ABUSE TRACKER

A youth leader at Beltway Park Church has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography.

According to court documents, a member of the church contacted Abilene Police with concerns regarding one of their youth leaders.

Documents state Charles Goff met with a fellow church member and admitted to struggling with pornography.

Goff specifically said he struggled with videos of teen girls 14-15 years old.

Detectives met with Goff and he admitted to soliciting nude pictures from teenage girls using various social media platforms.

Police state they found three pornographic videos of young girls on Goff’s phone.

Goff was booked into the Taylor County Jail with a $100,000 bond.

The church released the following statement Wednesday evening:

Dear Beltway Park Family,

This is a difficult letter for me to write, but it is important. At Beltway, we have always

prioritized…

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A controversial bill in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly has put the Catholic Church and lawmakers at odds over the sanctity of confession versus child protection laws. The proposed “Law Against Silence in Sexual Crimes Against Children and Persons with Disabilities” would require Catholic priests to break the seal of confession to report sexual crimes, prompting strong opposition from Church leaders who say they will defy the law if passed.

The bill, presented by Frente Amplio (FA) Congressman Antonio Ortega, aims to combat inaction on sexual crimes across various social settings. The legislation would specifically require priests to report crimes revealed during confession, a practice Catholics consider sacred and inviolable.

Church Leaders Voice Strong Opposition to Proposed Legislation

Representatives of the Episcopal Conference of Costa Rica, Priests Mauricio Granados and Ricardo Cerdas, strongly opposed the measure, warning that breaking “the vow of silence made to God” could result in excommunication…

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Earlier this week, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors released its first Annual Report on Church Policies and Procedures for Safeguarding. Bishop Knestout, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People issued a statement welcoming the information highlighted in the report.

Earlier this week, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors released its first Annual Report on Church Policies and Procedures for Safeguarding. Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Richmond, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People issued a statement welcoming the information highlighted in the report.

“The Commission’s report underscores the importance that our Holy Father has placed on fighting the scourge of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church globally. I am grateful to the work of the Commission in its call for the Church to be in solidarity with survivors as we continue to build…

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The building has officially been auctioned by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Christ the King Seminary has officially been auctioned off for $4.2 million through U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The 117-acre site on Knox Road in the Town of Aurora was sold to a different religious group called the World Mission Society Church of God.

The seminary formerly used to educate Catholic priests before its closure in 2020, and was placed on the market almost exactly one year ago in November 2023. The initial list price was $5.3 million.

World Mission Society Church of God is set to close on the property in a matter of weeks, according to the Diocese of Buffalo. This is not the aggressive timeline cited in court of 2-12 days they said.

The religious group founded in South Korea in 1964 was first floated as a potential buyer back in July 2024, raising questions about its history.

…

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[Includes a three-minute video interview with survivors’ attorney Celeste Laramie, not transcribed in the printed article, which discusses the bankruptcy’s stay on litigation, the process for filing a proof of claim, and the diocese’s interest in foreclosing claims filed after the bankruptcy is completed.]

It has been nearly a month since the Diocese of Burlington filed for Bankruptcy, faced with ongoing sexual abuse lawsuits and the prospect of millions in future settlements.

The Diocese says it is currently facing 31 sexual abuse lawsuits and is concerned it won’t be able to pay out settlements. It comes as the Diocese has settled 67 lawsuits since 2006 totaling nearly $40 million.

What is the future of the child sex abuse lawsuits still in the legal system that haven’t been resolved?

We spoke with Celeste Laramie, an attorney with the law firm Gravel & Shea, who represents some of the survivors of…

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The Rev. William Killeen served in several south suburban parishes during his career.

A retired priest accused of sexual abuse over 40 years ago has been reinstated after an investigation by the Chicago Archdiocese.

The Rev. William Killeen was accused of sexually abusing a minor while assigned to St. Patricia Parish in Hickory Hills over 40 years ago, the archdiocese said.

The Archdiocese Independent Review Board found there was not a reasonable cause to believe Killeen sexually abused a minor and recommended he be reinstated to the ministry. Killeen was removed from ministry after the allegation was made in October 2023.

“The welfare of the children entrusted to our care is our paramount consideration,” Cardinal Blase Cupich wrote in letters announcing Killeen’s reinstatement to eight parishes where he worked throughout his career. “At the same time, I am committed to restoring the good name of those so accused if the…

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Judges have rejected two Jane Does’ efforts to anonymously bring sexual assault lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs in rulings that highlight the challenges of using pseudonyms, and according to some plaintiffs’ lawyers, could have a chilling effect on future actions.

Two federal judges overseeing lawsuits brought by Jane Does against Combs rejected their efforts to continue anonymously, saying in both cases the women did not establish that their concerns about harm outweighed Combs’ right to know his accuser and defend himself or the public’s interest in open trials. If the women want their lawsuits to proceed, the judges ruled, they will have to file them under their real names.

“It almost certainly means that fewer plaintiffs will be willing to come forward, among them individuals with the most traumatic experiences. Those are the survivors who typically are the most concerned about being identified for obvious reasons,” said Roberta Kaplan, an attorney…

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How could a convicted sex offender end up on a Cleveland Catholic church’s altar leading songs, standing right next to the bishop? It’s a question that led to the removal of a local pastor and has victims’ advocates raising concerns.

“For 20 years the bishops around the United States have promised better accountability, better oversight. Clearly, it doesn’t work,” said Claudia Vercellotti from the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Two decades after the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigation that exposed a child sexual abuse crisis, News 5 Investigators took a new, in-depth look at the Cleveland Diocese and its leadership.

In 2020, Cleveland’s Bishop Edward Malesic arrived here in Northeast Ohio from a diocese in Pennsylvania that had just been hit with a child sex abuse lawsuit.

MALESIC NAMED AS LEADER OF DIOCESE

Let’s be clear here. Malesic has not been accused of sexually abusing children, but…

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Richard Henning was named the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston in a South End installation ceremony at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

He is the 10th bishop and seventh archbishop of the city, and took on the role at an event held before hundreds of religious and lay guests at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

Henning is taking the helm from Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who is retiring after serving as archbishop of the nation’s fourth-largest archdiocese for 21 challenging years. Much of his tenure was dominated by fallout from the clergy sex-abuse crisis.

As the procession began, Henning knocked three times on the cathedral’s doors and was welcomed in by O’Malley, who embraced Henning with a hug.

The guests included Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, five additional cardinals, five archbishops, more than 50 bishops, and nearly 500 priests, religious, deacons, seminarians, and the…

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Bishop Edgar da Cunha said Thursday that the Rev. Jay Mello “recently admitted to serious misconduct” while on leave and under investigation. 

Da Cunha revealed the information in a letter dated Oct. 31 released to parishioners and provided to The Herald News. 

Mello was placed on administrative leave in June after the diocese began an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct with an adult. He initially denied the allegations. 

The diocese normally does not disclose the status of investigations while they are underway; the bishop took the unusual step of writing the letter a day before parishioners and students at St. Michael’s School planned to protest outside the Diocese of Fall River headquarters, seeking information about the investigation. 

“While I would not normally provide this detailed of an update until the conclusion of the investigation, I am prompted to do so because…

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[Includes brief video containing interview excerpts not transcribed in the printed story.]

After 60 years, Syilx Okanagan woman Laurie Wilson is taking her story of alleged abuse to B.C.’s highest court.

From 1963 to 1970 Wilson attended St James Parish School in Vernon, B.C., which accepted both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. She says the Catholic school dehumanized Indigenous children while stripping them of their culture.

“I never thought I was anything but a beautiful little girl, very loved, I never thought there was anything wrong with me. But in the first week I knew what was wrong with me,” said Wilson.

“It was blatantly said that we didn’t have the same brains as the other kids, that we were heathens, we didn’t have souls.”

The lawsuit filed Friday at the BC Supreme Court against the federal government and the Kamloops Diocese details the alleged abuse Wilson suffered.

“Telling the plaintiff her skin…

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Dr Teresa Kettelkamp, Adjunct Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, gives an overview of the Commission’s “Pilot Annual Report on Church Policies and Procedures for Safeguarding.”

“Victims want to be heard and victims want justice,” says Dr Teresa Kettelkamp, as she explains some of the findings of the “Pilot Annual Report on Church Policies and Procedures for Safeguarding,” published Tuesday by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

In an interview with Vatican News, Dr Kettelkamp, the Adjunct Secretary for the Commission, says the Report is a “tool… a snapshot of what the Church’s status is with regard to safeguarding and reaching out to survivors.”

“One finding” she is pleased with, she says, “is the desire to develop safeguarding mechanisms for the Church as universal.” Acknowledging the challenges that remain, Dr Kettelkamp says the Church already has “a safeguarding mentality,” but needs to develop a…

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The Washington Attorney General’s office says Catholic Church records related to child sex abuse do not qualify for religious exemption and should be made public.

