ABUSE TRACKER

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

A sexual harassment scandal had once again consumed Harrisburg.

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

On March 3, Gov. Josh Shapiro weighed in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also,…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key points:

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

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

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

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

The court heard the victims…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“We have…

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

Dear Cardinal Pierre:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deerfield Academy in a statement said…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Priest Admits to Rape

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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John Doe #50 wanted to live to see justice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But they do not agree how to get there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The problem?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shiflet was sentenced in 2021 to 33 months in…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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BAR DATE OCTOBER 20 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Atheists, agnostics and those…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to the national coverage surrounding Socorro Bayanihan…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let me explain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Stephen Bates pleads guilty to several charges

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a crisp and bright November morning in 2020.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But the meeting avoided any mention…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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UPDATE |

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

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

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

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

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

Petracca was arraigned on 31…

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It was a particularly depressing headline that we at Horowitz Law saw last week, partly because it was the latest in a string of depressing developments across the US. “Three years later, few signs of life in state’s child sex abuse probe,” began an article in the Albany Times Union.

The story explains how, back in 2020, the attorney general of New York announced a statewide investigation into the crimes and cover-ups of child sexual abuse by Catholic institutions and officials over the past several decades. Survivors, advocates, and child protection activists were understandably overjoyed. Now, however, the Times Union reports that little progress has been made, and few, if any, updates have been given by AG staffers. We’ve seen this before.

• In June 2022, the FBI disclosed that it had interviewed more than a dozen local alleged abuse victims in New Orleans as part of…

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Now in her late 30s, the author reflects on living within Lamb of God—one of the dozens of covenant communities to take root in the 1970s.

Barefoot girls hold a ribbon and loop around a maypole. Some, styled as the “Little Lambs,” dance for the hundreds gathered at the 15-acre Timonium estate known as The Farm. There are pony rides, potato-sack races, even a live band as people celebrate the end of history.

In faded photographs of the community, I see people who are trying to live their lives halfway to heaven. But that isn’t quite right. We were actually trying to bring heaven into this world. Along with others in the broader Catholic charismatic renewal, we believed that the Holy Spirit was pouring out right before our eyes. Because of our faithfulness, we were witnessing the breakthrough of the kingdom.

I was born into the Lamb of God, one…

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A pair of Berkshire Eagle editorials that took the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield to task for targeting the reporter who revealed its mishandling of an abuse case has won a prestigious, national award for editorial writing.

America’s Newspapers, a newspaper advocacy group, awarded the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize to Dave Coffey, The Eagle’s editorial page editor, at the group’s annual conference this week in Chicago.

The prize is named for the late Benjamin Carmage Walls of Texas whose newspaper career spanned seven decades. Walls primarily owned community newspapers and advocated strong, courageous and positive editorial page leadership. Coffey’s editorials won in the under-35,000 circulation category.

In an announcement of the prize, America’s Newspapers explained the relevance of the editorials as follows:

“The editorials came on the heels of an investigative series in which Berkshire Eagle reporting exposed the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield’s efforts to cover…

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Despite more than two decades of efforts to transform the Catholic Church to bring justice to sexual abuse victims and ensure widespread abuse and its cover-up do not happen again, there is much to be done, advocates say.

Barbara Thorp, a social worker and the former director of Office of Pastoral Support and Child Protection for the Boston Archdiocese, told the National Catholic Conference on Restorative Justice Oct. 6 that while great strides have been made in some areas, shocking examples of failure continue to arise. 

“The resistance to the necessary institutional changes to ensure justice are in many places not only glacial, but frozen,” Thorp told several hundred attendees at the conference, which was held Oct. 5-7 at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. “Jesus said, ‘You are the light of the world,’ but in practice, it’s more like a 10-watt bulb flickering…

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

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

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

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

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

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Petracca, removed from service in 2017, faces 31 felonies

A former priest with the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, according to Attorney General Michelle Henry.

Anthony John Petracca Jr., 67, faces 31 felony counts of possession of child pornography and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.

