ABUSE TRACKER

A local Catholic priest who pastored a Columbia City parish and served as a chaplain at Bishop Dwenger High School has been charged with sexually abusing a minor in a case involving two females.

Whitley County Prosecutor DJ Sigler announced Friday he has filed multiple charges against Father David Huneck.

The charges are as follows:

• Child Seduction-Defendant has a professional relationship with child and fondles child
• Sexual Battery–Victim compelled to submit by force or imminent threat
• Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor
• Furnishing Alcohol to a Minor-Basic offense for furnishing to a minor
• Two counts of battery

According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Whitley Superior Court, the charges stem from two incidents that allegedly took place at the home in Columbia City provided to Huneck as part of his being the pastor at a parish there.

The affidavit said that the investigation began on September 23, when an officer with…

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France’s government has summoned the head of the French bishops’ conference after he said that secrets shared in the confessional are above the law, as the country reels from new revelations of large-scale child sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

Monsignor Eric de Moulins-Beaufort shocked some people in France when he told France-Info radio Wednesday that “the secrets of confession are stronger than the laws of the republic.”

The comments came in response to recommendations in a study released Tuesday estimating that some 330,000 children were sexually abused over 70 years by priests or other church-related figures.

The report describes “systemic” coverup of abuses by the Catholic Church, and urged the church to respect the rule of law in France. The church should send clear instructions to clergy receiving confession that they are legally obliged to report any cases of sexual violence against a child or vulnerable person to judicial…

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France’s top bishop has been summoned by the interior minister after saying that the pact of secrecy would prevent a priest from reporting sex crimes against children that were revealed during Catholic confession.

Following the publication of a report this week about sexual abuse of children by the clergy, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, who is archbishop of Reims and head of the Bishops’ Conference of France, said in a radio interview that the secrecy of the confession rite takes precedence over the laws of the republic.

Under French law, anyone who is aware of a sex crime against a minor is obliged to report it to the authorities and risks heavy fines and imprisonment if failing to do so.

“Nothing takes precedence over the laws of the republic in our country,” French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Thursday.

He added that Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin – who…

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Diocese of Buffalo announces reinstatement of four priests

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Buffalo announced that four priests previously put on administrative leave following allegations of misconduct have been reinstated, following the review and recommendation by the Diocesan Review Board.

One of those priests, Msgr. James G. Kelly, 83, is accused in two Child Victims Act (CVA) lawsuits of having sexual contact with minors.

Kelly is a retired priest who continues to assist in parish ministry, according to the diocese.

The two lawsuits, with alleged victims identified using a “John Doe” pseudonym, were filed by attorney Steve Boyd and Jeff Anderson & Associates.

The abuse in the two claims is alleged to have occurred between 1980 and 1982, and from 2005 until 2007.

Bishop Michael W. Fisher placed Msgr. Kelly on administrative leave on June 30 after the diocese learned of a complaint against him.

Both CVA suits against…

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An independent report on clerical sexual abuse in France has made headlines around the world, and, for many American Catholics, renewed their scandal at the issue of clerical sexual abuse in the Church.

The entire report is more than 2,500 pages, and aims to capture the picture of abuse and cover-up in the Church between 1950 and 2020.

While the report has gotten plenty of media coverage, and sparked ample discussion on social media, getting a sense of the entire document can seem daunting.

Here’s what you need to know:

The commission

The report was commissioned by the French bishops’ conference and the Conférence des Religieux et Religieuses de France, an umbrella organization for the superiors of religious communities in France.

In 2019, the two organizations aimed to set up a completely independent commission with four goals:

• To shed light on the sexual violence committed in its institution since…

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After meeting privately with Pope Francis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that one of the issues they discussed was the importance of the church addressing the clerical sexual abuse scandal.

“The truth must come to light,” she said after the meeting Oct. 7.

Merkel, who is preparing to leave office, said she told the pope that because of the diverse and important roles the Catholic Church plays in the world, it is essential that it maintain its credibility and that can happen only by confronting the abuse crisis head on.

Before going to the Vatican, the German leader paid a visit to the headquarters of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s new Institute of Anthropology. German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner is director of the institute, which works to train people to be safeguarding officers in their local church or community and works to promote justice for survivors of abuse.

Formerly known as the Center for Child Protection,…

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Four priests have been reinstated by Bishop Michael W. Fisher following a recommendation by the Buffalo Diocese’s Independent Review Board, which conducted investigations and a review that determined allegations against the priests are unsubstantiated, the diocese announced Thursday.

The priests, who were previously placed on administrative leave by the bishop and were reinstated are: 

• The Rev. Adolph Kowalczyk, pastor of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Orchard Park.

• The Rev. Gregory Dobson, a retired priest who continues to assist in various parishes of the Diocese.

• The Rev. Matt Nycz, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul in Williamsville.

• The Rev. Msgr. James G. Kelly, an 83-year-old retired priest of the diocese who also continues to assist in parish ministry.

According to a statement released Thursday by the diocese, rigorous policies and protocols were followed with regard to investigating allegations that were made against the priests, including notifying the Erie…

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A shocking revelation for victims of sexual assault at the hands of Ohio State University doctor Richard Strauss. After waiting two years for state lawmakers to take action on House Bill 249, to suspend the statute of limitations and allow their legal claims against OSU to move forward, the house majority leader admits the bill was a sham.

In an email to one of the victims, republican leader bill Seitz said, “I do not support a resurrection of HB 249.”

“HB 249 was intended to apply pressure to Ohio State to come to the table and make meaningful settlement offers.”

Seitz called the bill flawed and said lawmakers ‘never’ really considered suspending the statute of limitations.

The victims told NBC4 they are not giving up on changing the law, especially since the judge who dismissed their claims pointed out state lawmakers have always had the power…

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Robert McWilliams, who was ordained by the Diocese of Cleveland in 2017, was convicted in July of sex crimes he committed involving children, beginning in the year he was ordained.

When Father Robert McWilliams was charged with sex and pornography crimes involving children just two years after his ordination, few were more stunned than those who had screened and formed him for priesthood.

This was a priest chosen and educated in the wake of the Church’s clergy sex-abuse scandal, someone who had undergone an intensive, detailed vetting process and seminary training steeped in teaching about sexual ethics and appropriate boundaries. 

Although a sense of betrayal and shock always follows such allegations, in McWilliams’ case it was intensified by the fact that he had been ordained just two years before his arrest in December 2019. From the rector of his seminary and psychologists who evaluated him to his peers, those who…

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Over 4,700 individual books, comprised of several hundred titles, were removed from the shelves or put under review due to alleged outdated, incorrect, or inappropriate depictions of indigenous people.

A Catholic school district in Canada that decided to burn 30 library books about indigenous people and remove some 4,700 others due to alleged mistakes and insensitive portrayals took advice from a woman whose indigenous status and expertise is now in question.

“We were not aware that Suzy Kies does not have Indian status under (federal law) and sincerely believed that we had the opportunity to work with an experienced Indigenous knowledge keeper,” Lyne Cossette, a spokesperson for the school board in southwest Ontario, told the Toronto Sun.

“These revelations have prompted us to rethink our library review process,” Cossette said. “As such, we are pausing the entire Giving Back to Mother Earth project and reviewing how to move forward with regard…

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Just days before Pope Francis officially opens the two-year process for the next Synod of Bishops, an independent report into France’s history of clerical abuse revealed the abuse of more than 333,000 children at the hands of church officials. The report was filled with damning evidence similar to those released in Australia, Germany, Ireland, the United States and elsewhere over the last two decades.

The synod on synodality, which begins Oct. 9, has grand aspirations to reshape the Catholic Church’s ability to engage its members and revitalize its mission. In large part, Francis is betting that a more synodal church — that is, a participatory, listening church — just might be the cure to a church marred by decades of clericalism and abuse. 

The entire undertaking, Boston College theologian Rafael Luciani told NCR, is “enhancing…

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After a battle that dragged on longer than many expected, the Southern Baptist Convention executive committee waived attorney-client privilege for an investigation into the panel’s handling of sexual abuse reports and treatment of victims over the past 21 years.

During a special, virtual session on Tuesday, the executive committee voted 44-31 to approve a contract with a third-party investigator, Guidepost Solutions. The contract allows Guidepost to review privileged communications and legal memos between executive committee members or staff and their lawyers.