That’s according to a recent appeal to overturn a previous decision that prevented investigators from subpoenaing Catholic Church records. That lower court decision, issued by a King County Superior Court judge, said the records were protected under the state’s Charitable Trust Act.

In the filing, the AG’s office argues that the religious exemptions don’t apply to secular misconduct like child sex abuse, and the ruling conflicts with other laws.

“The stakes in this case are profound. At issue is not only the AGO’s ability to investigate the misuse of charitable trust funds to conceal and facilitate something as horrific as child sex abuse, but also the fundamental principle that no institution—religious or otherwise—should be above the law when Washingtonians’ fundamental right to freedom from sexual…

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A fortnight ago, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced US$880 million would be given as compensation to 1,353 victims of clergy sexual abuse (CSA). Added to earlier settlements, the amount totals US$1.5 billion, reportedly the largest single child sex abuse settlement by a Catholic archdiocese.

In contrast, a deafening silence envelops CSA in Asia. Bishops in Asia have not yet acknowledged CSA as an issue to be tackled. Those who worked closely with the bishops say in most cases, bishops cover each other’s backs and silence survivors and their supporters.

According to woman theologian Virginia Saldanha, former executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India Women’s Commission, the Indian Church exemplifies how bishops stifle discussion about gender equality and CSA.

During her time with the bishops’ conference, she said she “tried to speak up about CSA, but was terminated after my first term. A nun who would…

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In a solemn ceremony layered with joy, regret, and ancient ritual, Archbishop Richard Henning was installed Thursday as the seventh archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston before 1,400 religious and lay guests who filled the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

The installation ritual and Mass marked the end of Cardinal Seán O’Malley’s 21 challenging years as archbishop, a tenure dominated by fallout from the clergy sexual abuse scandal, and the beginning of a new chapter under Henning, 60, the former bishop of Providence.Related: Cardinal O’Malley’s complicated legacy: challenge, turmoil, and successes

“This church of Boston, it is in a very real sense a wounded church because of the failure to act with compassion and healing,” Henning said in his homily. “Sins against the innocent. We have seen over these decades a passionate effort to protect the vulnerable, but still we feel the weight of those wounds.

“And we owe a…

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Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, stressed that “celibacy is not the cause of pedophilia” but highlighted the need for more reforms within the Church to adopt a victim-centered approach to better safeguard children.

Following the presentation of the first annual report on safeguarding released by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on Tuesday, O’Malley stated that he has “never seen any serious studies that have indicated that celibacy and sexual abuse is related.”

“Yes, we are aware of the incredible damage that [pedophilia] has done to the credibility of the Church and our ability to have a prophetic voice in society,” the cardinal said in response to a journalist’s question on a potential “link between celibacy and sex abuse” at the Oct. 29 press briefing.

“And that only underscores the urgency of the Church…

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On October 31, the Archdiocese of Boston welcomes its new archbishop, Bishop Richard Henning. He succeeds Cardinal Sean O’Malley, appointed in 2003 during a crisis involving sexual abuse cases. Since the bombshell revelations of abuse, the archdiocese has been slowly rebuilding trust.

Cynthia will never forget January 2002. At the time, she was a student at Boston College, the Jesuit university in the archdiocese. Every day on her way to class, she passed by the residence of Cardinal Bernard Law, then-Archbishop of Boston, who died in 2017. “Every day, there were protestors with signs in front of his house. There was so much anger and pain.”

On January 6, 2002, The Boston Globe published an investigation whose impact reverberated far beyond America. The newspaper revealed that 130 children had been abused by former priest John Geoghan and that the Catholic hierarchy had covered up these crimes by moving the priest from parish…

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An award-winning, one-man play that made its U.S. public premiere in the Diocese of Albany was a breakthrough event, but not for reasons one might associate with a night at the theater.

The Oct. 20 presentation of “Groomed” gave its writer-performer, its audience and those who brought the project to life an opportunity to share intense, personal reflections about sexual abuse of children.

Patrick Sandford, whose acting portrayed the aftermath of abuse inflicted by his elementary school teacher in England, has explained he wrote the play as a kind of release from his own inner turmoil.

He said he hopes additional presentations now planned will continue to promote understanding, conversation, prevention and healing among victims of similar suffering and supporters of solutions.

Sandford’s performance of the 55-minute play was followed by heartfelt questions and answers in a modest classroom-theater on the Siena College campus in Loudonville.

The Hope and Healing…

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In 2002, the Archdiocese of Boston was reeling, battered by a devastating sexual abuse-crisis, its face that of an aloof cardinal, Bernard F. Law, whose obstructionist response to the scandal seemed as out of touch as his palatial mansion in Brighton.

Law resigned in disgrace, replaced in summer 2003 by Archbishop Sean O’Malley, an introspective Capuchin friar whose plain appearance and humble demeanor offered a striking contrast to his strong-willed, regal predecessor.

The jarring optics carried a message for the faithful: A forceful, dismissive prince of the church had been succeeded by a quiet, empathetic man dressed simply in brown robe and sandals.

“I know how surprised people were, beginning with myself, when a scruffy bearded Capuchin in his bare feet was not exactly what people were suspecting,” O’Malley said at a fund-raiser for archdiocesan priests in September.

The 80-year-old O’Malley is now retiring as head of the archdiocese, his…

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A former principal at a Christian boarding school faces charges of child sexual abuse and a former teacher pled guilty to child abuse and neglect. Both men worked at Lighthouse Christian Academy – now closed – in Piedmont.

According to attorney Rebecca Randles, the Academy’s former principal, Craig Wesley Smith Jr., faces felony charges of forcible rape, forcible sodomy, sexual contact with a student, abuse or neglect of a child, and harassment. His arraignment is set for October 31, 2024.

Former Lighthouse Christian Academy teacher Caleb Sandoval was sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to abuse or neglect of a child.

According to Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), victims feel encouraged by the developments.

SNAP Missouri volunteer director David Clohessy said the fight is not over.

“I’d like to stress that a charge is not a conviction,” Clohessy said. “When somebody who mistreats kids faces…

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Members of the pope’s anti-abuse watchdog body have said they find long wait times for victims who have lodged a complaint with church authorities, coupled with a lack of information available on their cases, to be of great concern, with one survivor calling the situation “retraumatizing.”

Speaking to journalists Oct. 29, Chilean abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz said the issue of transparency is “something very near and dear to me, because I lived it personally.”

“This non-providing of information is a form of re-trauma for many survivors, who have no idea where their case of abuse went, into what dark hole, and where they can find information,” he said.

Cruz, who is a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM), was present alongside other members of the group for the presentation of their first annual report examining safeguarding efforts around the world.

The report, published Tuesday,…

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Chris MacLean recently settled a civil claim against the Catholic church

WARNING: This article contains references to sexual abuse and may affect those who have experienced​ ​it or know someone who has.

Chris MacLean says he knew he wanted to come forward and share his story five years ago after watching the Canadian documentary Prey about priest abuse.

MacLean says he was sexually abused by Father Joseph Nelligan in 1979 at Most Precious Blood Parish in Windsor, Ont. Nelligan was also MacLean’s priest at F.J. Brennan High School during that time.

• Video’Prey’: A documentary by Windsor director shines a light on sexual abuse by priests

After watching the documentary in Toronto, he pulled aside southwestern Ontario sexual assault lawyer Rob Talach and confided him in saying he “couldn’t live this lie anymore.”

“He’s the first person I ever told,” said MacLean. “I had only known him 10 minutes ……

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1st report from Vatican commission on clerical sexual abuse criticized for lack of data

A decade after it formed, a Vatican commission on clerical sexual abuse issued its first of what is to become an annual report on Tuesday and met immediate criticism, the New York Times reports. “I understand that it won’t satisfy everybody and it won’t satisfy survivors,” said Juan Carlos Cruz, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and also an abuse survivor. “It’s a start.” Commission members have described a troubling lack of data in many countries. More:

• The commission: Created in 2014, its purpose is to advise the papacy on how to protect the vulnerable from clerical sexual abuse. Last year, Pope Francis also charged the commission with ensuring countries follow a new church law about reporting and combating the problem.

• What the report says: It is “not intended…

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Phil Johnson, a pastor at John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church (GCC), stated five weeks ago that the woman with whom Steve Lawson “had a 5-year relationship” lived “nowhere close to any of the ministries Steve served.”

However, when recently accused of lying, Johnson admitted in an email that the woman was “a student at The Master’s College (University) during some of the time that (she and Lawson) were engaged in this adulterous affair.”

Lawson, a former dean at GCC’s The Master’s University and Seminary (TMUS) and a teaching pastor at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas, was removed from his church in September due to “an inappropriate relationship” with a woman.

Since then, there has been much speculation on social media regarding the identity of the woman and whether Lawson’s “affair” classifies as clergy sexual abuse.

