ABUSE TRACKER

Priest abuse has been a steady and disturbing pattern across the U.S. for decades. Currently, cases are pouring in, and the list of clergy credibly accused of abuse continues to grow in New York state. Four dioceses in New York have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, prompting claims deadlines. The dates for Syracuse and Rochester have already passed, but it’s not too late for some.

Due to bankruptcy filings, the Diocese of Buffalo and Diocese of Rockville Centre have a deadline for clergy abuse claims of August 14, 2021. This date coincides with the extended look-back window date in the Child Victims Act (CVA), which has led to an even greater influx of clergy abuse lawsuits. Since the New York CVA was enacted, thousands of child sex abuse cases by clergy have been reported by survivors who were previously unable to make claims due to their age and when the abuse occurred.

…

View Cache

Two sisters abused by the same priest have said it was “heartbreaking” to discover the other had gone through the same thing.

Former priest Con Cunningham pleaded guilty to eight counts of indecent assaults between 1971 and 1975.

Now 86, he abused sisters Paula and Margaret Martin, who were between nine and 12, and 11 and 13 years old when it happened. 

The abuse took place at a number of locations in Donegal, including at the girls’ home, at the parochial house in Fanavolty in Fanad and also at the Loreto College buildings in Letterkenny.

Speaking publicly for the first time today, Paula said they waived their right to anonymity after staying silent during her childhood “brought much pain.”

She said: “All through my teenage years and my twenties I put huge energy into hiding this part of me because I was so ashamed.

“During this process, the legal process, and…

View Cache

A new civil sex-abuse lawsuit has been filed against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, also naming Opus Dei priest Father Michael Barrett, who is currently a pastor in the Archdiocese of New York.

Jeffrey Anderson, a prominent attorney who represents sex-abuse victims, announced the allegations against Father Barrett and McCarrick on Wednesday in a news conference that was broadcast online.

“My youth, my childhood was robbed from me,” said the plaintiff, who filed the lawsuit anonymously, in the case during the online press conference. He said he was “abused by two people involved in the Catholic Church, and this is Father Michael Barrett and Cardinal McCarrick, who wasn’t a cardinal then, and he should have never become one.”

According to Anderson, the plaintiff was abused by Father Barrett beginning at age 12, and the abuse continued for “three to four years.”

Neither the Archdiocese of New York nor Opus Dei immediately…

View Cache

A former Catholic school music teacher in Jackson will serve more than a decade in prison as the fourth person convicted in the Michigan attorney general’s ongoing clergy abuse investigation.

Joseph Comperchio, 67, of Fort Myers, Florida, was charged last September for sexually abusing two children. In those cases, he faced two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Then in October, five new counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving two new individuals were added.

In June, Comperchio pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The charges stemmed from Comperchio’s time as the drama and music teacher at St. John Catholic School in Jackson in the 1970s.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Susan. B. Jordan sentenced Comperchio on Wednesday to 12 to 30 years in prison. He must also register as a…

View Cache

[Via National Catholic Reporter]

Msgr. Robert T. Richie, rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, told cathedral parishioners in an Aug. 3 letter he has been named in a civil lawsuit alleging he “sexually abused a child on one occasion” nearly 50 years ago.

“I completely and without reservation deny this allegation,” he wrote. “Nothing like this has ever occurred during my 50 years as a priest, or at any other time in my life. I am confident that once this matter is litigated in court, the allegation will be found to be absolutely false.”

The suit was filed under New York state’s Child Victims Act, which went into effect in 2020. Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed into law a bill to extended the deadline for filing suits under the law to Aug. 14. The law lifted the statute of limitations on abuse cases to allow victims to file claims…

View Cache

It is with sadness that we inform you that an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor has been made against Father Paul Butler, Parochial Vicar at St. Margaret of Scotland Church in Selden, in a recently filed Child Victims Act lawsuit. The alleged abuse is reported to have occurred in the 1980s, when Fr. Butler was a seminarian.

The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People establishes specific guidelines when an allegation is made against a clergy member. An investigation is begun when an accusation is made. In accordance with the processes and procedures outlined in the Diocesan Child Protection Policy, the matter has been reported to the civil authorities. Father Butler has voluntarily stepped away from ministry and will not present himself as a priest while the required processes and procedures are undertaken.

The Office for the Protection of Children and Young People of the Diocese…

View Cache

Two lawsuits have been filed under a new Louisiana law that gives child abuse victims a chance to file suits for old claims.

The bill took effect Sunday, and allows victims of sex abuse to file suits against anyone involved for the next three years. If someone was convicted in connection with the abuse, there is no limit on filing suits. Previous law allowed people to file suit for ten years after their 18th birthday.

According to a release, the Lamothe firm has filed two lawsuits under the new law this week; the firm believes these are among the first filed in Louisiana under the new law.

“Given that most survivors do not come forward until much later in life, usually in their 50s, this law provides a much-needed path to justice,” said Frank E. Lamothe, III, who has spent his career representing sexual…

View Cache

A priest accused of sexually abusing a child had historic links to two Wellington Anglican schools, with parents at one – Chilton Saint James in Lower Hutt – informed of the links on Monday.

During her testimony to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care two weeks ago, Joanna Oldham accused Reverend Ray Oppenheim of sexually abusing her when she was a young girl. She said that, when she was nine years old, Oppenheim molested her and took indecent photos of her three times before an uncle found out and put a stop to it.

Anglican bishop Justin Duckworth on Monday said those allegations were the first he had heard about Oppenheim, who died in 2001.

Oppenheim worked at St Mark’s Parish in Wellington from 1987 to 1990, which has since closed. That school had close links to St Mark’s School beside the Basin Reserve.

He then worked at…

View Cache

[With a video report.]

The new account of a state trooper bolsters a meticulous new report on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s misdeeds — and how his inner circle allowed such conduct to fester.

The governor placed his finger on the back of the trooper’s neck, standing behind her in an elevator at his Manhattan office, tracing the path of her spine with a two-word narration: “Hey, you.”

Sometimes, he asked questions — Why didn’t she wear a dress? Why pursue marriage when “your sex drive goes down” afterward? Could he kiss her? — and sometimes, he made statements: He remarked that his ideal girlfriend could “handle pain.” He said that the trooper, in her late 20s, was “too old” for him. He directed her to say nothing of their conversations.

The trooper was perhaps most unsettled after an event on Long Island in 2019. As she held a door open…

View Cache

[Includes eight-minute video interview with Mitchell Garabedian]

Defrocked ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick last week became the highest-ranking Catholic church official to be criminally charged for sexual abuse, for assault and battery on a 16-year-old boy in Wellesley in the 1970s. Meanwhile, in unrelated cases, the archdiocese of Boston settled six lawsuits last week with former leaders accused of assaults across the state ranging from 1966 to 1990. Jim Braude was joined on Greater Boston by attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of victims of church abuse to talk about the church’s longstanding problem with sexual abuse in its ranks.

Garabedian said the McCarrick case could represent “a new era” for going after powerful leaders in the church, as more victims keep coming forward.

“He wanted to take the weight off his shoulders — the emotional weight that many victims have and carry through their lives after being sexually abused as children,” Garabedian…

View Cache

Two months after one of its priests admitted in court to pocketing $516,000 in parish funds, a New Jersey Catholic diocese is introducing a multi-step system that will allow people to anonymously report financial misconduct in their parishes.

The Diocese of Metuchen — which includes churches in Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren counties — is partnering with an ethics consulting company to set up a telephone and online system to gather reports of ethics violations in its parishes, schools and cemeteries, church officials said.

The diocese already has systems in place for people to confidentially report allegations of clergy sexual abuse, but it has become clear parishes also needs a way for people to report theft, fraud and other financial problems, said Anthony P. Kearns 3rd, chancellor of the Diocese of Metuchen.

“Day after day in the news, we are reminded…

View Cache

[Includes eight-minute audio interview.]