“I am grateful that the vote went yes today after much deliberation and private sessions,” said Jules Woodson, a sexual abuse survivor and activist. “That being said, it should not have taken three weeks to get here. The fact that it did is part of the problem.”

Ronnie Floyd, executive committee president and CEO, who has not expressed support for waiving privilege before, said he will support…

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Southern Baptist Convention leaders on Tuesday voted to waive attorney-client privilege in an investigation of their alleged mishandling and concealment of sex abuses over the last two decades.

The vote by the SBC’s Executive Committee caps weeks of tumult that nearly pushed the nation’s second-largest faith group into crisis over its handling of sexual abuse cases and, in the days leading up to the Tuesday vote, prompted a wave of resignations by top denominational leaders.

Had the committee refused to waive on Tuesday, numerous Baptist historians said the denomination would have been pushed into an unprecedented standoff over who holds ultimate power in the denomination — 47,000 churches, or the small group of executive committee members they elect to represent them?

“It’s time to know for sure where we have fallen short on the question of sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention so that we can correct any errors and…

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Politicians know that image is everything. And if they know what’s good for them, they need to know what’s going on around them – personally and otherwise.

Politicians also tend to know many people, organizations, and community leaders. They need to know to stay connected and politically afloat, especially a politician like Senator Bob Mensch, who has been in public life for years and lived in Pennsburg township for nearly 50 years.

Mensch is from Pennsburg. That’s where Fr. Edward Avery worked at St. Philip Neri parish. Maybe Mensch knows Avery or knows of him. Avery admitted molesting a child and spent time in prison.

Or maybe Mensch knows Fr. Joseph R. Monahan, who also worked at St. Philip Neri. Monahan is accused, in a grand jury report, of molesting an eighth-grader. It’s a small world. In 2006, because of an abuse report, Fr. Monahan was View Cache

[Click here to hear interview.]

For decades, an international network of clergy sex abuse survivors and their advocates have been pushing for more accountability within the Catholic Church. Matthias Katsch, a member of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Child Abuse in Germany and a clergy sexual abuse survivor, and Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of the international watchdog group BishopAccountability.org, talk with The World’s Marco Werman about how an inquiry in France may reverberate worldwide.

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[See video of interview.]

CNN’s Becky Anderson speaks with attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented thousands of sexual abuse victims, about a landmark report stating that members of the Catholic clergy in France sexually abused an estimated 216,000 minors over the past seven decades.Source: CNN

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The child sexual abuse case filed by a John Doe, an alleged victim of Fr. David Holley when he was in Alamogordo in the 1970s, needs more time to reach mediation.

A motion filed in the case on Sept. 30 requests a time extension to set up mediation between Doe and the defendants Servants of the Paraclete, the Dioceses of Las Cruces, El Paso and Worcester and two Alamogordo parishes.

The motion asks Second Judicial District Judge Daniel Ramczyk to give both parties more time to participate in a mediation.

The motion “respectfully moves to extend the deadline currently set for the parties to participate in mediation due to difficulties in scheduling a complex mediation amongst all counsel and to complete the mediation currently scheduled for January 20, 2022,” the motion states.

The two Alamogordo parishes are Immaculate Conception Parish and St. Jude Parish. 

On February 17, 2021, the court ordered that the…

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Lusaka (Agenzia Fides) – The people called to offer service to the Church, each in their own ministry, have a great responsibility to contribute to making society better and safer for all children and vulnerable people. This is the statement of Fr. Francis Mukosa, General Secretary of the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), revealed at the opening of a recent online seminar promoted by the Catholic Safeguarding Institute.

Father Mukosa said the church suffered greatly in the recent past due to the consequences of child abuse cases. “In particular, the church is losing in terms of reputation with a consequent expulsion of so many people”.

Among the objectives of the seminar – which emerged in the note sent to Fides – is to help the church of Zambia to undertake a serious mission of evangelization as well as to help it regain credibility in the country and in the…

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[VIDEO]

In the wake of a major child sexual abuse investigation that counted 216,000 victims in France, spanning over seven decades, France 24 is joined by Marc Artzrouni, European Coordinator for SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests). Mr. Artzrouni expressed amazement and gratification that the damning report had such a profound and immediate impact. “I wasn’t really expecting such an impact,’ admits Mr. Artzrouni, “and I’m really glad the report is reverberating throughout the world and throughout the media.” Additionally, he highlights a very disturbing pattern: “Very few countries have been unaffected by this. Very few countries where there is a Catholic presence have been unaffected by this.” Offering a little historical perspective, Mr. Artzrouni points out that “this report goes back to the 1950’s. It’s highly probable that this has been going on for centuries in the Catholic Church.”

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A law effective this summer now gives adults who were abused as children, up to three years to take legal action against accused offenders and any child abused since the new law’s effective date, has no time restriction.

The timing of the renacted (r.s. 9:2800.9 under house bill 492) legislation coincides with three men from St. Landry Parish who are looking for closure in what they say was years of abuse by a priest of a catholic church where they served as altar boys.

Lawtell, Louisiana is a small rural community in St Landry Parish and is home to just over 1200 people.  It was formed in the early days of the 20th century, so it’s filled with history, it’s peaceful, but there’s also a dark secret that’s been hidden until now.

In describing what happened to him, Mark Batiste says, “As a child I was scared. When I first…

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One defendant, now a priest, had been accused of sexual abuse when he and his accuser were teenage students at a seminary within the Vatican walls. Another priest was accused of covering it up.

A Vatican court on Wednesday acquitted a priest on sexual abuse charges dating to when he and his accuser were teenage altar boys at a seminary within the Vatican walls. A second priest, the rector of the seminary at the time, was cleared of charges that he covered up the alleged abuses.

Prosecutors claimed that the abuse began when the priest, the Rev. Gabriele Martinelli, now 29, and his accuser, who was identified only by his initials, L.G., were young teenagers, less than a year apart, living at a seminary and that it continued for five years. Father Martinelli was not a priest at the time, but he was ordained years later.

The court rulings, based…

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A Vatican court ruled that prosecutors must hand over video of the deposition of their main witness to lawyers representing 10 defendants, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who are all on trial on charges related to financial malfeasance and corruption.

At the third session of the Vatican trial Oct. 6, Giuseppe Pignatone, president of the Vatican City State criminal court, ordered Vatican prosecutors to deliver the video and audio testimony of Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, the former head of the Secretariat of State’s administrative office, by Nov. 3.

However, while the court agreed with defense lawyers that some procedures were not properly followed by investigators for the prosecution, Pignatone denied the defense’s request to annul the 488-page indictment, which would have thrown out the case.

Pignatone said the court would reconvene Nov. 17 to determine how and when the trial will proceed.

The Vatican court’s decision effectively gives the prosecution time to…

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Fernando Cristancho, a former Catholic priest in Harford County, pleaded guilty on Monday to coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday.

According to Cristancho’s guilty plea, the former priest sexually abused a young lector even after the Archdiocese of Baltimore said he could no longer work in the church.  He also acknowledged producing child pornography involving several victims.

In 1999, Cristancho, who was ordained in in Colombia, began working at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Harford County and immediately started spending time with the boy’s family, prosecutors said. The boy became a lector at the church when he was 11.

When they were working together, Cristancho would tell the boy that he had back pain and asked for back rubs. He took the boy to dinner and kissed him. He also showed the boy videos of two…

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As soon as I saw the photograph, I knew. It had to be the front page.

It was one of the first times I picked the front-page story for the diocesan newspaper where, at the time, I served as editor. I wanted to call attention to a special annual Mass, celebrated for all immigrants.

The photo was of a woman receiving Communion while holding her toddler. I thought the tender moment would connect with all readers and would underscore the dignity of migrants. But I was also prepared for negative feedback—because anytime we covered immigration, we would get an earful.

The morning after the paper was distributed, a long voicemail was waiting for me on my office line. But the complaint was not what I expected. The woman, a religious sister who worked at one of our parishes, was outraged.

