ABUSE TRACKER

Soon after U.S. bishops inside a Baltimore hotel approved materials on how Catholics should vote in 2024 elections, their recently ousted colleague and dozens of his supporters rallied outside the annual fall business meeting.

Bishop Joseph Strickland, a conservative cleric recently removed by Pope Francis as head of the diocese of Tyler, Texas, following his increasingly severe criticisms of the pontiff, prayed the rosary with dozens of supporters along the waterfront.

Inside their conference room, the bishops approved a document that didn’t say who Catholics should vote for, but rather how they should rely on the church’s teachings, like its anti-abortion and pro-immigrant stances, when making their ballot choices.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the top Catholic clergy body in America, approved supplements on Wednesday to its voter guide, which is known as “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.”

The materials, which include…

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The International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) has just released a report on initial findings, discounting some of the recent clergy sexual abuse allegations made against its founder Mike Bickle. The report also questions the “true objectives” of the “Complaint Group,” which presented the allegations to IHOPKC leadership in October.

This group, comprised of former IHOPKC leaders, published a statement Oct. 28, saying it had become aware of numerous allegations of sexual abuse against Bickle from “credible” women, “spanning several decades.”

However, IHOPKC said in its report that it has identified five of the eight women the group claimed are Bickle’s victims. Three of the women have publicly called the allegations “lies,” the report stated. A fourth has reportedly refused to communicate with IHOPKC’s lawyer. One of the women’s allegations predate IHOPKC’s founding, the report said. And four of the women did not give consent to be…

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El sacerdote Juan Huerta Ibarra huye del juicio en Venezuela por las acusaciones de José Leonardo Araujo, que lo denunció por abusos cuando tenía 13 años

Bogotá – Cuánto más pasaba el tiempo, más difícil era atemperar la gran pena que le carcomía. Durante casi veinte años había callado los abusos sexuales que sufrió cuando era niño. Por momentos no lograba hilar sus ideas, sentía como un anzuelo atravesado en la garganta. Decidió estudiar derecho impulsado por la necesidad de justicia. En las clases de derecho penal, José Leonardo Araujo Araque hacía cuentas del plazo que le quedaba para denunciar antes de que el delito prescribiera, y entonces, la voz del profesor se entremezclaba con sus recuerdos perturbadores.

A los 13 años, José Leonardo soñaba ser sacerdote. Estudiaba octavo grado en un colegio regentado por las hermanas dominicas en La Azulita, Venezuela. Un día, viajó a la ciudad de Mérida,…

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A former priest from Colombia accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl suffering from cancer was arraigned Wednesday in a Cleveland court.

Luis Jesus Barajas, 76, was indicted in Cuyahoga County last week on six counts of gross sexual imposition, accused of inappropriately touching the girl while performing a “blessing” in Westlake.

Court records show Barajas’ bond was set at $50,000 at his Wednesday arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty.

That’s down from $250,000 set during his initial appearance in the county court and down from $500,000 set during his initial arraignment in Rocky River Municipal Court.

He’ll be under court-supervised release and home detention with electronic monitoring and ordered against having contact with the victim. He’s also not allowed to leave the state. A temporary protection order has also been issued.

Westlake police said Barajas had been staying with local families in  View Cache

After Mark Russell Sr. stole his grandmother’s car to go joyriding, his family hoped a stint in juvenile detention would straighten him out.

Russell was a wild Baltimore teenager in the mid-1990s, reeling from the death of his father, a disabled alcoholic he had spent his early life both caring for and fearing, he said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun this week.When he was about 13 years old, he landed at Cheltenham Youth Detention Center for the first of three stays between about1995 and 1997.

During his confinement, a guard sexually abused him, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday. His grandmother, his caretaker, died during the same period, he said. Instead of turning his life around, juvenile detention left him with lasting scars that he said helped fuel years of drug addiction.

Now 41, Russell is part of a group of more than two dozen men and women…

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The president of the Polish bishops’ conference has bitterly criticized demands for liberal change by the church in neighboring Germany and urged the pope not to allow them to dominate the Rome Synod on Synodality.