Petracca was arrested at his Hollidaysburg home Wednesday and arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Matthew Dunio. Bail was set at $25,000 and he was remanded to the Blair County Prison.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, between July 14, 2022, and Aug. 18, 2022, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received and forwarded multiple tips regarding child exploitation to the Office of Attorney General.

During the investigation, it was discovered that five files were uploaded and/or viewed by a cellphone and email address later found to belong to Petracca,…

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“We need to talk about how race and ethnicity intersect with power and sexuality,” said Fr Bryan Massingale.

Seminary formation needs to deal with racially-based power dynamics, according to a theologian who has studied the impact of clerical sexual abuse in African American communities.

Addressing the Spirit Unbound assembly this week on the theme “Unbinding our Stories – Black and Asian people’s stories of clerical abuse”, Fr Bryan Massingale, a professor at Fordham University, said the Church needs to talk about how race and ethnicity intersect with power and sexuality.

The American priest, who conducted the first in-depth study on clergy sexual abuse in African American communities warned: “It is not enough to simply talk about everyone going through ‘safe environment’ training. That’s the low hanging fruit.

“We need to talk about how race and ethnicity intersect with power and sexuality and say you cannot be ordained or you cannot exercise…

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Accused previously named on 2003 list of alleged perpetrators at St. Anne’s residential school

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have laid three gross indecency charges against a 97-year-old Ottawa woman, alleging she was involved in sexual assaults in the 1960s and 1970s in northern Ontario residential and day schools.

The accused, Francoise Seguin, was a nun with the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa who worked at St. Anne’s Indian Residential School in Fort Albany between 1958 and 1968, CBC Indigenous has learned.

Seguin’s name appears on a list of nuns who worked at St. Anne’s, which the sisters provided the OPP in 1994 after the force opened a probe into sexual and physical abuse allegations at the institution.

Seguin’s date of birth on this list, obtained by CBC Indigenous on Thursday, matches that of the accused provided by the OPP.

St. Anne’s survivor Evelyn Korkmaz…

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A Beaverton pastor was jailed last week after being accused of inappropriately touching two young girls who were members of his congregation.

A Washington County grand jury indicted Christopher Michael Pruitt, 39, of Beaverton on six counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of third-degree sexual abuse Wednesday, Oct. 11.

Pruitt allegedly touched two girls, one under 14 years old, one under 18 years old, on Sept. 29 in Washington County, according to court documents. The girls were members of Pruitt’s congregation of Our Father’s House Ministries Church.

The church had been operating out of Pruitt’s home in Beaverton before moving to North Portland recently.https://bf8af1c6cc71562304d5f4312b80fdbe.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

Pruitt was arrested Thursday, Oct. 5, and remains in jail as of Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 11. He has a probable cause hearing and a pre-trial release hearing scheduled for Friday, Oct. 13.

In 2017, Pruitt pleaded guilty to public indecency in Multnomah County. He…

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Institutions can shield children from sexual abuse: time for them to step up.

KEY POINTS

• A sweeping investigation by a state attorney general shows how institutions can prevent child sexual abuse.
• Every institution interacting with children must put their well-being at the center of policy and practice.
• A desk guide produced by the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse points the way forward.

The late-September decision by the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore to file for bankruptcy, ahead of an expected flurry of new claims from adult survivors of child sexual abuse, no doubt resurfaces trauma for the hundreds of people who experienced the abuse detailed by an exhaustive report by the Maryland Attorney General in April.

The report highlights several changes institutions have made and needs to make to put the well-being of the children they serve first. It underscores how important it is for institutions to prevent abuse…

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Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández gave another eye-catching interview this week, dedicated to one of the most controversial aspects of his work.

In the Oct. 10 conversation with the Spanish website Religión Digital, the new prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) spoke about his department’s responsibility for clerical abuse cases.

The interview took place in the context of the synod on synodality, in which the newly minted cardinal is an active participant. This week, the assembly elected him as a member of the synod’s information commission, representing Latin America.

The vote could be read as an endorsement of the communication skills that Fernández has shown since his appointment as DDF prefect was announced in July. In more than 20 interviews, he has tackled even the most sensitive theological issues, appearing to signal that the Fernández era will be marked by candor and openness. 