How dare we run a photo of a person receiving…

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As Part of His Plea Agreement, Also Admits Producing Nude Images of Four Other Minor Victims—With Most of the Images Being Taken When the Victims Were Less Than Five Years Old

Baltimore, Maryland – Fernando Cristancho, age 65, of Bel Air, Maryland, pleaded guilty yesterday to coercion and enticement of a minor who he met through the church to engage in illegal sexual activity.  Cristancho also admitted that he produced nude images of four other minor victims.

The guilty plea was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Special Agent in Charge James R. Mancuso of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Colonel Woodrow W. Jones III, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler; and Harford County State’s Attorney Albert Peisinger.

According to his guilty plea, Cristancho was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in Colombia, South America, in…

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Fernando Cristancho, a former priest assigned to St. Ignatius, Hickory, in Forest Hill, pleaded guilty Oct. 4 to coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, according to an Oct. 5 news release from the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office. Cristancho met the victim through the parish. He also admitted that he produced nude images of four other minor victims.

The offenses against “John Doe” occurred when he was 11, 12 and 13, according to the news release. Cristancho showed the victim pornography and after Cristancho was no longer working at the church, he arranged to hold religious services in the home of a parishioner, with John Doe acting as a lector or altar server. Cristancho sexually abused the child from 2002 through at least fall 2003, according to the news release.

An Oct. 5 statement from the Archdiocese of Baltimore said the archdiocese “admires the courage…

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Father Edward L. Beck, CP, is a Roman Catholic priest and a religion commentator for CNN. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.

The faithful of the Catholic Church in France — and indeed worldwide — are reeling from a commission’s report documenting that between 2,900 and 3,200 church workers have abused more than 200,000 minors over a 70-year span. Upon hearing the news, a parishioner of mine asked, “Father, is this abuse stuff starting all over again?” Gratefully, I was able to say, no, however, the continued reckoning of the Catholic Church and other institutions continues because of years of denial and cover-up. Yes, things have changed, but change has been too long in coming.

The issues and facts beneath the headlines are important. The total number of clergy and church workers implicated in the French report constitutes approximately 3% of the approximately 115,000…

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Will a Catholic priest who resigned his post at a Columbia City parish be tagged with criminal charges?

We may get an answer by the end of the week.

The investigation involves Father David Huneck, who resigned last month as pastor of St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church in Whitley County and as a chaplain at Bishop Dwenger High School in Fort Wayne.

We have learned two females, one of them a minor, came forward, alleging they were victims of acts of sexual misconduct carried out by Father Huneck.

The Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese told reporters last week it conducted a preliminary investigation right away, concluding they were “credible allegations” and notified the Indiana Department of Child Services.

The diocese has included Huneck’s name on its list of Catholic clergy who’ve been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse.

The Columbia City Police Department has been gathering evidence in the…

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“The main mission of the Holy See is to help bring the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth,” a Vatican official recently claimed. But they dedicate far more time and resources to presenting a false façade of moral integrity to the world.

PRETENDING CONCERN FOR OUR CHILDREN

Pope Francis is adept at play-acting. “The pope knows and pretends not to know … In fact, every speech of the pope contains a hidden series of minor contradictions. As if the pope was pursuing a line, but did not want to be criticized for that line and was trying to avoid criticism by creating a narrative. The statements of the pope are not enough. We need to analyze the facts. And the facts say that Pope Francis, in some cases, says one thing and does another,” Italian Vatican reporter, Andrea Gagliaducci, observed

In response to the Oct. 5 release of a…

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NPR’s Rachel Martin talks to David Gibson of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University about French children sexually abused by people in the Catholic Church.

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It has been almost 20 years since The Boston Globe exposed widespread child abuse in the Catholic Church here in the U.S. Since then, the global church has faced sex abuse crises in several countries around the world, but only now are revelations coming to light about what has been happening in France. A new report estimates that some 300,000 children in that country were sexually abused by priests and other church staff over a 70-year period.

David Gibson is the director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, and he joins us now to talk about the fallout and the path forward for the Catholic Church in France. Thank you for being here.

DAVID…

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A sweeping French report finds that priests sexually abused some 200,000 children over 70 years.

The scale of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and lay figures against children in France since 1950, detailed in a report this week by an independent commission, was a jaw-dropping reminder that revelations of the church’s complicity and coverup in the scandal have not run their course, nearly two decades after they gained wide public notice.

The French commission’s investigation, which took about two-and-a-half years, found that the victims of priests, many or most of them boys between 10 and 13 years old, numbered more than 200,000 over seven decades. Additionally, the commission concluded there were more than 100,000 additional victims, counting abuse at the hands of Catholic lay figures — nearly all of it overlooked, accepted or intentionally swept under the rug by the church hierarchy.

Those findings prompted…

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Police in Northern Ireland on Wednesday announced an investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse at church-run institutions that housed unmarried women and their children.

The announcement came a day after an independent panel recommended a public inquiry to examine human rights abuses in the homes, so-called Magdalene laundries and workhouses.

Detective Chief Superintendent Anthony McNally said the force has set up dedicated reporting channels to make it easier for people to come forward.

“Specially trained officers within our Historical Child Abuse Team will be investigating all allegations of non-recent physical and sexual abuse against residents of these homes,” he said. “All reports we receive will be examined thoroughly and any criminality detected will be robustly investigated.”

A major study by Queen’s University and Ulster University published earlier this year found that more than 14,000 girls and women spent time at nun-run laundries and mother-and-baby homes, which were run…

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It was the first criminal trial alleging sexual abuse within Vatican walls. 

An Italian priest was cleared Wednesday of sexually molesting a fellow altar boy when they both were teenagers at the Vatican’s youth seminary, in the first criminal trial alleging sexual abuse within Vatican walls.

The Vatican tribunal said in a statement that sexual relations of “various nature and intensity” had taken place between the defendant, the Rev. Gabriele Martinelli, and his accuser, identified only as L.G., for a period of five years. But it said there was insufficient proof L.G. was forced into the relations.

Significant contradictions and “illogical declarations” by L.G. had made it impossible to establish whether he was forced into the acts, the statement said, adding that many people who were present in the room where the sexual acts were meant to have taken place repeatedly say they did not hear or…

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A Vatican tribunal absolved a former altar boy of charges that he molested a younger boy in the Vatican’s youth seminary, ruling Wednesday in the first clergy sexual abuse trial to be heard by the pope’s criminal court.

The three-judge panel acquitted Rev. Gabriele Martinelli of some charges and ruled others couldn’t be punished or allegedly occurred too long ago. The former rector of the seminary, the Rev. Enrico Radice, was similarly absolved.

In a statement, the tribunal said it had essentially confirmed that there had been a sexual relationship between Martinelli and the alleged victim, L.G., but no proof that L.G., who was just seven months younger, had been forced into it.

The case concerned the closed world of the St. Pius X youth seminary, a palazzo inside the Vatican walls just across the street from where Pope Francis lives. The seminary is used as a residence for boys…

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A commission recommended how administrators can respond to the Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis and the university’s links to accused priests. Advocates for survivors were not impressed.

A commission at Gonzaga University, a Jesuit institution in Washington State, recently released a 46-page report on how the institution should move forward in response to the Roman Catholic clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The report outlines a series of recommendations the university — which has been squarely implicated in the crisis — should take in response, including developing new academic initiatives, establishing a memorial, reviewing policies related to sexual assault on campus and increasing outreach to and support for tribal communities and Native students in recognition of the fact that “in Gonzaga’s regional context, the history of Catholic sexual abuse has disproportionately harmed Native communities.”

The document also suggests ways the university can work with leadership of the sponsoring Jesuit order…

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Church asks for forgiveness as it accepts findings of ‘appalling’ abuse by clergy and lay members over 70 years

The French Catholic church has expressed “shame” and pleaded for forgiveness, after a devastating report found that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by clergy and lay members of church institutions over the past 70 years.

The publication of the landmark report on Thursday, France’s first major reckoning with what the Catholic church accepted was “appalling” abuse, has shaken the country with its horrific findings of a “massive phenomenon” of sexual abusers of children operating for decades within the church and its associated institutions.

The two-and-a-half-year independent inquiry found that staggering numbers of children were subjected to sexual violence by priests and clergy while the crimes were covered up in a “systemic way” by a deliberate “veil of silence” in the church.

