ABUSE TRACKER

Appellate court found the church synod covered up records and did nothing to stop the abuse

A Tennessee appellate court is allowing three men allegedly raped as children by a Presbyterian pastor in Memphis more than two decades ago to sue the church and its governing body for allegedly covering up the crimes with a “whitewash” investigation kept hidden for years.

In an opinion made public Friday, the Tennessee Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit the men filed against Woodland Presbyterian Church and its two ruling authorities, the Presbyterian of the Mid-South Inc. and the Synod of Living Waters Presbyterian Church, in 2020.

The men, now in their 30s, were among several boys alleged to have been raped by then-Woodland pastor James B. “Jim” Stanford during “sleepovers” at his church-owned home in the 1990s, according to court records. They sought help from the…

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One week before Southern Baptists gather to respond to a damning independent investigation of sexual abuse problems, the lead story on the denomination’s news site is about “controversy” created by Guidepost Solutions tweeting support for Pride month.

Guidepost is the firm hired to conduct the investigation into the SBC Executive Committee mandated by messengers to last year’s SBC annual meeting. It is not a faith-based organization but is a for-profit corporation with specific expertise in large-scale corporate reviews.

Nevertheless, some anti-gay Southern Baptists expressed alarm over a single tweet from the Guidepost corporate account at the beginning of June, which is known nationally as Gay Pride Month.

On June 6 Guidepost tweeted its commitment “to strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion” as an organization that welcomes employees to “bring their authentic selves to work.” It called the company “an ally to our LGBTQ+ community.” The tweet was accompanied by the image of a…

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Bruxy Cavey, who was forced to resign from one of Canada’s largest churches earlier this year, has been arrested and charged with sexual assault. A court appearance is scheduled for June 27. Police say more people may have been victimized and encourage them to come forward.

Cavey, 57, had been a pastor at The Meeting House Church in Toronto for 25 years. In late 2021, after learning of sexual misconduct allegations against him, the church placed him on leave and conducted an independent investigation.

The Meeting House, which has hired a victim advocate, is holding a community gathering tonight. The event is for worship and prayer, a “brief Q&A,” and talk of “charting our next steps together.”

Bruxy Cavey Had Apologized for an ‘Extramarital Affair’

In March 2022, Meeting House leaders shared the results of a third-party investigation. It revealed an “extended” sexual relationship between Pastor Bruxy…

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Police in Hamilton, Ontario, confirmed the alleged victim was an adult female but did not say whether it was the same woman who came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Cavey late last year.

Police in the Canadian city of Hamilton have charged the disgraced former pastor of one of the country’s largest churches with sexual assault.

Bruxy Cavey, who grew The Meeting House into a megachurch with 20 campuses across the province of Ontario, was charged with one count of sexual assault on May 31. Cavey, 57, was asked to resign from the church in March after an independent investigator found he had a years-long sexual relationship with a member of his church who had sought counseling.

Police in Hamilton confirmed the alleged victim was an adult female but did not say whether it was the same woman who came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Cavey late last…

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One year after the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office announced a new initiative to investigate clergy abuse, a group of survivors says Attorney General Josh Kaul has failed them. But the AG’s office says they are making progress on prosecuting church leaders.

Hope is what Peter Isely, an abuse survivor and Director of Nate’s Mission, felt one year ago as he stood alongside AG Kaul as he announced the new initiative to investigate clergy abuse crimes.

“I know how difficult its going to be for many of you to come forward again. I want you to know this time its different,” said Isely back in April 2021 as he encouraged survivors to come forward and report abuse to the AG’s office.

Fast forward to Tuesday, that hope has turned into frustration.

“He made promises about this and presented what he was going to do for people…

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Survivors of sexual abuse by clergy and faith leaders called on Attorney General Josh Kaul and the Department of Justice to do more in their investigation into abuse cases.

The DOJ launched the Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative in April 2021, and have since received more than 200 reports of abuse from victims.

Officials most recently charged a pastor with sexual assault of a child in Douglas County.

This Tuesday, a group met outside the State Capitol to express their wavering trust in the investigation.

“There needs to be an investigation that follows the evidence wherever it leads,” said James Egan, the chairman of the Archangel Foundation. “The Attorney General needs to coordinate with the local district attorneys to subpoena documents from the Catholic Church and to obtain the evidence that the Catholic Church still is holding onto.”

Advocates also want more investigations into sexual abuse…

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Wisconsin survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church gathered at the State Capitol Tuesday to give their “report card” on Attorney General Josh Kaul’s statewide clergy abuse investigation.

One year ago to the day, Wisconsin Catholic Bishops refused to cooperate with the investigation. On Tuesday, survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates — including residential school survivors and members of the Menominee tribe — spoke up to say they are still waiting for investigations to start.

“On my reservation in Kashina, Wisconsin, we do have graves there,” Lorraine Shooter said. “We do have graves and we do have horrific stories and we do have stories of the priests and the nuns killing our children.”

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse say the investigations are moving too slowly.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has received more than 200 reports of clergy abuse by more than 150 individuals to date.

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A former Roman Catholic priest who served at several Rhode Island parishes has been indicted on a charge of sexually assaulting a juvenile about 40 years ago, the state attorney general’s office said Monday.

Kevin Fisette, 66, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on a charge of first-degree sexual assault, authorities said.

The alleged assault on a boy occurred in Burrillville, Rhode Island between Jan. 1, 1981, and Dec. 31, 1982 when Fisette was serving as a deacon at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Hopkinton and as a chaplain at Rhode Island Hospital, officials said.

Fisette, who currently lives in Killingly, Connecticut, was ordained in November 1981.

A message was left with Fisette’s attorney.

He is already on the Diocese of Providence’s list of clergy credibly accused of abuse and was removed from ministry in 2009, which means he cannot act as a priest or present himself as one.

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Fourth indictment stemming from comprehensive review of clergy child sexual abuse allegations

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha and Colonel Darnell S. Weaver announced that the Statewide Grand Jury has returned an indictment charging a former priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence with sexually assaulting a juvenile male victim between 1981 and 1982, stemming from an ongoing investigation by the Office of the Attorney General and the Rhode Island State Police into clergy child sexual abuse in Rhode Island.

On May 25, 2022, the Statewide Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Kevin Fisette (age 66) of Dayville, Connecticut with one count of first-degree sexual assault.

The defendant is scheduled to be arraigned on June 8, 2022, in Providence County Superior Court.

As alleged in the indictment, the charge against the defendant stems from an assault that took place in the town of Burrillville between January 1, 1981, and…

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A review of hundreds of thousands of pages of records in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence files has resulted in a criminal case against a priest, marking the fourth time in the past two years a member of the clergy has been charged as a result of the ongoing investigation.

A grand jury indicted 66-year-old Kevin Fisette of Dayville, Connecticut, with one count of first-degree sexual assault. He faces arraignment Wednesday.

The case goes back to Burrillville in 1981 and 1982, when Fisette is accused of sexually assaulting a boy. At the time, Fisette was working as chaplain at Rhode Island Hospital. He was also deacon at Our Lady of Victory in Hopkinton.

“We’re going to continue to bring those cases where we believe we can prove them,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said of the ongoing review, which his office is pursuing in partnership…

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The Diocese of Springfield released its findings after allegations of inappropriate behavior with minors by a co-founder of New Spirit Inc.

According to Springfield Diocese spokesperson Mark Dupont, in July of 2021 the Diocese of Springfield first learned about a 2018 complaint against Barry Kingston alleging he engaged in inappropriate behavior with minors at New Spirit Inc.’s summer camp weeks at Camp Holy Cross in 2007.

Dupont told 22News during the intake with the diocesan Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance, it was further alleged that this individual had brought their concerns to New Spirit, Inc. leadership in 2018, but no action was undertaken nor was this reported to the proper authorities.