The cardinal —…

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“Impartir justicia es esencial, pero más todavía es evitar que otros tengan que sufrir el mismo drama en el futuro” “Puedo asegurar que la sección disciplinar del Dicasterio tiene muy buenos profesionales que trabajan con mucha rigurosidad. Yo estoy cerca de ellos, no para interferir en su labor, sino para apoyarlos de manera que trabajen con libertad y sin presiones” “Quiero asegurar que la tendencia de la sección disciplinar no es la de ser laxos, débiles o poco exigentes ante los acusados de delitos contra menores. Al contrario, más bien reciben reproches de personas que los consideran demasiado duros con los sacerdotes” “Tengo la tranquilidad de ver que trabajan muy bien y no les tiembla el pulso. Eso lo puedo asegurar y no creo que sea conveniente que un teólogo interfiera en el trabajo específicamente canónico de ellos”

Doctrina de la Fe (DDF), el dicasterio que dirige le neocardenal Víctor Manuel…

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[TRIGGER WARNING: This story involves descriptions of sexual grooming and abusive behavior.]

Click here to read Part 1.

Editor’s note: Many Catholics view the Church’s sexual abuse crisis as primarily involving minors. But as experts and advocates — such as Awake Milwaukee — point out, a significant number of reports of priests engaging in abusive and grooming behavior involve adult victims. Such cases include those of Bishop Michael Bransfield in West Virginia and former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who were credibly accused of the sexual harassment, grooming, and abuse of adult seminarians. Other cases, such as the abuse scandals at Franciscan University of Steubenville, involve priests exploiting their pastoral authority to groom and abuse young adult women. Some priest abusers, such as in the case of Jeremy Leatherby of Sacramento, prey on married women. In such cases, coming forward can be difficult for…

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The names of as many as 11 alleged abusers were left off the list the Archdiocese of Mobile made public in 2018, and in at least two cases, the names of a priest and cleric credibly accused of sexual abuse were listed, but years listed for their final known abuses were long before later documented accusations, a Lagniappe investigation has revealed.

Lagniappe cross-referenced the names of abusers on a list created by the Archdiocese about six years ago with names from the Bishop Accountability website and found a number of priests and other Catholic officials who had worked in Mobile and had been named by other dioceses did not make the Mobile list.

The entry belonging to Brother Nicholas “Vic” Bendillo was accompanied by an inaccurate timeline of abuse allegations. The 2018 list told Mobile parishioners and others that Bendillo’s abuse at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School began in 1963 and…

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A major meeting to discuss sensitive issues in the Catholic Church is being held with the utmost secrecy and discretion. Outside, it’s a different story.

Rome is a Catholic menagerie these days.

An excommunicated woman dressed in red bishop’s robes is marching toward the Vatican behind a procession of would-be female priests. Conservative culture warriors are headlining theaters, delivering screeds against Pope Francis before marginalized cardinals and exorcists sitting in velvet seats. The abortion-rights leader of Catholics for Choice is knocking on Vatican doors. Progressives will hold a meeting this week that includes panels with titles such as “Patriarchy, Where Did It All Begin?”

They have all descended on the Italian capital hoping to share the spotlight cast on a major assembly of more than 400 bishops and lay Catholics, called by Pope Francis to discuss issues vital to the church’s future: the ordination of female deacons, the celibacy of…

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Discussions at the Synod on Synodality this week have focused on issues of poverty, migration, abuse and sexual identity, journalists were told at a Vatican press briefing yesterday. Source: Vatican News.

President of the Commission for Information, Paolo Ruffini and a panel of guests gave journalists an overview of the Synod’s work between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning,

Dr Ruffini said a small ‘working group’ was held at the Pope’s residence at Casa Santa Marta on Tuesday, where some of Rome’s poor were invited to lunch with Francis and Papal Almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski.

Those who took part in the meal were also asked what they expected from the Church. “Their answer was: ‘Love. Only love’,” Dr Ruffini said.

At the press briefing, Oceania Synod member Grace Wrakia expressed gratitude to the Pope for inviting representatives from the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea to the Synod.

