ABUSE TRACKER

Brother Edward English, who first became know after the Mount Cashel orphanage abuse scandal, is named in another case.

A B.C. man is alleging he was subjected to sexual abuse and physical violence while a boy at a Vancouver Roman Catholic school.

V.C.A.B. (his name has been anonymized) said in an Oct. 7 Supreme Court of B.C. notice of civil claim that he suffered organized and protracted psychological, physical, spiritual and sexualized abuse by various lay and religious teachers and staff when he was a minor and a student at Vancouver College, a private Roman Catholic all-boys school between 1980 and 1984.

Named as defendants are Vancouver College Limited (VCL), the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver A Corporation Sole, Brother Gerard Gabriel McHugh, Brother Edward English, Brother Michael Anthony Maher, Brother Basil Blom, Brother Ronald H. MacKenzie, Brother David B. Burton, Brother Joseph Pascal Rowland, Joseph Burke, John Kavelac and the…

View Cache

The Vatican has authorized the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to remove a priest from the clerical state after an investigation found he sexually assaulted two children years ago.

Martin Boylan “has been dismissed from the clerical state at the conclusion of a disciplinary process authorized by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) at the Holy See,” the Diocese of Scranton said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Boylan, 76, was removed from priestly ministry in 2016 after he was accused of sexual assault of a minor. The diocese would subsequently receive four more allegations against the priest, all of which were investigated and submitted to the DDF.

The Holy See authorized the Scranton Diocese to adjudicate the matter. The priest was ultimately found guilty of two instances of sexual abuse of a minor. The DDF “reviewed the findings and authorized the Diocese of…

View Cache

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith overturned on Monday the Vatican Secretariat of State’s attempt to reinstate a priest laicized for the sexual abuse of minors in Argentina, setting up the most public clash of competence between Vatican departments in years.

According to a statement released by an Argentine diocese, Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, head of the DDF’s disciplinary section, declared void a September order from the Secretariat of State, which tried to reverse the laicization of Ariel Alberto Príncipi, a former diocesan priest convicted of child sexual abuse.

The DDF’s decision this week directly countermands a September 23 order signed by the sostituto of the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, who serves functionally as the pope’s curial chief of staff.

The unfolding events of the Príncipi case could also indicate that the DDF will insist on its exclusive competence to address cases of clergy abuse…

View Cache

The Diocese of Sion has outlined an action plan to deal with sexual abuse. The measures detailed on Tuesday in a press release are designed to put the victim at the centre of any approach.

The Diocese of Sion’s action plan aims to professionalise its counselling system, improve record-keeping and prevention, and enhance collaboration with victims’ associations. In concrete terms, abuse counsellors for the French-speaking part of the diocese will be trained on these aspects at the Institut Catholique de Paris, while a code of good conduct designed to prevent any abuse will be presented to pastoral workers.

A new flyer, entitled “Dare to talk about it”, details the four main places where victims of sexual abuse in the Church can be “listened to, supported or directed”. The document is being distributed to parishes, according to the diocese.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-politics/swiss-diocese-of-sion-criticised-for-dealings-with-victims-of-sexual-abuse/80433964

These measures follow the publication and presentation in June of the…

View Cache

A group representing survivors of clergy sex abuse is pushing for the Diocese of Lake Charles to add additional names to its list of credibly accused clergy members.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, commonly known as SNAP, are visiting cities in Louisiana to call for transparency in the Catholic Church.

The push comes after the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld a law giving sex abuse victims more time to file lawsuits against their perpetrators.

SNAP wants Louisiana dioceses to add certain priests to their lists of credibly accused clergy. These priests’ names appear on lists of abusers elsewhere.

SNAP wants four names added to the Diocese of Lake Charles’ list:

• Alfred Dean, who worked at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Welsh in 1989 and 1997, was included on the Baltimore Archdiocese’s credibly accused list in 2003 and the…

View Cache

A detained Philippine pastor who is also wanted in the United States for sex trafficking children registered Tuesday to run in next year’s senate elections.

Apollo Quiboloy, an ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte, is a self-proclaimed “Appointed Son of God” whose sect claims millions of followers.

The 74-year-old was arrested last month and is currently detained in Manila and facing charges of child abuse, sexual abuse and human trafficking. One of his lawyers filed his candidacy paperwork.

“He wants to be a part of the solution to the problems of our country. He is running because of God and our beloved Philippines,” lawyer Mark Christopher Tolentino said.

Quiboloy pledges to promote laws that are “God-centred, Philippine-centred and Filipino-centred”, Tolentino told journalists after submitting the candidacy papers to election officials.

The circumstances are not without precedent.

In May 2022, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada won a senate seat while on trial for…

View Cache

Former Catholic Priest Facing Additional Charges as Several Women Come Forward

Father Anthony Odiong, a former Catholic priest associated with Waco and West, has been indicted again on multiple sexual assault charges. A McLennan County grand jury returned a four-count indictment on Thursday, September 26, 2024, alleging that Odiong assaulted a woman repeatedly between 2008 and 2011, according to KWTX.

Catholic Priest Facing Serious Sexual Misconduct Charges with Severe Consequences

This latest indictment follows an earlier one on September 12, where Odiong faced three counts of sexual assault involving two separate women. The new charges are classified as first-degree felonies, carrying potential penalties of up to life in prison due to the victim’s marital status at the time of the alleged incidents.

Ongoing Incarceration Amid Multiple Allegations of Sexual Assault

Odiong, 56, is currently held in the McLennan County Jail under bonds totaling $2.5 million. He is also dealing with…

View Cache

The 27-year-old was convicted of molesting his juniors at a seminary on Catholic-majority island of Flores

A former major seminarian in Indonesia has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing minors at a seminary.

Engelbertus Lowa Sada, 27, was held guilty of molesting 10 students at the St. John Berchmans Mataloko Minor Seminary on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores.

Judge Theodora Usfunan at the Bajawa District Court in Ngada Regency also imposed a fine of 500 million rupiah (US$30,000). The inability to pay will result in an additional six months in prison for Sada.

The former seminarian was further ordered to pay 24.8 million rupiah as restitution to the minor victims. The Oct. 2 order was made public on Oct. 7.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan, a Catholic lawyer and coordinator of Indonesian bishops’ Advocacy and Human Rights Forum, said Sada got away with a “lighter”…

View Cache

A public prosecutor’s office in Switzerland has closed an investigation into alleged inappropriate conduct toward young people by an abbot who serves as a member of the Swiss bishops’ conference.

The Swiss daily newspaper Blick reported Oct. 6 that Beatrice Pilloud, the Attorney General of the Canton of Valais, had confirmed the closure of the case against Abbot Jean Scarcella, the 72-year-old head of the Territorial Abbey of Saint-Maurice.

As a territorial abbot, the canonical equivalent of a diocesan bishop, Scarcella is one of the nine members of the Swiss bishops’ conference. 

The abbot stood aside from office last year, pending the results of a canonical preliminary investigation into the allegations. The results of that investigation are currently being studied in Rome.

The Blick newspaper said the reason for the case’s closure was unclear because Scarcella, a member of the Swiss Congregation of Canons Regular of Saint Maurice of Agaune, had…

View Cache

A priest who resigned following a scandal within the Diocese of Greensburg earlier this year will now be reassigned to parishes in Lower Burrell and New Kensington.

The Rev. John Moineau had resigned as pastor of parishes in North Huntingdon and Irwin back in May after he transferred an employee with a lengthy criminal history record to Immaculate Conception Cemetery.

The employee, identified as Shon Harrity, was arrested in May and accused of raping a child under 16. Authorities say Harrity has a history of criminal sexual activity dating back decades.

Harrity’s wife was also charged and accused of being aware of her husband’s crimes.

Police have determined there was no criminal activity in the case but an internal investigation found Moineau and three other parish employees did violate church policy.

Moineau will begin working for four parishes, under supervision, effective on Oct. 23.

The three employees in the investigation…

View Cache

A former pastor at 2|42 Community Church has yet to be bound over to circuit court after being arrested on charges of surveilling an unclothed person, using a computer to commit a crime and tampering with evidence.

William Johnson was arrested in September after confessing to church leadership he’d placed a hidden camera in a bathroom meant for staff and volunteers multiple times over the last two years.

More:Police: 2|42 pastor confessed to targeting individuals with bathroom camera for two years

The confession came after a staff member discovered the camera and reported it to church leadership. Johnson was fired and the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office was notified. Johnson’s home was searched and all electronic devices seized.

According to LCSO, all known victims have been identified and notified. In an interview, police said, Johnson admitted to placing the camera “intermittently for the past two years, targeting…

View Cache

The Diocese of Scranton has dismissed a priest who served in Stroudsburg and Honesdale, among other assignments, after he was found guilty under canon law of sexually assaulting two minors.

Martin M. Boylan’s dismissal is “the most severe penalty that the Catholic Church can impose on a cleric,” the diocese said in a press release issued Tuesday.

“As a result, Boylan will never again exercise priestly ministry in any capacity. He may no longer celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or administer any of the Church’s sacraments. His relationship with the Diocese of Scranton in any official capacity is now permanently ended,” the diocese said.