After learning of the complaint, all New Spirit Inc. activities were suspended. The diocese informed the Northwestern District Attorney’s office and the Office of Safe Environment and Victim Services will have a separate investigation into these allegations. 

The Review Board…

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East Tennesseans gathered to stand with survivors of reported clergy abuse outside of St. Mary’s Church in Gatlinburg and at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart on Sunday.

A priest at St. Mary’s, Father Antony Punnackal, was accused of and admitted to sexual battery by one of the Spanish-speaking congregators, according to court documents obtained by WVLT News.

One of the victims, Michael Boyd, said he was abused while serving as an altar boy and hoped that sharing his story would help others know what went on behind closed doors and encourage other victims to come forward.

“The things that happened here in Knoxville, unfortunately, are similar to things I think happened across the country and areas that have happened to young people,” Boyd said. “I’ve seen a lot of patterns. It was really organized, and it was really disturbing.”

The second demonstration location, the Cathedral…

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Other churchmen named as members of the congregation include the Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, and the Bronx-born Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope Francis on Wednesday named Cardinal Blase Cupich as a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The archbishop of Chicago’s appointment was announced by the Holy See press office on June 1.

In 2021, Cardinal Cupich welcomed the publication of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes, restricting celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass.

Other churchmen named as members of the congregation include the Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, and the Bronx-born Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Archbishop Di Noia also welcomed the…

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Examination of People of Praise comes as supreme court seems poised to reverse Roe v Wade

The founder of the People of Praise, a secretive charismatic Christian group that counts supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett as a member, was described in a sworn affidavit filed in the 1990s as exerting almost total control over one of the group’s female members, including making all decisions about her finances and dating relationships.

The court documents also described alleged instances of a sexualized atmosphere in the home of the founder, Kevin Ranaghan, and his wife, Dorothy Ranaghan.

The description of the Ranaghans and accusations involving their intimate behavior were contained in a 1993 proceeding in which a woman, Cynthia Carnick, said that she did not want her five minor children to have visitations with their father, John Roger Carnick, who was then a member of the People of Praise, in the Ranaghan household…

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A former Mount Isa victim of sexual abuse has started a new awareness campaign called “Loud Fences” in the Catholic Diocese of Townsville.

Kathleen Walsh said she started the first loud ribbon fence started at the Cathedral Catholic Church in Townsville with similar plans for Mount Isa.

“Mount Isa was ravaged by child sex abuse especially by peadophile priest Neville Creen with 22 criminal convictions,” Ms Walsh said.

“Yesterday (Sunday) the first 22 ribbons were tied to the fence for the 22 criminal conviction victims and this weekend coming people plan to grow the Loud fence at the cathedral and every Catholic church in Townsville and Mount Isa.”

Kathleen Walsh, now 57, was the 22nd criminal conviction for Creen.

Neville Joseph Creen, then aged 80 plead guilty to all child sex abuse charges in regards Kathleen, from when she was 11-16 years old at St Joseph’s Primary.

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Last year, when archeologists detected what they believed to be 200 unmarked graves at an old school in Canada, it brought new attention to one of the most shameful chapters of that nation’s history. Starting in the 1880’s and for much of the 20th century, more than 150,000 children from hundreds of indigenous communities across Canada were forcibly taken from their parents by the government and sent to what were called Residential Schools. Funded by the state and run by churches, they were designed to assimilate and Christianize indigenous children by ripping them from their parents, their culture, and their community. The children were often referred to as savages and forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their traditions. As we first reported earlier this year, many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands of children never made it home.

The last of Canada’s 139 residential schools for…

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The gag order in the case involving a member of a Catholic order who sexually abused two boys was not intended to protect the offender or the particular Catholic Order.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers said in a statement on Monday (June 6) that it applied for the gag order to protect the identity of the victims.

“It was not in any way sought to protect the interests of the accused person, or of the Catholic Order involved.

“The gag order covered the identity of the accused because, based on the facts and circumstances of the case, the identification of the accused was likely to lead to the identification of the victims,” said the AGC.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore on Sunday night (June 5) said that it had requested the AGC partially lift the gag order, so the identity of the offender, the religious order and details of…

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Pope Francis added fuel to rumors about the future of his pontificate by announcing he would visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013.

Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced speculation that the 85-year-old Francis might be planning to follow in Benedict’s footsteps, given his increased mobility problems that have forced him to use a wheelchair for the last month.

Those rumors gained steam last week when Francis announced a consistory to create 21 new cardinals scheduled for Aug. 27. Sixteen of those cardinals are under age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect Francis’ successor.

Once they are added to the ranks of princes of the church, Francis will have stacked the College of Cardinals with 83 of the…

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When the Vatican announced Pope Francis would travel to L’Aquila in central Italy Aug. 28 to open a seven-centuries-old celebration of forgiveness, people on social media began speculating that the pope would resign.

The 85-year-old pope will make his morning trip to L’Aquila just one day after a scheduled consistory to create 21 new cardinals and the day before a two-day meeting with the cardinals to discuss the reform of the Roman Curia, one of the main projects of his papacy.

Included in the trip, the Vatican said June 4, is a Mass in the square outside the medieval Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio on the edge of town. The basilica is the burial place of St. Celestine V, a 13th-century pope who abdicated just a few months after his election.

When then-Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2009, he placed the long woolen pallium he had worn during his…

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The Catholic Church had requested a partial lifting of the gag order so as to identify the man convicted of committing unlawful sexual acts with two teenage boys.

The man, who The Straits Times understands is not a priest, is in his 60s.

In a statement late on Sunday (June 5), the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore said it had requested the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) partially lift the gag order, so the identity of the offender, the religious order and details of the offender’s subsequent treatment and postings can be made known.

“The AGC informed that they had carefully considered our request but were unable to accede to it,” said the Catholic Church.

The man, who was arrested in January this year, had pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily having carnal intercourse against the order of nature and one charge under the Children and Young Persons Act.

He committed the…

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Catholic Archdiocese emphasises importance of adhering to protocols to protect young

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore has asked the Religious Order (which though Catholic, is separately governed), for more information on the case involving the abuse of minors around 2005-2007 by a member of that Order. The offender was recently convicted and sentenced in court.

Concurrently, for greater accountability and transparency in the matter, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore requested the Attorney General’s Chambers (“AGC”) to partially lift the Gag Order on the case, in relation to the identity of the offender, the name of the order, and details of the offender’s subsequent treatment and postings. The AGC informed that they had carefully considered our request but were unable to accede to it.

In the interests of providing as much information as possible, within the boundaries of the Gag Order, we enclose a statement from the Religious Order.

…

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JUDGEMENT DAY

One of the most controversial cardinals in the history of the Catholic church’s clerical sex abuse saga has died. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who served as secretary of state under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, died after battling COVID-related pneumonia, according to the Holy See Press office. He was 94. Sodano famously angered abuse survivors when he called widespread claims of sex abuse by priests “petty gossip.” In 2005, he asked then U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to intervene in an investigation of a priest accused of pedophilia in Kentucky (which she declined). He also blocked the investigation into Father Marcial Maciel, the pedophile, womanizing, drug addict founder of the disgraced Legion of Christ order who died in 2008, and whose crimes were exposed by Daily Beast contributor Jason Berry. After John Paul II died, his successor Pope Benedict removed Sodano after he tried to…

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Catholic bishops in Italy say their investigation of clergy sex abuse will be independent, but its scope will be limited and based solely on the Church’s archives

“We have nothing to fear from telling the truth.”

That was Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s message to the Catholic bishops of Italy as he encouraged them to shed light on the past regarding clergy sex abuse.

The Boston cardinal, who is also the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, addressed the bishops on May 23 at the opening session of their plenary assembly.

The message seems to have been heard, but also received with great caution.

In its final statement on the last day of the assembly, the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) announced two measures of transparency on the issue of abuse.