“For so many years,”…

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Court documents allege the pastor started sexually assaulting the minor when she was 7 years old

The Houston area pastor accused of raping and impregnating one of his underage family members is now in custody and appeared in court on Monday.

KPRC 2 first reported about Robert L. Carter last week when an arrest warrant was issued for the 39-year-old. He has since been charged with sexual assault of a child between the ages of 14 and 17 and continuous sexual abuse of a child.

His bond was set at $100,000.

According to the arrest warrant obtained by KPRC 2 reporter Deven Clarke, Carter started assaulting the child when she was 7 years old in 2008. Court documents showed the assault continued through the child’s late teens, happening more than 600 times.

It stated that Carter would go into the child’s room and make her perform sex acts on him…

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ATTLEBORO — Claude Leboeuf was 8 years old when the Rev. James Porter sodomized him while the now notorious Catholic priest was visiting St. Joseph’s Church.

Now 70 and living in Providence, Leboeuf said during a press conference Wednesday that he buried the memory of the abuse until he was in his mid-60s.

“Part of the reason why I’m speaking out is my voice was taken away from me all those years. My life was ruined,” Leboeuf said on the sidewalk outside the offices of the Diocese of Fall River.

The press conference was held to announce a recent financial out-of-court settlement with the diocese in the “mid-five figures” and to call for the state to change the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims.

Leboeuf was with Robert M. Hoatson, a former Catholic priest who is now the president of Road to Recovery Inc., a nonprofit charity based in…

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This bankruptcy filing removes the opportunity for survivors to have their day in civil court to hold the church legally accountable, and limits the payout for each victim.

The archdiocese of Baltimore filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 29 to preempt child sexual abuse lawsuits which were expected to be filed once a new Maryland law removing the statute of limitations took effect on Oct. 1. This strategic move means that all claims against the archdiocese must be made as part of bankruptcy proceedings, effectively eliminating the opportunity for survivors to tell their stories in civil court, precluding legal accountability and insulating the archdiocese from scrutiny of its past mistakes.

Maryland lawmakers passed the Child Victims Act of 2023, removing the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases which, under previous law, needed to be filed by the time the survivor turned 38. The legislation also caps liability at $890,000 per claim…

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Man who says he survived James Porter’s abuse speaks out

A survivor of clergy abuse is sharing his story and encouraging others to do the same more than 60 years after claims that he was abused in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River.

The man said at a news conference Wednesday that he was sexually abused at a church in Attleboro about 1960. He said he’s lived with the pain and trauma for years, but finally felt brave enough to share his story.

Claude Leboeuf, 70, who now lives in Providence, said he was sodomized by the Rev. James Porter when he was 8 years old.

Porter was the pedophile priest who pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children and was accused of abusing dozens more while working in the diocese in the 1960s and 1970s.

Leboeuf said the experience left him isolated for much of his life,…

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Help victims

Roger Golubski could likely die before he faces justice, but his victims’ trauma, fear, hate, anger and angst will continue perpetually. (Oct. 5, 11A, “With Roger Golubski in hospital, victims fear he’ll die before trial”)

How ironic that, when news broke of Golubski’s hospitalization, several clergy abuse survivors held their monthly get-together to process experiences over the trauma endured decades ago. Discussion centered on credibly accused sexual abuser Bishop Joseph Hart, who died this past August before the courts could deliver justice for his criminal acts.

Whether or not perpetrators live to face trial, the institutions that covered up corruption and enabled criminal behavior must be held accountable. Those who have suffered the consequences of these dastardly acts seek nothing less.

Victims must continue to speak truth to power lest future generations bear the lifelong scars from wounds suffered in the…

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A 70-year-old man who recently reached a settlement with a Roman Catholic diocese in Massachusetts over sexual abuse he suffered at age 8 said Wednesday he is speaking out because “my voice was taken away from me for all those years” and he wants to help others like himself.

“There were a number of details that bring that memory back, painful details,” Claude Leboeuf said at a news conference in Fall River. “I could feel muscle pain, sometimes emotional pain. I can visualize them. I can never know when those memories come flashing back to me. But that’s how it happens. It’s very real to me.”