Next month, a former Catholic Cardinal will face criminal charges in Massachusetts for alleged sexual molestation.

Theodore McCarrick is the highest ranking member of the U.S. Catholic clergy to be criminally charged with sex abuse. The charges stem from an alleged incident involving a teenage boy that happened more than 45 years ago.

Many of the sex abuse cases involving boys and young men are not reported until the victims are adults, and in the past many such reports have been disbelieved.

Allen Ruyle is a psychotherapist in San Diego who works with male survivors of sexual abuse.

He joined Midday Edition on Monday to talk about why it sometimes takes male sex abuse victims many years to come forward.

View Cache

The priesthood of the Catholic Church has always lived with the trappings of a kind of mystique, perhaps because of the celibacy. When the sexual abuse crisis in the church arose, that mystique was tarnished or even eroded. Parishioners no longer put priests on pedestals, and there may be something very good in that. I keep reminding myself that we’ve been called to walk with the people rather than to lead from on high. The result has become remembering why it was that I became a priest.

Most priests I know do not see themselves as holy, not in the way most people think of being holy, and surely not any more holy than the people they see each Sunday. All too often, it seems to most priests that we are far less holy than many of those folks in the pews.

Because parishioners see priests doing holy things and…

View Cache

Robin Vadakkumcherry, serving a 20-year prison stretch under an anti-child abuse law, sought bail to marry a woman whom he had raped and impregnated when she was a minor.

The Supreme Court refused to entertain on Monday a plea by a 49-year-old former priest from Kerala, serving a 20-year prison stretch under an anti-child abuse law, for bail to marry a woman whom he had raped and impregnated when she was a minor.

The rape survivor had also filed a separate petition seeking his interim bail for a few months so they could marry and legitimise the child.

Appearing before a Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari, advocate Amit George, for convict Robin Vadakkumcherry, said the marriage would lend a “veneer of legitimacy” to the child.

‘Fundamental right to marry’

Mr. George even said his client had a “fundamental right to marry” which could not be thwarted by…

View Cache

The story was broken by The Pillar, a Substack newsletter founded in early 2021 by former editors of Catholic News Agency.

It had all the hallmarks of a sensationalist tabloid sting.

On July 20, 2021, an article appeared alleging that a senior U.S. priest, Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, had used the hookup app Grindr, with data from the app placing him at a number of gay bars. Burrill, the now former General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, promptly resigned.

But the report was not published by an outlet that many Americans would associated with such sex “exposés.” Indeed, most would have never have heard of it at all. It was The Pillar, a Substack newsletter founded in early 2021 by former editors of Catholic News Agency, that makes up just a tiny part of the Catholic media landscape in the U.S.

As a scholar of American Catholicism and culture,…

View Cache

The religious group said the town of Mount Pleasant had violated its civil rights.

The state Supreme Court recently dismissed a civil rights lawsuit by a religious group against the town for lack of evidence.

The Legion of Christ sued Mount Pleasant officials for religious discrimination after the town determined that the Legion’s undeveloped, 161-acre property in Thornwood was taxable. The Roman Catholic order based in Cheshire, Conn. had sought a tax-exempt status as a religious group.

The July 6 civil-rights decision followed a 2020 court ruling that the property was fully taxable.

“I’m pleased that the Supreme Court continues to uphold the Town Assessor’s determination of
the taxability of the Legion’s 161-acre vacant property. This was never about religious discrimination,” said Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi. “The two decisions are an enormous benefit to the taxpayers of the Town ensuring that our institutional properties are paying their fair share of property…

View Cache

Louis Gigante, a former priest turned New York City councilman who is credited for rebuilding the Hunts Point section of the Bronx in the 1980s, is being accused of sexually abusing a minor while at St. Athanasius Church in Longwood, according to recent court filings.

According to documents filed with the Bronx County clerk on May 25, an unnamed “John Doe” alleges that Gigante sexually assaulted him from 1976-1977 when he was a nine-year-old attending Gigante’s bible study at St. Athanasius Church.

The man, estimated to be 50 years old, alleges that during that time Gigante forced him to perform oral sex during bible study sessions.

“The Archdiocese knew or should have known that Father Gigante was sexually abusing children and/or had the propensity to do so,” the claim reads. “The defendants Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church knew or should have known of…

View Cache

Retired priest and former New York City Councilman Louis Gigante was slapped with a lawsuit that accused him of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy in the 1970s in a Bible study course.

Gigante, whose brother was mob boss Vincent “The Chin,” allegedly forced the kid to perform oral sex at St. Athanasius Church in the Bronx, documents filed in Bronx County court showed.

“The Archdiocese knew or should have known that Father Gigante was sexually abusing children and/or had the propensity to do so,” the complaint reads, according to The Bronx Times. 

“The defendants Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church knew or should have known of the abuse that Mr. Doe and other young children were suffering at the hands of their clergy.”

Gigante is also known for nonprofit housing developments in Hunt’s Point neighborhood in the 1980s.

The suit was…

View Cache

A former priest who has detailed allegations of abuse he suffered at the hands of the late Cardinal Keith O’Brien has warned that the Catholic Church is “blinded by its fear of scandal,” and has made little effort to establish the extent of his predatory sexual behaviour.

Brian Devlin was one of four whistleblowers who detailed a litany of allegations against the man who was the Catholic Church’s most senior cleric in Britain, prompting his resignation and admission of sexual misconduct.

Eight years on, Devlin has spoken out for the first time about the man he considered a friend, mentor, and teacher, and outlined suggestions for reforms he believes could help end the “silence, secrets and omertà” in the church.

His book, ‘Cardinal Sin’, which chronicles the O’Brien affair and its fallout, has been hailed by Mary McAleese, the former Irish president, as a courageous insight into how the church’s…

View Cache

Brian Devlin wanted to be a priest, not an author.

The book he has written was one he felt compelled to write but wished he didn’t have to.

However, he has no regrets about going into print.

In the same way he has no regrets about going public with revelations which helped bring down the most senior Catholic clergyman in Britain.

A global scandal

Mr Devlin was one of four men who helped expose Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s sexual misconduct.

And when they felt the Catholic Church hierarchy attempted a cover-up, they went to the media, unleashing a story that caused a global scandal.

‘Cardinal Sin’ focuses on the abuse of power within the Church and sets out ways the leadership could change and avoid future shame.

Mr Devlin was training for the priesthood at the Drygrange seminary in the Borders from 1978 when he…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Seattle on Friday announced final settlements totaling $165,000 for two separate cases involving allegations of sexual abuse by Sister Dolores Crosby in the 1980s, when she served as principal at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic School in Seattle from 1979 to 1992. Crosby also taught at Edmonds’ Holy Rosary School from 1973 to 1978.

Crosby, who died in 2007, was also principal at Immaculate Conception School in Everett from 1992 to 1999. In 1999, Crosby surrendered her credentials for teaching and administration when an individual brought forward an allegation of inappropriate contact that took place in the 1980s.

In addition to Holy Rosary in Edmonds, Crosby taught at several other archdiocesan Catholic schools, including St. Anne School, Seattle, from 1968 to 1970, and St. Frances Cabrini School, Tacoma (now Lakewood), from 1978 to 1979.

Crosby was included on the Archdiocese of Seattle’s List of Clergy and Religious Brothers…

View Cache

A former Staten Islander alleges that he was sexually abused for several years beginning when he was a teen in the 1990s by a Roman Catholic priest who served for decades on Staten Island.

Ryan Barry, now a husband and father who lives in Pennsylvania, said in a lawsuit and a recent interview with the Advance/SILive.com that he was preyed upon by the Rev. James Garisto, a former pastor, teacher and school administrator in our borough.

“He robbed me of pretty much my whole childhood and my teenage years,” Barry said of Father Garisto.

Although solidly in recovery today, Barry believes that the alleged sex abuse triggered his long struggle with drug addiction.

