-in-law to disgraced reality TV star Josh Duggar, Anderson wrote yesterday on her Thriving Forward Facebook page. Waller’s wife, Priscilla Waller, is the sister of Josh Duggar’s wife, Anna Duggar.

Waller also is a pastor at Fairpark Baptist Church, an Independent Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Anderson hadn’t released Waller’s name for the documentary, which was the “biggest…

A judge in Texas has ruled that a district court does not have jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit brought by a monastery of Carmelite nuns against Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth.

The decision, handed down on Friday, June 30, ruled that the nuns’ suit is “dismissed for want of subject-matter jurisdiction.” Responding to the decision, Bishop Olson said in a statement that he is “grateful.” 

“The decision vindicates our steadfast belief that this is a private Church matter that does not belong in the courts,” Bishop Olson. “This matter will continue to proceed through an established canonical process.”

The bishop also asked “the faithful for their continued prayers for the Diocese, Mother Teresa Agnes, and all of the nuns at the monastery.” 

The civil attorney acting for the sisters, Matthew Bobo, said he would appeal the decision dismissing the case on which the sisters accused the…

In the latest development in the ongoing dispute between a Texas Carmelite monastery and the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, former prioress Theresa Gerlach admitted to sexual misconduct and identified the priest involved as “Father Bernard Marie” in an audio recording played in court Tuesday.

Though Gerlach identified the man involved as a member of the Transalpine Redemptorists religious order, CNA has learned that the man allegedly involved is a priest from the Diocese of Raleigh by the name of Father Philip Johnson, who spent time with the Redemptorists but returned back to his home diocese in May.

The audio clip containing Gerlach’s admission was played in the diocese’s testimony Tuesday in the Texas 67th District Court in Tarrant County. 

Who is Father Bernard Marie? 

Though Gerlach said Father Bernard Marie is a member of the Transalpine Redemptorists, the order claims he is a diocesan priest from Raleigh, North Carolina,…

A Roman Catholic priest who had been dismissed from his parish church in Santa Fe last year was arrested Thursday on federal charges of sexually assaulting a young boy in 2012.

Fr. Daniel M. Balizan, 61, ordained in 1989, a former pastor at Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Community in Santa Fe, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury for a reported case of child sexual abuse in August and September of 2012, according to the indictment. Court documents state that he allegedly used text messages to coerce and entice a minor victim, identified as John Doe in court documents, to engage in sexual activity with him. It is common knowledge that methods of grooming victims encompass a wide variety of tactics that include virtual communication apps, social media, and instant messaging, Balizan also used Facebook.

We stand with the…

A former priest for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, was indicted on charges that he allegedly sexually abused a minor, according to a Thursday news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Daniel Balizan, who had served as a priest in at least eight New Mexico parishes dating to 1989, is accused of coercing and enticing a child under the age of 18 to engage in sexual activity, according to the news release. If convicted, the 61-year-old would face a minimum of 10 years in prison.

The child Balizan is accused of victimizing is listed under the pseudonym John Doe. The age of the alleged victim has not been released.

“Abusing children under the veil of religious authority is an attack on the faith itself,” U.S. Attorney Alexander M.M. Uballez said in a statement. “I am humbled by the bravery of John Doe. With our partners, we will…

The name change will mean a lot to Vermonters who were victims of abuse by Catholic clergy, especially the clergy who Bishop Marshall allowed to molest children time and time again.

July 1, 2023, is a historic day. It’s the day that the name of the late Bishop John A. Marshall comes off the independent Catholic school in Morristown, which is now renamed the All Saints Catholic Academy.

For this accomplishment, I compliment the head of school, Carrie Wilson, and the school board that supported her efforts.

Marshall, who served as bishop of the Diocese of Burlington from 1972 to 1992, was likely the worst in Vermont history to serve in this position. Throughout his tenure leading the diocese, Marshall transferred from parish to parish priests who had sexually abused Catholic children. 

When those priests got to their next assignment, they abused kids again, and then were transferred again. Marshall…

[Includes a powerful three-minute video by Josh Morgan, in which James Grein talks about his journey.]

Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial on charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a New Jersey teen decades ago, an expert for the prosecution said, raising doubts about the future of a series of criminal and civil cases against the 92-year-old.

Prosecutors in Massachusetts disclosed the findings to a judge, who will ultimately rule on the once-powerful American prelate’s ability to face charges that he abused the boy at a wedding reception at Wellesley College in 1974.

McCarrick, who was the archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000 and the bishop of Metuchen earlier in the 1980s, has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty in 2021 to the Massachusetts charges. He was also charged in April with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man in Wisconsin…

An expert for the state of Massachusetts says disgraced ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 92, is not competent to participate in a criminal trial on charges of child sexual abuse, a judge said Thursday. A defense expert made the same assessment in February.

McCarrick, who led the Washington archdiocese from 2001 to 2006, was one of the U.S. Catholic Church’s star clerics until 2018, when sexual misconduct accusations began surfacing.

McCarrick faces three counts of indecent assault and battery, based on allegations that he molested a then-16-year-old family friend at a wedding reception in 1974. The possibility that McCarrick could evade a criminal trial is upsetting to the plaintiff in the case, the accuser’s lawyer said Thursday.