“Awareness of the power of truth sustains my hope for the ongoing synod — that it won’t be in any way manipulated or used to authorize German theses which openly contradict Catholic Church teaching,” Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan said in a letter to Pope Francis released Nov. 14.

“There’s a risk the scientific claims being cited are wrong, as happened with another once-popular theory about racism. If doctrinal competence were granted to bishops’ conferences or continental assemblies, then such theses would be considered Catholic — and perhaps imposed on other conferences, despite their obviously non-Catholic character,” the archbishop said.

The 1,000-word letter was published ahead of the Polish bishops’ Nov. 20-21 fall plenary, which…

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Five years ago, Soledad Gallego-Diaz challenged Spain’s last great taboo: sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church.

The newly appointed editor of the left-leaning daily El Pais launched an investigation into allegations of abuse by clergy and lay people against children.

Unlike in the United States, Ireland and France, the Spanish Church had not sought to address this issue.

Echoing The Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation of child abuse in the Catholic Church, El Pais’ probe sought justice for survivors of abuse.

“I realized that the church was not going to do anything, unlike in the U.S. and Ireland. It had no intention to do anything. It was going to carry on covering up those cases that it knew about. It was the moment to find out the truth,” Gallego told VOA.

Five years after the paper launched its investigation, Spain’s ombudsman published a report estimating that more than 200,000 children suffered sexual abuse from some…

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Inside a windowless hotel ballroom on the Baltimore waterfront on Wednesday, more than 250 American bishops were trying to pilot through the choppy waters of the increasingly contentious relationship between Pope Francis and conservative American Catholics, many of them in their own ranks.

But the most visible sign of that struggle was outside on the street, as a small crowd gathered to show support for Bishop Joseph Strickland, the bellicose Texas bishop fired by Francis over the weekend. Bishop Strickland has accused the pope of undermining the Catholic faith and represents an outspoken cohort in the church who view Francis as dangerously liberal.

Just steps from the hotel, Bishop Strickland’s supporters sang and knelt to pray with the deposed cleric. Most held rosaries, and some hoisted signs reading, “We stand with Bishop Strickland.”

Josiah Reffo, who converted to Catholicism less than a year ago, read about this week’s event on the right-wing…

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Legal motions filed by the Archdiocese of Washington could ultimately impact hundreds of victims of child sex abuse seeking damages from long ago abuse

The Archdiocese of Washington sought to overturn Maryland’s new landmark Child Victims Actin court this week in an effort to dismiss a handful of decades-old allegations of child sex abuse.

If successful, the motion arguing that the law violates the Maryland Constitution could also dissolve a legal avenue for hundreds of other victims trying to sue any institution that harbored their attackers.

The Child Victims Act took effect Oct. 1 and eliminates all statutes of limitations for civil lawsuits regarding child sex abuse in Maryland, part of what lawmakers called a long-overdue public reckoning.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore preemptively filed for bankruptcy protection two days prior, anticipating a wave of lawsuits that it couldn’t afford to defend or pay off. The…

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A federal judge on Wednesday approved Buffalo developer Carl Paladino’s winning bid of $200,000 to buy the former Archbishop Walsh Academy buildings and campus owned by the bankrupt Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

The Buffalo News reported that Olean 2020 LLC, a limited liability corporation owned by Paladino, outbid three other bidders at an auction Tuesday for the property.

Proceeds from the sale will likely be used toward a negotiated settlement with more than 850 child sex abuse claimants in the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

The building at 208 N. 24th St. has been Walsh’s home since its construction in 1959. The school, as it was announced in 1957, was to be named after Archbishop Thomas J. Walsh, who had died five years earlier. He had deep roots in the Southern Tier after studying at nearby St. Bonaventure University.

In early January, Walsh officials had spoken with a potential buyer,…

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Police on Indonesia’s Flores Island have arrested a man on the charge of raping his daughter for three years, in what is considered the latest in increasing cases of child abuse in the Catholic-majority island.

Paulus Sadu, 42, a Catholic and resident of Golo Wuas village in South Elar Subdistrict was arrested on Nov. 15 after his wife lodged a police complaint, said Jeffry Silaban, head of the East Manggarai Regency’s Police Crime and Investigation Unit.

