ABUSE TRACKER

As the former pastor of St. Veronica R.C. Church in Howell stands trial on charges he sexually assaulted a child on three occasions in the late 1990s, the dates of the alleged acts has become crucial to the case.

The victim, a 34-year-old woman, testified Tuesday and Wednesday that she suppressed memories of the three incidents for more than two decades, but said two of the incidents occurred when she was 11 and the third when she was 12.

But Robert J. Konzelmann, defense attorney for the Rev. Henry Brendan Williams, on Thursday produced a transcript of the woman’s statement to detectives and suggested she may have been coached to say she was younger than 13 when she actually might have been older when the alleged molestation occurred.

Thomas Fichter, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, objected to what he said was hearsay being introduced at the trial, but he also…

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Confronted with an allegation that he sexually abused the daughter of a deacon in his parish decades earlier, the former pastor of St. Veronica R.C. Church in Howell admitted to detectives that he touched the girl on the leg as a friendly gesture, but denied doing anything more than that.

“Oh, not at all, no, not at all,” the Rev. Henry “Brendan” Williams told then-Detective Sgt. Michael Magliozzo and Detective Thomas Manzo of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office when confronted with an accusation that he molested a child in the late 1990s.

That was on a videotape of the detectives’ interview with Williams in August 2019, after a woman made allegations that the priest had sexually abused her when she was a child. Superior Court Judge Ellen Torregrossa-O’Connor viewed the videotape in court Wednesday as Williams’ trial on three counts of sexual assault resumed.

Magliozzo, who retired from the…

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By air and sea, a judge, two sets of lawyers and a prosecutor have made their way from the East Timorese capital to the coastal enclave that borders Indonesia. They have assembled in Oecusse for a criminal trial that has divided a nation.

The problem is the defendant – once revered American missionary and Catholic priest Richard Daschbach – hasn’t shown up.

The 84-year-old is under house arrest in Dili accused of the systematic sexual abuse of girls under the age of 14 during the more than two decades he ran a shelter in the mountains near the remote village of Kutete for orphans, children of the impoverished and highlands women escaping from violence.

But his alleged victims, some of whom have also returned to Oecusse, have for a third time in three months been forced to wait for his closed-court trial to resume. Now the surging COVID-19 outbreak in the country…

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Suzanne Smith’s account of sexual abuse is notable for the church’s lasting coldness

Book Title: The Altar Boys
ISBN-13: 9780733340178
Author: Suzanne Smith
Publisher: ABC Books/Harper Collins
Guideline Price: £8.99

Irish people will find much familiar in Australian journalist Suzanne Smith’s account of the decades of horrific sexual abuse perpetrated by priests and Marist brothers in the New South Wales diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. There’s the flagrant sadism meted out by clerics to children in their care and the long-running cover-up by a church that chose to move known offenders to new parishes rather than take punitive action. Many of the protagonists – abusers, facilitators, survivors and victims alike – have Irish names; the local Catholic community, mainly concentrated in the mining and industrial city of Newcastle, were largely the descendants of immigrants from Ireland, as well as Scotland and the north of England.

You wonder if this familiarity, not to mention the similarity to…

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The Catholic Church in Chile continues its long and painful work of uncovering sexual abuse.

The Jesuits are the latest religious group to come forward, acknowledging that a number of its members in the South American country sexually abused at least 64 people, 34 of whom were minors when the abuse occurred. 

The admission was made in a report issued by the Society of Jesus’ Center for the Prevention of Abuse and for Reparations (CPR), according to a May 25 news story by the Agence France-Presse (AFP). 

The CPR report said 11 Jesuits in Chile were credibly accused of abuse. It said nine of them were guilty of abusive situations with sexual connotations involving 34 underage victims.

The report came after an internal investigation of the period 2005-2020.

Five of the 11 Jesuits accused are already dead and three are no longer members of the Society of Jesus.

The…

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KEY POINTS

• The Jesuit congregation of Chile admitted 11 of its priests were found guilty of sexual abuse
• An investigation determined the number of victims was 64, 34 of whom were children
• Five of the priests have died, three are under the congregation’s supervision and the last three have left the order

The Jesuit congregation of Chile admitted that a number of its priests had sexually abused 64 people, 34 of whom were children, between the years 2005 and 2020, documents showed.

An internal investigation by the Society of Jesus found 11 Jesuit priests guilty of “abusive situations with sexual connotation” involving underage victims, the Agence France-Presse reported, citing a report from the Catholic order obtained Tuesday.

According to the report, five out of the 11 perpetrators have died, while three are “currently under strict professional supervision plans.” The other three “are no longer part of the Society of Jesus,” the order said.

The Jesuit…

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The anonymity of some people making sex abuse claims against the Catholic Diocese of Rochester is being challenged.

An undisclosed number of survivors has indicated they intend to take their abuse cases against the diocese to trial.

The diocese, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, is seeking to unseal their identities.

The committee overseeing the bankruptcy case and sex abuse claims against the diocese has asked the court to seal the survivors’ identities.

A lawyer for some plaintiffs claims the move by the diocese is an attempt to intimidate victims.

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Convicted pedophile and former Catholic priest Finian Egan has failed a Federal Court appeal to retain his Australian citizenship.

The 86-year-old’s back-and-forth citizenship battle began while serving time in prison for sexual assault against minors.

The Irish-born man was charged in 2012 with eight counts of historical sexual offences between 1961 and 1987, against three girls aged between 10 and 17.

He was found guilty by jury in the NSW District Court and sentenced to a maximum term of eight years, with a non-parole period of four years from December 2013.

Peter Dutton was immigration and border protection minister when he made an application to revoke Egan’s citizenship in 2016, but from jail the elderly man sought a successful review to set aside this decision.

Following his release on parole in December 2017, Mr Dutton appealed and aired his views with Ray Hadley on Radio 2GB, saying Egan was a…

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An 86-year-old pedophile former Catholic priest came a step closer to deportation to Ireland when a court on Friday upheld a decision to strip him of his Australian citizenship.

Finian Egan has been fighting a five-year legal battle against former Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s decision to cancel his citizenship over the defrocked priest’s criminal record.

Egan initially won an appeal in 2016 in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, a court that reviews government decisions.

But the Federal Court overturned that decision and a second tribunal hearing last year upheld Dutton’s action.

Egan on Friday lost a Federal Court appeal against the second tribunal’s ruling. His final option for appeal is the High Court.

Egan was a 25-year-old ordained priest when he migrated from Ireland to Australia in 1959.

He was convicted in New South Wales state in 2013 of sexually abusing three girls between 1961 and 1987. Egan was 79…

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Two Jehovah’s Witnesses elders accused of failing to notify police that a congregant was sexually abusing a child are scheduled for a joint trial in July.

Jehovah’s Witnesses elder Michael Penkava, 72, of Crystal Lake, and Colin Scott, 87, of Cary, were charged in November with violating reporting provisions. Both men are accused of failing to notify police about a church member who later was convicted of sexually abusing a child.

The abuse continued for more than a decade after the church elders became aware of the accusations, prosecutors have said.

A judge on Wednesday denied a request to exclude testimony regarding potentially “confidential” meetings between church leaders and the now-convicted man.

However, questions surrounding the potential confidentiality of those meetings could arise again during trial, said Penkava’s attorney, Philip Prossnitz.

Ultimately, it was deemed premature to bar the potential testimony Wednesday, without knowing what that testimony might have revealed,…

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As they gear up to sell off assets in order to settle debts in an impending bankruptcy, Catholic officials in Santa Fe continue to minimize and sanitize the clergy abuse that has caused their current situation. We believe that Church leaders at the Archdiocese of Santa Fe must stop equating sexual abuse with “sin” and recognize the reality: it is a serious crime, and the impact on the victim is akin to the murder of the soul.

The recent  article about the decision of the Archdicoese of Santa Fe to sell off assets is largely focused on parishioners who “have to pay” for the “sins” of clergy abuse. It is difficult to miss that very little empathy is expressed for the people who were victimized as children. It is galling to read comments like those from Fr. Clement Niggel who asks that people pray for all who…

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Pope Francis has ordered an apostolic visitation of Germany’s Cologne archdiocese amid fierce criticism of its handling of abuse cases.

The archdiocese said in a May 28 statement that the pope’s apostolic visitors would evaluate “possible mistakes” made by its leader, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki.

The apostolic visitors will be Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm and Bishop Johannes van den Hende of Rotterdam, president of the Dutch bishops’ conference, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

“During the first half of June, the Holy See’s envoys will visit the archdiocese to get a comprehensive picture of the complex pastoral situation in the archdiocese,” the statement said.

