ABUSE TRACKER

Gareld Duane Rollins, whose allegations of abuse by Houston judge Paul Pressler were ignored for decades by leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention, died May 23, according to Robert Downen, the journalist who reported on his case more than anyone else.

“Duane was one of the kindest and most courageous people I’ve ever met. I am absolutely devastated by this news, but am so honored to have been so close to him, and that he trusted me for eight years with his story,” wrote Downen, former reporter for the Houston Chronicle who now writes for Texas Monthly.

Downen said he learned of Rollins’ death from his attorney, who said Rollins died from cardiac arrest. “Duane had dealt for a long time with serious health issues stemming from addictions that were directly related to the trauma of his abuse,” Downen explained.

The reporter noted the irony that he learned of Rollins’ death just hours before the Texas…

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In September 2023, the Catholic Church in Switzerland was plunged into a crisis from which it has yet to emerge. Could a new pope help Swiss Catholics to find a way out?

The turmoil began when the Swiss bishops’ conference confirmed that the Vatican had authorized a preliminary investigation into claims against six members. Five were accused of mishandling abuse cases, while a sixth faced sexual harassment allegations.

The news broke days before the publication of an independent pilot study on abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland, commissioned by the bishops’ conference and compiled by the University of Zurich. The study, which documented 1,002 cases of clerical abuse since 1950, prompted a public outcry.

The Swiss bishops’ conference said in October 2024, that it had received a letter from the Vatican announcing the results of the preliminary investigation. The letter was from the Dicastery for Bishops, led by Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now…

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Accused has sentence reduced on appeal as court says relationship was consensual

A parish priest who defiled a 15-year-old girl who happened to be the sacristan’s niece will serve 20 months of jail time, a court of appeal has ruled. 

The court reduced the original 42-month prison term that the priest was sentenced to when he was found guilty of the crime.  

Both the names of the priest and the alleged victim were banned from publication, along with the details of the location where the events took place. 

The priest was originally sentenced in March of this year, with the court also permanently banning him from working with minors and listing his name on a register of sex offenders. 

The priest appealed the decision and that appeal was heard and reviewed by Judge Neville Camilleri.

The events date back to June 2017, when the girl, 15 at the time, would…

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Colombia’s Constitutional Court ordered the Catholic Church to share information about child sex abuse with journalists if asked to do so.

The court ruling came in response to more than 120 lawsuits that had been filed by journalists investigating sexual abuse by members of the church.

Despite the church’s frequent refusal to respond to information requests, these journalists have revealed 517 cases of sexual abuse by clergymen.

The court was asked to rule on approximately 50 lawsuits referring to rejected information requests in April of 2023.

While the court was studying the case, journalists filed another 70 lawsuits, claiming that the church claimed that it could not release information on the identity of alleged child molesters because of the Vatican’s Rule of Pontifical Secrecy, which codifies what information churches may or may not release.

Late Pope Francis lifted this code of secrecy in sexual abuse cases in December 2019, but…

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Rights activists hail President Horta for not pardoning Richard Daschbach, say decision ‘honors voices of survivors’

Timor-Leste’s president has rejected a plea for clemency submitted on behalf of a former Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing minors, despite a government recommendation.

Richard Daschbach, a defrocked American, was among 38 people considered for the presidential executive clemency, according to the country’s justice ministry. The 88-year-old is serving a 12-year sentence for sexually abusing young Timor girls under his care at a remote orphanage.

President José Ramos-Horta, on May 27, confirmed at a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Dili that Daschbach was not included on his annual list of prisoner pardons, which was granted to six individuals.

“The government usually submits a long list of clemency recommendations,” Horta said. “But I focus on what I believe is just.”

The president…

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There is need for Catholic Church leaders in Africa to address the challenge of sexual abuse against women Religious wherever and whenever it happens, fostering the values of justice, transparency, and healing, a Zambian Catholic Nun has said.

In her presentation during the ongoing Symposium and 6th Annual General Meeting of the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM) in South Africa, Sr. Linah Siabana underscored the Church’s moral responsibility to uphold the safety and rights of all people, and cautioned against institutional silence.

“Sexual abuse represents a profound and hallowing failure to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities,” Sr. Siabana said on May 24.

Highlighting the role of Catholic Church leaders as “stewards of human dignity”, the Zambian-born member of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (MSOLA) said, “We bear a collective responsibility to ensure that our conduct consistently safeguards the rights and well-being of those…

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ROME – As with any new papacy, a quick look at their first appointments and audiences inside the system offers at least a small insight into what is first and foremost on their minds in terms of pastoral and administrative priorities.

For Pope Leo XIV, with nearly a month at the helm and around two weeks of scheduling meetings and making some initial decisions, beyond the expected meetings with state leaders in town for his election and installation activities, his top priorities are already beginning to take shape.

On the whole, they seem to indicate his intention to carry on the unfinished business of the Francis papacy, from finances to the abuse crisis to the reform of the Roman Curia.

One of the most notable meetings came Tuesday, May 27, when Pope Leo held a private meeting with the disgraced Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, 76, who in December 2023 was…

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A 41-year-old former Worship Minister at the Calumet Street Christian Church in Centralia has been sentenced to four years’ probation on five felony counts of child pornography.

As part of the plea, Ian Mophet was ordered to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 and to have no devices that connect to the internet.

Judge Mark Kelly told the court he felt Mophet should be sentenced to prison, but state sentencing guidelines suggested probation was appropriate since Mophet had a clean record before his arrest in this case.  However, the judge warned any other infraction would likely send him to prison.

State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth asked for an eleven-year prison term, and while disappointed, he understands the judge’s rationale.

Mophet entered eight letters from family members and friends in support of him not being sentenced to a prison term.  He also made a statement in allocution to the judge.

…

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Friday, May 23, 2025

For Immediate Release

Office of Public Affairs

A Colorado man was sentenced today to 210 years in prison for sexually abusing numerous children at the orphanage he founded and directed in Haiti.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Michael Karl Geilenfeld, 73, most recently of Littleton, founded St. Joseph’s Home for Boys — a home for orphaned, impoverished, and otherwise vulnerable children in Haiti — in 1985 and operated it for more than two decades. During this time, Geilenfeld repeatedly traveled from the United States to Haiti, where he sexually abused the boys entrusted to his care. He also physically and emotionally abused the children in the home, including through physical assault and other forms of punishment.

In February 2025, a federal jury convicted Geilenfeld of one count of traveling in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct and…

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One by one they spoke of their pain, their nightmares and shame, and the suicidal thoughts.

Amid pleas for psychological help and justice, they described how the American founder of their Port-au-Prince orphanage lured them in with promise of an education and a better life. But Michael Karl Geilenfeld, who operated several orphanages and a home for the disabled in Haiti over a span of 30 years, was no “man of God,” the 10 men told a U.S. federal judge inside a Miami court room.

Instead, he was a criminal, a “diabolical psychopath,” who used cookies and trips to the U.S. to steal their childhood as he sexually and physically abused them. Then he used his power, money and the white color of his skin to shut them down when they tried to get help.

“This orphanage destroyed my childhood,” a 24-year-old testified on Friday morning about the St. Joseph’s…

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Legislation won unanimous final approval in the House on Monday.

Texas is on the verge of banning the use of nondisclosure agreements to silence sexual abuse survivors.

The ban will prevent NDAs from being used to prevent a survivor of sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, human trafficking or child sexual abuse from disclosing their abuse to others.

It will go into effect on Sept. 1.

The proposal — known as Trey’s Law — gained support after victims of church sex abuse went public with their experiences. Texas House members voted 144-0 on Monday to give final approval to the ban, which has been spearheaded by two North Texas lawmakers.

The vote sends Senate Bill 835, authored by Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

“I believe very strongly that this bill that we’re about to vote on is one of the, if not the strongest, bill for…

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Hartford, CT—On Wednesday, the United States Bankruptcy Court in Hartford confirmed the Diocese of Norwich’s Joint Plan of Reorganization, marking the official emergence of The Norwich Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation from chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Honorable Judge James J. Tancredi presided over the confirmation hearing, held on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, at 10:00 a.m., and approved the plan on the record at the hearing, subject to entry of an order confirming the plan to be submitted by the parties.

The confirmed Joint Plan was proposed by the Norwich Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation; the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, representing the interests of survivors, The Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, and the Association of Parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut.

The Joint Plan establishes a settlement fund of approximately $31 million. This includes contributions from Diocesan assets and sale proceeds from Diocesan properties, non-debtor assets and properties,…

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[See the bishop’s original letter here.]

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today marks a solemn and significant moment in the history of the Diocese of Norwich. After nearly four years of prayer, perseverance, and painstaking effort, the United States Bankruptcy Court in Hartford has approved the Diocese’s Joint Plan of Reorganization—subject to entry of an order confirming the plan to be submitted by the parties, bringing our chapter 11 case to a formal close.