To date, Trinity Church, TMUS, and GCC have not…

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• Summary

• Vatican handling of abuse cases seen too slow, secretive
• First commission report makes numerous recommendations
• Commission criticised in the past for being toothless
• Abuse tracking group says new report is ‘window dressing’

The Catholic Church must do a better job of handling compensation for the victims of clergy sexual abuse, the Vatican’s child protection commission said in its first annual report on Tuesday.

For decades, the Church has been shaken by scandals across the world involving paedophile priests and the cover-up of their crimes, damaging its credibility and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

The commission said compensation went beyond money, including “a much broader spectrum of actions … such as acknowledging mistakes, public apologies, and other forms of true fraternal closeness to victims/survivors”.

Pledging to work for the introduction of “standardised and known procedures … in a more comprehensive way”, it said it would delve deeper…

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The lead pastor of an Arlington church returned to the pulpit this weekend three months after turning himself in to face charges of sexual assault and indecent assault, stemming from alleged sexual advances toward a member of his church. 

Ronnie Goines did not appear to directly address the accusations against him when he returned to the stage at the Koinonia Christian Church for a Bible study session Thursday night nor for Sunday service. However other pastors speaking at the services urged members to bless and pray for the lead preacher.

The church announced Goines’ return in a video trailer set to music and posted on YouTube Thursday. 

Arlington Police arrested Goines, 51, in late July after a female church member reported he had tried to kiss and touch her despite her objections during two encounters in March 2023. 

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the woman said the pastor…

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[Editor’s Note: On Oct. 28, Crux published an article by Elise Ann Allen regarding a priest who was recently expelled from the Sodalitium of Christian Life, a movement based in Peru, in which she quotes two named sources accusing the priest of either sexual abuse or cover-up. In response, the priest in question, Fr. Jaime Baertl, submitted the following letter, which we are publishing in full. For the record, Crux stands by the story.]

Mr. John L. Allen, Jr.

Editor of Crux

Dear Mr. Allen:

I am writing you regarding the article published today by journalist Elise Ann Allen on your news agency under the headline “Peruvian priest ousted from order accused of sex abuse, coverup”.

First, it is important to state that Mrs. Elise Ann Allen sent me a request for clarification at 12:42 am (the early morning of today, Monday, October 28) as stated in the e-mail that I attach. Only…

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The Meachum board recently posted a statement on its website announcing that it is investigating Bantu.

“We, the Meachum community, have been disheartened by these allegations, yet we take them seriously,” the board said. “As promised, investigations are underway. Dr. Bantu has been put on leave.”

The board assured that the school is “even more committed to the theological proliferation of orthodoxy and Black flourishing as we proclaim Jesus to the nations.”

It added that it hopes to have reports to share from the investigation in “the coming weeks.”

TRR reached out to Beloved Community Church and Meachum for further comment but did not hear back prior to publication.

Pastor, author, and scholar, Vince Bantu, has been fired as a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, following allegations of polygamy that first surfaced five months ago.

“Fuller Seminary terminated the employment of Professor Vince Bantu this morning following the…

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A former principal at a Christian boarding school in Missouri that closed in March amid abuse allegations has been charged with sex crimes involving a former student.

Craig Wesley Smith Jr. was charged by the prosecutor in Wayne County in September with forcible sodomy and attempted forcible rape, court records show. He is accused of forcing a teenage girl to perform sex acts in the late 2000s when she was a student at Lighthouse Christian Academy in Piedmont, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) south of St. Louis.

A probable cause statement alleged that Smith told the girl he would kill her and “make it look like she committed suicide” if she told anyone.

Smith faces a hearing Thursday in Wayne County. Messages were left Tuesday with Smith and his attorney.

ABM Ministries operated the school, which claimed success in helping students who were troubled, learning-impaired or dealing with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or…

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After nearly 50 years in silence, Chris MacLean is ready to share his experience of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

MacLean, who now lives in Toronto, said he was taken advantage of by Father Joe Nelligan while attending Brennan High School in Windsor in 1979.

“It wasn’t just my parish priest who I saw on a weekly basis, and if I didn’t like him, I could just not go. He was at my high school,” MacLean told CTV News.

MacLean said the two had a close relationship and he admired Nelligan, which made the abuse “much harder” to digest.

“It was an inside job,” he said. “He knew me. He had my trust, and he eventually broke that trust.”

Following the abuse, MacLean, worried about how it would appear, buried the trauma deep within himself.

Over the years, MacLean said when he noticed instances of institutional abuse, he would…

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The Archdiocese of Dubuque has been named a defendant in a trio of civil cases alongside a former area priest previously charged with sexual abuse.

The lawsuits were filed this month in Charlotte County (Fla.) Circuit Court. The Archdiocese of Dubuque is listed as a defendant in all three cases alongside Leo Riley, who served as a priest in the Dubuque area in the ’80s and ’90s.

The civil complaints that spurred the three cases are not yet publicly available, though all three were filed the same day and list John Doe plaintiffs represented by the same attorney.

Riley, 68, of Port Charlotte, Fla., previously was charged in Iowa District Court of Dubuque County with five counts of second-degree sexual abuse stemming from allegations related to his time at a Dubuque parish in the 1980s.

Riley was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque in 1982 and served in…

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Chatham woman’s first novel tells the story of a young girl who was abused by a Catholic priest.

It’s been nearly two decades since news came to light about young girls being sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest while serving at churches in Southwestern Ontario and the cover-up by the church, but Renée D. Bondy hasn’t forgotten about it.

The Chatham woman’s first novel [non]disclosure, published by Second Story Press, tells the story of a young girl who was abused by a Catholic priest. Like many victims, she kept a dark secret for years before finding her voice.

When asked about the decision to write [non]disclosure, Bondy recalled writing articles for a Toronto Catholic newspaper on the trial of the late Fr. Charles Sylvestre, who pleaded guilty in a Chatham courtroom in 2006 to 47 charges of indecent assault, which occurred between 1954 and 1986 involving girls age eight to…

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After 40 years, the lies had to stop. 

If there was any question about whether movies can change lives, the documentary Prey by Windsor native Matt Gallagher is the answer.  

Prey, chronicling a fight for justice by survivors of a pedophile priest, returned to the Windsor International Film Festival on Monday after causing a sensation there in 2019. 

Monday’s screening included a Q-and-A with Gallagher and Chris MacLean, who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of his Windsor priest and barely spoke of it until he watched Prey 40 years later.  Article content

On Oct. 8, MacLean settled a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of London for the abuse perpetrated by Rev. Joe Nelligan in Windsor. 

“The documentary really touched me,” MacLean told the Star. “It was time to stop lying. Not telling the truth is no different than lying.

“For years, I didn’t tell people I knew that were strongly Catholic because…

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[See also the text of the PCPM report.]

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors released its first annual report October 29, detailing measures taken to combat sexual violence within the church. The document reveals uneven implementation across various countries worldwide.

This report has been eagerly awaited for more than two years, following Pope Francis’ request that the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors produce a comprehensive overview of the church’s efforts to address sexual abuse. Tutela Minorum – in Latin – published its first report October 29, assessing the adoption of measures by different church entities to combat sexual abuse against minors and vulnerable individuals.

The report presents findings based on interviews with church leaders during episcopal visits to Rome (known as ad limina) and questionnaires sent to stakeholders on the ground. It also issues numerous recommendations.

The approach contrasts with typical methods in Rome. Right from the start, the…

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[See also the text of the PCPM report.]

Highlighting progress made in safeguarding and recommendations for rectifying ongoing gaps, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors dedicated its first annual report to all victims and survivors of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church.

“The commission’s work — including this report — is and always has been about recognition and inclusion of victims and survivors of abuse in the life of the church,” Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, president of the pontifical commission, said at a news conference at the Vatican Oct. 29.

“Your suffering and wounds have opened our eyes to the fact that as a church we have failed to care for victims, and that we didn’t defend you, and that we resisted understanding you when you needed us most,” he said.

“We praise your courageous testimony, and at the same time, we recognize that you are…

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[See also the text of the PCPM report.]

A Catholic group tasked with tackling the issue of clerical sexual abuse released a first-of-its-kind report Tuesday on its work over the past decade, sparking a new round of debate over what else should be done.

In the report, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors outlines its effort to improve abuse-related safeguards in Catholic churches around the world and to offer more support to sexual abuse victims.

“Nothing we do will ever be enough to fully repair what has happened,” said Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who leads the commission, at a news conference, according to The Associated Press. “But we hope that this report and those that will come, compiled with the help of victims and survivors at the center, will help to ensure the firm commitment that these events never happen again in the church.”

Critics of…

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[See also the text of the PCPM report.]

Vatican’s child protection commission delivers first report on scandal that has engulfed church for decades

Church leaders who fail to take action against paedophile priests are a “further source of evil” for victims of sexual abuse and should be removed from their posts, the Vatican’s child protection commission has said.