Boylan was removed from ministry on April 1, 2016, the diocese said, after an accusation that he had sexually assaulted a minor. Between then and October 2023, the diocese received four more accusations against Boylan of sexually assaulting minors.

The diocese said it investigated all five accusations,…

View Cache

[Includes video]

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. — An attorney known for representing sexual abuse victims in the Boston area during the Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal is questioning the decision to reassign a Westmoreland County priest to a new set of parishes despite the Diocese of Greensburg saying that the priest broke church law.

“Actions speak louder than words, but the catholic church is just using the words,” Mitchell Garabedian told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek.

Bishop Larry Kulick announced the decision to reassign and move Father John Moineau on Monday.

“He didn’t do his job, he should face the consequences of that,” Garabedian said.

Bishop Kulick said Moineau broke church law when he said he personally reviewed the clearances for a man who worked at a church cemetery when they were renewed in 2020 — but didn’t.

That man, Shon Harrity, was accused of sexual assault of a minor…

View Cache

Three lawsuits have been filed in Lafayette since June against the Diocese of Lafayette and churches over alleged sexual abuse of minors that occurred decades ago, including an alleged victim of former priest Gilbert Gauthe, who admitted to sexually abusing more than two dozen children in a plea deal in the 1980s.

Gauthe’s is believed to be one of the first publicized cases of priest sex abuse in the country and the first to be criminally indicted, decades before such scandals surfaced elsewhere in the country. He served 10 years of a 20-year sentence in jail. According to news reports from 2019, he was living in San Leon, Texas, not far from Galveston.

The three lawsuits followed a June Supreme Court decision that upheld a state law giving abuse survivors a three-year window to sue for damages. The legislature in 2021 gave abuse victims three years to sue their abusers…

View Cache

The Diocese of Scranton defrocked a priest found guilty under church law of sexually abusing children, permanently ending his priesthood with its most severe penalty, the diocese said Tuesday.

Martin M. Boylan, 76, who most recently served at St. Patrick Parish in West Scranton until his removal in April 2016, will never again exercise priestly ministry in any capacity following his dismissal from the clerical state after he was found guilty under canon law for the sexual assault of two minors, according to a statement from the diocese. As a result, Boylan is no longer allowed to celebrate Mass, hear confessions or administer any of the church’s sacraments.

Boylan declined to comment when reached by phone Tuesday afternoon.

The Vatican authorized the disciplinary process through the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Holy See.

Boylan’s dismissal concludes a canonical process launched eight years ago.

He has not…

View Cache

SCRANTON – Martin M. Boylan, formerly a priest of the Diocese of Scranton, has been dismissed from the clerical state at the conclusion of a disciplinary process authorized by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Holy See.

Boylan’s involuntarily dismissal from the clerical state was imposed after having been found guilty under canon law of the sexual assault of two minors. As a result, Boylan will never again exercise priestly ministry in any capacity. He may no longer celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or administer any of the Church’s sacraments. His relationship with the Diocese of Scranton in any official capacity is now permanently ended.

This penalty concludes a canonical process that began eight years ago.

On April 1, 2016, then-Father Boylan was removed from priestly ministry following an accusation of the sexual assault of a minor. Using the procedures in canon law and its Policy for…

View Cache

Martin Boylan, accused of sexually abusing five children, exhausted his appeals, diocese says

SCRANTON, Pa. — A former priest accused of sexually abusing children Diocese of Scranton has been permanently defrocked, diocesan officials said Tuesday.

The process authorized by Catholic Church’s disciplinary arm concluded against Martin M. Boylan, more than eight years after the church first removed him from priestly ministry.

Boylan, 76, was found guilty under canon law of sexually assaulting two children, but he was credibly accused by five. The diocese referred the allegations to law enforcement, as well. Boylan has not been criminally charged, records show.

Once convicted under canon law, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the arm of the Roman Curia that oversees discipline, reviewed the case and authorized Boylan’s removal from the clerical state, which the diocese said is the most severe penalty the church can impose on…

View Cache

Three years after a landmark French clerical sexual abuse report was published, a member of the commission that released it told OSV News the testimonies he heard had a great impact on him and that he remains in touch with those affected, helping them move forward.

Stéphane de Navacelle, 44, a lawyer and member of the New York and Paris bars, was appointed member of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, known as CIASE for its French acronym, in 2019. The commission was set up by the French bishops’ conference and the Conference of Religious of France. Chaired by senior civil servant Jean-Marc Sauvé, CIASE submitted its conclusions in Paris on Oct. 5, 2021, after an almost three-year investigation.

The report estimated that 330,000 children in France had been sexually abused since 1950 and provided the country’s first accounting of the crisis. According to Sauvé, Catholic authorities…

View Cache

A victim of clergy abuse as a child and member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) was in Lake Charles Tuesday to talk about how healing and validating it can be for victims when church officials admit a priest as credibly. He said a new state law could lead to more abuse victims coming forward. 

“I was abused for about four years in the central Missouri Diocese of Jefferson City by our assistant pastor, Father John Whiteley,” said David Clohessy of SNAP Missouri. “He molested me and my brothers.” 

Clohessy was 11.  One of his brothers went on to become a priest, was placed on the credibly accused list, civilly sued and has been suspended.

 Clohessy and other SNAP members, including a Lake Charles man who started the organization in Boston, are going to Alexandria, Baton Rouge and Lafayette with their message of a tougher approach. 

…

View Cache

October 08, 2024

Abuse victims blast Baton Rouge bishop

He’s hiding at least three ‘credibly accused’ abusive priests

Other church officials say allegations against the men are ‘credible’

SNAP: “If church officials are hiding them, what else might they be hiding?”

Support group also alerts child victims to unusual new legal opportunity

New law means that anyone molested at any time by anyone can now sue

‘By coming forward, the wounded can protect the vulnerable,’ victims say

WHAT

Using sidewalk chalk, while holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will write on a sidewalk the names of three publicly accused child molesting clerics who are NOT on the Baton Rouge Catholic bishop’s ‘credibly accused’ list and thus remain largely ‘under the radar.’

They will also urge 

—Catholics and others to “spread the word” about an unusual new Louisiana law that will make kids safer by enabling victims of childhood sexual…

View Cache

October 07, 2024

Victims blast Alexandria bishop on child abuse

They say he’s “concealing four publicly accused priests“

Other church officials admit charges against them are ‘credible’

SNAP: “If church officials are hiding these guys, what else might they be hiding?”

Support group also alerts child victims to unusual new legal opportunity

New law means that anyone molested at any time by anyone can now sue

‘By coming forward, the wounded can protect the vulnerable,’ victims say

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sexual abuse victims will

—disclose four publicly &/or ‘credibly accused’ priests who were in the Alexandria diocese but are NOT on the local Catholic bishop’s official ‘accused’ list, and

—write their names – and names of other alleged pedophile priests – on the sidewalk with chalk.

The victims will also urge 

—Catholics to “spread the word” about a new Louisiana law that “helps protect kids and expose predators” by enabling “anyone abused…

View Cache

On a Sunday morning, the pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, took the stage with his wife to reassure their congregation.

“Lisa is the only woman I’ve ever been with, and I’m the only man she’s ever been with — and I say ‘been with’ in a biblical sense,” said Ed Young, who founded the church in the late 1980s.

About 4,000 people were in the room, with thousands more watching online. The pastor added, “We don’t have to worry about any sexual skeletons in our closet coming from the past.”

In normal circumstances, it was the kind of claim that many churchgoers would hope went without saying. But in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year, a pastor with a clean reputation is not to be taken for granted.

The Youngs’ joint sermon came in late June, days after Robert Morris, the founder of the nearby Gateway Church, resigned…

View Cache

A deep, institutional corruption and a near-total aversion to accountability have condemned church leaders to an endless loop of disrepute.

Whenever Missouri megapreacher Mike Bickle received prophecies from God, he tended to shout the good news from the rooftops. But there was one recurring vision that he only shared with a few people. In the early 1980s, Bickle—who would go on to found International House of Prayer in Kansas City—confided in Tammy Woods, the 14-year-old who was babysitting his children, that his wife Diane would die and “that we could be together,” a prelude to his repeatedly sexually abusing her. The founder of the outrageously successful church certainly felt that God had his back. He had the same vision over a decade later, when he told his 19-year-old female intern that his wife would die and that they would get married.

But maybe…

View Cache

The Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, has filed bankruptcy, following several previous rounds of abuse claim settlements over the past 14 years, and is facing more than two dozen additional civil court claims with few resources left to compensate alleged victims.

Bishop John J. McDermott announced the filing “with a heavy heart” in an Oct. 1 video message and letter posted to the diocesan website, saying the decision to file for Chapter 11 protection had been made “following an extensive period of prayer and consultation.”

He stressed that the bankruptcy filing “involves only the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington” and “does not include” the diocese’s 63 parishes “and other associated agencies,” adding that he hoped “the process will have little impact upon our parishes and ministries.”