It has been a long and painful road, especially for the survivors of sexual abuse. To each of you, I offer my deepest and most heartfelt apology. You were betrayed by those you and your families trusted and found harm; that should never have happened.

This Joint Plan, the result of extensive work among the Diocese, survivors and their counsel, the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, the Association of Parishes, and others,…

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A new Washington state law brings religion and government face to face in the fight against child abuse, where principles and protections are tested.

Child abuse is a subject which can get everyone stirred up. This is mostly because people can’t imagine seeing someone harm a child in any way. It would be like someone going around and stealing innocence from our communities and that is a big problem. 

Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson signed Senate Bill 5375 into law on May 2, which mandates religious leaders including, clergy, imams and elders to report suspected child abuse or neglect to law enforcement or the Department of Children, Youth and Families. This law will go into effect on July 27, 2025. 

Taking this at face value, anyone would agree this is a good thing, as no one wants children to be abused. However, there is still the matter of separation between…

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Majestic Theater in West Springfield MA

Thursday, June 26 • 2:00PM & 7:30PM
Friday, June 27 • 7:30PM

Winner of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association awards for 2024 Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Solo Performance, Unreconciled is the true story of an adolescent actor cast as Jesus in a Catholic school play directed by a parish priest. Majestic regular Jay Sefton (A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Ladyslipper, Outside Mullingar, Million Dollar Quartet) takes us on a magic carpet ride through parental love and bewilderment during difficult times in this moving portrait of working class life in a whiskey-drenched, sports-crazed suburb of Philadelphia in 1980s.

The Daily Hampshire Gazette writes: “Sefton put on an acting clinic. It all added up to one of the most amazing pieces of acting I’ve ever seen. It was also funny as hell and very moving.” This award-winning show is currently performing in theatres across the…

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May 30-31, 2025

Hybrid Conference: Online and at University of California, Riverside

• Survivor Experiences in Litigation
• Legislative Advocacy and Systemic Legal Change
• How Can Scholars Do This Research?

This hybrid conference event on May 30-31, 2025 brings together survivors, scholars, and advocates to examine justice-seeking through litigation in cases of religious institutional sexual abuse. Featuring first-person accounts of judicial proceedings, strategies for systemic change, and crucial discussions on navigating institutional barriers when confronting abuse and religious organizational responses.

Featured Keynote Speakers: Gustavo Arellano, John Manly, and Suzanna Krivulskaya

Hosted by the Religion & Sexual Abuse Project, and generously supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.

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A pope from the United States. That was the biggest surprise on May 8 when the new pontiff, Chicago native Robert Francis Prevost, was announced as Pope Leo XIV.

It was quite the surprise, but it is important not to make too much of Leo’s nationality. For one thing, Prevost hadn’t lived in the United States for decades. He was the head of his Augustinian order in Rome from 2001 until 2013, when Pope Francis sent him to lead a diocese in Peru. Prevost had served as a missionary in Peru early in his priesthood. In 2023, after a decade in the leadership of the Peruvian diocese of Chicalayo, Prevost returned to Rome to head the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.

Leo, in short, spent the majority of his adult life outside of the United States.

Yet there are already notable signs that Pope Leo XIV will have an impact on…

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A decision in 2000 to move a priest accused of abusing boys into residence at an Augustinian friary in Chicago originated from leadership of the Archdiocese of Chicago as a means to enforce restrictions on the priest’s ministry, according to a recent statement from the archdiocese. 

The decision to place then-Father James Ray (since removed from the clerical state) at the Augustinians’ St. John Stone Friary from 2000-2002 is being re-examined due to the presumed involvement of then-Father Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. Then-Father Prevost is presumed to have approved the decision in his capacity at the time as the provincial, or leader, of the Augustinians’ Midwest Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, one of the order’s three provinces in North America with governance over primarily the Midwestern United States and Canada. 

Father Ray held three ministry assignments in the Greater Chicago area between his 1975 ordination and…

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Two days after a tentative settlement with survivors of clergy sex abuse was announced in the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy, Archbishop Gregory Aymond made a rare court appearance Friday at a hearing over whether to extend the appointment of a key mediator in the case who helped broker the recent agreement.

Aymond did not speak during the 90-minute proceeding, in federal bankruptcy court in New Orleans, though he said after the hearing that he attended because he “wanted to be a part of the process” and is praying for abuse survivors and their healing.

He is optimistic for a resolution in the long-running case, perhaps as soon as the end of the year, he said.

The archbishop’s presence at what would typically be a routine matter underscores the critical juncture in the court battle that has consumed the local Roman Catholic Church for the past five years.

It also points to…

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As with any papal transition, when Pope Leo XIV was elected questions arose about what his priorities would be, and whether he would continue to advance the priorities and reforms of his predecessor.

One of the most consistent questions up to now, as the world is getting to know Pope Leo, has been what his approach to women will be, and whether he will continue Pope Francis’s trailblazing efforts to create more meaningful spaces for them in governance and authority, including within the Roman Curia.

What Leo will do on issues such as women’s priestly ordination and the women’s diaconate remain to be seen, however, he was a participant in Francis’s Synod on Synodality, which led to the formation of several study groups focusing on specific issues, including one on ministries and the possibility of the women’s diaconate.

At the start of the 2024 Synod on Synodality, Argentine Cardinal Víctor…

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The San Francisco Archdiocese is countering claims by abuse survivors’ representatives that “a pervasive pattern of abuse” is still occurring there, saying newly released data shows most alleged cases of clergy sexual abuse took place decades ago.

On May 21, the Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm alerted media to the release of abuse claims data specifying details of alleged abuse, including the initials of the accused, along with the parishes, schools and dates associated with the alleged incidents.

The data — anonymized and aggregated from claims submitted by survivors — had been authorized for release in March by Judge Dennis Montali, who is presiding over the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case. The San Francisco Archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2023 to resolve well over 500 claims of abuse.

Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones, the law firm representing the creditors’ committee, noted in a separate media release that “no…

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In Ireland, a new study says attitudes towards the Church are “deeply divided” in the once deeply Catholic country.

A poll commissioned by The Iona Institute shows the Irish public are almost evenly divided in their attitudes towards priests and nuns with almost exactly a third in each case viewing them positively, a third negatively, with the rest neutral.

“Our research comes at a time of considerable change in Irish society: Not surprisingly, religious attitudes and beliefs are also changing as well. While perceptions of the Catholic Church remain negative on balance, especially among younger generations, nevertheless religious identity and spiritual orientation remain important for the vast majority of Irish people,” the report says.

Once one of the most Catholic nations in Europe, revelations about clerical sexual abuse has left public confidence in the Church at its lowest level in the history of Ireland.

Not only has Mass attendance dropped…

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Fr. John “Fidelis” Forrester OSB Abuse Announcement

With deep sorrow for the suffering of victims and survivors of abuse, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas (“Archdiocese”) and St. Benedict’s Abbey (“Abbey”), announce that Father John “Fidelis” Forrester, OSB, has recently been the subject of substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor that occurred in this Archdiocese; he was previously found to have substantiated allegations outside of the Archdiocese. After a thorough investigation, these allegations were found credible. Fr. Forrester has been added to the Archdiocesan list of clerics with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors. 

Fr. Forrester served in the following parishes/schools during his parish ministry in the Archdiocese:

• Camp St. Maur Hill, Atchison
• Maur Hill-Mount Academy, Atchison
• Mount St. Scholastica Academy, Atchison
• Ursuline Academy, Paola
• St. Peter and St. Paul, Seneca

In addition, he served at these dioceses:

• Archdiocese of Seattle, Washington
• Diocese of Davenport, Iowa

The Archdiocese Substantiated…

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As Pope Leo XIV’s past record of handling clergy sexual abuse cases comes under scrutiny, his biggest defenders are the victims of a powerful Catholic movement he helped dismantle.

The group, known as the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, was formally dissolved by Pope Francis this year after a Vatican investigation uncovered sect-like spiritual, physical and sexual abuses by its leaders against its members.

Victims of the group say that starting in 2018, when the pope was a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost met with them. He took their claims seriously when few others did, got the Vatican involved and worked concretely to provide financial reparations for the harm victims had endured. They credit him with helping arrange the key 2022 meeting with Pope Francis that triggered the Vatican investigation that resulted in the suppression.

“What can I say about him? That he listened to me,” said José Rey de Castro, who spent 18…

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In the two weeks since Pope Leo XIV was elected, the pope has been celebrated among Catholics of all stripes and ecclesiastical tribes, with many hoping that the pontiff will bring some peace and stability to the Church after a tumultuous 12 years, and effect necessary reforms at the Roman Curia and in the Vatican City State Governorate.

