Documenting the Catholic Sexual Abuse and Financial Crisis – Data on bishops, priests, brothers, nuns, Pope Francis, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Friday, April 10, 2026
ABUSE TRACKER
A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.
The Vatican has ordered Timothy Cardinal Dolan to probe allegations that Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio sexually abused an altar boy at a New Jersey church in the 1970s, The Post has learned.
On Jan. 7, “the Cardinal received instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he is to begin an investigation. As is our practice, the Cardinal will rely on outside professional forensic investigators to assist him in this matter,” said New York Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling.
“Cardinal Dolan earlier notified the Holy See of the allegation that was raised concerning Bishop DiMarzio from his time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark,” the spokesman said in a statement.
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On Saturday, the Diocese of La Crosse plans to publish a list of clergy with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse.
The diocese said it would release the list on its website Saturday at 4 p.m.
In a statement Friday, the diocese said as the list is released, a pastoral letter from Bishop William Callahan will be read at all weekend Masses in the diocese.
According to the diocese, the list was created after an audit of clergy files dating back to 1868 when the diocese was founded.
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The Diocese of Madison announced Friday that sexual abuse allegations against a former priest who served parishes near the Wisconsin River were determined to be credible.
According to a news release, Rev. Patrick Doherty, 85, will be placed on the diocese’s list of priests or former priests who have been credibly accused of acts of sexual abuse against minors. Doherty has been out of ministry since 1993.
Doherty previously worked in a number of smaller parishes along the Wisconsin River, including St. Barnabas, Mazomanie and St. John the Baptist.
Doherty’s accuser, who does not want to be named, said the abuse happened over 40 years ago. The release said Doherty has had struggles with alcoholism and reported disreputable behaviors with adult men that were known to the public.
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BBC2 documentary shows how establishment figures rallied round cleric
The disgraced paedophile bishop Peter Ball made himself apparently “impregnable” by cultivating friendships with Prince Charles and other senior establishment figures who later rushed to support him when he was accused of sexual abuse, according to a BBC documentary.
Ball, the former bishop of both Lewes and Gloucester who died last year, boasted of his role as “counsellor to royalty”, Cliff James, one of his victims, says in the programme. He cultivated friendships with Margaret Thatcher, peers of the realm, senior judges and headmasters of leading public schools.
The former bishop was investigated by police in the early 1990s, which resulted in a police caution. In 2015, he was convicted of sexual offences against 17 teenagers and young men and jailed for 32 months. He was released in February 2017 after serving half his sentence.
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As Peruvian journalist Paola Ugaz faces ongoing legal threats over her reporting on a controversial Catholic lay group, both sexual abuse survivors and members of the hierarchy have come to her defense, arguing that the onslaught of legal action amounts to “harassment” in a bid to stop her investigations.
Last year, Ugaz received five criminal citations for aggravated defamation, more than any other journalist in Peru in 2019. On Dec. 30, Ugaz got two separate legal notices in the mail summoning her to hearings, one on Jan. 17, and one on March 22.
“When the whole world was preparing to celebrate the new year, I had to start working with my defense lawyer to see how to face this systematic harassment of me,” Ugaz told Crux, attributing this “persecution” to the group she has been reporting on.
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January 17, 2020
Contact: Kelly Rossman-McKinney 517-335-7666
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel today announced criminal sexual conduct charges have been filed against two more priests by her department’s Clergy Abuse Investigation Team.
Multiple charges have been filed in three Upper Peninsula counties against Gary Allen Jacobs and Roy Joseph, both former priests associated with the Catholic Diocese of Marquette.
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Robert McWilliams, the Catholic priest at St. Joseph Church in Strongsville, is arraigned on a child pornography charge in Chardon Municipal Court.
A Cuyahoga County grand jury has handed up a 21-count indictment charging a Strongsville Catholic priest with possessing child pornography.
The Rev. Robert McWilliams, 39, is charged with 20 counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor, a second-degree felony. He is also charged with possessing criminal tools.
McWilliams is currently jailed in Geauga County on a $150,000 bond. He is set to return to Cuyahoga County to answer to the new charges at a Wednesday arraignment.
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“Almost Feral,” By Gemma Hickey; Breakwater Books; $24.95; 272 pages.
In July 2015, Gemma Hickey set out from Port aux Basques to walk across the island, via the Trans-Canada Highway. Their goal was to raise funds for and awareness of Pathways, which Hickey had founded to help survivors of clergy sexual abuse. Hickey publicized their efforts through a steady stream of events and interviews along the route, as well as continual interactions with passers- and drivers-by (the reason Hickey took the road and not the shorter but less-accessible railway bed).
“There was no confessional in the world big enough to hold what I heard. The stories were easier to carry while I was moving. But when I lay still in my bed at night, they haunted my dreams.” (Because so much of the material is very sensitive, Hickey doesn’t name many people in the book, not even their former spouse.)
“One woman, who was driving home from the mainland with her daughter for a visit, told me the nuns abused her at Belvedere Orphanage in St. John’s. Even though she had been living in Ontario for some time, I could still hear her Newfoundland accent …
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Friday criminal sexual conduct charges have been filed against two more priests by her department’s Clergy Abuse Investigation Team.
Multiple charges have been filed in three Upper Peninsula counties against Gary Allen Jacobs and Roy Joseph, both former priests associated with the Catholic Diocese of Marquette.
Gary Allen Jacobs, 74, of Albuquerque, N.M., is charged with multiple criminal sexual conduct counts, with incidents reportedly occurring between Jan. 1, 1981, and Dec. 31, 1984, in Ontonagon County and between March 1, 1984, and April 30, 1984, in Dickinson County.
Jacobs faces a total of seven charges in two separate cases in Ontonagon County. He’s being charged with six counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a child between the ages of 13 and 16 and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a child between the ages of 13 and 16. In Dickinson County, Jacobs faces one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a person under 13 years old.
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While religious extremists agitate for legislation extending their religious privilege at the expense of the rights of other Australians, a victim of child abuse is attempting to obtain compensation.
Father Michael McArdle wrote in a 2004 affidavit that he made confessions of child abuse 1,500 times over 25 years. Each time, he walked out of the confessional booth with his sins absolved.
Rockhampton Bishop Brian Heenan barred McArdle from contact with children in 1996 after hearing allegations from victims. Although McArdle never denied the allegations, Heenan failed to contact the police.
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Pope Francis “has effectively given Xi Jinping a stamp of approval when the latter’s hostility to religious freedom couldn’t be clearer,” said Sophie Richardson, the China director of Human Rights Watch.
“Watching a major world faith come to an agreement with an authoritarian government that’s notorious for repressing religious freedom and to effectively cede some authority to that government sets a very worrying precedent,” Richardson explained. “The deal came as the religious-freedom environment in China reached its worst level in years, as the government has detained Muslim citizens in illegal detention camps, increased control over churches and temples, and sought to incorporate party ideology directly into religious doctrine.”
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The Tennessee chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is requesting the Catholic Church’s U.S. governing body investigate of the Diocese of Knoxville for allegedly silencing victims of sexual abuse through a practice outlawed by the church nearly 20 years ago.
The complaint letter, sent Thursday to the National Review Board, said the diocese pushed for a nondisclosure agreement in the December settlement of a sexual abuse case brought by Michael Boyd. In July, Boyd filed a lawsuit alleging he was repeatedly sexually abused between 1991 and 1995 in Knoxville by Monsignor Francis Xavier Mankel, Bishop Anthony O’Connell, visiting priests and diocesan employee William Michael Lovelace.
Boyd’s settlement contains a nondisparagement agreement, which bars him from speaking negatively about the diocese. The complaint letter says non-disclosure and nondisparagement agreements violate the Catholic Church’s 2002 charter on addressing abuse, which states dioceses are “not to enter into settlements which bind the parties to confidentiality.”
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Several major evangelical organizations have in recent years moved to a new strategy where they shift from a nonprofit status to a “church” status with the IRS, allowing them to keep private exactly how their money is being spent and the salaries of their most highly paid employees.
That strategic shift was highlighted recently by MinistryWatch, an independent, donor-based group that monitors evangelical institutions. The IRS status change allows these groups, including Focus on the Family and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, to avoid filing a form that makes details of their institution’s finances public.
Leaders of the groups say they are changing their status to avoid administrative costs; some also believe that this status with the IRS could allow them extra religious-freedom protections in potential lawsuits over LGBT rights. The potential cost of applying to be a church is that the organizations cannot campaign on behalf of politicians or devote a substantial part of their work to lobbying on legislation. Critics say the option deprives the public of important information about how the tax-exempt organizations are operating.
“Transparency and accountability send an important message to the world, which is why this trend is so potentially destructive,” said Warren Cole Smith of MinistryWatch.
For decades, the U.S. tax code has allowed nonprofit organizations, including religious ones, to be exempt from most taxes. Donors can also deduct gifts to the nonprofit groups on their own taxes.
But tax-exempt organizations that are not houses of worship must also complete an annual Form 990. The form includes information about annual revenue, salaries of the highest-paid employees, names of board members and large contractors, and the amount of money the organization spends on administrative costs and fundraising. In lieu of a 990, some houses of worship (which are all generally described as “churches” by the IRS) choose to publicize their own audits, but doing so is not required.
MinistryWatch recently published a list of highly paid Christian ministry executives, but several pastors and nonprofit executives were excluded because many don’t file 990s. While these kinds of ministries range in purpose, they typically do not operate the same way most churches do, with at least one weekly worship service that is open to the public.
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A Catholic civil society group dedicated to fighting sexual abuse in the Slovenian Roman Catholic Church has called for the resignation of Slovenia’s most senior cleric, Ljubljana Archbishop Stanislav Zore, due to the church’s persistent failure to tackle sexual abuse allegations against members of the clergy.
The church keeps adopting and updating recommendations on how church workers should deal with allegations of sexual abuse, but “everything remains dead ink on paper”, said Igor Vovk, a senior member of the Dovolj.je (It’s Enough) group and director of the Catholic pro-life NGO Zavod Iskreni.
The group has so far received 38 reports by victims against 22 priests. And while some have been handled adequately, in particular in the Murska Sobota Diocese, others continue to be ignored, it said.
It highlighted the case of priest Jože Planinšek, the director of the pastoral and youth centre Saint Joseph Home in Celje, who had been reported by five victims for sexual assault dating between 1990 and 2010. “He is still doing his job as if nothing has happened,” priest Janez Cerar said.
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We sat at Carolyn Surrick’s kitchen table for so long, talking and crying, that we had gotten hungry. She pulled out a bowl of edamame beans steamed the night before and showed me how to eat them right out of their shells.
I was, at the time, a young reporter for The Capital, following up on a phone call she had made the previous week. She had told me that, when she was a student at Key School in the early 1970s, she and many other students had been raped and sexually assaulted by a handful of their teachers.
I cried more than she did that long afternoon as she detailed stories of predators and lost childhood. She told of an art teacher who decorated the library with plaster casts of the breasts of pre-pubescent girls. She told me that grooming for abuse started when girls and boys were 13- to 14-years old.
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Two former priests who served in the Upper Peninsula have been charged with sex crimes, the state Attorney General’s office announced Friday.
Both men had ties to the Catholic Diocese of Marquette.
The charges come as state Attorney General Dana Nessel continues investigations into clergy abuse.
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Father Timothy Kelly, named in a sex abuse lawsuit out of New York last year, worked at Belmont Abbey from 1989 to 1991.
The names of more than 40 clergy members credibly accused of sexually abusing children before, during or after their time in the Diocese of Charlotte are now public, but just weeks after church leaders released that long-awaited list, we’ve learned there are still others who served in our area who were not named.
