ABUSE TRACKER

I turned on the TV / And flipped it over to the news / And what I saw I almost couldn’t comprehend. I saw a preacher man in cuffs / He’d taken money from the church / He’d stuffed his bank account with righteous dollar bills … You know there ain’t no rest for the wicked.

The American rock band Cage the Elephant clocked preachers with this line in their 2008 song, Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked.

While the band does not make Christian music, these lyrics imagine the not-so-outlandish possibility of a preacher stealing church funds, effectively calling out the ease with which Christian leaders abuse their power to steal from, lie to and take advantage of those who trust them most.

And during Sexual Violence Awareness Month, let’s remember it is often not just our money church leaders take advantage of. It’s our bodies too.

The state of our…

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AN INTERVIEW WITH BAPTISTLAND AUTHOR CHRISTA BROWN: ON TELLING HER STORY OF SURVIVAL, THE BETRAYAL OF CHURCH LEADERS, AND THE JOURNEY TOWARD HEALING

An interview with Baptistland Author Christa Brown. You can preorder Baptistland here, or at your preferred bookstore. Available on May 7.

In her bestselling 2023 book Disobedient Women, journalist Sarah Stankorb wrote of Christa Brown, “For so many years, she was one of the few people Southern Baptist sex abuse survivors knew they could call, someone they knew would listen.” I sat down with Brown earlier this month to talk about her new book, Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation, a book that I hope everyone in the Into Account orbit will read.

I’ve trusted Brown for years as a consistent source of reliable, clear-headed analysis whenever the Southern Baptist Convention gets up to some shenanigans. As a survivor of child…

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Attorneys with Mallard Perez are challenging the accuracy of a statement provided by the Diocese of Venice, stating that another allegation was known prior to other recent reports.

Damian Mallard, a partner of the Mallard Perez law offices, urged other potential victims of Reverend Leo Riley to come forward. Father Riley is currently facing accusations out of the state of Iowa.

Detectives from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Major Case Unit worked with the Dubuque, Iowa Police Department to arrest Leo P. Riley at his Port Charlotte home on Wednesday.

Dubuque Police Department had developed probable cause for five counts of capital sexual battery within their jurisdiction.

Riley was a past priest at the Resurrection Church in Dubuque, Iowa. In Charlotte County, he was a Priest at Saint Charles Borromeo in Port Charlotte in the early 2000′s, and is currently assigned to San Antonio Catholic Church, also in Port Charlotte.

…

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Spain’s Socialist government announced this week that they will establish a state-run compensation program for sexual abuse victims, and will make the Catholic Church pay for it.

In 2022, the Spanish government launched its own investigation into sexual abuse claims that concluded with an Ombudsman report published in 2023. The report only focused on sexual abuse victims of the Catholic church. On April 23, Spain’s Minister of the Presidency and Justice Félix Bolaños referred to that report in justifying the decision to have the Church pay for the compensations that will be set by the state.

“From that report, [Bolaños] said it was concluded that some 440,000 adults may have suffered sex abuse in Spain by people linked to the church and that roughly half of those cases were committed by clergy,” the Associated Press News reported. 

But in the same report, AP News noted…

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The Spanish government April 23 approved an economic compensation plan for victims of sexual abuse committed by priests and other people linked to the Catholic Church.

Félix Bolaños, who is minister of the presidency and justice, said the plan followed recommendations made in a 2023 report by Spain’s ombudsman to “prevent, repair and settle the debt with the victims” of sexual abuse within the church.

“It is essential that the church assumes its responsibility,” Bolaños told journalists at a morning press conference April 23.

Ángel Gabilondo, the Spanish ombudsman, concluded in his report that some 440,000 adults may have suffered sex abuse in Spain by people linked to the church and that roughly half of those cases were committed by clergy.

Bolaños said the compensation would be financed by the church.

But in an April 23 statement, the Spanish bishops’ conference rejected the plan, saying it discriminated against victims outside…

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[To see a PDF of this report, click here.]

Apr 25 2024

MADISON, Wis. – As Wisconsin approaches the three-year anniversary of the launch of the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative, Attorney General Josh Kaul is releasing additional information, including statements from survivors who have reached out to DOJ, and highlights of other progress being made through the initiative.

“Through this initiative, Wisconsin DOJ continues to work to support survivors and independently review clergy and faith leader abuse in Wisconsin,” said Attorney General Kaul. “If you have information about clergy and faith leader abuse, I encourage you to submit a report through the initiative’s online reporting tool or to call the toll-free tip line.”

One survivor stated: “I am deeply grateful for the work of the Wisconsin DOJ in the Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative.  When I first decided to come forward and tell the truth…

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A priest accused of getting away with sexually touching multiple boys for 40 years may have more victims.

Father Leo Riley was in Charlotte County court on Thursday. He has been accused of sexual abuse on four boys in Dubuque, Iowa, from 1984 to 1986 but wasn’t arrested until Wednesday.

WINK News spoke to John Celeste, a parishioner at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, one of the churches Riley used to work at. He said it’s deeply saddening because you never want someone who promised to be a man of God to break that promise.

Prayer is not unusual for John Celeste, but on Thursday, his purpose for praying was truth.

“I want the truth to come out. Hiding the truth is never any good,” said Celeste.

He woke up to the news that Father Riley was accused of sexual assault.

“People here used to talk well about…

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An attorney representing a Florida man who filed a lawsuit says their investigation uncovered multiple victims against the former Dubuque priest.

Father Leo Riley is accused of sexual abuse while he was serving with the Archdiocese of Dubuque in the 1980′s.

Leo Riley appeared in court today in Florida on five counts of sexual abuse. He’s accused of assaulting the boys while he was an associate pastor at Resurrection Parish in Dubuque from 1984 to 1986. He’s in jail on a $100,000 bond and awaiting extradition back to Iowa.

In a lawsuit filed in 2020, a man claims Riley abused him as a boy at a Catholic School in Florida in the early 2000s.

Today, the attorney for that victim says Riley’s arrest is a relief but he expects more victims and more charges are coming. “My client is elated and also…

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Leo P. Riley faces five capital sexual battery charges.

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — A Port Charlotte priest arrested for capital sexual battery charges has been accused of similar crimes in the past, documents show.

According to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, Leo Patrick Riley was arrested on April 24, and faces five capital sexual battery charges that allegedly took place in the 1980’s when Riley was a priest in Dubuque, Iowa.

CCSO said investigators worked with the Dubuque Police Department after allegations of Riley’s abuse came to light in May 2022. At the time, Riley was a priest at the San Antonio Catholic Church in Port Charlotte.

The Diocese of Venice Florida told Fox 4 it was made aware of the allegations in May and immediately placed Riley on administrative leave. A spokesperson…

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A day after a former Dubuque priest was arrested for an alleged 40-year-old sexual abuse case, we’re learning about more abuse allegations.

This time, the allegations come from Father Leo Riley’s time as a priest in Florida.

Father Riley was arrested in Florida on Wednesday after four men accused him of sexually abusing them in the 1980′s when they were altar boys at Resurrection Parish in Dubuque.

Riley moved to the Diocese of Venice, Florida in 2002 to be closer to his parents.

A lawsuit filed in July 2020 alleges Riley and Alan Klispie, a music teacher, verbally, physically and sexually abused a student at the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School, a school owned and operated by the Diocese of Venice in Florida.

The lawsuit alleges Klispie started abusing the victim when he was a pre-kindergarten or kindergarten student at St. Charles in the mid 1990′s.

According…

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In part, it was his position — as a priest and doctoral student — that convinced so many children and parents at Seattle’s St. Paul School and Catholic parish to trust Patrick O’Donnell.

He told them he was working on his graduate research when he recruited 60 seventh- and eighth-graders for a 1978 dissertation experiment “on the subject of trust.” And he told them he was working on “research” when he asked parents and teachers to pull students out of class.

In fact, the reason he was in Seattle in the first place was because the Spokane Diocese had sent him to get treatment for what one priest euphemistically called his “pediatrician complex.”

In the 1970s and early ’80s, as he was moved from parish to parish — in Spokane, Seattle, and the small eastern Washington town of Rosalia — he allegedly molested more than 65 children, court records show….

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On telling her story of survival, the betrayal of church leaders, and the journey toward healing

An interview with Baptistland Author Christa Brown. You can preorder Baptistland here, or at your preferred bookstore. Available on May 7.

In her bestselling 2023 book Disobedient Women, journalist Sarah Stankorb wrote of Christa Brown, “For so many years, she was one of the few people Southern Baptist sex abuse survivors knew they could call, someone they knew would listen.” I sat down with Brown earlier this month to talk about her new book, Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation, a book that I hope everyone in the Into Account orbit will read.

I’ve trusted Brown for years as a consistent source of reliable, clear-headed analysis whenever the Southern Baptist Convention gets up to some shenanigans. As a survivor of child sexual abuse perpetrated by her SBC youth…

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As Wisconsin approaches the third anniversary of the launch of Wisconsin DOJ’s Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative, Attorney General Josh Kaul is releasing additional information and highlights of other progress being made through the initiative.