The first is the publication of a “national report on prevention activities and on the abuse cases reported…

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Just days before his long-awaited trial was set to start, La Luz del Mundo leader Naason Joaquin Garcia pleaded guilty Friday to sexually abusing girls from his congregation, a stunning reversal for a man who followers believe is an “apostle” appointed by God.

Originally facing 36 charges, Garcia at the last minute took a plea deal that called for him to admit to three counts, the state attorney general’s office announced Friday: two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15 years old.

“Today’s conviction sends a clear message that sexual exploitation is never acceptable in California. We will hold you accountable if you break the law,” Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said in a news release issued late Friday afternoon.

Garcia, he said, abused his authority to “take advantage of children,” while relying on his underlings “to groom…

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Until now I haven’t said anything about the report on sexual abuse and its coverup in the Southern Baptist Convention. (If you don’t follow religion news, or if all your attention has been on the mass shootings, here’s a summary from the Associated Press.)

I haven’t said anything because I didn’t have anything to say that would be of interest to readers of this blog that wasn’t just a repetition of what others have already said. And while I’m not opposed to schadenfreude, I’m a little reluctant to go there in this case. Not because I have any love for the SBC (I don’t) but because the Pagan, polytheist, and witchcraft communities’ hands aren’t clean either. This isn’t a Baptist problem or a Catholic problem, it’s a human problem exacerbated by religion.

An old proverb says “a wise person learns…

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Bobi Gephart hadn’t planned to go to church that Sunday — not to the worship service where the pastor intended to make a confession about the oppressive secret she had carried for so long.

But she quickly changed her mind, realizing she couldn’t trust the pastor – the man she says began sexually preying on her as a teenager – to share the whole truth.

Gephart hurried to New Life Christian Church & World Outreach in Warsaw, Indiana, arriving mid-service, and made sure her story was told.

Nearly a million viewers have witnessed what happened next in that May 22 confrontation, captured on video and posted on Facebook.

John B. Lowe II, the congregation’s longtime pastor, confessed on stage to “adultery” 20 years earlier. “I sinned,” he said, acknowledging he never previously admitted it publicly “to protect myself.”

Bobi and her husband, Nate Gephart, who had been watching from the…

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Two years before long-standing rumors about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick leapt into headlines worldwide, America’s most outspoken activist on clergy sexual abuse, Richard Sipe, met with his local bishop — San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy.

“It was clear to me during our last meeting in your office, although cordial, that you had no interest in any further personal contact,” wrote the now-late Sipe, a former Benedictine priest who then worked for the Seton Psychiatric Institute in Baltimore. While church officials asked him to report to McElroy, “your office made it clear that you have no time in your schedule either now or ‘in the foreseeable future’ to have the meeting that they suggested.”

Sipe’s 2016 letter to the San Diego bishop was later posted online and is frequently cited as an example of the bishop ignoring warnings about the now-defrocked McCarrick, who often boasted about his clout as a Vatican kingmaker….

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As the financially struggling Boy Scouts sell off a number of campgrounds, conservationists, government officials and others are scrambling to find ways to preserve them as open space.

A $2.6 billion proposed bankruptcy settlement designed to pay thousands of victims of child sexual abuse has added pressure to an organization beset by years of declining enrollment, and the Scouts and their local councils have been cashing in on their extensive holdings, including properties where some of the abuse took place. Developers have bought up some. Preservation groups hope others can be protected and some legislators have taken notice.

“I am emphasizing to my colleagues that there is a clear urgency here,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who thinks there may be federal funds available to buy Scout properties. “We have no time to waste.”

For over a century the Scouts and their local councils have acquired…

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Naasón Joaquín García, the leader of Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo, who had been facing child rape and other charges, admitted just days before trial that he sexually abused three girls, California state prosecutors said.

García, 53, pleaded guilty Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15. He had faced jury selection Monday in his trial on charges that included child rape and human trafficking to produce child pornography.

Garcia, leader of a church founded by his grandfather that has 5 million worldwide followers, was considered the “apostle” of Jesus Christ who could lead worshippers to salvation. Prosecutors said he wielded his spiritual influence to have sex with several female followers.

“García used his power to take advantage of children,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “He…

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The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has paid $78.465 million of a total of more than $81 million awarded to 438 victims of sexual abuse by archdiocesan clergy under the Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program (IRRP) that released its final report Thursday, June 2.

(Read the full report here.)

The program was begun by the archdiocese three and a half years ago as a way of offering monetary compensation to victims of past abuse but which would be run independent of archdiocesan influence.

It was governed by the Independent Oversight Committee (IOC), a three-member panel consisting of retired federal judge Lawrence F. Stengel, former Philadelphia prosecutor Kelley B. Hodge and lawyer Charles Scheeler. The three signed the final report.

The IRRP was administered by Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille S. Biros, a team that has run similar programs in multiple U.S. dioceses. They include the archdioceses of New…

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The average payment to victims is also much less than in recent diocesan bankruptcy settlements.

Under a reparations program for victims of sexual abuse launched in 2018, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia has paid $78.5 million on 438 claims — far less than the $126 million estimated two years ago, according to a final report released Thursday.

The average payment for Philadelphia victims — $179,224 — is also much less than the average in recent bankruptcy settlements in states where the statute of limitations — the length of time to bring suits — was lifted.

The much smaller Diocese of Camden in April agreed to pay $87.5 million to about 300 individuals, an average of $291,667. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe last month agreed to pay $121.5 million, or an average of $324,000, to 375 individuals.

The…

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North Carolina lawyer Joe Knott said the SBC should focus on fighting sin rather than addressing issues like abuse.

In fiery comments to an online meeting Thursday (June 2), a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee warned that taking steps to prevent abuse in churches would lead to ruin.

“I am terrified that we are breaching our long-standing position of being a voluntary association of independent churches, when we start telling churches that they should do this or do that to protect children or women,” Joe Knott, a North Carolina attorney and longtime committee member, warned.

When those efforts fail, Knott continued, that will lead to lawsuits.

“I guarantee you women and children are going to be victimized no matter how much — and that is going to make us potentially targets of great class-action lawsuits, which could be the end of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Knott added.

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The Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Task Force has issued a series of responses to the recent Guidepost Solutions investigation that range from suggestions to two action items to be considered by messengers to the SBC annual meeting this summer.

The task force response falls far short of the hopes of abuse survivors and their advocates, who believed this could be a moment for immediate and significant reform.

“I don’t give much credence to suggestions and requests because they are toothless,” abuse survivor and advocate Christa Brown told Religion News Service. “They are kicking the can down the road.”

The two specific recommendations are to create an Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force that will operate for three years and to create a “Ministry Check” website and process “for maintaining a record of pastors, denominational workers, ministry employees and volunteers who have at any time been credibly accused of sexual abuse.”

The new…

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The Framework for Motions for the second assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia has been released to members, signaling the beginning of the end of the plenary journey with a call to “undertake the necessary work to rebuild confidence in the probity and trustworthiness of the Catholic community in this country.”

The document, released June 1, includes 30 motions that will be considered during the assembly, which is set for July 3-9 in Sydney. The framework emerged from four years of national conversation on the Church in Australia.

The Plenary Council is somewhat like a national synod, but can issue decrees that, once approved by the Vatican, are binding on the Church in that country.

In a statement released by the Australian bishops’ conference, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, Plenary Council president, said the framework “will form the backbone of our reflection, discussion and decision when we gather.”

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A Southern Baptist task force has asked the denomination to set up a “Ministry Check” website to track abusive pastors, church employees and volunteers, and to spend millions on reforms to prevent abuse. Most of the suggested reforms are voluntary and some could involve years of study and preparation, prompting a skeptical response from some abuse survivors and advocates.

Other suggested reforms, released on Wednesday, include hiring a national staff person who would receive reports of abuse and forward them to church leaders for a response; increasing training for churches; doing background checks on the trustees who oversee Southern Baptist entities; and encouraging state conventions to consider hiring staff to respond to abuse allegations.