It added that the visitors would also examine possible errors committed by Archbishop Stefan Heße of Hamburg, who was Cologne archdiocese’s vicar general from 2012 to 2015, and the Cologne auxiliaries Bishop Dominikus Schwaderlapp and Bishop Ansgar Puff.

Heße said in March that he was offering…

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Some may think the Diocese of Rockville Centre deserves kudos for releasing a list of clergy accused of sexual abuse. They would be wrong. Some may question why clergy sexual abuse survivors never seem to be satisfied with how the Catholic Church responds to them. They would be misinformed, but I cannot blame them for thinking so. There is a well-oiled public relations machine at work here.

For years, Bishops John Raymond McGann, William Francis Murphy and John O. Barres successfully kept allegations of sexual abuse by clergy members tightly under wraps. For nearly as long, survivors of childhood sexual abuse have asked the Diocese of Rockville Centre to provide a list of credibly accused clergy. But in 2003, when a Suffolk grand jury report exposed rampant sexual abuse and cover-up by the Rockville Centre Diocese, that request became a demand.

Eighteen years later, the list that the diocese finally “released”  View Cache

A survivor who says he was sexually abused as a child by Daniel McCormack was subjected to “unspeakable” and “inhumane” treatment from the former priest and those actions are unforgivable.

Advocates and survivors of one of Chicago’s most notorious sex abuse cases are urging Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to keep defrocked priest Daniel McCormack locked up.

Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson, who specializes in child sexual abuse cases, called McCormack’s potential release an “imminent and urgent peril” to the public.

“Daniel McCormack as a priest … is a serial predator and has been incarcerated for some years,” Anderson said during a virtual news conference on Thursday. “We do know that he’s [McCormack] already sentenced scores, if not hundreds, of kids to a lifetime of suffering and we have to do everything today to prevent that from happening to others.”

A spokeswoman with the attorney general’s office…

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Richard Lavigne, the pedophile priest who murdered Springfield altar boy Danny Croteau in 1972, was enabled, coddled, and protected by successive bishops, including some who abused children just as he did. Some good priests who stood up to them were punished.

Thanks to the good work of State Police and prosecutors in Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni’s office, defrocked priest Richard Lavigne has been exposed as the murderer of Springfield altar boy Danny Croteau, but it should never be forgotten that Lavigne was enabled, coddled, and protected by a series of Roman Catholic bishops.

Bishops who led the Diocese of Springfield valued their church’s reputation above the life of a 13-year-old boy and the well-being of the dozens of other children who Lavigne sexually abused.

In some cases, those bishops were abusers themselves, engaged in the same abhorrent behavior as Lavigne, who used his collar and the societal…

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Lawsuits filed under the state Child Victims Act allege that a formerly high-ranking Long Island Catholic priest sexually abused boys in the 1970s at a Uniondale school — in one student’s case, more than 100 times — and in the sacristy of a Glen Cove church on his first clerical assignment.

Two of the three civil suits allege that while Msgr. Alan Placa worked at the now-closed St. Pius X preparatory seminary in Uniondale, he sexually abused students on campus multiple times over several years.

The third court filing alleges that Placa — for years one of the most powerful officials in the diocese — sexually abused a 12-year-old boy at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Glen Cove during his first parish assignment after being ordained a priest.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre is also named in the three lawsuits filed in State Supreme Court in Nassau County under…

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Former residents of St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington achieved a historic victory earlier this month: the passage of S.99, a bill that lifts the statute of limitations on lawsuits arising from childhood physical abuse. The Vermont legislation, the first of its kind in the country, allows survivors to file claims years, even decades, after the alleged abuse occurred. But for many of those former St. Joseph’s residents, the reparations they seek from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, which owned the red brick orphanage on North Avenue that housed some 13,000 children from 1854 to 1974, could still be out of reach.

In the 1990s, nearly 200 St. Joseph’s survivors accepted $5,000 settlements from the diocese, which could impact their ability to pursue further legal action. Those who do manage to sue may only see a fraction of the payout they hope for; the diocese claims that past and pending…

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In a letter to parishioners, churches and parochial schools in his diocese, Springfield Bishop William Byrne said the updated list of credibly accused sexual abusers that the diocese will post in early June “will result in considerable addition to the list.”

“The new list will now include posthumous allegations deemed to be credible by either the Diocesan Review Board or its predecessor, the Misconduct Commission,” Byrne said. “This will result in a considerable addition to the list which previously appeared on our diocesan website. Many of these credible allegations were previously excluded from our list because the accused was deceased when the allegation surfaced, was a member of a religious order, or were lay employees of the diocese.”

The bishop’s letter is dated Monday, May 24, the same day that the Hampden District Attorney’s Office revealed it had planned to charge convicted child molester…

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Despite being defrocked by the Vatican nearly 20 years ago, former Catholic priest Richard R. Lavigne clung to his hallowed former profession until his last breath.

According to his death certificate, Lavigne, 80, died of respiratory failure after contracting COVID-19 four days before he perished in a hospital bed at Baystate Franklin Medical Center on May 21. It was a Friday at 5:40 p.m.

His self-reported occupation, the record states: clergy, although, he was barred from public ministry after being convicted of child molestation in 1992. He was a longstanding suspect in the 1972 murder of altar boy Daniel “Danny” Croteau.

Given his rapidly declining health, investigators knew they were racing against time to button up a murder case against Lavigne in connection with 13-year-old Croteau’s death. Croteau was discovered floating facedown in the Chicopee River wearing his parochial school uniform.

Lavigne had…

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The Diocese of Springfield will expand its list of clergy and staff credibly accused of sexual abuse, its bishop said in a Monday letter.

Those accused posthumously, as well as religious order priests and lay employees of the diocese, will now be included, the Most. Rev. William Byrne said in the letter. The new additions are not necessarily newly accused, but rather were accused decades ago and previously excluded from the list.

The updated list will be posted to diospringfield.org in early June, Byrne’s letter said. Byrne will hold a news conference on the expansion on June 2 at 10 a.m. in Springfield’s St. Michael’s Cathedral, and the cathedral will also host a Holy Hour “for all whose lives have been impacted by the abuse crisis” on June 3 at 7 p.m.

Upon hearing feedback from survivors and others who criticized the diocese for its handling of the abuse, Byrne said…

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New information is coming out of the Diocese of Springfield following the revelations this week of evidence connecting late former priest Richard Lavigne to the murder of young altar boy Daniel Croteau back in 1972.

While speaking with Bishop William Byrne today, we asked him about the calls for him to release all the case documents on Richard Lavigne, what his plan of action is, and if the D.A. should investigate the diocese.

“I’m sickened and I’m angered. I’m apologetic for the role that the church had played in not doing all that we could at times,” Byrne noted.

Byrne shared his thoughts with Western Mass News after the Hampden District Attorney’s announcement on Monday that he had enough to charge defrocked priest Richard Lavigne – had he not died this past Friday – in the murder of 13-year-old Danny Croteau.

Calls followed on Tuesday for the diocese to release…

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A proposed bill that would allow survivors of childhood sexual abuse to hold their abuser accountable is facing an uncertain future in the state Legislature. 

The Child Victims Act would allow survivors to pursue civil action against their abuser or the organization that employed the person, removing the current limitation that allows a person to pursue action only until they turn 35 years old. The bill, survivors say, would allow them to finally feel a sense of justice, share their stories as adults and hopefully prevent future crimes from taking place. 

The bill has been proposed time and again before the Legislature, only to stall in committee. But now that an investigation into sexual abuse by religious leaders has been opened by the state Department of Justice, survivors and their advocates are once again hopeful. 

Here’s what you need to know about the potential…

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Starting in July, more than 200 parcels in Valencia County owned by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe will be put on the auction block to help pay for a bankruptcy settlement prompted by allegations of abuse perpetrated by priests and other clergy over decades.

Filings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of New Mexico show more than 260 properties scattered throughout the county, most of which are small quarter- and half-acre lots in the Rio Grande Estates and Rio Del Oro subdivisions in the southeast part of the county.

However, one of the properties is in the heart of the county — the church plaza at Immaculate Conception Church in Tomé.

The main plaza west of the church is 2.29 acres and there is an additional .32 acre triangular piece to the southeast of the plaza. The plaza is zoned Rural Residential 2, which is typically used for single family…

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Ottawa police have laid dozens of new charges against a longtime Ottawa Catholic School Board teacher who was recently accused of sexual assault.

Rick Watkins, a.k.a. Rick Despatie, was charged with three counts each of sexual assault, sexual interference and sexual exploitation of a young person on April 20. Investigators said they were concerned there may have been additional victims and asked for more information.

Watkins, 57, was a teacher at St. Matthew High School for more than 25 years, the OCSB told CTV News Ottawa. He was suspended March 9, when the allegations first came forward.

