ABUSE TRACKER

Father Terry Specht, a retired priest in the Diocese of Arlington, was found not guilty in Fairfax County Circuit Court on October 5 of aggravated sexual battery of a minor. 

“Along with the parishioners of the Diocese of Arlington, I express my sincere gratitude to all involved in the legal process that brought this case to a resolution,” said Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington. “While Father Specht was found not guilty, I nevertheless convey my heartfelt and sincere sorrow to anyone who has suffered sexual abuse. The Diocese of Arlington continues to offer whatever counseling or pastoral support we can to help them manage their pain and suffering.”

Father Specht served as a priest in the Diocese of Arlington from 1996 to 2012. He has not been serving in priestly ministry since 2012. While on administrative leave in 2012, Father Specht requested medical retirement due to an illness, and that request was granted. Father Specht will not return to ministry…

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A jury has acquitted a retired Catholic priest from northern Virginia who was accused of sexually assaulting a child more than 20 years ago.

A Fairfax County jury found Terry Specht not guilty Wednesday. He had been accused of sexual abuse of a minor under age 13. Prosecutors had alleged he committed the assault in 2000, when he was chaplain and assistant principal at St. Paul VI Catholic High School.

Public Defender Dawn Butorac said the jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning its verdict.

“The jury got it right,” she said. “Mr. Specht’s innocence was clear from the beginning.”

The Arlington Diocese issued a statement saying Specht has been on medical retirement since 2012, and will not return to ministry.

“While Father Specht was found not guilty, I nevertheless convey my heartfelt and sincere sorrow to anyone who has suffered sexual abuse,” Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge said…

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Fr. James Jackson, a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, has petitioned a federal court to throw out evidence of child pornography taken from a seized hard drive, on the grounds that the hard drive’s seizure violated the 4th Amendment.

In a motion filed Oct. 5 in a U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, Jackson’s attorney argued that the warrant used to seize a laptop and hard drive in his rectory last year failed to meet the 4th Amendment’s requirement of “particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.”

“[S]imply put, the warrant authorized a constitutionally impermissible, general search, for which suppression is now required,” Jackson’s attorney argued in the motion.

The priest’s attorney said police should have done more work to identify a specific suspect before acting on electronic evidence of child pornography trafficking, especially because several people lived and…

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A Kansas police detective said that Father James Jackson was the “primary target” in a child pornography investigation run by a local police department, according to a court document in Jackson’s federal case in which he has pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges.

Information regarding the Overland Park Police Department’s investigation into Jackson came to light in a petition that Jackson’s federal probation officer issued to the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island where the priest faces the federal charges.

The probation officer’s July 12 petition cited the police department’s investigation as evidence that Jackson broke the conditions of his pretrial release that were mandatory while he was allowed to live in Leawood, Kansas, with his sister, pending adjudication of the federal charges.

Jackson was originally arrested at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Providence, Rhode Island, in October 2021 after law enforcement agents allegedly found child pornography on his…

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Tommy Nelson, a well-known author and pastor of Denton Bible Church in North Texas claimed in a sermon last May that until 2005, he knew nothing of the sexual abuse perpetrated by a former youth pastor at his church.

“So, this all happened in the late 90s. It came to our attention in 2005,” Nelson told his congregation, referring to the abuse of multiple teenage girls by former junior high minister, Robert Shiflet. Nelson said church leaders had heard reports of Shiflet’s inappropriate behavior but not physical contact. “We saw smoke . . .” Nelson said, but “did not look for fire.”

Now, one of Shiflet’s victims is speaking out, accusing Nelson—who also serves on the board at Dallas Theological Seminary and is Song of Solomon Conference Speaker Emeritus—of minimizing the church’s neglect and harm of victims. The woman, who first told her story…

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A pastor from Citronelle has turned himself in to Mobile police after being indicted on nine charges, including rape, sodomy and sexual abuse.

Court records show that Gregory Renee Adams was indicted by a grand jury on three counts of first degree rape, two counts of second degree rape with a victim under age 16, two counts of sodomy and two counts of sex abuse.

According to WKRG TV in Mobile, Adams was a pastor who would frequently travel to churches in Citronelle and Waynesboro, Miss., where investigators said he would meet his victims.

Two of those said the abuse started when they were 12 years old and spanned decades.

Court testimony in the case reportedly stated that Adams told his victims he could determine whether they went to heaven or hell and that he used “holy oil” as a lubricant…

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Some 940 and 1,367 child abuse cases were recorded in 2020 and 2021 respectively in HK, according to official data

The authorities in Hong Kong have launched an investigation into a school for intellectually disabled children after media reports claimed several parents complained of child abuse by its staff members.

The school under fire is the Hong Chi Pinehill No. 2 School in Tai Po operated by the Hong Chi Association. Founded in 1979, it provides care and education to disabled children.

Hong Kong Education Bureau has instructed relevant regulatory bodies to probe and follow up on the incident, the Standard reported on Oct. 3.  The school has been asked to submit an investigation report on the child abuse complaints.

An unnamed spokesperson from the Education Bureau said that they have received “several complaints” about the mistreatment of students and mismanagement in the institution.

The official stated the need to…

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Thursday described as intolerable the behavior of male students at a Madrid university residence hall who in a video on Twitter can be heard cheering after one of them screamed a string of sexist and vulgar obscenities at female students.

“We cannot tolerate these acts that generate hate and attack women,” Sánchez posted on his official Twitter account from Prague.

“It’s especially painful to see that the protagonists are young people,” he said. “Not one step backward. Equality policies are necessary. Enough of sexism.”

The video, which has spread widely on social media, was recorded at night across from the college residence hall on the campus of Madrid’s Complutense University. A man can be heard screaming “You are whores, you are nymphomaniacs” and other vulgarities, including threats of sexual assault.

Then, groups of young men at windows on seven floors of the building are…

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 A south Alabama pastor was arrested Tuesday after being indicted on rape and sex abuse charges, news outlets reported.

A grand jury indicted Gregory Renee Adams, 64, on five counts of rape, two counts of sodomy and two counts of sexual abuse by force, according to court documents. Two of the charges involved victims who were between the ages of 12 and 16, according to the indictment. Jail records show that Adams was arrested Tuesday.

Dennis Knizley, an attorney representing Adams, declined to comment Wednesday, saying he had not yet seen the indictment.

Police said the investigation began after several victims came forward. The case was sent to a grand jury which returned the indictment, the first step in sending the case to trial.

WKRG-TV reports that an investigator testified at a preliminary hearing last year that Adams used his power as a pastor to make his victims…

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Sexual abuse in churches is rampant across the world. While such incidents are highlighted now in Western media, it is not the case in Bharat. Whether it be sex-depraved Catholic clergy or Pentecostal pastors, women and children are preyed upon in churches across Bharat. This article lists some of the most shocking incidents among them.

1) Robin Vadakkumchery, a Catholic priest in Kerala raped a 16 year old girl studying at a school under his control. The victim conceived a child and Robin bribed everyone from her parents, hospital staff, orphanage staff and others to hide it. He infact forced the victim’s poor father to confess that he raped his daughter. He tried to flee when the incident came out and later wanted to marry the victim to escape 20 years of imprisonment.

During the hearing the victim was threatened and forced to say in court that it was consensual sex and…

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Newly released federal probation records reveal that Fr. James Jackson, FSSP, was investigated for possessing child pornography this summer, while he was awaiting trial on earlier federal child porn charges, for which he was arrested last October.

The priest could soon be charged with child porn crimes for a second time – this time in the state of Kansas, the federal records show.

“On July 11, 2022, the U.S. Probation Office in the District of Rhode Island was contacted by Detective Christopher Moore of the Overland Park Kansas Police Department,” explained a July federal memo that was released to the public Oct. 5.

“Detective Moore advised this officer that a search warrant was issued for Mr. Jackson’s residence on [redacted] in Leawood, Kansas in response to a child pornography investigation in which Mr. Jackson was the primary target.”

“The child pornography investigated [conducted by Kansas police] identified internet activity linked…

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Actor Kevin Spacey faces the first of a series of sexual abuse claims dating back decades on Thursday in New York in a civil trial that may come to overshadow a glittering career on stage and screen that included two Oscars and numerous other top awards.

The case against the 63-year-old American focuses on accusations by Anthony Rapp, a star of the Broadway musical Rent, who five years ago publicly accused Spacey of sexual assault when he was a teenager.

In the subsequent lawsuit now coming to trial, Rapp alleges that Spacey – whose real name is Kevin Spacey Fowler – acted to gratify his sexual desire during an encounter at a Manhattan party in 1986, when he was 14 and Spacey 26 or 27.