“The point is that other church entities have recognized various perpetrators, whether it’s Franciscan or other [religious orders] and they have served there,” advocate Patrick Wall said.
Wall, a former monk, worked under Father Timothy Kelly at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota. Kelly later spent three years at Belmont Abbey in Gaston County from 1989-1991 as an administrator.
Kelly, who did not work with the Diocese of Charlotte, has faced sex abuse allegations from multiple victims in other parts of the country.
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[PHOTO: Tim McGuire of New London protests Wednesday, July 10, 2019, outside of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Mystic to raise awareness of the fight to bring accountability to the Diocese of Norwich for alleged sexual abuses, including his own that he alleges occurred when he was 8.]
In August of 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a report that found 301 priests had abused more than 1,000 children in the state’s Catholic dioceses. That news prompted six southeastern Connecticut men, now in their 50s, 60s and 70s, to tell The Day how they too had been sexually assaulted by priests and a nun assigned to the Diocese of Norwich when they were children.
One, Deacon Mark King, accused Gregory Mullaney, the current pastor at St. Agnes Church in Niantic, of repeatedly propositioning him and trying to sexually assault him while on a trip to Rome in 2006.
The Day also revealed how more than two dozen young men had sued the diocese alleging they were sexually assaulted as teens while attending a school for troubled boys in Deep River that was headed by former Bishop of Norwich Daniel Reilly. One alleged victim, Tim McGuire of New London, began picketing local churches and others calling for a victim compensation fund.
The Day published their stories and reported that the attorney general and chief state’s attorney had no plans to investigate the issue. The newspaper also questioned the diocese why it was not releasing lists of accused priests as the Hartford diocese and others across the country had done.
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Criminal sexual conduct charges have been filed against two priests who worked in the Upper Peninsula’s Catholic diocese of Marquette, Michigan prosecutors announced Friday
The charges against Gary Allen Jacobs of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Roy Joseph were announced Friday by Attorney General Dana Nessel office’s Clergy Abuse Investigation Team.
Jacobs, 74, faces seven counts of criminal sexual conduct involving the alleged abuse of a child between the ages of 13 and 16 in Ontonagon County. The alleged conduct occurred between Jan. 1, 1981, and Dec. 31, 1984. The alleged misconduct in Dickinson County that took place between March 1, 1984, and April 30, 1984, involved a person under 13 years old.
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The diocese determined that allegations against Rev. Patrick Doherty, 85, have the “semblance of truth,” according to a statement released Friday. The alleged victim, who did not want to be named, said the abuse happened more than forty years ago, the diocese said.
The allegation came to light after an outside review of all clergy personnel files was started in June. The diocese hired Texas-based investigations firm Defenbaugh & Associates to conduct it.
The alleged victim came forward to submit a formal allegation against Doherty after the review was launched.
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By Kathy Stephenson
·
The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City and the Utah House speaker have come out against a bill that would force clergy to report allegations of child abuse obtained in a religious confessional.
Sponsored by Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, HB90 specifically calls for removing the exemption that clerics now have in certain circumstances for reporting abuse.
“The motivation for the bill is understandable, to uncover and stop the abuse of children,” Jean Hill, government liaison for the diocese overseeing Utah’s more than 300,000 Catholics, wrote in a recent statement, “but HB90 will not have this intended effect.”
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An East Tennessee man says the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville knew about abuse allegations against a music teacher nearly a year before it took action against him.
Michael Boyd said he told church officials he had been abused by William Lovelace in August 2018. But diocese spokesman Jim Wogan said the bishop only learned of the accusations when Boyd sued the diocese last July. The competing claims were first reported by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
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The Independent Review Board of the Diocese of Buffalo announces that, based on the information available at this time and the refusal of the complainant to cooperate in an independent investigation, it is unable to substantiate the allegations of sexual abuse of a minor that were brought against Monsignor Peter Popadick and Reverend Paul Nogaro in August 2019. Consequently, both priests have been taken off administrative leave and returned to ministry. Msgr. Popadick returns to his position as pastor of St. Aloysius Parish, Cheektowaga, and Rev. Nogaro returns to ministry as a retired priest of the Diocese. Both Msgr. Popadick and Fr. Nogaro have successfully served the diocese and parishes in many capacities and for numerous years in priestly ministry. The Diocese of Buffalo maintains a rigorous process for evaluating any and all allegations of inappropriate conduct by members of the clergy and Diocesan employees, relying on the impartial expertise of the members of the Independent Review Board, as well as a third-party reporting capability, the details of which can be found on the Diocesan website at: https://www.buffalodiocese.org/report.
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Diocese says not enough evidence to substantiate allegations
The Buffalo Catholic Diocese says two priests accused of abuse are being returned to active duty.
The Independent Review Board of the Diocese of Buffalo says based on the information available and the refusal of the complainant to cooperate in an independent investigation, it is unable to substantiate the allegations of sexual abuse of a minor that were brought against Monsignor Peter Popadick and Reverend Paul Nogaro in August 2019. Consequently, both priests have been taken off administrative leave and returned to ministry.
Msgr. Popadick returns to his position as pastor of St. Aloysius Parish, Cheektowaga, and Rev. Nogaro returns to ministry as a retired priest of the Diocese.
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José María Sabín, ex rector durante 17 años de la Universidad Anáhuac Mayab de Yucatán, fue denunciado por abuso sexual en Estados Unidos, dice el diario El País
El sacerdote español José María Sabín Sabín, ex rector durante 17 años de la Universidad Anáhuac Mayab de Yucatán, fue denunciado por abuso sexual en los Estados Unidos en 2014. La persona de la que abusó, según la denuncia publicada por El País, es del sacerdote Vladimir Resendiz Gutiérrez.
Esto explicaría las razones por las cuales renunció repentinamente a dirigir dicha institución yucateca tras casi dos décadas.
La Anáhuac Mayab –preferida entre la élite política y empresarial de Yucatán para enviar a sus hijos a estudiar y realizar donaciones de dinero- fue abandonada por José María Sabín Sabín a fines de 2014 de forma repentina, recuerda el diario español El País, en un artículo publicado recientemente (https://elpais.com/sociedad/2020/01/10/actualidad/1578683783_690053.html)
Sabín abandonó la Anáhuac, los Legionarios de Cristo y el sacerdocio y anunció que regresaba a su España natal sin dar a conocer los motivos, dice el diario español, aunque hay quien señala que sigue en Mérida viviendo y que está casado en la ciudad.
Dice El País: “La explicación tal vez pueda hallarse en la justicia de otro país. En 2016, un exseminarista presentó en Estados Unidos una demanda por abuso sexual contra José María Sabín, Marcial Maciel y Luis Garza Medina, sacerdote mexicano que era considerado la mano derecha de Maciel y arquitecto de la poderosa estructura financiera de la Legión de Cristo. El abuso que se denuncia en la demanda estadounidense, a la que tuvo acceso El País, se sitúa en el mismo escenario y en la misma época en que habría sido abusado Reséndiz, según sus antiguos compañeros: el seminario del Ajusco a principios de la década de los noventa. Según el documento, antes de acudir a la justicia, el demandante reportó lo sucedido ante la Legión en 2014: el mismo año que Sabín abandonó todo y se marchó a su país
Autoridades italianas confirmaron que Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez, ex sacerdote mexicano, tendrá que pasar siete años en prisión por abusar sexualmente de dos menores de edad en 2008.
Cabe recordar que en diciembre, los Legionarios de Cristo reconocieron que 175 menores de edad han sido víctimas de abuso sexual, incluidos al menos 60 por el padre Marcial Maciel, en la congregación desde su fundación en 1941.
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The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference is the latest of the country’s senior clerics to push back against legislation to lift the seal of confession for child sexual abuse.
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane made a submission to the Queensland state government opposing draft legislation that would see priests face up to three years in jail for failing to report confessions of child sexual abuse to the police; the penalty would be five years for “failure to protect.”
In his submission, Archbishop Coleridge said a confession is between the penitent and God, and the priest’s task is to enable that dialogue.
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“Each new revelation triggers shock waves that ripple through faith communities and through the faith of each member. Who and what can we trust? On a societal level, the word church no longer means trustworthy, not even for true believers. Churches must confront this hard reality. The trust they betrayed can never be rebuilt. Instead—and only if they address the extent of the betrayal—faith leaders can begin to build trust anew. This is a long-term and costly proposition, so buckle up.” –Ruth Everhart, The #MeToo Reckoning
As a Presbyterian pastor, Everhart weaves scripture into real-life stories of abuse within her denomination. Stepping from scripture into horrific stories of sexual assault, then back into scripture again was uncomfortable in the best sort of way. We need to be reminded of the drastic difference between what is holy and what we find in so many of our churches.
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We predict that, if surveyed, 90% of US Catholics would agree with this statement: “These days, after decades of horrific scandal, bishops report suspected child sex crimes promptly to law enforcement.”
The trouble is, that’s not true. Look no further than this week’s news from Alaska.
As recently as 2016, a New York man was working there as a parish priest. He’s now in a Maryland treatment center for the sexually troubled. This week, he was ‘outed’ by his supervisors as a ‘credibly accused’ abuser, having reportedly viewed child porn on his computer.
But the cleric, Fr. Robert Leising, says “no police were involved.”
What? How can that be? Haven’t bishops promised, time and time again, that they’ve ‘learned from the past’ and nowadays ‘immediately call police’ if they suspect child sex crimes?
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Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz, who will turn 75 in February, has written to Pope Francis asking for permission to retire, according to Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, apostolic administrator of the Buffalo Diocese.
“He told me that he sent a letter to the Holy See,” Scharfenberger said when asked recently about Grosz’s status. “It’s customary for a bishop to … put in his request for retirement at or around his birthday. So that’s what he did.”
Grosz turns 75 on Feb. 16. Catholic canon law dictates that bishops relinquish their administrative duties at that time.
Advocates for clergy sex abuse survivors increasingly have questioned what role Grosz played in helping to keep cases of abuse under wraps in his nearly 30 years as a top diocese administrator. Grosz, who was installed as auxiliary bishop in 1990, often reached out to victims on behalf of the diocese, while at the same time leading inquiries with priests into clergy misconduct complaints.
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A Cuyahoga County grand jury handed down a 21-count indictment against a Strongsville Catholic Priest who is accused of possessing child pornography.
Reverend Robert McWilliams, 39, is charged with 19 counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a matter, one count of illegal use of minor in nudity-oriented material or performance and one count of possessing criminal tools, according to court documents.
McWilliams was arrested on Dec. 5 at St. Joseph Catholic Church for allegedly possessing child porn.
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President claims he is first Filipino politician to win a war against church officials
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, known for cursing critics in public speeches, renewed his attacks on the country’s Catholic bishops this week.
Speaking to members of the Philippine Baptist Church, the president expressed wonder at the apparent silence of Catholic Church leaders despite his attacks.
“I cannot tell you why but they are now ordered to… There’s an… I cannot — it’s supposed to be in confidence. But you notice they are no longer complaining,” said Duterte.
“Even if you say b******, they don’t respond anymore. That is — that is how to win the war against the Catholic Church. All you have to say, m***** f*****. You’re a winner.”
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George Weigel has lots of counsel for Roman Catholics in the New Year, especially how to endure a church going through a serious crisis on many fronts. None of his advice involves other Christian communions as an alternative:
During and after the grim martial law period in the early 1980s, many freedom-minded Poles would greet each other on January 1 with a sardonic wish: “May the new year be better than you know it’s going to be!” As 2020 opens that salutation might well be adopted by Catholics concerned about the future of the Church, for more hard news is coming. So let’s get some of that out of the way, preemptively, before considering some resolutions that might help us all deal with the year ahead in faith, hope, and charity.