“As soon as the drugs started, that’s all I did,” Barry said. “He [Father Garisto] robbed me of time with my family… It’s just frustrating that this guy got away with all…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany engaged in a decades-long cover-up of chronic child sexual abuse committed by its priests, according to a statement by former Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, who ran the diocese from 1977 to 2014.
 
Hubbard’s statement, issued through his attorney in response to a series of questions from the Times Union, confirmed that the diocese shielded priests and others facing sexual abuse allegations — sending them into private treatment programs rather than contacting law enforcement officials. Some of those priests allegedly emerged from treatment and committed more crimes.

“When an allegation of sexual misconduct against a priest was received in the 1970s and 1980s, the common practice in the Albany diocese and elsewhere was to remove the priest from ministry temporarily and send him for counseling and treatment,” Hubbard said. “Only when a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist determined the priest was capable of returning to ministry without…

View Cache

The longtime former head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany says the diocese covered up sexual abuse by priests for decades and protected clergy by sending them to private treatment instead of calling police.

Bishop Howard Hubbard, who ran the diocese in New York’s Capital District from 1977 to 2014 and has himself been accused of sexual abuse, made the admission in a statement issued through his lawyer to the Albany Times-Union in response to questions from the newspaper.

The Times Union reported Hubbard’s statement on Saturday.

“When an allegation of sexual misconduct against a priest was received in the 1970s and 1980s, the common practice in the Albany diocese and elsewhere was to remove the priest from ministry temporarily and send him for counseling and treatment,” Hubbard said.

“Only when a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist determined the priest was capable of returning to ministry…

View Cache

Cincinnati residents will find out today if a controversial Roman Catholic order will be allowed to convert a grand historic home into a monastery.

A zoning official is set to determine the fate of the homein Cincinnati’s North Avondale neighborhood. 

The religious order, Legionaries of Christ, has applied for permission to use the “Lake Como on Rose Hill” mansion built in 1903. If approved, the property would house seven to 10 priests and change the single-family home into a group home. 

There has been a string of protests from residents who have cited the order’s past sexual abuse allegations. They’re also worried the rezoning may set a  precedent for other houses in the neighborhood.

City staff, in an updated zoning report, recommended a conditional use of the home for a monastery be granted, but with three conditions: 

• No more than 10 residents;
• No religious services at the residence;
• It can’t…

View Cache

‘Nunavut Inuit consider this lack of any response by the Government of Canada to be profoundly disrespectful,’ says NTI president Aluki Kotierk

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. says it’s looking at ways to help Inuit victims revive charges of abuse against a former Nunavut priest.

NTI president Aluki Kotierk penned a letter to federal Justice Minister David Lametti earlier this month, asking the minister to take action on the file of Rev. Johannes Rivoire, a French Roman Catholic priest who worked in Nunavut in the 1960s.

Rivoire was once accused of sexually assaulting Inuit children, but the charges against him were stayed four years ago.

With the recent locating of burial grounds on the sites of former residential schools across the country, there have been calls to bring the churches and religious leaders who ran the schools to justice.

“For many years Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and Inuit of Nunavut have been…

View Cache

Archdiocese bans Father Rhéal Forest from sermons in wake of remarks to parishioners

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A Catholic priest has been banned by a Manitoba archdiocese from speaking publicly after accusing residential school survivors of lying about sexual abuse to get more money from court settlements, and after he joked about shooting those who wrote graffiti on churches, among other comments. 

The statements were made over weeks of services at St. Emile Roman Catholic Church in Winnipeg, and were included in videos on its Facebook page.  

During a July 10 mass Father Rhéal Forest — who was temporarily placed at St. Emile while the parish’s regular pastor, Father Gerry Sembrano, was on vacation — said residential school survivors lied about being sexually abused so they would receive more money during the settlement process with the federal government.

“If they wanted extra money, from the money that was given to…

View Cache

Former Donegal priest Con Cunningham has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for sexually abusing two minors in the Fanad area while serving in the Diocese of Raphoe in the early to mid 1970s.

The current Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian has apologised to the victims and their families, and acknowledged that in the past, the diocese has failed to act appropriately and expeditiously.

At Letterkenny Circuit Criminal Court today, Cunningham pleaded guilty to eight separate counts of indecent assaults in the early 1970s, involving two victims, Margaret and Paula Martin, who were aged between 11 and 13, and 9 and 12 at the time of the respective incidents.

The former priest has already served a 9 month jail sentence for sex crimes after being convicted in 2018 of two counts of indecent assault dating back to 1976 and 1977.

In a statement released this afternoon, the Bishop of Raphoe…

View Cache

[This is a revised version of the Boston Globe article blogged in Abuse Tracker yesterday.]

Defrocked former cardinal Theodore McCarrick was charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy during a wedding reception at Wellesley College in the 1970s, making him the highest-ranking Roman Catholic official in the United States to face criminal charges in the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

McCarrick, 91, a former archbishop of Washington, D.C., who fraternized with popes and presidents before he was expelled from the priesthood over sexual abuse allegations, is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 in a criminal complaint filed by Wellesley police in Dedham District Court.

A summons had been issued ordering McCarrick, now living in Missouri, to appear at the court for arraignment Sept. 3.McCarrick’s attorney, Barry Coburn of Washington, D.C., said Thursday that “we will look forward to addressing this issue in…

View Cache

Defrocked Catholic cardinal Theodore McCarrick was criminally charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy during a wedding reception at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1974, according to court documents obtained by The Washington Post. The charges make McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, D.C., the highest-ranking Catholic official in the country to face criminal charges for alleged sex abuse.

McCarrick, 91, was for years one of the country’s most connected and influential Catholic leaders before allegations of his behavior were made public in 2018, and he was later expelled from the priesthood. It was long assumed McCarrick would not be criminally charged because of statute of limitations on alleged incidents, though some men have filed civil lawsuits in New York and New Jersey, alleging McCarrick sexually abused them in those states when they were children.

Marci Hamilton, an attorney with Child USA, said the case was able…

View Cache

Defrocked former cardinal Theodore McCarrick was charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy during a wedding reception at Wellesley College in the 1970s, making him the highest-ranking Roman Catholic official in the United States to face criminal charges in the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

McCarrick, 91, a former archbishop of Washington, D.C., who fraternized with popes and presidents before he was expelled from the priesthood over sexual abuse allegations, is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 in a criminal complaint filed by Wellesley Police in Dedham District Court.

A summons has been issued ordering McCarrick, now living in Missouri, to appear at the court for arraignment Aug. 26.

Until now, McCarrick appeared beyond the reach of the criminal courts. Several men have filed civil lawsuits in New York and New Jersey, alleging that McCarrick sexually abused them in those states when…

View Cache

Con Cunningham (86) pleaded guilty to eight counts of indecent assault in early 1970s

A former Donegal priest has been jailed for 15 months for the sexual abuse of two young sisters.

Con Cunningham, now aged 86, pleaded guilty to eight counts of indecent assaults between 1971 and 1975.

Passing sentence, Judge John Aylmer said the abuse had had an appalling impact on the lives of victims Margaret and Paula Martin.

The women, who were aged between 11 and 13 years and 9 and 12 years at the time, waived their right to anonymity to name Cunningham. They appealed to any other victims to come forward.

“We are conscious too that this may open wounds of other survivors – please, do not suffer in silence. We are looking forward to life beyond this, to recovery and peace,” they said in a statement.

The abuse took place at a number of locations…

View Cache

Edward Kelley, 79, was arrested in South Carolina in mid-May, but has not yet been arraigned or included on Diocese of Providence’s list of credibly accused priests

State authorities are quietly prosecuting a sexual assault case against a former Diocese of Providence priest.

Edward Kelley, 79, had relocated to South Carolina, where he was arrested in mid-May on a warrant out of Rhode Island, according to court records. He was later brought to Rhode Island, where he faces an indictment on three counts of first-degree sexual assault dating to 1983 in North Smithfield.

But Kelley, who served in at least four parishes in Rhode Island in the 1980s and 1990s, has yet to be arraigned.