“Through this initiative, Wisconsin DOJ continues to work to support survivors and independently review clergy and faith leader abuse in Wisconsin,” said AG Kaul. “If you have information about clergy and faith leader abuse, I encourage you to submit a report through the initiative’s online reporting tool or to call the toll-free tip line.”

One survivor shared, “I am deeply grateful for the work of the Wisconsin DOJ in the Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative. When I first decided to come forward and tell the truth of my decades-old abuse, I was terrified … The victim services specialist was my first contact with the DOJ and the process was one of great support and compassion. … My hope…

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A Monumental Milestone: Progress is Unfolding for Victims of Abuse

In a landmark decision signaling a potent wave of change, the Justice Department, alongside over a hundred brave souls who endured the unspeakable at the hands of former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar, has culminated in a civil settlement. This remarkable agreement addresses the grievous oversights of FBI agents in probing the gymnasts’ harrowing allegations against Nassar, now a convicted criminal. This settlement not only sheds light on the “botched” investigation by the FBI and the “fundamental errors made,” as numerous reports have critiqued, but also marks a pivotal stride toward accountability and justice for the victims of these heinous acts. One US senator reported that abuse victims “were betrayed by the institutions they should have been able to trust.”

Because of the FBI’s callous inaction, more innocent girls suffered needlessly. As a result, it was announced yesterday that more than…

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An Orleans Parish criminal court judge has ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans to turn over all records related to clergy sex abuse to the Louisiana State Police, a sign that investigators may be expanding their probe into the local church.

Magistrate Judge Juana Lombard signed a search warrant Monday at the request of state police investigators, who have been looking into the local Roman Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse scandal since 2022, state police spokesman Jacob Pucheu said Wednesday.

The agency’s investigation stems from the ongoing probe into former archdiocesan priest Lawrence Hecker, 91, who is accused of raping multiple children from 1966 through 1979 and was indicted by an Orleans Parish grand jury on rape, kidnapping and theft charges. His trial, scheduled for March, was delayed after his attorneys raised questions about his mental competency.

Pucheu said his agency initiated the probe after receiving “numerous complaints of child sex…

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Ohio lawmakers voted Wednesday to criminalize marital rape in all situations, ending a years-long fight over a law that critics cast as archaic and harmful to survivors.

The Ohio Senate unanimously passed legislation which eliminates a measure that protects spouses from prosecution against rape, unless the perpetrator used force or the couple lives in separate homes. It also removes the spousal exception for sexual battery and other sex crimes and allows spouses to testify against their partner in these cases.HomeBuddy21 Gutter Guards Put to the Test: See What Roofers FoundAd

The bill now heads to Gov. Mike DeWine, who is expected to sign it, according to his spokesman.

“Every little girl dreams about her wedding day and being fully loved and honored by someone so intensely,” one woman told a Senate committee as she recounted abuse by…

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Two of the three independent abuse commissioners of the Catholic Diocese of Augsburg are resigning on April 30, according to the Augsburger Allgemeine.

Psychologists Angelika Hauser and Rupert Membarth told the German newspaper that they no longer see a basis for further cooperation in the interests of those affected by abuse.

Hauser and Membarth were made abuse commissioners in September 2022.

“Unfortunately, to this day I have not been able to recognize that the process of coming to terms with sexual abuse in the Diocese of Augsburg, which Bishop Bertram once described as his ‘matter of the heart,’ is being pursued with the necessary seriousness and genuine desire to educate,” Hauser said in a letter to the diocese.

A letter from Membarth says he “cannot see any committed effort on the part of the diocese leadership to proactively deal with past and present cases of sexual violence.”

Hauser made the same…

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Editor: This is the first installment of a three-part feature.

A Japanese Buddhist nun has stepped forward to allege that she was brainwashed and sexually violated by the chief priest of a major sect’s temple for over a decade, shocking the country’s religious establishment.

The news made big headlines and was all the more shocking as the alleged abuser had been mentored by a top-ranking priest of the traditional Tendai sect, which has roots in China with a history dating back 1,200 years in Japan and a significant following with close to 3 million believers nationwide.

Details of the allegations by Eicho (the woman’s Buddhist name) emerged in an exclusive interview with Kyodo News. She spoke of her feeling of betrayal and the way her faith had been abused to sexually exploit her and the complex post-traumatic stress disorder she is now dealing with.

What happened in this cloistered world…

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The Archdiocese of Chicago is facing a lawsuit in connection with a former priest accused of sexually abusing and exploiting an altar boy at a now-closed elementary school and parish on the city’s Lower West Side.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges that the Rev. John Keehan repeatedly sexually abused an unnamed boy from 1994 to 1997 while he attended St. Ann Elementary School and Parish. It also accuses the archdiocese of failing to properly supervise Keehan and of putting children in danger due to Keehan’s known history of abuse.

A spokesperson for the archdiocese said they don’t comment on lawsuits, claims or settlements.

Keehan was named as a Catholic cleric who has committed “substantiated child sex abuse” in the Illinois attorney general’s 2023 report on Catholic clergy child sex abuse in Illinois. According to the report, at least two survivors have…

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In criminal investigation, New Orleans judge demands paper trail from archbishop Gregory Aymond all the way to the Vatican

The criminal investigation into child sexual abuse in New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese has entered a major new phase, after a judge ordered the church to turn over records to Louisiana state police showing how it responded to abuse allegations over the last several decades.

The order signed Monday seeks files that would identify every priest and deacon accused of abusing children while working in the US’s second-oldest archdiocese; when those complaints were first made; and whether the church turned those cases over to police, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Significantly, police are also demanding copies of all communications among New Orleans’ current archbishop, Gregory Aymond, his aides and their superiors at the Vatican, those sources said.

Asked for comment Wednesday, an archdiocese spokesperson said: “As always, the…

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Here’s an idea for the Roman Catholic Church, from a secular whose grandparents came from Italy and Poland, yet who still prays to the Saints, the Virgin, and the Holy Trinity.

Worldwide, the church has paid over $4 billion in settlement fees. With billions more to come. Instead of selling its buildings to find funds to pay the victims of sexual abuse by clergy, start selling treasures from The Vatican. I am serious. Does the Vatican really need to hold on to Nero’s bathtub? It’s valued at $2 billion. Or maybe sell a few of the thirty-five volumes of catalogs from the 53 miles of shelving in the Vatican’s secret archives. Or a couple of paintings from the over 20,000 masterpieces valued at over $15 billion.

Better yet, sell the Pieta. I am sure some Saudi prince…

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A former teacher at a Catholic school in Michigan is accused of sexually abusing a student over a period of months after being fired, officials told news outlets.

Nicholas Coe Young, 26, is facing three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a student, WOOD reported. Young allegedly had sexual contact with the boy multiple times over a 15-month span, the station reported.

The Grand Rapids man allegedly met the teenage victim while teaching at Catholic Central High School — though the sex abuse didn’t begin until August 2022, several months after he was fired, according to court documents obtained by the outlet.

Court records show Young was charged with providing alcohol to minors in March 2022.

In an interview with Grand Rapids police, the boy’s mother said her son was “taken advantage of,” Mlive.com reported.

Documents say the teen, who is now 17, felt “manipulated by Nicholas…

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A former helper with a Greeley church faces up to 66 years in prison after he was convicted of six felony sex crimes against minors from 2015 to 2018.

Ryan Walters, 30, was found guilty April 10 of five counts of sexual assault on a child, pattern of abuse; and one count of sexual assault of a child in a position of trust, following a nine-day trial, according to Colorado Court records.

Each of the five pattern-of-abuse counts carries a sentence of four to 12 years. The position of trust charge carries a sentence of two to six years. He has a sentencing hearing on June 6 in front of Judge Timothy Kerns in Weld District Court..

Police first learned of Walters’ abuse in February 2022, when someone called to report him on behalf of one of the victims. On March 3 of the same year, police met with the first…

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Thousands of sexual abuse claims hang in the balance of a battle between the archdiocese and an insurer that says the church is responsible for what happened.

A state appellate court delivered a devastating blow to the Archdiocese of New York in a unanimous decision Tuesday that found the Catholic organization’s longtime insurer can move forward with its case challenging whether its policies covered claims for systemic child sexual abuse that may have been enabled and covered up by church leaders for decades.’

Chubb Insurers argued that it has no duty to indemnify or represent the archdiocese in hundreds of lawsuits filed by individuals who were sexually abused by church employees, and that the archdiocese was not providing information that would allow the insurer to properly assess those claims. 

The ruling rocked advocates and attorneys who have supported New York’s Child Victims Act and Adult Survivors Act, which had temporarily…

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Network of abuse survivors cites recent string of church school scandals

A group of abuse survivors staged a rally in front of the Missouri Attorney General’s office in Jefferson City Monday, calling for the state’s top law enforcement authority to investigate a trend of abuse at private Christian schools.

The group is called the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests, or “SNAP,” and said the reports of abuse are coming from largely unregulated “faith-based” boarding schools in Missouri.