In its first report on a scandal that has embroiled the Catholic church for decades, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said the church was still failing to ensure that clerical sexual abuse cases were dealt with adequately. It also criticised the Vatican office charged with processing complaints of being slow and secretive.

The commission was set up by Pope Francis in 2014 and its first report, published on Tuesday, focused on church protocol in 17 countries. Its publication comes a month after the pontiff was rebuked over the church’s…

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[See also the text of the PCPM report.]

The report is intended to assess efforts by the Roman Catholic Church to safeguard minors and others. Advocates for survivors called it an exercise in obfuscation.

Ten years after it was first established, a Vatican commission on clerical sexual abuse issued its first report on Tuesday, a limited step in self-accounting by some bishops that was immediately criticized by victims’ advocates as being toothless and lacking independent verification.

Since the clerical abuse scandal erupted into the mainstream media two decades ago, the church has struggled to put in place effective measures around the world to end abuse and hold the church hierarchy accountable when it was involved in covering up cases.

The Vatican group, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, was formed in 2014 to advise Pope Francis on how best to protect minors and vulnerable…

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A Lafayette district judge on Monday rejected attempts by the Diocese of Lafayette to dismiss some claims by an alleged victim of priest sexual abuse but ordered disclosure of the victim’s name to be filed under seal.

Lafayette attorneys Seth Mansfield and Collin Melancon filed a lawsuit in August in 15th Judicial Court in Lafayette on behalf of the alleged victim identified in court documents as “JM John Doe” against the Diocese of Lafayette and Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church in Lafayette.

Lafayette is believed to be the first place where a Catholic priest, Gilbert Gauthe, was convicted of child abuse and jailed in the 1980s, long before such cases became public elsewhere. Gauthe served 10 years of a 20-year sentence after admitting he abused more than 30 children in the 1970s and 1980s.

The state Supreme Court in June ruled that victims of clerical sexual abuse have  View Cache

[See also the text of the PCPM report.]

Pope Francis’ child protection board called Tuesday for victims of clergy sexual abuse to have greater access to information about their cases and the right to compensation, in the first-ever global assessment of the Catholic Church’s efforts to address the crisis.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors issued a series of findings and recommendations in its pilot annual report, zeroing in on the church in a dozen countries, two religious orders and two Vatican offices with detailed analysis.

In its most critical note, it called for greater transparency from the Vatican’s sex abuse office, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. It said the office’s slow processing of cases and secrecy were retraumatizing to victims, and its refusal to publish statistics or its own jurisprudence continues “to foment distrust among the faithful, especially the victim/survivor community.”

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[See also the text of the PCPM report.]

Parts of the Roman Catholic Church are still failing to ensure clerical sexual abuse is reported adequately, Pope Francis’ commission for child protection said Tuesday, raising concerns about a “lack of transparency” in the Vatican’s handling of cases.

In its first annual report, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors surveyed safeguarding protocols from bishops in 17 different parts of the world, along with how the Church’s central administration processes cases.

“At times, the commission found a troubling lack of reporting structures and victim/survivor accompaniment services,” the report said. “The commission found a persistent concern regarding the transparency in the Roman Curia’s (the church’s central administration) procedures and juridical processes. The commission notes that this will continue to foment distrust among the faithful, especially the victim/survivor community,” it added.

The report includes several recommendations including compensation for survivors, a…

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President’s historic remarks, alongside Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, given at Gila Crossing school near Phoenix

On Friday, Joe Biden formally apologized for the United States government’s role in running at least 523 Indian boarding schools. His remarks were given at the Gila Crossing community school outside of Phoenix, Arizona, and marked his first visit to Indian country as president.

“After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program,” Biden said. “But the federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened – until today. I formally apologize, as president of the United States of America, for what we did. I formally apologize. That’s long overdue.”

“Federal Indian boarding school policy, the pain it has caused, will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history,” he said. “For too long, this all happened with virtually no public attention.”

Indian boarding schools were run with the…

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President Joe Biden apologized, opens new tab on Thursday for the U.S. government’s role in running abusive Native American boarding schools for more than 150 years, marking an acknowledgement of devastation the community endured for generations.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to be a cabinet secretary, had launched a probe to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies. An investigative report, opens new tab by the department found that at least 973 children died in these schools.The federally-run Indian boarding school system was designed to assimilate Native Americans “by destroying Native culture, language and identity through harsh militaristic and assimilationist methods,” the White House said on Thursday.No U.S. president had formally apologized for that action until now.

KEY QUOTES

“The president also believes that to usher in the next era of the Federal-Tribal relationships we need…

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In short: 

John Patrick Casey has pleaded not guilty to three counts of sexual assault against a person under the age of 16.

The Catholic priest is alleged to have given a 14-year-old boy staying at his house an indecent massage.

What’s next?

The District Court jury trial is due to run for five days. 

A Catholic priest has appeared before Lismore District Court to face historical child sex abuse charges.

John Patrick Casey has pleaded not guilty to three counts of sexual assault against a person under the age of 16.

The charges relate to an alleged incident in 1982 at Father Casey’s home at Mallanganee in northern New South Wales. 

Father Casey was the parish priest at Mallanganee between 1981 and 1988.

In her opening address, the crown prosecutor told a jury of seven women and five men the case against the 76-year-old would rely on photos and…

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After a priest recently expelled from a Peru-based society has denied allegations of sexual abuse, two former members of the group have said he not only committed the abuse, but obstructed justice in the coverup of child pornography.

Father Jaime Baertl is one of 15 members expelled from the Peru-based Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) in the past two months, including its founder, Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari.

For over a year the Vatican has been conducting an in-depth investigation into the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), which for the past decade has undergone various reform efforts amid sweeping allegations of various forms of abuse, including the sexual abuse of minors, as well as financial corruption.

Baertl and fellow SCV member Juan Carlos Len were jointly expelled from the SCV Thursday, with a communique from the nunciature referring to “irregular and illicit” financial activities within SCV companies and organizations, as well as one allegation of sexual…

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“Only” is a very simple, four-letter word that means so much. Often used to quantify or put something in perspective, the word ‘only’ is helpful–But not always. When it’s used in connection with child sexual abuse, it’s, in fact, quite the OPPOSITE of helpful. It often hurts. It’s often used to MINIMIZE the horror of child sexual abuse. That almost inevitably adds even more pain to the already severe pain many victims of such heinous crimes already feel, even decades later.

We’ve all heard the word ‘only’ used in this dismissive, insensitive way:

• ‘Well, he only touched you once.’
• ‘He only took you on that one trip, right?’
• ‘Thank heavens it was only groping, and not penetration.’
• ‘We should be grateful that it was only one football player, not several.’
• “It could have been worse, right? You only spent the night over there once.”

But there’s an even WORSE way the word ‘only‘ is sometimes used. As wrong and…

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Pretend for a minute that you are named CEO of a large, well-respected chemical company. You suspect that for years, your predecessors dumped toxic materials in numerous unsuspecting communities in and around the area where you are headquartered and live.

Then, shortly after you assume your new post, you learn that your suspicions are well founded. Indeed, for years and years, your predecessors secretly and recklessly put dangerous chemicals in dozens and dozens of places. Some of which were the LAST places one would expect to find such public health threats.

Making matters worse, those dump sites were almost always near unsuspecting neighbors who were given no warning whatsoever. And when those neighbors voiced concerns, alarmed by rumors or reports of wrongdoing, your predecessors repeatedly misled or lied to those mothers and fathers living in close proximity to those many toxic locations, needlessly putting their children at risk.

This is…

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A man has been arrested for allegedly recording people inside a church in a Chicago suburb.

Police said the camera was hidden inside a women’s bathroom and it was there for months.

The 24-year-old man from Atlanta was arrested for illegally recording people inside World Mission Society Church in Bloomingdale, Illinois.

The DuPage County state’s attorney identified the man as Ramon Ochoa Garcia.

He now faces charges of unauthorized video recording of a person under 18 and unauthorized video recording without consent.

Investigators said Garcia put a small pen camera into a vent to record people in the women’s bathroom at the church.

Police said this started as early as Aug. 1.

A pastor at the church later found the pen and reported it to police.

Prosecutors believe there are at least 24 victims who were recorded, including two young girls.

A judge denied the prosecutor’s request to detain Garcia…

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A 50-year-old priest in Aligarh has been sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a five-year-old Dalit girl. The swift trial concluded in 30 days, with the court imposing a Rs 50,000 fine. The girl’s brother reported the crime, which led to the priest’s immediate arrest and subsequent conviction under multiple legal provisions.

A local court in Aligarh has sentenced a 50-year-old priest to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment after he was found guilty of raping a five-year-old Dalit girl. After the formal filing of charges on Sept 25, the conviction and sentencing were completed in 30 days. The court also imposed a Rs 50,000 fine on the convict.

