ABUSE TRACKER

Gary Mercure is serving up to 25 years in a Massachusetts prison. He has been cast as a serial sexual abuser who victimized numerous boys over decades.

A former priest accused of systematically raping and sexually abusing boys at multiple parishes throughout the Albany diocese was recently denied parole and will remain in a Massachusetts prison, where he is serving a sentence of up to 25 years for raping two altar boys.

Public records indicate that Gary Mercure, 75, was again rejected for parole last month, in part, because he continues to claim he is innocent. He was sentenced in February 2011 after being convicted of raping two boys that he drove from New York into Massachusetts during skiing trips. Mercure stands accused of raping many more boys, but New York’s statute of limitations has prevented his prosecution here.

One of Mercure’s former victims, who said he was in the…

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They called out the names of their friends, sometimes their predecessors, some of them martyred, some having lived long lives, others short, but all rooted in radical closeness to the Gospel. Fr. Jose Luis Loyola gently told them not to worry if tears came. 

But mostly tranquility filled the Mass that closed the 48th board meeting of the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious, or CLAR, in Lima, Peru. They ended late on June 5, with flags from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean draped over an altar, remembering their fallen friends, giving thanks for their lives.

Women and men religious gathered June 2-5 to tackle some of the toughest issues facing Latin America and the Caribbean or “the night,” as Sr. Liliana Franco, president of CLAR, called the social, ecclesial and other conditions affecting consecrated life in the region. To some, those conditions, such as…

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A bishop might have put people at risk by ignoring grooming concerns to promote a priest and being friends with a paedophile, a review has found.

Bishop Robert Byrne undermined safety in the Hexham and Newcastle diocese, the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) said.

He was bishop from 2019 to 2022 but stepped down amid serious concerns over his handling of concerns.

Bishop Byrne told the CSSA he supported keeping people safe.

The CSSA said overall the Roman Catholic diocese was meeting the “minimum standards” of guidelines and was ranked as having made “early progress”.

But auditors heavily criticised the tenure of Bishop Byrne, in particular his promotion of Canon Michael McCoy to Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle and the bishop’s “inappropriate” friendship with Father Timothy Gardner, a priest convicted of child sex offences.

The CSSA said the bishop’s “poor leadership” had “undermined” the safeguarding work of others “to…

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Sex-abuse response, women ordinations among the issues 

Members of the Southern Baptist Convention are gathering in New Orleans this week to elect a president, determine how to respond to sexual abuse within the church and weigh the fate of congregations that ordain women as ministers.

With more than 12,000 delegates already preregistered for this year’s annual meeting, organizers are anticipating one of the largest turnouts in the past quarter-century.

Arkansas native Bart Barber, who was elected convention president last year, will be nominated for a second one-year term but faces a challenge from Georgia pastor Mike Stone, who narrowly lost a previous bid for the presidency in 2021.

Last year’s proceedings were held in Anaheim, Calif.; this time, the gathering is closer to the denomination’s traditional strongholds.

“It’s going to be a crowd. There’s going to be a lot of people there,” said Craig Jenkins, director of advancement and news…

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The $100M proposed class-action has been discontinued, though the judge in the case has concernsJenny Lamothe
a day ago

A proposed class-action lawsuit launched by sexual abuse survivors on Manitoulin Island has been discontinued after 29 victims reached individual settlements. 

The $100-million claim was filed against the Jesuit Fathers of Upper Canada, also known as the English Canada Province, as well as the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie, the estate of father George Epoch and the estate of Brother O’Meare.

Filed by plaintiffs known only as I.P. and M.P.  in 2015, the lawsuit was proposed on behalf of “all persons who were abused as children by clergy or staff of the Holy Cross Mission in Wikwemikong, as well as all parents, spouses, children and siblings of the abused persons above.”…

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Former leader at controversial Qahal Yahweh Church shares how he, his pregnant wife and others were beaten into submission

WESTERN BUREAU:
Shane Wise* can clearly remember that day over five years ago when he and his pregnant wife were reportedly brutally beaten when they tried to leave the Qahal Yahweh Church compound in Paradise, Norwood, St James.
In fact, etched in his memory are the many horrible abuses he witnessed during the five years he lived at the controversial church, as the leaders reportedly used brute force and intimidation to brainwash the followers into submission. 
Returning to the island last week to finally report all the horrors that happened at the church during the period he was there, Wise said he is now ready to speak out, no longer afraid, as he sat down with The Sunday Gleaner during an exclusive interview on Thursday.
The Qahal Yahweh Church made headlines last week when it…

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As the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention approaches next week in New Orleans, one line from the Gospel of Matthew keeps rising in our minds: “Who is there among you, who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?”

It’s so simple and clear. And it’s relevant on this, the one-year anniversary of a long overdue but tragically still unfulfilled promise made by Southern Baptist officials: To create a public database of clergy sex abusers that would include ministers convicted, admitted and credibly accused of child molestation.

Why is such a list important?

Because parents, police, prosecutors and the public can best protect children from predators if they know who and where the predators are.

That’s why every state has an official, online sex offender registry for those with criminal convictions. But of course, criminal convictions are the bare tip of the iceberg.

That’s why Catholic abuse survivors have, for decades,…

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Mac McCall’s molestation case led to conviction of Catholic cleric and now he hopes to help children, the elderly and those recovering from substance abuse

After pressing a criminal case which led to the conviction of a Catholic cleric who admitted molesting him as a child, the son of an influential Louisiana politician is trying to convert his “pain into power” by building a physical and mental health fitness program for schoolchildren, the elderly and people recovering from substance abuse.

Mac McCall – whose father, John Young, once ran for lieutenant governor of Louisiana – recently publicly identified himself as the victim of the late Virgil Maxey “VM” Wheeler III, in one of the most contentious cases involving a decades-old clerical molestation scandal in his home town’s archdiocese.

A prominent attorney, Wheeler was friends with McCall’s father – once president of Jefferson parish, with more than 440,000 residents –…

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Any heir takes over any legal claims against the deceased, according to estate laws. ‘I could get the shakes just thinking about how much I would have to pay out,’ one cousin told Bavarian Radio.

The surviving relatives of the late Pope Benedict XVI stand to inherit money from his legacy, according to the executor of his last will and testament. None of these relatives seem willing to touch it.

One cousin has already refused to accept the inheritance; four others have not yet responded. If they are smart, they will turn it down as well.

The problem is that, by accepting the money, an heir also takes over any legal claims against the deceased, according to estate laws in Germany, where the cousins all live. Joseph Ratzinger, as he was known before adopting his papal name, is a defendant in one of the most-watched cases of clerical sexual abuse…

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The Catholic Diocese of Arlington has been advised that an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against Msgr. Edward P. Browne was determined to be credible by the Diocese of Richmond’s Review Board.  Msgr. Browne died in August 2002; the allegation, which involved an incident that took place prior to the establishment of the Diocese of Arlington in 1974, was reported posthumously.  

Msgr. Browne was ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Richmond in 1951. His assignments in Northern Virginia included St. Charles Borromeo in Arlington (1951-55), St. Rita in Alexandria (1967-72), St. Bernadette in Springfield (1972-86), and St. Michael in Annandale (1986-2000).  He also served at several parishes in the current territory of the Diocese of Richmond.  When the Diocese of Arlington was formed in 1974, he was incardinated as a priest of the Diocese of Arlington.

The Diocese of Arlington encourages anyone who knows of…

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The Rev. James Garisto will be sentenced this September.

A Staten Island priest pleaded no contest to corruption of a minor and indecent assault on Friday after prosecutors said he sexually abused an underaged boy in Fishtown during the mid-2000s.

The Rev. James Garisto, 74, faced several related charges after his arrest last year, but those charges were dropped, according to a spokesperson for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

Garisto, who spent nearly 40 years as a priest, teacher, and school administrator in the Archdiocese of New York, has faced multiple allegations of abuse. Church officials placed him on leave in 2019 after receiving a report of sexual misconduct against him.

After a New York man sued Garisto in 2021 over abuse he said he suffered at the hands of the priest as a boy, a Philadelphia man in his 30s came forward to say that Garisto had abused him…

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Aspen Police this week released a redacted report detailing the 500 hours of investigation, including interviews of 86 witness and assistance from the FBI, of an ex-altar boy’s accusations from prison in 2021 of sexual abuse by a priest who had served at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in the mid-2000s.

No corroborating evidence was found, and the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced in April it would not file criminal charges. The Archdiocese of Denver announced this week that it had concluded its own investigation, and Father Michael O’Brien would return to work July 1 as pastor of two churches in the Julesburg area.

The accuser was Keegan Callahan, now 25, who made his allegations from prison, where he is serving a 14-year sentence for raping a 16-year-old girl off McClain Flats Road. Callahan’s attorney, Steve Eldredge in Denver, told The Aspen Times this week that the…

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[SEE VIDEO]

Survivors of child sexual abuse in three states are praising opportunities to seek long-delayed justice after lawmakers removed the statute of limitations for such crimes.

