ABUSE TRACKER

A White County man who says he was molested when he was a 10-year-old altar boy 42 years ago by a now-deceased Catholic priest filed suit Thursday against the Diocese of Little Rock and two churches where Richard Patrick Davis was pastor.

A Pocahontas native, Davis died in May 2020 at age 83 after 57 years as a priest in Arkansas, serving past the traditional retirement age of 65. He spent his last 14 years as the pastor of St. Boniface Church in New Dixie and, while assigned to St. Patrick Church in North Little Rock in the mid-to-late 1960s, taught religion at Mount St. Mary Academy and was the chaplain at St. Vincent Infirmary.

His obituary in the Arkansas Catholic newspaper states he “created the Teen Aged Religious Education program, which helped teens in the Arkansas River Valley grow in their faith.” A Knights of Columbus obituary describes Davis…

View Cache

An anonymous White County man has filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Little Rock and two churches where a now-deceased Catholic priest from Pocahontas served as pastor.

The man alleges that he was sexually abused by the priest, Richard Davis, when he was a 10-year-old altar boy 42 years ago. According to a report by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the man, referred to in the suit as “John Doe,” is seeking compensation for vicarious liability for Davis’ actions, as well as negligence, negligent supervision and retention of an employee, failure to protect him, and premises liability.

The Diocese of Little Rock said that this is reportedly the first time anyone has made allegations against Davis. Doe is asking for a jury trial to rule on compensatory and punitive damages.

View Cache

It’s alleged Father Emile Jungbluth sexually assaulted a child between 1971 and 1977.

A northern B.C. woman is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George with allegations she was sexually abused as a child by a priest.

The B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim, filed on April 19, alleges Father Emile Jungbluth sexually assaulted the child between 1971 and 1977. The court documents name The Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Prince Rupert, also known as the Diocese of Prince George, as the defendant.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Seth Wheeldon, said a court anonymization order is being sought for her name.

“The perpetrator used his position of authority and trust, also the fact that the plaintiff was a young child, to ensure that the plaintiff did not tell anyone about his wrongdoing,” said the claim, filed by lawyer Christopher McDougall. “In order to facilitate abuses, the perpetrator engaged in a pattern of behaviour which…

View Cache

The Diocese of Lansing today expressed gratitude to the victims of Genesee County-based priest, Reverend Vincent DeLorenzo, after the 84-year-old pleaded guilty to attempted criminal sexual conduct in the first degree.

“It was the bravery of those victims who came forward with testimony against DeLorenzo that helped to secure today’s conviction – for that, those individuals have our gratitude, our support and, of course, our prayers that they find both healing and peace,” said spokesman for the Diocese of Lansing, David Kerr, April 25.

“DeLorenzo’s actions were as gravely immoral as they were illegal, he besmirched the good name of the Catholic priesthood, he betrayed the trust put in him by the Catholic community of the Diocese of Lansing and, most disturbingly, he damaged the lives in his young victims.”

DeLorenzo’s guilty plea today relates to the sexual assault of a five-year-old boy in 1987. It was in 2002 that…

View Cache

The Catholic Church in the U.S. has made progress over the past two decades in confronting sexual abuse against minors within the church, but has only begun to address the vulnerability of adults to sexual abuse by clergy, religious and lay leaders, experts told OSV News.

“We’ve accomplished a tremendous amount in the area of (creating) safe environments,” said Suzanne Healy, chairwoman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, a lay-led group that advises the bishops on preventing sexual abuse of minors.

At the same time, “there’s still a lot more work to be done” in extending safeguards to adults, said Healy, a licensed marriage and family therapist who served as the victim assistance coordinator for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 2007 to 2016.

At present, two key documents lay out broad protocols for the response of the Catholic Church in the U.S. to sexual abuse…

View Cache

A former Mid-South church leader and Christian school administrator is accused of persuading a high school student to engage in sexual activity online, and then recorded that activity without the victim’s knowledge.

John “Jay” Brownlow, 32, allegedly groomed the teen, a Westminster Academy student, at the peak of the pandemic, and installed cameras in the boy’s bedroom without him knowing.

The Action News 5 Investigators have been watching Brownlow’s case move through a Shelby County courtroom since September when he pleaded not guilty to seven felonies and one misdemeanor.

The Investigators were tipped off about the arrest, and have since been corresponding with the teen’s family.

According to a nine-page indictment, Brownlow also stalked and spied on the victim.

A now-deleted online post states that Brownlow was a bookkeeper at Westminster Academy and was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in September 2021. According to the post, Brownlow enjoyed “playing board…

View Cache

The complaint highlights unaddressed challenges in the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse involving adult victims

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is facing a civil lawsuit over claims it covered up for one of its former priests who allegedly sexually abused a student at a Nashville, Tennessee, Catholic college run by Dominican women religious.

The complaint highlights problems in the sharing of information among dioceses and institutions, as well as unaddressed challenges in the Catholic Church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse involving adult victims.

Attorneys for “Jane Doe,” an undergraduate at Aquinas College in Nashville from 2014-2018, filed a 31-page complaint April 18 with the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Civil Trial Division, naming as defendants the archdiocese and Kevin Barry McGoldrick, a former priest of the Philadelphia archdiocese and currently a Nashville resident.

Doe, now a 28-year-old educator working in Virginia, claims McGoldrick groomed and then sexually assaulted…

View Cache

A Georgia woman, who was a tutor at a local faith-based Classical Conversations program, has been arrested and charged with molesting a student, according to police records obtained by The Roys Report (TRR).  

Cheryl McCullough, 37, was arrested and charged by the Monroe Police Department with one count of child molestation on March 20. She bonded out the same day, police records show. 

McCullough had served as a tutor at a local chapter of Classical Conversations, a faith-based homeschool co-op program which meets at Faith Baptist Church in Monroe. According to the police report, the alleged incident occurred with a teenage student enrolled in the program whom McCullough had been tutoring at her home. 

The police report recounts how the minor visited the McCullough home for an overnight stay on February 7. In the account, the minor claims his tutor “got in bed with him” and made “sexual comments.” The minor…

View Cache

In March 2022, Anglican Watch forwarded to the Rev. Rob Morpeth the allegations we received regarding Stephen McWhorter. Morpeth is the Title IV intake officer for the Diocese of Alabama. The allegations were that Stephen McWhorter, a retired Episcopal priest canonically resident in the diocese, made unwanted sexual advances against a boy while serving in Pittsburgh.

The result? Profound silence.

For the record, we don’t know if the allegations are accurate. But they come from a credible source. And given what we know about other issues involving Stephen McWhorter, the allegations are plausible.

That also raises another issue: Why is Morpeth, who is the diocesan compliance guy, not doing a little compliance of his own? As in complying with the requirements of Title IV? These requirements include:

• A pastoral response to all who may be affected.
• Notice of status.

And more.

We’d also suggest that the appropriate response is to 1) Conduct a third-party…

View Cache

Priests and religious are bound to obey their conscience and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth

The latest and most shocking investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests has been released in the United States. Hundreds of victims in the Archdiocese of Baltimore have come forward to report their suffering and Archbishop William E. Lori has issued a statement of apology.

The report released on April 5 by Maryland Attorney-General Anthony Brown revealed 156 priests abused more than 600 children since the 1940s through 2002 “while the archdiocese leadership looked the other way.” 

“Time and again, members of the Church’s hierarchy resolutely refused to acknowledge allegations of child sexual abuse for as long as possible,” the report said.

The situation in Asian Churches today is not different from what is acknowledged in the Baltimore archdiocese.

In the US, Attorney-General Brown set up a website and a call center to get victims to…

View Cache

Frank Pavone, the national director of the pro-life organization Priests for Life, has repeatedly framed his dismissal from the priesthood late last year as the culmination of a long-running campaign by some in the Catholic hierarchy to undermine his outspoken pro-life activism.

“This is not just an attack on me,” Pavone said in a Dec. 19, 2022, statement, “but an effort by forces both inside and outside the Church to intimidate every courageous pro-life priest and lay activist.”

Pavone’s narrative is difficult to square with his recent troubles, however, as former members of his own organization and other leaders in the wider pro-life community have sought to distance themselves from him, especially after several women went public with allegations that Pavone sexually harassed them while they worked for him at Priests for Life. Those accusations, first reported by The Pillar,…

View Cache

Former Jewish girls school principal and now convicted sex offender Malka Leifer was ordered on Wednesday to appear in an Australian court in June for a two-day sentencing hearing.