“My client, a courageous clergy sexual abuse victim, is obviously disappointed that the expert has concluded that former Cardinal McCarrick is incompetent to stand trial. But my client remains determined to continue with…

Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial on charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in Massachusetts decades ago, an expert for the prosecution says, raising doubts about the future of the criminal case against the 92-year-old.

Prosecutors this week disclosed the findings of their expert to the judge, who will ultimately rule on the once-powerful American prelate’s ability to face charges that he abused the boy at a wedding reception at Wellesley College in 1974.

McCarrick has maintained that he is innocent, and pleaded not guilty in September 2021. He was also charged in April with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man in Wisconsin more than 45 years ago.

In February, McCarrick’s attorneys asked the court to dismiss the case, saying a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine…

Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, announced today that Daniel Balizan was arrested on criminal charges of coercion and enticement of a minor, related to his alleged persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of a child under the age of 18 years of age to engage in sexual activity.

According to court documents, Balizan, 61, of Springer, a former priest at Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico and St. Patrick’s-St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Raton, New Mexico, allegedly used text messages to coerce and entice a minor victim, identified as John Doe in court documents, to engage in sexual activity with him.

“Abusing children under the veil of religious authority is an attack on the faith itself,” said U.S. Attorney Alexander M.M. Uballez. “I am humbled…

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe has recently received information regarding the arrest of Daniel Balizan in connection with a reported case of clergy sexual abuse involving a minor. The archdiocese promptly reported the abuse allegations to the authorities upon being informed in 2022, leading to Balizan’s immediate removal as the pastor of Santa Maria de la Paz in Santa Fe.

Most Reverend John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, urges the faithful to keep all victims of clergy sexual abuse in their prayers. The archdiocese remains fully committed to cooperating with the authorities as they conduct their investigation.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe reaffirms its zero tolerance and unwavering dedication to ensuring the safety and well-being of its community members, especially the vulnerable. It emphasizes its ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability, and support for survivors of abuse.

Anyone sexually abused as a minor or who knows about a case of…

Retired Quebec Justice André Denis has been appointed by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, OMI Lacombe Canada and the Oblates of the Province of France to lead the Oblate Safeguarding Commission, an independent examination of historical allegations of sexual abuse against Johannes Rivoire.

Rivoire, now an expelled Oblate missionary, worked in Nunavut throughout the 1960s and ’70s. In the early 1990s, he moved to France. Since that time, people in Nunavut have been pushing for his extradition so he can answer to sex-related criminal charges.

The intent of the Oblate Safeguarding Commission is to scrutinize the congregation’s response to the allegations, particularly the circumstances that allowed Rivoire to leave Canada for France. The aim is to “better understand how past allegations of abuse were addressed within the congregation and identify any improvements to Oblate policies and governance in order to better safeguard minors and ensure a high level of accountability,” according…

Working document’s format, mention of taboo topics are positive signs

hen the Vatican released the working document for the synod on synodality on June 20, many Catholics, including those calling for church reform, expressed hope that the next steps toward the October 2023 and 2024 gatherings will continue a process of dialogue, openness and potential for change.

We agree: The 60-page document, called the instrumentum laboris, includes several positive signs that the three-year synodal process may be the beginning of a significant shift in the church. At the very least, it looks like it will not be a “done deal,” as were gatherings of bishops under previous popes.

Instead, most — though not all — issues raised during synodal listening sessions around the world made it into the document that is a blueprint for the conversations in Rome in the fall. The ordination of women to the…

Rocked by years of scandals, with some still ongoing, the German Catholic church is haemorrhaging members at a record rate as its leadership proposes wildly liberal reforms to the faith.

Church attendance across Europe has declined in recent decades and the Roman Catholic church is no exception to the trend. A 2021 report from the Forschungsgruppe Weltanschauungen in Deutschland (fowid) claimed that just 4.3% of Catholics in the country report attending Mass regularly, though the range differed between 2.4% and 10.3% in different dioceses. 

Many German Roman Catholics, despite not attending Mass regularly, are still registered as members of the Church and pay the German Church Tax—but that too is changing as a new report from the newspaper Die Welt claims that a record 522,821 people have chosen to renounce their faith and leave the church. 

When deaths are taken into consideration, the German Catholic Church lost a…

After about nine months of investigation and anguish, Father John Clemens returned to the parish Sunday to hold mass, triggering the emotions of many in the sanctuary. A few days earlier, Clemens learned that sexual abuse allegations against him had been dropped.

Last September, Our Lady of Hope Catholic Mission in Rosemont received notice from the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago alleging that Clemens had sexually abused a minor. The allegations dated back approximately 50 years. The church serves residents of Rosemont, Des Plaines and even travelers on layover from nearby O’Hare Airport.

Clemens served as a pastor at Our Lady of Hope from 2008 to 2018 when he retired. He still serves as pastor emeritus for the mission when needed. The mission said in a written statement that the Archdiocese Independent Review Board, assisted by its Office of Child Abuse Investiagation and Review and outside investigators, “conducted a thorough review of…

Speed of departures has been driven by series of child abuse scandals and accusations of a cover-up

The Catholic church in Germany has revealed it is losing followers like never before, with more than half a million people deciding to renounce their membership last year.

