ABUSE TRACKER

A high-profile civil rights attorney has taken aim at the Archdiocese of Baltimore in the latest legal hit for the church embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal. 

A new lawsuit is expected to be filed against the archdiocese by civil rights attorney Ben Crump and sexual abuse attorney Adam Slater on behalf of survivors of childhood sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the church. 

The attorneys are expected to announce the lawsuit Tuesday, which will be filed when the Maryland Child Victims Act goes into effect on October 1. 

The act, signed into law in April, eliminated the statute of limitations for survivors of child sex abuse in Maryland to sue their abusers. 

Survivors of child abuse, particularly those who experienced abuse within the Baltimore Catholic Church, had been pushing lawmakers to pass the act for decades.  

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released a View Cache

The sex abuse claims allegedly occurred in the 1960s, 70s and 80s by priets who are either dead or not active, the diocese said

The Catholic Diocese of Oakland announced on Monday that it filed for bankruptcy amid 330 sex abuse lawsuits in an effort to stabilize its finances, the group said. 

Most of the claims center on sex abuse crimes that occurred in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s by priests who are no longer active in ministry or are deceased, the diocese said. 

In a letter to parishioners, Bishop Michael C. Barber said the diocese believes “this process is the best way to ensure a fair and equitable outcome for survivors.”

The Cathedral of Christ The Light and Catholic Diocese of Oakland building in Oakland, California. The Diocese has filed for bankruptcy as it faces 33 lawsuits alleging sex abuse.  (Google Maps)

“It is important we take responsibility for…

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Catholic Church denies responsibility for priest, saying he was employed as teacher at time of alleged abuse

WARNING: This article contains details of abuse.

It was the late 1960s in Toronto and a young boy was standing on the edge of a subway platform considering something terrible. The torment he says he felt was becoming unbearable.

David Cullen, who was around 10 years old at the time, says he managed to find a nearby payphone to call his mother for help. He went on to spend much of the rest of his life in and out of doctors’ offices and hospitals, dealing with chronic pain and severe emotional distress. 

He says he had no idea why, until five decades later.

In 2019, Cullen, 59, was reviewing test results with a team of doctors when one asked a pointed question: had he ever been sexually abused as a child?

That’s when…

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• La Conferencia Episcopal Española saca a la luz su Instrucción sobre abusos sexuales, en la que no se contempla las indemnizaciones económicas a víctimas
• DOCUMENTO: Instrucción de la Conferencia Episcopal Española sobre abusos sexuales (texto íntegro)

La Conferencia Episcopal Española saca a la luz su Instrucción sobre abusos sexuales. Los obispos aterrizan con este documento el ‘motu proprio’ ‘Vos estis lux mundi’, publicado por el papa Francisco hace justo cuatro años (9 de mayo de 2019) y readaptado tras la actualización efectuada por el Pontífice el pasado 25 de marzo.

Además de pedir perdón a las víctimas y comprometerse con la búsqueda de la verdad y la justicia, la Instrucción asume el mandato del Papa de investigar a laicos acusados de abusos. Sin embargo, en el texto no se contempla ningún tipo de indemnización o reparación económica a las víctimas.

“Sin perjuicio de la responsabilidad civil y penal personal de cada…

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• El religioso, en sus casi cinco décadas en el país andino, habría abusado sexualmente de al menos 85 menores
• Antonio Gausset Capdevilla y Luis Tó han sido acusados de haber violado a “decenas” de menores y de novicios
• Ocho superiores han sido suspendidos mientras se completa la investigación que dirima las definitivas consecuencias

Días atrás, la Iglesia y la sociedad bolivianas se estremecían al conocerse que la Procuraduría General del Estado iniciaba una investigación contra el misionero jesuita español Alfonso Pedrajas Moreno, fallecido en 2009 y quien era conocido como el padre Pica. Todo tras dar a conocer el diario El País que el religioso, que pasó casi cinco décadas en el país andino y que también estuvo destinado en Perú, había abusado sexualmente de al menos 85 menores; buena parte de ellos, en el Colegio Juan XXIII, en Cochabamba. Una larga serie de crímenes de la que, para mayor consternación, él…

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 05-09-2023

CONTACT:
Peter Isely
ECA Founding Member
Program Director of Nate’s Mission
414-429-7259
peter@natesmission.org

Sarah Pearson
Deputy Director of Nate’s Mission
414-366-5403
sarah@natesmission.org

Reverend James E. Connell, J.C.D.
Milwaukee Archdiocese Priest, Former Vice-chancellor, Canon lawyer
414-940-8054
connell.jim951@gmail.com

Ryan Jayne
Freedom from Religion Foundation Senior Policy Counsel
608-256-6822
ryan@ffrf.org

WHEN: Tuesday, May 9th, 2023, 1:00pm

WHERE: State Capitol Building, State Street entrance, Madison, WI

WHO: Directors of Nate’s Mission, a Wisconsin survivors’ project of the global organization Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) and the Senior Policy Counsel for the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF)

WHAT: Press event to release the Open Records Request by Fr. James Connell to Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul and discuss the experience of Wisconsin survivors on the second anniversary of Kaul’s statewide investigation into clergy abuse. A filmed interview with Connell about the filing will be shared and posted online after the event.

WHY: Last week, Fr. James Connell, retired vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and a…

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Baltimore Catholic sex abuse survivors are calling for Archbishop William Lori to resign.

This comes after local newspapers published the redacted names of church officials accused of abuse and cover-ups in the Baltimore Catholic Church.

Survivors want the church to name the rest.

The grand jury report identified 158 clergy accused of abusing more than 600 victims. But 15 names were redacted or kept out of the report.

That includes the names of five church officials, the report alleges, who helped cover up decades of abuse.

Names of three of the 10 redacted priests were also published.

“But, who are the other seven?” said David Lorenz, director of the Maryland Network of those Abused by Priests.

Survivors, on Monday, pressed the church to remove all priests who enabled abusers, and name the others accused.

“We have to go after, not only the perpetrators,…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland filed for bankruptcy Monday due to hundreds of new child sex abuse claims, becoming the second diocese in California to do so.

The San Francisco Bay Area diocese faces more than 330 lawsuits brought under a California law allowing claims that would have otherwise expired, Bishop Michael C. Barber said in a letter posted to the diocese’s website.

Most of them allege abuse that dates back to the 1980s and earlier, according to Barber, and by priests who are no longer active in ministry or deceased. He said a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization would ensure “a fair and equitable outcome for survivors” and allow the church to continue its work.

SNAP, a survivors’ network for clergy sex abuse victims, criticized the bankruptcy filing, calling it a ploy to keep information hidden. In a statement, it said the Oakland diocese could sell off property to…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland filed for bankruptcy Monday as it confronts more than 330 lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse of children by the clergy dating back decades.

“After careful consideration of the various alternatives for providing just compensation to innocent people who were harmed, we believe this process is the best way to ensure a fair and equitable outcome for survivors,” said Bishop Michael Barber in a statement. “Given our current financial resources, (the Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland) could not shoulder the burden of litigating 330 cases.”

Bankruptcy “can provide a way to support all survivors in their journey toward healing in an equitable and comprehensive way,” he wrote in a public letter in March.

“We have limited cash reserves, and insurance may cover some of the claims,” the diocese said on its website. “We are also exploring the potential sale of assets that are underutilized or may not…

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The Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland filed for bankruptcy protection Monday in the face of 330 child sex abuse claims going back decades, church officials announced.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to stave off individual lawsuits and consolidate the claims in a court-supervised process that will ultimately lead to settlements.

“After careful consideration of the various alternatives for providing just compensation to innocent people who were harmed, we believe this process is the best way to ensure a fair and equitable outcome for survivors,” said Bishop Michael Barber.

“It will also allow RCBO to stabilize its finances and continue the sacred mission entrusted to us by Christ and the Church,” Barber said in a news release Monday. “Given our current financial resources, RCBO could not shoulder the burden of litigating 330 cases filed under…

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In his role as president of the Vatican’s child protection commission, Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said the body’s recent actions “represent a major shift towards a more impact-focused direction.” 

At the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which took place from May 3–6, members adopted several new policies and updates in an attempt to address the sexual abuse crisis. 

Those changes include a proposal updating the Church’s guidelines for addressing clergy sexual abuse, a forthcoming “audit tool” to “evaluate the adequacy of local churches safeguarding guidelines,” and a new fund supported by bishops’ conferences around the world to support victims, their families, and communities in impoverished areas, according to the commission’s May 8 press release.