Around the world, some Catholics hope that Leo will rescind Traditionis custodes, let the synod on synodality be consigned to the dustbin of history, or “answer the dubia,” as it were.

Others hope for the very opposite.

But in either case, it seems clear that most Catholics hope that Leo will prove adept at handling allegations of clerical sexual abuse and misconduct around the world, with many hoping the pontiff will bring the rule of law more consistently to an area of the Church’s life which has seemed in recent years to be governed…

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New court records reveal strong opposition to the reappointment of a mediator to the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy case.

Survivors of clergy sex abuse filed a request in court to remove Judge Chris Sontchi as a mediator in the bankruptcy case of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

The records include serious allegations tied to the archdiocese’s efforts to settle its five-year bankruptcy proceedings.

According to filings by attorneys representing alleged clergy sex abuse victims, attorneys for all the victims claim Sontchi should not be reappointed due to a loss of trust.

Survivors and their legal representatives were allegedly kept in the dark while other parties were informed of the agreement’s terms.

Allegations further state that, at the conclusion of the May 16, 2025, mediation, Jim Stang entered the state court counsel’s mediation room to announce that a settlement had been reached between the Archdiocese…

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Today, I’m joined by Katherine Archer, Father Bojan Jovanović, Dr. Hermina Nedelescu, and Dorothy Small for a wide-ranging discussion on clergy abuse—its psychological toll, institutional roots, and pathways to reform.

Katherine Archer is the co-founder of Prosopon Healing and a graduate student in Theological Studies. She will begin a Master’s in Counseling Psychology in the fall. Her work focuses on clergy abuse within the Eastern Orthodox Church, blending academic research with nonprofit advocacy. Archer champions policy reform addressing adult clergy exploitation, advancing a vision of healing grounded in justice, accountability, and survivor support.

Father Bojan Jovanović, a Serbian Orthodox priest and Secretary of the Union of Christians of Croatia is known for his searing critiques of institutional failings within the Church. His book Confession: How We Killed God and his work with the Alliance of Christians of Croatia underscore a commitment to ethical reform and moral reckoning. Jovanović advocates for transparency and…

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Sexual assault survivors gained support from the Michigan Senate on Tuesday with the passage of bills to allow more time in filing civil lawsuits against their assailants, but it remains unclear if the Republican-controlled House plans to take up the bills.

The upper chamber voted 25-9 to pass the five-bill package sponsored by Democratic Senators Kevin Hertel of Saint Clair Shores, Sam Singh of East Lansing, Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak, Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor, and Veronica Klinefelt of Eastpointe.

Together, the bills would give survivors of sexual assault or other criminal sexual conduct a 10-year window after a crime was committed, with a cutoff at the age of 42, or within seven years after discovering an injury or some other connection to the misconduct, or whichever is later.

Survivors can file lawsuits to recover damages sustained from the criminal sexual conduct, which could be brought in court at…

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The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has reached a $500,000 settlement with a former janitor at a Maywood church who alleged her emotional distress caused her to quit in 2019 after an associate pastor groped her in the rectory and tried to coerce her into his bed.

An attorney for the plaintiff signed the offer presented by the archdiocese attorneys on April 9 and the court papers notifying  Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher Lui of the accord were filed with him on Monday.

The archdiocese said in a statement on Thursday that the plaintiff was not forced to resign and was not fired. Out of deference and concern for the plaintiff, the archdiocese worked to resolve her lawsuit, according to the statement, which added, “We hope that this settlement will allow her to heal and move forward.”

In July 2022, Lui granted judgment in favor of the archdiocese, affirming his…

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The survivors’ committee in the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s bankruptcy yesterday released Claims Data, which pulled information from individual reports filed in the proceeding. According to this data, 71 of the 88 parishes in the Archdiocese (81%) were named in the abuse claims. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called this and the other revelations from the report  “wrenching,” and added, “There was no good news to be had  in this data.”

The survivors’ group also again emphasized that no archbishop of San Francisco had ever released a list of accused perpetrators. However, by SNAP’s count, about 150 people were accused of abuse in the bankruptcy. Adding this information to the data already collected by the group, over 500 perpetrators lived or worked in the Archdiocesan territories of Marin, San Mateo, and San Francisco…

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The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Hartford has confirmed the Diocese of Norwich’s Joint Plan of Reorganization, meaning the official emergence of The Norwich Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation from chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to the Diocese.

The Norwich Diocese, said, through its law firm, said Judge James J. Tancredi presided over the confirmation hearing, held Wednesday, and “approved the plan on the record at the hearing, subject to entry of an order confirming the plan to be submitted by the parties.”

The Joint Plan was proposed by the Norwich Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation; Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, representing the interests of survivors, The Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, and the Association of Parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, according to the Diocese.

“The Joint Plan establishes a settlement fund of approximately $31 million. This includes contributions from Diocesan assets and sale proceeds from Diocesan properties, non-debtor assets and…

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To the Clergy, Religious, and Laity of the Archdiocese of New Orleans:

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

It is with great hope that I write to share with you that the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors have reached a Memorandum of Understanding to settle our bankruptcy that protects our parishes and begins to bring the proceedings to a close. I am grateful to God for all who have worked to reach this agreement and that we may look to the future towards a path to healing for survivors and for our local church in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.  

I met with pastors of our area parishes this week to share this news with them and to give them more information. We will continue to share updates as they are available, for there remains much work to be done as we look…

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atholic League President William A. Donohue has written to Washington state Senator Noel Frame, urging the state to “follow Canon law” on assisted dying.

The letter followed Frame’s suggestion that the church could “change their rules” to allow priests to disclose any allegations of child abuse heard during confession to the relevant authorities.

Newsweek contacted the state senator for comment on Thursday via email outside regular office hours.

Why It Matters

Earlier this month, the state of Washington passed a law requiring clergy to report any suspected child abuse they learn of during confession, a requirement they were previously exempt from for religious reasons.

In response, the Archdiocese of Seattle said, “Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession—or they will be excommunicated from the Church.”

What To Know

On Tuesday, the Catholic League published the letter Donohue sent to Frame under the title “Washington State…

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The Archdiocese of New Orleans this week agreed to pay a massive $180 million to victims of clergy abuse there, bringing an end to years of bankruptcy proceedings in federal court and pointing to what Archbishop Gregory Aymond called “a path to healing for survivors and for our local Church.”

The law firm Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP, which represented abuse victims in the proceedings, said in a press release that the sum represented “more than 20 times the archdiocese’s initial settlement estimate” when the archdiocese first filed for bankruptcy in 2020.

The settlement, if it is accepted by the abuse survivors, brings an end to almost exactly five years of bitter disputes over how the archdiocese handled sex abuse cases in the past and how it planned to compensate victims of clergy abuse now. 

The process was protracted enough that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge…

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A new Washington state law that requires members of the clergy to report child abuse or neglect, including when the information is revealed in confession, is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

The DOJ claims the law is anti-Catholic and appears on its face to violate the First Amendment. The investigation, which was announced earlier this month, will look at the development and passage of Senate Bill 5375.

The bill, which adds clergy members to the list of mandatory reporters, was passed by the Senate in a 28-20 vote and 64-31 by the House. It was signed into law May 2 by Gov. Bob Ferguson and is to go into effect July 27.

A DOJ news release says the law has no exception for the absolute seal of confidentiality that applies to Catholic priests.

“SB 5375 demands that Catholic Priests violate their deeply held faith…

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This story has been updated.

The Diocese of Norwich is ready to move past its legal troubles and focus on its Catholic faith.

The United States Bankruptcy Court in Hartford confirmed the Diocese of Norwich’s Joint Plan of Reorganization on Thursday, “marking the official emergence of The Norwich Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation from chapter 11 bankruptcy,” a press release stated.

“This resolution allows the Diocese, parishes and Catholic entities to move forward with clarity, accountability, and renewed dedication to charitable and religious work throughout the community, and provides an opportunity for healing to survivors,” the press release stated.

There are no plans to close any churches or reassign any priests at this time, a spokesperson for the Diocese stated.

The Joint Plan was proposed by the Diocesan Corporation, The Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, the Association of Parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, and the Official…

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The Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has reached a tentative $179 million settlement to resolve over 600 sex abuse claims in its bankruptcy.

The settlement, which must still be voted on by abuse survivors before it can be approved in bankruptcy court, would resolve one of the longest-running Catholic bankruptcies in the U.S. The Archdiocese, which serves 505,000 Catholics, filed for bankruptcy in New Orleans in 2020.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond said in a Wednesday letter that the settlement “offers a path to healing for survivors and for our local church in the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” although he cautioned that there is “much work to be done” before it is finalized in court.