According to the bishop’s Sept. 30 affidavit to the bankruptcy court, the diocese’s parishes in 2006 were redesignated under Vermont civil law as charitable trusts, having previously been part of the diocese’s “corporate sole structure” since…

View Cache

The recent trend of prominent church leaders stepping down for misconduct, abuse and moral failures hasn’t died down.

Arguably one of the biggest stories of the summer in North Texas continues to develop well into the fall, as yet another North Texas church leader has made news for the wrong reasons.

David Scarberry, who serves as a staff “evangelistic outreach leader” at Revival City Church in McKinney according to church watchdog site Watchkeep, was arrested last week and charged with continuous violence against family, a charge he told KERA was the result of “false accusations.”

Scarberry’s story doesn’t end with these latest charges, however. KERA also reported that Scarberry “spent five years in an Oklahoma prison after he was found guilty of using an offensive weapon in a felony and for two additional drug felonies in 2002,” and that “[h]is ex-wife filed for the domestic abuse protective…

View Cache

Why Pope Francis singled out the Sodalitium with a Special Mission to probe abuse and violence in that Peruvian organization?

English Edition

Abuse wise, Mexico, Spain, and Argentina, would need similar probes, but on top of abuse, sexual and otherwise, the Sodalitium undermines its own church’s authority. Politicization of religious practice is not new to Peru or Latin America, but at the Sodalitium it goes against the Church’s own interest and future.

What makes the Peruvian Sodalitium a catalog of sorts of the worst features of Roman Catholicism in Latin America? What made Pope Francis willing to act on that organization in ways that he has avoided up until now with the Mexican Legion of Christ, the Spanish Opus Dei, or the Argentine Institute of the Incarnate Word?

Those three organizations are as abusive as the Sodalitium; the Legion, the Opus, the Institute, and the Sodalitium all share a…

View Cache

ROME – A former member of a scandal-ridden Peruvian lay group under Vatican investigation has called apparent attempts to discredit the inquiry false and defamatory, and asked those critical of the process to respect both the course of justice and the Vatican officials tasked with carrying it out.

Speaking to Crux, Martin Scheuch, a former member of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) who has testified as part of the Vatican’s ongoing investigation of the group, rejected assertions of recently expelled members who have claimed the process was unfair.

Such assertions, Scheuch said, are false, because “all the accused were able to defend themselves, and those of us who testified knew that what we said would be analyzed and then presented to the [accused parties] for their defense.”

“They could defend themselves and present their defense, which exposed us a lot,” he said, saying that “Despite this, and because of the trust that Archbishop…

View Cache

BRUSSELS – Two Peruvian laypeople who gave testimony as part of an ongoing Vatican inquiry into a scandal-plagued lay movement announced Friday on social media that they have filed a criminal complaint against one of the Vatican’s investigators, and are refusing to withdraw it even facing a papal threat of excommunication.

In a video published on YouTube Sept. 27, laywoman Giuliana Caccia Arana and layman Sebastian Blanco said they received a call from the Vatican’s embassy in Lima on Sept. 26 asking for an urgent meeting. During that meeting with Archbishop Paolo Gualtieri, the Vatican’s envoy in Peru, they said they were given a document “that includes a penal precept, signed by Pope Francis, in which we are given a period of 48 hours to comply with five conditions.”

If those conditions are not met, they said, “we will enter into a process of excommunication ferendae sententiae,” meaning it is not…

View Cache

October 1, 2024

FALL RIVER — The Diocese of Fall River announces today that it is updating its list of “Credibly Accused” clergy posted on the Diocesan website.

Two of those who are listed have died recently and the information for each has been updated to reflect this. Father James F. Buckley died on July 7, 2024, and Joseph D. Maguire died on September 11, 2024.

The Diocese has also added the name of Father Thomas Kocik to the listing of “Credibly Accused” clergy.

Following a review of all older files, the Diocese began an investigation into allegations made against Father Kocik involving actions alleged to have occurred in the 1990s. At the outset of the investigation, Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., placed Father Kocik on administrative leave and restricted his priestly faculties. The restrictions, (which continue), include prohibition from exercising public ministry including the celebration of…

View Cache

“New Mexico has the sad distinction of being one of the least protective states in the nation when it comes to victims’ rights,” Torrez said

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez unveiled a plan to amend the Crime Victims’ Rights Act on Friday, Oct. 4. Torrez was joined by lawmakers and advocates to announce the plan for the 2025 legislative session. The amended legislation comes after Target 7 Investigations did a report on Patrick Howard. Howard is a former Las Cruces High School teacher who admitted to fondling students. However, a Dona Ana County judge released Howard from his probation years early. His victims were not notified when the judge held a hearing of his release.

According to the New Mexico Department of Justice, New Mexico law establishes protections for victims but lacks enforcement to ensure protections are followed. The bills aim to protect…

View Cache

The Diocese of Fall River has announced that it is updating its list of “Credibly Accused” clergy posted on the Diocesan website.

Two of those who are listed have died recently and the information for each has been updated to reflect this. Father James F. Buckley died on July 7, 2024, and Joseph D. Maguire died on September 11, 2024.

The Diocese has also added the name of Father Thomas Kocik to the listing of “Credibly Accused” clergy.

Following a review of all older files, the Diocese began an investigation into allegations made against Father Kocik involving actions alleged to have occurred in the 1990s. At the outset of the investigation, Bishop Edgar da Cunha placed Father Kocik on administrative leave and restricted his priestly faculties. The restrictions, (which continue), include prohibition from exercising public ministry including the celebration of public Mass or of other sacraments. He also…

View Cache

The Wisconsin Attorney General’s request to review sealed claims of clergy abuse survivors was blocked earlier this week by a federal bankruptcy judge.

On Thursday, clergy abuse survivors gathered on the steps of the Federal Building and Courthouse in downtown Milwaukee to criticize the judge’s decision to block access to the court documents, which are sealed in a bankruptcy filing by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Under the denied request, Attorney General Josh Kaul and the State Department of Justice (DOJ) would have used information from the documents to investigate hundreds of claims of abuse.

The names are sealed as part of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, which was closed nearly a decade ago, brought on by the financial strain of settling sexual abuse claims.

Advocacy group Nate’s Mission claims the documents contain direct evidence of over 10,000 incidents of abuse by nearly 300 clergy, teachers, and volunteers….

View Cache

A Wisconsin judge has denied the Attorney General’s request to unseal abuse records, citing confidentiality concerns for survivors.

A Wisconsin judge denied Attorney General Josh Kaul’s request to unseal abuse records in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, originally filed over 13 years ago.

The Department of Justice in Wisconsin requested access to sealed records of abuse survivors as part of the Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative, launched in 2021. This initiative aims to conduct a thorough review of historical clergy abuse incidents in Wisconsin.

However, Chief Bankruptcy Judge G. Michael Halfenger ruled against reopening the case, which was closed in 2016.

Halfenger ruled that the attorney general’s request was improper and unrelated to the bankruptcy case. The judge determined that the state’s request lacked sufficient justification and posed significant risks to the confidentiality of 550 abuse survivors who participated in the bankruptcy proceedings with the expectation…

View Cache

A federal judge ruled this week against allowing access to court documents sealed nearly a decade ago in a bankruptcy filing by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, denying a request made by the state Department of Justice as part of an investigation into sexual abuse committed by faith leaders in Wisconsin.

Judge G. Michael Halfenger, bankruptcy judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, wrote in his decision that the agency failed to make a valid case for revisiting the bankruptcy decision and did not provide a sufficient plan for notifying clergy abuse victims of its request for access to sealed records.

In a motion filed last year with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Attorney General Josh Kaul requested a confidential review of “sealed claims by survivors, objections to those claims, briefing on such objections, and rulings on the objections.” Kaul argued the…

View Cache

Facing potentially millions in sexual abuse settlements, Burlington’s Roman Catholic Diocese says it had no choice but to file for bankruptcy this week.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, an effort to shield itself from more than a dozen ongoing sex abuse claims by establishing a process where remaining funds can be split amongst any possible settlements. It comes after already paying out nearly $40 million since 2006.

Burlington Bishop John McDermott said in a statement Wednesday that the diocese is responsible for the payments. He says he hopes payouts do not include parishes and other associated agencies but that he can’t guarantee that separate entities will not have to contribute.

“While my heart is heavy with the decision to pursue Chapter 11 reorganization, such weight pales in comparison to the pain suffered by victims of abuse. I know that the…

View Cache

The ten leading members whom the Pope last week expelled from the scandal-plagued Peruvian movement Sodalicio were responsible for abuse of different kinds: physical, including sadism and violence; of conscience; and spiritual abuse, such as using information obtained in spiritual direction. The sanctions for these are established in canon law and have been used before. But Alejandro Bermúdez, the last in the list, has been expelled for abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism. Canon law in his case has been applied in a new, creative, but entirely legitimate way, one that has implications for those who profess to be Catholic journalists but who act in ways that disgrace their profession and undermine their claim to be witnesses to the Gospel. I know something about his case, because I was one of those who gave evidence to the Vatican.