An arraignment is where someone is formally notified of the charges against them in court, and where they can enter a plea. Prosecutors can’t publicly disclose details of the case against Kelley until after he’s…

View Cache

[With content from Associated Press]

The state Department of Justice is conducting Wisconsin’s first statewide independent investigation into abuse by clergy and faith leaders. Attorney General Josh Kaul said that since the inquiry was announced in April, the agency has received more than 100 reports of abuse.

The review is ongoing and that anyone with information still has ample time to report, he said. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking to hear from survivors of abuse by faith leaders, friends or family of survivors, and anyone who has information about how a religious organization has responded to reported abuse. The DOJ is encouraging them to report that information online at supportsurvivors.widoj.gov or by calling 1-877-222-2620.

At a news conference Tuesday, Kaul outlined the DOJ’s goals for the review: “One is to get a measure of accountability to the extent that we can. We know that an issue…

View Cache

[Includes link to one-hour podcast interview]

hen 32-year-old Peter Fatovich died by suicide in 1994, he left behind his adoring wife, four children under 5 years of age, and a million questions.

Fatovich’s widow, Jenny Grosvenor, pushed the questions aside — until now. Grosvenor, who lives in Stowe, has spent the past few years pursuing the truth behind what tormented her young husband to take his own life by jumping into Huntington Gorge in Richmond, Vt. She finally discovered his dark secret: In the late 1970s, Fatovich was the victim of sexual abuse by the Rev. Donald T. Malone, a priest at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York, a Catholic high school.

Fatovich is far from alone. According to BishopAccountability.org, a nonprofit that tracks clergy abuse allegations, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has reported that over 7,000 clergy were credibly…

View Cache

The Boston Archdiocese settled claims last month by six men who alleged they were sexually abused by clergy years ago.

The alleged abuse occurred from approximately 1966 to 1990, when the alleged victims were about 7 to 14 years old, their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, said.

“By reporting the sexual abuse, clergy sexual abuse victims are empowering themselves and other victims, and expressing an important need to protect innocent children,” he said.

The archdiocese settled the claims “in the high five figures,” Garabedian said.

The six accused clergy and the parishes where the alleged abuse took place, according to Garabedian, are:

• Deacon William “Bill” Emerson, St. William’s Church, Tewksbury. Emerson was accused of sexually abusing a boy in the church basement at least 100 times from about 1973 to 1978, when the boy was approximately 8 to 13 years old. Emerson died in 2018.
• Monsignor James Haddad, St. Eulalia Church, Winchester….

View Cache

The Boston archdiocese has settled a Norton man’s claim that higher-ups in the institution failed to protect him when he was 11 years old and sexually abused by a priest in Norwood.

Lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, well-known for representing sexual abuse victims in claims against the archdiocese, said in a news release Wednesday that a settlement in the “high five figures” was reached last month.

His client, a Norton man, sued three people in the church for failing to protect him from the abuse of the Rev. Paul R. McCarthy when he was serving at the St. Catherine of Siena school and church in Norwood.

McCarthy worked in the Norwood church for four years before he was transferred to St. Augustine Church in Boston, Garabedian said. Before that, he worked at St. Mary’s Church in Charlestown, Our Lady of Grace Church in Chelsea and St. Ann’s Church in Somerville.

In April, Garabedian’s client sued the Rev. Robert…

View Cache

[A Google translation is followed by the Spanish text.]

In 2018, the former priest was expelled from the Catholic Church by decision of Pope Francis. It should be remembered that last June, the ex-religious had to be admitted to a hospital facility for an exacerbation of his basic coronary condition.

This morning the death of Fernando Karadima Fariña, former priest of El Bosque Church and who was investigated for sexual abuse and convicted by canon justice, was confirmed. The death occurred on Sunday, July 25, in the commune of Macul at 9:20 p.m.

According to La Tercera, the ex-priest died affected by bronchopneumonia, kidney failure, diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure.

Karadima was configured as the emblem of sexual abuse committed by religious in Chile, after in 2010 Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and José Andrés Murillo made public the crimes committed by the ex-religious against him. After this, on January 16, 2011, the Vatican…

View Cache

[With audio – a national broadcast, somewhat different from the local version in Abuse Tracker yesterday.]

Jim Holland says he was raped by a priest when he was 13 years old. For the next 30 years, Holland locked his trauma away, holding it at bay with drinking, drugs and promiscuity. The 2003 Boston Globe Spotlight investigation of sexual abuse by priests triggered his memories.

“I kept on saying, ‘No, it was no big deal. That really didn’t happen,’ ” says Holland.

Holland knew he needed help, but there were few therapists specializing in this kind of trauma. So he shoved his pain back down.

It took another five years, his brother’s suicide and a pulmonary embolism for Holland to find the men’s support group at Fenway Health in Boston. At the first session, Holland remembers, everyone’s eyes were locked on the carpet.

“It was uncomfortable, my heart was beating hard and I…

View Cache

The Catholic Church’s attempt to repair the damage caused by decades of priestly abuse would be vastly improved by a full, transparent, easy-to-use national list of abusive clerics. And no, that still doesn’t exist.

Two years ago, many dioceses — but not all — began publishing lists of priests “credibly accused” of abusive behavior. But these are too often incomplete, as well as difficult to find and use.

“There are far more names out there now than ever before,” said David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. “Is it anywhere near the totals? Absolutely not. … Bishops always have, and still, put out the very least amount of information as possible.”

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, for example, has published a list of “substantiated abuse allegations” against nearly two dozen clerics. Yet the list lacks photographs of the offenders, or full work histories,…

View Cache

[A Google translation is followed by the Spanish text.]

At the age of 90, the religious Fernando Karadima died , expelled from the priesthood after it was proven that he committed sexual crimes .

The death occurred Sunday night at the Hogar San Juan de Dios and, according to his death certificate, he died of bronchopneumonia, kidney failure, diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure.

A few weeks ago, Karadima had gone to the emergency room of the Clinical Hospital of the Catholic University, where he could not be admitted immediately due to the high occupancy of beds due to covid-19. At that time he suffered from heart problems .

Flagship case

The story of Karadima was one of the emblematic cases of the Chilean Catholic Church in the matter of sexual abuse, in an edge that ended up hitting even Pope Francis.

Everything came to light in 2010, when Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and José Andrés Murillo denounced for the first time in the…

View Cache

The first in a series of civil cases seeking compensation for abuse survivors and victims of a now-deceased paedophile priest is expected to begin in the Supreme Court on Monday.

Bryan Coffey was found guilty in 1999 of 14 charges relating to indecent assaults on seven boys and one girl that took place across four Victorian parishes between 1960 and 1975.

The complainants are seeking compensation for loss of income, pain and suffering, and medical expenses, and include children who were allegedly abused by Coffey in the south-west Victorian towns of Port Fairy, Terang and Yambuk, as well as Ouyen in the Mallee.

The list of named defendants on the Court documents includes Bishop Paul Bernard Bird as the nominated defendant of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat, the Trustees of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, Mercy Support Limited, the Trustees of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, and the Sisters of the Good Samaritans of…

View Cache

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul on Tuesday, July 27 provided an update on the statewide inquiry into clergy and faith leader abuse.

The review of such abuse cases was announced in April as the first statewide independent review. Since then, Kaul said the state has received dozens of reports.

“What we are doing is encouraging survivors to report,” Kaul said. “We have received over 100 reports through this reporting system, many of who are reporting previously reported, but some of the people are reporting for the first time.”

The attorney general said there are three goals of the abuse review:

• Getting a measure of accountability
• Connecting survivors with victim services
• Preventing anything like this from happening again

“We have a multidisciplinary team that reviews the report. That team consists of a prosecutor, an investigator and a victim advocate, and they make an assessment on the information received about what the next step…

View Cache

[Includes video with additional content.]

A recent apology from Saskatoon’s Roman Catholic diocese is falling short for a victim of sexual abuse.