The requests are part of a series of recommendations from the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse task force, which oversaw a recent investigation into how leaders in the 13.7 million-member…

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An epidemic of violence and broken lives. Leaders fail or refuse to respond. And the most vulnerable bear the cost of inaction.

While this story line describes the wave of mass shootings we’ve witnessed recently, it also summarizes another tragedy, described in an investigative report released, coincidentally, just days before the Uvalde massacre. In this case, the violence was perpetrated by ministers, the victims were members of their flock, and the leaders were senior officials in the nation’s second-largest Christian denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

Released on May 22, the report details the findings of an independent investigation into how the SBC dealt with sexual abuse within its ranks over the past two decades. Though the report focuses on a single religious group, there are lessons here for all of us, Baptist and non-Baptist, religious and non-religious.

It’s a damning report. Investigators found that from 2000 to 2021, those reporting…

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The first six months of 2002 marked a watershed in how sexual abuse of children and the Catholic Church were seen in the United States, as well as an inflection point for how the Church responded to allegations of abuse against priests.

With the passage of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in June of that year, the bishops established national norms to hold dioceses accountable for protecting children and ministering to people who had been harmed.

The charter, which has been updated three times since 2002 and will be reviewed for a fourth update next year, starts with an apology to victims. Its 17 articles discuss how parishes should promote the healing of and reconciliation with survivors of clerical sexual abuse, respond effectively to allegations, ensure accountability and try to create a safe environment “to protect the…

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An unnamed 28-year-old woman is suing two former Boston Archdiocesan Auxiliary bishops, claiming they neglected to supervise one of All Saints Roman Catholic Church’s now-defrocked priests — the Rev. Kelvin Iguabita-Rodriguez — and allowed him to sexually abuse her for years.

The complaint was formally filed last month by Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents the woman who claims she was sexually abused by Iguabita-Rodriguez when she was between 5 and 7 years old.

Garabedian announced the lawsuit Thursday morning, via Zoom, on the sidewalk in the shadow of the Haverhill church. He was joined by Robert Hoatson, a former priest who now advocates for survivors of sexual abuse through the New Jersey non-profit charity, Road to Recovery.

According to the Archdiocese of Boston’s records, Iguabita-Rodriguez was assigned to the All Saints Roman Catholic Church as a parish priest – one who assists the parish’s pastor — from June 1999…

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[VIDEO: Paul Neyer, 43, stands before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about being raped as a child by a local music director who later became a priest. Ohio lawmakers are considering a bill that would change the statute of limitations for victims of child rape. (The Ohio Channel)]

A local man who was raped as a child by a church organist, who later became a priest, came forward publicly to work to change child rape laws in Ohio.

Paul Neyer was raped by Geoff Drew when Drew was the music minister at St. Jude in Green Township. Drew has since pleaded guilty to nine counts of rape.

On Tuesday, Neyer held up a picture of himself as an 8-year-old boy when he spoke before the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee. He was one of three rape survivors to testify about Senate Bill 226.

Neyer…

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“La Croix” survey shows many episcopal conferences around the world have still not implemented sex-abuse protocols Pope Francis issued three years ago

It’s been three years since Pope Francis issued strong directives to get the entire Church to address the issue of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people.

And what has been the result?

La Croix carried out a vast survey of all the bishops’ conferences in the world in order to find out.

We asked them a dozen questions about how they have applied the provision found in the “motu proprio” Vos estis lux mundi, which the pope promulgated on May 9, 2019.

This apostolic letter is particularly suitable for a global analysis since it states “that procedures be universally adopted to prevent and combat these crimes that betray the trust of the faithful”.

It also calls for a concrete and easily measurable step: the creation, within a…

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Though KVUE identified five cases within our viewing area, there could be more due to parts of the list being redacted.

 At least five Austin-area pastors and teachers were named among the hundreds of Baptist leaders accused or found guilty of sexual abuse of children, according to a 205-page document released by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

The convention released the list last week, which includes cases between 2000 to 2019.

The list was released in response to an independent investigation by Guidepost Solutions LLC, which concluded SBC leaders failed the public and its community by mishandling sexual abuse cases and mistreated victims and survivors, according to their report.

SBC released a statement regarding why its leaders made the decision to release their internal list:

“This list is being made public for the first time as an initial, but important,…

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The popular YouTube priest said he was ‘overjoyed and humbled’ to learn of the appointment.

Pope Francis has appointed a Los Angeles bishop to lead a southern Minnesota diocese.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Thursday that Francis has appointed Bishop Robert E. Barron to lead the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. Barron has served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for the last seven years and regularly posts YouTube videos.

He will replace 76-year-old Bishop John Quinn, who has decided to resign.

The Diocese of Winona-Rochester covers 12,282 square miles. Nearly 600,000 people reside in the diocese. About 134,000 of them are Catholics. The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and announced a $21.5 million settlement with 145 survivors of clergy sexual abuse last year.

Barron issued a statement on his Word on Fire website saying he will take over in Minnesota on July 29. He said…

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She didn’t immediately call police after an 18-year-old told her he’d been molested by Richard Kearney, according to a just-settled lawsuit that also says Bishop Frank Griswold’s office ignored other suspicions about the predator priest.

In 1990, a youth minister at an Episcopal church in La Grange was concerned about one of the teenagers who frequented the parish — an 18-year-old who’d been living out of a car, “acting strange and doing a lot of drugs.”

She confronted him, and he shared a secret: He’d been sexually abused for years as a boy. His abuser was Richard Kearney, an Episcopal priest who ran his childhood parish in Oregon, Illinois, before moving to a congregation in Waukegan.

“I told her I didn’t know why I was acting the way I was,” the man later said, according to court records. “I was hurting a lot, and I told her about the abuse….

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W debacie publicznej na temat wykorzystywania seksualnego małoletniego przez niektórych duchownych bardzo często – i słusznie – powraca wątek praw przysługujących osobom pokrzywdzonym. Na plan pierwszy wysuwa się fakt, że w postępowaniu kościelnym pokrzywdzony nie jest traktowany jako strona – poza zgłoszeniem faktu wykorzystania nie ma później np. wglądu w materiały dochodzenia.

Być może z tego właśnie powodu powstaje przekonanie, że poszkodowany pozbawiony jest jakichkolwiek praw. Nie jest to jednak prawdą, bo pewne prawa jednak poszkodowanym przysługują. Nie są one jednak skatalogowane w jednym miejscu i trzeba ich szukać w co najmniej sześciu dokumentach, w których podnoszone są sprawy wykorzystywania. Prawdopodobnie jest to kolejna przyczyna, dla której powszechnie uważa się, że poszkodowanemu żadne prawo nie przysługuje. Wydaje się, że dla przejrzystości procesów Kościół winien tę sprawę uregulować. Zanim się to jednak stanie, trochę wody w Tybrze i Wiśle upłynie.

Jednym z praw osoby poszkodowanej jest prawo do informacji…

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• “Si ponerse las pilas es haber creado las oficinas diocesanas para atender las denuncias por abusos, pues entonces sí se ha hecho, pero en la mayoría de los casos porque había la obligación de notificarlo a la Santa Sede antes de un año”, señala un canonista
• “El ‘motu proprio’ está produciendo un crecimiento exponencial de las denuncias, la gente se ha acercado a presentar su informe, a ser acogida y escuchada”
• “Cada vez hay más gente al frente de estas oficinas antiabuso con muchas ganas de trabajar, pero también se detecta que faltan medios humanos, económicos y de formación”
• Tres años después, hay países en donde ni se han creado las oficinas antiabuso y ni siquiera se han traducido las disposiciones emanadas de la carta apostólica del Papa

Este 1 de junio finaliza el trienio de vigencia ad experimentum de las normas decretadas por el papa Francisco en la carta apostólica en forma de motu…

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Please join us on June 4, in person or on Zoom!

A day of discussion, fellowship, and looking ahead.