Financial scandals in the Vatican will intensify. It’s been clear for some months now that the dam of secrecy, masking irresponsibility (and worse), is cracking. So expect more disturbing revelations about corrupt self-dealing, misuse of charitable funds, stupid investments, and general incompetence behind the Leonine Wall.
Aggressive and politically motivated state attorneys general will continue to issue reports on historic sexual abuse cases. The response from cowed Church leaders will be tepid, at best. And what will get lost again—as it got lost after the now-paradigmatic Pennsylvania attorney general’s report—are two realities ignored by too many media outlets, too many institutions with responsibility for the safety of the young, and too many Catholics: that the Catholic Church today is arguably the safest environment for young people in the country; and that, from bitter experience, the Catholic Church has learned some things about creating safe environments from which the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, public schools, and public school teachers’ unions could all learn.
That is not a description that should encourage Protestants to convert to Rome. It looks bad.
So what should Roman Catholics do (and those tempted to convert)? The answer is not go to confession, and go to Mass:
Resolve to be a missionary disciple at the retail level. Amid these and other troubles, concerned Catholics constantly ask me, “What can I do?” To which I always respond, “Between now and next Easter, try and bring at least five disaffected Catholics back to Sunday Mass, and try to introduce at least one unevangelized person to Christ.” Retail evangelization is essential to authentic Catholic reform; it’s also deeply satisfying. Let’s get on with it, irrespective of the troubles.
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An imbroglio over former Pope Benedict’s involvement in a book has sparked calls by some Vatican officials for clear rules about the status of any future pontiffs who may resign rather than rule for life.
Senior official sources said they hope Pope Francis addresses the issue after the death of Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pope in 700 years to abdicate and who is now a frail 92-year-old.
The idea of such rules, which is being discussed informally, is important because, as people live longer than they did in the past, it may become the new normal for popes to step down, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Francis, 83, has said he too would resign if ill health prevented him from properly running the 1.3 billion-member Catholic Church, as Benedict did.
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Pope Francis has completed work on his highly anticipated response to last year’s Vatican gathering of Catholic bishops from the Amazon that may allow for the ordination of married men as Catholic priests in the nine-nation region, NCR can reveal.
Catholic bishops around the world are receiving a letter from the Vatican this week, advising them that the document, which is also expected to lament devastating environmental destruction in the region and may detail new ministries for women in the church, is nearing publication.
“The draft is currently being reviewed and corrected and then needs to be translated,” states the letter, which is signed by retired Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes and was obtained by NCR.
“Pope Francis hopes to promulgate it by the end of this month or in early February,” writes Hummes, who served as the synod’s lead organizer.
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By Jean Hill, Director, Diocese of Salt Lake City Peace and Justice Commission
Anyone who has ever confessed to something they were utterly embarrassed and/or ashamed of doing knows just how difficult it can be to walk into the confessional to face a priest. Knowing the priest is serving as Christ in his role of confessor does not make the task any easier. What does help is remembering that incredible feeling after confession when you know God has forgiven you and the priest provides a penance that puts you back on the right path.
A proposed state law would interrupt that sacred moment in a manner that could permanently destroy the relationship between our priests and ourselves in the confessional, without furthering the stated goal of the legislation.
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A Utah legislator’s proposal to remove protections for priests and other clergy who hear confessions of the sexual abuse of minors has drawn significant criticism from Catholics and other commentators.
“The motivation for the bill is understandable, to uncover and stop the abuse of children, but H.B. 90 will not have this intended effect,” said Jean Hill, director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Peace and Justice Commission.
Removing the clergy exemption would be “making it a crime for the priest to maintain the Seal of Confession,” Hill said in a column for the Jan. 17, 2020 edition of the Intermountain Catholic, the diocesan newspaper. The proposal “could permanently destroy the relationship between our priests and ourselves in the confessional, without furthering the stated goal of the legislation.”
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More than a dozen people in Alaska have been accused of sexual misconduct while serving in the Catholic Church, an independent commission review found. The allegations span nearly 60 years, with the latest abuse happening in 2015.
The review began in 2018 when the commission was tasked with combing through sexual misconduct files in the possession of the Archdiocese of Anchorage since its creation in 1966. The commission included a former police chief and two former prosecutors.
According to the findings released Thursday by a church leader, the commission found credible evidence of sexual misconduct involving minors and vulnerable adults against 14 people who served in the Archdiocese of Anchorage at one point in their careers.
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A review commissioned by the Archdiocese of Anchorage found credible evidence of sexual misconduct by 14 people who served in the archdiocese dating to 1966, a church leader announced Thursday.
The findings were made by a commission that the archdiocese said included a former police chief and two former prosecutors, one of whom is also a retired judge. The commission was charged with reviewing personnel files of “clerics and religious men and women” who served in the archdiocese dating to 1966, as well as reviewing allegations of sexual misconduct of lay volunteers and employees reported to the archdiocese.
Half of those identified as credibly accused are now dead, the report states.
The report, which had limited details, included allegations of sexual misconduct involving vulnerable adults or those younger than 18 and viewing child pornography. Allegations against four of the 14 individuals identified came while serving in another diocese, according to the report.
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After months of publicly discrediting and denying sexual abuse allegations against prominent priests and a diocesan employee, documents obtained by the Times Free Press suggest the Diocese of Knoxville may have known about those allegations for almost a year before suspending the accused employee.
In December, the diocese settled a July lawsuit by East Tennessee resident Michael Boyd alleging he was repeatedly sexually abused by Monsignor Francis Xavier Mankel, Bishop Anthony O’Connell, visiting priests and diocesan employee William Michael Lovelace. The abuse allegedly occurred between 1991 and 1995 when Boyd was a preteen student at Sacred Heart Cathedral School in Knoxville.
Information gathered from a variety of documents — including a copy of the lawsuit, a police report, multiple diocese releases and Boyd’s 18-page, handwritten statement given to police— create a timeline that contradicts the diocese’s claims of not knowing about abuse allegations made against Lovelace until summer 2019.
The documents point to Lovelace being identified in the summer of 2018 and being allowed to have contact with children for another school year.
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Guam’s clergy sex abuse survivors and other claimants may be able to receive some $21 million in restitution from the Archdiocese of Agana, if the church’s reorganization plan to solve its bankruptcy gets court approval.
This is the first public disclosure of the amount the archdiocese and its insurers plan to pay claimants, including those allegedly molested and raped by bishops, priests and other clergy dating back to the 1950s.
The proposed $21 million is from the sale of church properties of about $7 million, payments from insurers totaling about $13 million, and about $1 million expected from Catholic parishes.
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The former priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church who was accused of sexual abuse of a minor has a plea hearing scheduled later this month after being arrested on sexual assault charges.
The Rev. Jaime Marin-Cardona, 51, turned himself into the Danbury Police Department on a warrant, and remains in custody on a $500,000 bond. He has been charged with three counts of illegal sexual contact, three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and three counts of risk of injury to child.
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A former priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Danbury faces several criminal charges after being accused of sexually abusing a child who attended the church. 51-year-old Rev. Jaime Marin-Cardona is charged with three counts of illegal sexual contact, three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, and three counts of risk of injury to child.
Marin-Cardona has a plea hearing scheduled later in January.
The Diocese of Bridgeport removed Marin-Cardona from the ministry in September after the diocese received a letter from parents who were worried about his “contact with a family member who is a minor,” Bishop Frank J. Caggiano said in a statement.
These charges stem from allegations of abuse in 2014 and 2016, when Marin-Cardona was at Our Lady of Guadalupe. He most recently served at Saint Mary Parish in Bridgeport. He has also served at Saint Joseph Parish in Norwalk and Saint Charles Borromeo Parish in Bridgeport.
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Fresno man comes forward about being molested by a Boy Scouts leader in the 1970s
David Green learned valuable skills during his few years in the Boy Scouts of America Sequoia Council – first aid, CPR and many survival techniques.
“Now I don’t even go camping anymore because of what happened on the campouts at the Boy Scouts camp they had, Camp Chawanakee, up there at Shaver Lake,” the 62-year-old Fresno man said.
Green alleges that he and his fellow Scouts were sexually abused by Alan Craig Dunlap, a former assistant Boy Scout leader, who was convicted of child molestation.
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The Archdiocese of Anchorage for the first time has named 14 Catholic clergy members accused by church investigators of sexually abusing children and vulnerable adults in Alaska.
The report released Thursday is the result of a 15-month investigation by a church commission into allegations of sexual abuse by clergy, church employees and volunteers over a 54-year period.
The clergy members named by the archdiocese range from a deacon to an assistant to the archbishop to the chaplain of a homeless shelter. Some of those named had not previously been identified publicly as potential offenders.
An initial review of state and federal court records shows many, if not all, were never convicted of sex crimes in Alaska.
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El ex rector de una universidad de Yucatán es señalado por abuso sexual cometido en contra de un compañero en la Legión de Cristo en México.
Un artículo publicado por ‘El país’ señala a ex rector de una universidad en Yucatán como responsable de cometer abuso sexual en contra de sus compañeros en la Legión de Cristo.
El artículo menciona que los sacerdotes de la Legión de Cristo que fueron acusados de cometer abuso sexual en contra de menores de edad habrían sufrido también abuso dentro de la misma congregación, en ese sentido Vladimir Reséndiz habría sido señalado como la víctima del ex rector de una universidad de Yucatán, José María Sabín Sabín.
Presuntamente el abuso entre los miembros de la Legión de Cristo es una dinámica muy común en la congregación, por lo que después de su detención, Reséndiz habló sobre el abuso que sufrió por antiguos compañeros ya que dice que era parte de la metodología.
‘Prepararte para el abuso, abusarte y volverte cómplice’, señalo Reséndiz.
Según el artículo publicado por ‘El País’, Cristián Borgoño fundó un grupo de Facebook para denunciar los casos de abuso sexual dentro de la Legión de Cristo y fue ahí donde señalaron al ex rector de una universidad yucateca de haber abusado de Reséndiz.
El presunto abuso sexual tuvo lugar en la Ciudad de México, alrededor de los noventas cuando ambos sacerdotes estaban en el seminario del Ajusco.
Reséndiz fue declarado culpable de abuso sexual en contra menores de edad, en marzo 27 del año pasado, en Italia.
A la acusación que hizo Borgoño, también se le suma que en 2016 se presentó una demanda por abuso sexual en Estados Unidos en contra de José María Sabín Sabín, Marcial Maciel y Luis Garza Medina; esta demanda la llevó a cabo un ex seminarista que previo a demandar, había reportado a la congregaciónen 2014 lo que sucedía.
Cabe mencionar que Sabín Sabín se retiró de la Legión de Cristo en 2014, mismo año en que abandonó la rectoría de la Universidad yucateca y se regresó a su natal España.
Cabe mencionar que Sabín Sabín se retiró de la Legión de Cristo en 2014, mismo año en que abandonó la rectoría de la Universidad yucateca y se regresó a su natal España.
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Mark Coleridge says move to legislate against the sanctity of the confessional will fail to make children safer
A move to compel Queensland priests to report child sexual abuse offences disclosed during confessions would fail to make children safer, Brisbane’s Catholic archbishop has said.
Mark Coleridge has opposed a state government plan to legislate against the sanctity of the confessional as an excuse, defence or privilege.
In his submission to the committee considering the bill, the archbishop claimed it would be unworkable and fails to understand the practicalities of a confessional.
“The mechanism within this legislation which deals with the confessional seal quite simply will not make a difference to the safety of our young people,” he wrote.
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Marcial Maciel’s crimes should have ended his organization.
In Fernando Meirelles’ film The Two Popes, former Pope Benedict XVI, played by Anthony Hopkins, confesses his sins to Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. It is a crucial scene, in which Benedict aims to convince Bergoglio, played by Jonathan Pryce, of the reasons for his resignation as head of the church.