The trial will focus on Rapp’s claims against Spacey of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to court documents,…

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The St Dominic’s Children’s Home and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port-of-Spain have responded to the threat of legal action following claims of abuse against children, saying that it happened too long ago to be considered.

On August 30, attorneys representing six former wards issued a pre-action protocol letter to the St Dominic’s Home, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port-of-Spain and the Attorney General’s Office, threatening to sue for as much as $2.5 million in damages as a result of that alleged abuse.

On September 28, attorney Gregory Delzin responded to the pre-action protocol letter on behalf of the St Dominic’s Home and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port-of-Spain.

“I have carefully considered the content of your letters. I note that the proposed action concerns alleged abuse committed against your clients in the mid-1990s, close to 30 years ago. In the circumstances, I have advised my clients that there are provisions…

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Blacks in the US have suffered from clergy sex abuse, but ‘it’s an invisible trauma’

The image of a white victim does not tell the complete story of clergy sexual abuse in the United States, according to a number of panelists during an Oct. 5 online forum titled “Neglected Voices in the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis.”

Blacks have suffered from clergy sex abuse, but “it’s an invisible trauma. It’s an unknown trauma because there are Black victims, survivors, of the sexual abuse crisis,” said Father Bryan Massingale, author of “Racial Justice in the Catholic Church.” “Yet in the Catholic imagination, we usually see a white face — a white male face, overwhelmingly.”

“We as Alaska Native people, American Indian people,” panelist Elsie Boudreau, a Yup’ik Eskimo from Alaska, said, “are statistically number one in all of these different areas of suicide, alcoholism, homelessness, incarceration, childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, and…

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Five days after Father Robert Buchmeier, the pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Garrett Park, Maryland, was placed on administrative leave and his priestly faculties were suspended following an allegation of abuse of minors from decades earlier before he was a priest, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory met at that church to talk with, listen to and pray with parishioners and members of the Holy Cross School community.

“You are here because of your love for this parish, your love for Father Bob, and your love for our Church, and I thank you for that, from the bottom of my heart,” Washington’s archbishop told the approximately 140 people gathered at the church on the evening of Wednesday Oct. 5.

Seated at a table in front of the church’s sanctuary, the cardinal had greeted the people there moments earlier, saying, “It’s a difficult moment for your parish, and a difficult moment for…

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Eight more lawsuits against the state were filed last week alleging sexual and physical assault of youth ordered detained by the state at Pine Haven Boys Center in Allenstown as a place where priests are accused of beating and sexually abusing them.

Also named in the lawsuits, filed in Merrimack County Superior Court, are the state-run Youth Development Center (YDC), now known as the John H. Sununu Youth Services Center, in Manchester, and The Philbrook School, a state facility for youths with mental health challenges.

John Doe #453, now 49, said in his filing that when he was brought before Judge Armand Capistran, who presided in Manchester District Court from 1979-1995, he told him of the abuse he suffered at both Pine Haven and YDC.  The judge, he said, called him a “brat” and did nothing about it.

The lawsuit details how John Doe #453 grew up in an abusive…

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A retired Catholic priest who for a time oversaw the Arlington diocese’s efforts to protect children on Wednesday was found not guilty of sexually abusing a child two decades ago.

Terry Wayne Specht, 69, of Pennsylvania was found not guilty by a juryin Fairfax County ofone felony count of aggravated sexual battery of a child younger than 13, court records show. Investigators claimed the assault took place in 2000, according to an indictment, whenSpecht was chaplain and assistant principal at St. Paul VI Catholic High School.

Dawn Butorac, Specht’s attorney, said she thought the jury had reached the correct decision.

“It was obvious to me that Mr. Specht was not guilty, and the prosecution should not have even brought the case,” Butorac said. “They put a man who has dedicated his life to service of his community, both in the Navy and as a priest, in jeopardy by threatening his…

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• The CofE published a new report which found 383 ‘new’ cases of alleged abuse 
• Of these, 168 relate to children and  242 of alleged perpetrators are clergy  
• Archbishops of Canterbury and York spoke of their ‘profound shame’ at findings
• For confidential support for adults who suffered any type of abuse in childhood call NAPAC on 0808 801 0331, free from landlines and mobiles 

 Church of England officials involved in sexual abuse were enabled by a ‘belief in forgiveness’, according to a review.

The Church’s most extensive ever review into sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults found 383 ‘new’ cases going back to the 1940s. Two-thirds involved clergy while the rest include volunteers and officials. 

Leading Archbishops have apologised and spoken of their ‘profound shame’ after a review found hundreds of ‘new’ cases of alleged abuse by Church of England (CofE) officials, mostly against children and vulnerable adults.

The report made 26 recommendations…

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If you grew up under the influence of the Catholic Church, you likely know someone who was sexually abused by a priest. In my family, the destruction manifested in the form of a man who, after several years training for the priesthood, returned home and spent the next few decades preying on boys in the Central Valley.

He would eventually die alone, ostracized as a registered sex offender, but his evil lives on in the anguish of the victims he permanently damaged. His name does not appear on any official list of abusive clergy, but I count his horrific crimes as part of what I consider the Catholic Church’s systematic and global campaign of child rape.

Despite revelations that thousands of ordained priests abused a countless number of children over decades and centuries, the Catholic Church has been slow to repent. Church leaders from Pope John Paul…

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(For Immediate Release October 4, 2022)

According to a release by church officials, a Catholic priest from the Archdiocese of Washington has been placed on leave following an accusation of sexual abuse of minors that is reported to have occurred in another diocese decades ago.  

As listed on the parish website, Cardinal Wuerl named Father Robert P. Buchmeier to work at Holy Cross Parish and School, Garrett Park, Maryland in 2015. Buchmeier also worked at St. John the Evangelist Parish, Clinton; St. Bernardine of Siena Parish, Suitland; Christ the King Parish, Silver Spring; St. Mary Parish, Bryantown; and St. John the Evangelist Parish, Clinton. Other work assignments include St. Nicholas Parish, Laurel, from 1998 to 2005; St. Columba Parish, Oxon Hill, from 2005 to 2011; and Sacred Heart Parish in La Plata from 2011. Buchmeier was ordained in 1991 after studying at John XXIII…

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Cardinal retains post

Pope Francis wants Boston’s Cdl. Seán O’Malley to remain president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The news comes as the pope added 10 new members to the commission this past week, while retaining 10 others. 

O’Malley’s continued leadership role on the committee seems to contradict Pope Francis’ zero-tolerance policy toward abuse.

“No abuse should ever be covered up, as was often the case in the past, or not taken sufficiently seriously, since the covering up of abuses favors the spread of evil and adds a further level of scandal,” Francis proclaimed at the 2019 Vatican sexual abuse summit, formally known as the “Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church.”

The cardinal appeared to be a prudent choice when Francis established the commission in 2014 because of O’Malley’s reputation for being a “fixer” capable of contending…

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A Vatican leader on child protection did not advise a negligent German bishop to remain in office, the bishop’s spokesman said Wednesday, despite the bishop’s recent suggestion to the contrary.

“In conversation with Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, Father Hans Zollner spoke neither for nor against the bishop’s resignation,” Thomas Arzner, a spokesman for the Diocese of Osnabrück, Germany, told The Pillar Oct. 5.

The diocese responded to questions from The Pillar after a Sept. 22 press conference at which Bode, who was found to have mishandled abuse allegations against priests, said he had consulted with Fr. Zollner, a Vatican expert on child abuse, before deciding not to resign from diocesan leadership.

The bishop’s reference to Zollner was widely taken to imply that the priest had endorsed Bode’s decision to remain in office, despite scandal surrounding his episcopal leadership.  

Bode’s decision not to resign came as a surprise in Germany, and was criticized by…

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Taking a Gander: Let’s Just Throw the Children Under the Bus

The name Paul Adams is one that will not soon be forgotten. Years ago, the Bisbee, Arizona man confessed to his Mormon bishop that he had been abusing his 5-year-old daughter. As required by church policy, his bishop called a church helpline that had been established for that very purpose.

A recent Associated Press report showed that the bishop was advised by church lawyer, state Rep. Merrill Nelson, not to report the abuse and to keep it strictly confidential.

Because a penitent’s confessions are considered privileged under a special clergy exemption law, the helpline’s advice to the bishop may have, indeed, been correct, but only from a legal standpoint. There’s no decent person alive that can say the advice was morally right.