But first: It will surprise no one who…

View Cache

Some Child Victims Act plaintiffs will be allowed to resume their lawsuits against Catholic parishes and schools in the Buffalo Diocese.

Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York has denied the diocese’s request to keep in place a temporary stay that since 2020 has blocked all lawsuits against parishes and other Catholic entities from moving forward in New York state courts.

The ruling does not impact a separate stay that applies to the Buffalo Diocese, which under Chapter 11 rules is automatically protected from state court litigation as it works through the bankruptcy process.

Bucki previously approved the diocese’s last seven requests for the temporary stay.

The diocese’s lawyers maintained that the stay was necessary so that the diocese would not be distracted in its mediated negotiations for a bankruptcy court settlement with an estimated 900 claimants who accused priests and…

View Cache

Mohsin Meghji drew scrutiny for behavior with bankruptcy judges in unrelated case involving drugmaker

Clergy abuse survivors and other parties ensnared in the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans’ expensive and lengthy bankruptcy reorganization are concerned after a nationally recognized business-turnaround expert brought on to assist with resolving the unusually contentious proceeding had some of his actions questioned in an unrelated case.

Judge Meredith Grabill’s chosen expert, Mohsin “Mo” Meghji, was recently the subject of a Wall Street Journal investigation that examined ethical concerns over some of his maneuvering in a pharmaceutical company’s high-stakes bankruptcy reorganization.

None of the clergy abuse claimants – who have spent years fighting for compensation – or their supporters wanted to speak on the record about the Journal’s investigation into Meghji for fear of troubling Grabill after their side and the church each presented to the judge competing settlement plans that are hundreds of millions of dollars…

View Cache

Two priests from a Catholic diocese in Poland that has been hit by a series of scandals in recent years have been charged with sexual offences against minors. A third former priest from the same diocese has also been charged with fraud allegedly committed during his time as a clergyman.

The announcement by prosecutors came as the local bishop revealed that the diocese of Sosnowiec is establishing a special commission to investigate the scandals. Those include a drug-fuelled sex party in a church apartment last year that led to a priest being convicted and the resignation of the previous bishop.

The first of the accused is a 63-year-old priest (who, like the other two, has not been named by prosecutors). He has been charged with committing two sexual offences against minors and placed in pretrial detention.

The second suspect, a priest aged 67, was charged with a total of nine “offences…

View Cache

A federal judge has denied Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul’s request to review the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s sealed bankruptcy records as part of his investigation into clergy sex abuse.

U.S. District Judge G. Michael Halfenger denied Kaul’s request on Monday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday. Halfenger called the scope of Kaul’s request “staggering” even before considering what it would take to provide abuse survivors notice of the request.

He added that Kaul did not give him any compelling reason to grant the request, calling it a “massive fishing expedition.”

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011 to address unresolved claims by abuse survivors. The case ended with a settlement in 2016 that called for the archdiocese to pay hundreds of survivors $21 million. Hundreds of their claims remain under seal.

Kaul, a Democrat, launched his investigation in April 2021, saying he wanted to develop a full picture…

View Cache

Wisconsin’s attorney general sought documents as part of investigation into sexual abuse by clergy

A federal judge won’t let Wisconsin’s attorney general review sealed records from a bankruptcy case involving the state’s largest Catholic diocese.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul’s office filed a motion last year, asking to confidentially view those records as part of a statewide investigation into sexual abuse by clergy and other faith leaders.

But, in an order this week, U.S. bankruptcy judge G. Michael Halfenger concluded the AG’s office hadn’t given a sufficient legal reason to reopen the case under bankruptcy law.

Milwaukee’s archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, before reaching a $21 million settlement deal with hundreds of sexual abuse survivors.

In his ruling, Halfenger noted that the case was closed more than seven years ago when since-retired Judge Susan Kelley approved the settlement. And Halfenger questioned why…

View Cache

The terms of a recent diocesan bankruptcy settlement, which require parishes to declare an “abbreviated bankruptcy,” are a first for such cases and shows the impact of a Supreme Court ruling in June, a legal scholar told OSV News.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre announced Sept. 26 that it had reached a preliminary $323 million settlement in its long-running — and at points contentious — bankruptcy case, facing a total of some 500 or more sex abuse claims due to two New York State lookback laws.

In its statement, the diocese said that no parishes would be closed — but they would have to enter into “an abbreviated Chapter 11” bankruptcy, expected to “be resolved within 48 hours of filing,” to secure a release from liability.

“The feature of the proposed settlement that has Rockville Centre’s 135 or so parishes filing their own chapter 11 cases is a first in…

View Cache

Regrettably, it’s time for another installment of our long-running feature, Catholics Behaving Badly.

First up is the Denver Archdiocese, which issued an unsigned statement regarding the expulsion of various members of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae after a Vatican investigation found what it termed “sadistic” abuses of power at the organization.

“The Archdiocese of Denver is shocked and saddened by the news of expulsions of members from the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, based on decades-old allegations in South America,” the statement began. “While the Archdiocese is actively working to understand the full extent of the Vatican’s investigation, we are unable to comment on specifics. This news is inconsistent with our longstanding experience of the men who have served within the Archdiocese of Denver.”

So, the archdiocese admits it doesn’t understand the “full extent of the Vatican’s investigation” but feels comfortable casting aspersions on it? Saying it is “inconsistent” with…

View Cache

A group of members of Dallas-based Gateway Church have filed a proposed class action lawsuit, alleging that the church fraudulently claimed it was giving 15% of members’ tithe to global missions, but did not.

According to the suit, Gateway should have been giving away a minimum of $15 million a year to global missions, since the church had annual revenue around $100 million.

However, the suit claims Gateway hired a “seasoned CPA” to oversee its global ministries in July 2011. And during his tenure, which ended in 2014, “he never observed the Global Ministries fund give away more than $3 million in any year,” the suit states.

Following initial publication of this article, Gateway Church spokesperson Lawrence Swicegood provided a statement.

“We do not comment on pending litigation,” Swicegood told The Roys Report (TRR). “These are serious allegations. Some of these concerns were brought to us recently, and we are actively investigating…

View Cache

The Archdiocese of Seattle announced on Friday the final settlements totaling approximately $785,000 for three separate claims related to allegations of sexual abuse by representatives of the Church. The cases, from the 1970s and ’80s, involve individuals who are now deceased.

In a news release, the archdiocese said it has settled:

• Two cases involving allegations of sexual abuse by Father Gerald Moffat in the mid-1980s when he served as pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Snoqualmie. Moffat is deceased.

• A case involving an allegation of sexual abuse by Terry McGrath in approximately 1975 when he was a basketball coach at Holy Family Parish in Kirkland. McGrath is deceased.

Moffat was included on the archdiocese’s List of Clergy and Religious Brothers and Sisters for Whom Allegations of Sexual Abuse of a Minor Have Been Admitted, Establish or Determined to be Credible when the list was…

View Cache

Catholic Priest Joseph O’Brien’s disturbing Alton story

This article discusses matters of sexual abuse, which may be distressing for some readers. We aim to approach this subject with sensitivity and accuracy, providing insights into the ongoing issues surrounding this topic. Reader discretion is advised.

I recently learned that a monster once lived in Alton. Not a mythical monster like the Piasa Bird, but a human monster. And he was a Catholic priest.

His name was Joseph Cullen O’Brien, and he served as pastor of the long-defunct St. Patrick’s Church in the Hunterstown neighborhood from 1968 to 1970.

My Catholic childhood was spent at St. Mary’s, but I heard plenty about O’Brien from Joe Dromgoole, my great uncle, who worked for The Telegraph. St. Patrick’s was his lifelong parish, and Uncle Joe believed O’Brien’s abrasiveness was destroying the church.

Uncle Joe told me that he first met O’Brien when he…

View Cache

A familiar face will be coming back to the local area soon, with Father Barry Stechshculte being welcomed into the Holy Cross Family of Parishes, replacing Father Ethan Hoying as the parochial vicar for the parish in Coldwater.

The announcement was made on Sept. 29 in a bulletin published by the parish, with his expected start date being said to be on Oct. 14.

Hoying, on the other hand, will be taking the job of parochial vicar in the Wapakoneta and Botkins area in order to replace Father Mike Willig, who is being named the new vocations director for the Archdiocese.

The appointment comes months after Setchshculte was said to have resigned from his previous position from the St. Susanna Parish of Mason, Ohio in July after complaints were made by his parishioners. The complaints stemmed from his admission of destroying evidence possibly connected to the sexual abuse of minors…

View Cache

The scandal came to light when the man fainted during the party and the emergency services had to be called to treat him.

Two Polish priests have been detained on child sex abuse charges, prosecutors said Wednesday, the latest development in a southern Poland diocese rocked by a wave of scandals involving its clergy.

Prosecutors said they had launched an investigation into sexual abuse after evidence emerged as they were probing a homicide-suicide case involving two other priests from the diocese of Sosnowiec.

Three men were now detained as part of the investigation into the abuse, among them two Catholic priests from the Sosnowiec diocese.

“The two men have been charged with committing sexual offences against minors,” prosecution spokesman Jakub Seweryn told AFP.