On July 3, the child’s grandfather had filed a complaint with local police claiming that the girl along with her 8-year-old brother had gone to a nearby temple where the priest, who lived there, lured her with a promise of…

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Parishes and dioceses must move quickly to give life to the consultative bodies and broad participation in mission and ministry already foreseen by church law if the Catholic Church is to have any hope of becoming a more “synodal” church, members of the Synod of Bishops said.

“Without concrete changes in the short term, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible and this will alienate those members of the People of God who have drawn strength and hope from the synodal journey,” the members said in the final document they approved Oct. 26.

Pope Francis convoked the synod in 2021 and called on parishes, dioceses and bishops’ conferences to hold listening sessions before the first synod assembly in Rome in 2023. The current assembly, including most of the same members, began with a Mass at the Vatican Oct. 2.

Members voted on each of the 155 paragraphs…

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A major Vatican summit of global Catholic leaders ended on Oct 26 with a call for women to be granted more leadership roles in the Church but stopped short of calling for women to be ordained as clergy.

The gathering, which included cardinals, bishops and lay people from more than 110 countries, also did not take a stand on inclusion of the LGBTQ community, despite discussion that it might call on the Church to be more welcoming.

Pope Francis called the month-long summit, known as a Synod of Bishops, to consider the future of the worldwide Church. It was the second of two gatherings, held a year apart, and featured closed-door discussions among 368 “members” with voting rights, including nearly 60 women.

Advocates for greater roles for women in the Church had hoped the synod might call for women to serve as deacons. In its final text,…

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In its final statement, the synod said “there is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the church” — without specifying what the roles might be.

A Vatican assembly on the future of the Catholic Church on Saturday said that more should be done to help women overcome “obstacles” to taking a leadership roles within the Church.

Since October 2, the Assembly of the Synod, comprising 368 religious and lay people — including women — from about 100 countries, has held closed-door debates about rejuvenating the Roman Catholic Church.

It is a personal project of Pope Francis, 87, who will have the final say on any doctrinal changes.

But in a rare move, the pontiff on Saturday said he would directly adopt the consultative body’s proposals.

In its final statement, the synod said “there is no reason or impediment that…

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President Joe Biden did something Friday that no other sitting U.S. president has: He apologized for the systemic abuse of generations of Indigenous children endured in boarding schools at the hands of the federal government.

For 150 years the U.S. removed Indigenous children from their homes and sent them away to the schools, where they were stripped of their cultures, histories and religions and beaten for speaking their languages.

“We should be ashamed,” Biden said to a crowd of Indigenous people gathered at the Gila River Indian Community outside of Phoenix, Arizona, including tribal leaders, survivors and their families. Biden called the government-mandated system that began in 1819 “one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” while acknowledging the decades of abuse inflicted upon children and widespread devastation left behind.

For many Native Americans, the long-awaited apology was a welcome acknowledgment of the government’s longstanding culpability. Now,…

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Pope Francis set up the panel of experts in December 2014 amid an avalanche of revelations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy across the world.

The pope’s commission on clerical child sex abuse said Friday it will publish its first annual report next week, a decade after the body was established.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said the report coming on Tuesday would be a “first step” documenting “where risks remain, and where advances can be found”.

Pope Francis set up the panel of experts in December 2014 amid an avalanche of revelations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy across the world, and subsequent cover-ups.

But, it has faced strong criticism over its organisation, funding and role, with numerous high-profile members quitting.

In 2022, Francis incorporated the body into the Roman Curia — the government of the Holy See — and asked for an annual, “reliable account…

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On the surface, it’s a prestige Oscar picture about the Catholic Church. But it’s actually a pulpy soap opera.

‘Conclave’ contains all the aspects of a Serious Oscar Contender. It’s about the Catholic Church, stars older, award-winning actors, fills every space with portentous orchestral music, and follows serious people having serious thoughts down seriously long corridors. But unlike, say, ‘Spotlight,’ which at its core was a drama about the church covering up sexual abuse of children, the scandals at the heart of Conclave are barely serious enough to bring down an Alabama Senatorial candidate, much less a candidate for Supreme Pontiff.

The movie hints around at the actual problems with the modern church–that it covers up, again,  the sexual abuse of children and that a very recent Pope had an active membership in the Nazi Party as a youth–and instead mostly focuses on stuff that Donald Trump’s lawyers could persuade…

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A meeting four years in the making said the ordination of women required further study, but it called for women to have more leadership roles, even in seminaries.

A monthlong meeting of Catholic bishops and lay people at the Vatican ended on Saturday with a call for women to be given more leadership roles in the church. But on the question of whether women could be ordained as deacons, the church said the possibility “remains open” and required further meditation.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, one of the top officials at the meeting, said at a news conference on Saturday night that allowing female deacons was a delicate issue, and that the meeting, known as a synod, had not deliberated for or against it.

“The question remains open,” he said, adding that the pope had signed the document approving the meeting’s findings. “Who am I to contradict the Holy Father?”

…

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A major Vatican summit of global Catholic leaders ended on Saturday (October 26) with a call for women to be granted more leadership roles in the Church but stopped short of calling for women to be ordained as clergy.

The gathering, which included cardinals, bishops and lay people from more than 110 countries, also did not take a stand on inclusion of the LGBTQ community, despite discussion that it might call on the Church to be more welcoming.

Pope Francis called the month-long summit, known as a Synod of Bishops, to consider the future of the worldwide Church. It was the second of two gatherings, held a year apart, and featured closed-door discussions among 368 “members” with voting rights, including nearly 60 women.

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The pope’s “Synod on Synodality” ended Saturday without progress on female deacons, married priests or LGBTQ+ outreach.

The Vatican’s most highly anticipated gathering since the 1960s ended Saturday with the thorniest issues facing the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics largely unanswered.

The Synod of Bishops, which met in October 2023 and again this month, pledged administrative changes that could give more power to local dioceses. But it referred questions on the ordination of female deacons, further outreach to the LGBTQ+ community and married priests for further study.

The outcome calmed the fears of church conservatives that Pope Francis’s “Synod on Synodality” would serve as a smokescreen for radical change while leaving liberals, who had seen it as their best opportunity since Vatican II to promote reform, empty-handed for now.

“It’s hard to say whether this synod has actually taken any decision,” said Massimo Faggioli, a Catholic theologian at Villanova University.

The…

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One year after the Vatican announced it would open a canonical case on Father Marko Rupnik — an artist and former Jesuit accused of spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse — victims say they feel disappointment and betrayal at the Church’s lack of response and transparency.

Rupnik has been accused of abusing adult women who were under his spiritual care as part of a religious community he helped found in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some of these accusations became public through the media in early December 2022, although the priest’s superiors and officials at the Vatican were aware even several years earlier.

While the investigation and trial of Rupnik is still pending, the priest remains free to exercise his ministry in the Diocese of Koper, Slovenia, where he was accepted in 2023.

A year ago on Oct. 27, days before the close of the 2023 assembly of the Synod…

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President Joe Biden did something Friday that no other sitting U.S. president has: He apologized for the systemic abuse of generations of Indigenous children endured in boarding schools at the hands of the federal government.

For 150 years the U.S. removed Indigenous children from their homes and sent them away to the schools, where they were stripped of their cultures, histories and religions and beaten for speaking their languages.

“We should be ashamed,” Biden said to a crowd of Indigenous people gathered at the Gila River Indian Community outside of Phoenix, including tribal leaders, survivors and their families. Biden called the government-mandated system that began in 1819 “one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” while acknowledging the decades of abuse inflicted upon children and widespread devastation left behind.

For many Native Americans, the long-awaited apology was a welcome acknowledgment of the government’s longstanding culpability. Now, they say, words must be…

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The White House says President Joe Biden will apologize on behalf of the U.S. government Friday for its 150-year campaign to break up Native American culture, language and identity by forcing children into abusive Indian boarding schools.

More than 900 children died at the government-funded schools, the last of which closed or transitioned into different institutions decades ago. Their dark legacy continues to be felt in Native communities where survivors struggle with generational trauma from the torture, sexual abuse and hatred they endured.

Biden is expected to formally acknowledge the federal government’s role and apologize for it during an appearance at the Gila River Indian Community outside Phoenix.

A closer look at the federal boarding school system:

150 years of forced assimilation

Congress laid the framework for a nationwide boarding school system for Native Americans in 1819 under the 5th U.S. President, James Monroe, with legislation known as the Indian Civilization Act. It was…

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Authorities point to suspicious bank transfers of more than three million euros over past six years from Roman Catholic Church’s treasury

Scrutiny over high-profile embezzlement and money laundering allegations enveloping the Roman Catholic Church in Greece continued unabated on Friday, with authorities now focusing on well-known nightclub entrepreneur.