(AP Video: Rodrique Ngowi/Robert Bukaty)

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“If you have issues in your life, influence, power and position will exacerbate all of them.”
—Carl Lentz, former pastor of Hillsong New York City

There is no better way to sum up the new FX documentary “The Secrets of Hillsong” than the above quote by former Hillsong golden boy himself, Carl Lentz. The series documents the rise and subsequent public downfall of the “influencer pastor,” but goes well beyond him too, exposing the abusive and toxic history of the church, beginning with founder Frank Houston and continuing through his son Brian Houston.

The series, which is streaming on Hulu, is the latest chapter in a developing story that encircles the well-known nondenominational congregation, originally founded in Sydney but now a worldwide movement. Last year’s “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed” on Discovery+ dove into the accusations of child sexual abuse perpetrated by founder Frank Houston, Brian Houston’s alleged cover-up…

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[VIDEO]

Tom Doyle brings a wealth of knowledge, experience of both research and litigation, and a solid integrity to the examination of the abuse of children by clergymen in the Roman Catholic Church.

He speaks on this subject with an honesty, and courage that is peerless. His testimony is precise without being sensational. The analysis he outlines explains the role of church history, church government and church theology in creating this catastrophe.

The response from the bishops and cardinals is one of denial, cover-up, control and outright lies, often under oath. Despite all that has been revealed, they still refuse to address the horror of what has been done to the most vulnerable in society—little children. They do not grasp the lifelong suffering of the victims. Instead spending more time, care and resources on the abusers.

Every time a documentary is shown on TV, more victims come forward. Suicide, substance…

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ARLINGTON (CBSNewsTexas.com) – Investigators from the Arlington Police Department visited a monastery Wednesday morning to speak with the nuns involved in a bitter dispute with the Bishop of Fort Worth.

The conversation was focused on the facts of the initial confrontation with Bishop Michael Olson in April, and his demand for the computers and phone used by the Carmelite nuns, according to their civil attorney Matthew Bobo. 

Bobo said he understood the Tarrant County Sheriffs Department may also be looking at the situation, but a spokesman there Wednesday said Arlington was the lead on any potential case.

No criminal charges have been filed or recommended, however the meeting is the first time police have become involved in the public clash between the two religious entities. A third-party sent a letter to Arlington police chief Al Jones, asking him to look into the situation.

After taking the electronic devices, Olson and…

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Charges and countercharges of illegal activity have further escalated a bitter public dispute between the Diocese of Fort Worth and a monastery of Carmelite nuns in Arlington, Texas.

In the latest salvo in what has become a protracted legal and public relations battle was launched by the diocese on Wednesday when it released a pair of photographs that purportedly show cannabis and marijuana products inside the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity.

Diocesan spokesman Pat Svacina said in Wednesday’s release that the diocese “is in communication” with the Arlington Police Department regarding “serious concerns it has regarding the use of marijuana and edibles at the monastery.”

The monastery’s attorney, Matthew Bobo, denied the allegations related to drug use, calling them “absolutely ridiculous” and “without merit.”

The dispute between the monastery and the diocese began in April when Olson launched a canonical investigation into an alleged sexual affair between the monastery’s…

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Last year, the Southern Baptist Conference was forced to confront its own hidden history of sexual abuse, after the release of an explosive report on how the leadership of that Protestant denomination had ignored and even “vilified” sexual abuse survivors. Sadly, the S.B.C. had only been repeating a familiar pattern of cover-up and institutional protection already observed in the Catholic Church (and still coming to light, as with the recent report on hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by clergy discovered since 1950 in several dioceses in Illinois). The same lack of accountability in both denominations has left them liable to criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits.

These latest revelations are simply more evidence of a pandemic of child abuse that has infected countries all over the world and can be found throughout the 20th century. I have previously characterized this epidemic as “a war on children” that, unfortunately, has not attracted enough of…

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The allegations are extreme: Adultery, abuse of power, marijuana usage, defamation, lies, theft, scandal and a conspiracy to take valuable monastery land.

The questions are many: What really happened? Has the process been done correctly? What did Vatican officials know, and when did they know it? And why was the bishop at the center of the storm put in charge?

The issues are complex: They involve Texas civil law, criminal law, canon law, papal decrees, congregational constitutions, hierarchical authority and investigatory powers — to name just a few.

And all this over a tiny monastery of 10 Carmelite nuns and the local bishop.

He said, she said accusations

According to court documents, interviews and press reports, the maelstrom began April 24, when Bishop Michael Olson, head of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, arrived at the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity, home to the Discalced…

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Ann Allen loved going to church and the after-school social group led by a dynamic priest back in the 1960s.

The giggling fun with friends always ended with a game of hide and seek. Each week, the Rev. Lawrence Sabatino chose one girl to hide with him. Allen said when it was her turn, she was sexually assaulted, at age 7, in the recesses of St. Peter’s Catholic Church.

“I don’t remember how I got out of that cellar and I don’t think I ever will. But I remember it like it’s yesterday. I remember the smells. The sounds. I remember what he said, and what he did,” she said.

Allen, 64, is one of more than two dozen people who have sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine, over the past year, seeking delayed justice since lawmakers allowed lawsuits for abuse that happened long ago and can’t be…

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CHESTERFIELD — The Archdiocese of St. Louis has agreed to pay roughly $1 million to a man who alleged he was sexually abused as a boy by a priest at Ascension Catholic Church in Chesterfield in the 1990s, an attorney for the plaintiff said.

The settlement appears to be the second largest amount the archdiocese is known to have paid one single victim in a sexual abuse claim. Both settlements resulted from lawsuits alleging abuse by the same former priest, Gary P. Wolken, one of the first St. Louis-area clergy to plead guilty to sexual abuse since the crisis shook the Roman Catholic Church two decades ago.

Wolken, now 57 and a registered sex offender, served 12 years in prison from 2003 to 2015 for sexually abusing a Ballwin boy from 1997 to 2000 while babysitting the boy. The archdiocese removed Wolken from ministry in 2002 and in 2004 paid…

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The Archdiocese has agreed to pay $1 million, one of the largest single settlements, to a man who said a former priest abused him in the 1990s.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis on Thursday reached a $1 million settlement with a man who alleged a former priest abused him when he was a boy in the 1990s.

The settlement is one of the largest settlements the Archdiocese has paid to a single victim in its history, and the second suit involving former priest Gary Wolken. 

“We are hopeful that this settlement provides some measure of comfort for the victim and for his family,” the Archdiocese said in a statement. “We continue to pray for all victims of sexual abuse, that they may find comfort and healing.”

Wolken, 57, was previously convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for first-degree sodomy of a boy over a period…

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The Archdiocese of St. Louis will pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest

The Archdiocese of St. Louis will pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who previously spent 12 years in prison for abusing another boy, an attorney for the victim said Friday.

The plaintiff was an altar boy at Ascension Catholic Church in Chesterfield, Missouri. The suit alleged he was abused by the Rev. Gary Wolken starting in 1993, when the boy was in fourth grade, and continuing through 1995. The lawsuit said the plaintiff repressed memories until he was an adult. The man’s lawsuit, which did not use his name, was filed in 2018.

His attorney, Rebecca Randles, said the settlement was reached this week.

“We applaud our client…

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A long history of abuse at Hesston College demands recognition and answers

In 1930, at a revival meeting, a pastor named Maurice “M.A.” Yoder asked a 27-year-old woman named Ruth Bender to confess her sins. She described what her father D.H. Bender would later admit to as “fornication” with Ruth when she was a teen.

At the time she spoke up, Ruth was teaching French and Latin at Hesston College, a Mennonite school in Kansas. Her father was the founding president of the college.

Yoder went on to make Ruth’s confession public.

D.H. Bender was called before the Mennonite Board of Education, which didn’t buy D.H. Bender’s claim that there was only one rape, “during a Kansas thunderstorm.” The abuse had continued for some time.

In August 1930, Bender lost his ministerial credentials and was excommunicated by Hesston Mennonite Church. But that same day, the congregation heard Bender’s confession and…

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Eric Dejaeger is facing eight counts of historical sexual assault involving six Inuit children.

A defrocked Catholic priest and convicted sex offender made a brief court appearance in Iqaluit Thursday on historical sex charges involving six Inuit children.

Eric Dejaeger, 76, has twice been convicted of sex crimes against Inuit children in Nunavut.

He now faces eight more charges of sexual assault involving six alleged victims, said Sgt. Pauline Melanson of RCMP V Division in Iqaluit.

Dejaeger was shackled at the wrists and ankles while dressed in sweat pants and a sweater. He was seen nodding at defence lawyer Keir O’Flaherty, who requested a publication ban during the bail hearing.

The hearing was put over until June 27.

Dejaeger was flown to Nunavut on Wednesday after being arrested on a Canada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ont.

Melanson said the defrocked priest was living in the Henry Trail Community Correctional Centre –…

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GRANT PARISH, La. (KALB/Gray News) -A prominent Louisiana Baptist leader in the central Louisiana area has been arrested, law enforcement said.