The settlement was negotiated by a committee that was appointed in bankruptcy court to represent people who allege they were abused by clergy. The committee said that the $179.2 million deal was “more than 20 times the…

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The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has reached a $500,000 settlement with a former janitor at a Maywood church who alleged that emotional distress caused the Long Beach woman to quit in 2019 after an associate pastor groped her in the rectory and tried to coerce her into his bed.

An attorney for the plaintiff signed the offer presented by the archdiocese attorneys on April 9, and the court papers notifying Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher Lui of the accord were filed with him on Monday.

In July 2022, Lui granted judgment in favor of the archdiocese, affirming his ruling a month earlier dismissing the case brought by the woman who worked as a custodian at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. The parish is adjacent to a school as well as a rectory that housed the living areas and offices of Pastor Dario Miranda and Associate Pastor Primitivo Gonzalez,…

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[See also the court filing that revealed Seton Hall’s action, and former Seton Hall president Nyre’s amended complaint in his whistleblower lawsuit.]

Cardinal Joseph Tobin promised “full cooperation” from the Catholic university in New Jersey, but the school is pushing back.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin of New Jersey left for Vatican City earlier this month to help select the next pope — a rare moment on the global stage for one of the most powerful Catholic leaders in the United States.

Back home, Seton Hall University — the oldest Catholic diocesan university in America, where Tobin personally oversees both governing boards — was preparing to defy him.

A day after the new pontiff was chosen on May 8, attorneys for the university blocked a key witness from participating in a clergy abuse investigation Tobin had ordered, according to a court filing. That inquiry centers on whether Seton Hall’s…

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As part of the church’s bankruptcy case, survivors — and now creditors — were allowed the opportunity to detail in open court how they were violated by priests.

The bishop waited inside the courthouse foyer for his turn through the metal detector. On a clipboard ledger, he jotted his name — “John McDermott,” omitting his honorifics — along with the time he was signing in, 9:32 a.m. on May 14, a Wednesday.

He had arrived alone.

McDermott, 62, wore a black shirt and a pectoral cross around his neck. A signifier of his status, the bulky, silver crucifix dangled near his abdomen from a chain.

When he was next to be screened, McDermott placed the cross into one of the gray plastic bins that ferry visitors’ belongings through an X-ray machine for inspection by a court security officer. He walked through the detector without setting off the machine, draped…

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Tim Gioe was abused by a priest as a child. Now his state senator father-in-law is proposing a bill to stop the grooming of kids for exploitation.

The wife of a Catholic clergy molestation survivor who helped authorities catch the priest who abused him in his childhood has teamed up with her state senator father to devise a law in Louisiana criminalizing grooming – conduct that increased her husband’s vulnerability before his abuse.

Tim Gioe; his wife, Sarah Connick Gioe; and her father, Louisiana state senator Pat Connick, are at the heart of the legislative saga – as the tight-knit family collectively fights back after being victimized by the clerical molestation scandal that for decades has plagued the Catholic church both in their home state and globally.

Pat Wattigny, a New Orleans-area priest, pleaded guilty in June 2023 to charges that he had previously molested two children whom he…

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Pope Leo XIV is under renewed scrutiny over claims that he mishandled priest abuse cases while serving as a leader in the Catholic Church in Chicago.

On Tuesday, members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a news conference, claiming Leo exhibited a “pattern of failure to properly investigate abuse claims” during his time as head of the Augustinian order in Chicago.

“It was his responsibility to follow the meager church protocols and laws put in place,” James Egan, a SNAP spokesperson, said. “Given his record, it doesn’t seem that he prioritized protecting children at all.”

Leo XIV, formerly Robert Prevost, became the first American pope earlier this month. While he led the Augustinian order in Chicago, the Archdiocese faced numerous clergy abuse allegations. A 2023 report by the Illinois Attorney General found that more than 450 Catholic clergy in the state had…

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But attorneys representing large groups of survivors say the deal is short and will advise clients to reject it.

Some attorneys involved in the bankrupt New Orleans Catholic archdiocese’s federal financial reorganization say they have reached terms on an agreement to settle decades’ worth of clergy molestation claims, but lawyers representing a sizeable share out of more than 600 abuse claimants contend the proposed deal falls short by about $100 million — and they’re hoping they have the votes to block its approval.

Both developments came on Wednesday amid a struggle to resolve a tortuous Chapter 11 case that has cost the church more than $45 million in legal and other professional costs. The case could theoretically be dismissed at a hearing toward the end of June if the presiding judge, Meredith Grabill, determines she is unsatisfied with its progress.

Wednesday’s announced agreement was between attorneys for the archdiocese…

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Three now-deceased priests were added to a list of clergy offenders with substantiated claims.

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas reported that Fr. John “Fidelis” Forrester, Fr. Donald Redmond and Fr. Joseph Cramer were found to have abuse allegations against them be substantiated.

Fr. Fidelis, who was previously found to have substantiated allegations against him outside the Archdiocese, also had allegations of sexual abuse of a minor within the Archdiocese confirmed.

He died in 2022.

Fr. Fidelis had served at Camp St. Maur Hill (Atchison), Maur Hill Mount-Academy (Atchison), Mount St. Scholastica Academy (Atchison) and Ursuline Academy (Paola) prior to his ordination in 1954. He was assigned to St. Peter and Paul Parish (Seneca). The Archdiocese listed his estimated timeframe for abuse to have been between 1947-1961.

Fr. Cramer, who was ordained in 1977, had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors that occurred in the Archdiocese. He also…

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The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has revealed what it says are recent substantiated allegations of sex abuse involving three priests, bringing to nearly 30 the number of credibly accused clergy who have served in the archdiocese.

The priests all have died in recent years, according to an announcement last week by the archdiocese and St. Benedict’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Atchison, Kansas. The organizations said the announcement was made “with deep sorrow for the suffering of victims and survivors of abuse.”

“The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and St. Benedict’s Abbey take all allegations of misconduct by church personnel very seriously and work to respond to survivors’ needs with urgency, respect, and compassion,” the announcement said.

The information on the priests has been updated on the archdiocese’s list of “substantiated clergy offenders” found on its website. The list contains the names of 29 clergy who the…

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The Archdiocese of New Orleans agreed to pay nearly $180 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse under a settlement announced Wednesday, the latest in a string of settlements by the Catholic Church.

The archdiocese, its parishes and several insurers will pay $179.2 million into a trust to benefit survivors, according to a statement by the committee that negotiated the agreement. The money will be distributed after the church emerges from bankruptcy, it said.

But many of the survivors were not on board, their lawyers said.

“This proposed settlement was made in a secret backroom deal that the Archdiocese, the creditors committees and the mediators knew the overwhelming majority of victim-survivors would never agree to and will undoubtedly vote down,” attorneys Soren Gisleson, Johnny Denenea and Richard Trahant said in a statement to The Associated Press. “It makes no sense and is a continuation of the lifetime of abuse the Archdiocese…

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‘To our knowledge, Pope Leo XIV has acted in accordance with Church policies in every abuse case’: Chicago Archdiocese

In the wake of the elevation of Pope Leo XIV, advocates for people abused by Catholic priests spoke out Tuesday.

They are claiming the pope didn’t take enough action on cases that were previously under his purview.

The advocates said they filed a complaint against then-Cardinal Robert Prevost just six weeks before he was elected pope.

None of the accusations made Tuesday directly implicate Pope Leo XIV in any abuse.

Rather, they are allegations that, throughout his decades-long career, he didn’t take enough action on cases that were under his purview.

Victims advocates said they were so worried that they filed a complaint against then-Cardinal Prevost with the Vatican back in March.

While Catholics around the U.S. continue to celebrate the election of Pope Leo XIV, members of SNAP, the Survivors…

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Champion Forest Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in Houston, has settled with “strict confidentiality” a lawsuit alleging church and denominational leadership’s complicity in the sexual misconduct of former youth pastor Timothy Jeltema.

Three women, anonymously referred to as “Jane Doe” in court documents, filed a joint lawsuit against both the Southern Baptist Convention and Champion Forest Baptist Church on April 19, 2024, seeking $1 million in damages. The parties agreed on a settlement on May 14, according to a notice submitted to Harris County Court by mediator Lema Mousili.

The church’s attorney, Marc Sheiness, told Law 360 last week, “The settlement was made by the insurance carrier on behalf of the church.” He further explained, “The church had no say-so on when the case was settled, where it settled or the amount that the case settled.”

Jeltema went to prison in 2022 and is currently serving a five-year sentence on counts of sexual…

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A criminal case involving the son of Ohio megachurch pastors that has drawn massive media coverage in central Ohio intensified on Monday when a grand jury added five additional charges, including two additional counts of felony rape.