Patrick McMahon was sexually abused as a teen in the 1980s by William Hodgson Marshall.

Marshall was McMahon’s family priest in Windsor, Ont.

The priest was convicted in 2011 for abusing 17 people in Ontario.

A year later, two Saskatoon men came forward alleging abuse from Marshall while they were students. He was sentenced again.

Saskatoon’s Roman Catholic diocese recently apologized for Marshall, and other priest’s abuse, as part of its “safeguarding action plan.”

“I again express my profound sorrow and I apologize for what you have suffered, and for the betrayal, violation, and abandonment you have experienced,” Saskatoon Bishop Mark Hagemoen said in a YouTube video.

McMahon said the apology failed to address the church’s role in the abuse.

“It’s the church itself that is enabling and…

View Cache

Mishandled case in Wheaton has been a wake-up call for the relatively young denomination.

Priests and parishioners in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) are expressing grief and anger over sexual abuse allegations against a lay leader in the Diocese of the Upper Midwest and the revelation that its bishop waited two years to notify churches in the diocese about the reports.

Church leaders and advocates in Illinois and beyond see this case as a chance for the 12-year-old denomination to establish better practices for preventing abuse and to care well for survivors.

After admitting he made “regrettable errors” in the process, Bishop Stewart Ruch III requested a leave of absence this month as the diocese investigates whether he and other diocesan leaders mishandled abuse allegations against Mark Rivera, a former lay leader at Christ Our Light Anglican in Big Rock, Illinois, and…

View Cache

Phil Saviano, a BishopAccountability.org board member and founder of the New England chapter of the national victims’ advocacy group SNAP, had successful heart-bypass surgery at a Boston hospital yesterday.  Phil is recovering in the ICU and doing great.  While he’s recuperating, his Viva Oaxaca Folk Art website remains open, but won’t be taking orders again until mid-September.  Phil will post on Facebook when he’s feeling a little better, and we will post another update when he leaves the hospital.

View Cache

[Photo above: Chilean Fernando Karadima, the defrocked priest at the heart of a sexual abuse case that rocked Chile’s Catholic Church, died of natural causes July 25, 2021. He was 90. He is pictured with a rosary inside the Supreme Court building in Santiago Nov. 11, 2015. (CNS photo/Carlos Vera, Reuters)]

Defrocked priest Fernando Karadima, at the heart of a sexual abuse case that rocked Chile’s Catholic Church, died of natural causes July 25. He was 90.

Karadima was a parish priest in an upscale neighborhood in Santiago, Chile’s capital. Allegations against him first surfaced in the 1980s, but the case was made public in 2010, when three men came forward about sexual abuses.

The Archdiocese of Santiago released a brief statement about Karadima’s death July 26, “asking our merciful God to heal the pain caused to all who have suffered.”

The three men who initially came forward, Juan Carlos…

View Cache

The Vatican is opening criminal proceedings on July 27 against Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a once-powerful cardinal demoted by Pope Francis last fall, and nine other defendants. They are charged with embezzlement and other crimes linked to a 2013 investment of a purported $240 million in a London real estate venture that kept swallowing money until it went bust, leaving an approximate $415 million Vatican loss.

The trial marks an emboldened turn in Francis’ papacy, likely to surpass other forensic dramas in the chain of scandals since “Vatileaks,” when Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, went to prison in 2012 for leaking papal documents to an Italian reporter. In that trial, the magistrate barred key evidence from a secret report by three cardinals that could have shed light on who assisted Gabriele.

In the current trial, the prosecution’s web work of…

View Cache

[In this 39-minute radio broadcast, Duffy reads numerous excerpts from the “confidential” Jesuit report.]

Former pupils of paedophile priest Joseph Marmion discuss the Jesuit order’s response to the sex abuse allegations which are contained in a confidential and, as yet, unpublished report see by Liveline.

View Cache

Statement follows inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse against priest during time at Belvedere College

A statement from the Irish Jesuit Order following the publication of some of the contents of an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse against Father Joseph Marmion during his time as a teacher at Belvedere College in Dublin during the 1970s.

After the naming in public of Joseph Marmion SJ last March the Jesuits in Ireland appealed for anyone who had any complaints, concerns or questions to contact our Safeguarding Office.

It was clear from what was communicated to us from those impacted by Marmion’s emotional, psychological, physical and sexual abuse, that they wanted a robust process that would address the whole truth of what happened and how it was allowed to happen

After consultation with survivors and others the Provincial, Fr Leonard Moloney, asked two independent restorative justice practitioners to engage with those survivors who wished…

View Cache

Fr Joseph Marmion had sexually, emotionally, and physically abused pupils

A former headmaster has admitted that allegations of schoolchildren being abused by a Jesuit priest at a Dublin school were not reported to gardai.

Fr Noel Barber, the former headmaster of Belvedere College, told a Jesuit-ordered inquiry that the claims of sexual abuse in the 1970s were not properly investigated.

Branding the cover-up as “shameful”, the Jesuits said last night they were “profoundly sorry for the terrible wrongs that were done to survivors”.

A draft report by the order reveals that a “credible” sexual abuse allegation against the late Fr Joseph Marmion was brought forth to the college authorities “in order that they would deal with it” in 1977.

In March, the order said that the late Fr Marimon, who died in 2000, had sexually, emotionally, and physically abused pupils while teaching at the school in the 70s.

Fr Barber…

View Cache

[With video interview of survivor of public school abuse]

Senate Bill 88 allows retroactivity for survivors.

Randy Kady fumbles through newspaper clippings at his kitchen table, the headlines from years past tell a story of the trauma that he lived through.

“Teacher’s assaults on youngsters ends in resignation,” Kady reads. The headline is from the Aurora Sun, a former-publication, printed in 1973.

According to Aurora Police Department reports from the same year, a teacher admitted to molesting Kady and at least 30 other young boys enrolled in the Cherry Creek School District.

“I was taught ‘stranger danger’ where the stranger was someone offering me candy and trying to get me in a van to kidnap me. No one ever told me that it could be a teacher in my own classroom,” Kady said. “One of the things I vividly remember was him sticking his hands down my pants past my…

View Cache

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The CDC estimates that 1 in 6 men have been sexually victimized at some point. It’s a largely silent epidemic despite revelations of abuse by Catholic priests and Boy Scout leaders. Not confronting this issue only makes recovery harder. Rachel Rock brings us one man’s search for support.

RACHEL ROCK, BYLINE: Jim Holland says he was raped by a priest when he was 13 years old. He locked his trauma away for 30 years, held it at bay with drinking, drugs and promiscuity. The 2003 Boston Globe Spotlight investigation of priest sexual abuse triggered Holland’s memories.

JIM HOLLAND: But I kept on saying, no, it was no big deal. That really didn’t happen.

ROCK: He knew he needed help, but there were few therapists specializing in this kind of trauma in Boston. Holland shoved his pain back down. It took another five years, his brother’s suicide and…

View Cache

Today, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg released the following statement regarding Rev. David Danneker. Rev. Danneker most recently served in the role of vicar general and moderator of the curia.

“The Diocese of Harrisburg has received allegations of adult misconduct made against Rev. Danneker. While this matter does not involve a child, we are taking the accusations seriously. Accordingly, a full investigation, conducted by an outside third party, has been launched to review the matter.”

The allegations center around a relationship between Rev. Danneker and an adult female. A formal investigation by an outside third party is being conducted by a firm that has no ties to the Diocese. Additionally, the Church has begun an investigation into potential breaches of canon law.

Rev. Danneker has been placed on leave pending the results of this investigation.

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon has released a report on historical cases involving serious misconduct and sexual abuse reported in the diocese. It says it only outlined complaints that were fully investigated internally or in the courts.

The diocese said it found nine cases over 60 years. None of the cases are related to residential schools, as there were no schools located within the diocese. 

Seven priests are alleged to have committed serious misconduct or sexual abuse, along with two employees or volunteers of the diocese. 