The president of the investigative committee,…

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The Vatican tribunal hearing a landmark fraud case ruled Wednesday that prosecutors had deprived 10 defendants of their rights and ordered prosecutors to turn over key pieces of evidence and redo their investigation for some suspects.

Tribunal President Giuseppe Pignatone said there had been “lamentable violations” by the pope’s prosecutors in failing to give the suspects the chance to respond to all accusations against them during the preliminary phase of the investigation.

Pignatone also repeated his July 29 order for prosecutors to hand over the videotaped recordings of a key suspect-turned-star witness whose testimony formed the basis for several of the charges in the indictment. He rejected as incomprehensible the prosecutors’ arguments that the witness’ privacy would be compromised if the tapes were released to the defense.

The trial concerns the Holy See’s 2013 investment in a London real estate venture that lost the Vatican tens of millions of euros,…

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The prosecution at a Vatican trial of 10 people accused of financial crimes, including a cardinal, acknowledged on Tuesday weaknesses in its case and said it was willing to return to the investigative phase to fill in gaps contested by the defence.

Deputy prosecutor Alessandro Diddi made the surprise announcement at the first hearing since the trial started in July, saying: “I feel the duty to meet (the defence requests) half-way.”

Defence lawyers told the court Diddi’s request was unacceptable. Citing a raft of what they said were procedural errors, they asked court president Giuseppe Pignatone to annul the 500-page indictment of the 10 handed down on July 3, which would effectively kill the current trial.

Pignatone adjourned the trial after about two hours and said he would announce his decisions on Wednesday morning.

The trial revolves mostly around the purchase by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State of a commercial…

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Pope Francis expressed “shame” for himself and the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday for the scale of child sexual abuse within the church in France and acknowledged failures in putting the needs of victims first.

The pope spoke during his regular audience at the Vatican about a report released Tuesday that estimated some 330,000 French children were abused by clergy and other church authority figures dating back to 1950.

“There is, unfortunately, a considerable number. I would like to express to the victims my sadness and pain for the trauma that they suffered,” Francis said. “It is also my shame, our shame, my shame, for the incapacity of the church for too long to put them at the center of its concerns.”

He called on all bishops and religious superiors to take all actions necessary “so similar dramas are not repeated.”

The pope also expressed his “closeness and paternal support” to French…

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Some 216,000 children – mostly boys – have been sexually abused by clergy in the French Catholic Church since 1950, a damning new inquiry has found.

The head of the inquiry said there were at least 2,900-3,200 abusers, and accused the Church of showing a “cruel indifference towards the victims”.

Pope Francis “felt pain” on hearing about the inquiry’s finding, a Vatican statement said.

One of those abused said it was time the Church reassessed its actions.

François Devaux, who is also the founder of the victims’ association La Parole Libérée (Freed speech), said there had been a “betrayal of trust, betrayal of morale, betrayal of children”.

The inquiry found the number of children abused in France could rise to 330,000, when taking into account abuses committed by lay members of the Church, such as teachers at Catholic schools.

For Mr Devaux it marked a turning point in France’s history: “You have…

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An independent inquiry into alleged sex abuse of minors by French Catholic priests, deacons and other clergy has found some 216,000 victims from 1950 to 2020, a “massive phenomenon” that was covered up for decades by a “veil of silence.”

The landmark report, released Tuesday after two and a half years of investigations, follows widespread outrage over a string of sex abuse claims and prosecutions against Church officials around the globe. But as CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay reports, the French inquiry involves not only the latest revelations about abuse by Catholic clergy, but possibly highest number of victims ever identified by reports and investigations that have been carried out worldwide.

When lay members of the Church such as teachers at Catholic schools are included, the number of child abuse victims climbs to 330,000 over the seven-decade period.  

France’s Catholic bishops asked the victims for forgiveness. The…

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• Investigation finds estimated 216,000 children suffered abuse
• French Catholic Church showed ‘cruel indifference’ – report
• Latest sex abuse scandal to rock the Roman Catholic Church
• Senior bishop asks for forgiveness, promises to act

PARIS, Oct 5 (Reuters) – French clergy sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years, a major investigation released on Tuesday found, and its authors said the Catholic Church had turned a blind eye to the ‘scourge’ for too long.

The church had shown “deep, total and even cruel indifference for years,” protecting itself rather than the victims of what was systemic abuse, said Jean-Marc Sauve, head of the commission that compiled the report.

Most of the victims were boys, he said, many of them aged between 10 and 13.

“Faced with this scourge, for a very long time the Catholic Church’s immediate reaction was to protect itself as an institution and it has shown complete,…

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A week after a Columbia City Catholic priest resigned from his duties at Saint Paul of the Cross Catholic Church in Columbia City, a replacement has been announced.

Monday night, Bishop Kevin Rhoades introduced the congregation to Father Jose Arroyo. The Puerto Rico native most recently served at a parish in Goshen.

“I’m excited to be a part of this healing process here at St. Paul the Cross,” Father Arroyo said. “I love Saint Francis and his rule of wanting to rebuild the church and I think that my role at this point…to know them, to love them, and to serve them and that’s what I’m here for.”

Father Jose Arroyo

That healing involves former priest Father David Huneck. He is accused of engaging in “sexual and other misconduct, including that…

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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The chief judge at a Vatican trial of 10 people accused of financial crimes, including a cardinal, on Wednesday ordered the prosecution to give the defence more access to evidence and to question defendants who were not given the right to speak earlier.https://www.dianomi.com/smartads.epl?id=3533

Court president Giuseppe Pignatone responded to a surprise offer https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/prosecution-vatican-trial-acknowledges-defects-willing-investigate-more-2021-10-05 the prosecution made on Tuesday in which it acknowledged weaknesses in its case and said it was willing to return to the investigative phase to fill in gaps contested by the defence.

The trial revolves mostly around the purchase by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State of a commercial and residential building at 60 Sloane Avenue in London’s South Kensington, one of the wealthiest districts in the British capital.

Pignatone ordered the prosecution to give the defence access to remaining documentation, evidence, videos of interrogations and other material by Nov. 3 and adjourned the…

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Church asks for forgiveness as it accepts findings of ‘appalling’ abuse by clergy and lay members over 70 years

The French Catholic church has expressed “shame” and pleaded for forgiveness, after a devastating report found that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by clergy and lay members of church institutions over the past 70 years.

The publication of the landmark report on Thursday, France’s first major reckoning with what the Catholic church accepted was “appalling” abuse, has shaken the country with its horrific findings of a “massive phenomenon” of sexual abusers of children operating for decades within the church and its associated institutions.

The two-and-a-half-year independent inquiry found that staggering numbers of children were subjected to sexual violence by priests and clergy while the crimes were covered up in a “systemic way” by a deliberate “veil of silence” in the church.

The president of the investigative committee,…

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A week after a Columbia City Catholic priest resigned from his duties at Saint Paul of the Cross Catholic Church in Columbia City, a replacement has been announced.

Monday night, Bishop Kevin Rhoades introduced the congregation to Father Jose Arroyo. The Puerto Rico native most recently served at a parish in Goshen.

“I’m excited to be a part of this healing process here at St. Paul the Cross,” Father Arroyo said. “I love Saint Francis and his rule of wanting to rebuild the church and I think that my role at this point…to know them, to love them, and to serve them and that’s what I’m here for.”

That healing involves former priest Father David Huneck. He is accused of engaging in “sexual and other misconduct, including that with a minor.”‘

Huneck had served as a pastor at the Columbia City church since 2020. He was also a chaplain…

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A major report released Tuesday said French Catholic clerics had abused more than 200,000 minors over the past 70 years, a systemic trauma that the inquiry’s leader described as deep and “cruel.”

The report’s findings could trigger a public reckoning in a country where church officials long stalled efforts to investigate complicity. The findings also add to the picture of country-by-country trauma within a religion that has tended to find abuse on a stunning scale anywhere it has looked.

The Vatican said in a statement that Pope Francis had been informed of the report during a recent visit by French bishops. “His thoughts turn first to the victims, with immense sorrow for their injuries and gratitude for their courage to speak out,” the statement said, adding that Francis hopes the French church can follow a path of “redemption” after becoming aware of this “appalling reality.”