A Victoria state County Court jury convicted the 56-year-old Israeli citizen and mother of eight early this month on 18 charges relating to the sexual abuse of sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper when they were students and student teachers at Adass Israel School in Melbourne from 2003 until 2007.

Leifer faced a procedural hearing via a video link from prison on Wednesday during which Judge Mark Gamble set a timetable for her sentencing hearing on June 28-29.

Gamble said there were significant matters he wanted addressed by prosecutor Justin Lewis and Leifer’s lawyer Ian Hill in the hearing, including details of the time Leifer spent in police or correctional custody in Israel.

That includes time in “quasi-custody” such as home detention,…

View Cache

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel today announced that Vincent Delorenzo, 84, formerly of Flint, Michigan pled guilty to one count of attempted criminal sexual conduct in the first degree.

Delorenzo, a former priest with the Lansing Diocese, was among the first five priests charged by Nessel in late May 2019. He is pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a five-year-old boy following a service he officiated for the boy’s deceased family member in 1987. In exchange for his guilty plea today, the remaining charges will be dismissed. These charges related to the sexual assault of a child from 1995-2000, while he was a student at Holy Redeemer School and Church in Burton, Michigan.

While the crime occurred more than 10 years ago, Michigan’s statute of limitations is tolled when a defendant leaves the state for any reason within the statute of limitations and resumes if and when the defendant returns to the state….

View Cache

FLINT, Mich. (FOX 2) – A former Michigan priest pleaded guilty this week to the sexual assault of a 5-year-old boy after a funeral service in 1987.

Vincent Delorenzo, 84, had officiated a service for the child’s deceased family member before the assault, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said.

In exchange for his guilty plea, charges stemming from the sexual assault of another child from 1995-2000, while he was a student at Holy Redeemer School and Church in Burton, were dismissed. 

Delorenzo’s victims will have the opportunity to provide impact statements when he is sentenced June 13. Per his plea agreement, he is expected to be sentenced to five years of probation, with the first year served in the Genesee County Jail. He will also be required to register as a sex offender for life, engage in sex offender counseling, and pay restitution.

“Our team continues to work day and…

View Cache

The Diocese of Jefferson City said a retired priest was guilty of “abuse of ecclesiastical power.”

A press release from the diocese said a tribunal of three priests from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois heard the case against Father Ignazio Medina.

They found him guilty of financial misconduct while he was the pastor of St. Stanislaus Parish in Wardsville.

The investigation uncovered a bank account that Medina had set up in the parish’s name, unknown to the council.

Medina was the pastor of St. Stanislaus from 2012 to 2021, leaving for Our Lady of the Lake in Lake Ozark in July 2021.

When he left, he is accused of closing down the account, leaving a $300,000 discrepancy.

Chancery officials questioned Medina about the money, and he gave them access to account records.

Officials say that Medina had written himself a check…

View Cache

The Diocese of Jefferson City has concluded a church trial involving mismanagement of funds by a former pastor.

A panel of three judges constituted within the Tribunal of Jefferson City has found Father Ignazio Medina guilty of “abuse of ecclesiastical power” due to financial misconduct while he was pastor of St. Stanislaus Parish in Wardsville.

The verdict concludes a church trial initiated by the Diocese of Jefferson City after an investigation into allegations that Father Medina had transferred approximately $300,000 of church money into personal accounts. 

Following the investigation, and as dictated by canon law, Bishop W. Shawn McKnight initiated the church trial in 2022. Judges for the trial were three priests from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, all experts in canon law. 

In addition to Father Medina’s unauthorized transfer of roughly $300,000 in parish funds into personal accounts, the judges found approximately $20,000 in unexplained cash withdrawals were…

View Cache

BERLIN (AP) — A senior Roman Catholic priest in Germany has been removed from office after criticism of his handling of abuse allegations against a seminary director in the Diocese of Limburg, the German Catholic Church said Tuesday.

Vicar General Wolfgang Roesch had asked Limburg’s bishop to relieve him of his duties following the publication of a report about the case of the Rev. Christof May. The priest and seminary head was found dead in June 2022 after being questioned as part of a probe into allegations of inappropriate behavior.

The Limburg Diocese said Bishop Georg Baetzing approved Roesch’s request with immediate effect.

In a statement, the diocese quoted Roesch as saying that he became aware in 2015 of allegations that May had acted inappropriately with adults. Roesch said he met with May and one of the accusers, describing the move as “a mistake.”

He also concluded that the allegations were…

View Cache

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday passed – for the fourth time this year – a measure that would open up a window in the commonwealth’s statute of limitations in order to allow survivors of childhood sexual abuse a two-year legal window to file suit.

House Bill 1 – which would create a ballot measure by which voters could approve an amendment to the state constitution allowing for the limitations window – was given final passage by a bipartisan vote of 147-54.

View Cache

Quebec’s Court of Appeal has approved a $28-million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Clerics of Saint-Viateur of Canada by sexual-assault victims.

A deal was reached in January 2022, but last July Quebec Superior Court Justice Thomas M. Davis said the $8 million in legal fees was excessive.

The judge said that despite the fact the lawyers for the 375 sexual-assault victims did “remarkable work,” he wanted a new agreement with more reasonable fees.

In a ruling dated Monday, the province’s high court approved the new deal after lawyers reduced their fees to 20 per cent of the settlement money — about $5.6 million.

The lawyers also agreed to put nearly $100,000 into an assistance fund for class actions.

The 2017 lawsuit against the Clerics of Saint-Viateur involved sex crimes that had been committed since 1935 at more than 20…

View Cache

MADISON, Wis. – Attorney General Josh Kaul and Walworth County District Attorney Zeke Wiedenfeld today announced that defrocked former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, age 92, has been charged with one count of Fourth-Degree Sexual Assault for an incident that occurred in April of 1977.

The charge in this case stems from a report made to the Attorney General’s Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse initiative. The complaint alleges that McCarrick engaged in repeated sexual abuse of the victim over time, including the charged incident that involved the alleged fondling of the victim’s genitals while staying as a guest at a Geneva Lake residence.

“Thank you to the brave survivors who have made reports through the clergy and faith leader abuse initiative,” said Attorney General Kaul. “I encourage other survivors who have not yet reported to consider speaking to the victim services specialist at DOJ who is dedicated to this initiative and to…

View Cache

Wisconsin prosecutors charged former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man more than 45 years ago. The criminal complaint doesn’t name the victim, but James Grein spoke with FOX6 News on Monday.

LAKE GENEVA, Wis. – Wisconsin prosecutors charged former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man more than 45 years ago. The criminal complaint doesn’t name the alleged victim, but James Grein spoke with FOX6 News on Monday, April 17 and confirmed he was the man.

“I really felt a sigh of relief,” Grein said. “It was important to hear that somebody else believed me, and they were going to go forward with the charges, and it gave me great relief.”

The complaint says the unnamed man reported being repeatedly abused in other states from the time after he was 11, and then the abuse came to Wisconsin in 1977, while McCarrick was on a trip to…

View Cache

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) — We’re learning that a trail of sexual abuse by a former cardinal in the Catholic church has led to Wisconsin.

Theodore McCarrick is facing multiple charges across the country, but new court records allege he repeatedly molested a child at a cabin on Geneva Lake in 1977. 

The former cardinal is now 92 years old. Theodore McCarrick has faced numerous accusations of sexual abuse, including accusations that the Catholic church had to pay the victims for. This latest case — a man who says he was 11 when McCarrick repeatedly sexually assaulted him at a Geneva Lake cabin. 

“It’s the system that McCarrick was part of and represented. That’s what needs to be changed and reformed,” said Peter Isely, Nate’s Mission founder.

Peter Isely, a victim advocate, is calling for the former cardinal to face federal charges. He says Theodore McCarrick had a reputation and others…

View Cache

Religion Unplugged believes in a diversity of well-reasoned and well-researched opinions. This piece reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily represent those of Religion Unplugged, its staff and contributors.

(OPINION) Last week, millions of believers and nonbelievers across the globe were shocked when a video went viral showing the Dalai Lama asking a boy to suck his tongue.

It’s been described as a “playful” exchange. We’re not so sure. The more appropriate word might well be “creepy.”