There are 10 victims total, including a boy younger than 13 years old, five teenage boys, three adult women and one adult man.

‘Culture of silence in the Diocese of Saskatoon:’ lawyer 

Robert Talach is an Ontario-based lawyer and victim’s advocate who has sued the Catholic Church for sexual misconduct more than 400 times.

He said he believes the numbers in the report are…

View Cache

A regional press organization has booted from its board veteran Vermont journalist Mike Donoghue over his continued role in a church-appointed committee that once investigated misconduct claims.

Donoghue took a seat in 2018 on a lay committee formed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington to investigate the church’s personnel files and release the names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse. 

His role on the panel raised eyebrows in Vermont — and, apparently, at the New England First Amendment Coalition, an influential journalism industry group that advocates for government transparency. Until this week, Donoghue was vice president of NEFAC’s board, and a frequent speaker at its events and annual institute. A freelance reporter who spent close to five decades at the Burlington Free Press, Donoghue also serves as executive director of the Vermont Press Association, another industry group. 

Justin Silverman, NEFAC’s executive director, wrote to its board members on Wednesday…

View Cache

The latest dramatic move by Pope Francis — his recent order abrogating the right of Roman Catholic priests to say their church’s traditional Latin Mass — fits neatly within a historical analogy that’s useful for understanding the larger drama of Catholicism: Namely, the church since the 1960s has been reliving the experience of France after 1789, with the arc of revolution and counterrevolution embodied in each successive pope.

This analogy belongs to a writer named Arturo Vasquez, a Catholic traditionalist turned disillusioned observer of the church, who teased it out in a short essay in 2019, expanding on an earlier reference by Joseph Ratzinger, the future Benedict XVI. In this story, the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s and its aftermath is the initial revolutionary moment — the apparent reconciliation with liberalism and modernity, the stripped altars and the reinvented liturgy, and the subsequent struggle of various factions…

View Cache

All the Pennsylvania Republican State Senators have opposed new legislation that will allow all the victims of clergy sexual abuse to bring these criminals and their religious leaders who covered up their sexual abuse crimes to justice, by exposing them and prosecuting them in the Pennsylvania Courts. Why? There can only be one reason.

I say that these Republican politicians are criminals themselves for protecting these criminal sexual abusers. No doubt by having their palms greased by the church lobbyists (Roman Catholic Church), their insurance company lobbyists, and any others who oppose bringing the clergy sexual abusers and church leaders to justice by covering up and remaining on the side of evil.

I pray the Good Lord punishes them severely and removes them from office unless they repent of their sins and do the right things that will bring justice and healing to the victims of which,…

View Cache

{Via ABC News]

Vatican prosecutors have alleged a jaw-dropping series of scandals in the biggest criminal trial in the Vatican’s modern history

A cardinal who allegedly induced an underling to lie to prosecutors. Brokers and lawyers who pulled a fast one over the Vatican No. 2 to get him to approve a disastrous real estate deal. A self-styled intelligence analyst who bought Prada and Louis Vuitton items with the Vatican money that she was supposed to send to rebels holding a Catholic nun hostage.

Vatican prosecutors have alleged a jaw-dropping series of scandals in the biggest criminal trial in the Vatican’s modern history, which opens Tuesday in a modified courtroom in the Vatican Museums. The once-powerful cardinal and nine other people are accused of bleeding the Holy See of tens of millions of dollars in donations through bad investments, deals with shady money managers and apparent favors to friends and…

View Cache

Two properties belonging to the Archdiocese of St. John’s will be going up for sale in the coming weeks, the first of many properties to be put on the market.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s says it is continuing to work to address the abuse at Mount Cashel Orphanage in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, for which the NL Court of Appeal held the Church responsible earlier this year.

Archbishop Peter Hundt shared a statement on Sunday which was read aloud at masses throughout the diocese.

Hundt says the Archdiocese of St. John’s is beginning a major appraisal process to determine the sale of value of the significant real estate properties and buildings of the Church. Hundt says while the process is ongoing, certain properties will be placed on the market for sale.

Two parcels of vacant land will be put up for sale in the coming weeks, the Archbishop’s…

View Cache

“The report on Msgr. Burrill underscores the challenges social media and emerging technologies have created, because it blurs the boundaries of private and public information.”

A report published last week by The Pillar alleged that Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill frequented gay bars and private residences while using a popular “hook-up” app on his mobile device. The report is based on what it described as an analysis of commercially available app data correlated to Msgr. Burrill’s mobile device.

CNA spoke recently with Dr. William J. Thorn regarding the recent investigation which led to the resignation of Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill as general secretary of the US bishops’ conference.

Thorn is associate professor emeritus of Journalism and Media Studies/Institute for Catholic Media at Marquette University’s Diederich College of Communication. He holds a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Minnesota, an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and a B.A. from Loras College.

…

View Cache

Last week, the Pillar, a subscription-based outfit that does journalism — actual journalism — on the Catholic Church, released a story that the general secretary of the U.S. bishops’ conference, Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, used Grindr, the gay hookup app, from, well, just about everywhere he physically occupied over a period of years.

Here’s how the Pillar describes Burrill’s position:

Burrill was  elected general secretary of the U.S. bishops’ conference in November 2020 . In that role, Burrill was effectively the highest-ranking American cleric who is not a bishop.

A priest of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, he began to work at the bishops’ conference as associate general secretary in February 2016. In that capacity, the priest was charged with helping to coordinate the U.S. bishops’ response to the Church’s 2018 sexual abuse and coercion scandals.

Needless to say, it was the Pillar’s…

View Cache

When there’s an accusation against a priest “an investigation is immediately begun,” a Diocese of Rockville Centre spokesperson said.

Thirteen more Diocese of Rockville Centre clergy members are accused of sexually abusing children, a law firm announced Thursday.

The clergy members were identified in lawsuits filed under the New York Child Victims Act.

“This peril must be known not only by the people in the pews, not only by the people in the parishes, but the public must know about these child molesting clerics,” attorney Jeff Anderson, of Jeff Anderson & Associates, said in a news release. “Survivors of sexual abuse in New York can expose their perpetrators in court, but time is running out.”

The clergy members were identified as:

• Rose Alauddin
• Joseph Boyd
• Jean Ann Burk
• Steven Lawrence Carreras
• Eloy Clarke
• Michael Fleming
• Azarias Gabriel
• Punakateal Ivor
• Richard Kondziolka
• Richard Krauss
• Anthony LaTorre
• Robert Mulligan
• Louis Stanislaus

The Diocese of Rockville Centre continues to monitor all newly filed claims…

View Cache

FREEHOLD – Under the cloud of sexual abuse allegations for almost three years, the former longtime pastor of St. Veronica R.C. Church in Howell walked out of the Monmouth County Courthouse Friday after a judge acquitted him of the charges, and said he will continue to pray for his accuser.

After Superior Court Judge Ellen Torregrossa-O’Connor found the 80-year-old priest not guilty of three counts of sexual assault on a child more than two decades ago, the Rev. Henry Brendan Williams said he was “certainly very relieved’’ by the verdict. 

“I continue to pray for the accuser,’’ Williams added, speaking outside the courtroom.

“I feel very compassionate toward her, the difficulties she’s had going on for many years,”  the priest said. “I do keep her in prayer, and her family as well. I just pray for the whole family.’’

“I haven’t had too many clients in my career pray for the people…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon has released details about nine historical cases involving sexual abuse and misconduct that were investigated as part of the Safer Churches, Safer communities Safeguarding Action Plan.

The March 2020 commitment by the diocese involves reviewing historical cases of serious misconduct reported over the last 60 years in the diocese.

The review released in July only involved complaints for which the investigation of the report had concluded.

Two committees separate from the bishop were tasked with reviewing practices. The review committee was comprised of non-clergy members with a range of experience in legal and police investigative fields.

The diocese declined to speak to reporters after the review was released.