“These kinds of places are ripe for abuse and cover-up,” said abuse survivor and former director of SNAP David Clohessy. “They tend to attract, unfortunately, predatory individuals who know they have a captive audience of victims.”

Among recent examples, the group lists Lighthouse Christian Academy in Piedmont, Mo., where three owners were arrested and charged with kidnapping, the now-closed Agape School in Stockton, Mo., where a mother is suing over the death of…

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SNAP, alongside supporters, gathered at the Basilica of San Juan to offer help and resources to victims of clergy sexual abuse, following allegations against two local priests.

Advocates Rally for Victims of Clergy Abuse at San Juan Basilica

In a powerful display of solidarity, members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and other advocates convened outside the Basilica of San Juan today, offering resources and support to victims of clergy sexual abuse. This gathering comes in the wake of recent allegations involving two priests from the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville.

Mobilization Following Allegations

The drive to San Juan was spurred by distressing reports of child sexual abuse linked to valley priests, prompting SNAP to act swiftly to support potential survivors. One of the accused priests has been out on bond since February, intensifying community concerns and the call for accountability.

The Importance of Community Education and…

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Half a dozen advocates gathered in front of the San Juan Basilica on Monday to call for change.

As Channel 5 News has reported, in the last two months, two Catholic priests were accused of sexual misconduct.

“We wanted to give voice to the survivors that are here and make sure people understand why it’s so hard for them to come forward,” Patricia Koo said.

Koo is the SNAP San Antonio Chapter Leader. SNAP stands for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Priest Fernando Gonzalez Ortega was arrested in February. He is facing five sex crime charges and is currently out on bond.

RELATED STORY: Valley bishop addresses criminal charges against local priest

Monsignor Gustavo Barrera is facing two sexual misconduct allegations. One of those allegations allegedly took place over 35 years ago.

Koo says it’s hard for a victim to come forward.

“We have…

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The Archdiocese of Mobile has approved a Catholic priest’s request for a leave of absence after he was accused of sexual misconduct and harassment, News 5 has learned.

The archdiocese announced this approval on Monday, April 22 on their Facebook page.

73-year-old Rev. David J. Tokarz, the pastor of Our Savior Parish, was arrested April 13 on a charge of sexual misconduct and harassment, according to previous reporting.

News 5 received a copy of the official complaint, which alleged Tokarz approached a woman and “initiated unwanted touching.”

According to the complaints filed in Mobile Municipal Court, two incidents allegedly occurred: one on March 2 and the other on March 6.

On March 2, the complaint alleges, “David Joseph Tokarz engaged in sexual conduct with the victim (name redacted) by hugging her but when he released her from the…

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The Spanish government approved today in the Council of Ministers a plan to implement recommendations made in a report on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. 

While recognizing some good points in the plan, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (known by its Spanish acronym CEE) issued a statement strongly objecting to what it called unfair treatment and discrimination against the Church by the government.

Before giving details of the government’s plan, the minister of the Presidency, Justice, and Relations with the Legislature, Félix Bolaños, extrapolating data from a survey commissioned by the People’s Ombudsman, estimated that in Spain there are about 440,000 adults who were victims of sexual abuse as minors, representing 1.13% of the adult population in Spain.

“Around half of these abuses would have been committed by [male] religious of the Catholic Church,” Bolaños claimed.

The bishops, however, noted that “reparation measures cannot be proposed…

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Retired Lawrence Hecker, 92, charged in New Orleans, has memory loss and should be re-evaluated at later date, report finds

A 92-year-old retired Catholic priest charged with strangling a teenager and raping him in a New Orleans church in 1975 has short-term memory loss that prevents him from assisting in his defense, according to a team of forensic psychiatrists whose findings could influence whether one of Louisiana’s most prominent cases of clergy abuse is ever tried.

In a report which has not been publicly released but was reviewed Tuesday by WWL Louisiana and the Guardian, the psychiatrists said the priest – Lawrence Hecker – should not be tried for now on rape, kidnapping, crimes against nature and theft charges until he is re-evaluated later.

However, the report found Hecker’s mental health is good enough that he could recover his competence to stand trial after a relatively short time. It called for him…

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A pastor and elementary school teacher in a small city on the shore of Puget Sound in Washington has been arrested and charged with nine counts of child molestation, according to Pierce County Superior Court records.

Jordan Henderson, a worship pastor at Wellspring Fellowship in Lakebay and teacher at public elementary school, was charged with nine counts of sexual molestation, involving children under 12 years old, court records reported. The 34-year-old pastor was arrested by Pierce County Sheriff’s office, following a two-month investigation, according to Fox 13.

Henderson’s father, lead pastor of Wellspring Fellowship, defended his son in a recent Facebook post on the church’s account.

“While some would have you focus on alarm bells and your greatest fears about what you do not know, I want to encourage you with confidence based on what I do know,” Lead Pastor Chris Henderson…

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Eric Dejaeger was granted bail Tuesday to a supervised facility in Kingston

A former Catholic priest who worked in Nunavut and has previously been convicted of dozens of charges of sexual abuse has been granted bail to a supervised facility in Ontario while awaiting trial on new charges. 

Eric Dejaeger, 76, faces eight counts of historical sexual assault. 

He was previously convicted of 32 offences for sexually abusing people in Igloolik, many of them children. 

The new charges are alleged to have happened while Dejaeger was working as a priest in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982, according to court documents. 

He was arrested in Kingston, Ont., and taken into custody in Iqaluit in June last year. 

Justice of the Peace Amanda Soper granted Dejaeger bail on the condition that he reside at Henry Traill Community Correctional Centre in Kingston, which is a community-based facility with 24-hour supervision. 

Dejaeger can leave the facility during…

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It’s finally spring, the time of year when most state legislatures are in session, debating new laws, adopting some, and rejecting others. And just as regularly as the grass turns green and the flowers bloom, lobbyists for well-heeled wrongdoers work to block bills that would let crime victims expose wrongdoers. This is especially true when the wrongdoers are institutions, and the wrongdoing is child sexual abuse.

Desperate to cover up their cover-ups, these wrongdoers and their highly paid lobbyists use sophisticated tricks. These tricks are designed to persuade elected officials, “Hey, the status quo is just fine. Things aren’t that bad. There’s no need to reform old laws or pass any new laws about child sexual abuse.” One of the most pernicious tricks they use, however, is not so sophisticated. It’s the old ‘don’t blame us’ notion.

In hopes of stopping civil lawsuits that expose well-hidden secrets and often still-dangerous predators, institutional wrongdoers hire lobbyists and insurers…

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A former youth pastor is facing multiple charges including indecent assault after he allegedly sexually molested a child at a Cumberland County restaurant. 

According to the Upper Allen Township Police Department, on April 7, officers responded to a local restaurant after several witnesses reported watching an older man sexually molest a young child in public. 

The suspect was identified as Roy Andrews, 76, from Mechanicsburg, who knew the victim from his previous involvement as a youth leader for a Hispanic church in Harrisburg called “Iglesia La Fuenta.” Andrews was a youth leader for the church from 2014 through 2022.

According to an interviewee, Andrews began picking up children in Harrisburg and taking them to a church in Mechanicsburg after attendance at Iglesia La Fuenta fell. This is allegedly why he was with the children on April 7.

Police viewed surveillance footage from the restaurant to corroborate the…

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A group of clergy sex abuse survivors in the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy case is asking U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Meredith Grabill to limit the legal fees that the church’s law firm, Jones Walker, is billing to the case.

Citing skyrocketing legal and professional fees on both sides, the abuse survivors claim in a new court filing that Jones Walker is dragging out the long-running case by padding its time sheets, making money off the church while abuse survivors wait for a settlement.

“Jones Walker has bloated its time, engaged in redundant work, and enjoyed maximum payment by ensuring that 54 of its lawyers (30 partners and 24 associates) billed the Archdiocese during this bankruptcy,” a lawyer for the survivors says in court documents filed April 19. “Every dollar paid to Jones Walker is one less dollar paid to the abuse survivors.”

According to court records, more than $36.3…

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Spain is to set up a fund, to be financed largely by the Catholic Church, to compensate an estimated 440,000 victims of decades of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, staff or teachers, the justice minister announced on Tuesday.

A report in October by Spain’s human rights ombudsman produced the estimate from a survey of 8,000 people. It recommended the creation of a state fund, accusing the Church of a lack of cooperation and seeking to “minimise the phenomenon”.

Justice Minister Felix Bolanos told reporters the Church, hugely influential in Spanish society and politics up to and beyond the end of a right-wing dictatorship in the 1970s, had failed over decades to address calls for reparations, and that its responses to the report had varied by diocese.

“We want to respond in order to prevent, to repair and to try to settle the debt that our society owes the victims,” Bolanos said.

…

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There are few jobs, Susie Lopez will tell you, more rewarding than teaching kids how to stand up to potential predators.