Guest interviewers: Margery Eagan and Jim Braude of 89.7 GBH’s “Boston Public Radio”

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

• David Clohessy, former SNAP nat’l director
• Tom Doyle, whistleblower priest
• Mitchell Garabedian, Esq.
• Professor Marci Hamilton, Child USA
• Robert Hoatson, Road to Recovery
• Ann Hagan Webb, SNAP
• Kathy Dwyer, STTOP
• Anne Barrett Doyle, BishopAccountability
• Terry McKiernan, BishopAccountability

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE SCHEDULE AND EASY REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS

WHEN
Saturday – June 4, 2022 – 9:00-4:00 In-person and remote (ZOOM)

WHERE
Marriott Boston-Quincy Hotel
1000 Marriott Dr, Quincy MA

• The Marriott Boston-Quincy Hotel is convenient from Logan and public transportation (Red Line).
• Free parking.
• Box lunches served to registered attendees.

TO REGISTER
Just email Ruth at mooreruth01@gmail.com
Zoom attendees will be emailed log-in info Thursday evening and again on Friday night

Registration required for both in-person ($20) and ZOOM (free) attendees.
Registration fee waived if requested.

Schedule for June 4 conference View Cache

Indigenous leaders met with Canadian bishops on Wednesday and were told Pope Francis won’t add more stops, as they requested, to his trip to Canada, where he will apologize in person for the abuse suffered by Indigenous people at the hands of the Catholic church.

Pope Francis, who has been using a wheelchair because of a bad knee, will head to Canada on July 24 and visit Alberta, Quebec and Iqaluit, a small town in the far north. The pope leaves on July 29.

“Three locations were picked. The survivors had no say in that. We weren’t asked,” said Ken Young, a former regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Manitoba.

“We asked the bishops if that could change to include other venues, perhaps Kamloops, and that answer was no.”

Richard Smith, the archbishop of Edmonton, said the Vatican made it clear the trip had to be short,…

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Archives will be transferred to Royal B.C. Museum and some will be digitized

Records that could offer insight into some residential schools in British Columbia are being handed over to the Royal B.C. Museum. 

Archives from the Sisters of Saint Ann, which include information about day schools, residential schools, hospitals and more, will be transferred to the museum. The religious group will also fully fund an archivist at the museum to manage those archives. 

The museum says they also plan to digitize the records — or at least those that can be digitized. Some of the content date back to as far as 1858 and may be too delicate to handle. 

“Transparent access to comprehensive residential school records is essential to truth and reconciliation efforts,” museum CEO Alicia Dubois said in a media release.

The Sisters of Saint Ann was founded in Quebec in 1850, and moved to the west eight years later….

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Residential school survivors say they hope the Pope’s visit to Canada next month will include a direct apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in running the institutions.

Members of the National Indian Residential School Circle of Survivors hosted three days of meetings to discuss what they expect from the visit and reconciliation with the church.

On Wednesday, survivors met with three Roman Catholic bishops to share their wishes.

“I expect the Pope to apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church in the right way,” said Ken Young, a former Assembly of First Nations regional chief for Manitoba.

“There has to be some recognition that the (Catholic) Church is responsible for what happened. The Pope can represent that responsibility in a statement that says that.”

Pope Francis is to stop in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut. The capital cities of Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit are to act…

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I am a practicing Southern Baptist, and the dereliction of duty from SBC leadership over time has polluted the church’s ability to advance the gospel.

• USA TODAY Network Tennessee Columnist Cameron Smith is a Memphis-born, Brentwood-raised recovering political attorney raising three boys in Nolensville, Tennessee.
• Liability concerns tragically took the place of preserving the integrity of the SBC and its fellowship of churches.
• Dissolving the SBC as currently structured may be the only remedy.
• Individual churches making smart decisions are critically important, but the structural issues at the SBC remain.

According to a top lawyer for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), allegations of sexual abuse by church leaders represented a “satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.”

The diversion from the gospel is real, but the SBC’s wholly inadequate response to sexual abuse within its ranks is the culprit. Dissolving the SBC as currently structured may be the…

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America’s Catholic bishops also employed a self-serving standard, deeming nearly all sex-abuse claims credible.

Southern Baptists received a warning in 2007 from Fr. Thomas Doyle, a priest who had spent years drawing attention to claims of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church. In a letter to the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Fr. Doyle warned that the denomination was headed for a similar reckoning—unless it acted quickly. Inaction would lead to the same “incredible harm to your Church that the Catholic Church did not avoid.”

Fr. Doyle’s warning went unheeded, a fact that Southern Baptist leaders must now regret. Last week a 288-page report on sex abuse commissioned by the convention charged its leaders with myriad failures over the past 20 years. Among other things, the report faults the convention’s leadership for dismissing Fr. Doyle’s invitation to “learn from Catholic mistakes.”

This is ironic….

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A list of sexual abusers released late last week by the Southern Baptist Convention includes the names of three men with Wisconsin ties.

The three men, all former pastors, were charged with, or convicted of, crimes related to child sexual abuse.

The list, which includes over 700 names of abusers, includes about 400 believed to be affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. 

All three Wisconsin men were affiliated with the Baptist tradition, but none of their churches were specifically Southern Baptist in denomination.

Southern Baptist leaders released the previously secret list in response to a bombshell report from independent investigator Guidepost Solutions, which detailed how the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the denomination from liability.

The report revealed the existence of the 205-page list of abusers. Top leaders knew of the list…

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The chairman of the Board of Trustees and president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary jointly published today an open letter to the seminary community that includes a list of 13 individuals who were previously students and/or staff of the institution and who appear on a larger list of persons arrested or credibly charged with sexual abuse or sexual assault maintained by the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which was previously unknown until its release last week following an independent investigation.

All the individuals on the list released today were students and/or employees before 2018.

“Immediately after” the SBC Executive Committee list with more than 700 names was released, seminary leadership reviewed the information to “determine whether there were individuals on the list who have any current or past relationship with the institution,” wrote Board Chair Danny Roberts and President Adam W. Greenway in the open letter,…

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Organization’s former highest-paid employee was accused of sexual misconduct outside of work

Frustrated by poor communication and a workplace culture they say has been warped by secrecy and hypermasculinity, at least a half-dozen Word on Fire employees in recent months have resigned from the Catholic outlet founded by Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron.

Those who remain at the Illinois-based multimedia nonprofit are working in an environment that a few recently departed workers described to NCR as beset by low morale, damaged trust and a “boys’ club” culture that made some female employees uncomfortable and others unwilling to raise concerns to leadership.

“To put it bluntly, I do not feel that if I had been one of the victims, I would have been protected in any way,” said a former staff member, who left Word on Fire after working there for about a year.

The former employee, one of several…

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Southern Baptist leaders on Thursday released a list of alleged sex offenders connected to the church that had previously been kept secret.

The list was made public following a third-party investigation indicating leaders of the church ignored people who came forward with stories of abuse.

Within the 203-page list of alleged sex offenders were two pastors from the Mississippi Coast convicted of sex crimes, along with one from Slidell and one from New Orleans.

In 2016, Carlos Smith was a pastor for Unity Baptist Church in Wiggins and was convicted of sexual battery of a girl at the church he led.

The girl, a relative of the Saucier man, was 11 when the abuse began in 2011 and continued for three years.

David Mathew Thorne, a youth pastor from Goodyear Baptist Church in Picayune, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual battery and one count of touching a…

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A once-secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church personnel accused of sexual abuse has been released to the public by the Southern Baptist convention.

The database was released by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee following an investigation by Guidepost Solutions into allegations that the committee mishandled reports of abuse and mistreated survivors. 

The list released by the committee includes a case in Murphysboro, Illinois. According to the database, a man named Russell Bryant attended Elm Street Baptist Church in 2005. The database entry says the church knew Bryant was a registered sex offender, but didn’t believe he was in violation.