According to the Bonn-based German Bishops’ Conference, 522,821 people left the church in 2022, a number far surpassing predictions made by the institution itself and higher than most observers had expected. The previous record year for departures was set in 2021 when just under 360,000 people left.

Thomas Schüller, a canon lawyer, said the church would struggle to recover from the fallout. “The Catholic church is dying a painful death in full view of the public,” he told German media.

The church had 21 million members, according to 2022 figures, amounting to 24.8% of the population.

The speed of the departures, driven by a series of…

German police and prosecutors searched Catholic Church properties on Tuesday in connection with a probe of the archbishop of Cologne in western Germany over perjury allegations, authorities said.

The searches included the vicar general’s office and the premises of an IT company that provides email services to the archdiocese headed by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki. They also included Woelki’s home, German news agency dpa reported.

The cardinal is under investigation on suspicion of having falsely testified to court about when he became aware of reports of clergy sexual abuse in the archdiocese.

Thirty police officers and four prosecutors were involved in the raids Tuesday morning and confiscated documents, files and electronic data, Cologne Prosecutor Ulf Willuhn told reporters.

He said the material, which would take months to evaluate, was related to allegations regarding the cases of two clerics from the archdiocese. He declined to give further details about the cases.

…

Legal and professional fees paid by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo have ballooned to $12.5 million, prompting the federal judge overseeing the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to remark that he was puzzled over how the diocese was able to afford such costs.

“The question is, ‘Where is the money coming from for these legal fees?’” Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York asked the diocese’s lawyers at a recent hearing. “I’m just having trouble discerning how an entity can be profitable after paying over $12 million in legal fees, an entity of this size.”

Bucki based his comments on the diocese’s most recent monthly operating report, for the period ending April 30, which showed a $1.7 million cumulative profit over the course of the 39 months of bankruptcy proceedings. The report also showed a monthly loss of $91,735 in…

• The children of Francis X Gallagher Jr filed a wrongful death suit Tuesday 
• The law firm their grandfather founded, Gallagher, Evelius & Jones is defending the church in this suit 
• When Francis came forward, the lawsuit claims, the church refused to act on his allegations and even ‘threatened’ him for naming his alleged abuser 

A Baltimore legal dynasty famed for representing the city’s Catholic church is now suing the archdiocese, claiming that the son of a legal scion was sexually abused by a priest as a child — which ultimately drove him to a fatal overdose last year.

The children of Francis X. Gallagher Jr. filed the wrongful death suit Tuesday in the Baltimore Circuit Court, alleging that their father was sexually abused at the age of 14 while working the night shift as a receptionist at St. Mary’s Seminary.

When he came forward years later, the lawsuit claims, the church…

he head of the Archdiocese of Louisville is taking on a new role in the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis appointed Shelton Fabre to temporarily run the diocese of Knoxville in Tennessee.

He replaces Bishop Richard Stika until a permanent successor is named.

Stika, 65, resigned Tuesday following allegations that he mishandled sexual abuse allegations.

In a statement, Louisiana native Fabre said he will distribute his time between Louisville and Knoxville, but he acknowledges it will impact his presence at events and celebrations in Louisville.

Fabre was installed as Archbishop of Louisville in March of last year and is the 10th bishop and fifth archbishop to lead it.

After the Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, Stika attributed his early departure to years of life-threatening health scares, and, in part, to the physical and emotional weight of controversies surrounding his leadership.

Stika, 65, had his resignation accepted by Pope Francis on June 27 about nine years before his 75th birthday, when bishops customarily submit their resignation (he turns 66 on July 4). Stika had led the diocese since 2009, when he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI.

His exit comes after a tumultuous few years filled with allegations and two lawsuits that he mishandled sex abuse allegations on multiple occasions, along with several diocesan priest complaints about his leadership, all of which led to an Apostolic Visitation late last year.

Several Knoxville priests had accused Stika of abuses of authority and appealed to the Vatican for “merciful…

The decision comes as many states have moved to allow sex abuse lawsuits to be filed despite statute of limitation laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a ruling that allows more than 100 student sex abuse lawsuits filed against Ohio State University to proceed, despite the school’s claims that they were legally filed too late.

On Monday, the high court rejected an appeal by Ohio State University to overturn an earlier appeals court ruling, which reinstated claims that former gym students were sexually abused by Richard Strauss, a deceased doctor who used to work in the University’s athletics department.

The claims were originally dismissed after a lower court determined they were time-barred under the Ohio statute of limitations, finding that plaintiffs waited too many years after the abuses occurred to file. However, plaintiffs argued that the time limit for plaintiffs to file did not apply until 2019, when the  View Cache

Italy’s Parliament is poised to open a bicameral commission of inquiry into the disappearance of the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee, the third new investigation launched in the four decades since Emanuela Orlandi vanished on the streets of Rome.

The Senate’s Constitutional Affairs Committee on June 27 unanimously approved setting up the inquest, and full Senate approval is now expected. The Chamber of Deputies, the Italian Parliament’s lower house, gave its go ahead earlier.

Separately, Vatican and Rome prosecutors both recently reopened their investigations in the case.