On Wednesday, Ottawa police said other alleged incidents involving 14 youth under the age of 14 were reported to police since charges were first announced. Police say these alleged incidents happened while Watkins was employed as a teacher with the OCSB between 2004 and 2021.

He is now facing 45 additional charges, including 13…

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HARRISBURG — “Internal systemic failures” were behind the Wolf administration’s bungling of a statewide referendum that would provide legal recourse to survivors of child sexual abuse, according to a much-anticipated report released Wednesday.

The Office of State Inspector General found no evidence that the administration’s failure to advertise the proposed constitutional amendment as required was deliberate or the result of outside pressure or “intentional malfeasance.”

But it did find the Department of State, which oversees elections, had no formal or written process in place for ensuring referendums appear on the ballot. There was also little, if any, executive oversight or staff training — a chronic complaint from employees interviewed for the inquiry — and paltry communication between the various bureaus within the department that are responsible for getting questions on the ballot.

The Department of State, according to the report, “lacked executive oversight, written policies and procedures,…

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A report issued Wednesday found lacking oversight and systemic failures – not willful disregard – within the Pennsylvania Department of State resulted in a botched constitutional amendment.

The Office of the State Inspector General’s probe of the incident found no evidence of “deliberate or intentional malfeasance” at play when department staffers forgot to advertise a proposed constitutional amendment that would open a two-year litigation window for survivors of child sex abuse after the Legislature passed its authorizing legislation, House Bill 963, in November 2019.

“On behalf of the Department of State, I apologize to the victims of abuse for the additional pain and distress we have caused them,” said Acting Secretary Veronica Degraffenreid during a news conference on Wednesday. “We are committed to ensuring such a failing will never happen again.”

Constitutional amendments must pass in the General Assembly in two consecutive legislative sessions before appearing before voters…

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — An internal investigation into an apparent bureaucratic blunder by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration that scuttled a statewide voter referendum sought by victims of childhood sexual abuse found no evidence of a deliberate attempt to derail it.

The Office of Inspector General’s report, released Wednesday, said agents interviewed 22 current and former state employees and reviewed the email accounts of nine state officials for any evidence of outside influence or intentional acts.

Rather, it said, Wolf’s Department of State — which oversees elections and professional licensing and has about 500 employees — had no executive office, bureau or executive staff member responsible for overseeing internal processes for constitutional amendments.

The referendum was to be on whether to give victims of childhood sexual abuse a fresh opportunity to sue their abusers and complicit institutions, a proposal propelled by damning investigative reports in 2016 and 2018 on Pennsylvania’s…

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Survivors of clergy child sexual abuse turned up the heat this week on state Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, depositing a pouch of silver coins on the Hempfield Republican’s desk and labeling her a “Judas.”

Ward’s failure to schedule a Senate vote on a bill that would provide a day in court for child sexual abuse survivors whose cases fall outside the Pennsylvania statute of limitations is a bitter betrayal, survivors said. They likened it to the 30-piece bounty that disciple Judas Iscariot accepted before double-crossing Jesus Christ with a kiss at the Last Supper, according to the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible.

Ward, a devout Catholic, insisted she shares the survivors’ concerns and denied she is stalling. She said she is concerned the bill might not pass constitutional muster.

Tensions about the future of the so-called window of opportunity legislation, which passed the full House and then the…

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A former Upper Peninsula priest sat in court this week and heard from his victims before receiving a sentence of 8-15 years in prison for sexual abuse he committed in the 1980s.

Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty in Ontonagon County last month to three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in a plea bargain that dropped several other sex abuse charges.

He was sentenced Tuesday, May 25, by Judge Michael Pope in Ontonagon County Circuit Court to 8-15 years on each count, including the second-degree charge, which will be served concurrently, The Daily Mining Gazette reports. Jacobs’ sentence hearing served as a platform for his victims – now in their 50s and 60s – to speak.

One victim described “a life sentence of scars and painful memories,” the report said. Several victims described a situation in which Jacobs befriended their parents, which…

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No longer under a gag order amid their lawsuit against the Diocese of Lafayette, a St. Landry Parish family is now able to address new concerns that were revealed in their case against convicted priest Michael Guidry.

In a deposition conducted earlier this year, Guidry testified that shortly after he molested Oliver Peyton in 2015, he confided in a support group of fellow priests outside the seal of confession.

“They are all supposed to be safe environment certified,” said Oliver’s mother Letitia Peyton. “They are mandated reporters for this type of behavior. They had knowledge of what happened and decided to keep each other’s ‘mistakes,’ as they called them, secret– that’s very alarming.”

KATC reached out to the Diocese of Lafayette for comment on the claim made by Guidry in his deposition, but we never heard back. Guidry was removed from ministry in 2018, three years after the abuse, when…

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Abuse survivors and their supporters on Monday expressed intensifying anger and frustration as state Senate leaders continue to refuse to schedule a vote on long-awaited reforms that would open a window for lawsuits against child predators and those who covered up their crimes.

Cindy Leech was on the stage when Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the results of a grand jury report detailing the coverup of abuse by priests in Pennsylvania, a moment that caused such widespread outrage that abuse survivors and their supporters thought the time had finally come for the General Assembly to act to open a window for lawsuits.

Monday, Leech and her husband Bernie returned to the state Capitol to press the state Senate to finish the job.

The Leeches were there on behalf of their son Corey, who’d testified before an investigative grand jury about the abuse he’d suffered from Brother Stephen Baker, a Franciscan…

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Last month on this blog we discussed how extensive clergy sex crimes and cover ups seem to be in the Camden diocese.

https://adamhorowitzlaw.com/is-the-camden-diocese-

But it seems, on closer examination, it is even worse than we initially suspected.

We at Horowitz Law have taken a closer look at the Camden diocese ‘credibly accused list.’ Not surprisingly, we found some accused priests who were in the Camden area but are not on that list. They are listed below:

(Church officials may claim that some of these are not ‘credible’ allegations. Regardless, these men have been accused of abuse and been ‘outed’ elsewhere and in some cases they appear on other lists of “credibly accused” clergy).

Fr. John H. Duggan, a Jesuit who worked at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden. His name is included on the Scranton PA diocesan ‘credibly accused’ list.

He also worked in the dioceses of Albany,…

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Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of IAFT and President of the National Secular Society (UK) cites numerous examples of clerics seemingly not being subjected to French law for failing to report suspected clerical abuse of minors, as has been required since 2000. He argues that fundamental changes are needed for victims to be protected.

In 2019, the former most senior Catholic cardinal in France (Philippe Barbarin) was sentenced to six months in prison, albeit suspended, for failing to report abuse of scouts over decades in a Catholic troop led by Bernard Preynat, now regarded as probably France’s most prolific paedophile. Preynat was only recently defrocked as a priest.

Given the guilty verdict, there was clearly a case to answer, yet Preynat’s victims had been unable to persuade the public prosecutor to prosecute Cardinal Barbarin and had to resort to an expensive private prosecution. The public prosecutor’s opposition continued when, given the guilty verdict, there was…

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Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of IAFT and President of the National Secular Society (UK) considers the contradictions of the French courts’ final ruling on Cardinal Barbarin’s failure to report suspected clerical abuse of minors and its troubling consequences

France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled on 14 April that the legal obligation to report sexual crimes against a minor ceases as soon as the victim becomes a capable adult. It was the former most senior Catholic in France, Cardinal Barbarin, whose obligation was at issue. It was his failure to report such assaults over several decades by Catholic scoutmaster (and until recently, priest), Bernard Preynat. He may be France’s most prolific paedophile, with an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 victims. The Cardinal knew of Preynat’s sexual assaults.

The consequence of this judgment is that Cardinal Barbarin is relieved of any legal responsibility to pay…

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BOSSIER CITY, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Bishop Francis Malone of the Catholic Diocese of Shreveport on Friday issued a letter to the Catholic clergy and community in the diocese informing them that a local priest has been removed from serving as a priest, following his arrest on juvenile pornography and bestiality charges.  

Seby Chemmampallil, known in the Catholic community as the Rev. Seby Shan, CMI (Carmelites of Mary Immaculate), associate pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church in Bossier City, was arrested in Bossier City and charged with two counts of possession of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13, two counts of distributing pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13 and two counts of sexual abuse of animals.

In his letter, Malone wrote that Chemmampallil is accused of “violating the Diocese of Shreveport’s Police Concerning Sexual Abuse of Minors,” noting that although the current allegations don’t involve…

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Pope Francis has ordered the minor seminary that is located inside the Vatican and currently at the center of a criminal sex abuse trial to move to a new location in Rome before classes begin in the fall.