Not surprisingly, Adam’s abuse of that daughter continued for seven more years. During that time, he reportedly…

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Inquiry examines records going back to the 1940s and finds culture of deference, victim-blaming and misogyny

The Church of England has suffered from a culture of deference, inertia, misogyny, protectionism and victim-blaming, a three-year internal review of abuse cases has found.

Almost 400 new cases involving actions by clergy, officials and volunteers against children and vulnerable adults were uncovered in the most extensive review of personnel records ever undertaken.

In a foreword to the review team’s 129-page report, published on Wednesday, the archbishops of Canterbury and York wrote of the “great sadness and profound shame that we, again and again, come face-to-face with the brokenness and failings of our church”.

The review led to 26 national recommendations, including the establishment of a victims’ charter to enable children to be “truly ‘heard’ when they are expressing distress or communicating that something is wrong”.

The review team trawled…

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Information gathered on the alleged perpetrators found that 242 cases related to clerics

MORE than 380 cases of church-related abuse, almost half of which involved children, have been newly identified in a long-awaited national review of the files of every living cleric and church officer in the Church of England.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have issued a formal apology to victims of abuse and their families, saying: “Our faith compels us to take safeguarding with the utmost seriousness.”

The second Past Cases Review (PCR2) searched through 75,253 personal files (commonly known as blue files) — some dating back to the 1940s — in each of the 42 dioceses to find allegations of abuse or neglect and to understand how those allegations were identified and handled.

Unlike its predecessor — the first and heavily criticised Past Cases Review of 2007-09 — PCR2 also included files from the National Church…

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The Holy Cross Parish in Montgomery County has tweeted in the past that they are so thankful for the leadership and support of their “amazing pastor, Fr. Robert Buchmeier.” Now, this community is still trying to wrap its head around the news that their beloved priest has been suspended and faces serious allegations.

Buchmeier has been removed from his duties after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor that was alleged to have occurred in Northern Virginia three decades ago.

Father Buchmeier has been at Holy Cross since 2015. Before his vocation, Buchmeier served 15 years as an officer in the U.S. Army. Church leaders wrote in a letter Holy Cross Church and The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington take seriously our responsibility to protect children entrusted to our care. The abuse allegedly occurred in Northern Virginia.Holy Cross Church in Garrett Park, Md. on Oct. 5, 2022.

The investigation…

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The German Catholic Church’s reform process is again under fire from the Holy See, with a Vatican cardinal seemingly comparing its proposals for theological development to the thinking that sustained Germany’s Nazi era.

The furor launched by Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, who heads the Holy See’s office for Christian unity, marks the latest criticism of the German attempt to pursue reforms as a response to the clergy sex abuse scandal and the hemorrhaging of Catholic faithful.

Koch suggested in an interview with German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost last week that the German reform process was seeking to introduce new sources of divine revelation, beyond Scripture and Christian tradition, to justify theological change.

He said it was the same thing some pro-Nazi Protestants did when they “saw God’s new revelation in blood and soil and in the rise of Hitler.”

His comments sparked outrage among German bishops who, along with…

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The chief judge of the US district court of Guam Frances Tydingco-Gatewood has approved the final revision to the compromise agreement that would bring closure to the clergy abuse victims’ civil action against the Catholic Church

The settlement amount for victim-survivors of clergy sexual abuse will be in the range of between US$34 million and US$45 million, but Catholic church officials said the final amount would depend on the actual sum that the sale of respective archdiocese properties would bring in.

“Victim-survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Guam will now finally receive an important measure of compensation and restitution for the agony they’ve endured,” the archdiocese said in a statement following Tydingco-Gatewood’s confirmation of the Fifth Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization.

“We are happy above all for the sake of the numerous victim-survivors of clergy sexual abuse who have waited many years for this day,” the archdiocese said.

The archdiocese…

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A Hampden County judge on Monday ruled that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield can’t obtain information from a Berkshire Eagle journalist that could reveal the identities of anonymous sources.

In a reversal of her earlier order related to a civil lawsuit against the diocese by a victim of clergy sexual abuse, Superior Court Justice Karen Goodwin said the diocese can only look to what non-confidential sources told Larry Parnass, who began reporting on the abuse in 2019.

Goodwin also said that if the diocese wants to continue to press Parnass for communications and testimony involving sources to whom he promised confidentiality, it will first have to demonstrate what efforts it has made to get the information from other sources.

Goodwin, however, said the court is “open” to requiring Parnass to disclose whether any of his anonymous sources are trial witnesses, and “to produce the information those sources provided to…

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Alexandria police are investigating allegations that a Catholic priest now serving in Montgomery County sexually abused minors several decades ago before he was ordained, according to police and church officials.

The pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Garrett Park, Md., who has not been charged with any crime, is accused of committing the abuse before hebecame a priest in 1991, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington told parishioners in a letter Friday.

The archdiocese “immediately” placed him on administrative leave after learning of the alleged abuse Friday, wrote the Rev. Anthony Lickteig, the archdiocese’s vicar for clergy and secretary for ministerial leadership. He said the accused pastor’s priestly faculties — including his ability to say Mass and administer sacraments — were suspended and that he is no longer at the rectory where he had been living.

Lickteig encouraged anyone with information about the allegation to contact Alexandria police, and he…

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Rev. Robert Buchmeier, pastor of Holy Cross in Garrett Park, has been suspended following accusations of child abuse occurring before he was ordained.

A prominent Montgomery County priest has been suspended following allegations he sexually abused children years ago, before he became a priest. 

Father Robert Buchmeier — pastor of the Holy Cross Parish in Garrett Park — was stripped of his priestly faculties and removed from the rectory, while police and church officials investigate.

Parishioners got word of the allegations against their pastor over the weekend. In a letter to the parish, the Washington Archdiocese Vicar for Clergy, Very Reverend Anthony Lickteig, wrote that pastor Buchmeier had been accused of sexual abuse of minors. The allegations date back decades before he was ordained as a priest, and occurred in the Arlington diocese. 

“It deeply saddens us to have to share some difficult information, however,…

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A Nobel Peace Prize-winning bishop alleged to have abused teenaged boys during the 1990s was sanctioned by the Vatican, which limited his movements and prohibited him from contact with minors or with his home country of East Timor. Meanwhile in Yakima, Washington, after a whistleblower raised concerns about the previous bishop’s handling of sexual abuse allegations, the now-retired bishop received a formal reprimand from the Vatican.

Though the details of these two cases differ, what they share in common is that the consequences to the church leader under investigation — and even the fact of the investigation itself — were kept secret. That is, until news media shared the truth.

In the case of Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with current East Timor President José Ramos-Horta for their nonviolent resistance to Indonesia’s occupation, the Dutch newspaper De Groene Amsterdammer last week (Sept….

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Bishop Belo was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2019 following reports of his ‘serious crimes’

The Vatican representative in Timor-Leste has urged Catholics to respect the sanctions that have been imposed on Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo for “the serious crimes” he has committed and asked them to maintain loyalty to the Church amid heated debates over the issue.

Bishop Belo’s case is no longer just an accusation, but it has been decided, Monsignor Marco Sprizzi, charge d’affaires of Apostolic Nunciature in Dili, said in an interview broadcast on the state television RTTL on Oct. 4

“This is a decision made and accepted by the bishop and that we just have to respect it, respect the bishop and respect the Vatican’s decision,” he said.

“I tell Timorese Catholics, who are so loyal to the Pope, to the Vatican, to follow Vatican guidelines, just as Bishop Belo…

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The Legionaries of Christ announced Monday the conclusion of a judicial process in the Ordinary Court of Milan involving three priests and two other persons in Italy.

In a statement posted on their website Oct. 3, the Legionaries reported that the ruling says, “All the defendants have been fully acquitted of the crime of attempted extortion because such an attempt did not exist,” and that “the judge will announce the reasons for her decision within 90 days.”

The statement explains that the accusations were made in 2013, “in the context of the relationship with a family that had reported abuse by Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez.”

Reséndiz is a Mexican national and former Legionary of Christ priest. In 2011 he was accused of committing sexual abuse between 2006 and 2008 in the congregation’s minor seminary in Gozzano, in Italy’s Novara Province.

In March 2011, while working in Venezuela, he was removed from…

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A priest at a Catholic church in Garrett Park, Maryland, has been placed on administrative leave after he was accused of sexually abusing minors before he became a priest.

The Archdiocese of Washington (ADW) informed parishioners at Holy Cross Catholic Church in a Sept. 30 emailed letter that their pastor, Father Robert P. Buchmeier, had been suspended from his duties and is no longer living at the rectory. Buchmeier has not been charged criminally in connection with any of the allegations.