The Independent Commission on Sexual…

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A Roman Catholic priest who served at two parishes in the Raleigh Diocese until last week is accused of sexually abusing a student at a Charlotte parish in the 1990s, the Diocese of Charlotte said Tuesday.

The Rev. Francis Gillespie, 79, is alleged to have committed the abuse at Our Lady of the Assumption Church on Shamrock Drive in east Charlotte in the mid- to late-1990s, when he was pastor of the church and its school, according to a statement by the Charlotte Diocese. Gillespie served as pastor from 1994 to 2001, diocesan officials said.

The abuse is alleged to have occurred in the church, not the school, according to the diocesan statement.

The accuser recently reported the abuse to the Charlotte Diocese and Gillespie’s New York-based supervising religious order, the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus, diocesan officials said.

The Catholic News and Herald, the Charlotte diocesan…

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Dave Sharp says Police Scotland and some abuse charities need to have a better understanding of survivors.

A child abuse survivor and campaigner has spent the past five nights camped outside Falkirk Police Station to “start a conversation” about the issue.

Dave Sharp, 62, is calling for a change in attitude towards survivors and thinks Police Scotland, along with abuse charities, need to have a better understanding about what people like him are going through.

He’s worried that those who have experienced abuse are not getting the help and support they need, and instead are being put to one side.

Mr Sharp, who suffered repeated attacks by priests at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife, during the 1970s, says many survivors are left feeling isolated because cops and charities are not providing the right kind of support.

He told Falkirk Live: “Many survivors of…

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France’s first major study of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church revealed shockingly large estimates of victims and adds to global understanding of the depth of the problem. Here is a look at some key findings:

THE VICTIMS

Based on projections, the independent study estimates some 330,000 children overall were victims of sexual abuse linked to the church from 1950-2020. Of those, it estimates that some 216,000 were abused by priests, and the rest by other church figures such as scout leaders or camp counselors.

The study’s authors estimate 80% of the abused children were boys. A broader study of sexual abuse of children in France found that 75% of the overall victims were girls.

France has had several legal cases involving church sexual abuse, but most incidents investigated for the study happened too long ago to prosecute.

THE ABUSERS

The report released Tuesday estimates that about 2,900-3,200…

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Summary

• Investigation finds estimated 216,000 children suffered abuse
• French Catholic Church showed ‘cruel indifference’ – report
• Latest sex abuse scandal to rock the Roman Catholic Church
• Senior bishop asks for forgiveness, promises to act

French clergy have sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years, a major investigation released on Tuesday found, and its authors accused the Catholic Church of turning a blind eye for too long.

The church had shown “deep, total and even cruel indifference for years,” protecting itself rather than the victims of what was systemic abuse, said Jean-Marc Sauve, head of the commission that compiled the report.

Most of the victims were boys, he said, many of them aged between 10 and 13.

The church not only did not take the necessary measures to prevent abuse but also failed to report it and sometimes knowingly put children in touch with predators, he said.

The head…

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Catholic clergy abused over 200,000 minors in France since the 1950s, according to the findings of an independent investigation released Tuesday.

The report from the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) found that over 216,000 minors had been abused, CNN reported.

When including the victims of people who had other links to the church but were not clergy, such as through Catholic schools, the number of abuse victims rises to approximately 330,000.

The report said the Catholic Church is “where the prevalence of sexual violence is at its highest, other than in family and friend circles,” the outlet reported.

According to the report, the abuse was at its peak between 1950-1970, and a later surge in cases followed in the 1990s, Reuters reported. Most of the victims were boys between the ages of 10 and 13.

According to the outlet, between 2,900-3,200 suspected pedophiles had been in the…

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Three years after it became public that Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh was investigating child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, abuse survivors are wondering: Is he building a case or has the probe stalled?

In September 2018, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori told clergy the archdiocese was under investigation by the state. A few months later, church officials confirmed they had given the attorney general more than 50,000 pages of internal documents dating to 1965.

But to this day, Frosh has not provided details on the investigation, which members of his office say is ongoing.

“Honestly, I’m shocked that it would take this long to charge anybody or find anything,” said Liz Murphy, who was interviewed twice in 2018 by an investigator with the attorney general’s office about the abuse she suffered at a Catholic school in South Baltimore in the 1970s.

The lack of a conclusion to…

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An allegation of child sexual abuse has been reported against a Jesuit priest, Father Francis P. Gillespie, who served at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish more than 20 years ago.

Father Gillespie was pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Church and School from 1994 to 2001, and the abuse is alleged to occurred at the church in the mid- to late 1990s, when the claimant was a student at the school.

The allegation was recently reported to the Diocese of Charlotte and to Father Gillespie’s supervising religious order, the New York-based USA East Province of the Society of Jesus, which removed Father Gillespie from ministry on Sept. 29 while the allegation is investigated.

The Diocese of Charlotte reported the allegation to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police and to Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services on Sept. 28. Announcements were made during weekend Masses at Our Lady of the Assumption Church Oct….

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The Diocese of Charlotte said the allegation is against former Our Lady of the Assumption Church Pastor Francis P. Gillespie and stems from more than 20 years ago.

A former Charlotte priest, now 79-years-old, faces an allegation of child sexual abuse dating back 20 years.

The Diocese of Charlotte recently reported an allegation of child sexual abuse against former Our Lady of the Assumption Church Pastor Jesuit Father Francis P. Gillespie to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and Department of Social Services, pledging to “cooperate fully with any investigation,” according to a statement released to WCNC Charlotte Monday.

The diocese’s newspaper added the abuse allegedly occurred at the church in the mid-to-late 1990s and involved a student.

According to the diocese, Gillespie previously served as pastor at Our Lady of the Assumption Church and School from 1994 to 2001.

“His supervising religious order, the Jesuits, assigned him to ministry in the…

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Some 216,000 children have been sexually abused by members of the French Catholic clergy since 1950, an independent inquiry has found.

It warned that the number could rise to 330,000 when abuse by lay members of the Church was included.

The head of the inquiry, Jean-Marc Sauvé, said the figures were “overwhelming”.

The French Church expressed “shame and horror” over the findings, and asked for forgiveness.

One victim called the report a turning point in France’s history, and said it was time for the Catholic Church to fundamentally reassess its actions.

The release of the report marks the latest sexual abuse scandal to rock the Roman Catholic Church.

The inquiry was commissioned by the French Catholic Church in 2018.

It spent more than two-and-a-half years combing through court, police and Church records and speaking to victims and witnesses.

Mr Sauvé, a senior civil servant, said that until the early 2000s,…

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An independent commission laid out in detail the extent of the problem and the church’s failure to tackle it, estimating that about 216,000 minors had been abused since 1950.

An independent commission investigating sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in France since the 1950s said on Tuesday that the abuse was far more pervasive and systemic than previously known, laying out in detail how victims had been repeatedly silenced and how church authorities had failed to report or discipline abusive clergy.

The commission’s highly awaited, 2,500-page report, meticulously compiled over the past three years by independent experts at the request of the Catholic Church in France, was the most extensive account to date of the scope of sexual abuse by clergy in the country, especially against children and vulnerable people.

Since 1950, about 216,000 minors have been abused by clergy members in France and there have been at the…

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An estimated 330,000 children were victims of sex abuse within France’s Catholic Church over the past 70 years, according to a major report released Thursday that is France’s first major reckoning with the devastating phenomenon.

The figure includes abuses committed by some 3,000 priests and other people involved in the church — wrongdoing that Catholic authorities covered up over decades in a “systemic manner,” according to the president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé.

The head of the French bishops conference asked forgiveness from the victims. The group is meeting Tuesday to discuss next steps.

The commission urged the church to take strong action, denouncing “faults” and “silence.” It also called on the French state to help compensate the victims, notably in cases that are too old to prosecute via the courts.

About 80% of the victims were boys.

“The consequences are very serious,” Sauvé said. “About…

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The unprecedented step by the Catholic diocese of Dromore to set up its own redress scheme for victims of clerical abuse in the diocese has set a new bar for everyone else in the church.

It may well be emulated by other Irish dioceses and even, where relevant, by some religious congregations, but that appears unlikely.

The decision to create the scheme followed discussions between Archbishop Eamon Martin, who is currently in charge of the diocese, and abuse survivors.