Daryl Stagg, 60, of Pollock, was arrested on Thursday and is being held at the Grant Parish Detention Center in Colfax.

The Louisiana Baptist Convention confirmed that Stagg has been the associational mission strategist for the Big Creek and CenLa Baptist associations.

Stagg has been charged with felonies: three counts each of oral sexual battery, first degree rape, aggravated crimes against nature and indecent behavior with juveniles.

Bond has been set at $500,000. He remains in jail at this time.

The Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office said that there will be a press conference on Monday to discuss a recent investigation involving sex crimes with young children as victims.

Sheriff Steven McCain said that he is concerned that there may be other victims related to the…

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“I think that they should be” posting lists of abusive members “because it’s been actually asked of us by the larger church,” the Rev. Gregory Polan told the Sun-Times.

The Benedictine monastery that founded Benet Academy in Lisle and the one that runs Marmion Academy in Aurora should publish complete lists of their clerics who have been deemed to have been credibly accused of child sex offenses, the top official of the Catholic religious order worldwide is urging.

“I would certainly encourage they be honest about those types of things,” the Rev. Gregory Polan, leader of the confederation of Benedictine groups around the world, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“I think that they should be” posting such lists of abusive members “because it’s been actually asked of us by the larger church,” Polan said in an interview from Rome, where he is based. “I think we need to do what the…

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High court of Australia is considering a NSW court’s permanent stay in a case brought by a woman who alleges she was abused as a 14-year-old

The high court has pressed the Catholic church to explain why it didn’t have an adequate opportunity 50 years ago to investigate the extent of a priest’s abuse of children, given there were “red flags everywhere” about his crimes.

The court on Thursday began hearing a key case about a legal tactic now routinely being employed by the church and other institutions to permanently shield themselves from abuse survivors’ civil claims for compensation.

Institutions are now regularly seeking permanent stays, or a permanent halt to proceedings, by arguing the death of alleged perpetrators and the inability to obtain their response to a survivor’s allegations leaves them unable to receive a fair trial.

The approach has infuriated survivors and their advocates,…

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Survivors of abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, and by clergy from the Archdiocese of St. John’s through the years, are poised to receive a financial settlement from the archdiocese by the end of the year.

Lawyers for survivors, the Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s (RCECSJ) and court monitor Ernst & Young appeared in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court May 30 to declare Global Resolutions Inc., a Toronto-based dispute resolution organization, has been appointed as claims officer.

Reportedly, Global Resolutions Inc. has assigned four of its most senior panel members to adjudicate this process. At the suggestion of survivors’ lawyer Geoffrey Budden, Newfoundland resident Lawrence Hatfield, also a mediation specialist, has been added as a fifth member of this team. 

“There are not a lot of mediators in Canada with the combination of general experience and specific experience assessing or mediating sexual abuse claims,”…

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What is the price of an abusive kiss by a predatory priest? How much should an unwanted fondle fetch to serve justice to the victim? Ask the class-action lawyers.

They and the legal system have developed a grid, or “meat chart” as one Ontario lawyer refers to it, that spells out the dollar value of abuse much as insurance companies codify the value of a lost thumb or the ability to walk. The chart has two distinct components. One section enumerates four levels of the sexual assault. The second section addresses the “harms and effects,” or the knock-on psychological harm or financial losses experienced by those assaulted.

The valuations will come into play now that the large class actions against Roman Catholic dioceses and religious orders in Canada have reached a settlement and damages will soon be disbursed to the claimants.

In April, the Diocese of Chicoutimi in Quebec settled…

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A $100 million class action lawsuit launched on behalf of alleged victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Manitoulin Island has been abandoned after the victims reached individual settlements with the church.

All of the 29 alleged victims are from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory and attended Holy Cross Mission, run by the Jesuit Fathers of Upper Canada.

The suit was launched in 2015 and named several defendants, including the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie, the Estate of Father George Epoch and the Estate of Brother O’Meare.

“The action was brought on behalf of all persons who were abused as children by clergy or staff of the Holy Cross Mission in Wiikwemkoong (and) all parents, spouses, children and siblings of the abused persons,” court documents said.

Two alleged victims – one of Father George Epoch and the…

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Revelations of rampant sexual abuse by deceased Jesuit Fr. Alfonso Pedrajas have prompted dozens of people in Bolivia to come forward with similar accusations of atrocities in the South American country, where the Catholic Church confronts a reckoning over the criminal acts of pedophile priests.

An investigation by Bolivian newspaper Página Siete found more than 170 victims of clerical sexual abuse being raised since early May, when the Spanish newspaper El País published its exposé into Pedrajas — a Spanish Jesuit who kept a record of his abuse of children by writing a diary.

“What El País has achieved has been the victims connecting with each other, interacting with each other, daring to speak out. Many of the victims are more than 50 years old,” Raphael Archondo, an academic and former director of Fides, a news outlet supported by Bolivia’s Jesuits, told OSV News.

“There’s a wave of complaints and…

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LOUDON COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A former Virginia priest was sentenced to spend eight years in prison for sexually abusing a teenager nearly four decades ago.

Scott Asalone, 66, is a former priest of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Purcellville, Virginia. According to court documents, in 1985, a then-29-year-old Asalone sexually abused a 14-year-old child.

Asolone was removed from public duties in 1993 and dismissed from the Order of Capuchin Friars in 2007.

Asalone was indicted by a grand jury in March 2020 and was arrested from his home in New Jersey shortly afterward. He was then extradited to Virginia and remained on bond until his trial.

In December 2022, Asalone pled guilty using the Alford rule in a Loudon County Circuit Court to felony carnal knowledge of a minor between 13 and 15 years of age. An Alford plea allows a defendant to plead guilty…

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The Meta unit’s systems for fostering communities have guided users to child-sex content; company says it is improving internal controls

 Instagram, the popular social-media site owned by Meta Platforms, helps connect and promote a vast network of accounts openly devoted to the commission and purchase of underage-sex content, according to investigations by The Wall Street Journal and researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Pedophiles have long used the internet, but unlike the forums and file-transfer services that cater to people who have interest in illicit content, Instagram doesn’t merely host these activities. Its algorithms promote them. Instagram connects pedophiles and guides them to content sellers via recommendation systems that excel at linking those who share niche interests, the Journal and the academic researchers found.

Though out of sight for most on the platform, the sexualized accounts on Instagram are brazen about their interest. The researchers found that…

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Editor’s note: This story includes graphic details some readers may find offensive

PROVIDENCE – A former Providence Catholic priest pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal child pornography charge, days before his case was slated to head to trial.

James W. Jackson, 68, a former pastor at St. Mary’s Church, admitted to a felony count of receiving child pornography before U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith.

In exchange, Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. McAdams agreed to dismiss a charge of possessing child pornography. His trial had been set to start June 20.

Background on James W. Jackson’s case

Rhode Island State Police arrested Jackson in October 2021 following an investigation into someone sharing child pornography that led to the St. Mary’s Catholic Parish and rectory at 538 Broadway. Investigators executing a search warrant there located more than 12,000 images and 1,300 video files depicting child sexual abuse, with Jackson…

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(For Immediate Release June 8, 2023) 

A recently deceased Archpriest in the Diocese of the South (DOS), Orthodox Church in America (OCA), apparently continued bear the title of “archpriest,” despite being a registered sex offender. We are absolutely shocked that Archpriest Benjamin Henderson, who was convicted of possessing child pornography, was never defrocked.

We have written to the late Fr. Henderson’s hierarch, Archbishop Alexander Golitzin, asking him to explain how such a travesty came about, despite evidence that the DOS was at least aware that the priest had been charged with this heinous crime. 

A copy of SNAP’s letter to Archbishop Golitzin is linked here.

Child pornography is NOT a victimless crime. The images of the very real boys and girls who appear in the photos and videos are traded and used indefinitely, leading to a lifetime of victimization. Moreover, studies have shown…

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Last year, Chellee Taylor, won an undisclosed settlement from a Southern Baptist megachurch in Florida, which she says silenced her and protected the campus pastor who sexually assaulted her. Now, Taylor is going public with her story, naming the church, Journey Church in Orange City, Fla.

She’s also naming Journey’s lead pastor, James Hilton, who’s also a trustee at Cedarville University—a Southern Baptist school, plagued by a recent sex abuse scandal and allegations of mishandling Title IX cases.

And Taylor is naming her alleged abuser—former Journey Orange City Campus Pastor Tom Wycuff.

Wycuff has since deleted his social media accounts and moved to his wife’s hometown in New Jersey. The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to Wycuff for comment but could not make contact.

Taylor told TRR that when she first disclosed what Wycuff had done, Journey gave her an ultimatum: resign or be fired. Then the…

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The Church of England has said that changes are being made to improve a financial support scheme for clergy abuse survivors following heavy criticism. 