The latter, with reputed business activity in the western port city of Patras, is alleged to have facilitated money laundering of more than three million euros emanating from the Church’s coffers, with two high-ranking clerics at the center of the probe.

The businessman is described as hailing from western Greece, aged 60, with involvement in previous cases of blackmail, fraud and intimidation. One blackmail victim, reports on Friday revealed, was an Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece Metropolitan (an ecclesiastical ranking akin to bishop) in south-central Greece.

The suspect was convicted at the time by a three-justice first instance court of…

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Greek authorities have frozen the bank accounts and assets of five cafe and nightclub owners on suspicion of laundering Catholic church money supplied by two church officials, a senior Greek official and local media said on Thursday.

During a months-long investigation, the country’s anti-money-laundering authority found that more than 3 million euros ($3.24 million) were directed from the funds of the Catholic Church in Greece to five bank accounts, a source with knowledge of the probe told Reuters.

The authority’s findings have been forwarded to a prosecutor who is expected to open its own investigation, the Athens News Agency said. The two church officials are suspected of embezzlement and the most recent suspicious money transfer was a few days ago, it said.

The businessmen are active in the southern Peloponnese area.

The Holy Synod of the Catholic Church of Greece said in a statement on Thursday that it has not…

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The Diocese of Alexandria is moving to conduct a “mediated resolution” with victims of alleged sexual abuse by priests prior to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy – a scenario that may offer both benefits and challenges for abuse victims, according to observers.

The diocese has previously acknowledged that 27 of its priests were accused of sexual misconduct and abuse of minors. The mediation plans were detailed in a Sept. 24 letter from the law firm Gold Weems Bruser Sues & Rundell, according to a report from the Catholic News Agency.

The Diocese of Alexandria’s plans follow a different pattern than the New Orleans archdiocese, whose petition for bankruptcy protection in May 2020 surprised abuse victims in that region. The letter obtained by the Catholic News Agency indicates that the Alexandria diocese wants to move forward in a way that would avoid the slow pace and high…

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Stephen Johnson, 40, met the alleged victim on a social media app when she was 12 years old and selling nude content online. 

A youth pastor and counselor appeared before a judge in bond court, charged with one count of living off the earnings of a teenager who worked as a prostitute. 

According to a complaint affidavit, Stephen Johnson, 40, met the alleged victim on a social media app when she was 12 years old and selling nude content online. 

Investigators say the girl met someone on the app who she thought was a woman who offered to help her sell more nude content, but that woman was really Johnson. 

According to the complaint, the acts continued until the alleged victim was 17 and flew to Birmingham, Alabama, where the suspect allegedly posted her on escort ads and directed her to engage in commercial sex acts for money. 

“He trafficked a…

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A new lawsuit accuses the WWE and its founders of fostering a culture of sexual abuse within the organization and looking the other way while a longtime ringside announcer preyed on young men he hired as “ring boys.”

The suit was filed Wednesday in Maryland, where a recent law change eliminated the state’s statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims, opening the doors for victims to sue regardless of their age or how much time has passed.

The complaint alleges that Melvin Phillips, who died in 2012, would target young men from disadvantaged backgrounds and hire them as “ring boys” to help with the preparations for wrestling matches. Phillips would then assault them in his dressing room, hotels and even in the wrestlers’ locker room, according to the complaint, which was filed on behalf of five men.

The abuse detailed in the lawsuit occurred over several years during Phillips’ long tenure…

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A former Decatur pastor accused of sex crimes with a child has been found guilty of sodomy in the second degree.

Danny Duane Pitts will soon be registered as a sex offender after being charged for sexually abusing a minor while he was the Pastor at GracePoint Church in Decatur.

Authorities arrested Pitts back in November 2021. Pitts faced two felony charges, sodomy in the first degree and sodomy in the second degree, as well as two misdemeanor charges, sexual abuse in the first degree and sexual abuse in the second degree.

Since the former pastor’s arrest, his case has been continued four different times.

This week, the courtroom heard from two accusers formerly a part of GracePoint.

One of the victims testified Pitts sexually abused him in the early 2000s.

Another victim who is a part of another indictment against the former pastor in Tennessee claimed the…

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“When I was 14 years old, I was forced to go to a religious club meeting. I had to call my parents in front of a priest, who monitored what I had to say to them in order to get permission. Even then, I was brutally pressured in a planned way by the people who spoke to me to join the organization, under the threat of eternal damnation if I didn’t…they forced me to hide my entry from my parents.”

Héctor (not his real name) was one of the ten testimonies heard Monday in the portico of the cathedral of La Almudena, next to the statue of John Paul II, in an Act of Reparation for the victims that brought together hundreds of people in the diocesan temple of Madrid before a deafening silence, which shook the stones of the cathedral.

Men and women who were sexually, physically and emotionally…

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A Peruvian priest recently expelled from a scandal-plagued lay group, in part over charges of financial irregularities, has sent a registered letter to the papal embassy in Peru demanding a series of corrections to its Oct. 23 announcement of his ouster, calling its contents “false and defamatory.”

Crux has also learned that the priest in question, Father Jaime Baertl, has business ties with an individual who helped launch a criminal complaint in Peru against of the Vatican officials leading an investigation into the group, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).

Last July, Pope Francis sent his top investigating team – Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, an adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), and Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, an official of the dicastery – to Lima to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the allegations against the sodalitium.

This past week, the papal embassy in Peru, known as the…

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Zachary Radcliff, who worked at Oakwood Church, where his father is the senior pastor, is also a Christian rock musician. He is being held on $3 million bond.

A Michigan church youth pastor who moonlights as a Christian rock singer and has performed before high-profile conservative audiences has been accused of preying on teenagers in his father’s flock for more than 10 years.

Zachary Radcliff, 29, was fired Oct. 12 from his job as the music and youth director of Oakwood Church in Ypsilanti, an Ann Arbor suburb, 10 days after the Michigan State Police launched an investigation. His father, Frank Radcliff, is the church’s senior pastor.

“We realized while talking to him that there was more to the situation than was being expressed,” the church said in a statement posted on its website.

Zachary Radcliff was arrested over the…

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The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors announced that it will present its pilot Annual Report on Safeguarding at the Holy See Press Office on Tuesday, October 29th.

Among those presenting the report at the press conference are: Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, Commission President; Maud De Boer Buquicchio, Commission Member and Annual Report Chairperson; Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera, Commission Secretary; and Teresa Kettelkamp, Commission Adjunct Secretary.

“Our goal is to develop an Annual Report with a commitment to transparency and accountability, in solidarity with victims and survivors throughout the world,” Cardinal O’Malley said.

A request from Pope Francis

The launch of the Annual Report is both a milestone for the Commission and a work-in-progress. It is the first step towards a process of data gathering and reporting within the Catholic Church, which began by papal request.

 “I would like you, on an annual basis, to prepare for me a report…

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The pope’s commission on clerical child sex abuse said Friday it will publish its first annual report next week, a decade after the body was established.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said the report coming on Tuesday would be a “first step” documenting “where risks remain, and where advances can be found”.

Pope Francis set up the panel of experts in December 2014 amid an avalanche of revelations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy across the world, and subsequent cover-ups.

However, it has faced strong criticism over its organisation, funding and role, with numerous high-profile members quitting.

In 2022, Francis incorporated the body into the Roman Curia — the government of the Holy See — and asked for an annual, “reliable account of what is presently being done and what needs to change”.

Next week’s report “collects resources and good practices to be shared across the Universal…

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TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (KOKH) — On Friday, President Joe Biden is set to become the first president to formally apologize for the U.S. government’s Indian boarding school policy, which lasted for approximately 150 years until the 1960s.

Tribal leaders say it brought devastation to native communities across the nation.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. described the move as “long-overdue.”

Tori Holland, tribal counsel attorney and designated congressional delegate for the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, noted boarding schools sought to “kill the Indian and save the man. So it was pretty devastating for Native Americans all across.”

The impact of Indian boarding schools is still being felt today, Holland added.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition stated that in the 19th and 20th centuries, government agents took native children by force and brought them to the schools. The coalition asserted the students then suffered physical, sexual, cultural,…

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The Burlington diocese filed for bankruptcy to shield itself from more lawsuits over the abuse of children

BURLINGTON, Vt. — When Brenda Hannon heard the Roman Catholic diocese here had filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 1, her mind drifted back to St. Joseph’s Orphanage, the nuns, and the peanut butter pudding.

In 1961, Hannon was 8, living at the orphanage, and did not like peanut butter pudding.

“It looked like dirty dishwater,” she said, “and it tasted like dirty dishwater.”

But when Hannon refused to eat it, she alleges, some of the nuns became incensed.

“They tied me to a chair,” Hannon said. “They tried to force my mouth open. One of them held my nose so I couldn’t breathe. They forced me to eat it, but I spit it out.”