In education circles, an incident like this is often called a teachable moment. But the real lessons to be learned from this video could be titled “How NOT to respond to possible child sexual abuse” Or “How NOT to respond to a troubling sexual situation with a child.”

For more than three decades, I’ve been monitoring clergy sexual abuse. I’ve seen all kinds of responses to abuse reports and suspicions by accused men…

View Cache

Imagine that one out of every six adults had had their car stolen. Imagine that for complex psychological and emotional reasons, the average victim of car theft couldn’t report the crime until they were in their 50s. Imagine, then, that the overwhelming majority of car theft victims were essentially locked out of the justice system, unable to bring criminal charges or civil lawsuits against car thieves.

You don’t HAVE to imagine what happens next: Car thieves keep stealing cars. That’s basically what’s happening now with child sexual abuse. It’s rampant. It’s severely underreported. So it keeps happening. Except, of course, that being sexually assaulted as a child is vastly more devastating than having one’s car stolen.

Can you imagine how fast politicians would trip over themselves, racing to introduce legislation to fix the car theft problem if it was this prevalent? Can you imagine how fast other public servants would…

View Cache

It’s been two years since Wisconsin launched an initiative to investigate clergy sexual abuse.

[Click here to see video interview.]

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – It’s been two years since Wisconsin launched an initiative to investigate clergy sexual abuse. As of April 17, the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Clergy and Faith Leader Initiative has received 248 completed reports through its tipline. That’s resulted in criminal charges in multiple cases, including the conviction of a church camp counselor last week.

Almost exactly a year before the initiative was launched, 45-year-old Nate Lindstrom took his own life. He was a victim of sexual abuse as a teenager by Norbertine priests while attending school in De Pere. Nate’s Mission was founded to help survivors of clergy sexual abuse and hold those responsible accountable.

Nate’s Mission program director Peter Isely and deputy director Sarah Pearson joined us for a discussion on…

View Cache

Pope Francis has named Philadelphia Auxiliary Bishop Timothy C. Senior, of Philadelphia, as the 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg. In 2004, Senior was named archdiocesan vicar for clergy by Cardinal Justin Rigali to replace Msgr. William Lynn.

Lynn eventually spent nearly three years in state incarceration as the contentious three-month trial that resulted in his felony child endangerment conviction in 2012 was being reviewed by appeals courts. After the verdict was reversed twice, the prosecution continued to pursue other avenues of justice. Finally, prosecutors said that Lynn could put an end to the two-decade odyssey by entering a plea of not guilty to a charge of neglecting to provide records to the 2002 grand jury.

We’re troubled by Bishop Senior’s testimony given during the trial of Msgr. William Lynn in 2012. At question during Lynn’s trial were the secret archives on abusive clergy. In…

View Cache

Catholic Church in the US has made progress in protecting minors but a lot more work needs to be done to safeguard adults

The Catholic Church in the U.S. has made progress over the past two decades in confronting sexual abuse against minors within the church, but has only begun to address the vulnerability of adults to sexual abuse by clergy, religious and lay leaders, experts told OSV News.

“We’ve accomplished a tremendous amount in the area of (creating) safe environments,” said Suzanne Healy, chairwoman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, a lay-led group that advises the bishops on preventing sexual abuse of minors.

At the same time, “there’s still a lot more work to be done” in extending safeguards to adults, said Healy, a licensed marriage and family therapist who served as the victim assistance coordinator for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 2007 to…

View Cache

It’s alleged Father Emile Jungbluth sexually assaulted a child between 1971 and 1977.

A northern B.C. woman is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George with allegations she was sexually abused as a child by a priest.

The B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim, filed on April 19, alleges Father Emile Jungbluth sexually assaulted the child between 1971 and 1977. The court documents name The Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Prince Rupert, also known as the Diocese of Prince George, as the defendant.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Seth Wheeldon, said a court anonymization order is being sought for her name.

“The perpetrator used his position of authority and trust, also the fact that the plaintiff was a young child, to ensure that the plaintiff did not tell anyone about his wrongdoing,” said the claim, filed by lawyer Christopher McDougall. “In order to facilitate abuses, the perpetrator engaged in a pattern of behaviour which…

View Cache

Bishops and lay people have held continental meetings to prepare the agenda for the Synod assembly in October.

Their reports reveal a diversity of opinions and hopes for reform.

The expectations that Catholics from all over the world have expressed about the future of the Church during the ongoing synodal process have been boiled down into nearly 200 pages.

The General Secretariat of the Synod gathered a group of theologians in Rome from April 12-19 to examine those pages, which include the reports that bishops and lay people drafted over the past few months during continental or regional assemblies. These texts will be used to draw up the Instrumentum laboris (or working document) for the next international assembly of the Synod in October. The new document is expected to be made public sometime in May.

And what is it likely to say? First of all, Catholics are looking for Church…

View Cache

Beleaguered Strasbourg archbishop Luc Ravel has handed in his resignation on 20 April, another French Church leader accused of not smelling enough like his sheep.

“Peace being the supreme good,” he wrote to Pope Francis, “I present my resignation to the Holy Father, for whom I pray every day.”

It has not been peaceful in Strasbourg. Ravel, 65, has been criticised as isolated and authoritarian, more interested in his standing in Paris than his pastors and flock in Alsace.

For example, he skipped the Chrism Mass last year, his annual meeting with about 400 priests from around the eastern French region, to welcome President Emmanuel Macron during the latter’s reelection campaign there.

The archbishop, who entered the prestigious Academy of Moral and Political Sciences last year, was also the only French bishop to openly promise his vote to Macron. All others remained neutral.

Appointed in 2016 and often in Paris,…

View Cache

Sinéad O’Shea’s “Pray For Our Sinners” documentary follows a number of inspirational campaigners in Navan, Co Meath who stood up to the Catholic Church in the 1960s and 1970s.

“Pray For Our Sinners,” an award-winning documentary telling the story of Irish campaigners who stood up to the Catholic Church over sexual abuse scandals, has been released in select Irish cinemas. 

Sinéad O’Shea’s “Pray For Our Sinners” follows a number of inspirational campaigners in O’Shea’s hometown of Navan, Co Meath, who stood up to the Catholic Church in the 1960s and 1970s at a time when challenging the church would have been unacceptable. 

The film is not a black-and-white portrayal of saints and sinners but a nuanced account of Catholicism and its all-powerful role in Irish life during the 20th century. 

O’Shea takes a personal approach to the stories of systemic abuse within the Catholic Church, focusing on the tradition…

View Cache

ROME – An Argentinian journalist who recently met with Pope Francis has said the pope plans to return to his native country next year, and that the pontiff again came to the defense of his predecessor, Saint John Paul II, in light of recent allegations from a former Italian mobster.

Speaking to Argentine journalist Joaquín Morales Solá, whom he has known for years, in a private audience at his Vatican residence several days ago, the pope spoke of visiting Argentina, saying, “I want to go to the country next year.”

Francis, who has repeatedly insisted that he does not want a return visit to Argentina to be manipulated by a political agenda or twisted to support any political party, apparently told Solá that there are no elections scheduled in Argentina for 2024, so he would be free to visit while avoiding any political or partisan connotation.

“It is ten years…

View Cache

It’s time to call upon all of our faith communities to publicly post their standards of ethics and abuse prevention policies and conduct mandatory abuse prevention training every three years.

Recently the nation found out once again that a church body, in this case the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was being accused of decades of sexual abuse and physical torture. Yet as seismic as the Maryland Attorney General’s revelations are, it’s hard to say terrible news like this shocks anybody anymore. Thanks to the bravery of scores of victims and whistleblowers from all faith backgrounds willing to come forward, the past decade has been marked by long-kept church secrets finally coming to light, including not only sexual abuse but also abusive and bullying workplaces, financial misconduct, and, on top of it all, lying to cover it all up.

As an ordained pastor who has served the church for more than…

View Cache

‘Rome’s serial “mishaps” in this area are neither stupid nor insane. They are about protecting itself’

At times it is difficult to believe anything other than that Rome is being willfully stupid when it comes to its dealings with clerical child-sex abuse. This repeated failure, inevitably, prompts recall of Einstein’s much-quoted definition of stupidity, even insanity — doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.

That’s how it may look, but Rome’s serial “mishaps” in this area are neither stupid nor insane. They are about protecting itself above all while obscuring that reality through spin.