Lopez, who trains catechists for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Empowering God’s Children and Young People program, told the story of one girl in her community who was inappropriately touched by a schoolmate. When she had the courage to disclose that to an adult, she stopped the abuse not only for herself, but for others.

“She knew what to do,” said Lopez. “She told her catechist and the catechist reported it. From that, five other little victims came forward. They never said anything about it and it had been going on for half of the year.”

Unlike the first girl, Lopez explained, those victims hadn’t gone through something like Empowering God’s Children, which teaches youth about thwarting and reporting sexual abuse.

Lopez, along with Dea Boehme, Anita Robinson,…

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Catholic clergy sex abuse claims claims set to go before juries could wipe out available funds for the Diocese of Sacramento, leading it to seek protection through bankruptcy

The Diocese of Sacramento is the latest branch of the Catholic Church to declare bankruptcy under the weight of child sex abuse lawsuits, many of which involve claims that have gone unaddressed for decades.

The Bishop of Sacramento, Jaime Soto, issued a press release earlier this month, announcing that the diocese was filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection. The filing indicates the diocese faces more than 250 child sexual assault claims by victims dating back to the 1950s, which claim the assaults were at the hands of clergy and other Catholic Church employees.

Soto indicates that the cost of resolving the lawsuits “far outstrips” the diocese’ available funds, and that the bankruptcy filing is the best way to compensate victims…

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MADRID (AP) — Spain on Tuesday approved a plan aimed at making reparation and economic compensation for victims of sex abuses committed by people connected to the Catholic Church.

It also announced the future celebration of a public act of recognition for those affected and their families.

The Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, said the plan was based on recommendations in a report by Spain’s Ombudsman last year. From that report he said it was concluded that some 440,000 adults may have suffered sex abuse in Spain by people linked to the church and that roughly half of those cases were committed by clergy.

Bolaños said the compensation would be financed by the church.

But in a statement Tuesday, Spain’s Bishops Conference rejected the plan, saying it discriminated against victims outside of church circles.

No details of how much or when financial compensation would be paid were released….

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There are days I’d like to go back to before the abuse-and-coverup crisis exploded into worldwide scandal, and that desire is perhaps the most pernicious of them all.

“I just want to go back to before,” says FBI Agent Olivia Dunham to Special Agent-in-Charge Phillip Broyles in the pilot episode of the science fiction series, Fringe (2008-13). Dunham is a good agent who found herself in the middle of something very big and very scary.

“I don’t think you can,” says Broyles, and then they’re away on a romp through five seasons of top-notch sci-fi that—like all real and really good sci fi—is a dramatization of fundamental theological questions.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that, of late.

I mean to say about the desire to go back to before, and about how we just can’t, and about how much of…

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Pope Francis initiated a “Synod on Synodality” in October 2021 “to enhance the communion, participation, and mission of the Church,” as reported by the Catholic News Agency. “It culminates in two more global assemblies at the Vatican. The first concluded on Oct. 28, 2023, with the finalization of a 42-page synthesis report. The October 2024 session is expected to produce a final report which will be presented to Pope Francis for his consideration in issuing any related teaching,” the Catholic News Agency further explained in an article dated Dec. 12, 2023.

In addition, 300 priests selected by their bishops will attend a meeting at the Vatican from April 28 to May 2, 2024, as part of the ongoing Synod on Synodality. “After parish priests were excluded from the first session of the Synod last October, they all highlighted the importance that they have a voice in the process, as well as the value…

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil – A German-born bishop emeritus in Bolivia had his house raided on Apr. 19 by prosecutors and police officers.

He is accused of a scheme to legitimatize illicit earnings in the department of Santa Cruz.

Agents of the anti-corruption unit of the prosecutor’s office raided Bishop Karl Stetter’s house and the office of lawyer Juan Miguel Zarzar, one of the attorneys of the Diocese of San Ignacio de Velasco. During the operation, the agents took several documents, a sum of money, and a vehicle.

A couple of months ago, Stetter’s finances came to the attention of prosecutor Gustavo Ríos, who said that one of the suspects in the alleged scheme owns 15 properties and 10 cars.

Ríos told the Bolivian newspaper El Deber that he identified financial fluxes that are not compatible with a bishop’s earnings, and that he and lawyer Zarzar will have to explain the origin of…

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Ksiądz Józef G., którego sprawę miał tuszować przed laty abp. Andrzej Dzięga, decyzją Watykanu, został wydalony ze stanu duchownego. Do września ubiegłego roku kapłan przebywał w więzieniu.

Sandomierski duchowy ks. Józef G., przed kilkoma dniami, został wydalony z kapłaństwa decyzją Stolicy Apostolskiej. Jak informuje portal “Więź”, który jako pierwszy napisał o sprawie, na przełomie 2005 i 2006 roku kapłan molestował seksualnie 12-letniego ministranta w jednej z parafii w Tarnobrzegu. Duchowny został za to skazany prawomocnym wyrokiem sądu państwowego na trzy lata więzienia. Na wolność wyszedł we wrześniu 2023 roku.

Józef G. może jeszcze odwołać się od wyroku karnego kanonicznego. Jeżeli by to uczynił, wyrok zostałby zawieszony, a mężczyzna formalnie pozostałby w kapłaństwie aż do rozpatrzenia odwołania przez Stolicę Apostolską.

“W  praktyce jednak – w sytuacji krzywdy wyrządzonej dziecku – nie ma szans na uwzględnienie odwołania” – podkreśla portal.

Abp. Dzięga przeniósł go do innej parafii

O dokonanym przez Józefa G. przestępstwie…

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The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests praised the Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo for releasing a list of people disqualified from working with kids but is hoping for even more information to be added to the list.

“It is always helpful for survivors when these lists are posted, especially for those who may be suffering alone and in silence,” the organization wrote in a Friday release.

The list includes people who have been “credibly accused” — though not necessarily convicted in a court of law, — violated a child-protection policy after warnings, failed as a mandated reporter to report allegations of abuse of minors, failed to act to prevent abuse they knew was happening, gave pornography to minors, possessed or used child pornography, physically abused minors or directed sexual abuse or sexual assault of minors.

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A Franciscan friar formerly connected to Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Durham and Duke University has been removed from public ministry after allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Rev. Patrick Tuttle served as associate pastor in Durham from 1996 until at least 2009, and he also taught seventh and eighth-graders while there.

Tuttle is now “living under the strict supervision of an independent monitor,” according to an April 4 statement from the friars of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Most recently in Georgia

The misconduct allegations arose four months ago, and Tuttle was soon removed as pastor at Holy Spirit Church in Macon, Georgia. After an investigation, the Province Review Board unanimously recommended he be barred from all public ministry and placed under supervision.

“During the independent investigation process and beyond,” the statement read, “the province has offered outside pastoral care and counseling services to the abuse…

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In the shadowed corridors of religious institutions, a disquieting truth lurks a truth that has fractured the very bedrock of communal trust on a global scale. This piece endeavors to illuminate this enigmatic darkness, delving into its labyrinthine depths to unravel the intricate tapestry of clergy sexual abuse: its prevalence, genesis, ramifications, and the crucial strides towards preemptive measures and restitution.

The Enigma Unveiled

An Epoch of Ecclesiastical Turbulence

Clergy sexual abuse is not a nascent quandary; its historical tendrils reach back through the annals of religious chronicles. However, it burgeoned into prominence during the latter echelons of the 20th century, as a cascade of revelations unveiled a systemic scourge ensnaring diverse denominations and faiths.

The Elusive Statistics

Quantifying the extent of clergy sexual abuse is an elusive pursuit, ensnared within the veils of underreported incidents and institutional subterfuge. Nonetheless, empirical studies allude to its pervasive grip within religious enclaves…

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A divided Louisiana Supreme Court ruled recently that legislation opening the courthouse doors to the victims of clergy sex abuse deprives alleged child predators and their enablers of due process of law.

It is not often that the Legislature speaks with one voice. But it did so in this case, based upon compelling evidence that the trauma of childhood sexual abuse lasts a lifetime. The court’s majority decision ignores this evidence and flouts the will of the legislature.

As explained in the dissenting opinion of Chief Justice John Weimer, the legislation clearly does not violate due process, any more than countless health and safety regulations that serve a rational public purpose.

In a footnote, the majority opinion states that the passage of time makes it impossible to mount a viable defense since witnesses have died and critical documents have been lost. In point of fact, the…

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The Michigan Supreme Court will rule in the coming months on whether decades-old sexual abuse and assault allegations can be resurrected in civil lawsuits.

The high court heard arguments last week over whether a 2018 law with a specific carveout for old claims brought by victims of serial sexual molester Larry Nassar also applies to individuals abused decades ago by clergy, school staff or other authority figures.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed by Brian McLain, who alleged he was abused by a priest, the Rev. Richard Lobert, when he was 16 and attended W.J. Maxey Boys Training School in Whitmore Lake.

McLain claimed the 2018 law allowed him to file suit within three years of discovering mental health conditions related to the alleged assault, regardless of when the actual assault occurred. The Diocese of Lansing, a plaintiff in the case, said that provision was meant to apply to…

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Arlington nuns at the center of a vicious dispute with the Fort Worth bishop have rejected a Vatican decree to place them under new authority, saying it amounts to a hostile takeover.