In the letter, Father Anthony Lickteig, the ADW’s episcopal vicar for clergy, explained that the Archdiocese of Arlington, Virginia, notified the ADW of the accusations against Buchmeier and noted that the abuse was alleged to have taken place decades before in another diocese “prior to his ordination to the priesthood.”

The letter did not specify the number of incidents of abuse cited in the accusation.

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Father James Jackson, a Rhode Island priest who was arrested in October on federal and state child pornography charges, admitted Monday in federal court that the government could prove that he violated certain conditions of his pre-trial release.

The conditions of Jackson’s pretrial release were set in November 2021 before he was allowed to leave Rhode Island to reside with a family member in Kansas. He was arrested in July by the U.S. Marshals in Kansas. He is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. 

In his Oct. 3 hearing in U.S. District Court in Providence, Jackson admitted that the government could prove that he violated the condition prohibiting him from “possessing any materials including videos, magazines, photographs, computer generated depictions or any other forms that depict sexually explicit conduct involving children,” according to James…

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A man from Manchester who ran an after-school program at a Hartford elementary school and a home-based ministry has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a child, state officials said.

Robert Nichols, 43, was found guilty by a jury in Hartford Superior Court of two counts of sexual assault in the fourth degree and risk of injury to a child, according to a statement by Hartford State’s Attorney Sharmese L. Walcott.

According to testimony at trial, Nichols was running an after-school program connected to the Michael D. Fox Elementary School in Hartford during the 2009 and 2010 school year when he offered to let an 11-year-old boy stay at his home over the summer to help his mother “with disciplining the child,” Walcott’s office said.

During that time, Nichols sexually and physically assaulted the boy, according to court testimony and Walcott’s statement.

According to police, the boy came forward after…

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Steve Greisen, a Christian filmmaker and veteran of the Jesus movement’s 1970s-era music scene, was arrested last month in Colorado Springs following “a summer long collaborative effort to identify and arrest child sexual predators” involving local and federal investigators.

The Gazette reported the arrests on Oct. 1.

Greisen, 68, has operated two film companies in Monument, a small town north of Colorado Springs:

• Principal Exploration Films Distribution, which says it manages distribution of over 400  films that “celebrate the true, the good and the beautiful,” including “Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution,” which is popular with Christians who embrace young-Earth creationism.
• Reel Productions, LLC, which released “First Love,” the acclaimed film on the early years of the contemporary Christian music movement, as well as the biblical thrillers “The Mystery of The Ark of The Covenant” and “The Search for The Real Mt. Sinai” (both narrated by John Rhys-Davies…

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A civil lawsuit filed on behalf of three John Does claims that a church in Florence, Alabama, enabled a man who held various leadership positions there to sexually abuse them.

The civil suit follows a July criminal lawsuit in which Kelly Dale Crotts, 47, was charged with three counts of indecent exposure, two counts of child abuse with sexual motivation, and two counts of second-degree sex abuse, WHNT-TV of Huntsville reported. 

Crotts turned himself in following a grand jury indictment in the criminal case. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his trial is set to begin Oct. 17. 

The civil case, filed last week, alleges assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress/outrage, invasion of privacy, false imprisonment, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and wantonness, deceit and misrepresentation. Cornerstone Church of Christ, where Crotts worked, also is named as a defendant in the civil action.

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The hearings at the Vatican’s corruption trial resumed last week and shed light on new aspects of the “trial of the century” and the broader context of Vatican finances.

Behind every decision and litigation, in the end, one can glimpse a power struggle, whether it is big or small, systemic or personal.

Primarily, the trial revolves around the Secretariat of State’s investment in luxury real estate in London. However, it also explores further criminal allegations.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, for instance, also faces charges for allocating money from the Secretariat of State to Caritas in his native region. The Sardinian is furthermore called to answer for the engagement of Cecilia Marogna as a consultant to the Secretariat of State.

However, the big deal at the center of the trial is the luxury property investment.

The Secretariat of State bought shares of the property on London’s Sloane Avenue and repeatedly changed brokers — apparently…

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Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday that he will humbly listen to people’s “harsh voices” criticizing his governing party’s cozy ties to the ultra-conservative Unification Church and help victims of its allegedly fraudulent businesses and huge donation collection.

Kishida has come under fire in a widening scandal that has exposed decades of close ties between former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July, his ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Unification Church, which has been accused of raking in huge donations by brainwashing adherents.

Kishida has split public opinion by honoring Abe with a state funeral, which opponents assailed as a prewar tradition designed to stir nationalism, without an acceptable legal basis or parliamentary discussion. Abe, on top of his divisive legacy, is now seen as a key figure behind the governing party’s church ties.

Kishida desperately needs to regain public trust for his government’s key policies, including a national…

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Canada’s bishops wound up their first in-person meetings in three years with discussion of concrete steps toward reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians.

At the end of four days of plenary meetings of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in Cornwall, Ontario, Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith told a news conference that the bishops are following the example of Pope Francis and the priority he placed on meeting with Indigenous people.

“I don’t think it overstates it to say it was a pivotal moment in the history of this country,” Smith said Sept. 29, referring to the pope’s July pilgrimage across Canada. “This was an historic moment, hopefully a moment of healing and moving things forward on this journey.”

Smith pointed to the sacrifice Francis made to be in Canada despite his health issues, to fulfill the promise he made in March to visit Indigenous people on their land for…

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Women religious in Ireland told officials for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on synodality that they feel resigned to and hurt from the “constant battering” from the media, which has used them “as scapegoats for Irish church and society.”

In their submission to the synod as part of the Irish national synthesis of the synodal process published Aug. 16, women religious in Ireland lamented their invisibility and highlighted their sense of marginalization. They said religious life in Ireland has been given a lot of bad press, with a particular focus on the past.

“There is a sense of being silenced, but silence is seen as condoning the accusations and giving an impression that ‘we’re all guilty’. We are partly to blame for our own invisibility as we appear to have gone underground,” they wrote.

They likened the negative coverage to “a niggling sore” and say it…

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Earlier this year, the retired bishop of the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, received a formal reprimand from the Vatican for how he handled clergy abuse allegations — and possibly for how he treated a whistleblower.

Victim advocates have praised the Vatican’s actions on that case as a rare rebuke of a bishop. Yet the dearth of information about both the investigation and subsequent reprimand appears to reinforce advocates’ concerns about one of Pope Francis’ landmark achievements on clergy abuse. Last week’s report that retired East Timor Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo was secretly sanctioned for alleged abuse has raised similar critiques.

Vos Estis Lux Mundi (“You Are the Light of the World”), issued by Francis in 2019, is a sweeping set of laws that includes a system to evaluate reports of abuse or cover-up by bishops. Bishop Carlos Sevilla, who led the central Washington diocese from 1996…

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A judge in Milan on Monday acquitted five members of the Legion of Christ religious order and their lawyers of attempted extortion in a case in which they were accused of offering to pay the family of a sexual abuse victim to lie to prosecutors.

Four of the five were also absolved of obstruction of justice charges because the statute of limitations expired, while a fifth was acquitted outright, said Daniela Cultrera, the lawyer for the victim’s family.

The investigation was an offshoot of a case in which Italy’s highest court last year upheld the conviction and 6 1/2-year prison sentence for a defrocked Legion priest, Vladimir Resendiz, for sexually abusing boys at the Legion’s youth seminary in northern Italy.

That case was sparked in 2013 when one of Resendiz’s victims confided in his therapist about the abuse he suffered while he was in middle school at the seminary. The…

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The Catholic Church has confirmed it is undertaking an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against resigned Broome Bishop Christopher Saunders.

Key points:

• Bishop Saunders has strongly denied the allegations against him
• A police investigation was closed last year without charges being laid
• Bishop Saunders has been ordered to leave the diocese while the investigation is underway 

It has also ordered that the 72-year-old leave the outback diocese where he has been a priest and bishop for more than 50 years.

In a rare statement released on Saturday night, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said a Vos Estis Lux Mundi investigation was underway.

“The Holy See has initiated a canonical investigation into former Broome Bishop Christopher Saunders, with Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane appointed to oversee the investigation,” the statement said.

“Bishop Saunders stood aside … after media reports that Western Australia Police had begun an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

…

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MEDIA RELEASE: September 24, 2022

[Click here to see our PDF cache of the media release as it appeared on the letterhead of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.]

The Holy See has initiated a canonical investigation into former Broome Bishop Christopher Saunders, with Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane appointed to oversee the investigation.

Bishop Saunders stood aside as Bishop of Broome in March 2020 after media reports that Western Australia Police had begun an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. He strongly denies the allegations.