“At times, this new direction has been both steep and fast for all of us reflecting the urgency of the challenges. This accelerated pace over the last six…

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The Diocese of Oakland is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to child sex abuse claims, it announced Monday in a press release. The diocese says it faces more than 330 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse.

According to the release, Catholic schools in operation under the Oakland Diocese are part of separate legal entities and are not included in the bankruptcy filing. Employees and vendors will also be paid as usual with employee benefits continuing uninterrupted, the release continues.

“After careful consideration of the various alternatives for providing just compensation to innocent people who were harmed, we believe this process is the best way to ensure a fair and equitable outcome for survivors,” said Bishop Michael C. Barber. “It will also allow RCBO to stabilize its finances and continue the sacred mission entrusted to us by Christ and the Church. Given our current financial resources, RCBO could not shoulder the…

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As the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ plenary session in Rome comes to an end, Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley says the Pope “has asked a lot from us, and we are all committed to making this work.”

A “new universal framework” to update Church guidelines; a fund with contributions from the Bishops’ Conferences for training and assistance to victims; partnership with the GHR Foundation for safeguarding programmes; strategies to combat online child abuse; an in-depth study on the issue of vulnerability in its various forms; and, a strategic plan to focus on the needs of victims and survivors and address them in the Church’s accountability mechanisms.

These new strategies represent the work carried out by members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors during its Plenary Assembly.

Members took time to analyse and elaborate on the work of the Commission’s ongoing and future work, in light…

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The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will speak about the new revelations that
identify many of the redactions that were made in the Attorney General’s report on the Child Sexual
Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland.

https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/press/2022/111722.pdf

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/religion/john-krzyanski-joseph-omeara-samuel-lupico-catholic-sex-abuse-report-NTWFDCHPJBHBVPU6OIGNRJTTG4/

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/investigations/bs-md-church-officials-sexual-abuse-redacted-20230504-pngpc2eym5ehjjocmgttwg3o4q-story.html

WHAT: A sidewalk news conference, abuse survivors and advocates who are part of SNAP, the Survivors
Network of those Abused by Priests, will speak about the information revealed by the two major
newspapers in Baltimore. We know that several of the officials were completely complicit in
covering up and enabling abusers.

WHEN: Monday, May 8th at 11:30 am

WHERE: In front of the Archdiocese of Baltimore office, 320 Cathedral St. Baltimore, MD 21201
WHO: 7-10 abuse survivors and advocates, including the Maryland SNAP Leader David Lorenz, who
wants to see church officials remove any and all priests who knowingly mislead victims or enabled
abusers to continue harming children by their actions or lack of action.

WHY: Specifically, SNAP…

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When Brian P. Hannon finally reported to the Baltimore Archdiocese that as a teenager he had been repeatedly raped by a priest in the rectory of a Catonsville church, one of the officials he met with was the Rev. Bruce Jarboe, now a monsignor.

“He’s the one running the show,” Hannon, now 65, recalled of the meeting about 20 years ago. “He was very condescending to me. They acted like I was putting them out.”

When Hannon learned Friday that Jarboe was one of five high-ranking church officials who helped abusive priests escape accountability, but whose names were redacted from the recent Maryland Attorney General’s Office report on decades of clergy child sex abuse in the archdiocese, he wasn’t surprised.

“Disgusting,” Hannon said. “It’s an old-boy network.”

The archdiocese paid for lawyers to argue before a Baltimore judge, successfully as it turns out, that the names should be…

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Research shows an undeniable link between poverty and sexual violence

TEN years have gone by and Chido Mpira (now 19) has adamantly refused to join the family when they go for church gatherings every week.

While the community never understood her, her immediate family did, however they had agreed that Chido’s demise was a secret that should be kept within the family.

But Chido who has spent the last decade to herself has vowed she would rather die than attend church as she has been subjected to rape by her church minister at the tender age of nine.

Her family refused to report him for fear of touching the “anointed” one of God.

As she narrates her story, Chido who is still far from healing, wishes governments employ mechanisms that tackles religious related sexual abuse cases.

“My family is very close to the pastors’ family so I literally grew up…

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Sólo podrá dar misa de manera privada. Los integrantes del jurado eclesiástico habían solicitado una pena más dura.

El Obispo de la diócesis de la Santísima Concepción, monseñor José Antonio Díaz, inhabilitó por 10 años al sacerdote de Concepción Daniel Molina, quien había sido denunciado por abuso sexual.

Molina sólo podrá celebrar Misa de manera privada.

La decisión se dio a conocer en un comunicado oficial de la Iglesia, para dar precisiones ante “las manifestaciones públicas y la confusión expresada por muchos fieles respecto a la situación del presbítero Daniel Molina”.

La inhabilitación es consecuencia de un proceso canónico al que el Padre Molina fue sometido, como respuesta a denuncias recibidas en su contra.

El proceso fue autorizado por la Santa Sede. Para resguardar la imparcialidad, el tribunal estuvo conformado por jueces ajenos a esta diócesis y a esta provincia.

Los jueces solicitaron la pena máxima que corresponde a la pérdida…

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Pope Francis met with members of his child protection body Friday, stressing the importance of making reparation for past failures and urging them not to be discouraged when it seems like no progress is being made.

Speaking to members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors Friday, the pope told them not to be discouraged in their work, saying, “Even when the path forward is difficult and demanding, I urge you not to get bogged down.”

“Keep reaching out, keep trying to instill confidence in those you meet and who share with you this common cause. Do not grow discouraged when it seems that little is changing for the better. Persevere and keep moving forwards!” he said.

Francis’s audience with the commission comes at the end of their spring plenary assembly in Rome, during which they welcomed 10 new members and sought to regroup amid what has been…

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A priest from Rwanda alleged to have participated in the country’s 1994 genocide has been laicized, but not as a result of those accusations but rather for having a son out of wedlock.

In a document dated May 2, the Bishop of the French Diocese of Evreux, where Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka has worked since 1994, notified him of Pope Francis’ decision to relieve him of his priestly responsibilities.

“By Decree dated March 23, 2023, received last week, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pope Francis, by his supreme and final decision which is not subject to any appeal, has dismissed in pœnam from the clerical state Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, incardinated in the Archdiocese of Kigali (Rwanda) and currently residing in the Diocese of Evreux,” read the document signed by Bishop Christian Philippe Pierre Robert Nourrichard.

“Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka is exempt from all obligations arising from sacred ordination, automatically loses all the rights specific…

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National known civil rights attorney Ben Crump and renowned attorney Adam P. Slater are planning to file a lawsuit on behalf of Archdiocese sexual abuse survivors.

The attorneys will hold a press conference to announce the lawsuit on Tuesday, May 9, with survivors of childhood sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy, seminarians, deacons, and employees of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Attorney Crump and Attorney Slater will also launch a petition calling for the passage of legislation that would remove the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse across the nation.

This news comes after Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown released a redacted report on child sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore in April, detailing abuse within the church based on documents dating back to the 1940s.

In March, a Baltimore judge approved the release of the Maryland Attorney General’s investigation into the history of…

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Missionary Alfonso Pedrajas appears to confess to paedophilia, in a diary discovered by his nephew

The publication of parts of the diary of a dead Spanish Jesuit missionary has triggered the suspension of several members of the clergy, a legal investigation and an apology from the Catholic Church. His diary details his sexual abuse of dozens of children under his care in Bolivia.

Alfonso Pedrajas spent 48 years there, working as a teacher and tutor to young priests. Several years after his death in 2009, his nephew Fernando Pedrajas found a 383-page diary in which the priest details episodes from his life, including apparent confessions of abusing children.

“I harmed a lot of people (85?), too many,” he writes in one entry, published along with other excerpts by Spanish newspaper El País on April 30th.

“My biggest personal failure, without a doubt: paedophilia,” he wrote in another.

In the diary,…

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The Catholic Church’s insurer is considering winding down its ­operations unless another substantial bailout is made by dioceses and religious orders to plug the hole caused by sex abuse cases.

Catholic Church Insurance is discussing closing its new and renewal general insurance business amid a continuing surge in abuse claims as well as the liability ­impacts of factors such as Australia’s erratic weather.

The church hierarchy has been told the capital injection is needed about 18 months after shareholders pumped $170m into CCI to help cover sex abuse claims, amid significant losses.

The church has assured that sex abuse payments will not be ­affected by the insurer’s challenges.

Its shareholders include the ­dioceses across Australia and any decision to wind down its operations would affect hundreds of entities. The church hierarchy has about a fortnight to decide on ­another bailout.