In a statement published Saturday, the nuns said the Vatican issued the decree without their knowledge or consent and that it could threaten individual nuns, the integrity of the monastery and its assets.

“We are not ‘things’ to be traded or given away in back-room deals, but women vowed to the exclusive love and service of Almighty God,” the nuns wrote.

The statement is the latest development in a bitter and extraordinarily public battle between the nuns and Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson that has played out in dueling statements and in civil court. It began last year when the bishop accused the head nun of violating her vow of chastity…

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By Christopher Landau -April 21, 2024111

Mike Pilavachi

These are testing times for anyone even loosely connected with charismatic life within, or adjacent to, the Church of England. To discover that a figure whose ministry was widely celebrated ‘used his spiritual authority to control people and that his coercive and controlling behaviour led to inappropriate relationships, the physical wrestling of youths and massaging of young male interns’ is proving seismic. The severe impact of Mike Pilavachi’s actions and behaviour has been underlined in the last few days, through the release of Matt and Beth Redman’s Let There Be Light documentary, and a poignant statement from Tim and Pete Hughes. 

There are many important areas for reflection in this tragic situation: the support offered to victims; the silence of certain leaders, churches or movements; the Church of England’s safeguarding and disciplinary processes;…

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It has been two weeks since the Vatican released Dignitas Infinita, its declaration on human dignity that included negative sections on gender identity and transitions. In that time, commentaries about what the document means for the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender and nonbinary people, have abounded. Posts today and tomorrow feature some of these commentaries. For all of Bondings 2.0’s coverage of the declaration and its reception, click here.

Archbishop Christopher Coyne, coadjutor of Hartford, emphasized in an interview both the church’s broad welcome, but also its teachings on gender. Connecticut Public Radio:

“[Coyne said,] Biology is biology. You’re either XX or XY. That’s a scientific fact. You can’t un-prove that fact.’ . . .

“‘You don’t have to pass a test to belong,’ Coyne said. ‘We walk with each other. We accompany each other. We don’t leave each other; we try to grow together.’ . . .

“Coyne said it’s important for the…

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Despite the many predator clergymen all over Latin America, prevention is not a priority for the Roman Catholic bishops in the region. Information about the crisis, how to file a report or how to seek assistance is, for the most part, hard to find if not absent in the websites of the Latin American Catholic Church.

Two weeks ago, Los Ángeles Press published a report on how many of the Roman Catholic dioceses in Mexico have met the goal of setting up a local commission to prevent clergy sexual abuse.

This week I present a basic comparison of how the 18 national conferences of Roman Catholic bishops deal with clergy sexual abuse in the Websites each of them sustain in their countries. The Catholic Church in Latin America is organized in the so-called Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopate, CELAM for short. It must be noticed, however,…

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Catholic places of worship across France are wondering what they should do with frescoes and stained-glass windows created by priests accused of sexual abuse.

On May 11, the shrineof Our Lady of Aparecida, in the eponymous city in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, will inaugurate its basilica’s newly decorated southern façade. For Father Eduardo Catalfo, the rector of the world’s largest Catholic complex after the Vatican in Rome, this will be a day of celebration, a chance to rally the masses and raise funds to continue his major construction project.

Not everyone shares his enthusiasm. A petition with over 5,000 signatures was recently launched to demand the removal of the mosaics created by priest and artist Marko Rupnik. His name won’t be familiar to those who regularly attend the big arty events in Basel (Switzerland), Venice (Italy) or Miami (US). Yet in the world of sacred art, he is…

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JEFFERSON CITY — A group of five individuals gathered outside of the Missouri attorney general’s office Monday morning to speak about recent reports of child sexual abuse at boarding schools across the state.

The press conference was led by David Clohessy, an abuse survivor and director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Clohessy said that the news conference aimed to “discuss recent revelations and reports of abuse at largely unregulated ‘faith-based’ boarding schools in Missouri.”  

“We firmly believe that where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Clohessy said. “And we believe Attorney General Andrew Bailey should act now, proactively, to prevent more abuse and more cover up in these institutions.”

SNAP said there’s been at least four abuse and cover-up scandals at boarding schools in Missouri. 

“Dozens of such ‘under the radar’ facilities have quietly moved to or opened across the state, in part to avoid regulatory…

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An independent monitor will oversee the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s handling of sexual abuse allegations under a settlement between the diocese and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The agreement announced Tuesday will address “years of mismanaging clergy sexual abuse cases,” James said.

Investigators with the attorney general’s office found that officials with the diocese failed to comply with their own sex abuse policies put in place after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002.

In one case, the attorney general said, a priest who admitted that he had repeatedly sexually abused minors was defrocked in 2007 but requested confidentiality. The diocese kept the abuse secret until 2017 when it announced for the first time that this priest had been credibly accused of and admitted to abusing children. The priest worked as a professor at…

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Though he hasn’t been employed by the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville for nearly a year, former Bishop Richard Stika continues to make his presence felt, contacting whistleblowers directly with threats of a lawsuit, including one who is a key witness in the sexual assault lawsuit against the church.

That lawsuit was filed by a former diocesan employee who alleges a former diocesan seminarian raped him and details how the diocese, led by Stika, interfered with the investigation and worked to discredit him. Knox News independently verified the interference, which led to the firing of an independent investigator.

As complaints about Stika’s leadership and handling of allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct piled up in the diocese, the bishop offered his resignation and it was accepted by Pope Francis in June 2023.

But Stika has continued to try to assert control over some of the priests in the Knoxville diocese. He sent a…

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Frustrated by continued abuse allegations at Missouri’s unlicensed Christian boarding schools, former students on Monday implored Attorney General Andrew Bailey to intervene.

In a letter delivered to Bailey’s Jefferson City office, several former students called on him to launch a state-wide investigation and warn parents about what they say has gone on inside some of these schools for far too long.

They also want Bailey to contact prosecutors in counties where the schools are located and urge them to conduct their own investigations.

“To spare more children the devastating life-long impacts of horrific abuse, we beg you — as emphatically as possible — to help expose, deter and prevent potential crimes and criminal cover ups at dozens of similar, largely-under-the-radar ‘schools’ in remote parts of Missouri,” the letter says. “Use your bully pulpit to publicly help expose these troubling reports and allegations.”

The Survivors Network of…

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Lawmakers faced a Friday deadline for Iowa victims to have full access to the Boy Scouts settlement

With just hours to spare and under pressure, Iowa House lawmakers passed and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law legislation temporarily lifting the state’s statute of limitations to allow Iowa victims of sexual abuse to receive full compensation from a national bankruptcy settlement with the Boy Scouts of America.

“Those who were sexually abused while in Boy Scouts should have the ability to receive the greatest amount of compensation available,” Reynolds said in a statement. “Even after an initial disclosure, it may take many more years before a victim is willing to file a legal action in a public court proceeding.

“We should not stand in the way of these survivors receiving their justified compensation. I am proud to sign this bill, and I hope it brings some sense of justice and closure.”

…

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“I’m not in charge, G-d is.”  words Milwaukee archbishop Jerome Listecki shared in April of 2015 when he was the spotlight story of our very first episode CBS 58 Sunday Morning.  9-years later and just a few weeks after he submitted his required retirement letter to Pope Francis, CBS 58 Sunday Morning caught up with the career clergyman again.

“There we go, okay,” said archbishop Listecki. The sky had already begun to darken as we stepped outside to view the eclipse.

“We can’t see anything out of these things (laughing),” archbishop Listecki said as he adjusted a pair of cardboard glasses.

Also gazing up with glasses were colleagues, some of whom have been serving with the archbishop since he was installed 14 years ago. “What I will miss most is being able to highlight and put a spotlight on the great things that so many of our people do,” he…

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Pastor who ‘violated a 15-year-old girl’ is on the run, prosecutor says

A 62-year-old man who served as a First Baptist Church pastor when a teenage girl accused him of giving her a spiked drink and sexually abusing her appeared in court on Saturday in the Florida Keys.

Rev. Monte LaVelle Chitty, a registered police volunteer, appeared before Monroe County Circuit Judge James W. Morgan III at the Marathon Courthouse wearing a light blue jumpsuit and handcuffs.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Chitty on March 4 after they found incriminating text messages to the girl including, “I prefer you pass out after I play not before” and “You can’t even remember what I did.”

He was released on a $75,000 bond.

“While you were out on bail, you committed a new crime,” Morgan said about his failure to appear in court.

According to deputies, Chitty…

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A historic Polish Catholic church in Buffalo, New York — one with a unique connection to St. John Paul II — is facing tens of thousands of dollars in bills that threaten to close the nearly-century-old structure.

Father Czeslaw Krysa, SLD, the parochial vicar of St. Casimir, said the Buffalo Diocese has given the church a deadline of August to pay its outstanding accounts. Among those is $55,000 in annual insurance costs, up recently from $32,000.