A review by the Independent Safeguarding Board said that survivors using the Church of England’s Interim Support Scheme (ISS) were at risk of “repeated re-traumatisation”. 

The review highlighted the experience of one man named only as ‘Mr X’ who was left feeling suicidal after accessing the scheme. 

The ISB said that the Church needed to take a “trauma-informed approach” and act with “urgency” in his case.

In a statement, the ISB said that the Church of England had failed to implement recommendation 7 within the expected timescale.

The recommendation addressed Mr X’s situation specifically and asked that the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team (NST) convene a meeting within four weeks of the review, dated March 2023, to address his support needs.

“This action is now significantly overdue,”…

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A Bolivian former seminarian who says he was the victim of a vast sex abuse network in the Catholic Church has told AFP of decades of “hell” meted out to children by men of the cloth.

Pedro Lima said not only minors but also adults like himself who were training to become priests were subject to abuse in the South American country, often by clergymen who arrived from Spain.

The 54-year-old, who has lived in Paraguay since 2011 where he works as a blacksmith, returned home last month to give evidence in a vast investigation into child predation at schools countrywide, including a boarding school for poor, rural kids in Cochabamba.

“The children lived through hell,” he recounted of things he said he saw. “These abusive priests were saints by day, demons by night.”

At the center of the latest scandal is a Spanish priest by the name of Alfonso…

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KINGSTON, Ont. – A defrocked Oblate priest and convicted sex offender is facing eight new criminal charges for past sexual assaults he allegedly committed while living in Nunavut.

Iqaluit RCMP said Eric Dejaeger, 76, was arrested on a Canada-wide warrant Wednesday in Kingston, Ont., where he was living. Police said he will be transported to Iqaluit to appear on the charges before the Nunavut Court of Justice.

Police gave no details about when and where the alleged assaults occurred, but said the charges stem from investigations conducted between 2011 and 2015.

Dejaeger, who was born in Belgium and became a Canadian citizen in 1977, has previously been convicted of numerous sexual offences.

He served part of a five-year sentence beginning in 1990 for sexual crimes against children in Baker Lake, Nunavut, committed between 1982 and 1989.

Following his release, he learned RCMP were investigating his activities in Igloolik, Nvt., and…

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The right man at the right time. Santa Fe Archdiocese Archbishop Emeritus Michael J. Sheehan was certainly that.

The retired archbishop’s death Saturday reminds us of one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Catholic Church, and how one man’s integrity and forthrightness helped restore faith in his archdiocese.

Sheehan presided over the Santa Fe Archdiocese for 22 years, from 1993 to 2015. It wasn’t easy from the start as a sexual abuse scandal of epic proportions was beginning to rock the archdiocese. Just three weeks before Sheehan faced a packed room of reporters at his first news conference in Albuquerque in April 1993, former Santa Fe Archbishop Robert F. Sanchez had resigned after five women alleged he sexually molested them as teenagers. Sanchez was one of at least 14 New Mexico priests accused of sexual abuse when Pope John Paul II named Sheehan as acting head of…

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KINGSTON, Ontario (AP) — A defrocked Canadian priest and convicted sex offender is facing eight new criminal charges for past sexual assaults he allegedly committed while living in northern Canada, authorities said Wednesday.

Iqaluit Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Eric Dejaeger, 76, was arrested on a Canada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ontario, where he was living. Police said he will be transported to Iqaluit, Nunavut, to appear on the charges before the Nunavut Court of Justice.

Police gave no details about when and where the alleged assaults occurred, but said the charges stem from investigations conducted between 2011 and 2015.

Dejaeger, who was born in Belgium and became a Canadian citizen in 1977, has previously been convicted of numerous sexual offences.

He served part of a five-year sentence beginning in 1990 for sexual crimes against children in Baker Lake, Nunavut, committed between 1982 and 1989.

Following his release, he learned police…

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Richard Trahant, fined $400,000 for alerting high school about priest, accuses law firm of trying to harm his reputation

An American attorney fined $400,000 for alerting a Roman Catholic high school that a priest stationed there admitted fondling and kissing a teenage girl during a previous assignment is seeking damages from church lawyers as he fights the penalty.

The lawsuit filed last week by the Louisiana-based attorney Richard Trahant accuses a law firm representing New Orleans’s archdiocese in a bankruptcy protection case – and administrators of the proceeding – of trying to harm his reputation by widely but improperly publicizing the judicial order behind the fine.

In a statement on Wednesday responding to the suit Trahant and his wife, Amy, filed five days earlier, the Jones Walker law firm said it followed the instructions of the judge who levied the fine. “Mr Trahant and his wife claim that…

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Cara Kelly is an editor at the Investigative Reporting Workshop and adjunct professor of journalism at American University.

Last month, the attorney general of Illinois released the results of a years-long investigation into child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, revealing 348 more abusers in the state than the church had previously disclosed — and nearly 2,000 child victims.

This was the latest of more than 20 similar reports that began with a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury statement on more than 300 abusive priests and 1,000 child victims. In April, Maryland’s investigation detailed abuse by 150 clergy members against more than 600 victims.

Alarming as they are on their own, these reports also point to another child sexual abuse case that is even bigger — and ongoing — and yet has never been as thoroughly examined.

This one…

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The Guardian, the Associated Press and state prosecutors contend that there’s legitimate public interest in documents dealing with Lawrence Hecker

Two national US media organizations and Louisiana state prosecutors have joined efforts to secure the public release of sealed information that would provide a more complete account of a retired Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans who has been previously accused of molesting several children.

In papers filed late Wednesday at New Orleans’s federal courthouse, the Guardian and the Associated Press contend that there is a legitimate public interest in the contents of the documents dealing with Lawrence Hecker despite archdiocesan claims that the information could be disparaging to the organization.

The Guardian and AP argue that the records were improperly labeled as confidential after the church filed its pending, three-year-old bankruptcy case and are seeking to remove that designation, supporting arguments first advanced by Aaron Hebert, who…

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A high sum is demanded in the Traunstein Pope trial. The person concerned is not alone with his financial claim. The beginning of a wave of lawsuits against the Catholic Church?

Two weeks before the scheduled start of the civil trial in Traunstein about sexual abuse In the Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, the amount involved has become known for the first time.

A victim of abuse demands a total of 350,000 euros from the Archdiocese and the heirs of the deceased Pope Benedict XVI This was confirmed by the man’s lawyer, Andreas Schulz, of the German Press Agency.

Previously, “Correctiv”, Bavarian radio and “Die Zeit” reported on the claim and quoted from a corresponding brief. The plaintiff is demanding 300,000 euros from the archbishopric and 50,000 euros in compensation from the heirs of the pope emeritus who died on New Year’s Eve. According to a spokeswoman, the court put the…

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It’s the first time that law enforcement has made moves to expose secret records the Archdiocese has fought to protect for decades.

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams is urging a federal court to unseal sworn testimony by the Rev. Lawrence Hecker, as well as records held in secret by the New Orleans Archdiocese about Hecker, saying his office needs them to bring potential criminal charges against the accused child molester.

“The continued sealing of the documents in this case serves as a major impediment to a proper investigation,” Williams wrote in a motion filed Tuesday. “Sworn deposition testimony concerning the commission of a crime should not be withheld from a prosecutorial authority merely because reputations may be harmed. Evidence that a crime has been committed should be brought before the proper court.”

It’s the first time that law enforcement has made moves to expose secret records the Archdiocese has…

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Rarely do we at Horowitz Law take time out to respond to our critics. This is an exception. After we criticized what Maine Catholic officials did and did not do with one particular priest, a reader raised an interesting, legitimate question: “How SHOULD Catholic officials have handled this situation?”

Just to recap- Maine Bishop Robert Deeley ordained Fr. Anthony Cipolle in 2017, despite a troubling past that included multiple career changes, a son, a marriage, and criminal charges, including attempted murder, attempted insurance fraud, and drug possession. After just over a year on the job, he was removed as church officials’ investigated his role in the murder of a woman in 2018. The diocese determined that Fr. Cipolle abused his position as a clergy member, violated the diocesan ‘code of ethics,’ and tried to deceive investigators. More recently, Fr. Cipolle was found working as a chaplain…

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“Hay que apoyar a las víctimas de estas situaciones graves, tristes y dolorosas”, opina Jorge Alberto Cavazos por casos impunes de violación en manos del religioso

*Segunda parte 

“Hay que apoyar a las víctimas de estas situaciones graves, tristes y dolorosas”, sostuvo el arzobispo de San Luis Potosí, Jorge Alberto Cavazos Arizpe, al respecto de que ya se cumplen nueve años de la denuncia en la que se reveló que decenas de personas durante su adolescencia fueron víctimas de abuso sexual por parte del expárroco 

El máximo jerarca de la iglesia potosina manifestó que para la Diócesis no es un “caso cerrado” y se comparte la postura de las víctimas de que la justicia sólo llegará cuando las autoridades detengan a esta persona y sea juzgada por el poder civil, por lo que incluso refirió que ha hablado del tema con las autoridades correspondientes.