At the conclusion of its investigation, Western Australia Police confirmed that no charges would be brought against Bishop Saunders.

Bishop Saunders later tendered his resignation to Pope Francis, which was accepted in August 2021.

A letter being read at Masses in the Diocese of Broome this weekend, signed by Apostolic Administrator Bishop Michael Morrisey and Archbishop Coleridge, says the Church investigation “could not happen”…

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The Vatican has appointed Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, to oversee an investigation into the former bishop of Broome, Christopher Saunders.

The case is understood to be the first application of “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” in Australia, the norms promulgated by Pope Francis in 2019. 

Saunders stepped aside as bishop of Broome in March 2020 after media reports that Western Australia Police Force had begun an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

At the conclusion of its investigation, Western Australia Police confirmed that no charges would be brought against Saunders, prompting critics to call on police to “put up or shut up.”

Saunders later tendered his resignation to Pope Francis, which was accepted in August 2021. 

Saunders has steadfastly denied the allegations, which were made by Aboriginal men from remote communities in the West Kimberley region, according to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The diocese…

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Tylko pełna przejrzystość może pomóc Kościołowi w odbudowie autorytetu.

Watykan – poprzez usta Franciszka oraz wielu, także polskich, hierarchów – od dłuższego czasu mówi o zmianie polityki w podejściu do wyjaśniania spraw wykorzystywania seksualnego małoletnich. Zmiana ta miała dotyczyć zarówno księży sprawców, jak i ich przełożonych, którzy w wielu przypadkach wiedzieli o przestępczej działalności podwładnych, lecz nie reagowali w sposób odpowiedni i tym samym umożliwiali im dalsze krzywdzenie małoletnich.

Jednym z podstawowych elementów tej zmiany miała być transparentność, zerwanie z „kulturą sekretu”. Postulat ten bardzo mocno wybrzmiewał podczas spotkania Franciszka z przewodniczącymi episkopatów z całego świata, które odbyło się w Watykanie w lutym 2019 roku. W ciągu kilku miesięcy Stolica Apostolska przygotowała dokumenty, które wskazywały na to, że idzie nowe. Najpierw – w maju 2019 r. (z mocą obowiązującą od czerwca) – pojawił się dokument „Vos estis lux mundi” (VELM), w którym szczegółowo opisano procedury postępowania wobec biskupów…

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Pope Francis’s 2019 Motu proprio on addressing and handling abuse allegations apparently has some invisible appendix explaining that the law does not apply to bishops or cardinals who are powerful or notable.

Vos estis lux mundi, the Church’s process for handling allegations of abuse or negligent handling of abuse by bishops, has completed its three-year trial period. It is now ostensibly under review by the Vatican. Shall we review its operation?

Recently a Dutch magazine reported accusations of child rape against Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a Nobel Prize winner from East Timor. The Vatican then revealed that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had been aware of the case since 2019 and that Bishop Belo had been under certain restrictions since 2020, including being forbidden from ministry in East Timor. Notably, Bishop Belo had resigned in 2002 at…

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A Holy Cross Catholic Church priest has been suspended over sexual assault allegations, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

In a letter sent to the Holy Cross Church Community last Friday, Very Reverend Anthony Lickteig revealed that Reverend Robert P. Buchmeier has been accused of sexually abusing minors.

The incidents are believed to have occurred in another diocese decades ago, prior to Buchmeier’s ordination to the priesthood. 

“This allegation was reported to the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, which notified the appropriate civil authorities and also notified us, The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. Upon receiving this allegation, I, as Episcopal Vicar for Clergy and Secretary for Ministerial Leadership, immediately placed Father Buchmeier on administrative leave in compliance with our Child Protection and Safe Environment Policy. Father Buchmeier’s priestly faculties have been suspended, and he is no longer at the rectory, pending a review of the allegations,” Lickteig stated…

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[See cached PDF of this letter as it appeared on archdiocesan letterhead.]

Dear Holy Cross Church Community,

It deeply saddens us to have to share some difficult information, however, we believe it is important to make the community aware of a matter involving child protection concerns.

Recently, we received information that Reverend Robert P. Buchmeier has been accused of sexual abuse of minors that is reported to have occurred in another diocese decades ago, prior to his ordination to the priesthood.

This allegation was reported to the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, which notified the appropriate civil authorities and also notified us, The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. Upon receiving this allegation, I, as Episcopal Vicar for Clergy and Secretary for Ministerial Leadership, immediately placed Father Buchmeier on administrative leave in compliance with our Child Protection and Safe Environment Policy. Father Buchmeier’s priestly faculties have been suspended, and he…

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A priest of a Catholic Church and school in Garrett Park, Maryland, has been suspended of his duties over allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

The priest serves at Holy Cross Catholic Church. WTOP is not identifying him because no charges have been filed.

A letter from the Archdiocese of Washington posted on the church’s website says the accusations of sexual abuse of minors date back decades, “prior to his ordination to the priesthood” and in another diocese. The pastor was ordained in 1991.

In a statement to WTOP the archdiocese said, “As we shared in our communication to the parishioners, staff and parents of Holy Cross parish and school on Friday evening, we have just learned of this allegation and we have turned the matter over to law enforcement to investigate.

“Our focus is on meeting the needs of our community, and we will be communicating further…

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The former choirmaster of an Altrincham church has been jailed for 12 years for three decades of abuse against underage boys.

Richard Owen, also known as Franklyn Stanowski, abused 14 boys at churches across Cheshire.

Chester Crown Court heard how Owen, from Hale, would abuse the boys for his own sexual gratification in private rooms.

The offences occurred between 1968 and 1998 when the boys were under 16.

Owen became choirmaster at St John’s in Altrincham – now converted into apartments – in the late 1980s and remained in the role until 1998.

During this time he also volunteered at a local primary school, teaching the children to sing as well as attending school trips to recruit choirboys.

The court heard he abused numerous boys during his time in Altrincham, with “hundreds” of occurrences leaving boys terrified.

The 70-year-old, from Winsford, admitted to 27 offences involving indecent assault of underage…

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Survivors of Guam clergy sexual assault are a step closer to obtaining compensation as a judge on Monday began hearing arguments that would get the Archdiocese of Agana out of bankruptcy and pay claimants $34 million to $101 million.

“We’re almost at the finish line,” U.S. District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, who’s been serving as bankruptcy judge in the archdiocese case, said on the first day of the hearing.

The remaining concerns about the plan related to the Boy Scouts of America, among other things, are expected to be addressed, and the judge assured of a “reasonable, fair, expeditious” decision.

If the judge confirms or approves the fifth amended joint reorganization plan this week, payments could start reaching survivors in “90 to 120 days,” according to attorney Robert Kugler of Minneapolis-based Stinson LLP, counsel for the creditors committee.

Attorney Edwin Caldie, also representing the creditors committee, told…

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Two years after the Roman Catholic Church on Long Island became the largest diocese in the nation to declare bankruptcy, none of the hundreds of clergy sex abuse cases filed against the church has been settled.

That has some survivors and their attorneys saying it is adding to the pain and injury the victims suffered as children years or even decades ago.

“They declared bankruptcy and said they wanted to see the victims adequately compensated,” said Paul Mones, an attorney who is representing some of the survivors. “People who suffered continue to suffer through these legal machinations that they are forced to go through.”

The Diocese of Rockville Centre has hired a major international law firm, Jones Day, to defend itself in the complex proceedings, which sometimes involve nearly 100 attorneys meeting at the same time.

The diocese declined to comment on the proceedings, other than pointing to court documents…

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Clergy sexual abuse cases are casting a pall over the Catholic Church in Portugal, ensnaring senior officials even as authorities scramble to explain why shelter was given to a Nobel Peace Prize-winning bishop at the center of sexual misconduct allegations.

Senior Catholic leaders apologized over the weekend for the hurt caused by decades of alleged abuse and cover-up — current estimates number around 400 cases — with the archbishop of Lisbon begging the faithful to not lose faith in the church.

“Be confident that for our part we will do our best, with respect to the law and the Gospel,” Archbishop Manuel Clemente said after Sunday Mass.

A spotlight fell on Portuguese church authorities, as well as the Vatican, last week when the Holy See’s sex abuse office confirmed a Dutch media report that in 2020 it had secretly sanctioned Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered independence hero of East…

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In October 1992 in New York’s Times Square, an industrial steamroller crunched over a pathway littered with Sinéad O’Connor CDs as onlookers cheered and journalists filmed the protest. Today, a building overlooking the square bears an enormous photo of the singer’s famous shaven head. Her Bambi eyes gaze out across the city – and a wider country which vilified, mocked and banned her.