Bryant was charged in 2001 with sexually assaulting a girl between the ages of 13 and 16. He later pleaded guilty to that charge. Then, in 2005, the database entry says Bryant was charged with violating a law that prohibits registered sex offenders…

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An online event to inform and raise awareness about protecting minors and vulnerable people from sexual abuse was organized by MAGIS Thailand, a Catholic youth group committed to applying Ignatian spirituality in their daily lives.

Angela Rinaldi, a lecturer at the Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC), previously the Center for Child Protection (CCP), at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, was invited to be the keynote speaker at the May 27 event.

The focus was the sexual abuse and abuse of power within the Catholic Church, with several participants from Singapore and the Philippines joining their counterparts from Thailand during the Zoom conference.

Kittiya Wu, a programmer in her thirties from Bangkok, said: “We bear the same cross. Therefore, we must care for and help restore the Church’s credibility among Catholics as well as non-believers.”

Natthanon Nakro, a 25-year-old college student…

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Summary: Another word of Jesus’ the SBC’s leaders forgot, as the Catholic bishops did before them: “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

While the Catholic Church has spent much of the last three decades wrestling with deeply painful revelations of priestly sexual abuse and the bishops’ callous disregard for the people in their care, many American Protestant denominations self-righteously wagged fingers at the Catholic hierarchy for tolerating pedophile priests when they knew they had a problem.

“How can you help your brother remove the speck from his eye when you stagger along with a log in your own eyes?” Jesus asked. Those in the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest denomination, should have taken these words to heart.

A recent…

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In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. 

The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019 within the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

REVIEW: Database of sex abuse allegations

Its existence became widely known Sunday when the independent firm, Guidepost Solutions, included it in its bombshell report detailing how the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the SBC from liability.

Executive Committee leaders Rolland Slade and Willie McLaurin, in a joint statement, called publishing the list “an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention.”

“Each entry…

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The church’s report names pastors and youth ministers who have been convicted of child pornography, sodomy, solicitation and other crimes

The Southern Baptist Convention on Thursday released a once-secret and lengthy list of accused sex abusers — several of whom are in the Midwest — within the denomination.

The 205-page list is a compilation of ministers and other church workers who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The list is described as a “fluid, working document” that was also incomplete but largely pulls information about abusers from published news reports.

The publication of the list comes after the release of a 300-page report by an independent investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for decades have received reports of sexual abuse committed by church workers, pastors and others. But those reports were largely kept secret and, rather than acting upon and investigating reports of sexual abuse,…

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The Vatican’s longtime investment banker testified Monday that he repeatedly voiced concerns about a fund that was investing in a troubled London property, but said the Holy See’s secretariat of state insisted on pursuing the deal even as it lost money.

Enrico Crasso said he was very much on the sidelines of the London deal, which is at the center of the Vatican’s big fraud and embezzlement trial. Prosecutors have accused Crasso and nine other people of fleecing the Holy See of tens of millions of euros and of ultimately extorting the Vatican for 15 million euros to get control of the property.

Crasso, who handled the secretariat of state’s investments for 27 years at Credit Suisse and his own firms, is accused of several counts of embezzlement as well as corruption, fraud and extortion. Crasso denies wrongdoing and testified Monday that in his more than quarter-century of work for…

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Penelakut elder Raymond Tony Charlie writes In the Shadow of the Red Brick Building

Six decades after enduring unthinkable abuse at the hands of priests at Kuper Island Residential School, Raymond Tony Charlie is telling his story.

His recently released book, In the Shadow of the Red Brick Building, exposes the physical, emotional and sexual abuse, but also carries a message of resilience and recovery.

“It took me a long time to write this book,” Charlie explains of his more than eight-year journey to get the book published. “There were a lot of stops and starts and sometimes it was very difficult to write.”

Charlie, a member of the Penelakut Tribe, attended Kuper Island Residential School and another school in Mission B.C. in the 1960s. Other members of his family also attended the residential schools operated by the Catholic Church and other churches in Canada for more than a century.

He says…

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For six days in July, the most important thing happening in Canada will be an old man confronting the nation’s history.

Pope Francis will be in Canada July 24-29 on a pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation, visiting Edmonton, Alberta; Iqaluit, Nunavut; and Quebec City. That the 85-year-old pope will be limited by his age and his health is hardly a surprise, but it is also an advantage — an aspect of Pope Francis’ spiritual power to heal. For Indigenous Canadians, out of the many different parts of Pope Francis’ identity, none matters more than his status as an elder.

“In our minds and in our world view, as you age you become more valuable to the community,” explained Deacon Harry Lafond, Indigenous education scholar at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and former chief of the Muskeg Lake Cree First Nation. “Simply because your age tends to help you…

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On May 24, 2022, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Adult Survivors Act (“ASA”), which creates a one-year lookback window, beginning on November 24, 2022, for the revival of otherwise time-barred civil claims arising out of alleged sexual offenses committed against people who were 18-years-old or older at the time of the conduct. More specifically, the ASA establishes a new section in the New York Civil Practice Law & Rules that permits adult victims of sexual abuse to file a lawsuit against their alleged abusers regardless of when the offenses occurred or if the former statute of limitations period has run.

The ASA also provides that any revival claim is not subject to any order previously dismissing those claims as time-barred or for failure to file a notice of claim. The ASA revives any claims that a victim suffered physical, psychological, or other injuries as a result of sexual…

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Cardinal Angelo Sodano, a once-powerful Italian prelate who long served as the Vatican’s No. 2 official but whose legacy was tarnished by his support for the pedophile founder of an influential religious order, has died. He was 94.

The Vatican in its Saturday announcement of his death said Sodano had died on Friday. Italian state radio said that Sodano recently had contracted COVID-19, complicating his already frail health. Corriere della Sera said he died in a Rome clinic where he had been admitted a few weeks ago.

Pope Francis in a condolence telegram Saturday to Maria Sodano, the retired prelate’s sister, noted that Sodano had held many roles in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, culminating in his being named secretary of state on June 28, 1991, by the then-pontiff, John Paul II. A day later, John Paul, who later was made a saint, elevated Sodano to the rank of cardinal.

In…

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After four months of activity, an independent commission created by the Portuguese bishops to investigate child abuse has received at least 326 allegations of abuse.

The fact that 214 of them were collected within the first month of operation demonstrates that there has been a significant decline in the rhythm of testimonies over the past few months. Some of the group’s members are now calling on the country’s bishops to better publicize their work and encourage abuse victims to come forward.

It was the initiative of the Portuguese bishops’ conference to create the commission, a decision taken in November 2021 after the release of a report on abuse and cover-up in the French church shocked many across Europe.

One month before, the work group that investigated abuse in Catholic institutions in France had publicized the results of its investigation, estimating that some 216,000 people had experience abuse in…

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A Pillar symposium

A three-year experimental phase comes to an end June 1 for Vos estis lux mundi, the set of canonical policies promulgated by Pope Francis for investigating allegations of abuse, misconduct, or administrative negligence on the part of the Catholic Church’s bishops.

Vos estis lux mundi came into effect June 1, 2019 for an ad experimentum period that officially concludes Tuesday. While an official extension has not been announced by the Holy See, Vos estis has been understood to remain in force, and is expected to undergo revisions in the months to come.

While Vatican sources tell The Pillar that some bishops have been asked for feedback on the document, it is not clear whether other Catholics interested in reform efforts will be asked for their views on the possibilities for revising Vos estis lux mundi.

The Pillar asked victim-survivors, advocates, ecclesiastical officials, and other experts for their suggestions on the prospect of revising Vos estis lux mundi.

…

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On Tuesday, after being presented with three candidates, Pope Francis chose Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to be the new president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI).

The Bologna archbishop will be tasked with spearheading changes on the way clerical sexual abuse is addressed in the pope’s backyard.