That said, it is only fair to record that the Irish Catholic Church now has some of the most stringent child-protection measures in place, and enforced, anywhere in the Catholic world.

Fr Hans Zollner is a German Jesuit and one of the few figures at the Vatican with credibility where the abuse…

View Cache

The heads of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and a section of the Dicastery for Evangelization have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at improving assistance to victims of abuse, bishops and local churches both in mission countries and emerging communities.

U.S. Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston, president of the commission, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect for “the first evangelization and the new particular churches” section of the dicastery signed the agreement of collaboration at the Vatican April 21.

The enhanced collaboration will include sharing resources, information and formation and “promoting concrete structural change to build a culture of safeguarding,” according to Vatican News April 21.

O’Malley, who spent many years as “a missionary bishop” when he ministered in the U.S. Virgin Islands, told Vatican News he understands what it is like to run a diocese with very limited resources.

The commission, he said, hopes…

View Cache

Elderly priest is charged under stringent provisions of a law meant to protect children from sexual abuse

Police in a southern Indian state have arrested a 77-year-old priest of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church for allegedly molesting a young girl.

The priest identified as Shimayon Ramban was arrested and remanded in judicial custody on April 21.

The priest is charged under various provisions of a special law meant to protect children from sexual abuse in India.

Police said the priest based in Kerala state was arrested following allegations that he had molested a 15-year-old girl on April 3 in a church in Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district.

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, also known as the Indian Orthodox Church, is one of seven churches that trace their faith to St. Thomas the Apostle, who, according to a tradition, preached in India. The Church has set up a panel to probe the allegations and has…

View Cache

The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, has distanced himself from one of his predecessors, the former bishop of Freiburg, Robert Zollitsch.

“During his time as chairman of the Bishops’ Conference in 2010, decisive measures were taken to come to terms with abuse in the Catholic Church. He apparently did not apply these even in his diocese during the same time and skipped them,” Bätzing told Saturday’s edition of the local newspaper the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung.

Bätzing said he found this irresponsible and was at a loss as to how this could have happened.  Former archbishop Zollitsch was also chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference from February 2008 to March 2014.

A report published on Tuesday on sexual abuse by clergy in the archdiocese of Freiburg shows that his tenure in Freiburg until 2013 was marked by a “concrete cover-up.”

The 84-year-old already admitted serious mistakes and personal guilt in…

View Cache

Experts gathered Saturday in Towson for a conference to help survivors of sexual abuse release the trauma, and it was an emotional, yet empowering event.

The Release the Baggage conference encouraged attendees not to be afraid to heal or to revisit past hurts and trauma. It embodied empowerment and provided guidance on how to unleash all the deep-seeded emotions and pain from abuse through motivational speakers.

Latarsha Haughton, author of “Breaking The Silence,” was sexually abused by her biological father and conceived his son.

“I learned how to keep a secret,” Haughton said.

She told the audience at the conference how to seek help and how to emotionally free themselves of the trauma and guilt. Her message to children is equally powerful.

“The message to them is tell someone. Break your silence. Because if you don’t, you will stay stagnated and you won’t be able to move forward. You will…

View Cache

Pope Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014 to fight clerical sex abuse

The Vatican said Friday its anti-sexual abuse commission would work more closely with its evangelization branch in order to better protect minors, including training bishops from dioceses far from Rome.

Pope Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014 to fight clerical sex abuse, which will now collaborate with the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, according to the three-year agreement.

The commission has come under fire recently after its most influential member, Hans Zollner, quit in March, accusing the body of urgent problems related to compliance, accountability and transparency.

The agreement announced Friday calls for the commission to work together with the Dicastery in training sessions for newly appointed bishops, among other collaborative measures.

In an interview with Vatican News, the head of the commission, US Cardinal…

View Cache

Much has changed in the Philippine judiciary in the past 20 years.

Prosecutors and judges in the family courts are now armed with 37 laws that mandate that they protect children and bring their abusers to swift and strict justice. Many prosecutors and judges are doing just that in Luzon. It is a big change in a changing era for the judiciary.

Finally, the judiciary is acting more swiftly and more determined to bring healing through justice for the child victims. These victims have cried in silence and suffered all their lives with the stigma and pain of having been raped and abused without help or justice. In Iba, Zambales, Judge Maribel Mariano-Beltran is holding continuous hearings all day, taking testimony of the child in the morning and cross-examination in the afternoon. The child victim is not stressed by the long wait of weeks, even months, before cross-examination.

In other…

View Cache

A bill further restricting depositions of alleged victims of child sex abuse has officially made it to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s desk.

Senate Enrolled Act 331 was sent to Holcomb on Tuesday.

Building on legislation passed in 2020, SEA 331 provides that defense attorneys cannot depose alleged child victims in criminal cases — including depositions pursuant to Trial Rule 30 or 31 or any other formal or informal statement or interview — absent prosecutorial or judicial consent.

The legislation enacted in 2020 likewise prohibited depositions of alleged child victims, with lawmakers emphasizing the need to protect alleged victims of child sexual abuse, in particular. But SEA 331 clarifies the definition of a “deposition” to include depositions under the trial rules or “informal” interviews.

Before SEA 331, bill author Sen. Mark Messmer, R-Jasper, said defense attorneys were attempting to get around the 2020 legislation by taking…

View Cache

Victims speak out and lambast ‘inappropriate and irresponsible’ appointment of the new chair of the Independent Safeguarding Board

The Church of England is obstructing its own safeguarding panel by denying them their own computers, refusing to share data and treating them with “hostility”, whistleblowers have told The Telegraph.

‌The Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB) was formed in January 2022 and tasked with scrutinising the work of the Church’s National Safeguarding Team (NST), as well as holding the Church to account regarding its safeguarding duties.

‌However, the ISB’s only two board members have come forward to claim that their experience working with Church officials is “an uphill battle and unnecessarily challenging”.

‌In an interview with The Telegraph, Jasvinder Sanghera CBE, who founded the Karma Nirvana charity which aims to end honour-based abuse, and Steve Reeves MBE, executive director of Global Safeguarding, raised the alarm. 

They claim there has been “clear interference” with…

View Cache

In 1819, the federal government instituted a program of state-sponsored abductions and forced assimilation of Native American children. It lasted 150 years and spawned a legacy of horrific abuse. Now, survivors and their descendants are speaking out

Sitting at his dining room table at his home in Snohomish County, Washington, Matthew Warbonnet, 77, pensively flips through a binder of black and white photos. His long, salt-and-pepper hair is pulled into a low ponytail and a multicolored beaded necklace rests around his neck. He squints and smiles while pointing to pictures of himself and his siblings from when they attended the Catholic-run, federally-funded, St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. He pauses to stare at a photo of a young boy gleefully holding a puppy. That boy was him, before the neglect and violence started at St. Francis.

“You know,” he says, haltingly, “I can’t remember anything before…

View Cache

Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon says clergy member has been placed on administrative leave

The Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon has confirmed one of its priests has been charged in connection to an alleged sexual assault of a 13 year-old-girl.

The priest, Janko Kolosnjaji, has been placed on administrative leave, according to the church’s archivist Marusia Kobrynsky.

Kolosnjaji has been removed from active duty pending completion of the legal proceeding involving the assault allegation, which dates back to March 11, according to an Thursday post on the church’s website.

Saskatoon police say they arrested a 69-year-old man on Wednesday, after the police service’s interpersonal violence section completed an investigation into the allegation. He was charged with sexual assault.

The man, whom police did not identify as a priest, was later released on a recognizance order, the police service said in a news release Thursday.

Police say they first learned of the allegation on March 12, when…

View Cache

**Update to the Communication Regarding Fr. Benjamin Cieply, Atlanta, April 19, 2023. [See items 10, 11, and 12, marked with ** below.]