The total number of sex abuse charges against Gary Thomas “Tom” Keesee, Jr., 36, now add up to 32, court records show. He is the son of Gary and Drenda Keesee, pastors of Faith Life Church in New Albany, just east of Columbus, Ohio.

The charges include incidents with one additional victim, bringing the total victim count to four, Licking County Capt. Jay Cook told The Roys Report (TRR). The fourth victim was 6 or 7 years old when Keesee allegedly sexually abused her in Mt. Vernon, a small town in Ohio’s Knox County, according to Knox County court records.

Keesee’s other three alleged victims ranged in ages 5 to 15 when the…

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A Roman Catholic priest from Massachusetts will return to public ministry after charges that he sexually assaulted a child more than two decades ago were dropped.

In 2022, Monsignor Francis Strahan was indicted on forcible child rape and indecent assault and battery charges. Strahan was accused of assaulting an altar boy when he was a priest at St. Bridget Parish in Framingham, a Boston suburb, on two occasions from 2004 until 2008 when the boy was between the ages of 11 and 13.

But over the weekend, the Archdiocese of Boston said Strahan, a senior priest who retired, had been cleared of civil and canonical allegations and would return to public ministry. Criminal charges were dropped in 2023, and the Archdiocese said it had completed its canonical investigation, which found that the allegations “did not have a semblance of truth, and therefore unsubstantiated.”

“We recognize the significant impact this has had…

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Catholic Church officials in Kansas have released new reports this month into allegations of abuse against three former priests.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas released three announcements on May 12 regarding allegations of abuse against three of its priests. Fr. Joseph Cramer, Fr. Donald Redmond and Fr. John “Fidelis” Forrester are named in the announcements.

Each of the priests died before the release of the abuse allegations this month. The priests served at dozens of different churches across Kansas, including in the areas of Topeka, Lawrence, Atchison, Seneca, Sabetha, Olathe, Emporia, Marysville and more.

The Archdiocese called the allegations of abuse “credible” and “substantiated” for the priests. Allegations designated as substantiated are corroborated with evidence such as witness statements, documents, emails, photos and other sources of information or law enforcement authorities.

All three priests were added to the Substantiated Clergy Offenders list, which…

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A former long-term volunteer with the Assumption and Sacred Heart Catholic Parishes’ youth ministry program was sentenced Monday in Bellingham to 67 months in prison on charges related to the molestation of a young girl who was known to him.

A jury previously found Michael Wayne Breeding, 62, guilty of communication with a minor for immoral purposes and two counts of first-degree child molestation. Breeding was arrested in September 2021 and released the following day on bond.

The girl Breeding sexually abused met him through Assumption Church in Bellingham. According to court records, Breeding told the girl at a 2019 church function to visit pornographic websites. He later took her on bike rides, where he sexually assaulted her multiple times. Breeding threatened to harm her and her family if she disclosed the abuse.

The victim, now 15, spoke at Breeding’s sentencing in Whatcom County Superior Court. She said she…

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A County Tyrone priest has gone on trial on historical indecent assault charges against five young men.

Canon Patrick McEntee, 70, from Esker Road, Dromore, faces a total of nine counts of indecent assault dating back to the late 1970s.

Canon McEntee, who was a teacher at St Michael’s College in Enniskillen, has denied all the charges.

The prosecution told Dungannon Crown Court that during the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Canon McEntee abused young boys who were pupils at the school.

It was alleged that the priest took the boys, who were aged between 11 and 17, into his private quarters where some of the boys were made to sit on his knee or touched inappropriately.

The jury was told that it would have to decide if the priest’s action “was pastoral care or sexual deviance”.

He is charged with four counts of indecent assault on one male…

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Reagan Danielle Gray, a former middle school teacher and Immanuel Baptist Church praise team member, pleaded no contest Monday to second-degree sexual assault involving one of the congregation’s minors.

Originally charged with first-degree sexual assault, she accepted a plea agreement reducing the count and dismissing a separate count of fourth-degree sexual assault.

If the case had proceeded to trial, deputy prosecuting attorney Claire Maddox said the evidence would have shown that Gray had engaged in sexual contact with a minor while she was serving as a volunteer in the student ministry at Immanuel Baptist Church and that she had done so while holding “a position of trust or authority” over the minor.

After briefly questioning her, Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Judge LaTonya Honorable found her guilty, determining that Gray had “knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily” entered the no-contest plea.

She sentenced Gray to six years probation, assessed her $1,000 in fines…

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Liberty University will pay its former president, Jerry Falwell Jr., about $15 million to settle litigation following his resignation in 2020 after a high-profile sex scandal that drew national attention to the private Christian institution.

The settlement was announced in 2024, but neither Falwell nor Liberty shared details about what it included − or how much Falwell would be paid.

But buried deep in a recently filed 2023-2024 tax form, the university revealed it’s paying Falwell a multimillion-dollar figure to “settle certain claims and close certain transactions.” As part of the agreement, Falwell agreed to pay the university $440,000 to settle “disputed expenses” between him and the university. Details about those claims were not included.

In total, Falwell will receive roughly $5.5 million to settle the lawsuits in addition to roughly $9.7 million he already received as part of his retirement package, according to the tax documents.

Liberty University declined to…

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Survivors of clergy sexual abuse amplified calls Tuesday for a global zero-tolerance policy from the new pope’s American hometown and raised questions about Leo XIV’s history of dealing with accused priests from Chicago to Australia.

The cases span Robert Prevost’s previous posts. They include leading a Catholic religious order, bishop and as head of the Vatican’s office for bishops, where he was made cardinal.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, called out alleged abuse by Chicago priests and other clergy in Peru, Colombia, Canada and Australia where it contended the new pope should have done more.

Along with a worldwide zero-tolerance law for accused priests, SNAP has called for a global truth commission, survivor reparations and church transparency measures.

“It is our hope that Pope Leo does the right thing,” Shaun Dougherty, SNAP president, told reporters in Chicago. “It is our gut, in our experience, that says that he will need…

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“He’s the one who gave me permission” to stay at a Hyde Park monastery in 2000, former priest James M. Ray told the Chicago Sun-Times of Robert Prevost, the newly installed pope who was then head of the Midwest province of his Augustinian order.

A defrocked priest from the suburbs says the future Pope Leo XIV signed off on his move in 2000 to a Hyde Park monastery near a Catholic school after the priest had been accused of molesting children.

Robert Prevost, now newly installed as Pope Leo XIV, was the head of the Midwest province of the Catholic Church’s Augustinian religious order at the time.

“He’s the one who gave me permission to stay there,” James M. Ray, the former priest, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Ray was accused of being a pedophile priest, restricted from public ministry and needed someplace to live where the church deemed he wouldn’t…

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A group known for protecting those sexually abused by Catholic priests has sent a letter to Pope Leo XIV to ask him to sign new canon law taking a zero tolerance stance on sex abuse in the clergy, while questioning why he didn’t do more in his decades spent in the Catholic Church.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests sent the letter the day the new pope stepped out onto the Vatican balcony. It calls for a number of action in his first 100 days.

The biggest ask is making zero tolerance part of the church’s canon law, defining it as the permanent removal of a person from ministry following a single act of sexual abuse “admitted or established after an appropriate process,” “found guilty” in the judicial system, or “found liable in a civil proceeding.”

“It is our hope that Pope Leo does the right thing. It…

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A jury has been sworn in the case County Tyrone priest who is to stand trial for historic sexual abuse charges against a number of males, which began with two complainants but has now increased to five after further reports in recent months which have now been joined to the original matters.

Canon Patrick McEntee (70) from Esker Road, Dromore requested a leave of absence in 2022 while a serious safeguarding investigation was carried out.

Last year he was charged with sexual offences against five males which allegedly occurred in the County Fermanagh area.

There are four counts of indecently assaulting one complainant on dates between 1988 and 1989 and a single count of indecently assaulting another complainant between 1980 and 1981.

In addition there are a further four counts of indecent assault against three males- two counts against one and single counts against the other two.

These matters allegedly…

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[A four-minute video about survivors of Fr. Henry Brian Highfill, relevant documents, and other New Orleans abuse cases.]

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Just as his predecessor was a prime target for fake news, Pope Leo XIV has been hit with various false claims on social media and elsewhere.

One week into his papacy, Pope Leo XIV has already found himself in the middle of multiple false narratives, much like Pope Francis before him.

A social media post, for example, claims that an attached video shows the new pontiff deliberately snubbing and turning away from the LGBTQ rainbow flag as he greets onlookers at the Vatican.

However, the flag in the video isn’t the LGBTQ flag — it’s the Italian peace flag, first used in 1961, which predates the LGBTQ flag.