Steps are under way to reassure victims of abuse that…

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A comprehensive investigation into the L’Arche movement demonstrates that Jean Vanier fostered a psychologically crippling and spiritually depraved environment

A little over three years ago, L’Arche International published its preliminary findings on allegations of sexual abuse and other transgressions against Thomas Philippe, OP, and Jean Vanier, the principal figures in the L’Arche movement. The organization noted at the time that “the stakes are high for L’Arche, following the death of its founder and revelations which mark a break in its history, there is a need to reread the past…. An in-depth study is to be carried out to gain a better understanding of the personality and input of Jean Vanier and the relationship dynamics at work between the founder and those who knew him”.

That in-depth study, “Abuse and Hold: An Investigation of Thomas Philippe, Jean Vanier and L’Arche”, was released in January. It’s a nine-hundred-page document comprehensive in scope,…

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In legal documents filed this week in the child sexual abuse case against the aging rocker, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler claimed that his life is of “significant public interest.” As such, he says, he was protected under the First Amendment to “out” a survivor of sexual abuse against her will, make millions of dollars publishing her story, and continue to revictimize her.

Tyler also filed an affidavit claiming that it was “not his intention to hurt” the victim by telling her story of rape and abuse.

Think his argument is unique? Think again. Tyler and his lawyers are leveraging a despicable trend of “victim-blaming” to escape the consequences of abusing children and young teens. By bullying, blaming, and silencing victims in public and the media, perpetrators, their defenders, and their lawyers have been attacking innocent victims for decades.

Here are some recent hair-raising examples.

1. Quentin Tarantino Defends Convicted Rapist Roman…

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The charging documents said Erin Foerstel made a full confession.

KIRKWOOD, Mo. — A former nurse at St. John Vianney High School was charged Thursday with multiple sex crimes after allegations of inappropriate conduct with a student.

Erin Foerstel was charged with two felonies: one count of second-degree statutory sodomy and one count of sexual contact with a student.

According to charging documents, Foerstel performed oral sex on a Vianney student under the age of 17 earlier this year. The charging documents said Foerstel made a full confession.

According to online court documents, her bond was set at $75,000, cash only. As part of her bond, she can not go on the Vianney campus or have any communication with the victim through third parties or social media.

In April, the school sent a letter to parents saying Forestel was removed from the campus and is “no longer employed…

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KIRKWOOD — A former nurse at St. John Vianney High School here has been charged with felony sex crimes after admitting to sexual contact with an underage student.

Erin Foerstel, 43, of Kirkwood, faces charges of statutory sodomy in the second degree and sexual contact with a student younger than 17, the age of consent in Missouri. 

Foerstel confessed to police that she performed a sexual act on a student at Vianney last month while employed at the school as a nurse, Kirkwood detective Donald Douglas wrote in a probable cause statement. 

Foerstel worked at Vianney from August 2020 until April 24, when administrators fired her after receiving a report of the alleged sex incident last month, Vianney President Rick Davis and Principal Ian Mulligan said in an email Thursday to parents with students at the all-male, Catholic private school.

Foerstel had also had inappropriate contact with students through social media,…

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Antony Punnackal faces a hearing Monday in Sevier County.

The attorney for a Gatlinburg priest accused of sexually battering a Central American woman says he has video evidence showing the woman schemed to commit tax fraud, information that would undermine her credibility in the criminal case against her alleged attacker.

Travis D. McCarter filed a motion last week in Sevier County Circuit Court on behalf of client Antony D. Punnackal, who is charged with battering the woman and with sexual battery by an authority figure.

Punnackal faces a hearing Monday morning ahead of a planned trial Wednesday, although McCarter is seeking to delay the trial.

According to McCarter, the priest’s accuser also has been recorded on video talking about the criminal case.

“Perhaps most importantly, the alleged victim makes a statement in the video that roughly translates to an admission that the alleged victim believes the detective that dropped her…

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MUNICH – The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) believes that the process of coming to terms with the abuse scandal in the Church is far from complete.

At the spring plenary meeting in Munich on Saturday, ZdK Vice-President Wolfgang Klose demanded, among other things, the establishment of structures to deal with cases in Catholic associations and organizations.

In addition, it must be clarified how the ZdK can cooperate with the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) on the issue. Klose demanded that the committee accompany the reappraisal in the DBK and the Catholic dioceses in a critical manner.

The ZdK General Assembly is the highest body of the organization of Catholic laity. It meets twice a year – and now in Munich for the first time after the conclusion of the so-called Synodal Way, the reform process in the Catholic Church in Germany that has been extremely controversial in the view…

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In an interview with EL PAÍS, the nephew who found his uncle’s secret diary, in which the Jesuit priest revealed that he sexually abused dozens of minors during decades, says: ‘You’re with the victims or with the pederast’

In 2018, EL PAÍS launched an investigation of pedophilia in Spain’s Roman Catholic Church and developed a database with all the known cases. If you know of any unreported cases, write to us at abusos@elpais.es or abusosamerica@elpais.es if the case is in Latin America.

What seemed like an ordinary cardboard box changed Fernando Pedrajas’ life. It happened in early 2021 amid the pandemic, just before an unprecedented snowstorm blanketed Madrid in white. Fernando’s mother had died a few months earlier, so he had gone to the family home to sort everything out and put it up for rent. He went down to the storage room and found a dusty box with “PICA” written on…

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A Mississippi minister and educator is accused of sex acts with several underage boys he knew from his position as their pastor, tutor, or employer, according to affidavits from Olive Branch Police.► Olive Branch, MS educator charged with child molestation, sexual abuse, unnatural intercourse

Daniel Paul Harris, 44, was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of molesting (touching a child for lustful purposes), two counts of sexual battery, and one count of unnatural intercourse.

“There’s a lot of children who have come in contact with this person,” Bob Morris, Desoto County District Attorney said. “I don’t want to comment in detail on the investigation. I can only say that it does cover a time period, I would not say it’s an isolated event with one individual.”

Harris is listed in documents as a pastor at a church at 8300 Craft Road, which is the address…

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Grammy-award winning worship leader Matt Redman and other prominent Christian leaders from the U.K. are commending survivors speaking out in one of the largest abuse scandals to rock the evangelical church there.

The scandal involves 65-year-old Mike Pilavachi, founder of Soul Survivor, a U.K. Christian youth festival that ran from 1993—2019 and attracted about 30,000 people from around the world each summer. Soul Survivor also inspired Survivor Records, which launched popular artists like Redman, Tim Hughes, Tree63, and YFriday.

Pilavachi, who also pastored Soul Survivor Watford, is now facing allegations he abused young men in his care, bullying them, giving them full-body massages, and pressuring them to engage in extended wrestling matches. Last month, Pilavachi quit Soul Survivor and stepped back from ministry at his church, after the Church…

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Pope Francis on Friday praised the work of an international Vatican commission on sexual abuse prevention, following the recent acrimonious resignation of a high-profile member who accused it of lacking transparency.

In an address to a plenary session of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Francis made no reference or allusion to the accusations by Father Hans Zollner, who resigned on March 29, citing concerns over the way it was operating.

Zollner, a world-renowned abuse prevention expert, denounced unclear hiring practices, an undefined relationship with the Vatican’s doctrine office and “inadequate” financial and decision-making accountability.

Addressing the commission, whose membership was renewed and expanded last year, Francis said he was pleased with a recent agreement between it and a Vatican department that oversees work in poor countries, where sexual abuse prevention is often hurt by lack of funding.

He urged members “not to get bogged down,” to “persevere and…

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Pope Francis sought to encourage his embattled child protection advisory board Friday, following weeks of turmoil sparked by the latest resignation of a founding member and fresh questions about its direction.

Francis urged his Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to pursue a “spirituality of reparation” with abuse survivors and build a culture of safeguarding to prevent priests from raping and molesting children.

In particular, he praised the commission’s efforts to establish church child protection programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where there is less funding than in the U.S. and Europe.

“It is not right that the most prosperous areas of the world should have well-trained and well-funded safeguarding programs, where victims and their families are respected, while in other parts of the world they suffer in silence, perhaps rejected or stigmatized when they try to come forward to tell of the abuse they have suffered,” Francis…

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Pope Francis invited the Vatican’s child protection commission to have “a spirituality of reparation” toward victims of clergy sexual abuse and to examine where the Church has committed “sins of omission” in this area.

“The sexual abuse of minors by clergy and its poor handling by Church leaders has been one of the greatest challenges for the Church in our time,” he told the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) during an audience May 5.