Several years ago, Leboeuf, of Providence, Rhode Island, contacted Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, a well-known lawyer for clergy and sexual abuse victims. Leboeuf said he was abused in 1960 at a church in Attleboro, Massachusetts, by the Rev. James Porter, who pleaded guilty in…

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Some might think, “Compared to others, what happened to me was almost nothing.”  But so much good happens when child sexual abuse is taken from the shadows and exposed to the light. No one doubts, for example, that laws and practices and public vigilance around abuse have improved dramatically because – at least in part – of the tremendous number of articles, news accounts, stories, blogs, films, and documentaries about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups.

At the same time, however, at least one serious downside is caused by all this attention. Few talk about it or understand it, though we at Horowitz Law do get it. That downside is the sense that many abuse victims have that “well, what happened to me is almost nothing compared to what other kids endured.” In other words, because we’ve all read or heard about many especially egregious cases, what we endured seems like very little. Tragically, that…

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The victim told police that Robert L. Carter began sexually assaulting her when she was only 7 years old and impregnated her when she was 16.

(WARNING: This story contains graphic details that many may find disturbing)

A Houston pastor is accused of raping a family member hundreds of times and eventually impregnating her, according to court documents.

Robert L. Carter, 39, turned himself in to Harris County authorities early Monday morning after a warrant was issued for his arrest last month. He’s charged with continuous sexual assault of a child.

According to court documents, the attacks started when the victim was a little girl. She told police that Carter would tell her, “If you do this for me, I’ll give you candy.”

“The victim in this case alleges that she was sexually abused from the age of 7 and it did not conclude until she was 19,…

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The Catholic church today is deeply polarised. This has created doctrinal fissures that are seemingly unbridgeable.

There are many rumbling contestations on questions of identity, mission, faith and morality. Other questions touch on pastoral life, the nature of marriage and family life, denial of holy communion to divorced and remarried Catholics, clerical celibacy, authority in the church and reproductive rights.

There is also a serious erosion of religious authority. Many church leaders have lost their credibility because of what Pope Francis calls the “leprosy of clerical sexual abuse” and financial scandals.

The church in Africa hasn’t been spared these issues. In parts of the continent, the challenges of ethnocentrism, abuse of religious authority and internal division are hurting the church’s credibility and effectiveness. And some national churches seem silent on rising crises of democracy and leadership across Africa.

There have always been divisions in the church, but its effectiveness and credibility  View Cache

While the doors of the Synod on Synodality, taking place in the Vatican Oct. 4-29, are closed to journalists and the public, a group of survivors of sexual abuse anxiously awaits news on how the assembly addresses the clerical sexual abuse that affected their lives so painfully.

While OSV News sources say abuse has been mentioned a few times in the first synodal week — synodal groups spoke about abuse; none of the individual interventions have so far — it is not clear how and to what extent it will be brought into discussion.

Some abuse survivors expect concrete outcomes regarding abuse policies during the Synod on Synodality. Others say that it’s enough that the universal church learns from churches where good practices have already been established and made a difference.

Teresa Pitt Green of Spirit Fire, a Christian restorative justice initiative founded by two survivors of clergy abuse in…

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Waiting too long for justice is traumatizing for victims, and special children’s courts are urgently needed in the country

What is causing delays in our court and justice system is that the good-hearted, hard-working judges of the family courts are overloaded, underpaid, underfunded, and underappreciated.

Most judges and prosecutors are dedicated and are working hard without fear or favor to cope with the backlog of many child sex abuse cases and deliver speedy justice, but some just cannot cope.

Likewise, the offices of the prosecutors are understaffed and also overloaded with cases. The need for more prosecutors and a special children’s court is clear.

In one court in Cagayan province, northern Philippines, a Catholic priest, Father Karole Israel Ubina is on trial for several alleged counts of rape and sexual assault against a 15-year-old church volunteer. The judge is so overburdened with cases that the court will be…

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When Phyllis Webstad was 6, her grandmother took her to town to buy a new outfit for the first day of school.

“I chose a shiny new orange shirt. It was bright and exciting, just how I felt about going to school for the first time,” she recalled. However, when Webstad, who is Northern Secwepemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band), arrived at St. Joseph Mission Indian Residential School in Williams Lake, British Columbia, the nuns who ran the school confiscated her new shirt and callously ignored her distress and confusion.