We can see that the lettering on the flag, while back to front, says “Pace”, the Italian word for “Peace”, and there’s no indication that Pope Leo purposely turned away from it as he approached.

The original video can be…

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Re: “Activists look to pope’s handling of past sex abuse cases,” Metro, May 10:

Among survivors of clergy sexual abuse, there is talk of the church being a broken vessel. No pope has used his power to mend this vessel. Pope Francis came close with the Vos Estis Lux Mundi and the Pontifical Commission for Protection of Minors. But under Vos Estis Lux Mundi, bishops report internally with no accountability.

The new pope must have the courage to turn over the tables and start anew for survivors to trust in the church’s ability to prevent clergy sexual abuse. Survivors of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) San Antonio is asking for child abuse to be a criminal act under canon law.

In 2018, the Archdiocese of San Antonio put Edward Pavlicek on the credibly accused priest list and removed him from ministry. Seven years…

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Mounting evidence points to pattern of failure to properly investigate abuse claims across Leo’s ecclesiastical career

CHICAGO, IL – The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will hold a press conference on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 10:00 AM at 1 E. Wacker Dr. (the Izard Room) in Downtown Chicago, to present new evidence concerning Pope Leo XIV and his alleged involvement in the cover-up of clergy sexual abuse cases during his previous roles in the Catholic Church.

SNAP will unveil new whistleblower documents from the Diocese of Chiclayo (Peru) that substantiate allegations made by survivors and detailed in a formal complaint submitted under Vos estis lux mundi on March 25, 2025. These documents directly implicate Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, in the mishandling of abuse reports during his time as Bishop of Chiclayo. Furthermore, they demonstrate the Diocese of Chiclayo has continued to cover-up Prevost’s failure to properly investigate abuse allegations and misrepresented their…

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Although there is no evidence directly tying Pope Leo XIV—formerly Robert Prevost—to acts of abuse, his record as an administrator places him at the center of a pattern survivors say is all too familiar: cases of clergy sexual abuse mishandled, minimized, or allowed to languish in secrecy under his watch. These patterns are not unique to Pope Leo XIV, but emblematic of a broader crisis that has plagued the Catholic Church for generations, a crisis where the protection of the institution has often taken precedence over justice for survivors.

In New Orleans, where Prevost’s Creole roots and local ties have generated pride among many Catholics, his ascension to the papacy has been widely celebrated as a historic moment for the city’s Catholic community. Yet for survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their advocates, those hometown connections only sharpen the sting. What makes Pope Leo XIV’s rise particularly troubling for many…

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Three Irish-born senior figures in the Roman Curia look set to remain in prominent roles under the new pontiff

The hurly-burly is almost done. Pope Leo XIV’s Mass of inauguration in St Peter’s Square takes place tomorrow and then the new papacy begins properly.

As the first US pontiff becomes the 267th occupant of the Throne of St Peter, it would not be unreasonable to consider the likely fate of those Irishmen working at the Vatican, particularly given the high profile that at least one of them took in the run-up to the conclave where Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope in a surprise vote.

For now, all officials there stay in place, as announced by the new pope last week. They include prominent Irish figures: Dublin-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who as Camerlengo effectively ran the Vatican between the two popes; Archbishop John Kennedy, secretary for discipline at the Dicastery…

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In its 2017 Final Report, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended changes to canon law, the most important of which was the abolition of the pontifical secret over child sexual abuse by clergy.

The pontifical secret prevented bishops from reporting allegations of child sexual abuse to civil authorities unless there were civil reporting laws. Most countries do not have adequate reporting laws. In 2019, the late Pope Francis abolished the pontifical secret over child sexual abuse thus ending the cover-up written into canon law by Pope Pius XI in 1922.

Another consequence of the pontifical secret was the Church’s failure to develop case law jurisprudence over child sexual abuse, as it had done for marriage annulment cases. Quite apart from issues of transparency, case law jurisprudence is an essential tool for both civil and canon lawyers to know how courts will apply the law…

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Washington state Senator Noel Frame has rejected the Catholic Church’s claim that it would have to excommunicate priests who comply with her new child abuse reporting law.

During an interview with NRP’s Dave Miller, she said: “There’s nothing to say they cannot change their rules.”

Newsweek contacted state Senator Frame for comment via online inquiry form on Friday outside of regular office hours.

Why It Matters

The debate highlights the tension that can exist between what religious groups claim are theological requirements and secular legislation.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon told the New York Post that the new law “demands that Catholic Priests violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law, a violation of the Constitution and a breach of the free exercise of religion” showing the Trump administration is placing itself firmly on the side of religious authority.

What to Know

Washington state Governor Bob…

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A Washington state lawmaker has called on the Catholic Church to change its centuries-old confessional policy so that priests can comply with a new child abuse reporting law.

Democratic state Sen. Noel Frame said the Catholic Church has the ability to alter its internal rules to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 5375, which takes effect in late July.

The new law removes an exemption that had previously shielded Catholic clergy from having to report suspected child abuse or neglect if they learned of it during confession.

Once in force, priests — along with other members of the clergy — will be legally required to report such cases to law enforcement or the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families within 48 hours.

Frame, a sponsor of the bill and a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, said she discovered that clergy were not already mandatory reporters while researching abuse allegations…

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By Karin Brulliard, Samantha Schmidt, Jonathan Edwards and Jonathan O’Connell

Even as Pope Leo XIV’s profile as a humble champion of the disenfranchisedtakes shape,a looming question ishow he will approach the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis while leading a global institution that has maintained secrecy and silence around its handling of claims against clergy.

Leo has assumed his role a dozen years after Pope Francis inherited a church roiled by clergy abuse scandals and then went on to devote more attention to the issue than his predecessors. But survivors and scholars say the new pontiff must urgently improve on Francis’s complicated legacy, pushing where he didn’t by robustly committing to transparency and accountabilityin investigations of harm.

“He’s a man of justice and a man who has cared for those who are marginalized, and certainly victims should be at the top of that list,” said Daniel Griffith, a Minneapolis priest and founding…

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I wanted to root for the new pope who grew up just a few miles from me in Illinois. But his role in the Catholic hierarchy’s century-long campaign of organized crime against children made me hesitate.

While the rest of the country watched excitedly as white smoke heralded the election of a new pope, and then rejoiced after learning that Robert Francis Prevost from Chicago had been installed as Pope Leo XIV and the first American pontiff in history, I remained wary.

I wanted to root for the new pope who grew up just a few miles from where I lived in Blue Island, Illinois, and slightly farther from where I taught English at St. Francis De Sales High School in southeast Chicago. But his role in the Catholic hierarchy’s century-long campaign of organized crime against children made me hesitate. 

Testimony by tens…

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As a missionary and bishop in Peru, the future Pope Leo came face-to-face with one of the most serious and far-reaching scandals in the church in Latin America.

For years, there were allegations of abuse within the hugely influential Catholic society Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), which had deep ties to Peru’s powerful and wealthy.

The scandal came to a head in 2015, the year after Leo, then known as Robert Prevost, was appointed bishop in the northern city of Chiclayo. A book written by one of the victims, Pedro Salinas, with journalist Paola Ugaz, “Half Monks, Half Soldiers,” described alleged beatings, humiliation and sexual assault in stark detail from 30 anonymous victims that enflamed the country.

Several survivors in Peru, Ugaz and a Vatican source closely involved in the case told CNN that Leo’s eventual intervention – after a key meeting in 2019 and a crucial promotion in Rome –…

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Survivors say Pope Leo must commit to transparency in investigations of priests accused of sexual abuse. His record on doing so in past years has some worried.

Even as Pope Leo XIV’s profile as a humble champion of the disenfranchised takes shape, a looming question is how he will approach the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis while leading a global institution that has maintained secrecy and silence around its handling of claims against clergy.

Leo has assumed his role a dozen years after Pope Francis inherited a church roiled by clergy abuse scandals and then went on to devote more attention to the issue than his predecessors. But survivors and scholars say the new pontiff must urgently improve on Francis’s complicated legacy, pushing where he didn’t by robustly committing to transparency and accountability in investigations of harm.

“He’s a man of justice and a man who has cared for those…

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Special to The Seattle Times

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an inquiry into a new Washington law, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson on May 2, that adds clergy to the list of professionals required to report child abuse or neglect to law enforcement. It does not protect what is said in Confession. “It is anti-Catholic,” the administration says.

I say the law is not anti-Catholic. Anti-Catholic behavior would be allowing actions that harm children. Reporting crimes against children is the best of Catholic behavior. The Catholic Church is not being singled out or persecuted — the law includes all faiths and spiritual institutions that argue they do not have a duty to report sexual abuse against children.

The fact that the DOJ is investigating the validity of our constitutional right to put forward a bill and pass it strikes me as ludicrous.