Añadió que tiene conocimiento que desde que…

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El sacerdote potosino sigue prófugo de la justicia, pese a que su ficha de búsqueda fue girada por la Interpol; víctimas en SLP narran los abusos y el calvario en búsqueda de justicia

*PRIMERA DE DOS PARTES

Acusado penalmente por el abuso sexual de al menos 19 menores de edad, aunque colectivos contra la pederastia le atribuyen más de 100 actos de abuso, el sacerdote potosino Eduardo Córdova ha burlado las leyes por más de 40 años. En 1983, aún sin ingresar al seminario, inició su historial como agresor sexual y aunque fue denunciado ante la cúpula católica, ésta misma le permitió consolidarse como líder religioso y con ello acumular decenas de agravios de este mismo tipo.Sponsored Links5.5% High Interest Savings AccountsStuffAnsweredLearn More

La Iglesia católica y la élite potosina se cimbró cuando se destaparon públicamente en 2014 los múltiples…

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Advocates, attorneys, and several survivors of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of clergy members are calling for action and increased transparency by the Catholic church.

“The real impact this has is, you have to look at life through a whole different lens. It’s not a fun one,” said Mike, a survivor who said he was sexually abused by a pastor of his parish in Berwyn decades ago when he was only 11.

He believes what isn’t talked about enough when it comes to sexual assault, is the way it impacts how a survivor sees the world.

“You learn to survive; you learn to thrive,” said Mike. “I’ve had a great life. It’s a perspective that’s a bit unusual.”

On Tuesday, Mike joined others at a news conference prompted by a 700-page report released nearly two weeks ago by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. In it, 451 Catholic clergy members…

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Priest released from custody on agreed conditions after allegations of sexual assault on Manitoba First Nation

Arul Savari, a Roman Catholic priest facing accusations of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in a church on a remote Manitoba First Nation, has been released from custody. The 48-year-old appeared via video in a Winnipeg court before a judicial justice of the peace on Monday, where the Crown and his defense lawyer agreed upon a set of conditions for his release.

During the court proceedings, when asked if he agreed with the conditions, Savari responded with “OK.” He is facing five charges, including sexual assault, sexual interference, and forcible confinement.

Savari had been in custody since May 27, following a complaint made by the mother of the 8-year-old girl to the Little Grand Rapids RCMP. According to the RCMP, the girl was alone with the priest when he allegedly touched her inappropriately. The…

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The remains of five children who died at a Pennsylvania boarding school for Native Americans are going to be exhumed and returned to their families who have waited for their return for more than a century, the Office of Army Cemeteries (OAC) has announced.

The children died between 1880 and 1910 while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a boarding school for Native American children known for physical and sexual abuse, the US Department of Interior detailed in a 2022 report.

They were forced to assimilate into White society, stripped of their Indigenous names and banned from speaking their languages. If they resisted, they were punished, often violently, according to the report.

The names of the children who are being repatriated to their tribes, the OAC announced May 24, are: Edward Upright…

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Michigan lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would give victims of sexual abuse more time to sue for damages as the state again looks to overhaul laws following multiple sexual abuse scandals.

The legislation, which appeared before a committee Tuesday afternoon, would expand the civil statute of limitations for sex abuse victims from age 28 to 52. If enacted, victims would also have a two-year window to sue retroactively, regardless of the time limit.

The new measures would allow victims of the late Dr. Robert Anderson at the University of Michigan and others additional time to bring lawsuits that have previously been barred by the statute of limitations. Government entities could not use the immunity defense if they knew or should have known of an accused’s prior sexual misconduct and failed to intervene.

In 2018, Michigan increased the statute of limitations to 28 years old following the conviction of Larry Nassar, who…

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The case of the Carmelite nuns in Fort Worth, Texas, has been a head-scratching one since the moment it made the papers about a week ago. It had all the elements of a sensational story – and a salacious one, to boot – even before the Vatican intervention, but very little is known for certain.

The barest bones of the story are that the Bishop of Fort Worth, Michael Olson, opened an investigation in April into at least one unspecified allegation of sexual misconduct against the superior of the Carmelite monastic community in Arlington, Tx., Mother Teresa Agnes (Gerlach) of Jesus Crucified, and last week summarily dismissed her not only from the leadership of the monastery but from the Carmelite Order.

The Diocese of Fort Worth has claimed Gerlach admitted to some sexual misconduct, but the sisters say their erstwhile superior was questioned while in a post-operative stupor.

In fact,…

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Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth was investigating nun’s ‘admitted-to violations’ of Sixth Commandment and chastity vow

A Carmelite religious sister added a defamation claim to her lawsuit against Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth, Texas, June 2, the day after he used newly granted authority from the Holy See to decree her dismissal from the Carmelite order.

Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes of Jesus Crucified Gerlach and fellow Discalced Carmelite nuns of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas, claim that Bishop Olson’s public statements about the mother superior “are patently false and defamatory.” The diocese has made several public statements alleging that Mother Teresa Agnes is guilty of sexual misconduct with a priest from outside the Diocese of Fort Worth.

The statements are related to an investigation the bishop launched into the nun and her religious community in late April, during which he and…

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Child sexual abuse survivors pressed Pennsylvania lawmakers Monday to move ahead with opening a two-year window for them to file otherwise outdated lawsuits over their claims, but a partisan fight in the Legislature kept the proposal bottled up with no resolution in sight.

Amid the stalemate, survivors renewed calls for the Legislature to pass either version of the measure — one that would give voters final say on the window in the form of a constitutional amendment, the other legislation that would also need Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s signature.

Speaking at a rally on the Capitol’s exterior front steps, Amish, Mennonite and Plain people were among those who recounted abuse they had endured and urged passage of the window.

“Here we are again fighting for our rights as victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse who have been waiting many, many years for the opportunity for justice, to find out…

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Pope Francis plans to meet victims of clergy sexual abuse during his five-day visit to Portugal in August to coincide with World Youth Day, Lisbon assistant bishop Americo Aguiar said on Tuesday.

Francis, who is 86, will travel to Portugal from Aug. 2-6 to attend the global gathering of young Catholics held for the first time since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He will attend over 15 events, including a mass, a vigil, meetings with youngsters and politicians and a visit to the Fatima sanctuary.

Francis’ agenda was released on Tuesday and at the event Aguiar said the pontiff would meet victims of sexual abuse committed by members of the Portuguese Catholic Church.

A Portuguese commission investigating the issue said in February at least 4,815 children were sexually abused by clergy members in the country – mostly priests – over 70 years.

The date and location of the meeting was not…

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Daniel Savala, who’s accused of sexually abusing multiple men in the Assemblies of God’s Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, has been arrested in Houston on sex abuse charges involving minors.

On Friday morning, Savala, 67, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force at his residence in downtown Houston and booked at the Fort Bend County Jail in Richmond, Texas. He was charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14, a first-degree felony in Texas, in a warrant that originated from Waco Police Department. 

It’s the second arrest in an investigation started in April by Waco Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit. On May 23, Chris Hundl, former leader of the Chi Alpha chapter at Baylor University and pastor of Mountain Valley Fellowship in Waco, was arrested on identical charges in Waco. 

According to police records, Hundl drove two boys to Savala’s residence in Houston where…

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Rejecting a probation-only recommendation derived from the commonwealth’s sentencing guidelines, Circuit Court Judge James E. Plowman today sentenced a former priest at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Purcellville to eight years in prison for the 1985 sexual assault of a teen at his parish.

Scott Asalone, 66, was 29 years old when he was a Capuchin friar working at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church and befriended the 14-year-old victim. That their relationship included sexual conduct came to light in 1992, when the victim wrote a letter to Asalone detailing the impact that abuse had on his life, including substance abuse and a lasting distrust of others. 

After that letter, Asalone was transferred from the parish and the victim was awarded a civil settlement. According to a 2019 report of past sexual abuse allegations released by the Diocese of Arlington, Asalone was ordained in 1983, removed from public ministry…

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The top law enforcement authority in Illinois says there are 149 credibly accused child molesting clerics who are basically still being protected, even now, by Catholic bishops.

To these bishops, this is apparently some kind of minor bureaucratic squabble. To us, however, it’s an urgent public safety concern.

Bishops are essentially ignoring these 149 offending clerics. They’re essentially saying ‘We’re better at figuring out who’s dangerous than the Illinois Attorney General is.’

 Catholics should be outraged by their arrogance and recklessness. Catholics should insist that every single one of these predators be added to diocesan lists of those facing substantiated abuse reports.

 This self-serving refusal by bishops to be honest about the men who assaulted youngsters is dangerous.

 But another self-serving refusal by bishops is also dangerous. It’s their refusal to warn the public about the predator priests who walk freely – unmonitored and unsupervised – across Illinois right now.

 Catholics…

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“Way too damned little and way too damned late.”

That’s what one life-long Illinois Catholic woman I’ll call “Margaret” told me last week when the state’s attorney general released a nearly 700-page report, based on a five-year investigation, that concluded at least 2,000 kids were sexually abused by 451 priests.