“No matter how much I cried, no one would listen,” she said.

The purpose of boarding schools, like the one Webstad attended, was to assimilate indigenous children into the dominant settler cultures of the United States and Canada by forcibly removing them from their families and communities.

For this reason, Benjamin Jacuk (Dena’ina Athabascan, Sugpiaq),…

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The Vatican’s safeguarding commission has called on the Synod on Synodality to make sexual abuse “an explicit part” of discussions during the October assembly.

The group also condemned “harmful deficiencies in the norms intended to punish abusers” related to recent public cases and a lack of accountability by those responsible for punishing wrongdoing in the Church. 

A copy of the message from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) was shared with every synod participant on Oct. 9. 

The letter was originally published by the commission Sept. 27, three days before a consistory to create 21 new cardinals and one week before the start of the monthlong synod assembly going on now through Oct. 29.https://2c634cbb667a4642b61424f45ed48d04.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

“The reality of sexual abuse in our Church goes to the heart of the synod’s agenda,” the letter says. “It deals with who we are as a community of faith, founded…

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There are those that were never heard at the parish, diocese, or national levels

Several lay people groups from all parts of the world have been congregating in Rome several days before the start of the Synod on Synodality and continue to do so, to try to get their voices heard.

The first was a group of survivors and advocates of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) in the Catholic Church. A few made a pilgrimage from Montefiascone to Rome carrying a cross with the words, “Zero Tolerance” emblazoned across it.

Their demand to Pope Francis is to implement zero tolerance to end clergy sex abuse as he promised. 

They were joined a week later by several more survivors and advocates from all over the world, especially Latin America, for demonstrations and attempts to contact officials at the Commission on Sex Abuse and the Dicastery of Bishops — to complain about non-compliance…

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CZESTOCHOWA, Poland (AP) — Dominika Gala grew up going to Mass with her grandmother and attending Catholic school in Warsaw. After her grandmother’s death in 2010, she began to drift away from the church.

A decade later, when the Catholic leadership backed a near-total abortion ban in Poland, Gala made her fervent disagreement clear.

She formally left the church in October 2020, just weeks after Poland’s top court closed a major loophole in the country’s abortion laws that were already among the strictest in Europe. She has since helped her mother and several friends leave, and now helps lead a civic initiative to limit religion’s role in public life.

“There’s a strong link between the church and the bad things happening in Polish politics,” Gala, now an atheist, told The Associated Press.

As Law and Justice seeks an unprecedented third-straight term in the Oct. 15 parliamentary election, the conservative, nationalist…

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Counsel for plaintiff says he is ‘very pleased’ with development that means they will be going into mediation ‘effectively with the order’

The congregation of the Christian Brothers has “effectively” agreed to enter into mediation with a victim of historical child sex abuse, the High Court was told on Tuesday.

In a major development in a case where the congregation has, up to now, been refusing to put forward a nominee to represent it for the purposes of the litigation, mediation is set to begin with Frank Buttimer Solicitors acting for the current head of the congregation, Bro David Gibson, as well as 104 other members.

John Gordon SC, for Ken Grace, who is seeking damages for the abuse he suffered while a secondary student in Westland Row CBS in Dublin, told Mr Justice Tony O’Connor of the breakthrough when he sat to hear the latest application in a…

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Restorative justice is an informal process which focuses on the survivor rather than the offender

Efforts by well-known Irish schools to address historical child sex abuse by their teachers and staff have shown the different approaches taken by the religious orders that ran them.

One approach that has come to public attention is restorative justice, a programme chosen by some schools in helping abuse survivors. To date, the Spiritans and Jesuits are the only religious orders in Ireland to provide such programmes for men sexually abused as boys in their schools.

The Spiritans have introduced a programme to help victims abused while attending schools including Blackrock College and Willow Park junior school in Dublin.

The Jesuits introduced such a programme for men abused as boys by Fr Joseph Marmion, who died in 2000, at their Clongowes Wood College, Crescent College Limerick and Belvedere College Dublin.

However, the…

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