Joe Martone, a spokesman for the Buffalo Diocese, said that the diocesan vicar for renewal and development, Father Bryan Zielenieski, “communicated in February to the pastor of the family of parishes [of which] St. Casimir is a member that the church had entered a one-year evaluation period to determine its financial viability.”

“Our diocese is in a family of parishes model, and the families are currently evaluating all aspects of parish life including…

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The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office has opened an investigation into a McAllen priest who resigned after the Diocese of Brownsville on April 3 issued a statement that it had received an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor against the priest.

In a Friday afternoon statement, the DA’s office said that on April 4, another person contacted that office and also raised an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor against Monsignor Gustavo Barrera.

“The allegation is under investigation by the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office,” the statement reads.

This is the DA’s office’s first public comment on the allegations against Barrera, who formerly served at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in McAllen.

Attorneys representing Barrera previously released a lengthy statement denying the first sexual misconduct allegation, which reportedly occurred 35 years ago.

A timeline on the second allegation was not released.

The district attorney’s office did not say…

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Through the years, I have been much engaged studying the topic of sexual abuse by clergy – usually Catholic clergy – and have served as an expert witness in litigation. In such settings, I often encounter historical arguments and debates which raise for me some really significant questions about how we can know some important things in the past, and how far we can prove a negative. The implications run far beyond the specific issue at stake, and affect how we approach a great many historical topics and eras.

Specifically, this whole matter is a classic case study for any historians. It teaches us about the dangers of cherry picking historical sources. Moreover, we have to understand when such sources can or cannot give any kind of representative view of any topic whatever. Anyone who plans to study history has to grasp that idea of representativeness. Finally, we need to know when it…

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Most of Charm City’s historic Black Catholic parishes are on the chopping block in an archdiocese mired in legal troubles due to clerical sex abuse.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has released a new proposal that would cut the number of parishes in Baltimore City by nearly two-thirds, from 61 to 21. Black Catholic churches make up a quarter of those to be closed in the plan, which has not been finalized.

The archdiocese, the nation’s oldest, says the April 14 proposal—part of a sweeping diocesan realignment—is the fruit of extensive consultation, which will continue in the coming weeks.

“After nearly two years of listening, study, prayer, analysis and community weigh-in, the Seek the City to Come initiative has entered into the public comment phase. A recommended proposal was developed for the Catholic Church in Baltimore City to include investment and ministries, the realignment of parish communities designed to…

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Dismissing insurance company claims, including that sexual abuse is not considered bodily injury, a judge ordered them to pay out $345 million to men who were sexually abused by a Darlington teacher in the 1970s and ’80s.

The plaintiffs alleged that Roger Stifflemire, who taught English at the school in Rome, Ga., from 1974 to 1994, used his authority and influence as a teacher and dorm parent to obtain their trust, which he then exploited to sexually abuse them both on and off campus.

However, those allegations didn’t come to light until 2016. The Hidden Predator Act, passed in 2015, allowed the nearly 20 former students and their families to seek a civil penalty for the abuse.

The law allowed a two year window for childhood abuse victims to file a civil lawsuit which would have normally been outside the statute of limitations. Stifflemire has not faced a criminal prosecution…

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The nature of power and how the abuse of power has been dealt with in the past and present were the focus of an international conference in Rome attended by about a dozen scholars.

Experts in history, philosophy, sociology, political science, psychology and education came together at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University April 17-19 to present talks including: the effects of mass violence waged by colonial powers; the misuse of the memory of the Holocaust; sexual predation in the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages; and slave holding by Jesuits in the the United States.

Jesuit Father David Collins, a professor of history at Georgetown University, presented a case study of his order’s work in the United States with “large communities of descendants of those who were held in slavery by Jesuits to develop programs of redress, repair and racial healing.”

Their work started because a building on the Georgetown campus…

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Earlier this week, I was proud to join other brave survivors and caring advocates at a legislative hearing in Jefferson City. The topic: Eliminating or extending Missouri’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly statute of limitations on child sexual abuse.

https://missouriindependent.com/2024/04/15/survivors-of-childhood-sexual-abuse-ask-missouri-attorney-general-lawmakers-for-change/

Many spoke well and movingly. But among the most compelling was my long time friend Ken Chackes, who is one of the very most experienced – and compassionate – attorneys who help abuse survivors. I’m grateful that he’s given me permission to post his wise words here.

Read the testimony here.

David Clohessy

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A mental competency hearing for former New Orleans priest Lawrence Hecker has been rescheduled.

Hecker is accused of aggravated rape, kidnapping, crimes against nature and theft.

A grand jury indicted him in September 2023 after the discovery of a 1999 document containing what is believed to be his confession of sexually molesting and harming several teenagers between 1966 and 1972.

On April 4, Hecker underwent a mental evaluation.

Hecker’s attorneys were in court on Thursday, April 18, for the results of the mental evaluation. However, the defense claims they didn’t have enough time to review the report.

The next court hearing is set for May 23.

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A Knights of Columbus council has called for the removal of artwork by Father Marko Rupnik at a national shrine, following the disgraced priest’s decades-long legacy of sexual and spiritual abuse claims by multiple victims.

The Knights’ Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle Council 11302, based in Washington, reportedly adopted an April 9 resolution urging the fraternal organization’s executive leadership to remove and replace mosaics created by Father Rupnik for the St. John Paul II National Shrine, which the Knights established in the nation’s capital in 2011. The resolution was disclosed April 16 by The Pillar, which stated it had obtained a copy of the document.

The council requested that the Knights’ state and supreme councils “immediately make a public apology to survivors of Fr. Rupnik’s abuse for the Order’s continued inaction in addressing the matter of the mosaics in the Shrine.”

The Slovenian-born Father Rupnik, who was expelled from the Society of…

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Clergyman became a fugitive after skipping out on court date

Marathon pastor Monte Chitty appeared sullen, with his head down, as two uniformed sheriff’s deputies led him from a van into the Key West jail Friday following his capture in Texas earlier in the month.

Chitty, 62, was originally arrested by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on March 4, one day after deputies accused him of sexually battering a 15-year-old girl inside his church, First Baptist Marathon, located at 200 62nd St.

He posted a $75,000 bond and later became a fugitive after skipping out on an April 1 court hearing.

U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement captured him April 5 in the small town of Woodville, Texas after deputies said he “reportedly approached a Texas church group that was working with the homeless,” prompting a member of the group to call police.

…

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A Santa Clara County judge has cleared the release of a well-known nonprofit director who is accused of sexually abusing a girl for years during his former career as a youth pastor.

At a Friday morning bail hearing, Judge Hector Ramon approved the release of 47-year-old Brett Bymaster, who faces six felony charges for alleged sexual abuse of a girl from 2014-2019, starting when she was just 8 years old. Ramon imposed several release conditions, including ordering Bymaster to stay away from the alleged victim and children in general, confiscating his passport, and allowing police to search him at-will without a warrant.

Ramon cited state law that requires “clear and convincing evidence” that a defendant poses a future danger and that there aren’t bail conditions that could ensure community safety in lieu of pretrial detention.

“I don’t see that in this case. I see mostly speculation that this is likely to…

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A Pierce County elementary school teacher and volunteer worship pastor charged with nine counts of first-degree child molestation pleaded not guilty to all charges in court Friday.

Jordan Henderson, 34, was arrested at his Gig Harbor home Thursday by Pierce County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) deputies and booked into the county jail. The PCSD said five Evergreen Elementary School students, all girls, came forward and told officials the assaults happened at school during school hours. Deputies are asking other students who experienced inappropriate behavior to come forward.

“The defendant used his or her position of trust, confidence, or fiduciary responsibility to facilitate the commission of the current offense, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Washington,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents.

RELATED | Pierce County teacher arrested for child molestation; at least 5 victims

Henderson is accused of molesting and groping students under…

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List includes living, deceased members of Catholic church

Several former Michigan priests and non-clergy members have been blacklisted from working with children or youth as the result of an investigation by one of the state’s Catholic Dioceses.

The Diocese of Kalamazoo announced it’s “undertaking a thorough review and updating of all its policies protecting children and youth,” starting with the publication of a list of individuals disqualified from working with kids.

“These major updates and continued review of our diocesan policies are with three primary goals in mind,” said Bishop Lohse, “First, to protect the children and youth entrusted to us by creating safe environment in our churches, schools and apostolates; second, to work to educate our faithful and those in our community to recognize predatory and other behavior that puts children at risk; and third, to work toward eradicating all forms of child abuse.”

This list includes both clergy…

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The International House of Prayer-Kansas City, plagued for months by sexual abuse allegations against its founder Mike Bickle, plans to close its doors and open a new, smaller organization.

The news, first reported by The Roys Report, an online Christian media outlet, was based on a leaked recording of a Monday staff meeting at IHOP University and an email sent to staffers announcing the action.

“IHOPKC will be closing for good in a staggered fashion, with different things such as stipends, work emails, etc. being eliminated over the next couple of months to prepare us to close,” said the email, from “The Prophecy and Healing Leadership of IHOPKC.”