So far, about 70 people in the diocese have made complaints, with about 40 alleging they were abused by the late Fr Malachy Finnegan, a former president of St Colman’s College in Newry.

The scheme was announced on Wednesday by Archbishop Martin, the Catholic Primate and Archbishop of Armagh, who has been Dromore’s administrator since the resignation of Bishop John McAreavey in 2018.

However, the system that will soon operate in Dromore…

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ROME – When the Vatican’s megatrial for financial crimes begins next week, one of the star figures will be Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a former power-player in the Holy See’s Secretariat of State who is the first cardinal to be indicted by the small city-state.

Set to open Oct. 5 after being postponed during an initial hearing over the summer, the trial involves a list of 10 people facing a variety of charges ranging from abuse of office to embezzlement, fraud, and corruption, among other things.

Indictments against the 10 individuals involved are associated with a shoddy real estate deal brokered between the Vatican’s Secretariat of State during Becciu’s tenure there, and several shady Italian businessmen.

In total, the Vatican lost roughly 150 million pounds ($201,618,000) on the investment, mostly in burdensome mortgage and generous fees to its business brokers.

Becciu himself, a once-powerful figure in the Vatican who fell…

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Defense lawyers are questioning the legitimacy of the Vatican tribunal where 10 people are on trial on finance-related charges, arguing their clients can’t get a fair trial in an absolute monarchy where the pope has already intervened in the case and where prosecutors have failed to turn over key evidence.

In defense motions ahead of the trial’s resumption on Tuesday, lawyers have alleged numerous procedural violations by prosecutors that they say should nullify the indictment. They have questioned what redress they have, since the Holy See has never signed any international convention guaranteeing fair trials or providing recourse to the European Court of Human Rights.

“These are harmful to the right of the defense that affect the right to a fair trial,” said Fabio Viglione, attorney for Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the lone cardinal on trial.

The trial concerns the Holy See’s 350 million euro investment in a London property deal…

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Some eight months ago, Bishop Michael Fisher arrived in Buffalo, as the new Catholic bishop, but he does not give the impression that he is very enthused about his new position. His mandate is quite unclear. While bishops are called to pastor and shepherd, he gives the impression of being more engaged in wearing the hat of a CEO.

He seems to have lacked prioritizing to listen and engage with a broad cross-section of people. Instead, he appears to only engage with his lawyers, the wealthy and those who he sees as the most influential. He certainly has not made himself accessible to the victims of the most heinous crimes of sexual abuse that occurred at the hands of those who have led various institutions within his diocese.

Fisher does not show that that he welcomes ideas or advice. He comes across as extremely removed from “his flock” and…

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When Pennsylvania’s attorney general began working on a grand jury investigation into clerical sexual abuse in his state, he had no idea what would happen when the report came out.

The project began in 2016. By the time it finished in 2018, a grand jury had reviewed more than 500,000 pages in documents, and interviewed dozens of witnesses. The report detailed allegations of clerical abuse dating back decades, and depicted dioceses which reassigned priests who had been accused serially of misconduct, or which had otherwise failed to make known the potential of danger to Catholics.

The report was published Aug. 14, 2018. It came just two months after revelations emerged about the abuse and coercion of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick — and because of that context, the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report landed in the Church like a bombshell, compounding the scandal of a summer already unlike any before it in…

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Civil complaint filed as criminal proceedings continue

An unnamed plaintiff is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville and a Murfreesboro parish for failing to act on reports of alleged abuse during a three-year period by the former religious education director.

A Baltimore-based law firm and a local attorney filed the suit Monday in Davidson County circuit court on behalf of the plaintiff about alleged abuse by Michael Lewis at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church.

Lewis, 42, is facing 14 felony charges, including statutory rape and sexual battery, after a grand jury indicted him in June 2020. A trial on those charges is scheduled for February 2022.

St. Rose parishioners and staff reported problematic behavior by Lewis to church leadership and former Nashville Bishop David Choby, yet the diocese did not launch an investigation, notify law enforcement or remove Lewis, Monday’s lawsuit alleges.

“The diocese concealed Lewis’s abuse, sexual misconduct, and sexual…

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The historic bill providing for a life sentence for a convicted child abuser will serve as a powerful deterrent

The Philippine Senate has finally approved the final draft of a law that is vital to the protection of children and the prosecution of child rapists who were committing the crime with impunity.

The Philippine Senate Bill (SB) 2332 is a historic law as it seeks to repeal the penal code that said it was legal to have sex with a 12-year-old or older child. Now it will be a criminal act of statutory rape to have sex with a 16-year-old or younger child.

A convicted offender faces a possible sentence of life in prison on the credible testimony of the child victim. This law is a powerful deterrent and provides greater protection for vulnerable children.

Child rights advocates, including the Preda Foundation, have been campaigning for this change for decades. It…

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A New Jersey judge ruled Thursday that the Archdiocese of Newark be held financially responsible for abuse claims against a high-ranking Catholic leader, The Post has learned.

The ruling involves accusations that disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick assaulted a boy in the 1980s — and it could pave the way for victims to get bigger civil court payouts.

In the precedent-setting ruling, District Court Judge Madeline Arleo found that the wealthy institution is “vicariously liable” — responsible simply for employing McCarrick, without necessarily committing any wrongdoing.

“This is huge,” said lawyer Kevin Mulhearn, who is representing the anonymous accuser, known as John Doe.

“It marks the first time in the US that a court has determined that a diocese may be held accountable for the intentional acts of its bishop, without necessarily finding that the diocese itself was negligent.”

John Doe claims McCarrick, 91, began molesting him at a beach house in…

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Jean-Marc Sauvé, chair of independent commission, says 3,000 priests and religious were guilty of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable persons over the past 70 years

The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) will release its report on Tuesday after almost three years of an extremely thorough investigation.

But the first details were provided a few days ago by one member or another from the commission, beginning with the president Jean-Marc Sauvé.

He told the press that 3,000 priests and religious had committed abuse between 1950 and 2020.

The report will be publicly handed over tomorrow to the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) and the Conference of Religious of Institutes and Congregations (Corref).

These two entities commissioned the report in autumn 2018 at a press conference attended by representatives of victims’ groups.

A report with no complacency

Words like “earthquake” and “explosion” are being used to describe…

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The president of the Bishops’ Conference of France said that the extent of the phenomenon of sexual crimes in the Church was “greater than we could have feared”

As an independent commission in France prepares to release what is expected to be devastating report on the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, the head of the national episcopal conference has urged his confreres to humbly accept the inquest’s findings.

“For us, priests, bishops, we should not focus on, nor contest, the first reactions. One thing is certain, we must accept it,” said Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF).

The archbishop made his comments on September 29 in Rome at an event hosted by the French Embassy to the Holy See.

De Moulins-Beaufort, who was in town for his “ad limina” visit, spoke with journalists about the report that the Independent Commission on Sexual…

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An independent commission examining sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in France believes 3,000 child abusers — two-thirds of them priests — have worked in the church over the past 70 years.

The estimate was given by the commission president, Jean-Marc Sauvé, in an interview published Sunday in the newspaper Journal du Dimanche. The commission has been investigating for 2 1/2 years. Its full findings are scheduled to be released on Tuesday.

In the interview, Sauvé did not give a figure on the number of sex abuse victims but said the report does include a new estimate.

Asked about the commission’s work investigating child abusers, he said: “We evaluated their number at 3,000, out of 11,500 priests and church people since the 1950s. Two-thirds are diocesan priests.”

He said 22 cases have been forwarded to prosecutors for alleged crimes that can still be pursued. More than 40 cases of…

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Between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophile clergymen have worked in the French Catholic Church since the 1950s, the president of an independent commission on sexual abuse told CNN Sunday.

“We had to cross historical, sociological, medical and psychiatric perspectives. We had to call upon skills in the area of child protection, social work, questions of abuse and also bring to bear skills in the area of theology and law,” said Jean-Marc Sauvé, ahead of the release of the commission’s final report on Tuesday.

The report aims to establish the facts and provide an understanding of what happened in order to prevent “such tragedies” from taking place in the future. But the report does not aim to establish “personal responsibility,” according to the commission’s website.