“The failure to act properly to halt this evil and to assist its victims,” he continued, “has sullied our witness to God’s love.”

“In the Confiteor, we ask forgiveness not only for the wrong we have done but also for the good we have failed to do. It can be easy to forget sins of omission, for in a way they seem less real; yet in fact they are very real, and they…

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This morning, the Holy Father Francis received the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors members in the audience.

We publish below the speech that the Pope addressed to those present during the Audience:

Address of the Holy Father

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

I am pleased to welcome all of you, particularly the new members of the Commission, as well as those continuing their service and the group of associates from around the world, who are a new and welcome addition.

This is our first meeting since you were formally established within the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and I would like to provide you with some suggestions. The seeds sown some ten years ago, when the Council of Cardinals recommended the creation of this body, are bearing fruit, as we can see. In order to face today’s challenges with wisdom and courage, it is important…

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What happens to children sexually abused by priests as they grow older? Some, tragically, commit suicide. Some fall into alcoholism and drug addiction in an attempt to cope with the enduring pain caused by such profound betrayals of trust. Serial failed relationships, career catastrophes, depression and hopelessness often follow.

After decades of surviving such after-effects, one abuse survivor has risen out of the ashes to reach out to others still living amongst the ruins of their own lives.

In 1963 at age 11, Robert McCabe endured sexual abuse at the hands of a newly-ordained priest assigned to his boyhood parish in Scarborough, Ont. Decades of alcoholism followed, resulting in several failed marital relationships. At one point he found himself homeless, fighting rats for pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken in a bin at the back of a restaurant.

Early one morning in December 2010, wondering what sort of booze to buy…

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A wealthy attorney who made a name for himself in the nation’s capital before returning home to Maine to run for governor vowed to seek redemption Thursday after he pleaded guilty to possession of thousands of images of child sexual abuse.

Eliot Cutler, who came close to being elected governor in 2010, sat stone-faced at times in court, but his voice cracked with emotion when he addressed the judge. He apologized first to the victimized children and their families.

“My behavior helped to support an industry built upon their abuse, and I hope with all my heart that they can find healing and dignity,” Cutler said.

The plea agreement, accepted by the judge, calls for Cutler to serve nine months in jail for four counts of possessing sexually explicit material of a child under 12.

It marked a remarkable fall for a man who once served as an…

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Raymond Frogner is the head of archives for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Canada’s Supreme Court has acknowledged that Canadian governments and Christian organizations weaponized education to govern and forcefully assimilate Indigenous peoples through a system of residential schools. Seven generations of Indigenous children endured unconscionable physical, emotional and sexual abuse, poor health care, deficient educational standards, inadequate shelter, chronic malnutrition and disproportionately high rates of death.

And yet there are still commentators who deny or question the trustworthiness of the records, the transparency of the research and even the merit of investigating the residential school experience.

This prevents understanding, and must be addressed.

Detractors have stated that both federal and provincial governments kept careful records around the deaths of children sent to residential school. They claim government offices delivered, years ago, almost all these records to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) or, later,…

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“The sexual abuse of minors by clergy and its poor handling by church leaders has been one of the greatest challenges for the church in our time,” Pope Francis said in his keynote address to members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on May 5. But, he said, “now is the time to repair the damage done to previous generations and to those who continue to suffer.”

The pope met the commission while it is holding its plenary assembly in Rome (May 2 to May 6) at a time when many questions have been raised about its organization, governance and direction following the resignation at the end of March of Hans Zollner, S.J. The Jesuit priest, who had been a founding member along with Cardinal Seán O’Malley, resigned citing his concerns about the commission regarding “the areas of responsibility, compliance, accountability and transparency.” The cardinal, who…

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[See also a letter from then-Msgr. W. Francis Malooly, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, to Fr. Laurence F.X. Brett, cc’ing Msgr. Laurence R. Bronkiewicz of the Diocese of Bridgeport, August 11, 1993.]

The Maryland attorney general’s recent report on child sexual abuse and cover-ups within the Archdiocese of Baltimore mostly repeats or expands on known allegations and names deceased abusive priests.

The report also includes new information about a group of alleged abusers and church officials whose conduct wasn’t widely known and whose names were stripped from the document before its publication.

But clergy abuse survivors say any public reckoning falls short when some of the people involved remain anonymous, so The Baltimore Banner sought to unmask them.

Reporters matched details in the report to court transcripts, archdiocesan letters, church directories, news articles and other public documents. The investigation identified three of the clergy members and one church official whose…

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The Banner has uncovered three of the ten clergy members whose names were redacted from the Maryland attorney general’s report on child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

When the mother in suburban Atlanta remembers those days, the warning signs were there.

There were fights when she drove her son to classes for his first Communion. He begged her not to leave him. The family felt unsettled by a Christmas letter from the priest they hardly knew.

“At the end of the letter, he said, ‘How is my sweet little [boy],’ and there, I felt really nauseous for some reason. It’s like someone punched me in the stomach,” the mother would tell attorneys in a deposition. “I told my husband. I said, ‘Look at this letter. It doesn’t sound right to me.’

They would later learn what troubled their son. He alleged in a 2018 federal lawsuit in their…

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Just before Washington’s legislative session ended, in a last-ditch attempt to push through her bill requiring clergy to report child abuse, state Sen. Noel Frame proposed a compromise.

The bill, which would have added clergy to the state’s list of mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect, ran into a sticking point. Catholic lobbyists — and a majority of state senators — wanted to carve out an exemption for priests if they learned of abuse or neglect through a confession, which is viewed as sacred within the Catholic Church. 

Frame’s compromise was essentially this: Clergy would have a duty to warn law enforcement if they believed a child was at imminent risk of abuse, even if their belief was partly or fully informed by a confession. But they wouldn’t have to report the information they were told during the confession itself. 

“We felt like this walked an appropriate line of…

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Former Catholic Diocese of Wilmington Bishop W. Francis Malooly was one of several past high-ranking Archdiocese of Baltimore officials identified as those who helped cover up sexual abuse, according to a Baltimore Sun exclusive article published online late Thursday.

Malooly — along with the Most Revs. Richard “Rick” Woy, G. Michael Schleupner, J. Bruce Jarboe and George B. Moeller — helped abusive priests get away with their crimes, either concealing the extent of a priest’s misdeeds or striking deals with prosecutors to avoid a criminal charge, according to the Sun’s article.

The five were among the most powerful, high-ranking and visible officials in the archdiocese, which comprises of Baltimore and nine of Maryland’s 23 counties in the central and western portions of the state. Its annual directories show some served as chancellor, effectively the right hand of the late Cardinal William Keeler or the late Archbishop William Borders. Others were directors…

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In the fall of 2002, as the countryfirst realizedthe scope of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, a Baltimore bishop sat in a Carroll County parochial school gym to try and make sense of it all.

Auxiliary Bishop W. Francis Malooly told a group of faithful that it was a mystery to him why priests who the Archdiocese of Baltimore had recently named as credibly accused of abuse weren’t in jail, and why they had never been fully prosecuted. Priests elsewhere were being charged every day now, he said.

It was no mystery.

In many instances, Malooly — along with the Most Revs. Richard “Rick” Woy, G. Michael Schleupner, J. Bruce Jarboe and George B. Moeller — helped abusive priests get away with their crimes, either concealing the extent of a priest’s misdeeds or striking deals with prosecutors to avoid a criminal charge.

The five were among…

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The Rev. Michael Zacharias was on the phone with a boy he now stands trial for allegedly molesting for more than a decade — both as a juvenile and as an adult — when he overheard the boy’s girlfriend accurately assess the situation.

“Why does he call all the time? Is he trying to get into your pants?” the alleged victim recalled the girlfriend asking him during the phone call.

“I thought it was absurd,” the now 34-year-old man, whose name The Blade is withholding because it is a sexual assault case, said Wednesday on the witness stand in U.S. District Court in Toledo during the first day of trial testimony. But when he walked away to take the rest of the call in private, Father Zacharias “proceeds to tell me she’s right,” he testified, although at that moment, he thought it was a joke.

From that point on, the…

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Letter warns against attempts to discredit group’s founding member Hans Zollner, who has resigned

Former president Mary McAleese and Dublin abuse survivor Marie Collins have written to Pope Francis calling for “an independent, external review” of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

It follows the resignation of Jesuit priest Fr Hans Zollner, a member of the commission since it was set up in 2014.