But what has many both outside and inside the church so infuriated is the even-more-shocking charge being leveled by the attorney general that six Illinois bishops are refusing, even now, to post, on their diocesan websites, the names of some 149 clerics accused of sexually abusing children who are or have been in Illinois.

And why, apart from the fact that it’s obviously the right thing, should the bishops do this? Because, as the state’s top law enforcement authority stresses, each of these men is already listed on official public church websites elsewhere and is deemed “credibly” accused by official church prelates…

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Scott Asalone, a former priest of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church was sentenced to eight years in prison for carnal knowledge of a 14 year-old child.

In addition to the prison sentence, Asalone is required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and have no contact with the victim.

The incident occurred in 1985 when Asalone was 29 and the victim was 14. According to court documents, “Asalone was removed from public duties in 1993 and dismissed from the Order of Capuchin Friars in 2007.”

Asalone was initially arrested in New Jersey March 2020 and plead guilty after being extradited to Virginia in December 2022.

Copyright 2023 WDBJ. All rights reserved.

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La Conferencia Episcopal sigue perdiendo tiempo con el escándalo de la pederastia. Su primer informe es opaco e insuficiente, y hace equilibrios para contar afectados declarando al mismo tiempo que eso no implica que les crea

EL PAÍS puso en marcha en 2018 una investigación de la pederastia en la Iglesia española y tiene una base de datos actualizada con todos los casos conocidos. Si conoce algún caso que no haya visto la luz, nos puede escribir a: abusos@elpais.es. Si es un caso en América Latina, la dirección es: abusosamerica@elpais.es.

La Iglesia española sigue perdiendo tiempo con el escándalo de la pederastia en el clero. Al menos ya se mueve, pero tarde y lentamente. En dos años ha dado un giro notable, de la negación a la admisión. Este jueves la Conferencia Episcopal (CEE) ha presentado por primera vez un informe: reconoce 728 acusados y casi…

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(OPINION) Though I’m no longer a believer, in the wake of yet another jaw-dropping Catholic scandal, two Biblical passages have coursed through my mind recently. 

The first verse is John 8:32: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Illinois’ six bishops are no doubt familiar with it. Like many profound bits of wisdom, it’s short and sweet, with absolutely no qualifiers, exceptions or excuses.

Why then do these well-educated prelates apparently think the actual wording is “Some of the truth shall set you free, but you get to determine how much and when and how to reveal it?”

That’s the only rational conclusion that explains why, after decades of horrific, widespread, well-documented child sex crimes and cover-ups, these bishops still refuse to come clean about child-molesting clergy.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul impressively documented this continuing duplicitousness in his 696-page, just-released report on…

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Former Maryland state Sen. Robert “Bobby” Zirkin, a personal injury lawyer, has joined the growing and pervasive number of law firms advertising services to abuse survivors under the Child Victims Act.

Zirkin once testified in opposition to the law on behalf of the Catholic Church, but now finds himself in a position to bring in business because of it.

“The law had been determined by The Attorney General for many years to violate the Maryland Constitution and Declaration of Rights. Nevertheless, the General Assembly passed the legislation,” read an email from his law firm, Zirkin & Schmerling Law.

After four hard-fought legislative sessions, the Maryland General Assembly in 2023 passed the Child Victims Act, which eliminates the statute of limitations for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, allowing them to sue their perpetrators and the institutions that their abusers worked for.

According to CHILD USA, a national think tank…

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It is that terrible time again for devout Catholics and Christians everywhere when the evil of clerical child sex abuse is revealed once again on the international stage.

An investigative report on clerical child abuse released May 23 by the US Attorney General named six Catholic dioceses in Illinois and declared that clerical child abuse is as rife today as in the past.

The sacred trust that the people of God, followers of Jesus have in the clergy is challenged by the truth about clerical abuse of children.

If they have true faith in Jesus of Nazareth and his teaching that goodness, truth, justice, and love of neighbor and children will one day overcome and defeat evil, their faith will not be shaken. They will stand firm and welcome the truth that is cleansing the institutional Church.

In the Philippines, the cleansing has not yet happened. Child abuse cases involving…

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More than three dozen Buffalo Diocese properties could soon be appraised for current values that ultimately may factor heavily into a settlement with sexual abuse claimants in the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

Lawyers for the diocese are asking a federal judge to approve a request to hire KLW Appraisal Group to come up with valuations for 37 properties spread across six counties.

The properties vary from 15 acres of vacant land in the Town of Hamburg near the Erie County Fairgrounds to a historically significant four-story office building in the heart of Buffalo’s medical corridor. They also include six school buildings, two retirement homes for priests, St. Joseph Cathedral, and the former Christ the King Seminary in Aurora.

They were estimated collectively to be worth $16 million in 2020 when the diocese first sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in response to more than 200 Child Victims Act lawsuits alleging…

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Carmelite nuns of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas, filed new theft and defamation charges Friday against Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth.

The nuns’ new charges were filed in a district court for Tarrant County, Texas, the day after Olson dismissed the monastery’s prioress, Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach, from religious life on the grounds that she had a sexual affair with an unnamed priest.

In a Thursday decree, Olson announced he had found Gerlach, prioress of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, “guilty of having violated the sixth commandment of the Decalogue and her vow of chastity with a priest from outside the Diocese of Fort Worth.”

The new charges levied by the monastery are in addition to a lawsuit filed on May 3 that seeks $1 million in civil damages and asks the court to block the…

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OVERLAND PARK, Kansas — When Joe Eldred was a child, he was sexually abused by three Catholic priests while attending Nativity of Mary Catholic Church and the accompanying elementary school in Independence, Missouri.

Eldred told his story in “Procession,” a documentary directed by Robert Greene that tells the story of six men who were abused by priests in the Catholic church. The documentary starts in Kansas City, Missouri, where much of the abuse occurred, and follows the survivors as they face their trauma and work to heal together.

Most of the abuse Eldred discussed in the film occurred at Lake Viking, a private, man-made lake in northwest Missouri. There, a priest introduced him to Thomas Reardon.

“I remember Father Reardon saying, ‘Come on, let’s show them how much fun this can be.’ And that’s when he raped me,” Eldred said in the documentary.

Through the filming process, Eldred was able…

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The Vatican did not indicate whether it carried out its own investigation into the accusations against Mulakkal.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of an Indian bishop who was cleared last year of charges of raping a religious sister in his diocese.

The resignation of the 59-year-old Bishop of Jalandhar, Franco Mulakkal, comes 16 months after his acquittal by a court in India’s Kerala state in January 2022.

The judge in the case found that “the prosecution failed to prove all the charges against the accused”.

The Vatican did not indicate whether it carried out its own investigation into the accusations against Mulakkal, who has denied the claims and contends he was falsely accused after he questioned alleged financial irregularities at his accuser’s convent.

A religious sister with the Missionaries of Jesus accused the bishop of raping her in May 2014, during a visit to her convent in Kuravilangad, Kerala….

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The sentence is one of the most severe penalties for clerical sexual abuse handed down in France.

A priest of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) has been sentenced by a French court to 20 years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of 27 minors – 16 boys and 11 girls between 12 and 15 years old at the time.

Some of Fr Pierre de Maillard’s victims were from the same family, sometimes abused in their parents’ homes, the jury trial in La Roche sur Yon, capital of the Vendée department of western France, was told.

Before the jury retired to consider its decision, the 55-year-old priest said: “Excuse me, I’m sorry, excuse me, I’m sorry.”

The sentence on 2 June was one of the most severe penalties for clerical sexual abuse handed down in France, where the Catholic Church has been haunted by the scandal for…

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Jorge Ordoñez es un padre que por tres años ha estado en busca de justicia para su hija, quien fue víctima de abuso sexual por parte de un sacerdote en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Sin embargo, a lo largo de este tiempo, se ha encontrado con obstáculos, negación y presunto encubrimiento por parte de la Iglesia.

Ciudad de México, 31 de mayo (SinEmbargo). – Jorge Ordoñez emprende desde hace tres años una de las batallas más complicadas: buscar justicia para su hija, quien cuando tenía 10 años fue víctima de abuso sexual por parte de un sacerdote en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

Jorge Ordoñez, el padre de la menor, denunció en entrevista con SinEmbargo, que luego de acusar formalmente a un sacerdote que abusó de la pequeña en una reunión a la que acudió con su madre en el año 2020, hasta la fecha no solo ha encontrado falta de justicia, sino obstáculos, negación por parte de…

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The Catholic Church in Spain on June 1 presented the report “To shed light,” which tallies 927 complaints of alleged sexual abuse of minors under 18 years of age or vulnerable people that occurred from 1945 to 2022.

The report does not include situations involving the abuse of conscience and power or committed against adults.

The report was “prepared from the testimonies that have been collected in the offices [of the protection of minors and abuse prevention], without assuming or proving innocence or guilt.”

The Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE) also acknowledged that in the account it presented “it’s possible that there are some duplications of testimonies.”