“The leadership feels the best way to resolve the issues is to close IHOPKC as an organization and shift to a more missional church structure in the future. This would still include night and day prayer with worship in the context of…

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IN a wooden chest of draws at home, I keep copies of The Catholic Leader.

Over the last decade, I’ve accumulated deep piles of the newspaper that report and reflect on one of the most testing of times for the Church.

Some could argue the last decade has been one of crisis for Catholics.

The fallout of a royal commission into child sexual abuse topped the list of headlines as I thumbed through old copies of the paper.

One of my first stories was a review of the film Spotlight.

The 2015 Academy Award winning biopic told the true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic archdiocese, shaking the entire Church to its core.

In a similar way Australia’s royal commission into institutional abuse shone a harsh light on a hierarchical Church structure that had protected paedophile priests…

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After an extensive investigation, with the full cooperation of diocesan leaders past and present, the Diocese of Brooklyn has entered into an agreement with the office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James that will improve on its two-decade child protection effort since the passage of the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (Dallas Charter) by the U.S. Bishops. As noted by the attorney general, “the Diocese and its leaders, including Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Bishop Robert J. Brennan, have fully cooperated with the Investigation and, both prior to and after its commencement, have voluntarily undertaken a number of important changes to the Diocese’s policies and procedures to help address the concerns that led to the Investigation and to prevent their recurrence.”

The attorney general also noted in the agreement, “the Diocese’s efforts from 2003 to the present to strengthen its policies and procedures were…

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In conjunction with the nationally observed Child Abuse Prevention Month held every April, the Diocese of Kalamazoo announces today that it is undertaking a thorough review and updating of all its policies protecting children and youth. A final and complete updated set of policies is expected this summer, but the first significant element was revealed today in the publication of a list of individuals disqualified from working with children or youth.

“These major updates and continued review of our diocesan policies are with three primary goals in mind,” said Bishop Lohse, “First, to protect the children and youth entrusted to us by creating safe environment in our churches, schools and apostolates; second, to work to educate our faithful and those in our community to recognize predatory and other behavior that puts children at risk; and third, to work toward eradicating all forms of child abuse.”

Shortly after his ordination as…

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The Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo is working on sweeping changes to its policy to protect children and youth with the first action being made Thursday, in the middle of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Bishop Edward Lohse announced a list of people being removed from eligibility of working with children in the catholic churches in the diocese. The people named in the list were accused of a number of different violations, including breaking the child-protection policy, failing to report allegations of abuse of minors, failing to prevent abuse they knew was happening, providing pornography to children, possession of child pornography, physical abuse of children, and sexually assaulting a child.

According to the Diocese of Kalamazoo, the allegations are credible. The diocese used a method for establishing credibility that required at least one of the following conditions to be met:

1. Legal proceedings
2. Canon law proceedings
3. Self-admission by the individual
4. Evidence that meets the “clear…

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New York Attorney General Letitia James announced an agreement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn to address years of reported mismanaging clergy sexual abuse cases and for failing to uphold the policies and procedures it adopted for investigating and responding to abuse complaints.

The agreement requires the diocese to take action to prevent and address allegations of clergy sexual abuse and reform past policies, including:

• Installing an independent, secular monitor who will oversee the diocese’s compliance with enhanced policies and procedures and issue an annual report on the Diocese’s handling of sexual abuse cases;
• Strengthening existing policies and procedures for handling sexual abuse cases to include expedited review timelines and transparency throughout the process;
• Creating new offices, committees, and positions within the diocese devoted to ensuring the safety of minors and other vulnerable communities; and
• Hiring a Clergy Monitor with law enforcement or counseling experience to develop and oversee abuse prevention…

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The Catholic Church in Brooklyn has finally agreed to clean up its own mess. Attorney General Letitia James announced an agreement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn on Tuesday, marking a significant step towards addressing the long-standing issue of clergy sexual abuse within the diocese.

This agreement, the second of its kind in New York, mandates comprehensive reforms and introduces independent oversight to ensure the diocese adheres to stricter standards in handling abuse allegations.

The settlement requires the Diocese of Brooklyn to overhaul its approach to managing sexual abuse complaints, including the implementation of a new system underpinned by an independent, secular monitor. This monitor will oversee the diocese’s compliance with enhanced policies and procedures and will issue an annual report assessing the diocese’s handling of sexual abuse cases.

Attorney General James highlighted the gravity of the diocese’s past failures and expressed confidence that the new measures would ensure…

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New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced that the Diocese of Brooklyn has agreed to “significant action” to address shortcomings in how it handles sexual abuse complaints. 

The diocese “knew about this pervasive problem” for years, James said upon making the announcement, but “did not adequately address allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct,” leading the organization to fail to “consistently comply with its own policies and procedures for responding to sexual abuse.”

In 2018, James’ office launched an investigation into the diocese. Among the failures highlighted by the investigation include an instance in which the diocese for more than a decade neglected to inform parishioners after a priest admitted to sexually abusing minors. 

In another case, the diocese “repeatedly transferred [a] priest from parish to parish” in order to avoid complaints of inappropriate conduct. 

Overall, the attorney general’s report on the inquiry cited nearly…

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Catholics who worship at parishes in Baltimore City have the opportunity to weigh in on the proposal for Seek the City, the archdiocesan process underway for nearly two years to change the footprint of physical locations in the city while emphasizing a Eucharistic vision and a renewed vision for the city church in Baltimore.

Geri Royale Byrd, director of the Seek the City to Come process, said the team and consultants are still listening, still taking feedback. “Seek the City to Come” is based on Heb 13:14: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.”

The Archdiocese of Baltimore follows other dioceses around the country that have looked at the number of parish sites in light of changing demographics, and the human and capital resources to continue ministering effectively.

Priests from the 61 parishes at 59 worship sites in the study area…

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The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has agreed to the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee its handling of clergy abuse cases, as part of a settlement with New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The agreement, announced on April 16, marks the second such accord secured by James with a Catholic diocese, following a similar settlement with the Diocese of Buffalo in 2022. Under the new terms, the independent monitor will be tasked with overseeing compliance with enhanced policies and procedures in the Brooklyn Diocese.

The monitor will also have to issue an annual report assessing the diocese’s handling of sexual abuse cases, which will have to be published on the diocese’s website.

In her statement announcing the move, James said it comes after an investigation by her office “found that the Diocese failed to consistently comply with its own…

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The American founder of an orphanage in Haiti pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to new federal charges accusing him of traveling from Miami to the island and sexually assaulting four underage boys under his care more than a decade ago.

But during his detention hearing in Miami federal court, a prosecutor said Michael Karl Geilenfeld “sexually abused 20 boys” at his orphanage and then threatened them not to say anything or they would be harmed.

“We have multiple people saying the defendant sexually abused them in the same way,” Justice Department prosecutor Eduardo Palomo told a federal judge.

Palomo argued that Geilenfeld, who was granted a bond by a magistrate judge in Denver before his recent transfer to Miami, should not be released before trial because he’s a danger to the community and a flight risk to the Caribbean.

U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz agreed, ordering that the 72-year founder…

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More than a year after the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s Chapter 11 plan of reorganization was confirmed, the archdiocese is back in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. A clergy sexual abuse claimant has filed a motion alleging church officials are violating a key non-monetary agreement with abuse survivors, about how the archdiocese lists priests accused of abuse.

The reorganization plan was approved in December 2022 and involved payment of some $121.5 million into a settlement trust and establishment of a new public archive of clergy sexual abuse documents.

According to the new motion filed by her attorneys, Mela LaJeunesse was sexually abused as a child by Fr. Richard Spellman beginning in approximately 1957. LaJeunesse eventually disclosed and received treatment for her abuse beginning in 2016, she filed a sexual abuse proof of claim in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case in May 2019, and she was compensated through the archdiocese’s…

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The Vatican Secretariat of State sent a formal statement to the French Embassy to the Holy See reaffirming that Pope Francis had sent a top Vatican official to investigate a French religious congregation and warning that interference by a French civil court in an internal church matter could be a “serious violation” of religious freedom.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, confirmed April 13 that the Vatican had sent an explanatory “note verbale” to the embassy highlighting several points in connection to a French civil court decision made public April 3.

The ruling by the one-judge tribunal of Lorient in France ordered 79-year-old Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, retired prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and the two religious who assisted him in the investigation to pay a former nun more than $194,000 for material damages, more than $10,000 for “moral prejudice” and more than $10,000 in legal costs…

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A Washington, D.C., Knights of Columbus council has called for chapel mosaics created by disgraced artist Fr. Marko Rupnik to be removed from the area’s St. John Paul II Shrine, which is sponsored by the Knight of Columbus fraternal organization.

The Cardinal O’Boyle Council 11302 passed a resolution April 9 calling on Knights leadership to remove Rupnik’s artwork from the shrine’s Redemptor Hominis Church and the Luminous Mysteries Chapel.

The resolution notes that Rupnik has been accused of sexually abusing religious sisters in the context of creating his works of art.