The third man, a former priest, has been charged with fraud.

Prosecutors said they had identified the victims and declined to elaborate on the details of the…

View Cache

What are the contexts in abuse and sexual exploitation extant regarding clergy in the Serbian Orthodox Church?

There are many scandals related to the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church and their sodomic behavior. No one can deny this. 

Abuse and sexual exploitation is abnormal predatory behavior.

It is rarely talked about that Orthodox churches have the same, and according to information, maybe even worse prevalence of pedophile and homosexual scandals, but unfortunately they do not get the media attention they have in the Catholic Church.

There is very little or no discussion on this issue among Orthodox Christians. 

So, based on the evidence that has been publicly confirmed as true, there is a clear pattern of sexual abuse in the Serbian Orthodox Churches, but without criticism in the media and public inquiries.

One can only wonder what secrets lie within the hierarchy yet to be discovered.

Last year, at…

View Cache

Pope Francis also scolded over status of women in Roman Catholic Church

THE Pope has pledged to raise the status of women and prevent the cover-up of sexual abuse in his Church, after facing criticism during a visit to Belgium last week.

“Womanhood speaks to us of fruitful welcome, nurturing, and life-giving dedication — for this reason, a woman is more important than a man,” Pope Francis told listeners at the French-speaking Catholic University of Louvain.

“Let us be more attentive to the many daily expressions of this love, from friendship to the workplace, from studies to the exercise of responsibility in Church and society. . . Let us not forget: the Church is female, not male.”

The Pope spoke after listening to a 2000-word letter from students, praising his work for justice and integral development, but criticising the Roman Catholic Church’s all-male priesthood and “theology of women”.

He said that the “role…

View Cache

The penitential liturgy with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 1 opened with testimonies of those who have faced great suffering, among those a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. Laurence Gien, who was 11 when he was sexually abused by a priest in his native South Africa, told OSV News that standing in front of bishops, cardinals and Pope Francis himself, giving testimony about his lifetime trauma, was his way of “just trying to appeal to their better selves.”

The penitential liturgy concluded a two-day retreat for the 368 members of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which opened with Mass in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 2 and will run through Oct. 27.

Gien is a successful musician, pursuing his career as a baritone and performing on stages across Europe. Based in Germany, he has sung at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, the National Theater in Prague, the…

View Cache

Cindy Clemishire – the woman who accused former Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris of sexually abusing her when she was 12 – turned down a nondisclosure agreement that would have kept the alleged abuse secret, she told lawmakers at a Texas House committee hearing Wednesday.

During the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence meeting, Clemishire said Morris’ lawyers offered her $25,000 in 2007 if she agreed to sign the NDA and take blame for the alleged abuse.

Clemishire declined, she said, because she wanted to tell her story.

“I’m sitting here today because I did not accept that offer and refused to sign an NDA saying I couldn’t speak about my life,” Clemishire said.

Clemishire made the accusations against Morris in June on the Wartburg Watch and the Christian Post, alleging the abuse started Christmas night 1982 and continued through 1987.

Morris later admitted to…

View Cache

Chris Reed, former president of MorningStar Ministries, is starting a new church in South Carolina five weeks after resigning from the prophetic ministry and admitting to sexual misconduct with an adult student.

“Coming soon! Very soon. How this came together was/is a miracle,” Reed wrote in a Facebook post, which he’s since deleted. “Do not despise the day of small beginnings . . . (I)t’s been said ‘every move of God starts in a manger and dies in a cathedral.”

Jesus Revolution Church will open in York, South Carolina, on Oct. 13, Reed wrote in a letter to ministry subscribers today.  Reed wrote that Christians need a revolution, so Reed’s church will restore “the Fear of the Lord” and will be a base for people to learn how to heal the sick and cast out demons.

“Some may say, ‘Why the rush? Take your time; this…

View Cache

Editor’s note: Warning, this article contains graphic descriptions of images. 

Gabriel Mills, a father of five and husband who recently celebrated 20 years of marriage, was recently fired from his job as guest experience pastor at the Kenosha campus of the multisite Journey Church for allegedly sending himself nude photos of a female congregant from her husband’s cell phone.

Mills, 41, was charged Wednesday with two counts of capturing an intimate representation, which is a felony, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. At a court hearing that same day, his bail was set at $7,500.

The complaint against Mills, shared on Facebook by the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office, said the female congregant, identified as CMB, and her husband, identified as TAB, and an employee of the Racine Police Department, attended a life group meeting at Mills’ home with their children…

View Cache

This week, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to resolve 31 outstanding sex abuse lawsuits.

With assets largely depleted and a lack of insurance coverage, the diocese claims it has no other option if it is to settle with survivors. “The Diocese determined that reorganization under Chapter 11 is the only way to fairly and equitably fulfill the Diocese’s obligations to all survivors of sexual abuse,” Bishop John McDermott stated in the affidavit.

In the wake of groundbreaking reporting by the Boston Globe in the early 2000s that revealed widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests, as well as a massive conspiracy to cover up the matter, dioceses across the country, including here in Vermont, have reckoned with those sins — and paid dearly for them, both morally and financially. Since 2006, the Burlington Diocese has paid $34 million to settle 67 lawsuits filed…

View Cache

Harsh. Uncharitable. Abusive.

Alejandro Bermúdez acknowledges that those are accusations some critics have leveled against him about how he comports himself on social media, especially on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.

But even while acknowledging that he has sometimes been confrontational, Bermúdez told listeners during a Spanish-language video he posted Sept. 26 on Facebook that he had not done anything wrong because he was “telling the truth.”

“I think that behind all this there are people who simply hate my community,” he said in a Sept. 28 thread on X that provided an English translation of his remarks.

Bermúdez, 63, a Peruvian Catholic journalist and combative conservative media influencer, told his side of the story during the 24-minute Facebook video, which he posted a day after Pope Francis expelled him from the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a lay-led Catholic movement based in…

View Cache

Here is a compilation of videos of apologies delivered by Pope Francis and six cardinals ahead of the second session of the Synod on Synodality. [The cardinals read their apologies in Italian; the videos provide an English voice-over translation.]

Manila, Philippines – “How can we be credible in mission if we do not acknowledge our mistakes and bend down to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins?”

Emphasizing the need for the Catholic Church to confess its sins, Pope Francis led a penitential service on Tuesday, October 1, on the eve of the second session of the historic Synod on Synodality at the Vatican.

Six cardinals took turns in delivering apologies on behalf of the Catholic Church in a penitential service at Saint Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday. The final message and apology was reserved for the 87-year-old pontiff who, over the past 11 years, has called for a humble…

View Cache

Judge Carl Bucki ruled Monday that certain lawsuits that name diocesan entities like schools or parishes could be allowed to proceed.

Survivors of alleged clergy sexual abuse in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese are expressing “tempered hope” after a ruling in federal bankruptcy court this week that could mean their cases might finally be heard.

Judge Carl Bucki ruled Monday that certain lawsuits that name diocesan entities like schools or parishes could be allowed to proceed, denying the diocese’s request to keep them on hold.

The ruling means Judge Bucki will decide on a case-by-case basis which lawsuits can move ahead in state court and which ones won’t while the diocese’s bankruptcy case proceeds.

“This feels like it’s a great step forward,” said Brian Kirst, an abuse survivor.

Kirst is suing St. Patrick’s R.C. Church in East Randolph where he claims he was abused by Father Joseph Friel and Father Louis…

View Cache

Author Christa Brown shares her story of abuse and exposes the hypocrisy inherent in the Southern Baptist Convention’s cover-up.

When the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News published the 2019 exposé “Abuse of Faith,” documenting how the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) spent more than 20 years covering up sexual abuse allegations against nearly 400 clergymen, Christa Brown described it as a “hallelujah moment.” In her memoir, Baptistland, Brown recounts her own abuse by a pastor and her healing journey, providing solace for fellow victims.

Brown details the maddeningly minimal progress the country’s largest Protestant denomination has made to protect members after those revelations. Ignoring calls for meaningful action, attendees of the SBC’s 2024 annual meeting instead passed resolutions supporting Israel and opposing in vitro fertilization and voted to oust the First Baptist Church of Alexandria for allowing women pastors.

The biblically bereft boys club in Baptistland mirrors the dynamics of American politics. Through scandals and…

View Cache

The Irish Catholic Bishops Conference says “we cannot relent in our vigilance or in continuing to address the traumas of the past.”

Members of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference gathered this week in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, for their Autumn 2024 General Meeting. 

During the gathering, Bishops discussed the Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders, which was published on September 3.

The damning Report said that the Scoping Inquiry, which was set up to examine historical sexual abuse in Ireland’s day and boarding schools run by religious orders, heard of some 2,395 allegations of historical sexual abuse involving 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across all parts of the country between the years 1927 to 2013.

The Irish Government has accepted the principal recommendation of the Report, which calls for the establishment of a Commission of Investigation.

Meanwhile,…

View Cache

A judge will allow the state’s largest religious denomination to keep paying its staff as the church seeks Chapter 11 protection to reorganize finances depleted by past misconduct lawsuits.