As Bergoglio listens, Benedict mentions Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, an influential, ultraconservative organization present in more than 20 countries, where it operates more than a dozen colleges and almost 150 schools while maintaining close ties to the upper echelons of political power. Maciel, an infamous pedophile who victimized dozens of children in over six decades in the priesthood, enjoyed the active protection of the church for years, especially during John Paul II’s papacy, in which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—later Benedict XVI—was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church’s authority on policy and discipline. Although Meirelles precludes the audience from listening to Benedict’s full confession on Maciel, the inference is clear: Benedict’s inaction on Maciel and others like him burden him to the point of spiritual exhaustion.
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Victim/survivors and others impacted by clergy sexual abuse are invited to a Jan. 23 conference on restorative justice and healing organized by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The daylong conference in Lake Elmo, east of St. Paul, will include Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi providing an update on the impetus for the conference: The settlement of civil charges filed by the county in 2015 alleging the archdiocese was negligent in the case of an abusive priest.
“Mr. Choi always felt restorative justice should be part of the archdiocese taking accountability for its actions and providing a means of healing for the community,” said Stephanie Wiersma, an assistant Ramsey County attorney who will participate in the conference and has been involved in the case since the beginning.
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As religious opposition both in and out of Utah mounts against a proposed bill that would require all allegations of child abuse to be reported to authorities — including those stated in religious confessionals — a powerful legislative leader has opposed the bill.
House Speaker Brad Wilson won’t support the bill in its current form, according to a statement he sent to the national Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
“I have serious concerns about this bill and the effects it could have on religious leaders as well as their ability to counsel members of their congregation,” Wilson, R-Kaysville, said in the statement circulated by the Catholic League Tuesday. “I do not support this bill in its current form, and unless significant changes are made to ensure the protection of religious liberties, I will be voting against this bill.”
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The U.S. Virgin Islands has filed a civil lawsuit against the estate of deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein for running a sex trafficking operation at his properties there, Denise N. George, the attorney general of the Virgin Islands, announced Wednesday.
The suit alleges that Epstein and unnamed “associates” trafficked underage girls as young as 12 in the territory, where they “held them captive, and sexually abused them, causing them grave physical, mental and emotional injury.”
George said her office began looking into Epstein’s conduct last year after being “inundated with inquiries from local and national media” about his activities in the islands.
Epstein “maintained a deliberately complex web of Virgin Islands corporations, limited liability companies, foundations and other entities, not all of which are yet known to the Government of the Virgin Islands, through which he carried out and concealed his criminal conduct,” according to the suit.
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Accused of sexually abusing dozens of boy scouts in the 1970s and 80s, a French Catholic priest has confessed in court to “caresses” he knew were forbidden, saying for 20 years “it happened every weekend”.
Bernard Preynat told a court in Lyon on the first day of his trial that it could have been “four or five children a week”.
“For me, at the time, I was not committing sexual assault but giving caresses, hugs,” he said. “I was wrong.”
Preynat’s voice reportedly faltered as he admitted the interactions “brought me sexual pleasure”.
But while he knew the actions were forbidden, he said he only finally understood that they were illegal thanks to “the accusations of the victims”.
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El español José María Sabín, quien renunció “misteriosamente” al ministerio sacerdotal y a los Legionarios de Cristo en septiembre de 2014 (antes fue rector durante 17 años de la Universidad Anáhuac Mayab de Yucatán) es señalado como uno de los sacerdotes que abusó de sus antiguos compañeros, como parte de una dinámica de la congregación.
El exrector de la Anáhuac Mayab participó en las llamadas “cadenas de abuso”.
En 2016, un exseminarista presentó en EEUU una demanda por abuso sexual contra José María Sabín, Marcial Maciel y Luis Garza Medina
En septiembre de 2014 renunció al ministerio sacerdotal y a los Legionarios de Cristo y casi inmediatamente, en noviembre, se casó, según, Legioleaks
Mérida, Yucatán.- El español José María Sabín, quien renunció “misteriosamente” al ministerio sacerdotal y a los Legionarios de Cristo en septiembre de 2014 (antes fue rector durante 17 años de la Universidad Anáhuac Mayab de Yucatán) es señalado como uno de los sacerdotes que abusó de sus antiguos compañeros, como parte de una dinámica de la congregación.
La respuesta a esta intempestiva decisión, según el periódico español EL País, es que en 2016, un exseminarista presentó en Estados Unidos una demanda por abuso sexual contra José María Sabín, Marcial Maciel y Luis Garza Medina, sacerdote mexicano que era considerado la mano derecha de Maciel y arquitecto de la poderosa estructura financiera de la Legión de Cristo.
Aunque hay otra versión, porque la demanda fue dos años después de su renuncia: Sabín se casó. Una ublicación, “Veritas Liberabit Vos”, dio a conocer en noviembre de 2014 comentarios recogidos en Legioleaks (un grupo de Facebook creado por exlegionarios para denunciar casos de abuso sexual) donde mencionan la salida de los sacerdotes de Legionarios de Cristo”.
–“El segundo hecho controvertido es la salida de José Leonardo Núñez Íñiguez. Es el segundo testimonio reciente (porque hay decenas). Algunos consideran que estas personas han decidido salir y por tanto tienen derecho a una vida privada. Hay quienes incluso consideran hostigamiento la falta de respeto por su decisión de cambio. Sin embargo quienes rasgaban sus vestiduras ante los comentarios por la boda de José María Sabín (otro hecho relativamente reciente) que salió de la Legión siendo rector de la Universidad del Mayab[5]) han tenido que callar ante los posibles verdaderos motivos[6] de su salida”.
Sabín nació el 28 de abril de 1958 y fue ordenado sacerdote el 24 de diciembre de 1987. Fue rector de la Universidad Anáhuac Mayab de 1995 a 2012. Fue Coordinador Local de Apostolados de la Legión de Cristo. En septiembre de 2014 renunció al ministerio sacerdotal y a los Legionarios de Cristo. En ese entonces la congregación difundió que la renuncia fue por cuestiones personales y que Sabín regresó a España.
El ex sacerdote figuró entre los 24 integrantes del equipo de transición del entonces gobernador electo Rolando Zapata Bello.
En Yucatán lidera un proyecto de siembra de chile habanero en una extensión de 11.5 hectáreas a cargo de la empresa Agricultura Abierta y Protegida de la Península, junto con Francisco Irazoqui Galaviz. El producto se exporta a Europa, Estados Unidos y en el mercado nacional.
El Artículo de EL PAÍS
Un artículo de Georgina Zerega para El País asevera que “en mayo de 2019, cuando Ana Lucía Salazar denunció públicamente al sacerdote mexicano Fernando Martínez por haber abusado de ella en un colegio de los Legionarios de Cristo en Cancún, aún no sabía que él también había sido víctima de abuso. Dos meses antes, cuando la justicia italiana sentenció al exsacerdote mexicano Vladimir Reséndiz por abusar de dos niños, algunos de sus antiguos compañeros de la Legión se enteraron de que, antes de ser victimario, él había sido víctima de abuso. “Es parte de la metodología de la Legión: prepararte para el abuso, abusarte y volverte cómplice”, dice Erick Escobar, un exlegionario que se fue de ese movimiento para iniciar una lucha contra los casos de pederastia.
Recuerda que a fines de diciembre, la Legión de Cristo, una de las congregaciones más poderosas de la Iglesia católica, sorprendió al mundo cuando divulgó un informe en el que admitía 175 casos de abuso a menores dentro de la orden fundada por el sacerdote mexicano Marcial Maciel en 1941, gran parte de ellos cometidos por su propio fundador y desde el momento mismo de la fundación.
Sin embargo, añade. lo más revelador no era la constatación de las vejaciones que habían sido denunciadas por distintas víctimas a lo largo de ocho décadas, sino aquello que el informe dejaba entrever: que la pederastia dentro de la Legión no era el resultado de la perversión de algunos sacerdotes, sino parte de una dinámica fundacional que alcanzaba a todos los niveles y que garantizaba espacios de poder a aquellos dispuestos a participar o a callar. Serega recoge la versión de José Antonio Pérez Olvera, un abogado mexicano de 80 años que estuvo entre los primeros legionarios en denunciar abiertamente a Maciel (en 1997), explica que aquellos que habían sufrido abusos por parte de él solían ser premiados con cargos de poder.
Abunda que “La ruptura de este silencio en los últimos años ha permitido que exlegionarios puedan ir desentrañando las cadenas de abuso y complicidad dentro de la congregación. Eso ocurrió en marzo del año pasado, cuando la justicia italiana condenó al sacerdote mexicano Vladimir Reséndiz a siete años de prisión por abusar de dos niños. Cristian Borgoño, un exlegionario que se ordenó sacerdote junto con él, recuerda que tras la sentencia algunos antiguos compañeros le contaron que Reséndiz también había sido víctima de abusos por parte de un superior cuando estudiaba en el seminario del Ajusco, en Ciudad de México, a principio de los noventa. Borgoño es uno de los fundadores de Legioleaks, un grupo de Facebook creado por exlegionarios para denunciar casos de abuso sexual dentro de la congregación y discutir la pederastia clerical.
Borgoño atribuyó los abusos que había sufrido Reséndiz al sacerdote español José María Sabín, que fue rector durante 17 años de la Universidad Anáhuac Mayab de Yucatán, una de las instituciones de la amplia red educativa de la congregación, y que a fines de 2014 anunció repentinamente que abandonaba la Legión de Cristo y el sacerdocio y regresaba a su España natal sin dar a conocer los motivos.
La explicación tal vez pueda hallarse en la justicia de otro país. En 2016, un exseminarista presentó en Estados Unidos una demanda por abuso sexual contra José María Sabín, Marcial Maciel y Luis Garza Medina, sacerdote mexicano que era considerado la mano derecha de Maciel y arquitecto de la poderosa estructura financiera de la Legión de Cristo.
El abuso que se denuncia en la demanda estadounidense, a la que tuvo acceso EL PAÍS, se sitúa en el mismo escenario y en la misma época en que habría sido abusado Reséndiz, según sus antiguos compañeros: el seminario del Ajusco a principios de la década de los noventa. Según el documento, antes de acudir a la justicia, el demandante reportó lo sucedido ante la Legión en 2014: el mismo año que Sabín abandonó todo y se marchó a su país.
Los Legionarios fueron consultados por este periódico sobre las denuncias contra sus antiguos y actuales miembros, pero no respondieron a la petición.
El miércoles 8 de enero, la justicia italiana confirmó la sentencia contra el exlegionario mexicano Vladimir Reséndiz por abusar de dos menores en 2008, cuando era director de un seminario de la Legión de Cristo en el norte de Italia. “Cuando un sacerdote abusado tiene un cargo de poder, repite el mismo patrón y abusa de quienes tiene a cargo como abusaron de él sus superiores”, dice Escobar mientras repasa los rostros de seminaristas en viejas fotografías. “En la Legión te preparan para ser abusado”, concluye al artículo.
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The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico called on the country’s government Tuesday to modify the legal code and do away with statutes of limitations for sexual abuse of minors.
“We want to ask in the name of the bishops of Mexico for there to be no expiration for this crime,” said Rogelio Cabrera, president of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference.
He called it “unjust” that nothing can be done about such cases starting 10 years from the date of the offense, “since the wrong done lasts for the lifetime of the person who has been a victim.”
Cabrera said the church admits sex abuse complaints up to 20 years from the time a victim reaches adulthood.
The church has had a serious and longtime problem with clerical sex abuse in Mexico.
According to data presented Tuesday at a news conference, the Bishops’ Conference has investigated 426 priests in the last 10 years, 271 of them for sex abuse.