The commission — made up of 21 people — was set up in 2018 by the French Catholic Church hierarchy and religious…

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In the wake of a priest abuse scandal, Pope Francis’ historic synod will seek input from all corners of the globe.

Pope Francis wants to know what you think about the Catholic Church — what it’s doing well, how it’s falling down, and where it should go in the future.

By “you,” the pontiff means people in the pews, people not in the pews, Christmas and Easter Catholics, former Catholics, priests, nuns, the laity, younger members, older members, non-Catholics and outside observers.

Starting next week, the Vatican is launching a three-year synod on “communion, participation and mission” — a program of “listening and consultation of the People of God in the particular churches.”

It is an invitation, Francis says, for the whole church to question itself about its life and mission.

Each diocese in the 1.3 billion-member church is being urged to survey its members, asking questions about ministering to the…

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The first Australian Catholic Church Plenary Council since 1937 opened on Sunday, with COVID-19 restrictions forcing the original Adelaide meeting – delayed by 12 months – largely online.

The national meeting, involving 278 members across the country – including bishops, members of religious congregations and laypeople – is discussing a range of issues, including matters relating to the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse, euthanasia laws and women’s roles within the church.

The role of First Nations peoples and church governance are also on the meeting agenda.

Speaking from St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney in his homily for the opening of the Plenary Council, Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher said it comes at an important juncture of the history of the Church in Australia.

“We must address some very contemporary issues, such as: How to deepen our spiritual lives amidst the noise and busyness of modernity? How…

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In Australia an historic Plenary Council assembly has opened with Catholic bishops and laypeople considering the tough issues confronting the Church in Australia today –  how the Church can move forward after the damning findings of a child sex abuse royal commission, shrinking church attendances, a shortage of priests and how to increase the role of women.

In all, 278 members – bishops, priests, deacons, members of religious orders and lay people, including women – are convening after three and a half years of preparation. 

Although it is Australia’s fifth Plenary Council, the last gathering of its kind was in 1937 and was an all-male affair.  

The first of two assemblies will run until October 10 with members from across Australia meeting online. A second assembly will be held in July 2022.

Pope Francis sent greetings and blessings from Rome. In a message read out during the opening session Francis said the…

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AN independent abuse watchdog is to be set up by the Catholic Church in Scotland to deal with complaints against members of the clergy. 

The move to establish a ‘Safeguarding Agency’ follows decades of clerical sex scandals, where the church has been accused of failing to deal with rogue priests who have preyed on members of their community. 

The church says the Scottish Catholic Safegarding Standards Agency will operate independently to produce ‘consistency, transparency and accountability’ within Catholic Church institutions in Scotland. 

Bishop Hugh Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen, said: “The SCSSA will operate entirely independently of the Church and will have its own staff and Board of Management who will work in close collaboration with dioceses and religious communities to ensure that they are able to meet national safeguarding standards.  

“It will also develop a process that will provide an independent review of complaints about safeguarding practice and crucially, establish…

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The Catholic Church in Scotland is setting up an independent watchdog to deal with abuse complaints against members of the clergy.

The move follows a number of sex scandals where the church was accused of failing to respond to concerns.

The church said the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (SCSSA) would produce ‘consistency, transparency and accountability”.

It will operate as an independent private company.

Bishop Hugh Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen, said: “The SCSSA will operate entirely independently of the Church and will have its own staff and board of management who will work in close collaboration with dioceses and religious communities to ensure that they are able to meet national safeguarding standards.

“It will also develop a process that will provide an independent review of complaints about safeguarding practice and crucially, establish a forum in which those who have experienced abuse can contribute their own perspectives to the development of…

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The Catholic Church in Scotland has announced it’s setting up an independent watchdog to deal with abuse complaints against members of the clergy.

The move follows a number of sex scandals where the church was accused of failing to respond to concerns.

Bishop Hugh Gilbert, President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said the body would promote consistency, transparency and accountability across Catholic Church institutions. 

He was speaking at the end of a national Safeguarding webinar which attracted 450 participants from across Scotland. The new Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (SCSSA) as an independent private company.

Bishop Hugh said :  “The SCSSA will operate entirely independently of the Church and will have its own staff and Board of Management who will work in close collaboration with dioceses and religious communities to ensure that they are able to meet national safeguarding standards. It will also develop a process that will provide…

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THE £2.5 million set aside by the Diocese of Dromore for a clerical abuse redress scheme is “far too small” an amount, it has been claimed with more victims expected to come forward amid fears paedophile priest Malachy Finegan could have abused up to 100 boys.

Archbishop Eamon Martin, the apostolic administrator in the diocese, announced details of the scheme on Wednesday and apologised to victims and survivors.

The diocese has set aside £2.5m for the scheme, with individual payouts to be capped at £80,000.

About £2m has already been paid out in civil settlements involving 15 cases.

It is understood that although 35 men have so far contacted police with allegations that they were sexually abused by Finegan, many more have decided not to pursue any action.

A total of 70 complaints are understood to have been made to police about clerical abuse in the diocese, including allegations about…

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It was February 2018 that the lid was lifted on the vile and abhorrent behaviour of Fr Malachy Finegan.

The priest had held a prestigious position as president of leading Catholic grammar St Colman’s in Newry, where he had also been a teacher. He later became parish priest of Clonduff in Hilltown, Co Down. Bishop of Dromore Dr John McAreavey officiated at his funeral mass in 2002.

However, as a BBC Spotlight investigation discovered, the priest had a horrifying dark side, abusing an untold number of boys in a paedophile campaign spanning decades.

It also became clear that Bishop Francis Brooks had been alerted to Finegan’s behaviour but sent the priest to England for ‘treatment’ in 1994 instead of reporting him to the police.

Sadly, this is a story we have heard far too many times in recent years as the full extent of the clerical abuse scandal has been…

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Where are the lawsuits?

North Carolina has an unfortunate history with childhood sex abuse. In 2020, NC became the first Southern state to open a temporary window for child sexual abuse survivors of any age to file civil lawsuits. Is North Carolina actually tracking these lawsuits? Here’s The News & Observer’s special report.

North Carolina’s SAFE Child Act opened a two-year window that allows child sex abuse survivors of any age to sue people who abused them and organizations that failed to protect them. Beginning in 2022, only people 27 or younger will be allowed to file these lawsuits in North Carolina.

Here are resources to help survivors navigate the process.

Finding a Lawyer

The first step is finding an attorney. Many firms work on contingency, meaning clients aren’t expected to pay fees upfront.

The North Carolina Bar Association’s referral service lets people search for attorneys based on an area of…

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[Includes video about survivor Katie Trout.]

In the late 1990s, Kevin Trapani helped found an insurance business with an unorthodox mission: prevent child sexual abuse.

Already in the insurance industry, he wanted to maximize the public benefit from the vast stores of claims-related data that insurance companies accumulate. And to a guy who practically grew up at his local YMCA, focusing on organizations that serve kids seemed like a perfect way to combine his passions.

“We figured that if we could develop close and trusting relationships with those customers, we would have the data about how kids were harmed,” Trapani said. Then, “we would share that information with our customers in such a way that they could change their programming and operations, so that the kids in their care would be more safe.”

Almost 25 years later, The Redwoods Group, based in Morrisville, is one of the country’s largest insurers…

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The German bishops’ conference initially said that the process would end with a series of “binding” votes — raising concerns at the Vatican that the resolutions might challenge the Church’s teaching and discipline.

A German Catholic bishop suggested this week that the country’s “Synodal Way” is using the abuse crisis to reshape the Church on Protestant lines. 

Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg questioned why the German Catholic Church’s progress in tackling abuse was seldom acknowledged, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

He said: “The fact that interested parties now continue to pretend that nothing has actually happened so far, that without a valid comparison of institutions and without a historical classification of the cases of abuse, the peculiarities of the Catholic Church are systemically blamed for it, feeds my suspicion that the sexual abuse is being instrumentalized here in an attempt to reshape the Catholic Church along the lines of…

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A New Jersey federal judge ruled this week that the Archdiocese of Newark can be held financially responsible for the abuse committed by Theodore McCarrick, a disgraced former cardinal, according to one media report.

According to a report from the New York Post, District Court Judge Madeline Arleo found that the Newark archdiocese is “vicariously liable” for McCarrick’s actions.