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has expressed “interim” approval for the first steps in the Vermont Roman Catholic Diocese’s petition to reorganize finances depleted by clergy sex abuse lawsuits.

Judge Heather Cooper, holding an initial hearing Thursday in Burlington, voiced support for the state’s largest religious denomination to temporarily maintain its current staff, bank accounts and bookkeeping procedures as it becomes the nation’s 40th Catholic entity to seek Chapter 11 protection.

“This is an interim order,” Cooper said before scheduling another hearing for Nov. 26.

Under federal law, the diocese must present the court with a tally of its financial assets and liabilities and petition for Chapter 11 help. The judge, in turn, will decide whether to allow church leaders to develop a…

View Cache

The terms of a recent diocesan bankruptcy settlement, which require parishes to declare an “abbreviated bankruptcy,” are a first for such cases and shows the impact of a Supreme Court ruling in June, a legal scholar told OSV News.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre announced Sept. 26 that it had reached a preliminary $323 million settlement in its long-running — and at points contentious — bankruptcy case, facing a total of some 500 or more sex abuse claims due to two New York State lookback laws.

In its statement, the diocese said that no parishes would be closed — but they would have to enter into “an abbreviated Chapter 11” bankruptcy, expected to “be resolved within 48 hours of filing,” to secure a release from liability.

“The feature of the proposed settlement that has Rockville Centre’s 135 or so parishes filing their own chapter 11 cases is a first in…

View Cache

Two Catholic institutions say the child sex abuse accusations levied against a visiting priest cannot be tied back to the churches.

Eugene OR – A federal judge in Oregon is tasked with determining to what extent two Catholic organizations are responsible for the sexual abuse a priest is accused of having committed against a minor in the church.

U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai must decide if the Archdiocese of Portland and the Priests of the Sacred Heart have vicarious liability for the sexual abuse a plaintiff identified by the pseudonym John Doe accuses Father Bryan Benoit of committing against him in 1998 and 1999, or if the matter is best determined by a jury.

Doe claims Benoit, a visiting priest at the Holy Redeemer Church in North Bend, Oregon, during that time, sent sexually explicit emails from his personal Hotmail account that escalated into physical sexual abuse. Because Benoit was…

View Cache

In short:

In a landmark NSW court case a judge has found the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle directly and vicariously liable for the childhood sexual abuse of a man known as AA.

The court heard AA was given beer and cigarettes and was sexually assaulted after blacking out in a presbytery.

What’s next?

A directions hearing has been scheduled for next week.

*

A dying man has been awarded more than $500,000 in damages in a landmark case involving the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle was found to be directly and vicariously liable for the man’s abuse at the hands of a priest who taught scripture 55 years ago.

The man, who for legal reasons can only be referred to as AA, alleged he was abused by Father Ron Pickin at Wallsend High School in the Hunter Valley.

Father Pickin died in 2015.

In a judgement published this…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington has filed for bankruptcy protection after years of financial losses from settlements paid to survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Vermont’s last remaining diocese joins 39 other U.S Catholic religious organizations that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy which allows entities to continue normal operations while reorganizing finances.

Reorganization “is in the best interests of the Diocese, its creditors, and all parties in interest,” the Burlington Diocese argued in an emergency motion filed alongside its bankruptcy petition on Sept. 30.

VTDigger first reported on the Church’s bankruptcy filing on Monday.

Since the early 2000s, the Burlington Diocese has paid out over $34 million to survivors abused by clergy as far back as the 1950s, and to this day still faces 31 more pending civil lawsuits, according to Bishop John McDermott’s affidavit for the bankruptcy case.

In the process, the diocese has had to sell several properties,…

View Cache

The penitential liturgy with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 1 opened with testimonies of those who have faced great suffering, among those a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. Laurence Gien, who was 11 when he was sexually abused by a priest in his native South Africa, told OSV News that standing in front of bishops, cardinals and Pope Francis himself, giving testimony about his lifetime trauma, was his way of “just trying to appeal to their better selves.”

The penitential liturgy concluded a two-day retreat for the 368 members of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which opened with Mass in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 2 and will run through Oct. 27.

Gien is a successful musician, pursuing his career as a baritone and performing on stages across Europe. Based in Germany, he has sung at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, the National Theater in Prague, the…

View Cache

The Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy on Monday in an attempt to adequately resolve its fourth and largest wave of sex abuse lawsuits filed against it since the clergy sex scandal broke in 2002. 

“While my heart is heavy with the decision to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, such weight pales in comparison to the pain suffered by victims of abuse,” Bishop John McDermott said in a video statement released on Wednesday in which he addressed the decision to file and apologized to victims of clergy abuse. 

“This chapter in the Church’s history is horrific, and the harm it has caused, immeasurable,” McDermott said. “I know that the decision to file for reorganization may be challenging or even triggering for some survivors. For that and for every aspect of dealing with the crimes of these clergy, I sincerely apologize.” 

The diocese currently faces 31 lawsuits — with allegations dating back as far…

View Cache

An advocate group for abuse victims says the Catholic Church is failing to follow its own rules to stand down priests accused of wrongdoing.

Assurances were made by Palmerston North Bishop John Adams to the Manawatū Standard, in the wake of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care report in July, that priests accused of abuse would be removed from duty.

But the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests Aotearoa claims the bishop’s remarks are a direct contradiction of how the church handled two recent complaints.

The group’s leader Christopher Longhurst said two priests, who the Standard has chosen not to identify, had allegations of historical sexual misconduct made about them but neither were stood down.

A complaint was made in 2016 about a priest for an incident in Palmerston North in 1986 and a second priest was named in a complaint made in May last year alleging abuse by priests in…

View Cache

‘We are only allowed to look down on a person to help them get up,’ Pope Francis told young people at the penitential ceremony.

For the first time, victims of clerical abuse, of war and indifference told their stories Tuesday (Oct. 1) in the marbled nave of St. Peter’s Basilica before Pope Francis, prominent prelates and young people representing the next generation of Catholics.

The penitential ceremony occurred during a vigil that opened the monthlong Vatican summit on the theme of synodality, described by organizers as “a new way of being church,” focused on welcoming and dialogue.

A South African baritone singer, who introduced himself as Laurence, described the lasting trauma he has suffered from being abused by a priest as a child. He spoke about the effects the sexual abuse crisis, and its cover-up, have had on the credibility of the church.

“This moment in time, in all its…

View Cache

The Catholic Church cannot be credible in its mission of proclaiming Christ unless it acknowledges its mistakes and bends down “to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins,” Pope Francis said.

In an unusual penitential liturgy Oct. 1, the pope had seven cardinals read requests for forgiveness that he said he wrote himself “because it was necessary to call our main sins by name.”

The sins included abuse, a lack of courage and commitment to peace, lack of respect for every human life, mistreatment of women or failure to acknowledge their talents and contributions, using church teaching as weapons to hurl at others, lack of concern for the poor and a failure to recognize the dignity and role of every baptized person in the church.

The penitential liturgy with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica concluded a two-day retreat for the 368 members of the Synod of Bishops…

View Cache

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has announced that the archdiocese has sued its longtime primary insurance company, Chubb, for “attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims” of sex abuse.

“It has always been our wish to expeditiously settle all meritorious claims,” Dolan said Oct. 1. “However, Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premium by today’s standards, is now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.”

In response, Chubb has put the onus on the Archdiocese of New York.

“The Archdiocese of New York tolerated, concealed, and covered up rampant child sexual abuse for decades, and despite having substantial financial resources, they still refuse to compensate their victims,” Chubb said in a company statement to Crux.

“Instead, the Archdiocese is attempting…

View Cache

After news broke last week that the Vatican had expelled 10 prominent members of a scandal-plagued Peruvian lay group, including the pastor of a Denver parish, the victim of the priest has spoken out against rumors he says are not only untrue, but revictimizing.

“I felt doubly betrayed, doubly victimized and violated, because I tried to be a good person (but) they don’t care. They care more about their vanity and their name,” Aharon Felipe Cardona, formerly Andrés prior to his conversion to Judaism around two years ago, told Crux.

Cardona is a former member of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a men’s lay group founded in Lima in 1971 by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, who last month was expelled amid an ongoing Vatican inquiry after previously being sanctioned in 2017 for the physical, psychological, spiritual and sexual abuse of members, including the sexual abuse of minors.

He spoke following a Sept….

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy on Monday in a bid to resolve more than two dozen sexual abuse lawsuits.

The diocese, which currently faces 31 lawsuits, doesn’t have insurance anymore to cover these claims, and has depleted assets, said Bishop John McDermott in an affidavit filed in federal bankruptcy court on Monday. In the filing, McDermott wrote that a large jury settlement in any of these cases would leave the diocese unable to compensate other survivors.

“The Diocese determined that reorganization under Chapter 11 is the only way to fairly and equitably fulfill the Diocese’s obligations to all survivors of sexual abuse,” McDermott said in the affidavit.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy, often called “reorganization” bankruptcy, allows an organization to continue to operate and propose a plan to pay creditors, in this case survivors of sexual abuse, over time.