“O’Boyle Council calls upon the executive leadership of the Washington, DC State Council of the Knights of Columbus (State Council) and the executive leadership of the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus (Supreme Council) to renovate the Shrine such that the mosaics in both the Redemptor Hominis Church and the Luminous Mysteries Chapel created by Fr. Rupnik are…

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The International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) will be closing its doors and starting a new organization, following months of clergy sexual abuse allegations against its founder Mike Bickle, leaders announced at an internal IHOP University staff meeting yesterday.

A leaked recording of the meeting that The Roys Report (TRR) obtained reveals the organization is bleeding $500,000 a month due to donors being too connected to the now-permanently removed Bickle.

Leaders hope this move will limit IHOPKC’s liability regarding victims’ lawsuits, said Isaac Bennett, pastor of IHOPKC’s Forerunner Church, in the meeting. “We’re the people to sue at the end of the day,” said Bennett. “That produces significant liabilities there.”

However, Boz Tchividjian, an attorney who represents multiple Jane Does who’ve accused Bickle of clergy sexual abuse, told TRR that IHOPKC is in “fantasyland” if it thinks closing down and starting a new organization protects its assets from lawsuit. To try to…

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Never underestimate what one small act of compassion can do. That was Antonia Sobocki’s message to the faithful gathered for Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Wheeling April 7.

She was there to represent LOUDfence, a campaign of awareness and support for victims of abuse which began in a small, rural English church and has now spread across the globe with its message of healing.

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston became the first diocese in the U.S. to participate in LOUDfence, which began with Mass that morning celebrated by Bishop Mark E. Brennan. Sobocki and the many survivors of abuse present were welcomed by the bishop, who expressed his support of the campaign.

“We are deeply honored we are now here for the very first time in America,” Sobocki told the congregation. “No matter where we are in the world, we are one holy Catholic and apostolic church. We…

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A San Jose youth pastor has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a minor, police said. 

Brett Bymaster, 47, was taken into custody in the Central Valley in Manteca on Thursday, following a months-long investigation by San Jose Police Department’s child exploitation detectives.

SEE ALSO: American Canyon teacher arrested second time on child sex abuse charges

Investigators said the alleged sexual assault began in 2014, when the suspect served as a youth pastor at the River Church Community located on Lincoln Avenue.

“During the course of the investigation, an adult female survivor disclosed that an adult male suspect sexually assaulted her multiple times between 2014 and 2018 when she was a minor,” police said in a press release.

In a statement to KTVU, the River Church said that Bymaster was employed there from 2014 to 2019 and that the suspect was at the center of a…

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According to reports in the Italian media, the erstwhile star prosecution witness in the Vatican’s “trial of the century” for various financial crimes has been confirmed by Pope Francis in his role as an adjunct prosecutor for the Vatican’s supreme court.

Assuming the reports are correct, some observers likely will be tempted to see the confirmation as a reward for the role Italian Monsignor Alberto Perlasca played in the convictions of Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight other defendants, despite critical questions raised at trial about Perlasca’s credibility and judgment.

First published by the Italian site “Dagospia,” the reports suggest that Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin has sent a letter to the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court in the church’s system of canon law, indicating that Perlasca “has been confirmed” in his role as an adjunct Promoter of Justice, meaning a prosecutor.

Though Parolin’s letter apparently did not specify, it’s widely…

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The Vatican Secretariat of State sent a formal statement to the French Embassy to the Holy See reaffirming that Pope Francis had sent a top Vatican official to investigate a French religious congregation and warning that interference by a French civil court in an internal church matter could be a “serious violation” of religious freedom.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, confirmed April 13 that the Vatican had sent an explanatory “note verbale” to the embassy highlighting several points in connection to a French civil court decision made public April 3.

The ruling by the one-judge tribunal of Lorient in France ordered 79-year-old Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, retired prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and the two religious who assisted him in the investigation to pay a former nun more than $194,000 for material damages, more than $10,000 for “moral prejudice” and more than $10,000 in legal costs…

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A woman has accused a 73-year-old Mobile priest of fondling her and kissing her without consent, which led to his arrest Saturday on charges of sexual misconduct and harassment.

Fr. David J. Tokarz turned himself in Saturday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was booked into Mobile Metro Jail late Saturday morning and released on $1,500 bond a few hours later.

Tokarz, 73, is the pastor at Our Savior Church in Mobile and has been in the priesthood for 32 years.

WALA reported Monday that Tokarz is alleged to have hugged the woman on March 2, during which is rubbed his hands on her breasts and patted them. Four days later, Tokarz is accused of kissing the woman on the lips in the church rectory, without her consent.

The Archdiocese of Mobile released a statement following…

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The arrest of a Catholic priest stems from allegations that he fondled a woman and forced an unwanted kiss on her during separate incidents last month, according to court records.

Mobile police arrested David Joseph Tokarz over the weekend after a magistrate issued an arrest warrant charging him with sexual misconduct and harassing communications, according to Mobile Municipal Court records. Tokarz, 73, was pastor of Our Savior Catholic Church on Cody Road in west Mobile.

The alleged victim made a sworn statement on Friday alleging that Tokarz hugged her on March 2. As he released her from the hug, he rubbed his hands on her breasts and patted them, according to the allegations.

The second alleged incident occurred on March 6 after a meeting in the rectory, a church building where priests live. The woman alleges that he kissed her on the lips without consent, according to court records.

Sexual…

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Results of an investigation issued by New York Attorney General Letitia James highlights both shortcomings and positive initiatives taken by the Diocese of Brooklyn in its handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations over the past 22 years. 

The 75-page document, published on April 16, focuses on allegations since 2002, when the Catholic Church first set up a comprehensive set of procedures, still in place today, called the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” 

It found that the diocese, on multiple occasions, did not always complete investigations in a timely manner, properly monitor clergy with credible abuse allegations against them, or be transparent with parishioners about a priest’s status. 

Her report also said that the Diocese of Brooklyn “failed to consistently comply with its own policies and procedures for responding to sexual abuse.”

The report states that diocesan leadership — specifically Bishop Robert Brennan and Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio…

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A secular monitor will oversee the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s compliance with new and stronger sexual abuse policies as part of a settlement agreement with Attorney General Letitia James.

The agreement was announced Tuesday as a means to address what James’ office called “years of mismanaging clergy sexual abuse cases” and failure to adequately investigate and respond to accusations of sexual abuse. 

The Office of the Attorney General opened an investigation of all eight Catholic Dioceses in New York back in 2018. 

During that investigation, the OAG reportedly found that the Brooklyn Diocese — which oversees 211 churches and 84 schools across Brooklyn and Queens – was not adequately protecting children from sexual abuse, and was not complying with its own longstanding procedures for responding abuse allegations in the church. 

The Diocesan Review Board sometimes delayed its investigations, per the OAG, and held different…

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Diocese Required to Make Comprehensive Reforms to Improve Response to Sexual Abuse Complaints and Will Comply With Independent, Secular Oversight
Agreement is Second Reached by AG James to Address Pervasive Mishandling of Sexual Misconduct Within the Catholic Dioceses of New York

New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced an agreement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn (the Diocese) to address its years of mismanaging clergy sexual abuse cases and for failing to uphold the policies and procedures it adopted for investigating and responding to abuse complaints. Instead, the Diocese applied inconsistent standards to evaluate the credibility of an abuse allegation, delayed investigations, and failed to adequately monitor priests who were accused of sexual abuse.

The agreement requires the Diocese to take significant action to prevent and address allegations of clergy sexual abuse and reform past policies, including:

• Installing an independent, secular monitor who will oversee the Diocese’s…

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Mary Dispenza spent years as a nun and working in the church before her buried memories rose to the surface. It was the start of her long journey towards justice and peace

Mary Dispenza was almost 50 when she experienced her first flashback. At the time, she was in a workshop entitled Sexual Misconduct on the Part of the Clergy, which she had been asked to attend as part of her job in pastoral support for the Roman Catholic archdiocese in Seattle. To this day, she isn’t sure what words unleashed that memory.

She recalls only how clammy her hands became and how the room suddenly started spinning as she saw her seven-year-old self being lifted on to the lap of a priest in a dark, empty auditorium. She knew in an instant who he was.

Dispenza urgently wanted to leave that workshop, but she sat through to the end. “I didn’t fall…

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A Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York has asked a judge to end its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after failing to get support from about 530 sex abuse survivors on a proposed $200 million settlement of their claims against the diocese.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, which serves about 1.2 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said on Friday that its bankruptcy had “run its course” after abuse survivors “overwhelmingly” voted against the diocese’s offer.

“The Diocese sincerely hoped that its offer of $200 million—in addition to very substantial insurance assets—would be accepted by the creditors,” the diocese wrote in a motion to dismiss filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan.

James Stang, an attorney representing abuse survivors in the bankruptcy, said that the diocese’s failure to reach a deal was “unprecedented.”

In other Catholic bankruptcies, abuse survivors were allowed to propose their own bankruptcy…

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