The complaints indicate 728 alleged perpetrators including 170 diocesan priests and 208 ordained religious, 234 non-ordained men and women religious, one deacon, 92 laypeople, and 23 people whose state is unknown.

Most abuse was of homosexual nature

According to the data provided by the…

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An Illinois megachurch pastor likely misused his position in 2016 to cover up credible sexual misconduct allegations concerning his son, a former pastor at the church, an independent investigation has found.

Mike Baker, former senior pastor at Eastview Christian Church (ECC), “more likely than not” withheld information from staff and church elders about sexual misconduct allegations made about his son, Caleb Baker, in 2016, the report by Wagenmaker and Oberly found. The report also found that Caleb Baker likely used his pastoral role at ECC to “persuade women to engage in sexual activity,” confirming prior reporting by The Roys Report (TRR).  

The report also determined that Mike Baker likely didn’t share the extent of the allegations against his son with the pastor who hired Caleb subsequent to his firing at ECC—Pastor Cal Jernigan of Central Christian Church in Arizona. Jernigan said last February that Mike Baker had told…

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HAMDEN, Conn. (WTNH) — A priest that served in Waterbury, Torrington and Hamden in the last five years is now the center of a sexual assault lawsuit.

“When we see a priest or anybody working for the diocese transferred quickly over a short period of time that’s concerning and that’s a red flag for us,” said Mike McDonnell with the Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests. “Out of sight, out of mind. Let the dust settle.”

Reverend Mauricio Galvis joined Saint John Paul Roman Catholic Church in Torrington in 2019. A year later, the alleged victim says she developed trust, respect and reliance for the Reverend, which then led to manipulation and various sexual acts without her consent.

The alleged incident happened in Torrington in September 2020.

According to court documents the victim allegedly continues to suffer from physical injuries and emotional distress.

News 8 did reach out to…

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The parish priest of St. Jerome’s in Troy is named in the state’s recent sex abuse in the Catholic Church report, which alleges he lied to help a pedophile cohort get a teaching job years ago at a community college in Florida. 

Rev. Kevin Laughery during weekend mass acknowledged giving a job reference in the early 1990s for Walter Weerts, a known pedophile priest with 22 victims who served in several Metro East parishes, but said he “did not lie” in doing so.

The Office of the Illinois Attorney General’s “Report on Catholic Clergy Child Sex Abuse in Illinois,” issued last week lists 451 Catholic religious figures who over a span of about 70 years abused at least 1,997 children across dioceses in Illinois. 

Included in the report is Weerts, who following his ordination in 1960, served in Edwardsville, Granite City and Highland and befriended parishioners in an effort to gain access to their children. In 1986,…

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Videomessaggio di Papa Francesco

L’autore del mosaico, p. Rupnik, è stato scomunicato per gravi reati canonici. Poi lo stesso Papa cancellò questa scomunica come ha detto la Compagnia di Gesù. Intanto da mesi si discute cosa fare con oltre 200 opere del gesuita in decine di luoghi importanti in giro per il mondo.

(L. B., R. C. – a cura Redazione “Il sismografo”) In un breve 

video (al minuto 1, 20), girato con il telefonino, inviato giorni fa da Papa Francesco al santuario dell’Aparecida in Brasile, lo stesso Pontefice si avvicina ad una riproduzione di un mosaico mariano del gesuita p. M. I. Rupnik – che si trova in uno dei saloni di Santa Marta – e illustra nel dettaglio il significato dell’opera. (Vatican News) A dir poco sorprendente perché nella vicenda ripugnante del gesuita mosaicista. il Santo…

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There’s a power in the ordinary church.

The first two episodes of the recent FX documentary, “The Secrets of Hillsong,” detail the downfall of the church in New York City and around the globe. First, we watch Hillsong NYC and its pastor, Carl Lentz, rise to power and influence. Over the course of a decade, tens of thousands of people, including young people from diverse backgrounds who had abandoned or never attended church before, arrived en masse to hear Lentz preach. Justin Bieber got baptized. Selena Gomez showed up. Hillsong NYC was a cultural phenomenon. It looked like a rock concert, with a buff, tattooed and yet emotional pastor pacing the stage amidst crescendoing worship songs and powerful words of prayer. All the cool kids lined up outside in their ripped jeans and leather jackets, waiting to attend one of the seven regular weekend services.

But soon we learn what…

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New pedophile priests are exposed

All are ‘credibly accused’ elsewhere

But 5 are not on Rockford’s ‘accused’ list

One was in the diocese for nine years & was sued

Group urges whistleblowers & victims to ‘keep coming forward’

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will

• disclose the names of five proven, admitted or credibly accused abusive clerics who were in the Rockford area but are NOT on the official Rockford diocese ‘accused’ list, and
• blast local Catholic officials for their “continued secrecy and deceit.”

They will also urge

• Rockford’s bishop to post the five names on his website as soon as possible, and
• anyone who “saw, suspected or suffered” clergy sex crimes to “keep coming forward to police and prosecutors, not to church figures.”

WHEN

Monday, May 29 at 2:30 p.m.

WHERE

On the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of St. Peter, 1243 N….

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Arcybiskup Sławoj Leszek Głódź ma przebywać w ciężkim stanie w szpitalu – podaje RadioZET.pl, powołując się na kilka źródeł.

Jak dowiedział się dziennikarz Radia ZET Radosław Gruca, arcybiskup Sławoj Leszek Głódź przebywa obecnie w szpitalu. Duchowny ma być w ciężkim stanie. Informacja ta miała zostać potwierdzona w kilku źródłach.

Abp Sławoj Leszek Głódź jest w szpitalu

Sławoj Leszek Głódź przez lata był jednym z najbardziej wpływowych biskupów w polskim Kościele, pełnił także między innymi funkcję biskupa polowego Wojska Polskiego. Później awansowano go do stopnia generała dywizji. 

W marcu 2021 roku arcybiskup Sławoj Leszek Głódź wraz z abp Edwardem Janiakiem został ukarany przez Watykan w związku z tuszowaniem przez nich nadużyć seksualnych na terenie podległych im diecezji.

Nuncjatura apostolska poinformowała wówczas, że “na podstawie przepisów Kodeksu Prawa Kanonicznego i motu proprio Papieża Franciszka Vos estis lux mundi” Watykan przeprowadził postępowanie dotyczące obu arcybiskupów “dotyczące sygnalizowanych zaniedbań (…)…

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It is well and good that op-ed writer Mike Hoffman has “received restorative justice from the Catholic Church after surviving clergy abuse” (May 30). The fact is that clergy abuse of minors has been the norm in the Catholic Church for centuries — from the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and prior to Vatican II (1962-65) and after. It has been as much a part of Catholicism as the Stations of the Cross or Ash Wednesday.

Ireland, Australia, Mexico, the United States (every country, every decade, every parish — you name it). Bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes, when not themselves perpetrators, have aided and abetted, covering up, prevaricating, moving abusers from parish to parish and playing Russian roulette with the lives of children.

— Joe English, Oak Park

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Two weeks ago, a new, horrific chapter on sexual abuse by the Catholic religious began. By laying bare the magnitude of the tragedy, the Illinois attorney general heightened the consciousness of everyone to this issue. Once again, Catholics and others read a report wondering if they will recognize a name.

Catholics cowered at the thought of having to answer questions from friends or simply wondered what those too polite to ask were thinking. However, another set of victims gets scant press: the vast majority of priests and religious who have committed their lives to the service of others, the holy ones who have been steadfast in their faith and devoted to those they serve.

Every time one of these priests hesitates to wear his clerical collar in public, every time he approaches the altar wondering what his congregation might be thinking of him, every time he hesitates to linger after…

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The Illinois Attorney General’s Office released a sweeping report last month which detailed sexual abuse claims against 450 clerics within the state’s Catholic churches victimizing almost 2,000 children.

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria had a litany of transgressions cited by the attorney general’s office, including covering up instances of sexual abuse, mishandling cases and mistreating survivors.

Here’s what we found about the Peoria diocese’s connections to the investigation.

51 clerics cited in investigation

There were 51 former clerics who were linked to abuse of children over the past 70 years, according to the attorney general’s office. Those clerics in the Catholic Diocese of Peoria encompassed 26 counties, stretching from Rock Island in northwest Illinois to Vermillion County on the Indiana border.

Former bishop lambasted by attorney general in report

Archbishop John Myers, the former…

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Las oficinas para la protección de menores y prevención de abusos contabilizan 927 víctimas de abusos sexuales a menores desde mediados de los años cuarenta hasta 2022

EL PAÍS puso en marcha en 2018 una investigación de la pederastia en la Iglesia española y tiene una base de datos actualizada con todos los casos conocidos. Si conoce algún caso que no haya visto la luz, nos puede escribir a: abusos@elpais.es. Si es un caso en América Latina, la dirección es: abusosamerica@elpais.es.