When Kathryn Ferguson, director of a new documentary about the singer, came across the picture while walking through Manhattan, she stopped in her tracks. “There she is, this monolith!” she says. “I cried. Like a phoenix from the flames, she’s back.”

In an era when so many public figures are widely applauded activists, it is hard to overstate how alone, courageous, and yet how demonised O’Connor once was. Nor how huge the institutions she took on were: the Catholic church, the Irish constitution,…

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On the first Saturday of fall, a sweating Bart Barber trekked across a weedy pasture in search of Bully Graham, the would-be patriarch of the rural Baptist pastor’s fledgling cattle herd.

With the afternoon temperature in the mid-90s, the 52-year-old Texan found the bull — whose nickname reflects his owner’s deep affection for the late Rev. Billy Graham — and 11 heifers cooling under a canopy of trees.

“Hey, baby girl,” Barber said as he patted one of the cows, a favorite he dubbed Lottie Moon after the namesake of his denomination’s international missions offering.

For nearly a quarter-century, Barber enjoyed relative obscurity as a minister in this town of 3,600, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. That changed in June as delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, chose Barber to lead the nation’s largest Protestant denomination at a time of major crisis.

The previous…

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They were in the Bible study room when Deryk Terril, a shy 11-year-old with shaggy hair in 1976, found the courage to finally say something: An elder at a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Spokane, Wash., had been molesting him for years, Terril, now 57, recounts in a lawsuit filed in August.

He says he told a church leader he trusted to protect him.

Instead, the church leader got angry and told Terril they could do nothing about it without a second witness, Terril says. Police weren’t notified, he says, nor were his parents. The church allowed the alleged abuser, John Earl Jones, to continue spending time with Terril, and he molested the boy for years after, court documents say.

Around the same time, the mother of another boy in the congregation, Daniel Enholm, reported to the church that Jones had touched her son, too. Again, the other church leaders failed to…

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With the approach of the 105th anniversary of The Miracle of the Sun at Fatima in central Portugal, Catholics have been shocked by yet another revelation about the sexual abuse of children within the church.

The Vatican has at long last acknowledged that in 2020 a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Catholic bishop received “disciplinary restrictions” and was banned from “contact with minors” because of allegations that he raped and abused teenage boys.

Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo is accused of carrying out these crimes decades ago in the former Portuguese colony of East Timor. The Vatican first became involved in the case in 2019 if not before, but information about its disciplinary action only came last week, a day after a Dutch magazine, De Groene Amsterdammer, published the accusations in explicit accounts by two of the priest’s alleged victims.

Bishop Belo, 74, shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with his friend José Ramos-Horta for…

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Parishioners of Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church in Rosemont have been notified that an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor has been filed against retired priest Fr. John Clemens.

The accusation is from an alleged incident nearly 50 years ago, according to a statement from the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.

Clemens served as pastor at Our Lady of Hope from 2008 to 2018 when he retired. He is currently the church’s pastor emeritus. The church serves Catholics in Rosemont, Des Plaines, travelers through O’Hare Airport, and other neighboring communities.

“I have asked Father Clemens to step aside from ministry until our independent Review Board can investigate the allegation and present its recommendation to me,” said Cardinal Blase Cupich in a recent statement. “We have reported the allegation to civil authorities and have offered assistance to the accuser. Father Clemens has agreed to cooperate fully with this process, and…

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The trial over the Secretariat of State’s financial scandal resumed Thursday, offering a preview of the prosecution’s witness list.

The trial over the Secretariat of State’s financial scandal resumed Sept. 28 in Vatican City, kicking off the second year of hearings in the case, and offering a preview of the prosecution’s witness list.

The beginning of a three-day slate of hearings saw the final appearance of a former senior lay official at the Secretary of State’s investment office, and the release of the first slate of witnesses to be called by the prosecution.

The court has been in recess since July. In the intervening months, the judges have been considering a list, submitted by prosecutors and lawyers, of proposed witnesses still to be called in the trial, now in its second year.

Before the court adjourned for the summer in July, chief judge Giuseppe Pignatone told the court that around…

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Thrissur: District Sessions Court rejected the bail plea of a priest who sexually abused a woman on the pretext of “special puja”. The accused Alappuzha native Vadassery Nikarthil Kailas (45) had allegedly raped a woman by intoxicating her with psychotropic drugs while conducting puja.

The incident pertaining to the case happened in April 2021. The priest misled the woman by offering her milk and tamarind solution as “Prasadam”, which was already laced with drugs. Later, the priest sexually abused the woman and recorded the act when she went unconscious.

The complainant informed the court that she was raped again threatening that the videos would be leaked. By considering the arguments of the prosecutor KB Sunil Kumar, the court observed that the case exists prima facie against the accused and dismissed the bail petition.

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Germany’s bishops are meeting in Fulda, a town in the center of the country, this week ahead of a crucial trip to the Vatican.

Their fall plenary meeting, which began on Monday, is dedicated to two major themes: the controversial “synodal way” and the bishops’ November ad limina visit to Rome.

The stakes are high: The Vatican has repeatedly expressed misgivings about the synodal way – the multi-year German initiative bringing together bishops and lay people to discuss four main topics: power, the priesthood, women in the Church, and sexual morality.

In July, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State underlined that the synodal way has no power “to compel the bishops and the faithful to adopt new ways of governance and new approaches to doctrine and morals.”

Earlier this month, the bishops attended an acrimonious session of the synodal way at which they endorsed documents proposing new ways of governance and new approaches to doctrine and…

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The United Nations and advocacy groups for survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging Pope Francis to authorize a full investigation of Catholic Church archives on three continents to ascertain who knew what and when about sexual abuse by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered independence hero of East Timor.

The Vatican’s sex abuse office said last week that it had secretly sanctioned Belo in 2020, forbidding him from having contact with minors or with East Timor, based on misconduct allegations that arrived in Rome in 2019. That was the year Francis approved a new church law that required all cases of predator prelates to be reported in-house and established a mechanism to investigate bishops, who had long escaped accountability for abuse or cover-up during the church’s decades-long scandal.

But a brief statement by the Vatican, issued after Dutch magazine De Groen Amsterdammer exposed the Belo scandal by…

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The building at 60 Sloane Avenue in London is at the center of the Vatican’s historic corruption trial, which began at the end of July 2021.

After a break of over two months, the Vatican trial on financial corruption in the Secretariat of State continued this week with the interrogation of witnesses for the prosecution.

The court reconvened Sept. 28, 29, and 30, to begin the questioning of the first of what the prosecution expects to be a total of 41 witnesses it will call.

The witness list includes Vatican gendarme Stefano De Santis, who assisted the Vatican’s now chief Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi during the trial’s preliminary investigation; he is expected to testify at the next scheduled hearing on October 12. 

A British-Italian architect, Luciano Capaldo, has been called to testify by the prosecution the same week. Capaldo was the registered director of the holding company London 60 SA Ltd,…

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Over a year into the proceedings, the Vatican mega-trial of 10 individuals accused of defrauding the Catholic institution’s finances through a controversial real estate deal began again this week after a summer recess with an interrogation of the prosecution’s witnesses.

The trial, which resumed Wednesday (Sept. 28) after being on break since July, revolves around a 2018 London real estate purchase by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State that ultimately cost the institution well over $200 million, mainly taken from papal funds destined for charity.

After more than a year of hearing from defendants, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, judges will now be presented with testimony from the Vatican prosecutor’s submitted list of 27 witnesses.

On Friday, Revisor General Alessandro Cassinis Righini described to judges a culture of mismanagement within the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Righini was appointed to oversee Vatican budgets and transactions by Pope Francis in March 2021 but had…

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The Vatican auditor general said he was surprised by the lack of ethical standards demonstrated by officials considering investment opportunities, including a failed London property development deal.

During the Vatican trial of 10 defendants accused of various charges related to financial malfeasance, Alessandro Cassinis Righini, auditor general of the Holy See and Vatican City State, criticized the mismanagement of funds as well as the Vatican’s association with people “with clear conflicts of interest,” which resulted in the loss of millions of euros.

“That was not the way to manage funds from Peter’s Pence,” Cassinis told the court Sept. 30, referring to the papal fund used for charity and to support the running of the Roman Curia and Vatican embassies around the world.

When asked by Vatican prosecutors if he was sure that funds from the annual collection were used in the London property deal, Cassinis replied, “Yes.”

The trial, which…

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Pope Francis reconfirmed the leadership of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and expanded its membership from 17 to 20 people, naming 10 new members and reappointing 10 returning members.