The Vermont diocese began facing…

View Cache

Bishop Christopher Saunders appeared in Australian court Monday to enter a plea of not guilty to 28 criminal charges, including allegations of sexual assault and indecent dealings with a minor.

The former bishop of the Diocese of Broome stands accused of a long slate of alleged crimes of grooming and abusing young Aboriginal men over a period of eight years, beginning in 2008. Saunders, 74, confirmed to the court that he understood the charges and entered a plea of not guilty on all counts.

He is due back in court for the next hearing in the case in January, having last appeared in June as his lawyer argued against a petition to change the bishop’s bail conditions.

The bishop also faces several separate firearms charges, including illegal possession of a weapon. He did not enter a plea on those charges during the Sept. 30 hearing.

Saunders was arrested in…

View Cache

Vermont’s Catholic church has filed for bankruptcy protection as it faces more than 30 lawsuits alleging child sex abuse by clergy decades ago, according to a filing in federal bankruptcy court.

Since 2006, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, the state’s only diocese, has settled 67 lawsuits for a total of $34 million, Bishop John McDermott said in the court filing on Monday. Twenty of those were settled after the Legislature in 2019 removed the statue of limitations on when a claim could be made and the diocese faces 31 more, according to McDermott’s affidavit.

A 2019 report released by the diocese found there were “credible and substantiated” allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against 40 priests in the state since 1950. All but one of those allegations occurred prior to 2000, and none of the priests was still in ministry, the report said. Most of the…

View Cache

The Vatican’s decision to expel 10 important members from the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a scandal-plagued society of apostolic life founded in Peru in 1971, was received with surprise — and at times shock — by many in Peru.

Once a powerful Catholic institution that gathered members of the Peruvian elite, the Sodalitium saw itself hit by dozens of denouncements of sexual and psychological abuse, physical violence, misappropriation of funds, and other crimes by former members and journalists.

A Vatican inquiry into the organization included a 2023 investigative mission to Peru, formed by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who is the adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Spanish Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, also a member of that department. They gathered documents and interviewed members of the SCV, its alleged victims and journalists during their trip.

As a result of the investigation, Luis Fernando Figari, the Sodalitium’s founder, was expelled from the…

View Cache

New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan this week said the archdiocese’s longtime insurer is “attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation” to pay out financial claims to sex abuse victims, with the archdiocese launching a lawsuit against the insurer in response.

The prelate said in a letter to the faithful on Tuesday that the archdiocese has already settled more than 500 claims of sex abuse “not covered by insurance.” Yet there remain around 1,400 unresolved abuse allegations, Dolan said. 

“It has always been our wish to expeditiously settle all meritorious claims,” the archbishop said. “However, Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premiums by today’s standards, is now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.” 

“As a result we have sued them for violating New…

View Cache

Giuliana Caccia and Sebastián Blanco pretended to be victims to derail Pope Francis’s probe on abuse and violence at the Peruvian Sodalitium.

In Belgium, Pope Francis calls to bring evil to light. “Let it be known and whether layperson, priest, or bishop: let the abuser be judged.”

In Lima, archbishop Carlos Castillo cited Pope Francis’s call in Belgium and called for a “a deep process of renovation in the Church. We need to raise our voice, honestly, without subterfuges or lies.”

Less than one week after Pope Francis’s decision to expel a total of eleven leaders from the Sodalitium, news of the Pope issuing a decree of excommunication against two far-right activists broke on Sunday.

The Sodalitium, a Roman Catholic order marred by abuse accusations since the late early years of this century, found their “champion” in a couple of far-right activists pretending to be victims of clergy sexual abuse to…

View Cache

A Christian organization long plagued by allegations of child sex abuse is now facing a lawsuit that accuses the group of failing to protect a girl from one of her peers at its missionary training center.

Ethnos360, a religious nonprofit group based in Sanford, Florida, that was formerly known as New Tribes Mission, sends missionaries and their families to far-flung corners of the world. In 2019, multiple women told NBC News that they had been sexually abused decades earlier by their “dorm dads” — missionaries tasked with caring for children at New Tribes Mission’s overseas boarding schools while their parents served in the field.

The group issued a public apology to the abuse survivors following the NBC News report and said that it had “incorporated significant child safety training” after an independent party commissioned by New Tribes Mission shared recommendations…

View Cache

Pope Francis used his only Mass in Belgium to praise the courage of survivors of abuse at the hands of priests in improvised remarks to a crowd of some 30,000 people at Brussels’ King Baudouin stadium.

He publicly demanded priests who abuse young people be punished, and the church hierarchy stop covering up their crimes.

Belgium has a legacy of abuse and cover-up within the church, including the case of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, a very senior member of the clergy who was allowed to quietly retire in 2010 after he admitted to have sexually abused his nephew for 13 years.

Vangheluwe was only defrocked last year by Francis.

“Evil must not be hidden. Evil must be brought out into the open,” Francis said to repeated rounds of applause.

On Friday night, Francis held a meeting with 17 abuse survivors where he heard first hand the trauma they endured and…

View Cache

Cardinal Timothy Dolan also announced that the archdiocese will be selling its headquarters on First Avenue in Manhattan, moving into smaller offices elsewhere in 2025.

The Archdiocese of New York filed a lawsuit against its insurance provider for allegedly refusing to pay out victims of sexual abuse cases stemming from years of scandals that plagued the Church.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, said in a letter to church members Monday that the insurance company Chubb claimed it was not obligated to settle claims because the abuse of victims was “expected or intended” by the church.

“Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premium by today’s standards, is now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors,” Dolan wrote in the letter.

The Archdiocese sued…

View Cache

Pope Francis urged Catholic bishops to be more transparent and aggressive in combatting child sex abuse in the Church during his visit to Belgium on Sunday, declaring that “evil must not be hidden” and “must be brought out into the open.”

“Let it be known, as some abuse victims have done, and with courage,” Francis said in Brussels. “Let it be known. And let the abuser be judged. Let the abuser be judged, whether layperson, priest or bishop: Let the abuser be judged.”

The Pope’s remarks came two days after Belgium’s prime minister and king severely criticized him for the Catholic Church’s failure to prevent child sex abuse and make amends with survivors. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called for the Church to take “concrete steps” to adequately address the problem instead of merely paying lip service to solving it. King Philippe agreed.

“It has taken far too…

View Cache

[See also Bishop John J. McDermott’s affidavit.]

After decades of sexual abuse cases and dozens of settlements, the Catholic Diocese fears it won’t be able to compensate all the survivors, according to court paperwork.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont has filed for bankruptcy in federal court. It follows decades of sexual abuse allegations and settlements, according to current Bishop John McDermott, who was just installed in July.

In 2019, an independent committee formed by former Bishop Christopher Coyne published a public report about the abuse allegations.

To date, the Diocese says 40 priests had credible claims against them, for sexual abuse of a minor. Most of the incidents occurred between 1950 and 1980, according to court documents.

According to paperwork filed Monday, the Diocese settled nearly 30 cases in 2006 and 11 cases in 2013.

In 2019, the Vermont legislature removed the limitations period…

View Cache

The state’s only Catholic diocese, which has paid out more than $30 million to survivors over the years, still faces 31 lawsuits related to decades-old claims.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, a maneuver through which the church will seek to resolve scores of sex abuse claims and preserve its assets.

The state’s only Catholic diocese, which has paid out more than $30 million to sex abuse survivors in recent decades, still faces 31 pending civil lawsuits related to decades-old abuse claims, according to the petition filed in federal bankruptcy court in Vermont.

Most of the pending lawsuits were triggered by Vermont lawmakers’ 2019 decision to lift the statute of limitations for civil claims related to sexual abuse of children. One of those cases had been scheduled for trial earlier this month but was abruptly canceled without public explanation, VTDigger.org reported.

…

View Cache

The state’s largest religious denomination will continue to operate local parishes as it becomes the nation’s 40th church entity to try to reorganize depleting finances in court.

Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese has filed for bankruptcy protection in the wake of more costly lawsuits alleging priest misconduct as far back as 1950, according to a filing Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Burlington.

The state’s largest religious denomination, reporting 110,000 members, will continue to operate 63 local parishes as it becomes the nation’s 40th Catholic entity (of a total of some 200) to try to reorganize depleting finances in court.

In its initial petition, the diocese didn’t offer specific financial figures but instead estimated its assets at between $10 million to $50 million, its liabilities at between $1 million to $10 million, and its number of creditors at between 100 to 199, with 30 unresolved lawsuits said to be its largest…

View Cache

The three-day “apostolic journey” of Pope Francis to Belgium has largely been an occasion for Belgian advocates to call on the Catholic Church to better address clergy sexual abuse, to reconsider its view of women, to integrate LGBTQ+ individuals, and to “open up to gender.”

Two days after meeting privately with 17 victims of pedophile priests, Pope Francis said he “felt their suffering” during a Mass at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels before urging the local church “not to cover up the abusers.”