Orlandi vanished 40 years ago last week, on June 22, 1983, after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See. Theories over the years have linked her disappearance at age 15 to everything from the plot to kill St. John Paul II, a financial scandal involving…

Thousands of dollars from canceled govt project went to an archdiocese, Catholic university, court is told

Thousands of dollars donated by a former Indonesian cabinet minister to the Catholic Church were ill-gotten gains from corruption in a multi-million-dollar government project, a court was told at his trial on June 27.

Prosecutors told the Central Jakarta Corruption Court that funds donated by Johnny Gerard Plate, a former communications and informatics minister, were proceeds from graft in a 4G mobile communications project worth about 10 trillion rupiah (US$ 667 million).

The funds were donated by Plate, a Catholic, in March 2022, a month after he visited Kupang, the capital of Christian-majority East Nusa Tenggara province.

According to the indictment, Plate donated one billion rupiah (some US$66,600) to the Kupang archdiocese and 500 million rupiah to Widya Mandira Catholic University.

The prosecutor said that Plate, who served as minister from October 2019…

Two sisters told an Australian court Wednesday that being sexually abused by their Jewish school’s principal broke their ability to trust and was painful to remember.

Malka Leifer was convicted of rape and other crimes in the Victoria state County Court in April after years of fighting her extradition from Israel. She watched intently on a video link from prison but didn’t visibly react as the two sisters read victim impact statements at her sentencing hearing.

Dassi Erlich, 35, was positioned in the courtroom specifically so she and Leifer could see other as she spoke about the impact of the abuse, as both Erlich and Leifer had requested.

Erlich said she was 16 when Leifer told her: “I love you like a mother.”

“I trusted her completely,” Erlich said. “The insidious nature of her sexual abuse has fractured my ability to trust forever.”

Elly Sapper, 34, later told…

The Louisiana Supreme Court on Tuesday sidestepped a ruling on the constitutionality of legislation that gives victims of childhood sexual abuse a renewed chance to file lawsuits after the usual time limits for such suits have expired.

The ruling had been highly anticipated by advocates for abuse victims, who had hoped the state’s highest court would uphold the constitutionality of legislation passed in 2021 and revised in 2022.

The legislation was passed by lawmakers under the theory that fear and stigma might have kept victims from revealing the abuse as children and into adulthood. Lawmakers debated it against the backdrop of ongoing global revelations of sex abuse of children by clergy.

The Louisiana legislation gives victims until mid-2024 to file such lawsuits if they missed deadlines to file in existing law.

Kathryn Robb, executive director of Child USAdvocacy, a national nonprofit agency that advocates for better child protection laws, decried…

Editor’s note: The Pillar’s editors, being sometimes incompetent at using their thumbs on their phone screens, mistakenly sent this report by email to all Pillar subscribers. Being committed not to inundate your inbox unexpectedly, and having done so anyway, we deeply regret the error.

Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth was in a Texas courtroom Tuesday, arguing that a civil court has no jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit filed by Carmelite nuns in the diocese, who argue that the bishop defamed them, invaded their privacy, and stole information from their electronic devices when the bishop seized them during a canonical investigation earlier this year.

During a hearing in Tarrant County’s 67th District Court, the Fort Worth diocese’s legal team played a tape of more than 30 minutes, in which Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach could be heard being questioned by Bishop Olson, conceding that while she had an inappropriate sexual relationship with…

Shortly after his resignation was announced Tuesday morning, Bishop Rick Stika told a Knoxville, Tennessee reporter that he had been sexually assaulted by a priest when he was a teenager. 

In addition to his comments June 27, the bishop named his alleged abuser in a Facebook exchange last week, in which he also told another alleged survivor of clerical sexual assault “you need to move on.”

“I’ve never covered up sexual abuse. I myself was a victim of sexual abuse when I was a freshman in high school, by a priest, and look at me,” Stika told Jared Austin of WVLT-TV. 

“I did the therapy, and I’m quite honest and open with it, so I see both sides of it. And no matter what anyone says, I would never tolerate sexual abuse of a minor or a vulnerable adult,” the bishop added.

Stika had not until recently made public any…

Bolivian prosecutors are investigating 35 members of the Catholic Church after more than a dozen victims accused them of sexual abuse, authorities said Tuesday.

The statement comes as the country is reeling from confessions of abuse that were found in the personal diary of a Spanish priest who died in Bolivia in 2009 after decades of service there.

“At present, 35 people are accused and under investigation,” Daniela Caceres, a department head at the Bolivian attorney general’s office, told a press conference. 

“We have 17 people, identified victims, but out of respect and as a precaution for the protection of the victims, we are not going to give specific details,” she added. 

Prosecutors opened an investigation following a report by the Spanish daily El Pais in April about the late Spanish priest Alfonso Pedrajas, whose diary indicated that he had abused more than 80 minors in Bolivia, where he had…

More than half a million people formally left the Catholic Church in Germany last year, significantly higher than the previous record as the church wrestles with a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy and with calls for far-reaching reform.

The German Bishops’ Conference said Wednesday that 522,821 left the church last year, up from 359,338 in 2021, the previous record. That compared with just 1,447 people joining the Catholic Church, around the same as the previous year.

The departures left the number of Catholic Church members in Germany at nearly 20.94 million, just under a quarter of the population.