He said it had yet to take seriously the principles of “transparency, compliance and responsibility” and that there were people in the Catholic Church who, “for personal or emotional reasons, create obstacles” in the fight against child abuse.

In their letter, both women expressed “deep concern” about the resignation from the commission “of its most experienced, globally respected and distinguished founding member Fr Hans Zollner SJ”.

They believed Fr Zollner’s integrity and honesty “to be beyond question. His commitment to child safeguarding within…

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When German Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner resigned from Pope Francis’ abuse commission March 29, mounting a searing criticism of the organization’s leadership and its alleged lack of transparency, it plunged an already beleaguered body into crisis.

As the commission meets in Rome this week for a previously scheduled May 3-6 summit, its president, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, said the body would address the concerns raised by Zollner, while also noting that he strongly disagreed with the Jesuit’s assessment of the commission’s effectiveness.

The organization, founded in 2014 as the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and with a mandate to advise the pope on child abuse prevention and accountability measures, has already suffered a number of setbacks, including the previous resignation of several other high-profile members who have questioned its ability to cut through the Vatican’s red tape and challenge its culture of…

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I was rather taken aback by the response I received from a friend when I told her that I was going to the seminary to begin my priestly and religious formation. She said to me something like this, “Catholic priesthood in this time of the most repulsive clergy sexual abuse and cover-up scandals? Don’t you have anything better to do with your life? Besides, do you think you are ready for the sacrifices, challenges, and difficulties of the priesthood?” Talk about a downer!

There is no wonder we have few religious and priestly vocations today when there are people who have such negative and pessimistic views of the consecrated life and Catholic priesthood. Even if they claim to be praying for religious and priestly vocations, can their prayers be effective when they have nothing but disdain and contempt for the vocations? We cannot inspire young men and women to the…

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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 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 in…

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Becoming a Synodal Church is the mandate of the Church in the AEC region. At the 67th Annual Plenary Meeting, held April 23-28, 2023 in Aruba, the AEC Bishops committed to transform the church at every level to reflect the call to synodality by Pope Francis. This commitment to walk together shaped both the agenda and the approach of the entire meeting where Sexual Abuse, Crime and Violence, and Solidarity with Haiti were discussed.

Sexual Abuse

Father Gerard McGlone of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit) led the bishops through a day of retreat and a study day on the topic of sexual abuse within the church. He questioned: “How can this crushing scandal transform the church so that it can once again be meaningful to the world?” He used Ronald Rolheiser’s article “On Carrying the Scandal Biblically (2002)” as a reference document.

The image presented was that of Mary and…

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My fellow survivor of clergy abuse, Luis Torres, first appeared in my well-ordered life one steamy summer evening. He arrived from his home on Staten Island, New York, in an old minivan with a bike strapped to a rack on the back. Where most people would have been thwarted, as was my intent, by the lack of a doorbell or knock, Luis was unfazed.

He was like that with survivors. He simply didn’t see barriers. He was all heart and responded to all hearts, especially to broken hearts. Perhaps it was his substantial suffering that won him, on the spiritual plane, a license for entry. At least, that was what I experienced that first evening on my porch. 

I had been told a fellow survivor of clergy abuse might reach out to me for support in his healing. I imagined the usual phone calls. What I encountered was someone standing…

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A bishop made a “succession of errors of judgment” including associating with a paedophile friar despite being warned not to, an official report into his resignation has found.

But media reports that “lewd” lockdown parties were held at Newcastle’s St Mary’s Cathedral were “simply untrue”, according to an inquiry into events leading up to Bishop Robert Byrne leaving his role as Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle in December.

Archbishop Malcolm McMahon was tasked with carrying out an investigation for the Dicastery for Bishops and an executive summary has been published on the Newcastle Diocese website.

He said there were four issues which had an impact on Bishop Byrne’s role: lockdown; buying a new house in a leafy Newcastle suburb; the suicide of the Cathedral Dean Canon Michael McCoy; and Bishop Byrne’s continued association with convicted paedophile Father Timothy Gardner.

The executive summary stated: “There has been much commentary in mainstream…

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As readers of this esteemed publication would be aware, in 2018, the Vatican signed a provisional agreement with the Chinese Communist Party on the appointment of Catholic bishops. In doing so, the Vatican recognised the Chinese ‘Patriotic Church’, set up and controlled by the CCP.

Indeed, the late Cardinal Pell, in the ‘Demos’ document attributed to him, stated that under the 2018 secret Vatican-China pact, there had been ‘no public support for the loyal Catholics in China who have been intermittently persecuted for their loyalty to the Papacy for more than 70 years’.

While the Vatican-CCP pact remains secret, it has been possible to ascertain that, according to its terms, the Vatican is to be included in the decision-making process in the appointment of bishops, with the final okay by the Pope. Well, as critics of the agreement have warned, the Chinese would have no compunction in breaking the agreement,…

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Lyon* doesn’t mince words when he talks about the impact of being sexually abused when he was a child, saying “it has destroyed my life”.

Key points:

• A Tasmanian man who alleged he was sexually abused as a child by three Anglican priests and a teacher has had his civil claim settled out of court for $1.4 million
• The man says the settlement has given him strength to fight for other victim-survivors
• The Anglican Church in Tasmania says it has paid out a total of $6.5 million since 2017 to 16 survivors who have made civil claims

WARNING: This story contains details of child sexual abuse and themes of self-harm.

“I haven’t been existing properly for 50-whatever years. You do things on auto-pilot, you take risks, you do crazy shit … you try to kill yourself,” he said.

Lyon said he drew on his strength to make his claim against the Anglican…

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In 2020 a nun accused the retired Archbishop of Auch, Maurice Gardès, of spiritual and sexual abuse.

The French Church has identified one of the previously unnamed retired archbishops investigated for sexual abuse, a revelation delayed because civil prosecutors did not inform Church officials that they had closed the case without taking any action.

After a prosecutor confirmed reporting by Famille Chrétienne, the archdioceses of Auch, Lyon and Toulouse issued a joint statement confirming that a nun had accused retired Auch Archbishop Maurice Gardès in 2020 of “moral and sexual harassment, spiritual abuse and sexual aggression”.

The complaint to the Lyon archdiocese was made a month before the archbishop’s retirement was announced by the Vatican. Lyon was also reported it to civil authorities, who sent it to colleagues in Auch.

Prosecutors in Auch looked into the case but filed it away in April 2022 because it was too old and not…

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Bolivia’s Jesuit congregation apologized Tuesday and announced an investigation into a late Spanish priest who allegedly abused several minors in Bolivia dating back to the 1980s.

“We apologize for the pain this has caused,” said the Rev. Bernardo Mercado, head of the Catholic religious order known as La Compañía de Jesús. He said the congregation has launched a probe that seeks to bring justice for the victims and called the situation an “embarrassment.”

The case of Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas Moreno came to light over the weekend in a report by the Spanish newspaper El País. It published excerpts of the priest’s dairy, where he allegedly admitted to having abused at least 85 children while he was a teacher in Bolivia until 2009 when he died.

Bolivian officials have not released the number of victims nor the dates in which the alleged abuse took place. But earlier this week Bolivia’s top…

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Former Catholic foundation official engaged in protected activities, according to the state Court of Appeal

A trial court must reconsider its denial of a motion to block a libel suit stemming from an email allegedly containing a false insinuation that Diocese of Orange Bishop Kevin Vann used Orange Catholic Foundation funds to cover legal expenses for clergy accused of child sex abuse, a state appellate court has ruled.

Suzanne Nunn, former interim executive director of the foundation, sent the email to 47 Catholic leaders throughout the country after Vann unilaterally terminated her and the organization’s board of directors in June 2020.

In the three-page email that bore the subject line, “You can’t make this stuff up,” Nunn asked a series of rhetorical questions regarding her firing and that of the board.

“Is this considered a hostile take-over to distribute funds the diocese needs to cover debt? Lawsuits?”  she asked, according…

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An investigation into embattled Hillsong Church by the top-rated news outlet in Australia has uncovered new revelations of financial and sexual misconduct, as key sources go on-the-record for the first time.

“Hellsong: Hillsong Church Global Investigation” first aired on Australia’s 7News on April 23 and released Friday on YouTube.

The 45-minute documentary reveals more evidence of sex abuse cover-up at Hillsong and new details of pedophilia by Frank Houston, father of Hillsong founder Brian Houston. The film also features an exclusive interview with Geoff Bullock, a worship pastor who helped found the Hills Christian Life Centre, which became Hillsong. And it reveals evidence that Houston, whose career seems dead in Australia, may be launching a comeback in the U.S.