Alfonso Miranda, secretary of the Bishops’ Conference, said 155 of those cases have gone before prosecutors, up about 50 from the number as of last March.
He noted that those are just preliminary figures and added that 217 priests have been defrocked, though without saying whether all were for sex abuse or other offenses.
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This week the Catholic League came out strongly against proposed legislation in Utah aiming to eliminate an exemption for clergy when it comes to reporting confidential confessions detailing abuse. Meanwhile, the Montana Supreme Court recently cited clergy-penitent exemptions in a decision overturning a jury verdict of $35 million against local Jehovah’s Witnesses for not reporting abuse discovered in the mid-2000s. The court ruled, unanimously, that under Montana law, “Clergy are not required to report known or suspected child abuse if the knowledge results from a congregation member’s confidential communication or confession and if the person making the statement does not consent to disclosure.”
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Catholics in the diocese of Buffalo are still reeling from Bp. Richard Malone’s atrocious handling of clerical sex abuse cases. But the men charged with investigating the diocese and overseeing things after Malone stepped down are showing themselves to be cut from the same cloth.
In October, Brooklyn Bp. Nicholas DiMarzio concluded his fact-finding mission, conducted at the behest of the Vatican. As of now, no report has been issued and Buffalo’s clerical sex abuse survivors are waiting for answers.
It’s not known, however, if answers will ever come; The Vatican’s announcement called the investigation “a non-judicial and non-administrative process that requires confidentiality.”
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A retired Scottish priest accused of offences against boys at Fort Augustus Abbey School has failed in his bid to block an extradition order.
The minister of justice in Canada, where Robert Mackenzie has been living since 1988, agreed to a request from the Crown Office last year.
But Fr MacKenzie, who denies the allegations against him, applied for a judicial review of the decision.
That has now been refused and he now has until 3 February to appeal.
The Crown Office has made no comment on the case, but earlier said it had received a report in connection with alleged historical offences.
Fr Mackenzie’s legal team in Canada has said he has been charged with a total of 16 offences following allegations made by 16 individuals.
They are understood to involve allegations of physical and sexual abuse over a period from the 1950s to the 1980s.
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A yearlong investigation has reportedly revealed at least 52 official cases of child sexual assault in the Amish community that spans seven states over the past 20 years.
Cosmopolitan magazine and Type Investigations allegedly found in a joint investigation that many of the victims were discouraged from reporting the assault by relatives and church leaders. The victims were reportedly instructed not to seek outside help and were threatened with excommunication if they did so.
Cosmopolitan called the scandal a “widespread, decentralized cover-up of child sexual abuse by Amish clergy” and suggested that there are more victims — who are likely being silenced due to the religious group’s secretive culture.
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The former pope Benedict XVI reportedly wants his name removed from a controversial book that appears to undermine his successor, Pope Francis, on issues of priestly celibacy. The book hit stores Wednesday in France, the first country to publish it. But despite the furor the book has stirred in the press, many French readers appear underwhelmed.
The book, “Des Profondeurs de Nos Coeurs,” meaning “From the Depths of Our Hearts,” defends priestly celibacy at a time when Pope Francis is considering whether to lift restrictions on married priests in remote areas. Cardinal Robert Sarah, who co-authored the book, rejects accusations he manipulated Benedict regarding the content.
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Former Catholic priest Bernard Preynat, on trial for sexually abusing dozens of boy scouts in the 1970s and 1980s, said on Wednesday that he warned the Catholic Church about his sexual impulses but they failed to take appropriate measures.
“When I was 14 years old, during my Junior Seminary, I already knew (that I was attracted to little boys). People told me ‘you are sick’, but they got rid of me. They sent me to another seminary,” Preynat told the court on the second day of trial.
A former priest in Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon, in the suburbs of Lyon, Preynat could face up to 10 years in prison. But he claims that his sexual inclinations did not prevent him from being ordained in 1971.
“They should have helped me… They let me become a priest instead,” he explained, after he had undergone therapy at the Vinatier Psychiatric Hospital, near Lyon, in 1967 and 1968.
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A defrocked French Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of boy scouts decades ago told his trial on Wednesday (Jan 15) that he himself had suffered similar assaults in his youth, in an unexpected twist to his defence.
After confessing in court on Tuesday to “caresses” he knew were forbidden, after victims testified to the horrors they suffered, Bernard Preynat, 74, faulted the church for failing to help him deal with his own urges.
During the second day of the trial in the French city of Lyon, Preynat surprised even his own lawyer in raising for the first time in court the abuses he said he suffered in his youth.
He referred to a letter written in the summer to Michel Dubost, the apostolic administrator in Lyon, where he said he had been repeatedly sexually abused by a priest, a sacristan from his parish and a seminarian.
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Fernando Martínez Suárez aceptó su culpabilidad por delitos de pederastia, luego de esto, la congregación pidió perdón a las víctimas y al mismo sacerdote acusado por no haberlo ayudado cuando se revelaron los abusos que había perpetrado
La congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo informó que Fernando Martínez Suárez, quien se declaró culpable de delitos de abuso sexual contra menores de edad, ya no podrá ejercer el ministerio sacerdotal.Sin embargo, aclaró que el cura seguirá perteneciendo a la organización religiosa, con autorización de la Santa Sede.
“La Congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo ha informado hoy a sus miembros de que Fernando Martínez Suárez, que se reconoció culpable de delitos de abuso sexual contra menores de edad, resultado del proceso ante la Congregación de la Doctrina de la Fe, por el bien de la Iglesia (pro bono Ecclesiae) ha perdido el estado clerical y ya no podrá ejercer el ministerio sacerdotal, aunque, por decisión de la Santa Sede, sigue perteneciendo a los Legionarios de Cristo”, señaló mediante un comunicado.
La pérdida del estado clerical implica que el sacerdote no podrá administrar los sacramentos, esto es, celebrar misa u oír confesiones, entre otros. Esta medida tiene algunas excepciones, como cuando alguien en peligro de muerte le solicita los sacramentos. La dispensa del celibato debe ser autorizada por el Papa.
Tras señalar como culpable a Martínez Suárez, la congregación pidió perdón a las víctimas y al mismo sacerdote acusado por no haberlo ayudado cuando se revelaron los abusos que había perpetrado.
“Como institución también pedimos perdón al P. Martínez por los abusos que él sufrió y por no haberle ayudado adecuadamente cuando salieron a la luz los abusos que él había cometido”, señala el documento.
“Los Legionarios de Cristo asumirán la responsabilidad de que Fernando Martínez lleve una vida que corresponda a su condición de religioso que ha perdido el estado clerical, y reafirman su determinación de recorrer el camino difícil y exigente de reparación y sanación”, afirmó la Iglesia.
En un informe del caso publicado, la congregación lamentó y condenó los actos cometidos por el padre Fernando Martínez Suárez, así como que se revictimizara a lo afectados y se cometieran errores en el proceso. Además asumen la responsabiliad quetuvo el fallecido sacerdote Marcial Maciel, líder de dicha congresación.
“La investigación examinó la actuación de los superiores de la Congregación que en los distintos periodos trataron este caso y pudo constatar la responsabilidad personal del P. Marcial Maciel quien fue superior general hasta 2005”, añadió
“Además de abusar de nosotras, nos hacía ver los abusos de otras niñas”: el crudo relato de víctimas de un colegio de Legionarios de Cristo
Luego de que la orden de los Legionarios de Cristo presentó el pasado 22 de noviembre un comunicado en el que reconocieron los abusos sexuales cometidos por el sacerdoteFernando Martínez Suárez, exdirector del Instituto Cumbres, contra alumnas a principios de la década de los 90, las víctimas aseguraron que aún persiste el encubrimiento y omisiones de los actuales dirigentes.
En dicho comunicado titulado “Siempre a favor de las Víctimas”, se menciona que entre las acusaciones contra el sacerdote están el abuso de al menos seis niñas de entre 6 y 11 años que estudiaban en ese colegio, ubicado en Cancún, al sur de México, entre 1991 y 1993. El Instituto Cumbres es una organización educativa de la congregación fundada por Marcial Maciel en 1941.
Han pasado 26 años y María Belén Márquez, una de las víctimas, confesó en entrevista con el diario El País de España que no ha podido borrar de su memoria las vejaciones sexuales que tuvo que sufrir dentro de las instalaciones de dicho colegio. Lo que más retumba en su cabeza, cuenta, es la voz del religioso en la oscuridad; “Me decía: ¿Te gusta?, ¿te gusta? y yo callada”.
“Lamento que todo esto tenga lugar dentro de una congregación que actualmente está buscando una renovación y una purificación. El padre Fernando siguió ejerciendo su ministerio hasta el 2017”.
Belén Márquez es directora de la ONG católica “Misión Maya”. Desde que las denuncias salieron a la luz en mayo pasado, sufre ansiedad, culpa y rechazo a su cuerpo, los mismos síntomas cuando era niña y fue abusada.
Por su parte, Biani López Antúnez, otra de las víctimas contó: “Además de abusar de nosotras, nos hacía ver los abusos de otras niñas. Dejaba la puerta entreabierta y nos hacía sentarnos en primera fila y ver”.
De acuerdo con López Antúnez, además del de Martínez, sobresalió otro nombre: Aurora Morales, una profesora que presuntamente las sacaba de clases y las dejaba en la oficina del abusador. La víctima no recordaba en principio a Morales, pero según relata, “vi su foto en internet e inmediatamente sentí miedo e inseguridad ¡Miedo, a mis 34 años!”, aseguró.
La hoy museógrafa, llegó al Instituto Cumbres a los ocho años de edad cuando estaba dirigida por Martínez Suárez, pese a que ya había tres denuncias por pederastia en su contra.“Ellos sabían perfectamente que estaban poniendo a un depredador sexual en mi colegio. Era totalmente prevenible”.
En mayo pasado, la conductora de radio Ana Lucía Salazar contó en sus redes sociales lo que había sufrido en manos de Martínez. El revuelo que causó la acusación de Salazar forzó a la orden religiosa a abrir una investigación interna, cuya conclusión fue presentada con el comunicado.
Por ello, la directora de la ONG católica “Misión Maya” reconoció que, a diferencia del proceso canónico, las leyes mexicanas no ayudan mucho a las víctimas porque los delitos de abusos de menores prescriben a los pocos años de cometidos. Sin embargo, están analizando con abogados la posibilidad de la denuncia penal por complicidad y encubrimiento de algunos miembros de los Legionarios de Cristo.
Martínez Suárez, actualmente de 79 años, vive en una casa religiosa en Roma , Italia. Entre las sanciones que le ha impuesto la congregación mexicana se encuentra la prohibición del ejercicio público del ministerio sacerdotal y se determinó que reciba un “acompañamiento psicológico adecuado”.
Este caso ha puesto de nuevo sobre la mesa los casos de pederastía en una de las órdenes religiosas con más poder en México. En 1997 varios exlegionarios apuntaron que Marcial Maciel así como otros sacerdotes en la congregación habían cometido abusos sexuales, acusaciones que el Vaticano ocultó por 70 años, según la denuncia del cardenal Joao Braz Aviz.
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A woman who accused The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of covering for a former missionary leader who she says raped her in the 1980s said Tuesday she may be ready to drop her lawsuit against the faith.
McKenna Denson said during a court hearing that she still doesn’t have an attorney. Her previous lawyer withdrew in May for unknown reasons, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
“I’m not sure I want to secure counsel at the time,” Denson told U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead over the telephone.
Deson asked Pead if she could refile the lawsuit if she found “illegal activity” occurred during the course of the litigation. Pead told Denson he could not give her legal advice, advising her those were questions for her attorney.
Pead gave Denson two weeks to make a decision. He said she needs to file a motion to dismiss the case, express interest in mediation or choose to go to trial.