The idea of moving the seminary had been under study “for some time,” said a statement May 25 from Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office. The idea, he said, was to find a building closer to where the students go to school in Rome and where they play.

Fr. Angelo Magistrelli, rector of the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary and superior of the Opera Don Folci, which runs the institute, told the Vatican court April 14 that the current enrollment is 26 boys and young men and that the number of inquiries about admissions had been increasing.

Boys as young as 12 live at the seminary, act as altar servers at…

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The Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis has decided to move a pre-seminary at the center of an abuse and cover-up trial out of Vatican City.

The Holy See press office said May 25 that the pope had told Fr. Angelo Magistrelli, rector of the St. Pius X Pre-seminary, during a recent audience that the institution would move to a new location in September.

The pre-seminary is a residence for about a dozen boys aged 12 to 18 who serve at papal Masses and other liturgies in St. Peter’s Basilica and are considering the priesthood.

The press office said: “His Holiness did not fail, on this occasion, to express his deep gratitude to Fr. Magistrelli for the work done in these 75 years since the foundation of the institution, recognizing that it retains its educational validity and asking that it may continue the appreciated liturgical service performed by the young students…

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Pope Francis has decided to move a youth seminary outside Vatican City, taking action before the Vatican’s criminal tribunal renders a verdict in a sex abuse trial involving a former seminarian and an ex-rector.

The Vatican made no mention of the ongoing trial in its announcement Tuesday that the St. Pius X pre-seminary would relocate somewhere in Rome starting in September. The facility serves as a residence for altar boys ages 12-18 who serve at papal Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Vatican did not say why Francis made the decision. It said the move had been under study for some time and would also put the boys closer to their schools and recreational activities in Italy’s capital.

The presence of the residence inside the Vatican city-state’s walls posed a legal headache for the Vatican after a former seminarian came forward in 2017 to accuse a more senior one of…

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Catholics around the world have their eyes on Germany as it works for change through its “Synodal Path,” which is debating the issues of power, sexual morality, priestly life and the role of women in the church.

Although some Catholics fear schism, the head of the German bishops’ conference has said he wants Synodal Path reforms to be decided and implemented in close coordination with the Vatican. Pope Francis has told German Catholics to make sure their Synodal Path was guided by the Holy Spirit, with patience for change.

Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing, conference president, has been walking a bit of a tightrope. The theologian has been careful to ensure things are done in accordance with Vatican teaching, yet during the Third Ecumenical Convention in Frankfurt in May, he reiterated calls for change. For instance, he said he hoped that, with the Synodal Path, the Catholic Church could reach an…

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One day after a prosecutor in western Massachusetts publicly accused a recently deceased former priest of murdering an altar boy a half-century ago, there was a call for the Springfield Diocese to release its files. 

   Standing across the street from the headquarters of the Springfield Diocese, Robert Hoatson called for Bishop William Byrne to open the archives that might show what Catholic church officials knew about the sexual abuse and 1972 murder of 13-year-old Danny Croteau by then-priest Richard Lavigne.

“And tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what was known for 49 years about father Richard Lavigne and other priests and clergy in the Diocese of Springfield,” Hoatson said.

  A former priest, Hoatson is co-founder and president of Road to Recovery, Inc., a New Jersey-based non-profit that assists victims of clergy sex abuse and their families.  He said he was a…

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A Catholic priest who was the prime suspect in the 1972 killing of an altar boy died as law enforcement was preparing to arrest him for the murder. We hope that the closure of the police investigation brings some measure of comfort to the boy’s grieving family.

After many years of fighting for justice for their brother Daniel “Danny” Croteau,  the end of the nearly 49-year-old case must be a bittersweet development for his family.  With new evidence brought to light, the Hampden District Attorney was prepared to arrest Richard Lavigne on murder charges, but the defrocked priest died before he could be charged. 

Lavigne, a former Springfield priest, had many accusations of sexually abusing minors lodged against him. He was removed from ministry following his arrest on criminal charges of child sexual abuse in the early 1990s. The clergyman pleaded guilty to two of the…

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The Rev. Michael Pfleger, 71, will return to his position as senior pastor of the Faith Community of St. Sabina in Chicago on June 5, according to a letter from Cardinal Blase Cupich.

Five months after allegations of past sexual abuse first were made against him, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has concluded there is “insufficient reason to suspect” the Rev. Michael Pfleger is guilty of allegations of past sexual abuse.

The result of the investigation by an independent review board was announced Monday (May 24) in a letter from Cardinal Blase Cupich to the church Pfleger has led for years, the Faith Community of St. Sabina in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

“I’m so relieved and glad this nightmare is over,” Pfleger said later that day at a press conference.

“If anything, I’m more emboldened, and I’m stronger, and I’m ready to fight more than ever in my life,” he added.

…

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When Sorry Day comes around each year it is a day of reflection for me, as the wounds which are still healing, resurface along with the memories of my immediate family whose lives were displaced and cut short.

The promise of self-determination was not around in my parents’ time, nor did they get to hear former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd give the apology in parliament on February 13, 2008. Like many across the nation, I watched and listened, my tears turning to sobs, partly relief of finally being recognised, and part deep sorrow and anger for losing my family.

I was two-and-a-half when I was removed from my family, along with five other siblings. All of us ended up in Ballarat’s Catholic homes, where some of my siblings endured unimaginable child abuse, of which they are forever scarred and broken. I too endured child abuse while being shunted around between…

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Court accused of breaching rules by repeatedly postponing the trial of American Richard Daschbach

Lawyers for alleged victims in a sexual abuse case involving an ex-priest in Timor-Leste are to lodge an official complaint against officials at a district court where the case is being heard after the trial was postponed for a third time.

On May 24, the Oecusse District Court decided to again postpone the trial, which began on Feb. 22, after the defendant Richard Daschbach, his lawyer and a prosecutor failed to appear in court, supposedly because of travel restrictions imposed in the capital Dili to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The first postponement came just after the trial opened in February and the second came in late March. The next hearing is scheduled for June 7.

In a statement issued on May 25, lawyers representing 15 alleged victims said they intended to make a complaint to…

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The House Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on legislation that would give victims of past sexual abuse access to the justice system, after its sponsors requested more time to negotiate amendments in response to concerns about liability for the government and the difficulty of defending against decades-old misconduct.

Both proponents and critics of Senate Bill 88 conceded during a nearly three-hour hearing on Tuesday that the landmark victim rights measure would ultimately end up before the Colorado Supreme Court.

“Colorado has a legitimate right and interest in empowering its people to hold wrongdoers and institutions accountable for this criminal conduct,” said Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta, one of the SB88’s sponsors. “In my view, this bill is constitutional. It implements legitimate public policy.”

Supporters of SB88 have touted it as a unique solution to a problem that has gradually risen in the public’s consciousness: whether to allow victims of…

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The Jesuit congregation of Chile has acknowledged that its priests sexually abused 64 people, including 34 children, between 2005 and 2020, according to a report from the Catholic order obtained by AFP Tuesday.

Eleven Jesuit priests were found guilty following an internal investigation of “abusive situations with a sexual connotation” involving underage victims, according to the report by the Society of Jesus, known colloquially as the Jesuits.

Of the perpetrators, “five have died, three are currently under strict professional supervision plans, and another three are no longer part of the Society of Jesus,” said the order.

The Jesuit order said that since 2018 it has been providing authorities background to the abuse allegations.

It added that 31 of the victims have received financial compensation.

Amongst those found guilty was Renato Poblete, the late former Jesuit leader who allegedly abused four minors and 19 adults over four decades from 1960.

Poblete,…

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Sonoma County residents victimized decades ago by Catholic priests are still awaiting their day in court. 

Public outcry following a Boston Globe investigation–popularized by the movie Spotlight led California lawmakers… in 2019… to reopen the statute of limitations for civil cases involving sexual abuse by clergy. Victims must file by the end of next year.

Multiple suits now accuse the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa of failing to protect children from Gary Timmons, a former priest now 80 who joined the diocese in the late 60s. According to the Megan’s Law database, Timmons was convicted of committing lewd or lascivious acts with children in 1996. He was released from custody four year later, in 2000.

Attorney Mike Reck represents 10 local plaintiffs. Six have formally filed suits.

Reck says rather than dismiss Timmons, the diocese reassigned him from one community to another and placed him in charge of a summer camp. Reck said the alleged abuse occurred over decades…

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The suspect, Richard Lavigne, died in the hospital May 21 at age 80.

A Massachusetts prosecutor announced Monday that a convicted sex offender who had been dismissed from the clerical state, and who died last week, was responsible for the death of an altar boy nearly 50 years ago. 

The suspect, a former priest, Richard Lavigne, died in the hospital May 21 at age 80. 