As a survivor of clergy abuse…

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Projects will help in preparing ‘advice and recommendations’ for ministers on the way forward for clerical abuse victims

Draft recommendations from three research projects into historical clerical abuse are to be presented to victims at an upcoming summit in Belfast.

The studies were commissioned earlier this year to examine the “extent and systemic nature of historical child abuse in faith settings in Northern Ireland”.

The aim is to “best address the needs of those affected by historical clerical child abuse”, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said in January when the studies were announced.

The research is being overseen by the Interdepartmental Working Group (IDWG) formed to develop recommendations over historical clerical child abuse and in respect of mother and baby institutions and Magdalene laundries – areas not covered by the north’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

In January, victims of faith-based…

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In an order issued on May 12, Judge William L. Campbell Jr. announced that the jury trial in the lawsuit brought by Johnny Hunt against the Southern Baptist Convention and others has been canceled. The trial was set to begin June 17.

Campbell, who presides over the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, wrote that his decision was “due to the parties’ pending motions to reconsider.”

The judge issued a summary judgment last month dismissing all but one count in the lawsuit. That lone count concerned a 2022 social media post by then-SBC President Bart Barber about the allegations against Hunt.

Hunt, a former SBC president, prominent Georgia pastor and North American Mission Board vice president, was seeking more than $100 million, claiming lost salary and speaking engagements, reputational harm and emotional distress.

The case stemmed from Guidepost Solutions’  View Cache

Anglican Watch, the unofficial watchdog organization for the Episcopal Church, today called on Episcopalians opposed to child sexual abuse to withhold donations from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts until the Diocese complies with state mandatory child abuse reporting laws.

The move comes after the Diocese refused to hold clergy accountable for failing to report historical child sex abuse allegations involving Episcopal priest Richard Losch, who is accused of taking boys across state lines in the 1970s in order to rape them, to state law enforcement.

Under Massachusetts law, clergy are mandated reporters unless the disclosure is made as part of a confession. Historical incidents also must be reported, which is essential, as other victims frequently come forward when a case becomes public.

Additionally, taking a child across state lines for an illicit purpose is a federal felony and not subject to a statute of limitation.

Anglican Watch filed a formal…

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A priest who was accused multiple times of sex abuse, including possession of child pornography, has been dismissed from the Order of St. Augustine reportedly after a lengthy “disagreement” with the order.

Father Richard McGrath was allegedly barred from the order “following a prolonged period of disagreement with his direct superior,” according to Michael Airdo, an attorney who has represented the Augustinians in the past. 

The dismissal reportedly happened in December 2024, according to Airdo. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on the controversy on Thursday.

The Sun-Times did not say what prompted its Thursday report if the dismissal happened in December. The Midwest Augustinians did not respond to a request for comment on Friday, including whether or not they knew the whereabouts of McGrath. Airdo also did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. 

McGrath was previously accused of sexual abuse by Robert Krankvich,…

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A gym teacher from a Catholic school in Burbank faces five felony counts related to the alleged sexual abuse of one of his students. 

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office alleged that Dimitri Altobar, 33, committed the lewd acts between March 1 and April 28. Prosecutors added an allegation that he used his position at St. Francis Xavier School to take advantage of the trust and confidence he developed with students. 

The Burbank Police Department arrested Altobar on May 14, following a weeks-long investigation. St. Francis Xavier School officials placed him on leave after reporting the allegations to police earlier this month. 

In a letter sent to parents on May 14, the school said Altobar “will not be returning to serve at our school.”

“If you believe your child may have experienced any misconduct, please contact the Burbank Police Department and the Office of Victims Assistance at (213) 637-7650,”…

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‘Pope Leo XIV has been the most responsive to these cases in the Peruvian Church, and he has listened to us. He has allowed us to achieve justice.’

The Bishop of Chiclayo refuted claims that Pope Leo XIV mishandled allegations of abuse by clergy in his Peruvian diocese.

Bishop Edinson Farfán, who replaced Robert Prevost as Bishop of Chiclayo in 2024, described the claims as a “lie”, saying his predecessor had “listened” and “respected the processes” of handling accusations.

He added: “This process is still ongoing … believe me, I am the most interested person in justice being served and, above all, in being able to help the victims.”

Farfán referred to claims that Prevost had failed to open a proper canonical inquiry into a priest accused of sexual assault.

Three sisters reported Fr Eleutorio Vásquez for sexual harassment to Prevost in April 2022. The alleged events occurred while they were…

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Whether or not a man who claims he was sexually abused as a child by a Roman Catholic priest is allowed to bring a lawsuit against the Diocese of Manchester is about to get decided by the state Supreme Court.

The Justices will have to decide if the statute of limitations for bringing a civil lawsuit in a child sex abuse complaint applies after the legislature removed the limits in 2020.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who helped bring the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese to light in 2002, told InDepthNH.org there are competing legal issues at play.

“Much of the court’s decision will hinge on the facts of the case before it when applying the applicable law,” Garabedian said.

Garabedian is not connected to the case, but agreed to comment on it as an analyst. He said there’s an argument to be made for both sides when the case…

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• Clergy abuse survivors and their advocates praised Camden Bishop Joseph Williams for ending the diocese’s legal challenge to a proposed grand jury investigation.
• Bishop Joseph Williams said the reversal was a message to victims and a step to “restore their faith.”
• The New Jersey Supreme Court is still considering the diocese’s arguments over the validity of the grand jury and could still rule against the Attorney General’s Office.

[Redacted]’s eyes widened in disbelief as he read the message from his bishop.

Joseph A. Williams, recently appointed leader of the Catholic Diocese of Camden, said on May 7 that the diocese would drop its four-year-old legal fight against a statewide investigation of clergy sexual abuse. Williams said he’d informed the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of “our desire to be partners with them in this public service.”

It was a startling reversal coming just days after diocese lawyers argued before the state…

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Diocese begins meeting with pastors to determine amounts

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Diocese of Buffalo is now deciding where it will get the money to fund a recently announced settlement with more than 900 survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. 

The diocese confirmed in a news release Thursday that some of the $150 million settlement will come from individual parishes. The pastors of those churches are now being called downtown to learn just how much that will be. 

Other sources include “available funds of the diocese, from individual parishes from their available funds, and contributions from Catholic-affiliated entities,” according to a news release from diocese spokesperson Joe Martone on Thursday.

“In the next several weeks, meetings with lay leadership from all parishes will be held to discuss information on the progress made in reaching an agreement, and the expectations on parishes as we together work to fulfill…

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“Today, as an adult, I am still working on the side effects,” said one former altar boy at a Wednesday hearing on past clergy misconduct in the state’s largest religious denomination.

BURLINGTON — Two decades after news broke of a nationwide Catholic priest misconduct scandal, seven Vermont child sex abuse claimants spoke in court Wednesday about the lingering impact.

“He molested me in my own house, in my own bed,” a 61-year-old man identified as Speaker 5 recalled of being an altar boy a half-century ago. “I froze and never said a word. Today, as an adult, I am still working on the side effects.”

Leaders of Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese have heard many such comments over the years as they’ve paid out $34.5 million to settle 67 civil lawsuits alleging clerical improprieties dating as far back as 1950.

But Wednesday saw officials in a different venue: U.S. Bankruptcy Court…

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I wanted to root for the new pope who grew up just a few miles from me in Illinois. But his role in the Catholic hierarchy’s century-long campaign of organized crime against children made me hesitate.

While the rest of the country watched excitedly as white smoke heralded the election of a new pope, and then rejoiced after learning that Robert Francis Prevost from Chicago had been installed as Pope Leo XIV and the first American pontiff in history, I remained wary.

I wanted to root for the new pope who grew up just a few miles from where I lived in Blue Island, Illinois, and slightly farther from where I taught English at St. Francis De Sales High School in southeast Chicago. But his role in the Catholic hierarchy’s century-long campaign of organized crime against children made me hesitate. 

Testimony by tens…

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In testimony to a parliamentary committee hearing, French Prime Minister François Bayrou continued to deny he knew of sexual abuse allegations at a Catholic school in the Pyrenees when he served as education minister in the 1990s.

Bayrou said he only learned of the alleged abuse at Notre-Dame de Bétharram through media reports, and insisted he had not received any official information when he was Education Minister from 1993 to 1997.

“I had nothing to hide,” he told the committee Wednesday, indicating he was ready to cooperate with the inquiry into allegations of widespread abuse for many decades at the Catholic boarding school near the town of Pau, where he has been mayor since 2014.

Around 200 legal complaints have been filed since February last year accusing priests and staff of physical or sexual abuse from 1957 to 2004 at the school where Bayrou sent many of his children, and where his…

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Pope Leo XIV, the new leader of 1.4billion Roman Catholics, has been accused of ‘looking the other way’ of child sex abuse allegations.