In a video message posted to YouTube, Bishop Mark Hagemoen thanked those involved in the process.

“I again express my profound sorrow and I apologize for what you…

View Cache

French Oblate priest Joannis Rivoire was once accused of sexually assaulting Inuit children

An Inuk residential school survivor and activist says he’s encouraged by recent calls to reinvestigate allegations of abuse by a notorious former Nunavut priest.

French Oblate priest Joannis Rivoire was once accused of sexually assaulting Inuit children in Nunavut communities in the 1960s, but the charges against him were stayed four years ago.

Earlier this month, Nunavut MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, backed by the NDP, again shone a spotlight on Rivoire when she called on the federal government to open a criminal probe into residential schools. During the press conference, she held up a photo of the priest and demanded the government investigate his alleged abuse.

Piita Irniq, former Commissioner of Nunavut, went to school at the Sir Joseph Bernier School in Chesterfield Inlet.

Irniq has long advocated for justice for other survivors of abuse and hopes the NDP’s…

View Cache

ROME – Easily the most talked-about development in American Catholicism over the past week has been the resignation of Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill as the Secretary General of the US Bishops Conference, after the new Catholic media outlet Pillar obtained data from his phone suggesting Burrill had visited gay bars, private residences for single men and even a notorious sauna in Las Vegas while he was serving the conference.

The episode has generated tremendous controversy, not only about Burrill’s behavior but about data privacy and the ethics of paying for supposedly confidential information on someone and then broadcasting it to the world.

Pillar was at it again yesterday, publishing a new report that the Archdiocese of Newark will be investigating information presented by Pillar indicating the use of hookup apps, both gay and straight, in ten different rectories and clerical residences.

Because the data only establishes location and app use, not sexual activity, and because Pillar so far…

View Cache

Organization for survivors of sex abuse victims calls for Manchester bishop’s suspension

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Manchester Diocese Bishop Peter Anthony Libasci is denying that he sexually abused a child in the 1980s, according to a statement released Friday by his attorney.

Libasci is not facing criminal charges. In a lawsuit, he was accused of sexually abusing a child around 12 or 13 years old in 1983 and 1984.

In a statement released Friday evening, Libasci’s attorney, Michael J. Connolly, said the bishop “categorically denies the allegations.”

“The allegation that, almost 40 years ago, Bishop Libasci assaulted an individual while serving as a parish priest in Deer Park, New York, is not true,” Connolly said in the statement. “Bishop Libasci has dedicated over 43 years to serving others as a Roman Catholic priest, during which time he has earned an impeccable reputation for treating all individuals with dignity and respect. While…

View Cache

A lawsuit alleging the bishop of Manchester abused an altar boy in the early 1980s is part of a wave of clergy abuse suits in New York, where a law passed in 2019 opened a temporary exemption from the statute of limitations.

The exemption allows survivors of abuse decades ago to come forward with their claims, and seek recompense.

The look-back window will close Aug. 14. Thousands of survivors of abuse in New York have come forward, including more than 200 lawsuits against the Diocese of Rockville Centre, where Bishop Peter A. Libasci served as a priest in the 1980s. The diocese filed for bankruptcy in September 2020

Libasci had not been named in an abuse lawsuit until the complaint filed earlier this month in New York’s Suffolk County Superior Court alleged he groped an altar boy in 1983 and 1984, when the boy was 12 and 13 years old.

…

View Cache

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The head of the Roman Catholic Church in New Hampshire “categorically denies” recent allegations that he committed sexual abuse while serving as a priest in New York in the 1980s, according to a statement issued by his lawyer on Saturday.

A lawsuit filed July 14 in a New York state court accuses Bishop Peter Libasci of the Diocese of Manchester of abusing a male youth on numerous occasions in 1983 and 1984. The abuse resulted in “physical, psychological and emotional injuries,” the ;awsuit says.

In a statement on behalf of Libasci, attorney Michael Connolly said the allegation is not true.

“Bishop Libasci has dedicated over 43 years to serving others as a Roman Catholic priest, during which time he has earned an impeccable reputation for treating all individuals with dignity and respect,” Connolly wrote. “While Bishop Libasci has great compassion for victims of sexual abuse, he will…

View Cache

Whereabouts of many of the 1,700 accused priests are unknown Virtual press event today: statewide investigation reveals lawsuits involving Catholic dioceses and alleged clergy perpetrators in New York

(New York, NY) – Today, over a live moderated virtual press conference, attorney Jeff Anderson will:

• Unveil findings from an investigation into lawsuits filed under the New York Child Victims Act between August 14, 2019, and May 31, 2021, involving all Catholic Dioceses across New York.
• Announce and discuss over 3,300 lawsuits filed under the New York Child Victims Act (CVA).
• Announce and discuss over 1,700 alleged perpetrators identified in lawsuits filed under the New York CVA.
• Reveal 176 newly identified alleged perpetrators that have not been publicly identified before in diocesan lists, religious order lists, or other forms of media.
• Implore the public to aid in identifying which of the newly identified alleged perpetrators are potentially still alive and may have access to children.
• Demand that all…

View Cache

As the first of Kevin O’Donnell’s victims to report the paedophile priest to police, he paved a courageous path for other abuse survivors to follow.

Now, he hopes the $1.375 million he will receive from the Catholic Church will stand as a landmark settlement that assists O’Donnell’s other victims who are seeking compensation.

“I never let go of the bone. I just kept fighting it. I thought, ‘this is not right’,” said BTZ, as he is known in legal files.

“The Melbourne archdiocese has known I was a victim for 25 years and it’s only in the past couple of months they were forced into mediation to start the conversation about how much money they had to pay me.”

It is 50 years since BTZ was groomed and abused as an 11-year-old boy in Hastings by his parish priest. O’Donnell’s attacks continued until 1976 and included sexual assaults at the…

View Cache

Tamzin Ford wanted for years to share her story about the abuse she suffered at the hands of a man who was supposed to be her carer. Deborah Morris reports.

It was the day Maurice Dagger made a filthy suggestion to her that Tamzin Ford knew she needed to do something.

She had just got home from school, and Dagger was sitting in a chair in the lounge.

The young teenager hated being alone with him and did her best to avoid it. He used to come into her bedroom at night and rub her back, enter the bathroom while she was showering, hold the door to the rumpus room closed to press her up against the door frame and kiss her.

This time he asked to put his hand in her pants and stroke her.

After 18 months of being ‘sexually terrified’ as a young teen, Ford needed out….

View Cache

KINGSTON, Jamaica — A call has been made by a lawmaker for Jamaicans to not protect anyone who molests or otherwise abuse the nation’s children.

“We must not lay our girls and boys carelessly exposed to evil elements. It does not matter how much power we think the abuser has,” said Government Senator Natalie Campbell-Rodriques. She made the call on Friday during her contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate. She pleaded with Jamaicans not to shield child abusers because of their status in the society.

“Whether it be a church leader, a politician, a doctor, lawyer or teacher; no one should be allowed to escape the law for abusing our most vulnerable,” Campbell-Rodriques stated.

“Safeguards must be put in place by us as caregivers to shield our children from evil and wickedness,” she added.

The government senator said she has taken note of the debate…

View Cache

A pastor of a Rancho Cucamonga church was arrested this week on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child at the church, authorities said.

A 14-year-old girl reported to authorities in April that the pastor of Shiloh Tabernacle Church abused her for several years, starting when she was 9 years old and continued until she was 12, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested the pastor, Puredi Hillary, 67, of Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday evening and he was booked on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a minor, and lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14.

The abuse took place at the church on 8678 Archibald Avenue, the department said.

The church did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Hillary founded the Shiloh Tabernacle Church in 2001 and has been meeting in the Inland Empire since 2002, according to the church’s website. The church…

View Cache

A Rancho Cucamonga pastor was arrested this week for allegedly sexually abusing a young girl over several years, authorities said.