Los obispos españoles admiten que al menos 728 miembros de la Iglesia católica están acusados de abusar de menores desde 1945 hasta finales de 2022. Este es el último avance de datos de la Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE), aportado este jueves en Madrid en la presentación del informe Para dar luz de la CEE, el primer documento que presenta la Iglesia en España sobre la pederastia. También ha informado por primera vez…

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A Catholic priest accused in a lawsuit of sexual misconduct while serving at a Torrington church nearly three years ago has been assigned to “non-parish duties” at the Hamden parish where he now serves, officials said Saturday. 

The priest, the Rev. Mauricio Galvis, is a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Hamden, according to the church’s website. The lawsuit alleges Galvis exposed himself to a woman in his office while serving at St. John Paul the Great Parish in Torrington.

“In order to allay any concerns that parishioners may have about Fr. Galvis, he is being assigned to non-parish duties while his civil case alleging sexual misconduct with an adult awaits adjudication,” according to a statement released Saturday by officials with the Archdiocese of Hartford, which oversees both churches. 

It is unclear when or why Galvis moved from the church in Torrington to the Hamden congregation. 

A lawyer representing Galvis…

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The arrest of Fr. Arul Savari, a 48-year-old priest accused of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl at a Roman Catholic church on the Little Grand Rapids Indian Reserve 265 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg on May 27 has provoked a local demand that the church leave the community.

The child was alone with the priest, who was charged with sexual assault, sexual interference, sexual exploitation of a young person, luring a child and forcible confinement on May 30.

“We don’t want the church here,” Oliver Owen, the reserve’s chief announced to media.

“I brought that up to the band meeting about our priest and the community right away said, ‘you know what, we don’t want that person here in the community, we don’t want him to come back and we don’t want the church here,’” Owen said in a phone interview with the CBC.

“It’s hard to imagine. I’m kind of lost…

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Survivors were outraged last fall when they learned that a retired Wyoming bishop and former Kansas City priest facing numerous sexual abuse allegations would be moving back to the Kansas City area.

And now, The Star has learned, Bishop Joseph Hart did not move back to the metro area after all — bringing more outrage to the survivors who were never informed of the change.

“I don’t even know what to say,” said Michael Sandridge, a victim of another credibly accused priest in the Kansas City area. “I feel deceived. They should have at least let people know. It’s called transparency.”

Hart, whose abuse allegations were deemed credible by two U.S. bishops but dismissed by the Vatican in 2021, was to move to Kansas City in October and reside in a senior living facility. Now 91, Hart had left Kansas City more than four decades ago to become bishop of…

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Advocate for human rights led Santa Fe Archdiocese for 22 years

Michael Jarboe Sheehan, who retired in 2015 as Archbishop of Santa Fe, died Saturday at age 83, a news release from the Santa Fe Archdiocese said.

Born in Wichita Kansas, Sheehan was ordained as a priest in 1964. He served as First Bishop of Lubbock, Texas, and Apostolic Administrator of Santa Fe before being named Archbishop in 1993.

The release said that Sheehan “was deeply committed to social justice, evangelization, and worked tirelessly to abolish the death penalty in New Mexico. He championed initiatives aimed at eradicating poverty, promoting equality, and ensuring the well-being of the most vulnerable members of society.”

As reported by Reginia Ruiz for KOAT in 2014, Sheehan “inherited a diocese rocked with scandal.” In a 2015 interview with KOAT, he said Sheehan said there were many problems when he first joined the archdiocese. In a…

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A Fort Worth Bishop has dismissed the nun accused of breaking her vow of chastity with a priest.

In a statement, the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth said Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach of the Most Holy Trinity Monastery in Arlington violated the Sixth Commandment with a priest from outside the city.

Agnes’ attorney Matthew Bobo has repeatedly denied the accusations that his client admitted the allegations were true.

“I can tell you categorically that did not happen,” he said.

The Diocese said Agnes has thirty days to appeal her dismissal with the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of the Apostolic Life.

Bobo said he and his client plan on doing just that.

“Mother Superior will be appealing this immoral and unjust decision that is not subject to canonical action. In addition, the civil lawsuit will continue full speed ahead.” he said in a statement.

The lawsuit…

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Upon conclusion of an investigation initiated on April 24, 2023, the Most Reverend Michael F. Olson, Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth and Pontifical Commissary of the Monastery in Arlington, Texas, found the Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes (Gerlach) of Jesus Crucified, O.C.D. (née Lisa Marie Gerlach), Prioress of the Monastery, guilty of having violated the sixth commandment of the Decalogue and her vow of chastity with a priest from outside the Diocese of Fort Worth. Therefore, as Pontifical Commissary of the Monastery in Arlington, Texas, and as the Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Bishop Olson dismissed Mother Teresa Agnes from the Order of Discalced Carmelites in accord with cann. 695 §1 and 699 §2 CIC. She has thirty days to appeal this decision to the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of the Apostolic Life.

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The Jehovah’s Witness church has filed legal action to be exempted from the state-wide investigation into sexual and other abuse.

It is seeking a judicial review and High Court declaration that the church does not assume responsibility for the care of children, young people, or vulnerable people.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse said the church was arguing there were no instances of abuse within it that fall within the scope of the inquiry.

The commission has emailed abuse survivors from the church to say it is treating this as a priority.

It said it acknowledged the news may distress them and they had its support.

Shayne Mechen of survivor group JW for Justice said the move was immoral and would not work.

“They don’t care about the ones that have been abused, they only care about their name,” he said.

The argument was based on the JW’s lack…

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It is that terrible time again for devout Catholics and Christians everywhere when the evil of clerical child sex abuse is revealed once again on the international stage. An investigative report on clerical child abuse released on May 23, 2023 by the attorney general said six Catholic dioceses in Illinois had declared that clerical child abuse is rife today as in the past.

The sacred trust that the people of God, followers of Jesus have in the clergy, is challenged by the truth about clerical abuse of children. If they have true faith in Jesus of Nazareth and his teaching that goodness, truth, justice, and love of neighbor and children will one day overcome and defeat evil their faith will not be shaken. They will stand firm and welcome the truth that is cleansing the Institutional Church.

In the Philippines, the cleansing has not yet happened. Child abuse cases by…

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Catholic devotees in Bolivia prepared for one of the country’s biggest religious celebrations this weekend at a time when the church in this Andean country has been rocked by an increasing number of sex abuse scandals.

The faithful who were gearing up for the Jesus of the Great Power festival Saturday insisted that cases of abuse that have come to light in recent weeks would not affect the folk-religious festival in La Paz, which fuses together Catholic and local Indigenous traditions.

Tens of thousands of people will descend on the capital Saturday wearing colorful garb to dance to the beat of thousands of musicians playing traditional Indigenous music in a demonstration of their faith.

What started out as a small celebration in the Great Power neighborhood a century ago now takes over much of the capital.

Leaders of the Catholic Church acknowledged this week that the church had been “deaf”…

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An unprecedented new compendium of child abuse cases in the Brazilian Catholic Church has found that 108 members of the clergy victimized 148 children and teenagers since 2000. The authors, however, claim those totals are only the tip of the iceberg, and that many other cases are still to come to light.

Sixty of the clerics identified in the study have been convicted of sex crimes and sentenced to prison terms, while dozens are still waiting for trial.

Released in Portuguese earlier this week, the book Pedofilia na Igreja (“Pedophilia in the Church”) is based on an analysis of thousands of legal documents held in courts and police branches, international data banks on child sex abuse, news stories, and archives.

The authors, journalists Fábio Gusmão and Giampaolo Morgado Braga, also interviewed dozens of victims and their relatives, priests, prosecutors, and police agents, in an effort to describe and catalogue their stories.

“Brazil…

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It’s time for Catholic Archdiocese to provide answers

Where is my church?

For the past several weeks after release of the Maryland attorney general report on clergy abuse in the Catholic Church, we have been inundated with an average of two newspaper articles and two to three nightly news reports per week, plus numerous TV ads for lawyers soliciting abuse victims to sue the church.

My parish has said one prayer of the faithful for abuse victims. The only thing the diocese has said publicly is that the media is not covering the story fairly. So where is my church in response to the onslaught of bad press it is receiving? Does leadership they still have their heads in the sand and hope it all blows over? If so, I think they need a new public relations person.

Calls to Archbishop Lori have yielded no results in getting his audio…

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John D. Murphy, a former Augustinian priest, isn’t on any public list of abusers. The attorney general’s investigation didn’t name him. The Archdiocese of Chicago settled claims over Murphy but doesn’t include him on its list. And his Catholic religious order hasn’t named abusers — but said Saturday it hopes to “in the near future.”

John D. Murphy, a formerCatholic priest and member of the Augustinian religious order in the Chicago area, was accused in lawsuits two decades ago of sexually assaulting numerous children.

More than a dozen accusers ended up settling legal claims with the Augustinians — who oversee St. Rita High School on the Southwest Side and Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox — and the Archdiocese of Chicago over accusations against Murphy, according to interviews and records.

So why isn’t Murphy included among the 451 Catholic priests and brothers named a week and a half ago…

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