It’s unknown why her previous lawyer, Craig Vernon, dropped the case. His court motion is sealed and he he has declined to discuss it publicly.
Denson of Pueblo, Colorado, accused Phoenix-area resident Joseph L. Bishop of sexually abusing and raping her in 1984 at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, where he was president.
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Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would give survivors of childhood sexual assault a “look back window” to address previously unreported claims. It would allow them to open cases with an expired statute of limitations for one year.
This follows a recent wave of states passing look back laws. Currently sixteen states and the District of Columbia have created similar opportunities for abuse victims to have their voices heard.
The issue is personal for bill sponsor Sen. Lauren Book (D-Broward), who was assaulted by her nanny as teen.
“It takes a long time for survivors to report these types of crimes,” she said. “75% of children don’t tell within one year of the abuse, I know I waited six years…and many never do”
The nonprofit thinktank Child USA advocates for statute of limitations reform and tracks legislative progress in states across the country.
CEO Marci Hamilton said Florida has done a lot to help current and future survivors of sexual assault by eliminating the statute of limitations for child sexual battery in 2010. But that law wasn’t retroactive.
“That iceberg of victims from the past who were shut down by the short statutes of limitations before still need help,” she said.
Child USA estimates at least 1,000 new cases could come forward in Florida is this bill passes. In New York, which opened a year-long window last August, plaintiffs have already filed more than 1,300 civil cases.
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Ana Lucía Salazar, conductora de radio y TV, condena la decisión del papa Francisco de aceptar el retiro del sacerdote que abusó sexualmente de ella cuando era niña
Una burla, así calificó Ana Lucía Salazar la decisión del papa Francisco de aceptar el retiro del cargo clerical a Fernando Martínez Suárez, sacerdote de los Legionarios de Cristo que abusó sexualmente de ella a los 8 años de edad cuando él era director del Colegio Cumbres de Cancún, Quintana Roo.
“¡Me hubieran mandado una cuerda para colgarme en mi casa!”, escribió en la red social Twitter al recriminar el envío de una carta a nombre del papa Francisco en la que se prepondera “el bien de la iglesia, en lugar de las víctimas de violencia sexual clerical”, agregó Salazar.
“Su lugar debió haber sido la cárcel. Se retira a los 80, casi a los 81 años, eso no es un retiro voluntario. Es una jubilación prácticamente, es una mentira que la decoran y la matizan todo el tiempo y que la Santa Sede, porque ellos dicen que son palabras del Papa, me ha derribado a mí como ser humano, porque quiere decir que yo estoy muy por debajo de la institución”, expone la cantante y conductora de radio para Grupo Reforma.
“A mi nombre y a nombre de todas las niñas que fueron abusadas en aquel entonces en manos de este señor”, comienza la declaración de Ana Lucía del pasado 1 mayo, dentro del marco de denuncias del movimiento #MeToo.
Fue en 1991, cuando la niña ingresó al Instituto Cumbres en Cancún, una escuela católica privada en la que, asegura, te siembran una veneración por los sacerdotes como si fueran deidades.
“No es cualquier cosa que el director del colegio te vea con buenos ojos. Te hacen sentir especial, te embaucan, y tú eres una niña tan inocente que no estás dimensionando el daño” escribía en mayo. Ella era una niña con problemas para socializar con sus nuevos compañeros.
El sacerdote había llegado a tierras quintanarroenses proveniente de Monterrey, sin embargo también estuvo en el Instituto Cumbres de la Ciudad de México, donde había abusado sexualmente de menores durante la década de los 80, por lo que tuvo que moverse.
En Cancún, Fernando Martínez abusó sexualmente no solo de Ana Lucía (entre 1991 y 1992), sino de varias niñas más. De acuerdo con Salazar, al menos hubo siete víctimas en su escuela.
“Yo soy una de esas víctimas que sale después de 20 años a señalar a su abusador. Sí existimos, sí somos reales, sí nos pasó. El Colegio conociendo los casos decidió callar, los padres de familias de las demás víctimas decidieron no creerle a sus hijas, pero yo conté con mis padres que siempre creyeron en mí y me validaron desde el primer momento”, cuenta.
De acuerdo con Juan José Vaca, una de las víctimas más conocidas de Marcial Maciel, el cura Martínez fue abusado sexualmente por el fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo. Actualmente el ahora ex sacerdote se encuentra en retiro y reside en Salamanca, España.
LA CARTA
¡Venga tu Reino! CONGREGATIO LEGIONARIORUM CHRISTI Roma, 13 de enero de 2020 Ana Lucia Salazar México Estimada Ana Lucía: Le saludo desde Roma. El P. Eduardo Robles Gil, que se encuentra en clercicios espirituales, me ha pedido comunicarle personalmente lo siguiente: Esta mañana, Fernando Martinez Suárez fue notificado de que el Santo Padre ha aceptado su petición de salida del estado clerical por el bien de la Iglesia (pro bono Eclesiae). El hizo esta solicitud para buscar aliviar de algún modo el sufrimiento causado a usted y a las demás víctimas. La Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe la sometió al Santo Padre después de un atento estudio del caso.
El Santo Padre ha decidido que Fernando Martinez sigue pertencciendo a nuestra Congregación. Asi aseguraremos que lleve una vida que corresponda con su condición de religioso apartado del estado clerical, sin ministerio sacerdotal alguno. Vamos a informar de estas disposiciones a las demás víctimas que ya están en contacto con nosotros y a los eclesiásticos mexicanos que han tratado el caso a lo largo de los últimos meses. También lo daremos a conocer a los miembros de la congregación y lo publicaremos en nuestra página de internet. De parte de nuestro director general le confirmo nuestra determinación de seguir recorriendo el camino de reparación y sanación. Atentamente, P. Andreas Schöggl, L.C. Socretario general
El pasado 13 de enero Ana Lucía Salazar recibió una carta firmada por el secretario general de los Legionarios de Cristo, Andreas Schöggl en la que se le comunica que “el Santo Padre ha aceptado su petición (de Martínez Suárez) de salida del estado clerical por el bien de la Iglesia”. “Desde el día 1 de mi comunicado, el día de 2 mayo emitieron un comunicado (Legionarios) en donde decían que el padre ya no iba a dar misas. Es una burla”, considera Salazar. En adición, la carta enviada a la Ana Lucía precisa que el papa decidió que el cura que abusó de ella “sigue perteneciendo a nuestra Congregación. Así aseguraremos que lleve una vida (…) sin ministerio sacerdotal alguno”. Ana Lucía Salazar responde:
“¿Quitarle el derecho de oficiar misas?, tenemos que entender como sociedad que eso no es un castigo. A nadie que viole a un menor le quitan su cédula profesional. Tenemos muy mal establecido lo que es un castigo o lo que socialmente debe de ser una reprimenda.
“Rogelio Cabrera y Alfonso Miranda (respectivos presidente y secretario general de la Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano) y el otro curita ya dijeron que eso no es de ninguna manera un privilegio, y a mí me parece que convivir en una congregación de millonarios viviendo en Europa, con todas las facilidades y las comodidades, es un privilegio porque su lugar y castigo debió haber sido la cárcel”, argumenta.
En este sentido, dice que esa es la razón por la que no ha presentado una denuncia ante la Iglesia católica. “Ellos no están articulados para atender a las víctimas como es debido”, concluye.
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Four men from other states are using a new New Jersey rule to sue the Boy Scouts of America, alleging that Scout leaders sexually abused them as children — even though the alleged abuse took place in other parts of the country.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Superior Court in New Brunswick because the Boy Scouts of America had its national headquarters in Middlesex County decades ago, when the alleged abuse took place, according to court documents.
The men said they were abused as Scouts while growing up in Wisconsin, Indiana, Texas and Arkansas. Five Scout leaders are accused, including two who were criminally convicted of sex abuse in the 1980s. None of the plaintiffs were part of the criminal cases, their attorneys said.
If the New Jersey suit holds up in court, it could lead to a flood of similar lawsuits from around the country being filed in New Jersey, said Jason Amala, a Seattle attorney whose firm, PCVA Law, represents the plaintiffs.
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Kim Wilson was a sixth grader in 1994 and 1995. Richardson Shoemaker was her math teacher.
Wilson said Shoemaker repeatedly made her sit on his lap during class, where he ran his hand up the front of her shirt at least 80 times during the year, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Multnomah County circuit court.
Standing in front of a photo of herself from sixth grade, Wilson was flanked by her brother on one side and one of her attorneys, Gilion Dumas, on the other.
“I am coming forward today because I was quieted and devalued by the school for so many years,” Wilson said Monday at a press conference.
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For two decades, Bryan Bacon kept the memories of his abuse locked away.
In 1985, Bacon was sexually assaulted at knifepoint by an assistant principal at St. John Vianney High School in Kirkwood. He repressed the traumatic memory for years, he said, but it resurfaced in 2005 when he was 35.
Bacon told his story to the House Children and Families Committee in a hearing Tuesday. He was there to support a proposal that would remove the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits in cases of childhood sexual abuse. Currently, the law gives survivors of abuse 10 years to file civil claims.
The proposal comes after Missouri removed the statute of limitations for criminal cases in 2018.
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The memories come to her in fragments. The bed creaking late at night after one of her brothers snuck into her room and pulled her to the edge of her mattress. Her underwear shoved to the side as his body hovered over hers, one of his feet still on the floor.
Her ripped dresses, the clothespins that bent apart on her apron as another brother grabbed her at dusk by the hogpen after they finished feeding the pigs. Sometimes she’d pry herself free and sprint toward the house, but “they were bigger and stronger,” she says. They usually got what they wanted.
As a child, Sadie* was carefully shielded from outside influences, never allowed to watch TV or listen to pop music or get her learner’s permit. Instead, she attended a one-room Amish schoolhouse and rode a horse and buggy to church—a life designed to be humble and disciplined and godly.
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Rome is being roiled by a series of unusual developments in which a former pope appeared to be weighing in on a sensitive issue facing his successor, Pope Francis. The debate is over the law of clerical celibacy, which divides many Catholics. But now, the retired pope, Benedict, is distancing himself from the controversy. Father Thomas Reese of Religion News Service joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.
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– and argues the clergyman’s affiliation with royalty made him ‘impregnable’
– Cliff James lived with Peter Ball at age of 18 at Littlington in Lewes, East Sussex
– In 1977 Peter became Bishop in East Sussex and established residential project
– Cliff tells of abuse faced at hands of bishop in new BBC2 documentary tonight
– Says he was ‘ripe’ when he met the bishop, in desperate need of a father figure
– Bishop said he ‘got on with Queen Mother’ and often spoke of Charles friendship
A victim of the disgraced paedophile Peter Ball has claimed the bishop’s friendship with Prince Charles made him ‘impregnable’.
Cliff James first met the bishop at the age of 17 while interviewing to become part of Littlington, his residential project established in 1977 for young people in need of ‘spiritual guidance’. He later permanently moved into the Lewes home.
At the age of 18, Cliff’s relationship with Ball quickly took a disturbing turn as the religious figure began ‘grooming’ him and making him feel ‘guilty’ if he did not do what he asked.
In the new BBC2 documentary Exposed: The Church’s Darkest Secret, Cliff told of the abuse he endured at the hands of Ball within the home, including taking part in ‘humiliation’ rituals while naked, being ceremoniously beaten and forced to take part in mutual masturbation.
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Few outside of the courtroom heard all the evidence that sent Bill Cosby to prison in 2018, capping a shocking downfall that began in 2005 with a woman’s public allegation that he’d drugged and sexually assaulted her, the first of more than 80 similar claims to follow.
From the start, reporter Nicole Weisensee Egan was on the story. The former PEOPLE senior staff writer’s 2019 book Chasing Cosby: The Downfall of America’s Dad chronicled the stop-and-start prosecution that put the disgraced comic and TV icon behind bars for three to 10 years.