Communication Regarding Fr. Benjamin Cieply, Atlanta, September 6, 2018: In fulfillment of number 74 of the Legionaries of Christ 2018 Code of Conduct, the congregation, upon concluding an investigation regarding Fr. Benjamin Cieply, former Legionary of Christ, informs the following:

1. Fr. Benjamin Cieply was ordained to the priesthood with the Legionaries of Christ on December 20, 2008. In 2015 he left the Dallas, Texas, Legionaries of Christ community to seek incardination to the Archdiocese of Miami after a gradual process of discernment.
2. In late 2016, an incident in Florida involving a minor was reported and Child Protective Services was notified. Child Protective Services determined that the allegation against Fr. Benjamin Cieply could not be substantiated.
3. The Archdiocese of Miami was informed. They began an internal review and a decision
   was made, based on…

View Cache

The Legionaries of Christ have published for the third consecutive year the “Annual Report: Truth, Justice, and Healing,” which gives an account of the commitments made regarding victims of abuse by the congregation and the creation of safe spaces.

According to data provided by the Legionaries of Christ, over the years 1941–2022 at least 27 priests sexually abused minors, which represents 1.9% of their priests.

Since the publication of the historical “Report 1941-2019,” 11 complaints involving new cases have been received. In three of them “it has not been possible to verify the sexual abuse of a minor.”

Of the rest, one priest was laicized, two priests are waiting for their civil and canonical trials to conclude, and another one awaits the conclusion of his ecclesiastical trial. Another four are under canonical investigation prior to an eventual canonical trial.

Care for the victims

Regarding care for the victims, 42 are…

View Cache

[Includes video]

A Virginia woman has filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for covering up the sexual abuse she and multiple women allegedly suffered at the hands of a former priest, Kevin Barry McGoldrick, for more than 10 years.

The woman, a 28-year-old educator in Alexandria, identified as “Jane Doe” in a press statement to The Christian Post, alleges that while she was a student at Aquinas College in Tennessee from 2014 to 2018, McGoldrick abused his position of trust and authority as a priest to groom and sexually assault her.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the victim by attorneys, Brian Kent and Stewart Ryan of Laffey, Bucci & Kent, alleges that in 2013 when McGoldrick was transferred to Nashville, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia started investigating him for the sexual abuse of another individual unrelated to Doe.

“April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which…

View Cache

A White County man who says he was molested when he was a 10-year-old altar boy 42 years ago by a now-deceased Catholic priest filed suit Thursday against the Diocese of Little Rock and two churches where Richard Patrick Davis was pastor.

A Pocahontas native, Davis died in May 2020 at age 83 after 57 years as a priest in Arkansas, serving past the traditional retirement age of 65. He spent his last 14 years as the pastor of St. Boniface Church in New Dixie and, while assigned to St. Patrick Church in North Little Rock in the mid-to-late 1960s, taught religion at Mount St. Mary Academy and was the chaplain at St. Vincent Infirmary.

His obituary in the Arkansas Catholic newspaper states he “created the Teen Aged Religious Education program, which helped teens in the Arkansas River Valley grow in their faith.” A Knights of Columbus obituary describes Davis…

View Cache

A much-loved chaplain at one of Auckland’s most prestigious schools has been reinstated after a court case alleging he had sexually abused a student in Australia 20 years ago was abandoned by the plaintiff.

It has brought to end a highly distressing period for Father John Goodwin, who is known for his engaging character and who always maintained his innocence.

The accuser was an Australian gang associate serving more than 10 years in jail for trafficking million of dollars in drugs, including amphetamines, MDMA and cocaine.

He was still behind bars when his lawyer Angela Sdrinis filed a civil suit in the Tasmanian Supreme Court in 2021.

A statement of claim alleged Goodwin had repeatedly abused the then student while working as a priest at Tasmania’s esteemed Hutchins School, and telling the boy God would punish him if he told anyone about the abuse.

The plaintiff, now in his 30s,…

View Cache

State senators advance bill for consideration by house in what critics say is basic violation of separation of church and state

Every classroom in Texas could be made to display the Ten Commandments prominently, after lawmakers advanced a proposal to push more religion into schools.

A parallel bill also approved by the Republican-controlled Texas senate on Thursday would require educational establishments to set aside time every day for students and employees to read the Bible or other religious manuscripts, or to pray.

The attempts to further erode separation of church and state follow a US supreme court ruling last summer that sided with a former public high-school football coach in Washington state who was fired for praying with players after games.

The conservative panel ruled 6-3 the school district violated the constitutional rights of the coach, Joseph Kennedy. The district settled with Kennedy last month, for almost $2m.

Phil King, a Republican Texas…

View Cache

The head of a prominent French archdiocese said Thursday that he had presented his resignation to Pope Francis, but strongly defended his turbulent six-year tenure. 

At 65 years of age, Archbishop Luc Ravel is a decade away from the customary retirement age for diocesan bishops.

In an April 20 statement, he gave no reason for offering to resign but appeared to hit back at claims that he had governed in an aloof and authoritarian manner.

He said: “Peace being the supreme good, as we have entered this magnificent time of Easter, I have presented my resignation to the Holy Father, for whom I pray every day.”

“I have always acted as closely as possible to the law and to my conscience, having consulted extensively on each decision, in order to take difficult measures, but which I would have been reproached for not having taken later, in view of the elements in…

View Cache

A former head of the Catholic German Bishops’ Conference is giving up the country’s highest honor following scathing criticism this week of his handling of clergy abuse cases during his tenure as archbishop of Freiburg and as a personnel officer in the diocese.

Robert Zollitsch has informed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a letter that he is handing back the Order of Merit, which was bestowed on him in 2014, his spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

He said the decision was taken in connection with a statement Zollitsch made in October, in which the 84-year-old acknowledged that he made serious errors and asked for forgiveness.

An independent report commissioned by the Freiburg archdiocese on the church’s handling of abuse cases over decades was presented on Tuesday — the latest in a string of such reports casting light on church officials’ actions, or lack thereof, in dioceses across Germany.

…

View Cache

As Washington state lawmakers debate legislation that would end legal protections for the seal of confession, Spokane Bishop Thomas A. Daly has assured his diocese that priests would opt for a jail sentence before they would break the seal.

“I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishop and priests, are committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail,” Daly wrote in a letter to Catholics in the Diocese of Spokane, which covers eastern Washington.

“The sacrament of penance is sacred and will remain that way in the Diocese of Spokane,” he said.

The bishop’s April 19 letter referred to a state Senate bill that would make priests mandatory reporters of abuse. The original Senate-passed bill included an exemption for information that priests obtain during a confession, which was included to protect the seal of confession. However, the House-passed version included an…

View Cache

On April 19, 2023, the Boy Scouts of America declared that it has exited its bankruptcy case after clearing one of the last legal hurdles in its way. Some insurance companies and sex abuse claimants objected to the Boy Scouts’ plan to pay claimants, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the plan can go ahead anyway while the insurers’ appeal is pending. It’s now possible to begin the process of paying at least US$2.45 billion to resolve about 82,000 claims against the Boy Scouts and affiliated entities asserted by people who allege that they were sexually abused as children over the past 80 years.

The Boy Scouts operate through the national organization known as the BSA, which includes hundreds of separate but affiliated organizations known as local councils, and faith-based or civic groups called chartered organizations. Because these troop-sponsoring nonprofit organizations across the country are responsible for ensuring the…

View Cache

Not a week goes by without a case of sexual abuse committed by a public figure or a person in authority making the headlines in France. The same happens in other European countries.

This is distressing in a society that preaches respect, benevolence and equality. The damage caused by these despicable acts unfortunately leaves indelible marks, and the feeling of impunity of perpetrators is experienced as a double punishment by the victims of these abuses. Fortunately, especially since the #MeToo movement, media coverage of all these cases committed in the artistic, political, sports and religious worlds has raised awareness and encouraged victims to speak out and file complaints.

Preacher

As president of the advisory and monitoring committee of Stop Abus, I am particularly attentive to cases of abuse of power and sexual abuse in evangelical Protestantism. Recently, I was interviewed by a French national weekly newspaper, La…

View Cache

In 2013, then-Catholic priest and would-be artist Kevin Barry McGoldrick was transferred from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to the Diocese of Nashville, where he became chaplain of Aquinas College.

In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday (April 18) in Philadelphia, it alleges that archdiocesan officials transferred the priest — and issued a letter of support on his behalf — knowing that he had a history of sexual abuse. The lawsuit accuses the archdiocese of enabling the priest’s abuse in 2017 of the lawsuit’s 27-year-old plaintiff, identified only as “Jane Doe.”

“To know he should never have been at Aquinas College, and he was put there and I was put in harm’s way knowingly, was perhaps the most traumatic,” Jane Doe told Religion News Service.