In Germany, people who are formally members of a church pay a so-called “church tax” that helps finance it in addition to the regular taxes the rest of the population pay. If they register their departure with local authorities, they no longer have to pay that. There are some exemptions for…

Exclusive interview with Prior General François-Xavier Cazali after report reveals nearly 170 people were abused in the worldwide religious community over the past 35 years

The Brothers of Saint John, a worldwide apostolic religious institute founded in 1975 in France, has issued a damning report on the sexual and spiritual abuse committed by its late founder and more than 70 other members.

“To Understand and to Heal”, a historical, theological and psychological study of the community’s aberrations over the past 35 years, was released on June 26.

It reveals that 72 brothers – including Marie-Dominique Philippe, the French Dominican priest who founded the community –committed abuse between 1975-2022, out of the 871 who made profession in the congregation.

The report says some 167 members were victims of the abuse.

Though originally a French foundation, the Brothers of Saint John now have 40 priories in 21 countries around the world –…

The Church must put an end to the idolatry that leads some people to revere their religious superiors uncritically, which helps fester all types of spiritual and sexual abuse

“This dark history is not the whole of our history.” We can understand that the superior general of the Brothers of Saint John, who, after issuing a damning report on the serious sexual and mystical abuses of its founder, would like to believe in a better future for his confreres. 

But one wonders, what is “salvageable” in all this? It’s a legitimate question after reading the voluminous report, which shows that in less than fifty years some 72 members of the community abused 167 others! The evil is all the more profound in that it directly concerns the founder.

Can this congregation, which once claimed to be the vanguard of the new evangelization, continue to exist? What spirituality and charism will…

Allegations against Bishop Georges Colomb of La Rochelle go back ten years when he headed the Paris Foreign Missions (MEP); he’s the twelfth French bishop to be accused of abuse in the past year.

Bishop Georges Colomb, head of the Catholic Diocese of La Rochelle in southwestern France the past seven years, has been accused of sexually assaulting a young adult male in 2013 when the prelate was the superior general of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP).

The 70-year-old bishop has denied the accusations, which were made public on June 13, and said he will ask Pope Francis to let him temporarily step aside from his administrative and pastoral duties to allow a full inquiry to take place.

“I am stunned by these allegations, which I totally deny,” said Colomb, who is the latest of at least 12 French bishops to be accused of sexual aggression in the past…

Around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Rev. Al Humbrecht’s cell phone buzzed with a new text message from a fellow priest in the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville.

“Hallelujah. Hallelujah.”

Catholics all across East Tennessee woke up Tuesday to the news that Bishop Richard Stika had resigned, a seismic shift in church leadership that was beginning to look inevitable the longer Stika hung on. For many diocesan clergy, there is a sense of deliverance.

“There’s a sense of relief and in one sense, a sense of a kind of positive sense. Now we can start getting back to being what we’re supposed to be about, the work of Christ. Instead of the rabbit holes and distractions,” Humbrecht told Knox News.

He hopes the relief will extend to Stika as well, and he acknowledged there is much work to be done.

“Healing starts with the priests. We have been pretty much together through…

[This is an updated version of an article blogged earlier today in Abuse Tracker.]

Vatican City – The bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, resigned under pressure Tuesday following allegations he mishandled sex abuse allegations and several of his priests complained about his leadership and behavior, sparking a Vatican investigation.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Richard Stika’s resignation, according to a one-line statement from the Vatican. At 65, Stika is still 10 years below the normal retirement age for bishops.

The archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky, the Most Reverend Shelton Fabre, was named temporary administrator to run the diocese until a new bishop is installed.

Stika’s departure, after 14 years as bishop of Knoxville, closes a turbulent chapter for the southern U.S. diocese that was marked by a remarkable revolt by some of its priests, who accused Stika of abusing his authority and protecting a seminarian accused of sexual misconduct. They appealed to the…

[This is a significantly updated version of an article blogged earlier today on Abuse Tracker.]

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard Stika, the embattled leader of the Diocese of Knoxville, following a tumultuous two-year period in which the diocese was subject to a Vatican investigation and multiple lawsuits over its handling of abuse cases. 

The Vatican made the announcement in its daily bulletin on June 27 and did not list a reason for the resignation, nor did it name an immediate successor. At age 65, Stika — who has led the East Tennessee diocese since 2009 — is a full decade younger than the standard retirement age of 75 for Catholic bishops. 

For years, questions have swirled around his alleged cover-up of abuse, diocesan finances, morale among priests and the overall administration and management of the diocese. 

In an interview with NCR earlier this year,…

To the editor: We are still seeing reports of predatory behavior by Catholic priests all over the world and reports of how the Church has either done nothing or covered up the behavior and how the Church uses the confessional and the First Amendment in a way that subverts all attempts to bring perpetrators to justice.

And the Church is still one of the wealthiest organizations in the world, with enough funding to support attorneys to provide cover or evasive maneuvers for officials. Even bishops and archbishops have been implicated. So the corruption goes right to the top. I am deeply saddened by this state of affairs, which historical documents suggest has been going on for hundreds of years all over the world. Is this church a spiritual center, or is it — partly — a criminal enterprise?

Jan Kuniholm, Cheshire

German police searched properties belonging to the Archdiocese of Cologne on Tuesday as part of a perjury investigation against Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki linked to his handling of historic abuse cases, prosecutors said.