In a recent interview, Pope Francis indicated that he wanted a man ready to “make a change” and that he preferred for him to be “authoritative,” meaning, “a cardinal.”

Zuppi, a leading figure in the Community of Sant’Egidio, arguably the lay movement most favored by the Argentine pontiff, is defined by those who know him as an authentic street priest, always close to the poor, a man of peace – he was part of the team of mediators that facilitated the Peace Accords in Mozambique in the early ’90s – and as an authoritative personality with pastoral sensibilities.

He was born in Rome and ordained…

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As the Italian bishops’ conference debates this week how to best address the clerical sexual abuse crisis and the calls for a nationwide investigation, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, head of the papal commission for the protection of children, told them that the only way forward is with the truth.

Speaking from experience, as he has spent much of the past 40 years addressing the scandals, O’Malley said, “We have nothing to fear by telling the truth. The truth will set us free. Acknowledging people’s stories of abuse, listening to survivors and committing to working together is not easy,” but “it is the only way.”

The Italian bishops are meeting this week for their general assembly. On Tuesday, they elected Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna as their new leader, and local observers have pointed out that his five-year term as head of the conference will largely be interpreted by how…

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We hope that Bishop Robert McElroy’s elevation to Cardinal signals a change in the California Catholic landscape. The current archbishops of Los Angeles and San Francisco, whose seniority is now usurped by the new Cardinal, have resisted transparency on behalf of sexual abuse survivors. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone alienates many by refusing to do the bare minimum of publishing a list of abusers from San Francisco. At least San Diego has a list and adds to it.

To be sure, Bishop McElroy has work to do to gain credibility; he ignored the advice of Richard Sipe, an esteemed clergy sexual abuse expert regarding Sipe’s warnings about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In the end, Sipe was right, and McElroy was mistaken. His list is short, as being proven by the lawsuits now piling up.

Now that Cardinal-elect McElroy has been given the red hat, we hope he…

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Analysis

Papal advisor Fr. Antonio Spadaro said Sunday morning that the pope’s appointment of San Diego’s Bishop Robert McElroy as a member of the College of Cardinals is “a strong and clear message for the Church in the United States.”

The appointment came as a surprise, apparently even to McElroy, who said in a May 29 statement that he was “stunned and surprised” by the papal nod.

Indeed, the cardinal-elect is not the metropolitan of a major archiepiscopal see, nor the prefect of a Vatican dicastery. Francis has previously appointed as cardinals the bishops of smaller sees, but every U.S. bishop to whom he has previously given a red hat has been an archbishop. 

And given that a growing number of American Catholics are Hispanic, many Vatican-watchers expected the next U.S. cardinal would also be Latino, even if it was not Los Angeles’ Archbishop Jose Gomez, whom the pope has…

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At the turn of the twentieth century, the modernist crisis roiled the entire Catholic Church. Modernism’s opponents claimed that exegesis and theology had become infected with rationalism, thereby undermining the historical truth of the Bible and the Christian faith. The remedy for this disease, they believed, was a widespread network of anonymous informants—called the Sodalitium Pianum or La Sapinière—who would denounce professors and others suspected of the modernist heresy. The accused priests would be summarily removed from their positions, with little or no chance of defense. 

While modernism was a real theological problem the Church needed to address, this overwrought response led to human rights abuses that haunted Catholicism for a long time. The modernist controversy comes to mind when thinking about the suppression of priests’ rights that has accompanied today’s sex abuse crisis. 

Recently, four veteran Catholic priests I know were suspended from priestly ministry. Each was suspended on the basis of…

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Many of us are struggling to come to terms with the news that the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention has covered up abuse, maligned survivors, and even kept a secret list of 700-plus sex offenders for years.

In the aftermath of this atrocious exposure, the behavior of various SBC leaders has been discouraging and even appalling. We are hearing many sorrowful words, but are these leaders just crying crocodile tears? Will words ever be followed by action?

One harrowing example is Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas. He appeared on Fox News speaking about the horror of the report. He bragged about how his own church has a zero-tolerance policy toward abuse. He then ended his interview by calling for survivors to forgive their offenders — an audacious, inappropriate, tone-deaf request to make as a pastor representing the denomination that has plundered the souls of victims repeatedly.

The icing…

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For two men who grew up in Sandusky, a lawsuit filed in California might be their last chance to get some form of justice for a local minister they say sexually abused them for years, and for the church that did nothing to stop it.

The California statute of limitations allows more time for alleged survivors of childhood sexual assault to bring legal action. It also provides a “look back window,” which suspended all statute of limitations time constraints for three years.

That “window” ends this year.

For Victor and Roy Matthews, like many alleged victims, the California law has provided the opportunity to ask a court to hear the allegations and render a judgment.

They contend that Bishop Rev. Rufus Sanders, of the Emmanuel Temple Church on East Adams Street in Sandusky, sexually molested both of them when they were boys, beginning in the late 1970s through the early…

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SINS OF THE FATHERS

Pope Francis just named the new head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference who says he will do what no one has ever dared: investigate clerical sex abuse in the shadow of the Vatican.

If there is one open secret in the eternal city, it is that the allegations of clerical sex abuse in Italy have always been swept away, into the shadows of the Vatican.

The last three popes have had mixed reviews on their handling of the global scandal. When the worst of the abuse was coming to light, Pope John Paul II was too infirm and impotent to do anything about it. His successor Pope Benedict XVI was demonstrably blind to the problems coming in from the global church, and was implicated in the coverup in Germany. Pope Francis has done more than both of his predecessors in terms of reconciling the pain. But none of these…

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The sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Southern Baptist Convention in recent days should prompt leaders within the denomination — and within individual churches — to examine the issue more closely, local pastors say.

“It’s overwhelming, and I am deeply concerned by the findings,” said the Rev. Steve Livengood, senior pastor of Abbotts Creek Missionary Baptist Church, one of the more than 30 High Point churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

“Sexual abuse should grieve us all, and it should grieve us that the name of Christ is harmed. I think we need to look at the recommendations closely to determine how we can ensure that every church is a safe place for every woman, man, girl and boy to come and worship our Lord.”

In an independent report released May 22, explosive details painted a picture of how SBC leaders had perpetuated a cycle of sexual abuse…

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When a sexual abuse scandal hits the church, words from its ministers can be indicative of how bad things really are. The reputation of the church is on the line, but so is the welfare of the people it serves.

“Mortified” is a word one minister used last week. “Heartbroken and sickened,” said another.

If you’re not up on this particular story, you might be led to believe that such reactions came from Catholic clergy, whose church has been repeatedly rocked by abuse allegations.

But not this time. These are the words of Eric Costanzo, pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church, and Todd Fisher, executive director-treasurer of Oklahoma Baptists and former pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee.

They’re both ordained ministers in the Southern Baptist Church, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and probably the most influential religious group in Oklahoma.

I know both men. They are…

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A large-scale lawsuit against the Southern Baptist Convention alleging a coverup of sexual abuse has been refiled by a new set of attorneys for Hannah Kate Williams.

An earlier version of the same charges had been filed in a Kentucky circuit court Aug. 16, 2021, but some months later was withdrawn. The new suit was filed by two nationally known attorneys specializing in abuse who now represent Williams.

The new lawsuit has been largely overlooked in the national media — perhaps because it was announced just two days prior to publication of the SBC’s massive report on sexual abuse.

On Friday, May 20, attorneys Vanessa B. Cantley and Brian Kent announced that they now represent Williams, who has been an outspoken advocate for reform in the SBC. Due to a recent change in Kentucky law, cases of this nature must be filed under seal, so Baptist News Global has not been able to…

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Between July 24 and 29, Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Chruch will be visiting Canada, making stops in Quebec City, Edmonton and Iqaluit. The visit is largely centred around reconciling the Church with First Nations, Metis and Inuit, in light of mass graves of children being found at Canada’s numerous residential schools.

Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok said the visit is important for Nunavummiut, particularly survivors who are still reeling from the horrors of residential school. Which has resulted in various issues for Inuit families in Nunavut, including addiction, chronic health problems and cycles of physical and sexual abuse, which originated from educators at residential schools.

“I’m really optimistic for the healing journey to start happening for the people who really need to be a part of this process,” said Akeeagok.

“We’ve all seen and we all know the devastation residential schools have played on Nunavummiut.”

On April 1…

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Given the death late Friday of Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who was 94, what’s often described as the Vatican’s “old guard” has taken a significant blow. Sodano had been the Secretary of State to two popes and the former Dean of the College of Cardinals, and he remained massively influential in shaping the Vatican’s internal culture.

With Sodano’s passing, the new de facto captain of the old guard arguably becomes 88-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Sodano’s successor as Dean of the College of Cardinals and, like Sodano, a product of the Secretariat of State, having served as an aide to the legendary Cardinal Giovanni Benelli when Benelli was the sostituto, or chief of staff, to Pope Paul VI.

What do we mean by the “old guard”?

The phrase refers to an informal network of longtime personnel, both clerical and lay, and primarily (though not exclusively) associated with the Secretariat of State, the Vatican’s…

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Bishops in Italy examine the issue of clergy sexual abuse

An independent body to look into sexual abuse; listening to victims; compensation; and a historical and sociological study.

These are among the demands that victims of clergy sex abuse are making to the Catholic Church in Italy. They are supported by a shocking book, co-authored by the historian Lucetta Scaraffia (Agnus Dei. Gli abusi sessuali del clero in Italia).

The demands are reminiscent of the courageous methods that bishops in France adopted when they established the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) under the direction of Jean-Marc Sauvé. Except that, so far, the Italian Church has been resistant to dealing with matters of sexual abuse.

 After initially claiming that it was not an issue in their country, the bishops are now saying that they can deal with it on their own and without external intervention, especially from…

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The death of Cardinal Sodano marks the end of an era.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who died on 27 May at the age of 94, was a Holy See diplomat who wielded enormous power inside the Vatican but whose time in office was tainted by his perceived failure to tackle high-profile cases of sexual abuse. 

The Italian prelate served as Secretary of State from 1990 to 2006 and during the years when John Paul II’s health was failing he effectively ran the Church’s central administration alongside the Polish Pope’s personal secretary, then-Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz. A highly skilled diplomat, in 1984 Sodano helped John Paul II to mediate a resolution to the decades-long conflict between Chile and Argentina over the islands in the Beagle channel, forcefully articulated the Vatican’s opposition to the 2003 Iraq war, and was closely involved in steering the Church’s diplomatic relations with eastern Europe, Russia and China. 

His…

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Free Catholic school tuition and cemetery plots are among the proposed compensation the island’s Catholic church wants to give victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The church, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019 as it faced hundreds of abuse lawsuits asking for more than $1 billion in damages, submitted its updated bankruptcy plan May 20. The plan provides more details about how the church intends to compensate victims.

The bankruptcy plan, which the church said will, “bring the greatest measure of justice to the greatest number of victims,” must be approved by a vote of the church’s creditors.

Real estate

The church wants to sign over dozens of pieces of real estate, worth about $18.35 million, to a trust for victim compensation, the bankruptcy plan states.

It also wants to separately sell its chancery office complex in Hagåtña and the church-owned FHP/TakeCare property in Tamuning. The church wants to use…

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The shocking news released this week of hundreds of Baptist church leaders and officials named in sexual abuse cases across the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) sent ripples through the faith community.

The self-help group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) spoke to us Sunday to give their perspective and also inform the public on resources available to victims.

“We’re not upset with the faithful in any denomination. It’s the leaders that SNAP has an issue with,” said David Brown.

Brown is a Tennessee SNAP representative who has his own experience with sex abuse.

“I was abused by a Catholic priest in Nashville from ‘61-’62,” Brown said. “I was a 15-year-old skinny, pimple faced kid. No one was going to believe me.”

He said he repressed those memories and remained silent for 35 years, and still his trauma was felt well-into adulthood.

…

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Notorious paedophile priest Vincent Gerard Ryan has died at the age of 84.

Key points:

• Vincent Gerard Ryan had 37 known victims
• Ryan has died at the age of 84
• Catholic Church officials will not comment on his death

Ryan, known as Vince Ryan, was jailed for more than two decades for abusing 37 known victims, dating back to the 1970s.

He completed his studies in Rome a decade earlier, before becoming a parish priest in the beachside Newcastle suburb of Merewether.

He went on to work as a parish priest across the New South Wales’ Hunter Valley until he was first jailed in 1996.

His abuse survivors are angry he has died without being stripped of holy orders, or defrocked.

The Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese will not comment on his death.

Victims raise the alarm

It was July 1995 when two men, Gerard McDonald and Scott Hallett, raised the alarm on Ryan’s abuse.

Ryan…

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Pope Francis this morning announced the creation of 21 new cardinals, most of whom will be eligible to vote in the next papal conclave. One of them is Robert McElroy, the ultra-progressive bishop of San Diego. For Catholics who actually believe what the Catholic Church teaches, this is terrible news.

And for Catholics who would like their Church to be run by men who can be trusted to do the right thing on sex abuse — well, Francis long ago showed (e.g., the Zanchetta affair) that he cannot be trusted. And here he goes again. Here’s a link to a 2016 letter that Richard Sipe, the (now-deceased) psychotherapist and foremost expert on the sexual habits of the Catholic clergy, sent to McElroy back in 2016. Excerpts:

It was clear to me during our last meeting in your office, although cordial, that you…

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Andrew Ehman claims senior monk ‘discreetly’ observed abuse occur in boys’ shower, did not intervene

[Warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault, and could negatively affect someone who has experienced similar trauma.]

A third man has now filed a civil suit alleging sexual abuse at Mission’s minor seminary school while he was a teenager. Andrew Ehman, like the two other accusers, attended the high school seminary for aspiring priests in the 1970s.

In his civil claim, filed in BC Supreme Court on May 24, Ehman says Shawn Rohrbach was an adult student at the college seminary in 1975 when he allegedly plied Ehman with alcohol and committed sexual battery against him. Ehman was 16 at the time.

Harry Sanders (known as Father Placidus), whose estate is named in all three suits, “detected and discreetly observed” the abuse taking place in the boys’ shower room and did nothing, which allowed…

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Here is a list of the 21 men Pope Francis will install as Roman Catholic cardinals at a ceremony known as a consistory on Aug. 27.

Cardinal Electors under 80 will be able to enter a conclave to elect the next pope after Francis dies or retires:

1. Archbishop Arthur Roche (British) – Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

2. Archbishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik (South Korean) – Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy

3. Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga (Spanish) – President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President of the Governorate for Vatican City State

4. Archbishop Jean-Marc Aveline – Metropolitan Archbishop of Marseille, France

5. Bishop Peter Okpaleke – Bishop of Ekwulobia, Nigeria

6. Archbishop Leonardo Ulrich Steiner – Metropolitan Archbishop of Manaus, Brazil

7. Archbishop Filipe Neri António Sebastião di Rosário Ferrão – Archbishop of…

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[Via the Catholic Telegraph]

Pope Francis announced Sunday that he will create 21 new cardinals in August, one of whom is the bishop of San Diego, California.

Who is Bishop Robert McElroy? Here are some fast facts:

A San Francisco Native, McElroy Has Led the San Diego Diocese Since 2015

Born in San Francisco in 1954, Bishop McElroy grew up in San Mateo County. McElroy was ordained a priest in 1980 and served as an auxiliary bishop to San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone starting in 2010.

In 2015, Pope Francis tapped him to lead the San Diego diocese, succeeding Bishop Cirilo Flores, who died of cancer in September 2014 just one year after assuming the position.

McElroy underwent coronary bypass surgery late last year, which according to the diocese was successful. As a cardinal, at age 68, he is well within the maximum age of 80…

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