The five-count lawsuit, entered in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County, names both McGoldrick and the archdiocese and asks for hundreds of thousands of dollars…

View Cache

A high school pastor from the Okeechobee County School District was accused of being involved in a romantic relationship with a student.

Donny Raney, 36, was arrested on Tuesday and booked into the Okeechobee County Jail for violating Florida law by engaging in a romantic relationship with a student, says the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office.

In a heavily redacted arrest report from the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office, deputies found out about the relationship after the victim’s mother expressed concerns that her daughter may be involved in an inappropriate relationship with two teachers at Okeechobee County High School, Omar Ayala and Donny Raney.

According to the arrest report, the mother told deputies, she purchased the victim a new cell phone for college and while transferring over the phone’s contents she found “disturbing” messages between the victim and the two teachers.

Deputies said, in the report, they explained to the mom that…

View Cache

The Associated Press has uncovered more details in the quagmire that is the preemptive bankruptcy filing by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Once again, the Archdiocese has exerted concerted and consistent efforts to keep their history of clergy abuse and cover-up hidden from the public eye.

The latest twist in this case is that the judge who, according to the AP, “has consistently ruled in favor of the church” in the bankruptcy case, also appears to have chosen not to disclose the fact that he is a major donor to the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Judge Greg Guidry claims that he did not know he was donating tens of thousands of dollars annually to the Archdiocese, a statement that is at best difficult to believe.  Following the widespread publication of his clear and obvious conflict of interest, the judge has now signaled that he mayrecuse himself from…

View Cache

A federal judge refused Friday to recuse himself from the New Orleans Roman Catholic bankruptcy after an Associated Press report that he donated tens of thousands of dollars to archdiocese charities and consistently ruled in favor of the church in the contentious case involving nearly 500 clergy sex abuse victims.

U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry told attorneys in the high-profile case that a panel of federal judges he asked to review the possible conflict determined no “reasonable person” would question his impartiality despite his contributions and longstanding ties to the archdiocese.

Guidry read from the opinion of the Washington-based Committee on Codes of Conduct, which noted that none of the charities he donated to “has been or is an actual party” in the bankruptcy and that Guidry’s eight years on the board of the archdiocese’s charitable arm ended more than a decade before the bankruptcy.

“Based upon that advice and…

View Cache

A federal judge donated tens of thousands of dollars to New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese and consistently ruled in favor of the church amid a contentious bankruptcy involving nearly 500 clergy sex abuse victims, The Associated Press found, an apparent conflict that could throw the case into disarray.

Confronted with AP’s findings, which have not been previously reported, U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry abruptly convened attorneys on a call last week to tell them his charitable giving “has been brought to my attention” and he is now considering recusal from the high-profile bankruptcy he oversees in an appellate role.

“Naturally,” Guidry told them, “I will take no further action in this case until this question has been resolved.”

AP’s reporting on Guidry and other judges in the New Orleans bankruptcy underscores how tightly woven the church is in the city’s power structure, a coziness perhaps best exemplified when executives of…

View Cache

A group that advocates for victims of sexual abuse asked Belleville Bishop Michael McGovern on Wednesday to add five names, including those of two men in prison and a deceased nun, to the diocese’s public list of clergy who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct.

The Diocese of Belleville said in a statement it will review the request from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Four of the five clergy members have been accused of sexual misconduct that occurred outside of the diocese, but they all had spent time in the Diocese of Belleville at one time, including a priest who once taught in East St. Louis and is now serving a federal prison sentence for possession of child pornography.

All of the clergy members on the Belleville Diocese’s current list of credibly accused persons are men. The nun cited by the Survivors Network of those Abused…

View Cache

[The podcast is 25 minutes long; a discussion of the resignation of Hans Zollner SJ from the Pontifical Commission begins at 11:25.]

Pope Francis publicly denounced allegations made against Pope John Paul II on Italian television last week by Pietro Orlandi, the brother of Emanuela Orlandi. Last year, Ms. Orlandi’s mysterious disappearance from the Vatican almost 40 years ago, when she was just 15-years-old, inspired “Vatican Girl,” a documentary series on Netflix.

Mr. Orlandi, speaking on an Italian TV program, said that he had learned from a source that “John Paul II sometimes went out at night with two Polish monsignors, and he clearly did not go out to bless houses.” His comments have been understood to imply that the late pope was out sexually grooming young women at night. They were all the more surprising because they were made immediately after a lengthy meeting earlier that day between Mr….

View Cache

An Illinois megachurch pastor, who resigned following allegations he covered up his son’s sexual misconduct, has started a new online preaching ministry.

Mike Baker, former pastor of Eastview Christian Church (ECC) in Bloomington/Normal, recently launched Song and Sword. In an open letter posted online yesterday, he said he did so because he’s a preacher “called to preach” but with nowhere to preach due to a “media firestorm.” He said he also needed a source of income because he didn’t trust his elders to care for his family financially.

ECC recently hired lawyer Kellye Fabian Story with Chicago-based Wagenmaker & Oberly to investigate allegations that Baker covered up clergy sexual abuse by his son, Caleb Baker, involving a church member in 2016. Caleb Baker left ECC at that time. And his father told his congregation that Caleb had left ECC voluntarily.

Meanwhile, Mike Baker helped Caleb…

View Cache

During Holy Week, the Maryland Attorney General released a 456-page report on the history of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The report includes allegations against some 137 priests, 5 deacons, 4 laymen, and 2 religious sisters. It details the abuse of more than 600 young people.

It’s a document at once horrifying in its contents and shamefully familiar to anyone who has followed the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. There is the depraved abuse itself, of course, but also the lying, the failure to recognize the gravity of harm, the deference to abusers, the indifference toward victims, the reshuffling of priest assignments, the cover-up.

Each instance of abuse constitutes an acute moment of trauma and pain in the life of the victim. Yet no matter how much one resists while reading a report like this, the details of these awful events invariably begin to blend together. Read…

View Cache

A federal judge donated tens of thousands of dollars to New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese and consistently ruled in favor of the church amid a contentious bankruptcy involving nearly 500 clergy sex abuse victims, The Associated Press found, an apparent conflict that could throw the case into disarray.

Confronted with AP’s findings, which have not been previously reported, U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry abruptly convened attorneys on a call last week to tell them his charitable giving “has been brought to my attention” and he is now considering recusal from the high-profile bankruptcy he oversees in an appellate role.

“Naturally,” Guidry told them, “I will take no further action in this case until this question has been resolved.”

AP’s reporting on Guidry and other judges in the New Orleans bankruptcy underscores how tightly woven the church is in the city’s power structure, a coziness perhaps best exemplified when executives of…

View Cache

In 1974, Father Francis LeFevre fondled a boy through his clothes at St. Anthony of Padua in Baltimore, one of several children LeFevre would be accused of molesting over the years.

The boy, either 11 or 12 at the time, did not report the abuse until 2008, 34 years later. The Archdiocese of Baltimore, well aware of LeFevre’s history, settled with the victim in 2011 for an undisclosed amount.

Despite accusations of fondling and raping young boys, LeFevre, whom the Catholic Church listed as credibly accused in 2002, has never faced criminal charges. Reached by phone at his home in New Jersey, LeFevre told a reporter he was “not interested” in being interviewed for this story.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released a report earlier this month revealing the totality of the accusations against LeFevre, and at least two dozen other living Catholic priests who were never criminally charged.

View Cache

Anthony Cipolle, who has been a resident chaplain at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was removed from the program’s website this week after the Press Herald reported on a woman’s allegation that he coerced her into a sexual relationship.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has removed the name of a resident chaplain from its website after the Portland Press Herald published a story about the former Maine priest.

The story focused on a woman who sought Anthony Cipolle’s help when he was a priest, and who says he took advantage of her vulnerability, abused her trust and coerced her into a sexual relationship.

It was not clear Wednesday whether Cipolle still works for the medical center. Neither Cipolle nor the medical center responded to questions about his employment status.

Cipolle joined Vanderbilt’s Clinical Pastoral Education program as one of several resident chaplains in 2022. According to a program…

View Cache

A former head of the Catholic German Bishops’ Conference is giving up the country’s highest honor following scathing criticism this week of his handling of clergy abuse cases during his tenure as archbishop of Freiburg and as a personnel officer in the diocese.