That reporting informs a new podcast, Chasing Cosby, from the Los Angeles Times and executive produced by Egan, that lets Cosby’s initial accuser, Andrea Constand, and 13 other women share their experiences. The six-part podcast debuts with two episodes Tuesday, with new episodes dropping each week thereafter.
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A Bemidji priest has been placed on administrative leave for his conduct, including “boundary violations,” the Catholic Diocese of Crookston announced in a statement.
Bishop Michael Hoeppner placed Father Bryan Kujawa on leave effective Tuesday, Jan. 14, after his fitness to be a priest was repeatedly called into question, the statement said.
Kujawa will remain on leave until the diocese has completed its investigation, conducted a professional assessment and gotten recommendations from its review board.
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CROOKSTON (MN)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Crookston
January 10, 2020
By Janelle Gergen, Director of Communications
Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner has placed Fr. Bryan Kujawa on administrative leave, effective Tuesday, January 14. Several issues concerning Fr. Kujawa’s fitness for ministry have been brought to Bishop Hoeppner’s attention over time, including non-criminal, non-sexual, boundary violations. Accordingly, Fr. Kujawa will remain on leave until these matters have been further investigated, a professional and comprehensive assessment is complete, and the Diocesan Review Board makes further recommendations.
As this is a personnel issue, no further comments will be offered.
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The company said Drummond is not getting an exit package as part of his departure. His compensation package for 2018 was worth $47 million, making him one of the company’s highest-paid employees, according to regulatory filings.
David Drummond, the legal chief of Google parent company Alphabet, is leaving at the end of the month, following accusations of inappropriate relationships with employees.
Alphabet did not give a reason for Drummond’s departure in a short regulatory filing Friday.
The company said in November that its board was investigating sexual misconduct cases against executives. Claims against Drummond were included in the investigations.
Thousands of Google employees walked out of work in 2018 to protest the company’s handling of sexual misconduct claims. The board investigation followed lawsuits brought by shareholders after reports of sexual harassment at Google received national attention.
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Israel is harboring the woman accused of being Australia’s worst Orthodox Jewish sexual predator. Could today’s court ruling finally send her home to face her accusers?
“You have to be as normal as possible so you don’t have black marks against your name, so that you can get married, and your children can get married,” Dassi Erlich explained to me the first time we met, at a café in Melbourne. “As soon as you have mental illness, sexual abuse, someone going off the derech”—off the religious path—“in the family, you start having black marks against your name. And when you’re not from a very wealthy family, those marks mean a lot.”
Growing up as one of seven siblings in an ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, home in Ripponlea, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, Erlich knew about black marks. She was born with a whole mess of them. “A, my mother is Sephardi,” she said. “B, my parents joined the community as adults, they didn’t grow up in it. C, my parents are not wealthy. So growing up, my mother drilled into us that we had to be perfect students, because if we didn’t, we wouldn’t get married. … No matter what was going on, we knew we would face severe punishment if we didn’t get A’s in everything.” The severe punishment to which she is referring included being denied food and locked for extended periods in a dark cupboard under the stairs. “We were absolutely petrified to explain to anyone what was going on at home because we knew that would be used against us,” Erlich told the television news program Australian Story. An abusive home was another black mark.
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The Catholic Church has removed Mexican Fernando Martínez from the priesthood after considering him guilty of various sexual abuse crimes against minors, the Legion of Christ religious order said Monday.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decided that Martínez could not continue his priestly duties, but allowed him to remain as a member of the Legion of Christ and the church, a decision that upset his victims.
One of them, Ana Lucía Salazar, who had reported being raped by the priest when she was 8 years old, commented with irony on Twitter.
“The Pope decided that the gentleman continue in the church ranks after raping children,” Salazar wrote Monday. “There’s zero tolerance.” The punishment comes nearly three decades after the abuses were reported to Martínez’s superiors in the 1990s.
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The ad limina visits bishops are required to make to the Vatican are occasions to be honest about challenges, while also being encouraged to hope, said Bishop John T. Folda of Fargo, North Dakota.
“It’s tempting at times to lose hope when all you hear is bad news and with some of the challenges we face in our dioceses at home; it’s extremely important to maintain a spirit of hope and the ad limina I think has been that for me,” Folda told Catholic News Service Jan. 13 after a two-hour meeting with Pope Francis.
Bishops from U.S. Region VIII – North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota – met the pope on the first day of their visit. The region’s 10 dioceses have one archbishop, one auxiliary bishop, six bishops, one bishop-designate and two diocesan administrators.
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Retired Pope Benedict XVI’s name is being removed as a coauthor of a controversial new book defending the Catholic Church’s practice of clerical celibacy after dueling accounts emerged of the ex-pontiff’s involvement in the preparation of the volume.
The removal, confirmed in a tweet Jan. 14 by Cardinal Robert Sarah, the other author of the book, comes after an odd and dramatic public dispute between Sarah and Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict’s private secretary.
In fact, announcement of the change in authorship came only 90 minutes after Sarah had tweeted a statement defending the choice to list Benedict as a coauthor, claiming the former pope had reviewed the entire manuscript of the volume, the cover design, and also consulted on the publication date.
Sarah, who leads the Vatican’s liturgy office, even quoted a Nov. 25 conversation with Benedict, in which the cardinal said the ex-pontiff had told him: “I agree that the text be published in the form you have foreseen.”
Within an hour, Gänswein had told Italian and German-language news agencies that Benedict only thought he was preparing an essay for the volume, and did not intend to be listed as a coauthor.
“He never approved any project for a coauthored book, and never saw nor authorized the cover,” the archbishop told Italy’s Ansa agency.
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Patrick O’Donnell admitted to sexually abusing kids while a priest in Spokane. He now lives .6 miles from two schools in Mount Vernon.
Patrick O’Donnell is a name that draws a strong reaction in Spokane.
He’s a large part of the reason the Catholic Diocese of Spokane went bankrupt after it agreed to pay millions of dollars to 28 victims who O’Donnell admitted to sexually abusing in the 1970s.
O’Donnell now lives in a retirement community for people 55 and older, just over half-a-mile from two schools in Mount Vernon, Washington, a suburb an hour north of Seattle.
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The son of a missionary claims he was sexually abused by a priest from a local order, according to a Westchester County court filling.
The case,filed by an anonymous plaintiff, accused Ronald Boccieri, a Maryknoll priest, of sexually abusing him at a cabin in the Catskills.
Boccieri was accused ofinitially grooming the plaintiff while at the Ossining Maryknoll campus.
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A former French priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of Boy Scouts has admitted “caressing” children in ways he knew were wrong, at the beginning of his trial in France.
“It could be four or five children a week,” Bernard Preynat, 74, told the court in Lyon on Tuesday.
He is accused of assaulting at least 80 young boys in the 1980s and 1990s and faces ten years in prison if convicted.
Ten of his accusers are expected to give evidence in the four-day trial.
The men were all aged between seven and 15 at the time of the alleged abuse.
This is the first time that Mr Preynat has appeared in a French court to answer questions about these allegations.
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Bernard Preynat, 74, is believed to have sexually abused scores of boys over a 30-year period
The victims of a paedophile priest at the heart of the biggest scandal to hit the Catholic church will face their attacker in a French court.
Bernard Preynat, 74, who has been defrocked, is believed to have sexually abused scores of boys over a 30-year period, many of them while they attended catechism classes or Boy Scout camps he ran.
Even after he admitted he was “sick” and had a problem with children, he was allowed to remain a priest in his diocese in Lyon.
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A former priest detailed Tuesday how he systematically abused boys over two decades as a French scout chaplain, and said his superiors knew about his “abnormal” behavior as far back as the 1970s.
The shocking testimony of Bernard Preynat is likely to further shake up the French Catholic Church as it reckons with sexual abuses that were long covered up. His account in court Tuesday suggested as many as five cardinals were aware of his behavior over the years, but didn’t report it to police or prosecutors.
Preynat, now 74, is charged with sexually abusing multiple minors and faces up to 10 years in prison in what is France’s biggest clergy sex abuse trial to date. He’s suspected of abusing around 75 boys, but his testimony suggests the overall number could be even higher.
He said he abused up to two boys “almost every weekend” from 1970 to 1990 when he worked as their scout chaplain, and as many as four or five a week when he led one-week scout camps.
He said parents first alerted the diocese in the 1970s, but his hierachy never punished him.
“I often said to myself ‘I have to stop’ but I started again a few months later. I blame myself today,” he told a hushed courtroom.
“It seemed to me that the children were consenting,” he said. “I was wrong.”
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A Baltimore priest at St. Agnes/St. William of York Parish has been removed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore after he was accused of touching three women inappropriately.
Father Joseph O’Meara has been removed from active ministry and will no longer reside at St. Agnes/St. William of York, the Archdiocese said.
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The Archdiocese of Baltimore has removed from active ministry a retired priest accused of inappropriately touching three women.
Father Joseph O’Meara, who lived at St. Agnes/St. William of York Parish in Catonsville near West Baltimore, was “recently … separately accused by three adult women of touching them inappropriately,” according to a letter signed by Father Isaac Makovo sent to parishioners in December. He no longer lives at the parish’s residences, according to the letter.
All three incidents were reported to church officials within the same day. Two of the women told church officials the incidents took place that same day and the third woman, who decided to come forward after learning of the other women, said she was inappropriately touched two days earlier, Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said in an email.
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The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico called on the country’s government Tuesday to modify the legal code and do away with statutes of limitations for sexual abuse of minors.
“We want to ask in the name of the bishops of Mexico for there to be no expiration for this crime,” said Rogelio Cabrera, president of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference.
He called it “unjust” that nothing can be done about such cases starting 10 years from the date of the offense, “since the wrong done lasts for the lifetime of the person who has been a victim.”
Cabrera said the church admits sex abuse complaints up to 20 years from the time a victim reaches adulthood.
The church has had a serious and longtime problem with clerical sex abuse in Mexico.
According to data presented Tuesday at a news conference, the Bishops’ Conference has investigated 426 priests in the last 10 years, 271 of them for sex abuse.
Alfonso Miranda, secretary of the Bishops’ Conference, said 155 of those cases have gone before prosecutors, up about 50 from the number as of last March.
He noted that those are just preliminary figures and added that 217 priests have been defrocked, though without saying whether all were for sex abuse or other offenses.
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Alongside bishops from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, Bishop Michael Hoeppner met with Pope Francis Tuesday, for a two-hour meeting some bishops called “open,” and “hopeful.”
But Hoeppner is unique among his brother bishops: he is the first U.S. bishop to be investigated under the norms of Vos estis lux mundi, the 2018 policy from Pope Francis on investigating bishops accused of mishandling or obstructing allegations of clerical sexual abuse. In fact, alongside Hoeppner at the Jan. 13 papal meeting was Archbishop Bernard Hebda, the archbishop who conducted the investigation.
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Ever since Benedict XVI announced he would become the first pope in 600 years to resign, Catholic theologians, canon lawyers and others warned of the potential confusion in having two popes living side by side in the Vatican, one reigning, the other retired but calling himself “emeritus pope” and still wearing the white cassock of the papacy.
Their worst fears came true this week.
In a saga befitting the Oscar-nominated movie “The Two Popes,” Benedict co-wrote a book reaffirming the “necessity” of a celibate priesthood. There was nothing novel with his position, but the book is coming out at the same time Pope Francis is weighing whether to ordain married men in the Amazon because of a priest shortage there.
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The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City is opposing a bill that requires clergy to report disclosures of abuse to law enforcement to investigate.
In an editorial being published Wednesday in the Diocesan newspaper Intermountain Catholic and shared with FOX 13, the faith outlines its objections with House Bill 90.