U.S. Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston, president of the commission, said, “Coming from all over the world with varied backgrounds and a common passion for the well-being of children and vulnerable people, the members announced today include advocates and practitioners of prevention and protection to the many areas in which the church ministers to children.”

The members include “representatives from canon law, social work, the medical and psychological professions, law enforcement and the judiciary as well as pastoral experts who currently work in dioceses and religious congregations,” he said in a statement Sept. 30, the day the appointments were announced.

“They have all spent significant amounts of their professional lives listening to and supporting victim/survivors of sexual…

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A pastor and his son have been booked for raping a college girl in Tamil Nadu. The pastor’s son refused to marry her after sexually exploiting her on the promise of marriage. The girl had leveled rape charges against the father and another pastor as well.

Pastor David Jacob runs a Pentecostal church named Zion Prayer House near Panagudi in Tirunelveli. His son Anis Paul(25) made acquaintance with a 22 year old MCA student who attended the church. Anis Paul proposed to her and took her out on many occasions. As per Tamil media reports he also promised to marry her.

On this promise he sexually exploited the girl. But when she started asking him to marry her Paul stopped talking with her. He asked her to stay away from him for 2 years as their relationship would bring bad repute to his family…

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A 62-year-old man who served as pastor of a Baptist church in Missouri City will spend a decade in prison after pleading guilty to the charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

William Benjamin Woodward pleaded guilty June 14, but he elected to have his punishment assessed by U.S. District Judge J. Christian Becerra. The first-degree felony is punishable by five to 99 years, or life, in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. 

Woodward was executive pastor at Heritage Baptist Church from 2009 until his arrest in April 2021. The church was rebranded and the name was changed to Horizon Baptist Church a few weeks after Woodward’s arrest.

By pleading guilty to the crime and waiving his right to a jury trial, Woodward became eligible to ask the court for deferred adjudication, a form of probation. During the hearing June 20, his attorney argued that his client was…

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A former Missouri City pastor has been sentenced to prison after he pled guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child on June 14, according to the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office.

William Benjamin Woodward, 62, previously served as pastor for a Baptist church in Missouri City from 2009 until his arrest in April 2021, according to the DA. Woodward elected to have his punishment assessed by Judge J. Christian Becerra of the 434th District Court.

Aggravated sexual assault of a child is a first-degree felony, punishable by 5 to 99 years, or life in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

Woodward’s hearing was held on June 20 where his attorney argued that he was an excellent candidate for deferred adjudication because he had no criminal history, had served his community as a church leader, and had immediately started sex offender therapy after the child in this case…

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U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White on Thursday sentenced a former youth pastor from New York to 13 years and four months in prison for the sexual abuse of a Missouri 15-year-old in 2013.

Judge White also ordered Jesse E. Vargas, 38, to pay $146,594 in restitution to his victim.

Vargas originally met the then 11-year-old girl at a religious camp in Michigan where he worked.

“Over the course of the next four years Jesse played with my family and I like frogs in a pot,” the victim said in court during Thursday’s hearing. “Slowly increasing the temperature of his manipulation until we each were unaware of the water we had been submerged in, let alone its suddenly scalding temperature. By age thirteen I abandoned most of my spiritual leaders and friendships at his suggestion. By fourteen he even guided me to push away my two closest friends,” she said.

…

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A former youth pastor from New York was sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison.

Jesse Vargas, 38, originally met the girl when she was 11 years old at a religious camp in Michigan. Vargas kept in touch with the family for the next four years and came to her St. Louis home in January 2013, preached at her church and then sexually assaulted her. He returned in March of that year and assaulted her again. He arranged for her to go to New York in June and abused her again.

Vargas pleaded guilty to two felony counts of travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual contact and coercion and enticement of a minor.

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A Hartford Superior Court jury on Tuesday convicted minister Robert Lee Nichols of touching a 10- or 11-year-old boy in sexual ways during a 10-day visit to Nichols’ family’s Manchester home in the summer of 2009 or 2010.

The year of the visit was disputed, but the real issue was whether the sexual touching happened. The boy testified Monday morning that it did, and Nichols, 43, flatly denied that in testimony later that day. Nichols’ wife, Tamara, subsequently took the witness stand and corroborated important parts of his testimony.

The six-member jury convicted Nichols of two felonies, risk of injury to a child and fourth-degree sexual assault. He faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 25 years when Judge Michael Gustafson sentences him Nov. 29.

The judge raised Nichols’ bond to $500,000 after the verdict. Online court records showed Wednesday that he had posted…

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In a rare admission of sexual harassment in Japan’s military, its army chief apologized Thursday to a former soldier for suffering caused by a group of servicemembers.

Yoshihide Yoshida, head of Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force, said an internal investigation found evidence that several servicemen were involved in the case brought by former soldier Rina Gonoi last month.

“Representing the Ground-Self Defense Force, I deeply apologize to Ms. Gonoi for the pain she had to suffer for a long time,” Yoshida told a news conference. “We offer a sincere apology.”

The investigation is continuing and further details, including the assailants and their punishment, have not been released.

Gonoi welcomed the apology and thanked those who supported her, but added that “my battle is not over.”

“I’m determined to get an apology directly from the perpetrators,” she tweeted.

Japan’s Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada earlier this month ordered a ministry-wide investigation into growing…

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Cambodia urges China to do more in combatting human trafficking

The death toll from a boat that capsized at sea on the Cambodian-Vietnamese maritime border has risen to 11 after eight bodies were washed ashore on an island off the south coast, officials said.

The incident has been tied to human traffickers and is under investigation.

Forty-one Chinese were reported lost at sea almost a week ago after their boat, believed to be headed for Sihanoukville on Cambodia’s south coast, got into trouble.

Authorities from both countries launched a search, rescued 30 people, and reported another three people had died. A statement released from city hall in Sihanoukville this morning said the missing eight had been found on a beach, on the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc.

A separate statement from Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security said two of the bodies were carrying Chinese identification papers in their pockets.

“The bodies found were…

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The many survivors of convicted pedophile, Kenneth Estabrooks’ horrendous sexual abuse are deeply saddened and hurt by the recent decision not to hold anyone liable for decades of sexual abuse of vulnerable children by a Saint John Police officer. Estabrooks was a Saint John City police officer for over two decades.

The evidence at trial was unequivocal and uncontested that he used a City of Saint John police car to kidnap young children. He used a City of Saint John police-issued gun to threaten them and their families. He used City of Saint John police-issued handcuffs to restrain the young children while he raped them.

Class Counsel advised they will immediately launch an appeal to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal on behalf of the class.

John McKiggan, co-lead counsel said: “This is the most devastating decision I have seen in 32 years. The city employed Kenneth Estabrooks. The City gave him his uniform. The City issued him his gun. The City owned the vehicle…

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The Vatican acknowledged Thursday that it imposed restrictions in 2020 on the ministry and residency of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is accused of sexually abusing teenage boys decades ago.

But Vatican officials will almost certainly face more questions about those restrictions, and about the bishop’s past, as details of the allegations against Belo come into focus in the weeks to come.

The Vatican’s admission came after a Dutch magazine reported this week the serial abuse allegations against the bishop, who has been regarded as a hero of the fight for independence in his native country of East Timor.

The allegations are grave. The bishop is accused of raping young men in the 1980s and ‘90s, and of taking advantage of their poverty, and his power, to keep them silent.

The Holy See’s restrictions on Bishop Belo might seem familiar to U.S. Catholics — the bishop…

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Advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse delivered a list of more than 300 publicly accused abusers to the Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco on Thursday as they urged him to release his “secret” files on credibly accused priests.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests took aim at Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for being one 15 U.S. bishops — representing fewer than 10% of all dioceses — not to publicly name abusive clerics.

“Every bishop is his own king and they can do what they want with these lists. About 158 bishops in the United States have released lists over the past three or four years,” said Dan McNevin of SNAP, and a church abuse survivor. “But the archbishop of San Francisco will not publish a list. And so we think it’s really important to get this list out, to get it published, to update it, to provide…

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Catholic women across the world are calling for a wide range of reforms to the church, according to the results of our survey of more than 17,000 Catholic women from over 100 countries published this month.

A substantial majority were concerned about the prevalence of abuse, racism, and sexism in church contexts, and many raised issues relating to transparency and accountability in church leadership and governance.

The International Survey of Catholic Women is one of the most extensive surveys of Catholic women ever undertaken, and its findings should inform lasting and genuine change in the Catholic Church.