A survivors’ group claims that Robert Prevost failed to act upon accusations of abuse while one of Chicago’s top officials in 2000 and two decades later, while in Peru.

Prevost, then prior provincial of the Order of St. Augustine’s Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, allowed Augustinian priest James Ray to transfer to St. John Stone Friary.

Ray had faced allegations that he posed a risk to children nine years before and was not allowed to minister to the public, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 2021.

The friary was only a block away from an elementary school. Ray was later removed from the friary two years later under laws to keep those accused of abuse far from schools.

Prevost did not inform the St Thomas the Apostle Catholic school…

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The Rev. Richard J. McGrath was a longtime leader of Providence Catholic High School, run by the Augustinians, whose Midwest province, and ultimately the order worldwide, were led by now-Pope Leo XIV. McGrath wasn’t expelled over the misconduct allegations but had refused to obey his superiors about where to live after the accusations surfaced.

A Chicago-area priest who was a longtime member of the Augustinian religious order formerly led by Pope Leo XIV has been kicked out of the group.

The Rev. Richard J. McGrath had been accused of molesting a student at Providence Catholic High School in the 1990s and of having child pornography on his phone in 2017.

But McGrath apparently still remains a Catholic priest.

And his expulsion from the Augustinians wasn’t over the allegations of sexual misconduct.

That’s according to a Chicago lawyer representing the Midwest province of the Augustinians — the international order’s Chicago-based arm…

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BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Survivors of clergy abuse by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington were given the chance Wednesday to share their stories in federal court as part of the church’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. There are more than 100 new sexual misconduct claims against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.

Seven survivors spoke about the years of suffering they endured at the hands of the church. Cameras were not allowed in court, but reporter Cam Smith spoke with one of the victims.

“I really meant it when I said, where was the diocese during all of this?” said Michael Veitch, who says he was just 15 years old when he was sexually abused at his church in Weston.

Now in his 70s, Veitch says he suffered from PTSD and alcohol addiction. “It’s a bizarre reunion to be in that courtroom, and they’re all bonded by something that should have…

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The submissions come after 67 previous child sex abuse lawsuits prompted the state’s largest religious denomination to pay out $34.5 million in settlements and push for bankruptcy protection.

Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese, now seeking to reorganize its depleting finances in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after settling 67 priest misconduct lawsuits, is bracing for a new wave of child sex abuse claims.

The state’s largest religious denomination paid out $34.5 million to survivors in the two decades between when news of a nationwide scandal broke in 2002 and its filing for Chapter 11 protection last fall.

As part of the bankruptcy process, all pending and future lawsuits have been placed on hold, with Judge Heather Cooper inviting accusers who haven’t reported abuse before to join the case as potential creditors.

As a result, 118 people have submitted confidential claims, records show — almost double the number of previously settled lawsuits.

The bankruptcy court…

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The current bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, Edinson Farfán, is publicly defending the actions of his predecessor, Bishop Robert Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — in the face of accusations that he covered up sexual abuse in the diocese.

Responding to a question at a press conference about the issue, Farfán stated: “That’s a lie. He has listened, he has respected the processes, and this process is still ongoing… believe me, I am the most interested person in justice being served and, above all, in being able to help the victims.”

The bishop of Chiclayo was referring to the allegations of three sisters who met with Prevost in 2022 to report that they had been abused by a priest years earlier when they were minors. They allege that the then-bishop did not open an effective canonical investigation and that the accused continued to celebrate Mass.

Farfán said he has accompanied the…

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This week, the world’s cardinals elected the first ever American pope – Robert Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicagoan who will be known by the papal name Leo XIV. He has been, it seems, lauded the world over in recent days. The Guardian called him “moderate” and “good humoured”. People in his Diocese referred to him as a “hard-working leader”. Another profile referred to him as a “deft leader and administrator”. 

But what these articles don’t mention – what nobody, somehow, seems to be mentioning, is that Prevost is allegedly implicated in one of the greatest and, by now, most well documented and sprawling crimes in modern history – the Catholic Church’s cover up of the sexual abuse of children.

In Chicago in 1999, as provincial of the Augustinians, Prevost oversaw a priest named Father James Ray – who, by the year 2000, had been accused of abusing minors over the course of nine…

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The Catholic religious order said Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, has always sought “to protect the innocent and offer healing to victims, while removing offenders from ministry.” But the order still won’t answer questions.

Facing nagging questions about how he handled the sexual abuse crisis while a leader of his Catholic religious order in Chicago and internationally, the group released a statement Friday defending Robert Prevost, elected a day earlier to lead the worldwide church as Pope Leo XIV.

“He has taken steps to protect minors and vulnerable adults in numerous countries, always seeking to protect the innocent and offer healing to victims, while removing offenders from ministry,” according to the statement released by attorney Michael Airdo, who represents the Augustinians’ Chicago-based Midwest Province.

Prevost was the “prior provincial” of the Midwest Province from 1999 to 2001, during which time his group allowed an accused pedophile priest named James…

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[Click here to see video.]

As the first American pope addressed the faithful from St. Peter’s Basilica last week, he called for peace and unity, but what Pope Leo XIV did not address has some concerned. Investigative Reporter Tracee Wilkins explains what clergy sex abuse survivors say they want to hear from Pope Leo now that he’s the leader of the Church.

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French Prime Minister François Bayrou will take questions on Wednesday from a parliamentary committee investigating claims of decades of abuse at a Catholic school in southwest France. Critics claim that, as education minister in the 1990s, Bayrou knew about widespread physical and sexual abuse at the school, which several of his children attended.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Wednesday faces one of the most delicate moments of his five months in office as he responds to questions from a parliamentary committee investigating claims of decades of sexual abuse at a Catholic school.

Bayrou has faced accusations from the opposition that, as education minister in the mid-1990s, he knew of the widespread physical and sexual abuse allegations at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school in southwestern France.

The 73-year-old politician, who served as France’s education minister between 1993 and 1997, has denied any wrongdoing and denounced what he called a campaign to “destroy” him. 

On Monday, the father…

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The seal of the confessional is one of the first things Catholic children learn as they are preparing for their first confession. At first, it comes as a shock to many children, prompting questions to test the limits of total confidentiality: What if I said I killed someone? Father won’t even tell my parents?

The answer to all of these questions is a firm answer, “No, under no circumstances will a priest repeat anything you say in confession.” This is because when someone confesses a sin, they are not really confessing it to their priest but to God himself; the priest does not forgive their sins, God does. To maintain the integrity of the sacrament, absolute confidence is required.

This fundamental principle to the sacrament of confession is being called into question more and more as governments work to limit child abuse, and especially in light of the child sex…

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Catholic priests are pushing back against a new Washington state law that requires clergy to report child abuse to law enforcement.

VANCOUVER Wash. (KPTV) – Catholic priests are pushing back against a new Washington state law that requires clergy to report child abuse to law enforcement, even if the information was obtained in the privacy of a confession booth.

Senate Bill 5375 was signed into law by Washington Governor Bob Ferguson on Friday.

On top of the Archdiocese of Seattle announcing they will excommunicate priests if they break the seal of confession, pastors in Vancouver say they will not follow the law because they believe it goes against their religious freedom, and they do not think it’s enforceable.

At the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, Father Thomas Nathe walks into the confessional booth located in the back of his church’s sanctuary.

“The red means someone is in here on…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy in October 2024, with at least 30 unsettled cases of abuse.

A hearing has been scheduled for abuse survivors to deliver victim impact statements against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont. It’s the second of two hearings scheduled by a bankruptcy judge after the diocese filed for Chapter 11 back in October 2024.

The latest court records were filed on Monday. According to the Diocese, 118 additional survivors have come forward with claims of abuse as of April 4. That was the deadline the court had set for survivors to file proofs of claim after Chapter 11 was filed.

In April, a judge granted a request to schedule two opportunities for survivors to present impact statements. To date, more than 60 cases have been settled against the Diocese. By the time the church filed for…

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In short:

• Two Victorian sisters abused by a paedophile priest in the 1970s are speaking out against a legal decision they say has halted their quest for compensation.
• The High Court last year ruled the same priest was not an employee of the Catholic Church, so the church could not be held vicariously liable for his abuse.

What’s next?

• A private member’s bill is before Victoria’s upper house seeking to change the law, but the state government says it would prefer a national solution.

“You don’t sleep afterwards like a normal human sleeps. You’re never carefree again,” Bernie said.

To sleep soundly, the sisters need to know no-one can come through their bedroom doors, so their husbands made them special wooden jams to lock them in place.

“You can have happy days, and you can do things, but you’re not that innocent,” Bernie said.

“You never, ever become that…

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