On May 24, Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced at a press conference that the  district attorney’s office’s investigation had concluded that Lavigne had killed Daniel Croteau, 13, who was found beaten and floating in a local river in April 1972. 

Lavigne, who was reportedly a family friend of the Croteaus and would often take the Croteau children on outings alone, was pegged early on as a suspect in the Springfield altar boy’s death. 

According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Lavigne pled guilty in 1992…

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BOSSIER CITY, La. (KSLA) – A pastor from Bossier City is facing charges after being accused of possessing and distributing images and videos of sexual abuse of children, and sexually abusing animals.

Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office made the announcement Friday, May 21.

“My office and I will continue doing everything we legally can to protect the children of Louisiana. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to bring child predators to justice,” Landry said.

Seby Chemmampallil, 36, is charged with the following:

• Possession of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13 (2 counts)
• Distribution of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13 (2 counts)
• Sexual abuse of animals (2 counts)

Chemmampallil was booked in the Bossier Parish Maximum Security Jail.

The Diocese of Shreveport released a statement Friday on Chemmampallil’s arrest.

“Father Seby Shan, CMI, associate pastor of Christ the King Church, Bossier City has been…

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I will help the Church bring in some of the toughest safeguarding measures in the country – failure to protect children will not be tolerated

The sexual abuse of children is a scourge found in many communities, institutions and situations within society. During my career I have come across situations where it appears to have been happening on an industrial scale.

Over three decades I have learned that victims have been failed by every institution responsible for safeguarding them, and seen how often reputation was thought to be more important than exposing abusers. Yet for the victims, suffering can be intense and lifelong, filled with shame, guilt and fear. This has to change.

My work in the successful prosecutions of those such as Stuart Hall, the cronies of Jimmy Savile and gangs grooming children in Rochdale has made clear that much remains to be done to protect children across every strata…

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“Today’s news that Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni was prepared to charge Richard Lavigne in the murder of Danny Croteau in 1972 brings sad closure to a tragic event which I know has hung over our faith community for decades. I was angered and sickened to hear Lavigne’s unapologetic admissions in the heinous murder of this innocent child.

It is incredibly disheartening to learn that a priest, a person ordained to care for God’s people, would have committed such an evil crime and then not taken responsibility for his actions. This is all totally contrary to the teachings that we as Catholics believe in and hold sacred.

It is also another reminder of our past failures as a Church and a diocese to protect children and young adults from such terrible predators in our midst. Although we have made great strides in improving our child protection efforts, that is little…

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A defrocked Roman Catholic priest has died on the same day he was due to be formally charged with the 1972 murder of a 13-year-old boy in Chicopee, Massachusetts.

On Monday, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced that he had called state troopers to his office on Friday, May 21, to seek a warrant to arrest 80-year-old Richard Lavigne for the murder of 13-year-old Danny Croteau, but confirmed that the former priest died just a few hours later.

“Based on the accumulation of evidence, and in particular those admissions, as a prosecutor I believe that I was fulfilling my ethical duties by moving toward the charge of murder against Richard Lavigne…and I believe we could prove it,” Gulluni said.

According to a death record obtained by The Boston Globe, Lavigne’s death was listed as “acute hypoxic respiratory failure,” with the underlying cause of “COVID-19 pneumonia.”

“Regrettably, due to Lavigne’s…

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Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni on Monday announced he was about to charge former Catholic priest Richard R. Lavigne with the 1972 murder of 13-year-old Danny Croteau in Chicopee when Lavigne died last week at the age of 80.

Croteau, a former altar boy at St. Mary’s in Springfield when Lavigne was assigned there, died from multiple blunt force injuries to his head, records show.

And Lavigne, though he never confessed to killing the boy, told an investigator in the weeks before his death that he gave Croteau “a good shove” by the river and then left, before returning to the scene to find him floating in the water.

Here are key revelations from a 15-page statement of facts prepared by State Police Trooper Michael T. McNally to obtain an arrest warrant charging Lavigne, who died of COVID-19 related complications, with the slaying of Croteau, a Springfield…

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Greenfield attorney John J. Stobierski had words of praise for Hampden Country District Attorney Anthony Gulluni with the announcement Monday that Gulluni planned to charge former Springfield priest Richard Lavigne with the 1972 murder of altar boy Daniel “Danny” Croteau.

However, Stobierski, who represented the now-deceased parents of Croteau, other of their family members as well as dozens of victims who came forward with sexual allegations against Lavigne, called the fact it took decades to bring forth such a charge “a travesty.”

Lavigne, who pleaded guilty to molesting two boys in 1992 and was removed from the ministry in 2004 after the settlement of scores of civil suits, died May 21, before he could be charged with the Croteau murder.

Gulluni on Monday declared the case, which has been the subject of books and on-and-off investigations, closed.

“It is a travesty that it has taken 50…

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Word that Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni was poised to criminally charge former Catholic priest Richard R. Lavigne with the 1972 murder of 13-year-old Danny Croteau when Lavigne died last week tore open a painful chapter for Croteau’s family and many of Lavigne’s other sexual abuse victims.

Attorney John Stobierski, a Greenfield attorney who represented Croteau’s late parents for decades as they urged prosecutors to hold his killer accountable, said Monday that Gulluni’s announcement that there was overwhelming evidence linking Lavigne to the slaying marked a “good day,” but it was sad that it had taken so long.

“There’s a great injustice done here,” said Stobierski, who has represented more than 25 of Lavigne’s abuse victims.”This helps, but it has not told us why it happened and how the levels of power kept it silent.”

He urged Gulluni’s office to publicly release all of the investigative materials…

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There is “insufficient reason to suspect” that the Rev. Michael Pfleger is guilty, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, an influential Roman Catholic priest who temporarily stepped aside from his parish on the South Side of Chicago in January after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor more than 40 years ago, will be reinstated after an internal investigation found “insufficient reason to suspect” he was guilty, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced on Monday.

In a letter to the Faith Community of St. Sabina, the parish where Father Pfleger is assigned, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich said that the archdiocese’s Independent Review Board and its Office of Child Abuse Investigation and Review, as well as outside investigators, had “conducted a thorough review of the allegations.”

“The Review Board has concluded that there is insufficient reason to suspect Father Pfleger is guilty of these allegations,” the cardinal wrote….

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May 24, 2021 -Springfield- Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni announcedthe investigation into the murder of Danny Croteau has been officially closed. The investigation began after Danny was found deceased on April 15, 1972, in the Connecticut River in Chicopee, still dressed in his clothes from his previous school day at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart school. The search for answers and proof of what happened to Danny has ensued for over 49 years.

This past Friday, detectives with the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office were authorized by DA Gulluni to present the case against Richard Lavigne to a magistrate in order to obtain an arrest warrant for the murder of Danny Croteau. However, Lavigne died this past Friday evening, May 21, in a hospital facility in Greenfield.

Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni stated, “Danny’s parents, Carl and Bernice, told reporters that they just…

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The killer was only ever going to be Richard Lavigne, who as a priest groomed 13-year-old altar boy Danny Croteau to rape him, then murdered him and tossed him in the Chicopee River when Danny became a nuisance.

Mike McNally is a Massachusetts State Police detective who asks the questions the dead need answered.It took him a few meetings this time, but finally 80-year-old, bedridden Richard Lavigne could hear Death’s footsteps and was ready to unburden himself of a dark secret he had carried in his dark heart for a half century.

Still, being a narcissistic sociopath, Lavigne couldn’t quite bring himself to explicitly admit he murdered 13-year-old altar boy Danny Croteau. Like everything else he did in his sorry life, Lavigne repeatedly framed his homicidal callousness in the best possible light, a gauzy haze that sought to minimize his vain and vile awfulness.

Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced…

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In a dispassionate voice, defrocked Catholic priest Richard Lavigne told a state trooper about Daniel “Danny” Croteau’s final hours before the boy was found dead in the Chicopee River in 1972.

Lavigne was the last person to see Croteau alive — and had long been the prime suspect in his murder — but managed to evade prosecution up until his death on Friday as investigators closed in.

“What did you do after you saw the body in the water?” Massachusetts State Trooper Michael McNally asked Lavigne, who agreed to 11 hours of interviews from a hospital bed in Greenfield over five days in April and early May.

“I don’t remember what I did. I don’t remember telling anyone,” Lavigne responded slowly.

“Did you tell the police?” McNally pressed.

“I don’t believe I did,” Lavigne said.

“I don’t believe you did either,” the trooper said.

“I just remember…

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A Massachusetts district attorney announced the closure of the Danny Croteau cold case and said Richard Lavigne caused the death of the 13-year-old boy.

Authorities in Massachusetts say a defrocked priest was responsible for the death of a child in a cold case from 1972 — but the suspect died last week before he could be arrested.