One of the nuns began smacking her in the head, she said, a final punch sending her face-first to…

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The Vatican has reprimanded the Swiss bishops for their handling of sexual abuse claims in that country after a more-than-yearlong investigation into how the bishops addressed allegations of clergy sex crimes there.

Yet the Vatican’s inquiry found no evidence of a conspiracy by the prelates to cover up abuse claims, one of the key allegations that launched the Holy See’s investigation last year.

In September of last year the Swiss Bishops’ Conference (SBK) revealed an ongoing Vatican-ordered investigation into the reported mishandling of sexual abuse allegations by Church officials there, specifically allegations that clergy had covered up abuse cases.

Allegations had been made in May “against several emeriti and acting members of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference” as well as against several other clerics there.

The Swiss bishops forwarded the allegations to the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome, which shortly thereafter opened a canonical investigation into the matter. Earlier…

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DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG/WWSB) – Three new civil cases are filed against the Dubuque Catholic Archdiocese and a former Dubuque priest accused of sexually abusing boys.

Three new civil cases were filed this week in Charlotte County, Florida brought forward by anonymous altar boys from Iowa claiming Leo Riley sexually abused them in Dubuque in the 1980s.

Riley now works at a congregation in Florida. He sat for a disposition last month in a separate lawsuit there from a John Doe claiming Riley had sexually abused him in Florida.

In the complaint, the plaintiff alleges Father Riley “sought and gained parental consent for Plaintiff to participate in counseling and other activities, and to spend time alone with him.”

It goes on to say Riley would force the minor to drink alcohol and then engage in harmful and illegal sexual contact with the plaintiff.

The alleged victim says the abuse started in 1985,…

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A consultants’ report on the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy blames both the local church and attorneys for abuse survivors for the case’s massive costs and slow progress, recommending that the federal judge overseeing the process immediately freeze legal fees and bring in an independent “examiner” to propose a settlement if the two sides can’t agree soon.

The 35-page report from New York-based M3 Advisory Partners said that Archbishop Gregory Aymond and his advisors are “cognitively capable” of guiding the local Roman Catholic Church through the bankruptcy process, but said they have not “exercised the leadership” needed to do it, have failed to share crucial financial information, have lacked transparency and haven’t provided oversight of mounting fees.

At the same time, it faults a group of attorneys who, together, represent more than 100 of the abuse survivors for “aggressive litigation tactics that have been disruptive to the forward progress of…

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A Catholic priest connected to a church and school in Cedar Mill has returned to India to face allegations of sexual misconduct involving children, according to correspondence obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The Rev. Joaquim Gracias of the Saint Pius X church was reportedly leaving to face the allegations in India, according to an email sent to members of the parish on June 27 and shared this week with the news organization.

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President Joe Biden is expected to issue an apology to the Native American community for the federal government’s role in the abusive Indian boarding schools that forced Native American children to assimilate over a 150-year period, two sources familiar with the plans said.

“I’m heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago: To make a formal apology to the Indian Nations for the way we treated their children for so many years,” Biden told reporters as he departed the White House on Thursday.

Biden is expected to make the announcement during a visit at the Gila Crossing Community School outside of Phoenix on Friday as he makes his first trip to Indian Country while in office.

“The federally-run Indian boarding school system was designed to assimilate Native Americans by destroying Native culture, language and identity through harsh militaristic and assimilationist methods,” the White House said Thursday….

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The president’s apology would come less than two weeks before the election and mark the first formal acknowledgement by a U.S. president of the government’s role in atrocities against Native children.

President Joe Biden plans to formally apologize Friday for the U.S. government’s role in running hundreds of Indian boarding schools for a 150-year period that stripped Native American children of their language and culture in a systematic effort to force them to assimilate into White society.Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.

“I’m heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago — to make a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “That’s why I’m heading west.”

These remarks would be the first time a…

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NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — President Joe Biden said he will formally apologize on Friday for the country’s role in forcing Indigenous children for over 150 years into boarding schools, where many were physically, emotionally and sexually abused, and more than 950 died.

“I’m doing something I should have done a long time ago: To make a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years,” Biden said Thursday as he left the White House for Arizona.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched an investigation into the boarding school system shortly after she became the first Native American to lead the agency, and she will join Biden during his first diplomatic visit to a tribal nation as president as he delivers a speech Friday at the Gila River Indian Community outside Phoenix.

“I would never have guessed in a million years that something like this would…

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Oct. 24, 2024 3 AM PT

To the editor: The irony of your story on the latest too little, too late settlement with victims of clerical abuse and hierarchical cover-up running at the same time as coverage of the latest Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is palpable.

Each year, under the guise of supporting Catholic Charities, politicians seeking votes and money, business people seeking customers, and media executives and journalists seeking access to the great and powerful, gather in formal attire to kiss the ring of the archbishop of New York.

With the exception of Donald Trump, who just spews venom, presidential candidates gently insult each other with gags written for them as they pretend to rise above their lust for power and money with a display of false bonhomie.

I submit that anyone of conscience invited to this event should have attended a protest outside, particularly the journalists, whose colleagues have…

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President Biden will formally apologize Friday to Indigenous communities for the role the U.S. government played in abuses committed in federal Indian boarding schools that Native American children attended after being forcibly removed from their homes.

Why it matters: Biden’s remarks in Arizona’s Gila River Indian Community will mark the first time a U.S. president has both formally acknowledged and apologized for the policy that saw abuses occur for more than 150 years and which the United Nations regards as genocide.

• A 2022 federal report found Native American children at these 408 boarding schools suffered whippings, sexual abuse, manual labor and severe malnourishment from 1819-1969 as part of the U.S. government’s campaign to compel their assimilation.
• An Interior Department report out this year found more than 900 children died while being forced to attend the schools.
• “I’m heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago: to make…

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If Amendment 2 passes and Kentucky adopts a dangerous school voucher plan like other states, there will be unaccountable private school operators who will misuse or steal millions of taxpayer dollars and be involved in other criminal activity. 

That’s exactly what’s happened in states that bought into the radical policy of throwing hundreds of millions of tax dollars at private and church school operators, with taxpayers having no oversight of how it’s spent or who’s spending (or stealing) it.

Fraud follows school voucher programs

Earlier this year, three private school operators in Indiana were indicted by a grand jury on 76 counts of money laundering and wire fraud.  According to the indictment, the operators inflated enrollment numbers at their schools to get taxpayer money for kids who did not actually attend.

The Indiana Attorney General is suing the operators for $154…

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Apollo Quiboloy, the self-styled “Appointed Son of God,” faced off with former church members for the first time at a Senate hearing investigating his alleged misdeeds.

MANILA, Philippines — Apollo Quiboloy, a Philippine preacher accused of sexually abusing his followers, spoke out on Wednesday for the first time since being indicted on trafficking and other criminal charges, denying new allegations of wrongdoing on top of existing charges.

Apollo Quiboloy, the self-styled “Appointed Son of God” who founded the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church, faced off with former church members for the first time on Wednesday in a Senate hearing investigating his alleged misdeeds.

During the public Senate inquiry, he was accused of grooming children for sex, forcing a teenager to stop going to school to sell food to fund his church, and obliging workers to flout government rules while working long hours to construct…

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BATAVIA — St. Paul Lutheran Church and School are facing a lawsuit which claims it failed to protect children from its former principal, who earlier this year admitted repeatedly molesting a student.

The lawsuit by Andreozzi & Foote Law Firm of Harrisburg, Pa. is on behalf of the child victim in the case. The firm is a nationwide firm that handles sexual abuse cases.

Jason R. Clark, 43, in June admitted that he repeatedly molested the child from the beginning of the 2014 school year to the end in June 2015.

Clark was working as a physical education teacher at the time. He was named principal in 2019 and served in that role until his arrest.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, a D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Clark, however, was given a deal and was placed on one…

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The text mentions José Ambrozic Velezmoro, former assistant for Temporalities, Communications, and Apostolate as well as former vicar general, along with Father Luis Antonio Ferroggiaro Dentone.

The apostolic nunciature in Peru announced that Pope Francis has approved the expulsion of two more members of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (Sodality of Christian Life) in the wake of the report of the special mission he sent in July 2023 to investigate allegations of abuse.

The statement from the nunciature was published Oct. 21 by the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference.

The text mentions José Ambrozic Velezmoro, former assistant for Temporalities, Communications, and Apostolate as well as former vicar general, along with Father Luis Antonio Ferroggiaro Dentone.

Although the name of Ricardo Trenemann Young also appears in the statement, his expulsion from the sodality had already been announced on Sept. 25.

According to the nunciature, Pope Francis made the decision “after evaluating the defense [statements] corresponding to…

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MANILA — The Philippine National Police (PNP) believes about 200 women are victims of sexual exploitation within the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) community, with nearly 70 by its leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. 

The PNP said that while KOJC has been publicly announcing that their members reach 8 million followers, only 8,000 are believed to be currently active members based on interviews conducted  by PNP.