Speaking on camera for the first time, a young woman and former Hillsong member, Piper Cameron, alleged that a male Hillsong youth leader asked her for…

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A former Baptist missionary has been found guilty of sexually abusing a 4-year-old family member, who tested positive for gonorrhea last April.

On Friday, a court in Webster County, Iowa, found 30-year-old Jordan Webb guilty of second-degree sexual abuse with persons under the age of 12, a Class B felony, according to the Messenger News. The court also convicted Webb of incest, a felony, and child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.

The jury deliberated about two hours before delivering their verdict, the Des Moines Register reported. Webb faces up to 32 years in prison at his sentencing on June 5.

Webb reportedly served from 2019—2022 as a missionary in St. Lucia with “Christ in the Caribbean.” 

According to a now-deleted Facebook page, the “sending church” for “Christ in the Caribbean” was Harvest Baptist Church, an Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) church in Fort Dodge,…

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Australian megachurch Hillsong, facing leadership scandals and allegations of financial misdeeds, has embraced a defense strategy remarkably like American televangelists facing investigations and court challenges.

Hillsong’s responses to allegations can be summarized as …

1. Deny problems exist.
2. Create churches as limited liability companies as part of a risk containment strategy. Individual churches are overseen by managers.
3. Threaten to sue critics.
4. After indisputable evidence emerges, confess, or admit that mistakes have been made.
5. Request prayer for fallen leaders.
6. Acquire expert legal advice.
7. Make personnel and board changes.
8. Experts release a report denying systemic problems exist.

Hillsong History

In 1983, Brian Houston founded Hills Christian Life Centre. The church would become Hillsong.

Actions taken by Houston more than twenty years ago still haunt the organization. In 1999, Houston learned his father Frank Houston had committed sexual abuse of children but failed to report the criminal behavior to law enforcement. Houston is currently on trial for the failure to…

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Federal agency claims several office bearers of the Church of North India are involved along with the dismissed prelate

India’s federal investigating agency has claimed that it has unearthed financial violations by a former Protestant bishop and several officers-bearers of the Church of North India (CNI).

Various office-bearers of the CNI, including former Bishop P. C. Singh, have been found “involved in gross misappropriation of Church properties through sale or renting out at much lower prices by showing them as deteriorating and encroached,” said a press release by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)on April 28.

The federal agency has been probing allegations of money laundering and foreign exchange violations against Singh, a former bishop of Jabalpur diocese of the CNI, a union of Protestant churches based in northern India. He was also the moderator of CNI’s 27 dioceses.

Singh was arrested on April 12 from his residence in Jabalpur in the central Indian state…

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The Internet Child Exploitation Unit (I.C.E.) of the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) has laid additional charges in relation to an investigation in-which the accused was involved in luring children over the internet. 

It was recently determined that the accused (who has remained in custody since his arrest on January 5) had been luring children online from locations across the world.  The accused recorded children performing sexual acts and would often pay them for doing so (often using Roblox gift cards as the currency). 

In February of 2022, the accused met with a 14-year-old female in Brampton and sexually assaulted her.

Yesterday, on May 1, investigators laid an additional 28 additional charges against the accused.

Justin Zielke (44) of Ancaster has been further charged with:

• Voyeurism (4 counts)
• Accessing Child Pornography (5 counts)
• Luring (9 counts)
• Make Child Pornography (4 counts)
• Extortion (2 counts)
• Invitation to Sexual Touching
• Sexual Interference
• Sexual Assault
• Obtaining Sexual Services from a…

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Turning the fight against this devastating crime into a matter of colour and ethnicity could allow predators to avoid detection.

Last month, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak received some criticism – and from some quarters, praise – for suggesting victims of “grooming gangs” have been ignored because of “political correctness” and “cultural sensitivities”.

“For too long, political correctness has stopped us from weeding out vile criminals who prey on children and young women,” he said, referring to the widely publicised claim that in the United Kingdom, gangs of predominantly British Pakistani men are sexually abusing young white girls and getting away with it due to the “cultural sensitivities” of those responsible for reporting any suspicion or allegation of abuse to relevant authorities. “We will stop at nothing to stamp out these dangerous gangs,” the Prime Minister added.

Before adding my voice to this conversation, it is extremely important for me…

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One of the top advisers to Buffalo Diocese Bishop Michael W. Fisher has stepped down from her post as diocese chancellor in a move that she described in an email as a firing.

Fisher notified clergy across the diocese last week saying that Sister Regina Murphy “has completed her long and distinguished tenure with the diocese.”

The bishop did not otherwise describe the circumstances around Murphy’s departure.

Joseph Martone, diocese spokesman, responded to a reporter’s inquiry about Murphy with a written statement that echoed Fisher’s memo to clergy. Martone declined to comment beyond the statement.

Murphy used the word “terminated” in explaining to department heads in the Catholic Center that she was leaving, according to two sources who read her email. She did not respond to a voice message and an email from The News seeking comment.

Murphy, who worked under eight diocese top administrators, was appointed chancellor in 2018….

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The years I was engaged brought the most change my family had experienced in at least a decade. Loss, job changes, moves, retirements, medical diagnoses: All this, and we weren’t even married yet! 

But the straw that broke the camel’s back came from an unlikely place: witness affidavit interviews. Witness affidavits are forms containing interview questions to be asked of two people who can attest to each partner’s freedom and fitness to marry as well as their sacramental history. For some reason, my now-husband and I were told ours had to be completed in person (during the pandemic) by either our parents or godparents. For two people whose parents, godparents and friends are for the most part not local, not practicing, not present or not alive, this was exceedingly challenging. We had to schedule an extra trip across the country, scrounge up trustworthy witnesses and catechize them as to the…

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Last year, I wrote about the Irish Government and their treatment of the issue of the children of priests. Subsequent to this happening, the Irish Government met with the United Nations in Geneva to respond to the UNCRC 2016 Concluding Recommendations, a document wherein the Committee asked the State party to respond to the needs of the children of priests. It was simple enough, you would think. I only wanted the State to confirm verbally/in writing, that indeed it is wrong to stigmatise a child based on paternity. I watched the Irish State meet with the UN delegation. Unfortunately, nobody brought up the issue of priests’ children and so the statement which preceded the visit to Geneva would suffice it would seem.

However, after all was done and dusted, the UN issued its reflections on what the State party had presented. In February 2023 document, the UN requested the Irish…

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A canonical investigation is however underway and Maurice Gardès is subject to sanctions.

Une enquête canonique est toutefois en cours et Maurice Gardès fait l’objet de sanctions.

Une procédure pénale pour agression sexuelle à l’encontre de l’ancien archevêque d’Auch, Maurice Gardès, a été classée sans suite, a fait savoir jeudi 27 avril le parquet, l’Eglise catholique expliquant pour sa part que le prélat fait toujours l’objet de sanctions et d’une enquête canonique.

Après un signalement du diocèse de Lyon le 1er décembre 2020, le procureur d’Auch a « immédiatement » ouvert une enquête pénale et entendu une religieuse accusant Maurice Gardès « d’agression sexuelle et de tentative de viol entre fin 2007 et 2009 », écrit le parquet dans un communiqué. « A les supposer avérés, les faits d’agression sexuelle, de nature délictuelle, étaient atteints par la prescription », précise-t-il, ajoutant que « l’enquête n’a pas permis d’établir (…) les faits de tentative de viol dénoncés, de nature criminelle »….

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In September 2020, the diocese of Lyon received the testimony of a nun reporting facts of “moral and sexual harassment, spiritual abuse and sexual assault” involving Bishop Maurice Gardès, former archbishop of Auch.

Retrouvez ci-dessus le communiqué des diocèses d’Auch, Lyon et Toulouse, du 27 avril 2023, au sujet de Mgr Maurice Gardès.

Le diocèse de Lyon a reçu en septembre 2020 le témoignage d’une religieuse faisant état de faits de « harcèlement moral et sexuel, d’abus spirituels et d’agressions sexuelles » mettant en cause Mgr Maurice Gardès, ancien archevêque d’Auch.

A la suite de ce témoignage, le diocèse de Lyon a effectué un signalement auprès du Procureur de la République de Lyon, qui a transmis le dossier à celui d’Auch. Parallèlement, la justice canonique a été saisie et des mesures conservatoires ont été signifiées à Mgr Gardès par l’archevêque de Lyon.

En avril 2022, le Procureur de la République d’Auch a ordonné un…

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Following the publication of a press article concerning an investigation targeting Maurice Gardès, former archbishop of AUCH, the public prosecutor of AUCH provides the following details.