Last year, prosecutors said they were investigating whether Woelki, one of the most senior clerics in Germany’s Catholic Church, perjured himself in sworn testimony about abuse committed by a priest who died in 2019.

The archbisopric said at the time the attempt to accuse Woelki of perjury was unfounded.

“They are looking for clues that prove or refute the accusation of false testimony against Cardinal Woelki,” said lawyer Ralf Hoecker, representing the archbishop.

“It will take time until there is a result,” he said in an email, adding that in the end the case would be stopped because the cardinal had told the truth.

The Catholic Church in Germany has for years struggled to deal with the…

Police have searched properties belonging to the Catholic Church’s representative in Cologne amid accusations that Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki covered up sexual abuse cases.

Police and prosecutors in the German city of Cologne carried out raids on properties belonging to the local Catholic Church archdiocese on Tuesday as a part of a probe into Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki.

The archbishop has been accused of lying in court over his knowledge of sexual abuse cases in the church. Woelki has denied the allegations.

Police search several locations

The raids began at 8 a.m. (0600 UTC) with police searching four properties in Cologne as well as one property each in Kassel and the town of Lohfelden in Hesse. Around 30 police officers were involved in the raids.

Police also raided the premises of the IT company that supplies the email service for the archdiocese.

The searches were met with cooperation, with Woelki himself opening the door to…

Archbishop under investigation on suspicion of falsely testifying about when he became aware of clergy sexual abuse

Berlin – German police have raided properties belonging to the Catholic church in response to allegations that the archbishop of Cologne committed perjury over his knowledge of sexual abuse in the local diocese.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, one of the most senior leaders in the German Catholic church, is under investigation on suspicion of having falsely testified to court about when he became aware of reports of clergy sexual abuse.

The raids, carried out by 30 plainclothes police officers and four state prosecutors, took place at 8am local time, according to authorities. Four of the properties searched were in Cologne, the others in Kassel and the town of Lohfelden.

Media who were present captured footage of Woelki dressed in civilian attire, appearing to personally open the gates to his own residence as the…

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Most Reverend Richard F. Stika from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Knoxville. At the same time, the Holy See has appointed the Most Reverend Shelton J. Fabre of Louisville, as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Knoxville to serve until the appointment and installation of the new bishop.

The resignation and appointment were publicized in Washington, D.C. on June 27, 2023, by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The Diocese of Knoxville is comprised of 14,242 square miles in the State of Tennessee and has a total population of 2,509,421 of which 68,075, are Catholic.

###

Bishop Richard F. Stika, the longest-serving bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, has announced he is retiring from the post he has held since 2009.

“I recently sent a letter to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, asking him to grant my petition to retire as the bishop of this great diocese,” Bishop Stika said. “I am grateful that he has accepted this request.”

The announcement was made by the Vatican on June 27.

“Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard F. Stika from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Knoxville. At the same time, the Holy See has appointed the Most Reverend Shelton Fabre, Archbishop of Louisville, as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Knoxville to serve until the appointment and installation of a new bishop,” the Vatican announcement said.

Bishop Stika was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville by Pope Benedict XVI…

[Includes link to 12-minute podcast interview with Mike Foreman.]

Topeka – Mike Foreman is not a Catholic.

In an interview for the Kansas Reflector podcast, Foreman said he was haunted by a lack of true reparations from the church.

Foreman was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Father Finian Meis at the age of 11, when his family was attending Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish in Overland Park. Foreman said the assault happened over the course of two “therapy” sessions held at Meis’ house.

When Foreman told his mother about the first assault right after it happened, he said the priest convinced her it was just a part of his therapy methods. She brought him back to the priest’s house again, dropping him off with a freshly baked cake.

“My mother was just so brainwashed and hoodwinked by the Catholic Church, it was just disgusting,” Foreman said. “There’s no doubt in my…

Bishop Lee A. Piché, who eight years ago resigned from the office of auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis amid charges that the archdiocese had ignored warning signs of a priest abusing minors, will return to service in the archdiocese as the archbishop’s representative to retired priests beginning July 1.

In his time away, Piché, 65, “has embraced a life of prayer and penance for the intention of victims of abuse in the archdiocese, and for efforts to bring healing into the lives of those who have been impacted in any way by clergy abuse,” the archdiocese said in a statement June 22 announcing the assignment.

On the same day, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda announced to the priests of the archdiocese that Piché had accepted his invitation to return to the archdiocese as the vicar for retired priests, the statement said.

At Hebda’s request, Piché also…

The bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, resigned under pressure Tuesday following allegations he mishandled sex abuse allegations and several of his priests complained about his leadership and behavior, sparking a Vatican investigation.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Richard Stika’s resignation, according to a one-line statement from the Vatican. At 65, Stika is still 10 years below the normal retirement age for bishops.

The Vatican didn’t identify a replacement in its statement, but the U.S. conference of Catholic bishops said the archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky, the Most Reverend Shelton Fabre, was named temporary administrator to run the diocese until a new bishop is installed.

Stika’s departure, after 14 years as bishop of Knoxville, closes a turbulent chapter for the southern U.S. diocese that was marked by a remarkable revolt by some of its priests, who accused Stika of abusing his authority and protecting a seminarian accused of sexual misconduct. They appealed to the…

ope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard Stika, the embattled leader of the Diocese of Knoxville, following a tumultuous two-year period in which the diocese was subject to a Vatican investigation and multiple lawsuits over its handling of abuse cases. 