In his homily, concluding his trip to Belgium September 29, he did not spare the episcopate: “I ask everyone: do not cover up abuse! I ask the bishops: do not cover up abuse! Condemn the abusers and help them recover from this disease of abuse,” the pope declared to the numerous faithful present, estimated at 40,000 by authorities.

However, Francis said nothing about the Vatican’s responsibility. When…

View Cache

Calling on the world’s bishops not to cover up any instance or form of abuse, Pope Francis said the evil of abuse must be exposed.

“There is room for everyone in the church,” he said, and everyone will face God at the final judgment.

However, there is no room for abuse and no room for cover-ups, he said on his final day in Belgium, a country that has been shaken by shocking revelations of abuse by church members, including a Belgian bishop the pope laicized this year, 14 years after the bishop resigned after admitting he abused minors, including his own nephew.

In his homily during Mass Sept. 29 in Brussels’ open-air King Baudouin Stadium, the pope strayed from his prepared text to urge bishops to hide nothing, “condemn abuses” and assist perpetrators in getting help.

Nearly 40,000 faithful from Belgium and surrounding countries attended the Mass, which marked the…

View Cache

Speaking to a crowd of around 39,000 in the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, the pontiff wrapped up a difficult visit to Belgium by saying, “There is no place for the covering up of abuse.”

Pope Francis has urged all members of the Church to never cover up abuse, saying “Evil must not be hidden.”

Speaking to a crowd of around 39,000 in the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, the pontiff wrapped up a difficult visit to Belgium by saying, “There is no place for the covering up of abuse.”

“Let us think of what happens when little ones are scandalised, hurt, abused by those who are supposed to care for them, of the wounds of pain and helplessness, first of all in the victims, but also in their families and in the community as a whole,” he said.

“The church has not done enough. Certainly here in Belgium and…

View Cache

Aboard the papal plane to Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis responded to criticism of remarks he made about women during a Sept. 28 visit to a Catholic university in Louvain, Belgium, saying it is an “obtuse mind” that intentionally misunderstands his position.

In a meeting with students of the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Francis reflected at length on the role of women in the Church, saying: “What characterizes women, that which is truly feminine, is not stipulated by consensus or ideologies, just as dignity itself is ensured not by laws written on paper, but by an original law written on our hearts.”

“Womanhood speaks to us of fruitful welcome, nurturing and life-giving dedication. For this reason, a woman is more important than a man, but it is terrible when a woman wants to be a man: No, she is a woman, and this is ‘heavy’ and important,”  View Cache

 Pope Francis said on Sunday victims of Catholic clergy sexual abuse in Belgium deserved more financial compensation, calling the amounts allocated to them so far “too small”.

On the flight back to Rome from Belgium, where the pontiff was pressed by the country’s political leaders for more concrete actions to address clergy abuse, Francis also reiterated the Catholic Church’s commitment to helping survivors.

“We must take care of those who have been abused, and punish the abusers,” he said.

Francis was urged in Belgium by both King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo to do more to help abuse survivors in unusually forceful language for a papal foreign trip, always a carefully choreographed event.

In a two-hour meeting with survivors on Friday, the pope was also asked specifically to look at the issue of financial compensation.

“We didn’t talk about amounts as such, but we are very clear on…

View Cache

UCLouvain staff and students express ‘incomprehension and disapproval’ over pope’s views on role of women

Pope Francis has been sharply criticised by one of Belgium’s Catholic universities over his stance on the role of women in society, in a strongly worded press release issued just moments after the pontiff spoke at the college.

Professors and students at UCLouvain, where the 87-year-old pontiff had made a speech on Saturday afternoon, said they wanted to express their “incomprehension and disapproval” about the pope’s views.

“UCLouvain deplores the conservative positions expressed by Pope Francis on the role of women in society,” said the statement, in extraordinary language from a Catholic university about a pope.

Francis went to the university on Saturday to celebrate its upcoming 600th anniversary as part of a weekend trip he is making to Belgium. His speech largely called for global action on climate change, but he also responded to…

View Cache

Pope Francis wrapped up a troubled visit to Belgium on Sunday by doubling down on his traditional views on women and abortion and demanding that Catholic bishops stop covering up for predator priests — a scandal that has devastated the church’s credibility around the globe.

Francis revisited the key thorny topics of his trip to Belgium during his in-flight news conference coming home, praising Belgium’s late King Baudouin as a “saint” for having abdicated for a day in 1990 rather than sign legislation legalizing abortion.

“You need a politician who wears pants to do this,” Francis said, using a Spanish expression. “You need courage,” he said, adding that Baudouin’s beatification process was moving along.

Francis drew criticism from some in Belgium for having prayed at Baudouin’s tomb and for calling the abortion law “homicidal,” given that abortion remains a political issue in Belgium, with new proposals to extend the legal…

View Cache

OSV News recently spoke with Father Michael Bechard, who alleges in a civil lawsuit filed in March with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that he was sexually abused by Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, a Vatican media expert, founder of a prominent Canadian national Catholic television network and organizer of the 2002 Toronto World Youth Day. The suit also names Father Rosica’s order, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto.

For his part, Father Rosica has denied any improper conduct and maintained his innocence. He has urged the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing the allegations should play out instead in a canonical court of the Catholic Church.

Father Bechard told OSV News he has also filed a complaint under “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” Pope Francis’ 2019 motu proprio governing the reporting of alleged sexual abuse involving clergy, religious and bishops.

This interview with Father Bechard has been edited for clarity and…

View Cache

Pope Francis meets with Belgian victims: Statement from Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, BishopAccountability.org

Friday, September 27, 2024

After expressing shame and sorrow in Belgium on Thursday, Pope Francis attempted damage control again Friday evening, when he met with 17 Belgian victims of clergy sex abuse. 

Each time the Pope visits a country rocked by revelations of clergy sex abuse, he follows the same PR playbook: he meets with victims, expresses shame, and promises change.  He employed these tactics in Portugal in 2023, in Canada in 2022, in Ireland in 2018, in Chile in 2018, and in the U.S. in 2015.

We know from these past examples that the Pope’s meeting with victims in Belgium will have few meaningful consequences. While it may have provided validation to the 17 survivors in attendance, it won’t change the systemic corruption in the Belgian church, and not one child in Belgium will be…

View Cache

Little brings more heavenly bliss to the faithful or otherworldly wonder to casual visitors than ethereal hymns cascading amid the columns of Catholic cathedrals. That is, unless the composer is a known molester or someone accused of sexual abuse.

A few days before the highlight of Pope Francis’ visit to Belgium — a Mass at the biggest stadium in Brussels — the specially selected choir of 120 was rehearsing a brand-new closing hymn when it became known that the composer was a priest accused of molesting young women.

The hymn was hastily removed from the order of service and replaced with another composition but it was too late to reprint the official Magnificat booklet for the Mass because of the number of copies required. The name of the alleged abuser, who died two weeks ago, is right there at the bottom of page 52, next to a request for donations,…

View Cache

The Pope is also expected to meet with victims of sexual abuse.

In Belgium’s Laeken Castle, Pope Francis confronted the Catholic Church’s long-standing clerical abuse crisis in the country, declaring unequivocally that “the Church should be ashamed” and must seek forgiveness for its failures.

Speaking before approximately 300 dignitaries, including King Philippe and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, the pope remarked that child abuse is “a scourge that the Church is tackling resolutely and firmly, listening to and accompanying the wounded and implementing a widespread prevention program throughout the world.”

“The Church is both holy and sinful,” Francis said in the castle’s Grand Gallery on Sept. 27 in his first speech since his arrival in Belgium. “The Church lives in this perennial coexistence of holiness and sin, of light and shadow, with outcomes often of great generosity and splendid dedication, and sometimes unfortunately with the emergence of painful counter-witnesses.”

…

View Cache

Pope Francis demanded Sunday that sexually abusive clergy be judged and their bishops stop covering up their crimes as he ended a troubled visit to Belgium by responding to the outrage over the scandal here that has devastated the church’s credibility.

“Evil must not be hidden. Evil must be brought out into the open,” Francis told some 30,000 people at Belgium’s sports stadium, drawing applause repeatedly as the crowd took in what he was saying.

Francis deviated from his prepared homily to respond to the meeting he held with 17 abuse survivors on Friday night, where he heard first-hand of the trauma and suffering they endured and the tone-deaf response of the church when they reported the crimes.

Belgium has had a wretched legacy of abuse and cover-up, none more symbolic of the church’s hypocrisy than the case of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe. He was allowed to quietly retire in 2010…

View Cache

In a country still reeling from a deep clerical sexual abuse crisis, Pope Francis on Saturday bitterly acknowledged that such abuse “generates atrocious suffering and wounds,” vowing that the path of reform includes learning from survivors.

The realities of abuse, the pontiff said, can even “undermine the path of faith.”

“There is a need for a great deal of mercy, to keep us from hardening our hearts before the suffering of victims, so that we can help them feel our closeness and offer all the help we can,” the pope said.

“We must learn from them … to be a Church at the service of all without belittling anyone,” Francis said. “Indeed, one of the roots of violence stems from the abuse of power when we use the positions we have to crush or manipulate others.”

The pontiff’s remarks came during a session with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians…

View Cache