Members are said to be recruited and groomed to be either a member of the Inner Pastoral, allegedly sexually exploited by Quiboloy, or they become an ordinary miracle worker who is forced into labor to raise funds for the KOJC.

The PNP also showed pictures of Quiboloy’s alleged luxurious bedroom, which had its own jacuzzi. 

The PNP also claimed that Quiboloy tapped the so-called Angels of Death, a private armed group to sow fear.

ABUSE, TORTURE

Yulya Tartova Voronina, a Ukrainian who was among those sexually abused,…

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MANILA — A founding member of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s Kingdom on Jesus Christ (KOJC) on Wednesday recounted some of the violence she allegedly endured from the religious group, including sexual and physical abuse.

Facing Quiboloy himself at the Senate, Teresita Valdehueza, who joined KOJC in the 1980s when she was just 17, narrated how she dedicated her life to the Davao City-based church. 

“At the age of 17, I became a member of the church led by this man, Apollo C. Quiboloy, in 1980… In 1988, I made the difficult decision to dedicate my life to his ministry… This choice meant leaving behind my family, my career, and the person I once was,” she told the Senate Committee on Women, which is leading the probe into Quiboloy’s alleged abuses. 

“Over time, I gained the trust and became a respected worker within the ministry,” Valdehueza added.

She said she felt spiritual satisfaction…

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MANILA, Philippines — Former followers of an arrested Filipino televangelist confronted him in a Senate hearing Wednesday, accusing him of repeatedly abusing them sexually by portraying the assaults as their religious duty to the “appointed son of God.”

Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who was brought to the Senate under heavy police security, denied the allegations from several women, including some from Ukraine as well as the Philippines. He challenged his accusers to file criminal complaints so he could face them in court.

The 74-year-old preacher said he could not discuss his response because criminal charges against him, including sexually abusing women and human trafficking, were already being heard in two Philippine courts.

Yulya Voronina told the Senate hearing through a video link from Ukraine that Quiboloy and his key aides allegedly forced her and other victims into agreeing to have sex with him through religious deception and coercion.

“They always used the Bible as an instrument…

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After Catholic Church Settles with 1,353 Sexual-Abuse Survivors, Ray Higgins Cautions, ‘We Might Not Have Heard the Last Yet’

Ray Higgins shakes his head. Just briefly, his eyes well up. His voice quavers. At 92, Ray Higgins is in great shape. His hair has thinned over the years, but it remains a rusty red. His eyes are slightly rheumy but still a piercing blue. Early-morning sunlight explodes through the window over Higgins’s head; dust motes dance in the air.

“No,” Higgins declares. “You never get over it. We never did.”

By “we,” Higgins is referring to himself and his wife, Anne. By “it,” he is referring to the fact that their son Mike was molested by two priests while attending St. Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara as a high school student in the early 1980s.

Higgins and his wife would not know anything until 1992, when the public accusations against…

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The trial for the southwest Missouri woman accused of abusing young girls at a Christian reform school has been pushed back again.

Online court records show Stephanie Householder was in court again on Oct. 16, 2024 and has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of abuse at the Circle of Hope Girls Ranch in Cedar County. In 2021, she was charged with 10 counts of abuse and neglect of child and 12 counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Stephanie Householder now faces a jury trial that is scheduled for five days starting on Sept. 29, 2025.

Stephanie Householder’s husband, Boyd Householder, was also charged in the case, but died while in the hospital in June 2024. The Householders’ attorney, Adam Woody, said at the time of Boyd Householder’s death, he maintained “…his innocence against any criminal conduct…”

Then-Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt got involved…

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The co-owner of a Missouri boarding school who was accused of dozens of child abuse crimes is set to appear in court.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests says that on Thursday, Oct. 17, Stephanie Householder, who previously ran the Circle of Hope Girs Ranch in Humansville, Missouri, will appear in court as she faces nearly two dozen charges of child abuse and neglect.

“She’s Missouri’s most prolific female abuser,” said David Clohessy, Missouri volunteer director of SNAP.

SNAP noted that Householder and her husband Boyd also worked at Agape Boarding School in Cedar County. Boyd, who had been charged on 79 similar counts, died in June following cardiac arrest. Both facilities have since been shuttered.

Also Read: Agape Boarding School announces it will close Jan. 20

Court records indicated that Householder’s plea setting is set to begin at 12:30 p.m. on…

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Twenty-two members of an Islamic business group, including its CEO, were charged Wednesday for being part of an organized crime group after hundreds of children believed to have been sexually abused were rescued last month from welfare homes linked to the group.

Nasiruddin Mohamad Ali, CEO of Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings, and his wife Azura Mohamad Yusof were among dozens detained last month as police investigations widened to include human trafficking and money laundering. Islamic authorities are also investigating GISB for deviant teachings linked to the banned Islamic cult Al Arqam.

Global Ikhwan was established by Al Arqam leader Ashaari Mohamad and flourished after his death in 2010. The government deemed the sect heretical and banned it in 1994.

Nasiruddin, his wife and a son of Ashaari were among the 22 charged on Wednesday. No plea was recorded from the group as the case must be transferred to a higher…

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The popular 1970’s Christian music group, 2nd Chapter of Acts, has premiered their music archive on a new Christian streaming service—and the person behind that platform is a registered sex offender and husband of a band member.

Steve Greisen, husband of 2nd Chapter’s Nelly Greisen, was convicted in 2023 of attempting to solicit sex online with a minor in Colorado Springs, Colorado, El Paso County’s sex offender registry reports. Greisen evaded jail time through a plea deal.

A year later, 2nd Chapter of Acts shared about partnering with ExploreFlix in a Facebook post. The streaming service aims to “bring faith-affirming content to families everywhere” by sharing more than 600 films, documentaries, children’s programs, and music.

ExploreFlix contains 2nd Chapter of Acts archived “never-before-seen performances, live events, recordings, and television appearances.”

“This extensive archive is nothing short of a musical buffet for 2nd Chapter…

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The pope’s safeguarding commission has announced the “imminent” release of its first annual report on the Church’s worldwide efforts to protect minors and vulnerable adults.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) said Oct. 18 that the eagerly awaited document would “provide an assessment of the nature and effectiveness of safeguarding policies and procedures in the Church, and offer recommendations for continuous improvement.”

Why is the report significant? What do we know about its contents? And what should we look out for when it’s released? 

The Pillar takes a look.

Why is the report significant?

The report is notable because it marks the first time a Vatican body has published an assessment of the state of safeguarding in the worldwide Catholic Church.

If you haven’t been following the Church’s child protection efforts closely, that might not sound like much of an achievement. Perhaps it even sounds like something the Church…

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Pope Francis has expelled two more members and upheld the expulsion of one member of the controversial lay movement Sodalitium Christianae Vitae due to allegations of sexual abuse, abuse of power and financial malfeasance.

In a letter dated Oct. 21 and posted on the Peruvian bishops’ conference website, the apostolic nunciature in Peru announced that the decision was made after the pope evaluated allegations revealed during a Vatican investigation last year.

The investigation, dubbed as a “special mission,” was conducted in July 2023 by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, officials of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, who traveled to Peru to meet with victims of Sodalitium, the movements’ leaders and journalists who uncovered the abuses within the group.

Founder and noted journalist among those expelled

As a result of the investigation, Luis Fernando Figari, Sodalitium’s founder, was expelled from the group in August.

…

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A former Decatur pastor charged with sex crimes is set to go on trial this week after his trial was previously continued four times.

Danny Duane Pitts is charged with two counts of sodomy and pleaded not guilty in 2022. Court documents show Pitts’s trial was set to begin on Monday, October 21.

On October 18, documents were filed by the state showing their intent to use “404b evidence” at the trial. 404b evidence is used to introduce new evidence at trial to establish a motive, plan and intent.

The notice of intent to use the 404b says that the state would like to introduce “evidence and testimony relating to acts of sodomy and sexual abuse committed by [Pitts] against an additional victim who was of a similar age at the time of the abuse as the named victim in the case.”

Documents show other evidence the state wants to…

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The goal of the Annual Report, which was requested by the Holy Father in 2022, is to provide an assessment of the nature and effectiveness of safeguarding policies and procedures in the Church and offer recommendations for continuous improvement.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors gathered in Rome on October 7-11 for their fall Plenary Assembly. In his homily at the Assembly’s opening Mass on October 7, Commission President, Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley OFM Cap., said “Those who are hurting have a particular claim on our love. The Commission has an opportunity and obligation to make the Church a more Samaritan Church.”

The weeklong meeting of 30 expert members and personnel from across five continents was the first gathering under Commission Secretary, Bishop Luis Manuel Ali Herrera, and Adjunct Secretary, Teresa Kettelkamp since their appointment by the Holy Father last Spring.

The working sessions focused on…

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