“The motivation for the bill is understandable, to uncover and stop the abuse of children, but HB 90 will not have this intended effect,” the Diocese wrote in the op-ed.
The Diocese said in the editorial the confession is central to the practice of the Catholic faith going back millennia, giving members the opportunity to reveal their conscience to God.
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MANILA — A Filipino priest, known for his supposed ability to heal and even raise people from the dead, said bishops should now lift their ban, citing the Vatican’s findings that he was “not guilty” of sexually abusing minors.
Fr. Fernando Suarez, 53, said there was no more reason to prevent him from practicing his healing ministry in at least 4 dioceses that earlier shut their doors on him and members of his Missionaries of Mary Mother of the Poor (MMP).
He said many other bishops had not allowed him in their dioceses since the complaint was lodged more than 5 years ago.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), last December, ruled that Suarez had been “falsely accused” of sexual abuse, according to a decree of notification signed by Bishop Antonio Tobias, who heads the Philippine Catholic Church’s National Tribunal of Appeals.
“Nothing now stands in the way for him to exercise his healing ministry, provided it is done properly in coordination with the ecclesiastical authority of every ecclesiastical jurisdiction,” Tobias wrote on Jan. 6, citing the order by Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, secretary of the CDF.
ABS-CBN News could not reach Tobias. But Suarez provided a copy of the document and described the ruling as “a big redemption on my part.”
LIFT BAN
“They should lift my ban,” Suarez told ABS-CBN News, referring to dioceses where he was barred — Cubao, Lingayen-Dagupan, Malolos, and Malaybalay.
“Kung alam mo lang (If you only knew) what I went through,” he added, citing the “ordeal of mental torture, calumny, gossips, especially among… bishops and priests.”
It was not clear why the 4 dioceses kept him away.
But aside from the case, there were also issues raised about his incardination (attachment to a diocese), ABS-CBN News learned.
Every cleric is required under canon law to be “incardinated either in a particular church or personal prelature, or in an institute of consecrated life or society endowed with this faculty, in such a way that unattached or transient clerics are not allowed at all.”
A decree of notification signed by Bishop Antonio Tobias, head of the Philippine Catholic Church’s National Tribunal of Appeals, shows the “not guilty” verdict by a Vatican body on healing priest Fernando Suarez. Photo courtesy of Fr. Fernando Suarez
Suarez was incardinated to San Jose, Occidental Mindoro under then Bishop Antonio Palang on March 31, 2011, said Bishop William Antonio, the current administrator of the apostolic vicariate.
“For a priest to exercise ministry in another territory, he needs the permission of the bishop of the place. For one reason or another, the bishop may not allow a priest to exercise ministry in his territory,” Antonio told ABS-CBN News.
“I cannot give you more information on his case because there are aspects beyond my power and authority,” he added, pointing instead to Tobias who handled the case.
Suarez said he later moved (excardinated or released to a new diocese) and was incardinated to the Diocese of Tagum in 2017. “Never in my life na wala akong diocese (that I did not have a diocese),” he said.
‘POWER PLAY’
Suarez said the sexual abuse case was triggered by a complaint from a sacristan and his friend in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. Details of the case were kept strictly confidential under church rules.
Both the Vatican ruling and Tobias’ letter did not say why Suarez had been exonerated. Suarez said his 2 accusers had recanted their statements.
Suarez said there appeared to be “someone behind” the complaint, adding that it might have had something to do with a “power play.” He did not elaborate.
“Parang pina-project. Parang may crusade against me. (It’s as if I was targeted, like there was a crusade against me.)”
It remains to be seen if his exoneration can also help put to rest other controversies surrounding his healing ministry.
RAISING THE DEAD
Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz earlier questioned Suarez’s supposed “gift” to bring dead people back to life, telling this reporter in a previous interview that only Jesus Christ could do that.
Suarez said he never actually saw for himself the dead rise right after a healing session.
He said he was only told of such stories afterward by witnesses, such as this doctor whose patient suffered a cardiac arrest but supposedly came back to life around 5 years ago.
“Meron din ako sa Canada na tatanggalin na ang mga mata e. E pri-nay over ko. Nabuhay din,” said Suarez, who claimed to have sprung “3 to 4” people back to life as told by various witnesses.
(There was this case in Canada, whose eye was about to be taken out. The person came back to life after my pray-over.)
EXTRAVAGANT
A number of priests spoke with ABS-CBN News, pointing to Suarez’s supposed image within church circles as one with an “extravagant lifestyle” and many rich and powerful friends.
“I don’t think my lifestyle is extravagant,” said Suarez, who’s known to wear simple clothes according to a fellow priest.
Suarez said he was aware of criticism of his healing ministry, the worst being that his gift “came from the devil and I’m making money out of it.”
“Paano ko to pagka-kwartahan? Eh lahat ng collection, iniiwan ko sa simbahan. Kung gusto nyo, ‘wag na lang mag-collection,” he said.
(How can I earn money off it? All collections, I leave in the church. If you want, I’ll stop collections.)
During the interview on Monday, Suarez described Ramon Ang, head of food and infrastructure conglomerate San Miguel Corp, as a friend.
Suarez said Ang recounted how tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. had been “healed” after the priest prayed over him before.
The priest said he usually made friends afterward with those who benefited from his healing ministry, but did not seek them out. Many of them happened to be wealthy, raising eyebrows among his fellow priests.
“Hindi ko naman kasalanan na maging kaibigan ko sila. Mabubuti rin naman silang mga tao… nangangailangan rin sila ng spirituality,” he said, describing them as “good, real friends” until now.
(It’s not my fault that they’re my friends. They’re good people too… who also need spirituality.)
“I have lots of friends, rich and poor alike.”
TENNIS
Among priests, he organizes a yearly tournament in the Philippines called “Fr. Fernando Suarez Tennis Cup,” which is also staged in countries like Poland, attracting participants from at least 15 nations.
Proceeds went to poor parishes, he said.
An avid tennis player, Suarez acknowledged that he regularly watches international tournaments such as the French Open.
But he said he began doing so only after he “healed” an international tennis official, who eventually converted to Catholicism and has since been covering expenses for such trips.
“Ever since, libre nya. Sya ang sumasagot,” he said. “Yung iba naman, may mga kaibigan ako sa abroad.”
(It’s been free ever since. The official shoulders the cost. For the other trips, I have friends abroad.)
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The Vatican cardinal who co-authored a bombshell book with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI reaffirming priestly celibacy on Tuesday strongly denied he manipulated the retired pope into publishing.
Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican’s liturgy office, spoke out after news reports quoting “sources close to Benedict” claimed the retired pope never saw or approved the finished product.
Sarah reproduced letters from Benedict making clear the 92-year-old pope had written the text and approved of publishing it as a book. “These defamations are of exceptional gravity,” Sarah tweeted.
The controversy underscores the conservative-progressive battle lines that have deepened in the Catholic Church following Benedict’s 2013 decision to retire, and his successor Pope Francis’ more reform-minded papacy.
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[Benedict XVI .: I am not co-author of Sarah’s book]
VATICAN CITY
KathPress.at
January 14, 2020
Privatsekretär Gänswein: Emeritierter Papst war nicht über tatsächliche Form und Aufmachung von Buch über Priestertum und Zölibat informiert – Name und Bild Benedikts XVI. soll von Buchcover entfernt werden – Beitrag des emeritierten Papstes im Hauptteil des Buches allerdings “100 Prozent Benedikt”
[Private secretary Gänswein: Pope Emeritus was not informed of the actual form and layout of books on priesthood and celibacy – name and image of Benedict XVI. to be removed from book cover – contribution of the emeritus pope in the main part of the book, however, “100 percent Benedict”]
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By Christine P. Bartholomew, Associate Professor of Law, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Pope Francis recently removed one of the barriers facing sex abuse victims looking for justice – the “Rule of Pontifical Secrecy.”
The rule is an obligation under the church’s laws to keep sensitive information regarding the Catholic Church’s governance strictly confidential. This rule allowed church officials to withhold information in sexual abuse cases, even where there was an alleged cover-up or a failure to report allegations. The clergy could claim secrecy even from victims or legal authorities.
Pope Francis stated on Dec. 17, 2019, in a press release “On the Topic of Confidentiality in Legal Proceedings,” that his intention in ending papal secrecy was to increase transparency in child abuse cases.
As a legal scholar, I have extensively analyzed the use of evidence rules that shield confidential communications with clergy. I argue that even with the removal of the papal secrecy rule, transparency might remain illusive for abuse victims.
The Catholic Church has other practices it can rely on to conceal information.
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The Florida Attorney General’s office is not releasing the number of tips it has received since 2018 when then-state attorney general Pam Bondi launched a statewide investigation into all reports of past abuse in the Catholic Dioceses, including a website where victims can submit tips about abuse – past and present.
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A Filipino priest, known for his supposed ability to heal and even raise people from the dead, said bishops should now lift their ban, citing the Vatican’s findings that he was “not guilty” of sexually abusing minors.
Fr. Fernando Suarez, 53, said there was no more reason to prevent him from practicing his healing ministry in at least 4 dioceses that earlier shut their doors on him and members of his Missionaries of Mary Mother of the Poor (MMP).
He said many other bishops had not allowed him in their dioceses since the complaint was lodged more than 5 years ago.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), last December, ruled that Suarez had been “falsely accused” of sexual abuse, according to a decree of notification signed by Bishop Antonio Tobias, who heads the Philippine Catholic Church’s National Tribunal of Appeals.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
The trial of a former French priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of Boy Scouts in the 1980s and 1990s is set to begin in France on Tuesday.
Bernard Preynat, 74, is alleged to have assaulted more than 80 individuals and faces ten years in prison if convicted.
His trial was scheduled to start on Monday, but was delayed because of a lawyers’ strike over pension reforms.
Ten of his accusers, all aged between seven and 15 at the time of the alleged abuse, are expected to give evidence.
Also linked to the case is Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was found guilty last March of failing to report the allegations against Preynat.
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Roman Catholic scholars rebuked the former Pope Benedict on Monday for his comments in a new book regarding the delicate matter of priestly celibacy, saying his words were helping to destabilize the reigning Pope Francis.
It is not the first time that Benedict has spoken out on Church matters despite a public vow he made in 2013, when he became the first pontiff in 700 years to resign.
The situation also underscores the polarization between conservatives and progressives in the 1.3 billion-member Church.
“One pope is complicated enough. This is a mess,” John Gehring, Catholic Program Director at Faith in Public Life, a U.S. group, said in a tweet.
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The Catholic Church in the U.S. has moved around more than $2 billion in assets in order to prevent the funds from going to alleged abuse victims who sued the Church.
As more victims of sexual abuse by priests sued various dioceses around the country, churches began transferring and reclassifying assets, and filing for bankruptcy, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek review of court filings by lawyers representing churches and victims over the last 15 years.
Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy has allowed the dioceses to reach universal settlements and protected them from further victim claims. Dioceses have chosen the bankruptcy option more than 20 times since 2004.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that the “decision on whether to seek Chapter 11 protection in a given case is the diocese’s alone.”
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The Montana Supreme Court has reversed a $35 million judgment against Jehovah’s Witnesses for failing to report that one of its members had been sexually abusing children for years.
In its 7-0 decision, the court held that even though Montana law requires clergy and other officials to report child sexual abuse to authorities, Jehovah’s Witnesses fell under an exemption in this case “because their church doctrine, canon, or practice required that clergy keep reports of child abuse confidential.” NPR and the Associated Press have coverage.
Holly McGowan, one of two plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told elders in the Thompson Falls Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1998 that her stepfather, Maximo Reyes, had inappropriately touched and fondled her, the court’s opinion states.
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