Communiqué du procureur de la République d’Auch concernant l’affaire Maurice Gardès  : 

A la suite de la parution d’un article de presse concernant une enquête visant Maurice Gardès, ancien archevêque d’AUCH, le procureur de la République d’AUCH apporte les précisions suivantes.

Le 1er décembre 2020, le procureur de la République d’AUCH a reçu du procureur de la République de LYON, pour compétence, un signalement du diocèse de LYON concernant des faits de nature sexuelle qui auraient été commis dans le Gers par Maurice Gardès sur une religieuse.

Le procureur de la République d’AUCH a immédiatement diligenté une enquête pénale.

Entendue, la religieuse a indiqué que Maurice Gardès avait commis sur elle des faits d’agression sexuelle et de tentative de viol entre fin 2007 et…

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A state district judge late last year rejected a consolidated plea prosecutors had offered a former school health aide accused of molesting four children after parents of two of his alleged victims spoke in opposition to the agreement.

An attorney representing one of the accusers says in a new court filing the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office days later dismissed the charges related to his client — the most serious of those leveled against Robert Apodaca — and is making access to the teenager’s protected mental health records a condition for refiling them.

Paul Linnenburger filed an emergency motion last week, requesting a protective order for the records, which he says the District Attorney’s Office has “demanded as a precondition to further prosecution.”

The state never interviewed his client or asked for the records prior to dismissing the case “pending further investigation” in December, according to the motion.

New Mexico…

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Lovingly displayed in a windowsill of Elizabeth Ann Murphy’s home in Timonium is a rectangular ceramic sculpture depicting a sailboat tossed on a stormy, turquoise sea. God’s outstretched hands hover over the fragile vessel, a reminder of his constant presence.

Standing near the painted ceramic are three other pieces of art: a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a small wooden carving of Christ carrying his cross, and a little glass rooster – an ever-present symbol of betrayal.

For Murphy, who experienced horrific sexual abuse for three years while a student at Catholic Community School in South Baltimore in the early 1970s, the artwork offers consolation. It’s also a reminder of suffering.

The agony she endured wasn’t just at the hands of John A. Merzbacher, her abuser who is serving four consecutive life terms for his crimes against Murphy. It also came from a church that failed to…

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Lawyers for the Catholic Church have argued that the new law violates the state constitution.

The viability of hundreds of lawsuits alleging childhood sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and elsewhere hung in the balance as the Louisiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday over a challenge to a recent state law that created a 3-year “lookback” window to sue.

At issue is a law the Legislature first passed in 2021 and revised last year in response to eruptions in a long-running clergy sex abuse scandal in Catholic churches in Louisiana, backed by studies on delayed recognition of abuse by survivors.

The legislation, which passed overwhelmingly, granted victims of childhood sexual abuse until 2024 to sue over their alleged mistreatment regardless of their age. Previously, they had until age 28.

Louisiana is among more than two dozen states that have carved out grace periods from laws…

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The top Bolivian prosecutor launched an investigation Monday into a late Spanish priest who allegedly abused several minors in Bolivia dating back to the 1980s.

The case of Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas Moreno, who died in 2009, came to light over the weekend in a report by the Spanish newspaper El País.

Attorney General Wilfredo Chávez said on Twitter that he was seeking information from the Spanish consulate on the case, and that he was asking the Catholic Church to comment.

“This horror would have been covered up by the leadership of the Catholic Church at the time,” Chávez alleged on Twitter.

El País had published excerpts of the personal diary of Pedrajas Moreno, who allegedly admitted to having abused dozens of children while he was a teacher in Bolivia until 2009 when he died.

“We feel embarrassed by the situation,” Bolivia’s Jesuit congregation said in a statement, and vowed…

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Should the US government, in this day and age, be doing business with an organization with a gruesome history of protecting predators?

My relationship with the Catholic Church is, um, complicated.

Consider a report in The New York Times last week: “An Oklahoma state education board is weighing whether to approve the nation’s first religious charter school…potentially setting up a high-profile constitutional battle over whether taxpayer money can be used to directly fund religious schools.”

The Times added that “the proposed school…would be run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, would be the first to operate as an explicitly religious school, with religious instruction.”

So, yes, there are a whole bunch of questions about whether or not, or how, taxpayers should be supporting religious institutions.

But that’s not the complicated part for me.

This is: The president of Americans United for Separation of…

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Religious organizations should not pay damages for crimes perpetrated by their leaders or members in private homes outside of church-organized religious activity, the court said.

On April 26, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom issued an important decision on the question of vicarious liability by a religious organization for a crime committed by one of its elders in a non-institutional setting.

These cases have been hotly debated, not only in the United Kingdom. In several countries, courts have stated that a religious organization is liable for crimes committed by its leaders or employees in an institutional setting. For instance, several decisions in different countries affirm that if a Catholic priest sexually abuses a minor during a retreat or youth camp organized by the parish, the Catholic diocese or religious order is responsible and should pay damages to the victims. This is highly significant for the victims…

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Nearly four years after his election, Morris Fiddler has been consecrated as the first suffragan, or assistant, bishop for Northern Ontario in the Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh, a position arising, among other things, from the difficulty and cost of travel in the North as well as the need for suicide and addictions ministry.

Elected as bishop in June 2019, Fiddler was consecrated March 11 at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in his home community of Muskrat Dam.

His consecration was initially scheduled to take place in September 2019, he says, then rescheduled to February 2020 to accommodate clergy who planned to attend. But the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread travel restrictions and more postponement.

Fiddler told the Journal that before the 2019 election, he was anxious and spent much time praying during a hunting trip with friends off the Hudson Bay coast.After the election, he says, “I was at…

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Over the past year, calls steadily trickled in to the Rice, Murtha & Psoras law firm in Lutherville, while Maryland lawmakers considered allowing survivors of child sex abuse to sue their attackers and the institutions that enabled their torment, no matter how long ago it happened.

Seizing on the momentum of a sweeping report from the Maryland Attorney General’s Office revealing decades of child sex abuse by Catholic clergy in the state, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore signed the widely supported Child Victims Act into law April 11.

Since then, “the phones are blowing up” at the law firm, said partner Randolph Rice.

Describing conversations with survivors, Rice said they’re saying: “I raised this issue 20 years ago and nobody listened to me. Here’s the church. Here’s the pastor. Here’s the clergy member. Here are the dates. Now I can finally be heard and I can finally do something…

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Review: Ghosts of the Orphanage – Christine Kenneally (Hachette); Crazy Bastard – Abraham Maddison (Wakefield Press)

Recent publicity about the continuing abuse of children in out-of-home care may be a source of shame for Australians, but it does not come as a surprise.

A series of inquiries at both state and Commonwealth level over the last quarter century exposed such “care” as inherently abusive. The inquiries also detailed the lengths to which the governing institutions were prepared to go to deny this reality.

The United States has resisted the “age of inquiry” that has swept across much of the western world, leaving former orphanage residents to pursue their cases through the courts as individuals.

It is this struggle that forms the core of journalist Christine Kenneally’s latest book, Ghosts of the Orphanage. Her focus is on St Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont, where generations of children were under the control of untrained and…

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As California legislators prepared to pass a law providing victims of childhood sexual abuse a new window to file lawsuits, the bill’s chief backer recalls most of the resistance coming from entities with famously troubled histories: school districts, colleges and youth athletic groups, along with some of their insurance companies.

Los Angeles County “just didn’t come up,” said former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), who sponsored the Child Victims Act.

But three years after the law went into effect, L.A. County — responsible for facilities meant to protect and rehabilitate the region’s youth — has emerged in court filings as one of the biggest alleged institutional offenders.

Two weeks ago, in an otherwise dry budget document, county officials delivered figures that stunned even some of the most seasoned California sex abuse attorneys. County officials predicted that they may be forced to spend between $1.6 billion and $3…

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Msgr. Wolfgang Rösch, who once administered the Diocese of Limburg (Germany), has resigned from his position as diocesan vicar general over the mishandling of an abuse complaints against the future diocesan seminary rector, who later committed suicide.

The Diocese of Limburg is led by Bishop Georg Bätzing, the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference.

In October 2013, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had determined Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, Limburg’s bishop since 2008, could no longer exercise his episcopal ministry. The prelate’s association with lavish spending gave rise to the nickname “bishop of bling.” According to the announcement, Msgr. Rösch, “by decision of the Holy See,” would immediately become vicar general and administer the diocese.