The Vatican made the announcement in its daily bulletin on June 27 and did not list a reason for the resignation, nor did it name an immediate successor. At age 65, Stika — who has led the East Tennessee diocese since 2009 — is a full decade younger than the standard retirement age of 75 for Catholic bishops. 

For years, questions have swirled around his alleged cover-up of abuse, diocesan finances, morale among priests and the overall administration and management of the diocese. 

In an interview with NCR earlier this year, Stika defended his 14-year record in Knoxville, which he maintained had seen an uptick in…

Pope Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of the embattled Bishop Rick Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Stika, 65, was investigated by the Vatican for mismanagement of his diocese. He is also named in a 2022 lawsuit (refiled in 2023) accusing him of protecting a seminarian accused of multiple counts of rape.

The lawsuit also claims Stika attempted to intimidate an alleged victim, a parish organist, into keeping quiet about the alleged sexual assault by Wojciech Sobczuk, and of having accused the alleged victim of being the perpetrator.

Pope Francis named Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky as the Diocese of Knoxville’s apostolic administrator until a new bishop is appointed.

Stika has denied any wrongdoing.

Catholic news outlet The Pillar reported in May that unnamed sources close to the Dicastery for Bishops said Pope Francis had decided to ask Stika for his resignation after reviewing the results of a Vatican…

Richard Stika, the polarizing bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, has retired amid a crippling scandal of his own making, the diocese announced June 27.

Stika will leave the diocese, carved out in 1988 from the Diocese of Nashville, as its longest-serving bishop. He oversaw significant growth in membership in the church and led the construction of a massive new cathedral in Knoxville. The diocese serves about 70,000 Catholics in 50 parishes and one mission across East Tennessee.

Stika also, however, leaves under a cloud of mismanagement accusations, two explosive lawsuits against the diocese that have sullied diocesan leadership, and questions about his mentorship of a former seminarian who is accused of raping a former church employee.

Stika, just a week shy of 66, submitted his resignation to Pope Francis. Bishops almost never leave before the mandatory retirement age of 75 years old, and even then the pope frequently allows them…

There was a significant increase in allegations of abuse reported to the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland last year following the airing of the RTÉ Radio 1 documentary, “Blackrock Boys”, about a Spiritan-run school in Dublin.

The Church’s safeguarding watchdog, which published its report last week, revealed that it was notified of 251 allegations between 2022-23 compared to 178 in 2021-22. Many of these relate to alleged abuse in schools run by religious congregations. 

The allegations were made against 170 respondents of which 35 were diocesan priests, 124 were male religious and 11 were female religious.

The vast majority of allegations, 88, relate to the 1970s, while 56 relate to the 1980s and 36 to the 1960s, nine to the 1990s and two to the 2020s.

According to the board’s chief executive Teresa Devlin, the media coverage of abuse in religious-run schools provided an opportunity,…

Vatican City – Pope Francis appointed Bishop Christopher Coyne as a coadjutor archbishop of Hartford on Monday.

As coadjutor, Coyne will assist Archbishop Leonard Blair in the administration of the Hartford archdiocese and should succeed him as archbishop upon his retirement, expected once Blair turns 75 next year.

Coyne has led the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont since 2015. The 65-year-old bishop previously served as the auxiliary bishop of Indianapolis from 2011 to 2015.

As bishop of Burlington, Coyne removed an unvaccinated pastor from his parish in 2022 for refusing to wear a face mask and be regularly tested for COVID-19, spoke out against a state bill that threatened the seal of the confessional, and formed a lay review committee to investigate personnel files relating to sexual abuse of minors by priests in 2018.

Originally from Woburn, Massachusetts, Coyne worked as a bartender for two…

The Colorado Supreme Court last week struck down the part of Senate Bill 88, a law passed in 2021, giving victims of child sex abuse dating back to the 1960s a three-year window to file lawsuits

When a group of Colorado lawmakers in 2020 sought to end the state’s statute of limitations for lawsuits in child sex assault cases, some victims and victims’ advocates wanted them to try to go even further. 

Their request was that Colorado give victims of abuse for whom the statute of limitations had expired a window to sue not only their abusers, but also organizations that shielded the perpetrators or negligently allowed the abuse to continue.

The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Legal Services, which offers state lawmakers legal advice, said such a window would violate the state’s constitution, which prohibits the General Assembly from reviving a claim for which the statute of limitations has run…

The Vatican’s Dicastery of Bishops has completed a formal investigation of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland and the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, according to multiple media reports and confirmed by EWTN News.

The inquiry, known as an apostolic visitation, marks a rare though not unprecedented intervention by Rome into a U.S. diocese and points to possible disciplinary action against Strickland, a widely popular though polarizing Texas firebrand viewed as a culture war champion by many U.S. conservatives for his staunch defense of the unborn, marriage, the traditional Latin liturgy, and Catholic orthodoxy.

The leader of the eastern Texas diocese since 2012, Strickland, 64, has faced criticism for what some see as intemperate social media posts unbecoming of a prominent U.S. prelate, including a May 12 tweet that suggested Pope Francis was “undermining the Deposit of Faith.”