Why we did this survey

The survey was initiated by Catholic Women Speak in response to the invitation of Pope Francis for the Catholic Church to engage in a process of “synodality” for the 2021-2023 Synod of Bishops. The Synod will examine how the church comes together and is considered to be of great importance…

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A group of people claiming to be survivors of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church demanded Thursday that San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone publicly release a list of priests and others who have been accused of abuse in the San Francisco archdiocese.

Dioceses and archdioceses across the country — including in the Bay Area — have released lists of the men accused of sexual abuse of minors as part of an effort to atone for the abuse scandal.

But San Francisco remains a holdout.

The group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has prepared its own list of 312 priests, brothers and lay people active in the archdiocese’s 88 churches in San Francisco, San Marin and San Mateo counties — and planned to release it Thursday.

They’re calling on the archdiocese to release its own list, a move they say is important.

The archdiocese told The Chronicle…

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[Via Catholic Philly]

After a Dutch newspaper published an investigation into abuse allegations against retired Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of Dili, the Vatican said it had become aware of the allegations several years ago and placed restrictions on him.

The newspaper De Groene Amsterdammer said it began its investigation in 2002. It used the first-person stories of two young men, then aged 14 and 16, who graphically detailed their interactions with Bishop Belo, claiming that he gave them money after certain physical encounters.

“He knows that the boys have no money. So when he invited you, you came over and (he) gave you some money,” one of the alleged victims was quoted as saying. “But meanwhile, you are a victim. That’s the way he did.”

“From the research carried out by De Groene, it appears Belo had more victims,” the story said. “De Groene spoke with 20 people with knowledge of…

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East Timor’s Catholics reacted with shock but also expressions of support Friday for revered independence icon and Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo following allegations he sexually abused boys decades ago in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

The Vatican admitted Thursday that its sex abuse office had secretly sanctioned the bishop in 2020, restricting his movements and contacts with minors and forbidding him from having contact with his homeland. The Vatican revealed the restrictions after the Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer exposed the claims against Belo by two of his alleged victims and reported there were others, too.

The Holy See has not responded to questions about when church officials first suspected possible misconduct by Belo, why he was allowed to retire two decades early in 2002 and why he was then sent to Mozambique to work as a missionary priest with children. He has said he retired…

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After accusations against him became public, the Vatican said that in 2020 it had punished Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a hero of the independence movement in his native East Timor.

Rome – A Nobel Peace Prize-winning Catholic bishop received “disciplinary restrictions” and was banned from “contact with minors,” the Vatican revealed on Thursday, based on allegations that the prelate, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, had raped and abused teenage boys decades ago in East Timor.

The church’s acknowledgment came a day after a Dutch magazine, De Groene Amsterdammer, aired the accusations in an explicit account of abuse by two of the priest’s alleged victims.

“The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith was first involved in this case in 2019, in the light of the accusations it received concerning the bishop’s behavior,” the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said in a statement.

In September 2020, the Vatican limited Bishop Belo’s movements…

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France’s Catholic Church has paid financial compensation to 23 victims of child sexual abuse by priests or other church representatives under a recently launched reparation process, the body in charge of compensation decisions said Friday.

Representatives of the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation said during a news conference that over 1,000 victims have come forward to claim compensation since the body was established this year.

France’s Catholic bishops’ conference agreed to provide reparations after a report issued last year revealed a large number of child sex abuse cases.

Some 60 reparation decisions have been made, out of which 45 include financial compensation that range from 8,000 to 60,000 euros ($7,806 to 58,548), the INIRR said. It said 23 people have received the money.

At the request of victims, reparations also may include non-financial support such as discussion groups, art therapy and meeting with local church representatives, according to…

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[Via Union of Catholic Asian News]

Mansour Labaky, 82, resides in Lebanon which does not extradite its nationals

Beirut – An elderly Lebanese priest found guilty in France of sexually assaulting children has been defrocked by the Vatican, the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon said Tuesday.

APECL said it was notified of the Vatican’s decision to demote Mansour Labaky to “secular status”.

“We pray… for the victims of sexual assault,” it said.

In 2021, a French court sentenced Labaky to 15 years in prison after convicting him in absentia for sexually abusing girls in a dormitory he opened and managed for Lebanese orphans in Douvres-la-Delivrande in the Normandy region of northern France between 1991 and 1998.

Labaky, 82, resides in Lebanon which does not extradite its nationals.

An international arrest warrant was issued against him in April 2016, but Beirut has not taken action.

Labaky has repeatedly…

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As Catholic dioceses across the state are getting hit with hundreds of new child sex abuse lawsuits, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone remains the only California bishop yet to release an internal list of priests “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children.

Northern California’s most powerful bishop steadfastly refuses to release an internal list of priests accused of sexually abusing children, even as hundreds of new lawsuits hitting Catholic dioceses across the state suggest new depths to the church’s sex abuse scandal.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone remains the lone bishop in California declining to take the significant step towards transparency, and pressure is mounting for him to do so. 

“When you don’t publish a list and tell people the truth proactively, it’s a lie,” said Dan McNevin, a clergy sex abuse survivor and local leader for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “And this is a religious…

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The allegations come at a time when Catholic dioceses across California are being hit with a wave of new child sex abuse lawsuits enabled by a recent state law

The 1982 scene is still imprinted in Steven Chavez’s mind: His mom sitting at the kitchen table of their Santa Clara home, an ashtray brimming with cigarette butts in front of her, holding a letter that spelled out her son’s likely death sentence. 

Chavez was heading to West Point after graduating from high school at the top of his class, he said, but that was before a blood test revealed HIV in the teen’s system.

“They told me I had less than six months to live,” Chavez said. “To get my things in order.”

Chavez’s story began just a year before, in 1981, as a South Bay teenager. The altar boy and straight-A student had his sights set on the White…

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Performances will run this fall at The Tank.

Vatican Falls, the controversial play written by Frank J. Avella that closely examines the Catholic sex abuse scandal, will make its world premiere this fall in a limited off-Broadway run. Performances will be held from October 27-November 20 at The Tank. Avella co-directs with Carlotta Brentan.

Vatican Falls tells real survivor stories while exploring the fictional journey of one particular survivor. The play has had seven world premieres canceled in four different countries in the last decade due to its controversial content. The cast if this off-Broadway world premiere will star Broadway veteran Ace Young (Hair, American Idol), along with Carlotta Brentan, Tucker Aust, and Alice Barrett Mitchell. Rounding out the company are James Gracia, Danny Hilt, Kenon Veno, Edward L. Simon, Ryan Wright, and Jacopo Constantini.

The plot of Vatican Falls is described as follows: “Based on factual accounts, spanning decades and set against the…

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Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of East Timor won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996. Now he has been accused of sexually abusing several teenage boys.

Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of East Timor has been accused of sexually abusing several teenage boys, according to a report published Wednesday in a Dutch news magazine.

Belo, 74, came to international attention in the 1990s for his outspoken role in opposing the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, which lasted from 1975 until 1999.

The bishop was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his work “towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor.” He shared the prize with  José Ramos-Horta, who went on to become president of East Timor.

But in a Sept. 28 report, several men have claimed they were sexually abused by the bishop when they were teenagers. The allegations were reported by De Groene Amsterdammer,…

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‘What I want is apologies’

For years, Timor-Leste’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo has been sexually abusing boys, survivors and others claim. Meanwhile, the Catholic church imposed travel restrictions on Belo. ‘We have to talk about it, and shout it out louder to the world.’

There is also a Dutch translation of this article available.

It was Sunday morning. Paulo was standing among the other faithful listening attentively to the mass Bishop Belo was holding in the tropical garden at his residence in Dili, the capital city of Timor-Leste. After the mass, Belo walked up to Paulo, then a teenager of fifteen or sixteen years old. ‘He asked me to come to his place’, says Paulo, now 42, who wishes to stay anonymous for the privacy and safety of himself and his family.

It was an honour to be invited. ‘I was very happy,’ says Paulo. Bishop…

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It was a frigid Sunday evening at the Catholic Newman Center in Salt Lake City when the priest warned parishioners who had gathered after Mass that their right to private confessions was in jeopardy.

A new law would break that sacred bond, the priest said, and directed the parishioners to sign a one-page form letter on their way out. “I/We Oppose HB90,” began the letter, stacked next to pre-addressed envelopes. “HB90 is an improper interference of the government into the practice of religion in Utah.”

In the following days of February 2020, Utah’s Catholic diocese, which oversees dozens of churches, says it collected some 9,000 signed letters from parishioners and sent them to state Rep. Angela Romero, a Democrat who had been working on the bill as part of her campaign against child sexual abuse. HB90 targeted Utah’s “clergy-penitent privilege,” a law similar to those in many states that exempts…

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