In a press release, Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni announced that the death of Danny Croteau, a 13-year-old boy from Springfield whose body was found floating in a river in 1972, was caused by his then-priest, Richard Lavigne, who pleaded guilty to child molestation in 1992 and was defrocked in 2003.

Rev. Richard R. Lavigne, a Roman Catholic priest, pleads guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting two adolescent boys at Newburyport Superior Court in this June 25, 1992 in Newburyport, Mass.Scott Maguire / AP file

The district attorney said…

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Investigators were preparing to seek an arrest warrant for a defrocked Roman Catholic priest long considered a suspect in the 1972 killing of a western Massachusetts altar boy shortly before his death last week, a prosecutor said Monday.

Incriminating admissions Richard Lavigne made in a series of recent interviews while in a medical facility further implicated the longtime suspect in 13-year-old Danny Croteau’s death, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni told reporters.

Gulluni said his office was prepared to prosecute Lavigne for Croteau’s killing, but he died Friday at the age of 80 before he could be arrested.

Lavigne indicated in interviews this year with investigator that he had brought Croteau to the riverbank, physically assaulted him, left him there and returned sometime later to see the boy floating in the river, Gulluni said.

“I just remember being heartbroken when I saw his body going down the river knowing I was…

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BOSSIER CITY, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A Bossier City man and associate pastor at a local church arrested last week on child pornography and bestiality charges made his first appearance in court Monday.

Seby Chemmampallil, 36, was arrested Friday and charged with two counts of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13 (possession), two counts of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13 (distribution), and two counts of sexual abuse of animals.

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Shreveport issued a letter to the Catholic clergy and the community shortly after the arrest announcing that Chemmampallil, known in the Catholic community as the Rev. Seby Shan, had been removed from serving as priest in the diocese. Chemmampallil served as associate pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church in Bossier City.

“While the allegations against him do not, at this time, involve physical contact with minors, they nonetheless…

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Cindy Leech’s voice broke, then it broke again, as she talked about the lives ruined, and the lives lost, to childhood sexual abuse — including her son’s.

“We’re not going away. We are going to fight,” Leech, of Johnstown, her husband at her side, said, as she and other survivors of childhood sexual abuse by clergy and others called on the No. 2 Republican in the state Senate to finally hold a vote on a long-sought bill opening a two-year window in civil court allowing them to sue in cases where the statute of limitations has expired.

Legislation authorizing such a change cleared the Republican-controlled state House in April on a 149-52 vote, but the legislation remains in park in the majority-GOP state Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, has said such a bill is unconstitutional.

Ward, whose office controls the flow of legislation to the floor, said…

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A long-awaited update to a murder investigation some thought would never come.

The Hampden District attorney claims he knows who killed 13-year-old Danny Croteau all those years ago, but now defrocked priest Richard Lavigne died while the arrest warrant was being written up.

While this chapter has finally closed, advocates are claiming there’s more to this story and they want to get to the bottom of it.

The founder of Road to Recovery, an organization that helps victims of sexual abuse said he wants answers as to why Danny Croteau’s murder took nearly 50 years to solve.

“Release all the documents let us see the documents,” Road to Recovery President Dr. Robert Hoatson said.

After nearly 50 years, the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office said the investigation into the 1972 death of an altar boy, Danny Croteau is closed.

Former priest Richard Lavigne was named a suspect in the case…

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Nationally known activist Chicago priest the Rev. Michael Pfleger will be reinstated as the leader of his parish after an investigation found “insufficient reason to suspect” he sexually abused children, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago announced Monday.

The decision from the archdiocese comes more than four months after it asked Pfleger to step aside and told his parish that its Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review had received an allegation that the priest had sexually abused a minor more than 40 years ago. Three accusers ultimately came forward, with one saying he was 18 when Pfleger sexually abused him.

Pfleger, who is white, had fierce support from leaders and parishioners at St. Sabina, a Black church in the city’s largely Black and low-income Auburn Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Parishioners cheered as he arrived for a news conference outside St. Sabina on Monday afternoon, and Pfleger jokingly said…

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Pfleger, who has led St. Sabina since 1981, is set to return to the pulpit June 5. “I’m so relieved and glad that this nightmare is over,” he said.

AUBURN GRESHAM — Father Michael Pfleger has been reinstated at St. Sabina Church, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Monday, as church leaders found “no reason to suspect” the longtime pastor is guilty of sexual abuse.

The Catholic priest was asked to step down from the ministry in January, when two brothers accused Pfleger of inappropriate sex abuse stemming from incidents that occurred decades ago when they were underage. A third man came forward with allegations in March.

In a letter to the St. Sabina parish, Cardinal Blase Cupich said Pfleger can return to the pulpit the weekend of June 5, coinciding with the Feast of Corpus Christi. Cupich said he’s asked Pfleger to take…

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[Includes link to audio recordings shared by Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni from interviews Richard R. Lavigne had given in the weeks before his death.]

Ever since the body of 13-year-old Danny Croteau was found floating facedown in the Chicopee River in 1972, investigators had set their sights on Richard R. Lavigne, the priest at the Catholic church where the Springfield youngster was an altar boy.

The day after Danny’s body was found, Lavigne was spotted walking alone along the riverbank as police surveyed the crime scene. When questioned, Lavigne posed a chilling question.

“If a stone was used and thrown in the river, would the blood still be on it?” he asked, according to a police report. Danny had been killed by a crushing blow to his head, likely with a rock.

Lavigne was never charged in the boy’s death, although he was convicted of crimes against other…

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A popular Southside pastor in the Archdiocese of Chicago will be returned to his parish months after being accused of child sexual abuse. We hope that Catholic officials will provide a detailed explanation as to how the allegations of three men were deemed  “insufficient” to determine that the priest was guilty of the accusations. 

CardinalBlasé Cupich announced today that Fr. Michael Pfleger would return to active ministry next month at theparish where he had worked for years. Since we know that a false allegation of sexual abuse is extremely rare, and that there were at least three allegations in this case, we urge the Archdiocese to provide more information on the investigation.

In January of this year, Fr. Pfleger stepped down following an allegation of sexually abusing a minor over 40 years ago. Later that same month, a second…

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Cardinal Blase Cupich is reinstating the Rev. Michael Pfleger as senior pastor at St. Sabina Parish after the archdiocesan board that investigates sexual abuse claims found “there is insufficient reason to suspect” the iconic South Side priest is guilty of allegations of abuse dating back decades, according to a letter released to parishioners Monday.

Two adult brothers from Texas in January lodged complaints that in the 1970s each was molested by Pfleger, the high-profile pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Parish in the Gresham neighborhood who has clashed with a succession of Catholic leaders over many matters including his unusually long tenure at the same parish.

The allegations had been under investigation by the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Independent Review Board. In a letter, Cupich told parishioners Pfleger will return June 5.

“The review board has concluded that there is insufficient reason to suspect Father Pfleger is…

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Fr. Michael Pfleger has been the pastor of St. Sabina Church in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood since 1981, most widely known for his activism against violence in the city.

Father Michael Pfleger will be reinstated as senior pastor at St. Sabina Church after an investigation by the Chicago Archdiocese review board found that allegations of abuse against Pfleger were unfounded, Cardinal Blase Cupich wrote Monday in a letter to parishioners.

“In accordance with our policies for the protection of children and youth, the archdiocese Independent Review Board assisted by our Office of Child Abuse Investigation and Review and outside investigators conducted a thorough review of the allegations,” Cupich said in the letter. “The Review Board has concluded that there is no reason to suspect Father Pfleger is guilty of these allegations.”

Pfleger will be reinstated the weekend of June 5-6, Cupich said.

“I have asked Father Pfleger to take the…

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CHICAGO (WLS) — Father Michael Pfleger has been reinstated as pastor of Saint Sabina Catholic Church on Chicago’s South Side.

Pfleger had been under investigation by the Chicago Archdiocese after two men came forward claiming they there were sexually assaulted by Pfleger when they were board.

An Archdiocese Review Board has found that there is “no reason to suspect Father Pfleger is guilty of these allegations.”

An emotional Pfleger spoke through tears Monday in front of the church where he has worked for decades.

“I’ve been discouraged at times. I’ve wanted to give up,” Pfleger said. “And to be honest with you, there were some times I would’ve gived up. But I love this church too much to walk away from it. Your support and love and my faith have kept me going. I’m so relieved and glad that this nightmare is over.”

Back in January, two adult brothers from Texas filed…

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Cardinal Blase Cupich is reinstating the Rev. Michael Pfleger to his post as senior pastor at St. Sabina Catholic Parish.

A letter to the community from Cupich says a review of abuse allegations against Pfleger shows “no reason to suspect” he is guilty of the accusations.