Not one to sit on the sidelines, he recently played a prominent role…

Tadeusz Rydzyk, Poland’s “father director,” has commanded enormous political power through his Catholic media empire, despite his controversial support for priests entangled in the church’s child sexual abuse scandals — as well as support for Russia. Is his era finally coming to an end?

“When I first became a priest, what I wished for most was media — for the church, for Catholics, for Poland,” Catholic leader Tadeusz Rydzyk told Nasz Dziennik in June.

“Without media, we have no voice at all,” he continued, comparing the church without the arm of the press to “a mute person.”

Over time, Rydzyk’s radio station has amassed 1.2 million active daily listeners and he has also created a Catholic television channel. He receives generous state funding for his media ventures and private foundation.

He’s been called everything from “the most important unelected man in…

• A former Catholic priest appeared in a Los Angeles court Friday for preliminary hearing on 12 counts of child molestation 
• Father Christopher John Cunningham, 60, allegedly assaulted boys between the ages of 10 and 12 in the 1990s and 2000s

A former Catholic priest charged with 12 counts of child molestation, appeared in a Los Angeles court on Friday.  

Father Christopher John Cunningham, 60, was arrested in 2021 for allegedly molesting boys between the ages of 10 and 12 whilst a priest in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Cunningham appeared before Judge Larry Paul Fidler at the Los Angeles Superior Court for a short hearing. 

Judge Larry Paul Fidler asked Father Cunningham, who wore a grey suit, if he understand the charges against him and if he understood the courts ruling for trial within 60 days.   

Father Cunningham confirmed he understood and promptly left the court with his lawyer. 

Cunningham has been charged…

ROME – Amid what has so far been a rocky year, the pope’s Commission for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons has drafted an updated version of global anti-abuse safeguarding guidelines along with a survey for feedback on the new norms.

In a statement Friday, the commission said the new Universal Guidelines Framework (UGF) was approved during its most recent plenary assembly, held in Rome in May, and serves “as a model to define the safeguarding standards to be implemented in every local church across the world.”

The primary aim of the guidelines, the commission said, is to “promote protection from abuse in the Church according to existing good practices in safeguarding,” with a special focus on assisting those who have been impacted by abuse, and dealing with abuse appropriately when it occurs.

According to the commission, the new framework is based on an analysis of work done in…

What we know about the The Fort Worth Catholic Diocese’s dispute with a Carmelite nun

Arlington police have begun investigating a dispute between the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese and a reverend mother who says she was wrongly accused of “sexual misconduct” with a priest.

The diocese, meanwhile, told the Star-Telegram it has alerted police of “serious concerns” of marijuana and edibles inside the Arlington monastery of Carmelite nuns. The Fort Worth bishop says the nun admitted to the “transgression” of breaking her chastity vow with a priest during interviews with the vicar general of the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese and another sister from her order over several days in April.

A hearing scheduled Friday in a lawsuit filed by Carmelite nuns against Bishop Michael Olson and the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth was postponed to 9 a.m. Tuesday.

An attorney who represents Olson said there is evidence to present showing…

Published: May. 13, 2023 at 7:25 PM EDT | Updated: Jun. 23, 2023 at 7:29 PM EDT

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – JUNE 23 UPDATE: A Reno priest scheduled to be transferred to Douglas County following an inappropriate relationship with a parishioner has been put on hold pending a criminal investigation, the Diocese of Reno said.

Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg made the announcement Thursday about Rev. Patrick Klekas.

Mueggenborg said in May that Klekas would return to church duty on July 1 at St. Gall parish in Gardnerville after completing counseling and discernment.

Klekas had served as associate pastor at St. Albert the Great in northwest Reno.

Thursday’s announcement said the parish was cooperating with a criminal investigation and will decide about Klekas’ return to ministry after the investigation.

“As is our policy, we wait until civil authorities have completed their inquiries into allegations; in this case, a complaint recently filed in the same matter with…

A local Catholic priest who was suspended for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship will be reinstated and serve at a Douglas County church in July.

The transfer of a local priest who was suspended for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship is on hold pending an investigation by police. 

According to a release, Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg of the Diocese of Reno has paused the process of reinstating Father Patrick Klekas to active ministry at St. Gall Parish in Gardnerville as it is their policy to wait until police have completed their inquiries to allegations. 

The alleged relationship occurred in 2020 when Klekas was serving as an associate paster at St. Albert the Great Parish in Reno. 

Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg says a complaint was recently filed in the same matter with police in Reno.

The church says it is cooperating and will wait until police complete their investigation before taking any action.

Original story from May…

Bishop Lee Piché, who eight years ago resigned from the office of auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis amid charges that the archdiocese had ignored warning signs of a priest abusing minors, will return to service in the archdiocese as the archbishop’s representative to retired priests beginning July 1.

In his time away, Bishop Piché, 65, “has embraced a life of prayer and penance for the intention of victims of abuse in the archdiocese, and for efforts to bring healing into the lives of those who have been impacted in any way by clergy abuse,” the archdiocese said in a statement June 22 announcing the assignment.

On the same day, Archbishop Bernard Hebda announced to the priests of the archdiocese that Bishop Piché had accepted his invitation to return to the archdiocese as the vicar for retired priests, the statement said.

At Archbishop Hebda’s request, Bishop…