Robert Zollitsch has informed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a letter that he is handing back the Order of Merit, which was bestowed on him in 2014, his spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

He said the decision was taken in connection with a statement Zollitsch made in October, in which the 84-year-old acknowledged that he made serious errors and asked for forgiveness.

An independent report commissioned by the Freiburg archdiocese on the church’s handling of abuse cases over decades was presented on Tuesday — the latest in a string of such reports casting light on church officials’ actions, or lack thereof, in dioceses across Germany.

…

View Cache

“If there was ever a case of reckless disregard for the safety of the public and parishioners,” said lawyers representing a woman now suing church officials over an alleged cover-up, “it’s this one.”

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia is facing new accusations that it covered up sexual misconduct, this time involving a former priest who allegedly forced himself on multiple women and told them the unwanted encounters were “special trials” ordained by God.

In court filings this week, a 27-year-old woman said church officials’ failure to disclose previous complaints against the Rev. Kevin Barry McGoldrick enabled abuse she endured after he was transferred from Philadelphia to Nashville in 2013.

Even after the Philadelphia archdiocese had substantiated her claims that McGoldrick had plied her with bourbon and then sexually assaulted her while he was serving as a college chaplain in Tennessee, she said, church officials here still refused to acknowledge…

View Cache

On April 19, 2023, the Boy Scouts of America declared that it has exited its bankruptcy case after clearing one of the last legal hurdles in its way. Some insurance companies and sex abuse claimants objected to the Boy Scouts’ plan to pay claimants, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the plan can go ahead anyway while the insurers’ appeal is pending. It’s now possible to begin the process of paying at least US$2.45 billion to resolve about 82,000 claims against the Boy Scouts and affiliated entities asserted by people who allege that they were sexually abused as children over the past 80 years.

The Boy Scouts operate through the national organization known as the BSA, which includes hundreds of separate but affiliated organizations known as local councils, and faith-based or civic groups called chartered organizations. Because these troop-sponsoring nonprofit organizations across the country are responsible for ensuring the…

View Cache

The latest insinuations against John Paul II are not only about him

One of the most ancient axioms to define the See of Peter’s role in the Church reads: “prima sedes a nemine iudicatur” — the first see can be judged by no one. Centuries before papal primacy was defined at Vatican Council I in 1870, the Bishop of Rome already enjoyed a type of immunity in both the religious and the political-secular spheres.

Today we have a more pope-centered Church, where five of the eight popes who served in the 20th century have been beatified or canonized, and a Vatican City State where the pope is the absolute monarch.

The Emanuela Orlandi case

But this theological, political, and legal order protective of the papacy is now under pressure because of the sex abuse crisis. We have seen this with recent insinuations against John Paul II that were made after…

View Cache

A Chicopee man is close to settling a lawsuit against the Catholic diocese over what he alleges were attempts to cover up his account of rape at the hands of a former bishop.

According to records filed in Hampden Superior Court, attorneys involved in a 2021 lawsuit have signaled their intentions to settle the case short of a trial. A trial date of May 3 had been set.

The plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, accused diocesan leaders and its longtime attorney of conspiring to conceal allegations against the late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon being part of a ring of clergy who gang-raped altar boys in the 1960s.

Named in the lawsuit are the Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield, a corporation; Archbishop Mitchell T. Rosanski, former bishop of the local diocese; former victim advocate Patricia McManamy; former special investigator and retired state trooper Kevin Murphy; diocesan spokesman Mark Dupont; John…

View Cache

Key Points

Allegations of sexual abuse against former Aquinas College chaplain Kevin B. McGoldrick emerged in 2020 in news report.

Former Aquinas student recently sued McGoldrick and Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, expanding on previously reported revelations about McGoldrick’s case.

Lawsuit alleges Archdiocese of Philadelphia withheld knowledge from Diocese of Nashville of McGoldrick’s history of abuse before McGoldrick transferred to Nashville.

A former student at Nashville’s Aquinas College is suing the college’s former chaplain, Kevin B. McGoldrick, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for McGoldrick’s alleged sexual abuse of the former student.

The lawsuit expands on reporting by the London-based Catholic Herald in 2020 detailing the former Aquinas student’s allegations. The complaint, filed Monday in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, charges the Archdiocese of Philadelphia with negligence and recklessness for allegedly failing to report McGoldrick’s history of abuse when McGoldrick moved from Philadelphia to Nashville.

Former Aquinas College priest: Catholic…

View Cache

[Includes video trailer.]

Inspirational documentary recovers the stories of those who dared to question the treatment of children in a small Irish town

rish film-maker and journalist Sinéad O’Shea has a gripping and inspirational story to tell about her home town of Navan in Co Meath, and she tells it terrifically well, talking to the people involved, engaging with the history, delivering the drama and teasing out the poignancies and complexities.

O’Shea is speaking to the people who stood up to church abuse in the 60s and 70s, at a time when challenging the Catholic authorities seemed unthinkable. There can hardly be anyone left now who doesn’t know something about Ireland’s coming to terms with the historical abuse sanctioned by the church and its treatment of young pregnant women in the brutal mother-and-baby houses and Magdalene Laundries, the subject of movies such as Stephen Frears’s Philomena and Peter Mullan’s The Magdalene…

View Cache

Money will be used to help compensate abuse victims as St. John’s archdiocese continues to liquidate assets

A tentative agreement announced in a St. John’s courtroom Wednesday morning will clear a cloud of uncertainty that’s been hanging over the province’s education system and help compensate victims of abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy and those who ran the notorious Mount Cashel orphanage.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government has agreed to pay $13 million to acquire full ownership of at least 32 schools on the Avalon and Burin peninsulas that are currently owned by the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s. The church’s ownership of the schools is a legacy of the old denominational education system, which was abolished in the 1990s.

The agreement-in-principle ends months of uncertainty about the fate of the schools and the thousands of students who attend them, and adds considerably to the pot of money…

View Cache

Catholic leaders in the state of Washington have expressed concern over a bill advancing in the state legislature that would require priests to report child abuse or neglect even if they heard about it during a person’s confession.

The bill, in its original form, required clergy members to be mandatory reporters of abuse, but it contained an exemption known as clergy-penitent privilege, protecting what was learned under the seal of confession. This exemption was removed from the amended bill the House passed April 12.

An alert on the website of the Washington Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops, urged Catholics to contact their state senators and ask them to reject the amended bill when it returned to them for a vote to “protect the clergy-penitent privilege.”

The site noted that the state’s bishops had supported many aspects of the original bill “including making priests mandatory reporters…

View Cache

New inquiry could soon begin into the horrific abuse of children by priests and other religious figures in Northern Ireland.

Victims of clerical abuse in Northern Ireland are to be asked to come forward and tell their heart-breaking stories.

It marks the start of a process which could lead to a new inquiry into the horrific abuse of children by priests and other religious figures.

An inquiry has already been held into the years of abuse suffered by young people living in institutions such as children’s homes and orphanages throughout Northern Ireland.

Some of these institutions were run by churches – but an inquiry has never been held into abuse carried out by members of the clergy in other venues, such as church buildings or the victims’ own homes.

The Northern Ireland Executive set up the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) in 2012.

It was the biggest child abuse public…

View Cache

Catholic church sex abuse survivors are calling on prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into the Baltimore Archdiocese.

“My abuser was known about in 1966. I could’ve been saved had they done the right thing then. Surely they can do the right thing now,” said Teresa Lancaster.

Since the release of this report detailing the horrific and repeated abuse of more than 600 child victims allegedly at the hands of 156 abusers within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, survivor Teresa Lancaster is demanding more.

“When you go through the report you see the page that says church leaders they’re all redacted why,” she asked.

The names of 10 priests were redacted from the report.

Lancaster and several other survivors, now represented by attorney Thiru Vignarajah are asking those names be released, and those accused perpetrators still living be criminally prosecuted.

“Survivors have been asked to accept a false choice between uncertain…

View Cache

More than 20 years after the clergy sex abuse scandal erupted in the United States, a newly filed lawsuit reveals more allegations of a cover-up.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is accused in the suit of moving a priest with an alleged troubling track record.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia faces renewed allegations Wednesday that church leaders quietly transferred a suspected sexually abusive priest from assignment to assignment between 2003 and 2020.