Cupich has asked Pfleger to take a couple weeks to prepare himself to return and he has agreed. He will be reinstated as pastor the weekend of June 5 and 6.

St. Sabina scheduled a news conference at 3 p.m. Monday in which Pfleger gave his first public statement in months.

“I am innocent of those charges and accusations and I cannot tell you how grateful I am to God and all those who supported me and prayed to me during this time,” Pfleger said. “This has been the most difficult and trying time of my life. I have been frustrated, I have been…

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Cardinal Blase Cupich reinstated the Rev. Michael Pfleger on Monday as senior pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church after an investigation of allegations of sexual abuse of a minor more than 40 years ago “concluded that there is insufficient reason to suspect Father Pfleger is guilty of these allegations.”

In a letter to the St. Sabina Church and school community, Cupich said the archdiocese’s Independent Review Board, assisted by the Office of Child Abuse Investigation and Review and outside investigators conducted “a thorough review” of the allegations.

The first version of the letter published on the archdiocese’s website said the probe “concluded that there is no reason to suspect Father Pfleger is guilty of these allegations” before being updated — without explanation — 90 minutes later. 

The letter was changed because officials from the archdiocese wanted “to be precise in repeating the language of the Independent…

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CHICAGO — Cardinal Blase Cupich is reinstating the Rev. Michael Pfleger to his post as senior pastor at St. Sabina Catholic Parish.

A letter to the community from Cupich says a review of abuse allegations against Pfleger shows “no reason to suspect” he is guilty of the accusations.

Cupich has asked Pfleger to take a couple weeks to prepare himself to return and he has agreed. He will be reinstated as pastor the weekend of June 5 and 6.

St. Sabina has scheduled a news conference at 3 p.m. Monday at which Pfleger will make a statement.

The entire letter from Cardinal Blase Cupich below:

Dear Members of the Faith Community of St. Sabina,

Thank you for your patience and prayers during the absence of your senior pastor. Father Michael Pfleger. As you know, earlier this year the archdiocese received allegations of child sexual abuse against Father Pfleger. In accordance with…

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CHICAGO (CBS) — Cardinal Blase Cupich is reinstating Rev. Michael Pfleger as pastor of Saint Sabina parish, four months after he was asked to step aside from his duties, after an Archdiocese review board cleared him of allegations of sexual abuse.

Pfleger will hold a news conference Monday afternoon at 3:00 to address announcement.

“In accordance with our policies for the protection of children and youth, the archdiocese Independent Review Board assisted by our Office of Child Abuse Investigation and Review and outside investigators conducted a thorough review of the allegations. The Review Board has concluded that there is no reason to suspect Father Pfleger is guilty of these allegations,” Cupich wrote in a letter to the Saint Sabina Parish.

Pfleger was removed from St. Sabina in January, after two brothers accused him of sexually abusing them decades ago. A third accuser later came forward.

After the review board…

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[Note from BishopAccountability.org: Cardinal Cupich’s letter was revised shortly after its publication on May 24, 2021. Initially, the first sentence of the second paragraph read: “The Review Board has concluded that there is no reason to suspect Father Pfleger is guilty of these allegations.” The word “no” was changed to “insufficient,” but not before the “no reason” version had appeared in early reports by WGN and CBS 2. See our caches of these initial reports by WGN and CBS 2.]

Dear Members of the Faith Community of St. Sabina,

Thank you for your patience and prayers during the absence of your senior pastor. Father Michael Pfleger. As you know, earlier this year the archdiocese received allegations of child sexual abuse against Father Pfleger. In accordance with our policies for the protection of children and youth, the archdiocese Independent Review Board assisted by our Office of Child Abuse Investigation and…

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A Pillar longread

Bishop Rick Stika, who is only 63, has had both a heart attack and major heart surgeries. A few years ago he lost sight in his right eye. He has severe diabetes, which gives him chronic pain, and he’s walked with a limp since he fractured his foot in five places, falling from a curb while on vacation. He says he should have surgery on the foot, but because of the diabetes, there is risk that surgery could turn into amputation. 

“So I live with that. I tell people, you know, you’ve gotta laugh a little bit at life. I’ve trained this eye to close and leave this one open so I can take snoozes at meetings,” the bishop jokes. 

The limp gets more pronounced when he’s tired, I notice.

“Yeah. The limp kinda bothers me. So I just kinda pace myself, and I’ve taken some meds…

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As accusations mount, victim advocates question police commitment to investigation. Rush has denied all allegations.

Note: This story contains depictions of sexual and physical abuse that may be disturbing.

A former member of the Inspiring Body of Christ Church says he was 13 when Pastor Rickie Rush raped him, an allegation Dallas police say they are investigating.

Marcus Bell Jr., 26, described the assault in recent interviews with The Dallas Morning News, saying it came after a week of beatings by Rush in 2007 that left him bruised and barely able to walk. At least six former members of the church told The News that Rush often targeted him for whippings in the name of discipline.

The News also recently obtained an affidavit that another former IBOC member submitted to Dallas police two years ago, alleging Rush touched her inappropriately around 2006.

Bell and the woman are among 12 former church members The News has reported…

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A Catholic priest charged with indecently assaulting 12 boys in a NSW Southern Highlands boarding school in the 1980s allegedly wrote if he could change something about himself it would be “this feeling I have towards young boys”, a court has heard.

Father Anthony William Peter Caruana, 79, allegedly assaulted the boys when he was a dormitory manager, rugby coach and band teacher at Chevalier College, in Burradoo, between 1982 and 1988.

He has pleaded not guilty to 29 charges, including four counts of homosexual intercourse with a student and several counts of indecent assault of a person aged under 16.

In her opening statement at the Sydney Downing Centre on Monday, crown prosecutor Nerissa Keay outlined the allegations and told the jury what they could expect to hear from the 12 complainants over the course of the eight-week trial.

Among the allegations, is the indecent assault of a student…

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The first accusations came in 2018, when two alleged victims and the father of a third alleged victim told police a prominent Kalamazoo, Michigan, pastor and his wife, both of whom worked for the local school district, had paid local boys for sex with the pastor and his wife. One claimed the pastor gave him a car.

The case has only grown more complex and controversial over the last three years. Rev. Stricjavvar “Strick” Strickland, pastor of Second Baptist Church, was also charged with assaulting a church elder. He was found not guilty on that charge.

In 2020, when he failed to show up for court dates, police called him a fugitive from the law. His attorney said Strickland was at a home in Mississippi and was having problems traveling due to a hurricane and other weather issues. He later turned himself…

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A shocking case is set to go before a judge today.

Beginning Monday morning at 9:00 A.M. is the trial of the former priest who was caught making a pornographic video on the altar.

Father Travis Clark, 37, and the two women he was caught with making a pornographic video, each faces up to two years imprisonment if found guilty.

These are the three who stand trial today [see photo below], Father Clark (middle), on the left is Mindy Dixon, 41, and to the right Melissa Cheng, 28. They’re facing criminal charges in St. Tammany Parish.

Happening last year at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Pearl River, Father Clark was caught having sex with the two women on the altar. A local resident saw the lights were still on in the church and looked through the windows to find the priest and two dominatrices.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond helped…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese in Burlington has been served with another lawsuit alleging that a priest sexually abused a young boy in the 1970s. 

The lawsuit filed in Chittenden County Superior Court on Tuesday alleges that the church negligently employed and assigned throughout the country a priest with a history of sexual abuse who preyed upon a minor while he was stationed in New Jersey. 

The church in 2019 published Leo Courcy’s name along with those of 40 others it said had been credibly accused of abusing children. 

The case is being brought by Christopher Silletti, who is represented by Jessica Arbour, an attorney with Horowitz Law. The firm has represented victims in a number of church sexual abuse cases. Silletti, 49, is seeking damages of an unspecified amount. 

The suit argues that the diocese made “a purposeful effort to conceal the horrific misdeeds of Diocesan priests” and “misrepresented to Plaintiff,…

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Chapter 11 odyssey has left some victims who stepped forward at the Boy Scouts’ request feeling angry and mistrustful of the process

When the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy last year and asked alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse to step forward, roughly 84,000 did, with many hoping the legal proceeding would help usher a financial settlement—and some closure to their ordeals.

But 15 months later, those who came forward are still waiting as the Boy Scouts’ odyssey through chapter 11 approaches the finish line without a clear resolution of their claims.

Boy Scout lawyer Jessica Lauria said in a court hearing last week that the only way to preserve the organization’s mission is to reorganize it rather than liquidating assets to pay sex abuse claims. Breaking up the Boy Scouts would harm 700,000 active Scouts, she said.