According to the Legal Information Institute, “vicarious liability” refers to liability that a supervisory party, such as an employer, bears for the actionable conduct of a subordinate or associate, such as an employee, based on the relationship between the two parties.

McCarrick was installed as Archbishop of Newark July 25, 1986. He had served in New Jersey as Bishop of Metuchen since 1981, and before that as auxiliary bishop of the neighboring New York archdiocese since 1977.

Arleo wrote that “Despite alleged knowledge of McCarrick’s history of sexual abuse of young…

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• Lawyer ads focused on Catholic Church abuse claims jumped in July and August
• Mass tort TV advertising overall down from 2020, X Ante says

(Reuters) – Television advertising by law firms seeking clients to pursue lawsuits against the Catholic Church surged ahead of an August deadline to bring decades-old child abuse claims under a landmark New York law, according to a new report.

More than 5,700 ads soliciting child abuse claims against Catholic Church dioceses aired in July and August, almost 900 more TV spots than the prior two months, mass tort advertising tracking firm X Ante said in a report released Thursday.

The report examined mass tort advertising nationwide by lawyers and referral services in July and August compared to May and June.

Spending on the church-related advertising jumped 55% to nearly $2 million during that period, making church child abuse claims the fourth most common topic for ads…

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A lawsuit filed this week alleges the Catholic Diocese of Nashville and St. Rose of Lima Church failed to protect a child from a staff member’s sexual abuse.

The suit claims that concerns about sexual misconduct were raised to the bishop of the diocese, the pastor of St. Rose and other officials for years, but no meaningful action was taken.

The alleged perpetrator, Michael D. Lewis, was indicted in June 2020 on felony sex crime charges. He will be facing trial for those charges in February. Lewis had been the church’s director of religions education.

“The allegations in this lawsuit raise disturbing questions about the Diocese of Nashville’s commitment to protect children from being terrorized by its employees,” Patrick A. Thronson, who is representing the plaintiff, said in a press release. “As the complaint alleges, the Diocese received numerous eyewitness reports of Lewis’s flagrantly inappropriate conduct, yet knowingly failed to act….

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A priest convicted of grooming a teenage girl to send him nude photos was the subject of a previous complaint that was covered up by the Tongan Catholic Church.

The victim’s aunt and an abuse survivors’ group said it showed the church should have prevented Sosefo Sateki Raass’ offending.

The Tongan church gave Raass a good character reference before he moved to Auckland, where he was convicted in 2019 of indecent communication with a person under 16 and subsequently quit the priesthood.

But a complaint had been lodged about Raass in 2006, and the head of the Tongan church, Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi, admitted there were repeated rumours about Raass’ behaviour.

The late Bishop of Tonga, John Foliaki, signed a statement of good character before Raass’ formal transfer to Auckland. But Mafi, who replaced Foliaki after Raass had left the kingdom, said he subsequently had several conversations with Auckland…

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The French Catholic Church has had an estimated 3,000 paedophiles in its ranks over the past 70 years, the head of an independent commission investigating the sex abuse scandal said in an interview published on Sunday.

The scandal in the French Church is the latest to hit the Roman Catholic Church, which has been rocked by sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.

The French commission is due to publish its findings on Tuesday, marking the culmination of 2-1/2 years of work, probing allegations of abuse going back to the 1950s.

“We have estimated the number (of paedophiles) as standing at 3,000, out of 115,000 priests and religious officials, going back to the 1950s,” commission head Jean-Marc Sauve told the Journal du Dimanche paper.

A spokesperson representing the French Catholic Bishops’ Conference declined to comment on Sauve’s remarks.

A Vatican spokesperson said it…

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Via RTE

Some 3,000 paedophiles have operated inside the French Catholic Church since 1950, the head of an independent commission investigating the scandal has said ahead of the release of its report.

The commission’s research uncovered between 2,900 and 3,200 paedophile priests or other members of the church, said Jean-Marc Sauve, adding that it was “a minimum estimate”.

The commission’s report is due to be released on Tuesday after two and a half years of research based on church, court and police archives, as well as interviews with witnesses.

Mr Sauve, a senior French civil servant, said the report, which runs to 2,500 pages, had attempted to quantify both the number of offenders and the number of victims.

It also looked into “the mechanisms, notably institutional and cultural ones” within the Church which allowed paedophiles to remain, and will offer 45 proposals.

The independent commission was set up in 2018…

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A Louisville priest convicted of abusing children has been released from prison.

Father Joseph Hemmerle was sentenced to nine years in prison for sexual abuse that happened in the 1970s.

The Louisville priest was denied parole several times but Friday, became eligible to be released into mandatory re-entry supervision.

He will be monitored by a parole officer but he isn’t required to register as a sex offender. Hemmerle remains a priest.

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France’s top bishop has warned an upcoming report on clerical sexual abuse will be “quite frightening” and the head of the independent commission investigating the scandal has admitted he had to seek psychological help after listening to victims’ testimonies.

Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, head of the episcopal conference, held five meetings with parishioners in his Reims archdiocese in Septemberto prepare them for the report of the extensive inquiry led by retired senior civil servant Jean-Marc Sauvé. 

“If for a while we thought we had been spared in France by this scourge, we had to face the facts: there are serious and numerous cases of abuse committed by priests,” the archbishop told one meeting.

“I’m afraid that, on 5 October, the report of the independent commission on sexual abuse in the Church will deliver quite frightening numbers,” he told another.

Sauvé estimated last March that his commission would find at least…

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The bishops’ coverups of priests raping children were bad enough. But who would have thought New Zealand’s Roman Catholic Church would devise a new strategy to conceal its coverups.

That appears to be the case based on evidence from the Royal Commission’s Phase 2 Hearing for faith-based abuse, regarding the Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS).

This suggests that the coverup of Catholic priests raping children is not really about child sexual abuse. In fact, the Catholic Church is not unique when it comes to its clergy raping children. But what makes it unique, and what gives those crimes such depth, is the Church’s power and authority.

Roman Catholicism has had the capacity to compel its victims and their families to collude in their own abuse and to keep its heinous crimes of priests raping children secret for decades. It is this system of hierarchical power that has…

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In early July, in the suburbs around my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, there were two domestic violence murders: a nurse and mother in her 30s and a 15-year-old whose mother was trying to escape abuse. The teenager played violin, and his allegedly murderous stepfather was a decorated ex-Marine and police officer. Both victims were regular people, killed by our epidemic of domestic violence.

The COVID-19 lockdown has caused a worldwide spike in violence against women, according to surveys around the world. Baltimore City experienced a 35% increase in domestic aggravated assaults from early 2020 to early 2021. While some consider the problem intractable and outside the purview of the Catholic Church, daily parish activities abound with lost opportunities to reshape the cultural and moral environment in which abuse flourishes. It was my experience of domestic violence, and the struggle to…

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The Sacramento Diocese has revealed new allegations of sexual abuse by priests. The list includes six new allegations against five former priests, some of whom were assigned to churches in the Northstate in the past.

These latest claims name five priests who had been previously accused of sexual misconduct against minors. Since the diocese revealed a list of accused priests in 2019, new victims have come forward alleging six additional instances of abuse involving five former priests.

The new entries result from the completion of the Independent Compensation Program. Under this program, which ran from September 2019 to the summer of 2021, individuals were able to seek compensation in a confidential process for claims of abuse by diocesan priests, regardless of when the abuse occurred, without going to court. The independent program administrators reviewed each claim and made a determination regarding an offer of settlement.

One new claim names  View Cache

A priest is being accused of sexually abusing a minor while he was the pastor at an Aspen church.

Archdiocese of Denver Vicar General Very Rev. R. Michael Dollins said in a letter to parishioners this week that it received an allegation that Fr. Michael O’Brien has been accused of sexually abusing a minor between 2004 and 2008 while he was a pastor at St. Mary’s in Aspen. He was the pastor at the church from 2002 to 2011.

The Aspen Police Department confirmed it’s actively investigating, but did not provide further details on the allegations.

Dollins said in the letter O’Brien “has resolutely denied these allegations.”

O’Brien is currently serving as pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in Julesburg. He has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

The organization Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests applauded the victim for coming forward. A victim advocate for SNAP…

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