The church and the priest are named in a five-count lawsuit filed in the Court of Common Pleas on claims of negligence and recklessness based on the alleged failure to properly supervise priests, investigate allegations against them and protect its parishioners from them, often by simply moving the priests to other dioceses.

In the complaint Jane Doe, whose identity we are concealing, alleges she was sexually abused by 48-year-old Father Kevin McGoldrick after the Archdiocese, under the leadership of then-Archbishop…

View Cache

He’s now a Tennessee hospital chaplain, even though

–a judge says he “inflamed” an argument that led to a murder,

–a Catholic bishop says he “abused his position as a clergyman,” violated a church code of ethics, tried to deceive investigators and

–a woman says he “sexually, emotionally and psychologically abused her in 2018,” and

–an attorney says he’s had “previous felony convictions.”

He is Fr. Anthony Cipolle and he’s a chaplain at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

We call on the Catholic bishops of Nashville and Maine to

— publicly warn the public, police and prosecutors about him, for the sake of public safety, and

— clarify his clerical status, since the public’s been told he can’t function as a priest anymore.

We also applaud Melissa Kearns who bravely revealed her suffering at the hands of Cipolle in Maine’s largest newspaper yesterday. [See 1, 2, View Cache

Ground-penetrating radar search guided by survivor testimonies

A search for unmarked graves at the former Blue Quills Residential School in eastern Alberta found 19 sites that contained anomalies consistent with burial plots.

The property, located about 150 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, was once a Roman Catholic-run institution. It now operates as University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills, which is governed by the seven First Nations communities that surround it.

An investigation using ground-penetrating radar uncovered “reflections” in the soil that are indicative of human burials or graves. The initial findings of the survey were released Wednesday morning as community elders, knowledge keepers and university officials gathered for a ceremony on campus. 

Bertha Janvier Moir, 69, a former student at the institution, said the search for the graves of her former peers must continue. 

The children who were buried at residential schools need to be honoured and “brought home,” Moir said…

View Cache

Bill targets workplace bias, sexual assault settlements

A bill under consideration by the Legislature would restrict the use of nondisclosure agreements in the settlement of employment cases involving sexual assault and discrimination.

In January, Republican Rep. Alyson M. Sullivan-Almeida introduced H. 1778, which generally would prohibit nondisclosure agreements in the settlement of employment cases involving claims of sexual assault, sexual harassment and discrimination based on sex. The bill is currently before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

David I. Brody is one employment attorney who supports the measure.

“Some of the components of the bill were done in a very effective way, including a private right of action to enforce and protections for individuals who may want to remain anonymous,” said Brody, president of the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association.

The Boston attorney said MELA has not taken an official position on the legislation and that he was expressing his own…

View Cache

The pope’s safeguarding commission, preparing to move into a fresco-ceilinged palace in Rome’s historic center, must not be merely engaged in “PR,” but become a refuge for those abused by clergy and silenced by the church, said leading safeguarding expert Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner.

Speaking to journalists April 17 about his decision to leave the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Zollner expressed his hope that the commission’s new home will push the commission to take seriously the principles of “transparency, compliance and responsibility,” the lack of which he cited as the reason for his departure.

The new center must be “a central focus point of encounters with victims from around the globe,” he said. “This is what people are looking for.”

After nearly 10 years of serving on the pope’s advisory body, Zollner said that “it is a continuous impression on the part…

View Cache

German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, one of the church’s leading protagonists in the fight against clerical sexual abuse, has sought to clarify his reasons for stepping down from a Vatican safeguarding commission after nearly 10 years on the job.

Speaking to journalists Monday, Zollner denied that he was targeting anyone individually or that he resigned as part of an internal power struggle, but said he had ongoing concerns regarding how the commission operated that went unanswered, despite several attempts to engage his superiors on the issues.

“It was not easy for me at all to leave the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and to publicly address the existing problems,” he said, saying, “Many times I asked myself the following questions: Does this gesture correspond to the team spirit and the discretion necessary for any working group? Will I hurt the Holy Father with my decision?”

Zollner said he…

View Cache

A civil complaint was filed yesterday against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and former priest Kevin Barry McGoldrick. The lawsuit, entered in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County, accused the Archdiocese of permitting and facilitating sexual abuse by McGoldrick and of covering up complaints of sexual assaults by him for more than 10 years. We are grateful to the victim, “Jane Doe” both for speaking out and for her persistence, and we hope that her courage will embolden any others who may have been hurt in the Catholic Church to come forward, report their abuse to the police, and begin healing.

McGoldrick was ordained for the Archdiocese in 2003, but in 2013 he left Philadelphia for a job as a chaplain at Aquinas College in Tennessee, which is part of the Diocese of Nashville. However, the complaint in the new lawsuit states that the Archdiocese opened an investigation into claims…

View Cache

Over recent years, the Archdiocese helped cover up the checkered past of a priest who sexually abused at least one woman, a lawsuit states.

A former local priest sexually abused at least one woman for years and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia helped to cover it up for over a decade, a new lawsuit filed Tuesday claims.

Kevin Barry McGoldrick, who served at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in south Philadelphia from 2003 to 2013, may have also abused other individuals, the suit states, and advocates are urging victims to come forward.

While the victim named in the lawsuit says she was abused after McGoldrick left Philadelphia, while he was serving in Tennessee, lawyers claim the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was aware of McGoldrick’s checkered past.

“Our client suffered horrific abuse at the hands of McGoldrick,” Stewart Ryan, one of the victim’s attorneys with the local firm Bucci & Kent, said…

View Cache

A former employee of St. Monica’s Catholic church has been arrested in Oregon as part of a sting operation targeting child predators.

Sean Baba, 29, was one of six individuals identified and arrested by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office last week. According to the Sheriff’s Office, investigators used multiple dating applications, social media sites, and other online platforms to pose as underage boys and girls.

“The people contacted the profiles online and offered to meet a person they believed to be a child for sex,” said a press release from the Sheriff’s Office. “When the people arrived to meet the child, they were instead contacted by law enforcement and arrested.”

Baba, along with the other suspects, are being charged with felonies for luring a minor and online sexual corruption of a child in the first degree.

At the time of his arrest, Baba was working as the Director of Music…

View Cache

In addition to allowing a longer period of time to file child sex abuse lawsuits, the new Kansas law allows criminal prosecution of child abusers regardless of how long ago the assault occurred.

Kansas has joined a growing number of states which have now passed new laws allowing survivors of child sex abuse additional time to file civil lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions that enabled the conduct, and removed any statute of limitations on criminal prosecution of child sex offenders.

Governor Laura Kelly signed a bill into law on Monday, which allows individuals to file Kansas child sexual abuse lawsuits until they are 31 years old, or three years after a criminal conviction. However, the new law does not go as far as other recent child sex abuse laws enacted in Maryland, New York, New Jersey, California and other states, which have revived previously barred claims for older…

View Cache

A Pennsylvania grand jury in recent months accused nine men with connections to the Jehovah’s Witnesses of child sexual abuse in what some consider the nation’s most comprehensive investigation yet into abuse within the faith.

The sets of charges filed in October and February have fueled speculation the jury may make public more about what it has uncovered from a four-year investigation.

A similar grand jury investigation into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests culminated in a lengthy 2018 report that concluded hundreds of priests had abused children in Pennsylvania over seven decades and church officials had covered it up, and more recently a similar report was issued in Maryland.

But documents made public so far include nothing about what critics have long maintained has been a systemic cover-up and mishandling of child molestation within the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, at a news conference in February  View Cache

THE founder of the Christian youth festival Soul Survivor, Canon Mike Pilavachi, has agreed “to step back from all ministry” while “non-recent safeguarding concerns” are investigated, it has been announced.

Canon Pilavachi is Associate Pastor of Soul Survivor, Watford, a church that meets in two warehouses on an industrial estate in north Watford. It was planted from St Andrew’s, Chorleywood, in 1993. The same year, the first Soul Survivor conference was held, and its first festival was held over two weeks in 1995. The festivals ceased in 2019 (News, 1 June 2018; Features, 13 September 2019). They were attended by up to 35,000 young people and adults, the church says, and emphasised Charismatic gifts.

On behalf of the C of E’s National Safeguarding Team, the diocese of St Albans, and the trustees of Soul Survivor, Watford, the Suffragan Bishop of Bedford, the Rt Revd Richard Atkinson, read out a…

View Cache