Puredi Hillary, 67, was taken into custody Thursday on suspicion of continuous sexual abuse of a minor and lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a release. He was being held at West Valley Detention Center in lieu of $350,000 bail, according to jail records.

The crimes are believed to have taken place when the now-14-year-old victim was 9 to 12, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Hillary is pastor of Shiloh Tabernacle Church in Rancho Cucamonga, authorities said. He founded the pentecostal church in 2001 after he saw a vision during a fraternity party that inspired him to repent and stop using drugs, according to an archived copy of the church’s website, which had been removed by Saturday morning. The church…

View Cache

RIVERSIDE (CBSLA) — A church youth group leader was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing young girls.

65-year-old Jaime Gonzalez, of Our Lady Guadalupe Shrine in Riverside, is accused of crimes from several years ago.

Detectives say they want to hear from any other potential victims.

This marks the second such incident in the past few days in the Southland regarding church officials accused of sexual abuse.

67-year-old pastor Puredi Hillary, of Shiloh Tabernacle Church in Rancho Cucamonga, was arrested Thursday, following the initial report of sexual abuse by a 14-year-old girl in April.

The girl told police investigators she was 9 years old when the sexual abuse began, and that it continued until she was 12.

View Cache

Today Bishop Robert Gruss, Bishop of the Diocese of Saginaw, transferred the name of Ronald [Father Ron] Dombrowski from the diocesan website’s list of clergy with an allegation of child sexual abuse to the list of clergy permanently removed from ministry. Following communication with Ronald Dombrowski, the Diocese of Saginaw has released the following statement.  

Ronald [Father Ron] Dombrowski will live a life of prayer and penance after being removed from public ministry more than three years ago. His name will be listed on the diocesan website among those who have been permanently removed from ministry due to allegations of sexual abuse involving minors.

On February 28, 2018, the Diocese of Saginaw received an allegation of sexual abuse involving a minor against Ronald Dombrowski, a priest of the Diocese of Saginaw, dating from his early years of ministry. Ronald Dombrowski was placed on administrative leave and prohibited…

View Cache

SAGINAW, MI — The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw has permanently removed one of its priests from duty, years after the priest was accused of sexual misconduct.

On Friday, July 23, Bishop Robert Gruss removed the Rev. Ronald J. Dombrowski from ministry, the diocese said in a statement.

The diocese had suspended Dombrowski in March 2018 as a “precautionary measure” after someone reported to the agency that Dombrowski sexually abused them as a minor. No criminal charges have been filed against Dombrowski.

After the diocese received the initial allegation against Dombrowski on Feb. 28, 2018, two more people came forward with similar claims against the priest.

The abuse occurred in Dombrowski’s “early years of ministry,” the diocese stated.

“My prayers remain with any and all who have suffered sexual abuse by clergy, especially minors and vulnerable adults,” Gruss said. “As we know, the pain runs deep and the…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Newark says it will investigate the possibility of clerical sexual misconduct, in response to questions from The Pillar about the use of location-based hookup apps at several parish rectories in the archdiocese.

While a spokesperson told The Pillar it is “not acceptable” to use apps “inconsistent with Church teaching,” the archdiocese has also expressed concerns about the “morally suspect” collection of app signal data.

“The inappropriate use of any app or communication tool would pose a concern in any circumstance and for any community. Although the use of such an app, and its use in a specific location, does not provide direct evidence of any specific activity, the Archdiocese of Newark takes seriously all complaints of misconduct or abuse by members of the clergy, religious, lay staff and volunteers of the Archdiocese,” Maria Margiotta, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Newark, told The Pillar on Friday. 

“It is not acceptable for any member of…

View Cache

In January, when Ed Condon and JD Flynn broke off from their jobs at a long-standing Catholic news agency, they promised readers of their new newsletter that they would deliver reporting without an agenda, or a foregone conclusion. “We aim to do serious, responsible, sober journalism about the Church, from the Church and for the Church. . . . We want The Pillar to be a different kind of journalism.”

Six months later the Pillar broke the kind of story mainstream news organizations would be unlikely to touch: They said they had obtained commercially available data that included location history from the hookup app Grindr, and used it to track a high-ranking priest from his offices and family lake house to gay nightclubs.

Now Condon and Flynn, two 38-year-old canon lawyers-turned-muckrakers, are at the center of both a global surveillance-ethics story as well as a mud fight among their fellow Catholics over whether…

View Cache

When a religious publication used smartphone app data to deduce the sexual orientation of a high-ranking Roman Catholic official, it exposed a problem that goes far beyond a debate over church doctrine and priestly celibacy.

With few U.S. restrictions on what companies can do with the vast amount of data they collect from web page visits, apps and location tracking built into phones, there’s not much to stop similar spying on politicians, celebrities and just about anyone that’s a target of another person’s curiosity — or malice.

Citing allegations of “possible improper behavior,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday announced the resignation of its top administrative official, Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, ahead of a report by the Catholic news outlet The Pillar that probed his private romantic life.

The Pillar said it obtained “commercially available” location data from a vendor it didn’t name that it “correlated” to Burrill’s phone…

View Cache

On July 20, a Catholic online news commentary site, The Pillar, published a report alleging that Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops “engaged in serial sexual misconduct, while he held a critical oversight role in the Catholic Church’s response to the recent spate of sexual abuse and misconduct scandals.” The Pillar used “commercially available records of app signal data” to track a mobile device correlated to Monsignor Burrill that “suggest he was at the same time engaged in serial and illicit sexual activity.”

Operated by two former editors at E.W.T.N.’s Catholic News Agency, J. D. Flynn and Ed Condon, The Pillar offers news and analysis about the Catholic Church, mostly in the United States. Just before the publication of the story on July 20, the U.S.C.C.B. announced that Monsignor Burrill had resigned in light of “impending media reports alleging possible improper behavior.”

Rare is the story…

View Cache

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A former altar boy is making shocking claims of sexual and verbal abuse allegedly perpetrated decades ago by a priest at a Roman Catholic church in West Brighton.

The Rev. Thomas Curley is named as the offender in a lawsuit filed under the state’s Child Victims Act recently in Manhattan state Supreme Court.

The Archdiocese of New York and Sacred Heart R.C. Church are listed as defendants.

The suit was filed by the Herman Law Firm on behalf of an anonymous alleged victim, referred to in the litigation as S.T.

S.T. was raised in a “devout Catholic family that worshiped at Sacred Heart,” according to the filing.

The abuse started around 1978 when the plaintiff was about 11 years old and a participant in a class for altar boys taught by Father Curley, who was a parochial vicar at Sacred…

View Cache

Media coverage of the Catholic Church can sometimes feel like a bad weather system that settles over my soul.

Those hopeful days in March of 2013, when Pope Francis’ election signaled a season of opportunity and renewal for Catholicism — a “springtime” for the church — can feel as distant a memory as our lives before the pandemic upended any notion of normal.

So many Catholics today are exhausted.

In the past few years, we have watched a beloved cardinal, the former archbishop of Washington, fall from grace, exposed as a sexual predator who used his influence to abuse children and seminarians. A Pennsylvania grand jury report, released in 2018, again chronicled the chilling, institutional scale of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

Only a few days after that report landed, a former papal nuncio to the United States launched a conspiratorial campaign to bring Francis down with a series of…

View Cache

Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon Most Rev. Bishop Mark A. Hagemoen says the historical case review process done by the Historical Case Review and Policy and Operations Review are necessary steps in order to learn from the past mistakes in handling allegations of misconduct and sexual abuse cases.

Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon Most Rev. Bishop Mark A. Hagemoen says the historical case review process done by the Historical Case Review and Policy and Operations Review are necessary steps in order to learn from the past mistakes in handling allegations of misconduct and sexual abuse cases.

The issue of Catholic-run residential schools, where thousands of Indigenous children were forced to attend, was not included in the historical review since the Diocese did not operate any of the said facilities in Saskatoon and within its boundaries.

“The key goal of our plan was that our Diocese and our churches be places…

View Cache