But to turn the page on…

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Cork-based musician Leah Sohotra was emotionally impacted by the publication of the Commission of Investigation’s report in January 2021, after her mother experienced a similar, unbearable fate in New York following sexual assault.

Folk musician Leah Sohotra’s own story is tightly bound to that of the survivors of Ireland’s horrific Mother & Baby Homes. The Commission of Investigation’s report on the homes for unmarried mothers was published on January 12th, 2021. The five-year report found that around 9,000 children died in 18 different homes, where girls as young as 12 were admitted over seven decades. It also found evidence of physical abuse, issues relating to burials of babies, and the facilitation of “illegal registrations of birth” as a result of forced adoption.

Met with heartbreak and frustration by survivors’ groups who insist that the report barely scratched the surface, they are now calling for criminal…

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EVERY time a story breaks about the abuse inflicted on youngsters in religious environments, the response from church officials is always the same: a grovelling apology usually followed by blather that such incidents are things of the past that cannot possibly happen again.

On Wednesday we reported on “hip” pastor Jonathan Stockstill saying how sorry he was about gross acts of cruelty inflicted on youngsters in camps run by his church in Louisiana, and a day later we had the much less “hip” but far more prominent Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, above, in full-on hand-wringing mode over Christian camps run by serial abuser and sadist John Smyth QC.

I am sorry this was done in the name of Jesus Christ by a perverted version of spirituality and evangelicalism … I continue to hear new details of the abuse and my sorrow, shock and…

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Abuse survivors to hold rally today in Harrisburg

Adult survivors of child sex abuse are pledging to return to the state Capitol today and maintain pressure on Senate Republican leaders, who so far have declined to hold a final vote on legislation that would permit lawsuits against their abusers and organizations like the Catholic Church that covered up for child predators.

Senate leaders don’t have a vote on the legislation, House 951, scheduled next week, said Erica Wright, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County.

Declining to act now would be “cruel and inhumane” after the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the legislation in April in a vote in which key Republicans — Senate President Pro Tem Jake Corman, R-Centre County and Senate Judiciary committee Chairwoman Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne County threw their support behind the bill, said Shaun Dougherty, a priest abuse survivor from Johnstown.

“They pulled this out of…

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The Catholic Bishops in Northern California had challenged a new law providing for triple damages against any Diocese or organization that covered up childhood sex abuse. In 2019, the California legislature passed a law to provide for a 3-year window for survivors of childhood sex abuse to come forward and sue the priest and the church no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. Part of that law, CCP 340.1, provided for triple damages for cover up. The bishops’ lawyers argued that the triple damages provision in CCP 340.1 was unconstitutional because it imposed a new punishment that was not in place when the cover up conduct actually occurred.

The statute of limitations in California barred most of these cases because the old statute of limitations required that a lawsuit be filed within two years from the abuse. Few children would have been aware of their right to file a…

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The trial of defrocked priest Richard Daschbach, charged with sexual abuse of 14 girls, is dividing the small, deeply Catholic country

Lita grew up in a poor family in a hamlet surrounded by the spectacular mountains of Oecusse in Timor-Leste. When she was 11 years old she went to live in Topu Honis shelter home, in the mountainous, forest-encircled village of Kutet.

The shelter was run by Richard Daschbach, a now-defrocked 84-year-old US priest who founded the facility in 1992.

Daschbach, born in Pittsburgh and a former member of the Society of the Divine Word, was a powerful man. He was regarded as an expert in local language and many residents were convinced he had magical powers. Over the years the shelter, which had the support of international donors, took care of more than 600 orphans, poor children, vulnerable adults and abused women.

Lita says that in the evenings, as…

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Nazir Afzal, a prestigious Muslim barrister with a history of prosecuting gangs engaged in sexual abuse and grooming, is the head of the latest effort by the Catholic Church in England and Wales to ensure better prevention of sexual abuse of children and to address ongoing allegations in all Catholic institutions and groups.

“The Catholic Church has recognized the failures of the past and the need to put things right,” said Afzal, the new chair of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency. “This is what attracted me to the role.”

“To make a difference, you have to act differently. It usually takes great courage to do so,” Afzal, said May 17. “When I helped deliver justice to thousands of victims of abuse, I realized that they were the most courageous of all.”

Afzal’s previous roles include chief crown prosecutor for northwest England and chief executive of the Police and Crime Commissioners.

…

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A former southern Tasmanian high school teacher is facing allegations he sexually abused two male students in the late 1980s to early 1990s.

Key points:

• The man is accused of serious and repeated sexual abuse against two boys dating back to the late 1980s
• A law firm is pursuing civil action on behalf of the two men and is calling for others to come forward
• It’s understood the man also taught at other state schools

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was a teacher at Kingston High School during the period of the alleged offending. 

Australian law firm Maurice Blackburn is representing the two men and has called for anyone who attended Kingston High School between 1980 and 2005 who knows anything to come forward.

Senior associate John Rule said the allegations against the teacher were “serious”.

“[It was allegedly] repeated abuse and involved quite sophisticated grooming…

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St. Vincent Catholic Charities is suspending operations at its children’s home while it deals with issues involving staffing.

The agency decided to halt operations while it revamps staff recruiting and retention efforts to better meet “the needs of the ever-changing population of children in crisis,” St. Vincent spokesperson Andrea Bitely said in an email.

“The challenges faced over the last year have made it clear to St. Vincent’s leadership that a temporary pause in programming is necessary to properly provide the highest quality of care, the best and safest environment and the right forms of management for both the children and their staff,” Bitely wrote.

The home accepts children ages 5 to 17 who suffer from abuse and neglect, providing counseling, education and other services. More than 90% of the children placed there are wards of the court, according to the agency’s website.

State records show the facility on West Willow Street has a capacity…

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An outspoken US nun who was recently embroiled in a censorship row with Melbourne’s Archbishop has warned Australia’s Catholic Church it faces an inevitable decline unless it stops suppressing rank-and-file members pushing for reform.

The nation’s bishops are under pressure to overhaul the church after years of sex scandals and internal unrest, and one of America’s most prominent Benedictine nuns, Sister Joan Chittister, has now renewed calls for women to be ordained and for laypeople to be given more power over their parishes, declaring that the church needs to “grow up” if it wants to thrive.

Such reforms were meant to be thrashed out at the most significant conference Australian Catholic bishops have held in 80 years, the Plenary Council, which is scheduled to take place in October.

However, working documents prepared for the event have prompted concerns that some of the more contentious issues on the agenda could be cast…

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The death of a well-known religion reporter; a new job announcement from a beat veteran and a spotlight on two feisty independent religion news organizations is what concerns me this week.

Tmatt had previously offered an update on the health of Rachel Zoll, a former Associated Press religion specialist who came down with glioblastoma, a brain cancer that has no cure, in early 2018. That was only a few months after another religion-beat pro, Jeffrey Weiss of the Dallas Morning News, died of the exact same malady.

Last week, Zoll died at the age of 55 at her home in Massachusetts. She reported on religion for AP for 17 years.

There have been lots of tributes, so I’ll spotlight this Associated Press obit atop the list.

Zoll covered religion in all its aspects, from the spiritual to the political, and her stories reached a global…

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Few abuse survivors anticipate the country’s largest Protestant faith group will effectively address its sexual abuse problem without the pressure of outside forces.

As the Southern Baptist Convention prepares for its annual gathering next month in Nashville, Tennessee, expectations that clergy sex abuse survivors will see meaningful progress are low. Few of us anticipate the country’s largest Protestant faith group will effectively address its sexual abuse problem.

Over two years have passed since the “Abuse of Faith” investigatory series brought wide media attention to the long-standing, pervasive SBC problem of clergy sex abuse and church cover-ups. The series documented more than 700 people who reported having been sexually abused by Southern Baptist clergy and church leaders. Nearly all were children at the time they were abused.

The investigation also found that the very structure of the SBC “enabled predators to move undetected and stifled reforms to prevent abuse.” And the investigation  View Cache

The former chief crown prosecutor in the Rochdale grooming gang cases has been appointed as the chairman of the Catholic Church’s new safeguarding body in England and Wales.

Nazir Afzal’s appointment was welcomed by two survivors of abuse, who said “a seismic shift in culture” was needed.

The body will be able to sanction clergy who do not meet standards.

It comes after the Church was heavily criticised for its response to child abuse by an independent inquiry.

Mr Afzal, a practicing Muslim, previously served as the chief crown prosecutor for north-west England and director in London, as well as the chief executive of the Police and Crime Commissioners.

He was responsible for bringing sex traffickers in the Rochdale grooming gang scandal to justice, as well as Stuart Hall, the former television presenter who in 2014 was convicted of multiple sex offences against children.

The Church hopes the new Catholic…

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