In 2014, Pope Francis accepted Bishop Tebartz-van Elst’s resignation, and the Pontiff later named him an official of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. In 2016, Pope Francis named then-Father Bätzing the new…

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A federal judge overseeing the New Orleans Roman Catholic bankruptcy recused himself in a late-night reversal that came a week after an Associated Press report showed he donated tens of thousands of dollars to the archdiocese and consistently ruled in favor of the church in the case involving nearly 500 clergy sex abuse victims.

U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry initially announced hours after the AP report that he would stay on the case, citing the opinion of fellow federal judges that no “reasonable person” could question his impartiality. But amid mounting pressure and persistent questions, he changed course late Friday in a terse, one-page filing.

“I have decided to recuse myself from this matter in order to avoid any possible appearance of personal bias or prejudice,” Guidry wrote.

The 62-year-old jurist has overseen the 3-year-old bankruptcy in an appellate role, and his recusal is likely to throw the case into disarray…

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Greg Guidry gave thousands to archdiocese before ruling in favor of New Orleans church in case involving nearly 500 clergy sexual abuse victims 

A federal judge overseeing a bankruptcy filing from the US’s second-oldest Roman Catholic archdiocese has recused himself from the case amid scrutiny of his donations to the church as well as his close professional relationship with an attorney representing archdiocesan affiliates in insurance disputes.

Greg Guidry, who was appointed to the judicial bench at New Orleans’s federal courthouse by the Donald Trump White House in 2019, issued an order after 8pm on Friday recusing himself from a role handling appeals in a contentious bankruptcy involving nearly 500 clergy sexual abuse victims.

It came a week after the Associated Press reported that he had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the archdiocese before consistently ruling in favor of New Orleans’s Catholic church during its Chapter…

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First, in 1985, came attorneys who began filing lawsuits on behalf of those who were sexually assaulted as children by Catholic clerics.

Much later came prosecutors who slowly started to pursue criminal prosecutions.

Then, even later, came grand juries and attorneys general who finally began launching deeper investigations into clergy sex crimes and cover-ups and who eventually began to publish reports on those probes.

As a result, far too belatedly, roughly 7,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive clerics have been exposed, suspended, defrocked and kept away from children.

But it has taken decades. And in the meantime, more kids have been hurt and more victims have continued to suffer.

Surely, survivors of child sexual abuse by Baptist predators won’t have to wait so long to see these horrors exposed, stopped and prevented.

But maybe they will.

It has been 16 years since a major ABC “20/20” exposé documented the pervasive problem of…

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More than 500 people have contacted Richard Wolf, the investigator for the state Attorney General’s Office, since the report about alleged sexual abuse by clergy and others in the Archdiocese of Baltimore came out two weeks ago.

I asked him if he was exhausted. Without hesitation, he told me no, because this is the first time many have told their story to anybody. So however hard it may be to do his job, it’s harder for them.

Most are new survivors. Many institutions in this state are hoping nobody looks too closely their way — like when you don’t want the teacher to call on you. This applies to the church, law enforcement, the government, schools, a hospital.

But thousands of broken angels are rising up together, a real big band of them. Their strength comes from each other and all of us who honor them, respect them,…

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The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is being sued over the alleged sexual abuse of two school students in the 1970s and ’80s by a priest who was found by the church to be a paedophile in 2005 and continued to perform clerical duties for more than a decade.

Father Joseph Doyle, who died in 2021, has been accused of sexual abuse by two former students of Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Bayswater, where he served as parish priest for 37 years until his abrupt departure in 2005.

Doyle allegedly molested and raped an 8-year-old boy in 1979 after promising to make him captain of the school’s football team, according to a writ filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria against the church late last year.

It is alleged in court documents that Doyle said, “Jesus won’t forget this”, when the boy attempted to spurn his sexual advances. On…

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This past Wednesday, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph observed a Day of Prayer in Atonement for Those Harmed by Sexual Abuse in the Church. All of our parishes were asked to offer Mass and other prayers for this intention.

The sexual abuse scandal is one of the saddest chapters in the church’s history. The scandal involved representatives of the church, priests and bishops, violating their promises to God and the church by using innocent children or vulnerable adults for sexual pleasure. In so doing, they contradicted the church’s sexual moral teaching and inflicted grave emotional, psychological and spiritual harm on their victims. The scandal also included the failure of bishops to receive victims with openness and respect, to remove abusive priests and to protect those entrusted to their pastoral care.

I am grateful to the brave victims who overcame many obstacles…

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Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence said even though he will be retiring from his position, he will still be around to help the diocese as leadership transitions to his successor, Richard Henning.

Tobin joined host Gene Valicenti this week for his last interview on “10 News Conference” as the head of the Providence Diocese.

Under church law, Tobin had to submit a letter of resignation by age 75, which Pope Francis then oversees accepting.

Henning currently serves as coadjutor bishop and will immediately succeed Tobin when his retirement is accepted.

As a retired bishop, Tobin is no longer in charge or responsible for administrative duties in the diocese.

“One of the documents from the Vatican says a bishop is never unemployed. It’s very interesting insight,” said Tobin. “What it means is I continue to be a bishop, which means I…

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CHALLENGING pedophile priests in court is possible today in the Philippines. Much has changed in the Philippine judiciary in the past 20 years. Prosecutors and judges in the family courts are 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 and other parts of the country.

Church influence over government prosecutors and judges has greatly diminished since the previous President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to expose the alleged wrongdoings of bishops and priests, saying he was sexually abused himself by a priest. The Philippine judiciary is more independent and many women prosecutors and judges, and men too, in the family courts are strong and independent-minded and will never bend to Church pressure.

There are at present prosecutors and judges holding priests accused of child abuse accountable and bringing them to court….

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A woman who was molested for years by her stepfather has been awarded $2.28 billion by a California jury in a lawsuit that also implicated her mother and the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in which both parents were active, her attorneys announced.

The panel in Riverside County Superior Court awarded damages Tuesday to a woman described in court papers only as Jane Doe, who said she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather from age 5 until she was 14, according to an announcement by the law firm of Gary A. Dordick.

The lawsuit alleged that beginning in the 1980s, the stepfather sexually abused the girl. The assaults took place at their Lake Elsinore home and at events, meetings, and property of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the lawsuit said.

“These ongoing acts of abuse brought Plaintiff to the brink of suicide,” according…

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A Riverside Superior Court jury awarded a woman $2.28 billion Tuesday for the sexual abuse she endured for years committed by her stepfather, her attorney announced.

The 39-year-old Riverside woman, known in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, sued for damages against her stepfather, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her mother, who she said knew about the sexual abuse but did nothing to protect her, according to a news release by the law firm of Gary Dordick.

The huge jury award of $836 million in damages and $1.44 billion in punitive damages is largely symbolic and unlikely ever to be fully paid, since the stepfather was the only remaining defendant in the suit. The church, which denied wrongdoing, settled its part of the lawsuit for $1 million in December, and the woman’s mother settled for $200,000 in February, according to news reports.

The stepfather…

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A Toledo area Catholic priest facing multiple charges of sex trafficking goes on trial Monday.

According to the FBI, in 2015, Fr. Michael J. Zacharias allegedly “manipulated and coerced drug-addicted boys and men into sex.”

The priest allegedly “admits to first meeting the victim when he was a seminarian and the boy was in 6th grade St. Catherine’s in Toledo. The boy became drug-addicted as a teen, and Fr. Zacharias offered him money for sex to feed his habit. A second young man told the FBI he met Fr. Zacharias in first grade at St. Catherine’s and that the priest began sexually abusing him as a teen when he was in addiction to drugs. Zacharias was placed on leave by the Diocese,” according to news accounts and BishopAccountability.org

“We should all be grateful to the brave men who are helping law enforcement pursue a serial criminal,” said Claudia Vercellotti of…

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A fired St. Thomas More Catholic High School teacher has been arrested and is being held in St. Martin Parish after a video circulated online that appears to show him saying sexually suggestive things to someone he says he tutors.

Jacob de la Paz, 33, was arrested Thursday night and federally charged with enticing a minor to produce child pornography/child sexual assault material, according to media reports citing the Department of Homeland Security.

As of Friday night, de la Paz was still being held in the St. Martin Parish Jail, according to a St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.

De la Paz, who was a math teacher and track and field coach, was fired from STM Wednesday morning, according to an email sent from Chancellor Rev. Michael J. Russo to families and staff.

Russo said in his email that the school had “no reports, evidence or reason to believe” that…

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