Silaban said Sadu’s wife complained that he raped their 13-year-old daughter for the last three years beginning in 2020 and the latest on Sept. 28.

“He raped her in the garden, then threatened violence if she told anyone about his actions,” the police officer said adding that the father threatened to kill her with a machete when she tried to fight back.

However, on Nov. 11, the victim gathered courage to speak to her mother,…

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Calling violence against women a “poisonous weed” that must be eradicated, Pope Francis also told the media that their campaigns to stop the violence often are offset by the way they glorify a person’s ability “to attract and dominate the other.”

“In too many places and too many situations, women are put in the background, they are considered ‘inferior,’ objects; and when a person is reduced to a thing, then one no longer sees her dignity, she is considered just property that can be used in any way and even killed,” the pope said in a message read on Italy’s RAI 1 radio station Nov. 9.

The radio and a shelter for abused women in Milan planned a full day of broadcasts to educate the public about the ongoing problem of violence against women.

To combat the violence, the pope said, one must go to the roots, which “are cultural…

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A woman says she endured years of sexual abuse at a southeastern Massachusetts school starting when she was just 11 years old.

“I don’t even want to think about the hours I’ve spent in therapy and medications I’ve taken and tried,” she said. “And just to try to have a normal life.”

25 Investigates agreed to protect her identity as a survivor of sexual abuse.

“One of the administrators at the school started paying a lot of attention to me,” she said.

“It felt nice. It felt special.”

“It was picking me out of the hallway to tell me I looked nice or telling me I did really well on an exam or at a game.”

She says the administrator started pulling her out of the cafeteria at lunchtime to have lunch in his office with him.

“And that seemed a little weird, but it wasn’t weird enough for me…

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One survivor of years of sexual abuse in a southeastern Massachusetts public school said her harrowing experience has proved particularly distressing to process – in large part, because of how preventable it all was.

She recounted how a school administrator would take her out of classes to abuse her – with the unknowing acquiescence of teachers who allowed her removal without questioning it.

She said the abuse only ended three years later, when a new physical education teacher asked her: “‘Are you okay?’”

“I’d come back and I’d be all upset and just spaced out,” the survivor said. “My abuser was smart enough to know which teachers were going to notice less and pull me from those classes more often. I think the teachers – they didn’t have the training. They were in a culture that allowed this administrator to do whatever he wanted. There was no culture that supported…

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The largest, loudest and longest demonstration outside the meeting of Catholic bishops in Baltimore came Wednesday, led by a Texas bishop who was removed from his post by the pope four days ago.

The annual fall meeting of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore hasn’t come without controversy. Three days of meetings at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in Harbor East drew a variety of protest groups.

Bishop Joseph Strickland, 65, has become known for criticism of Pope Francis. The action came after the pope moved to make the church more welcoming to LGBTQIA+ Catholics.

Strickland and others in an ultra-conservative crowd are calling on the bishops attending the conference to go backward.

“I think it’s a huge arrogance of our time to think we’re the only generation that’s ‘woke.’ We need to awaken,” Strickland said. “That’s our faith that I’m willing to die for.”

When asked why not go…

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A Catholic woman will seek 30 million yen ($198,300) in a compensation lawsuit filed against the Nagoya-based Society of the Divine Word, saying she was sexually abused by a foreign priest in the congregation.

The woman, a nurse in her 60s living in Tokyo, said the religious congregation failed to take appropriate action against the priest, who has since left Japan, despite her complaints.

The lawsuit will be filed at the Tokyo District Court.

According to the woman and her lawyer, during “confession” at a church in Nagasaki in 2012, she told the priest about the sexual violence she had suffered as a child.

The priest told her that she would “have to start over,” and forced her to have sex with him repeatedly as “spiritual guidance” until around the end of 2017, she said.

She reported the priest’s actions to the counseling office and the head of the congregation’s…

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A new national, non-religious coalition called Outrage Canada seeks a federal investigation to hold the Catholic Church  accountable both for historic and current sexual abuse crimes against children.

Irene Deschenes is on Outrage Canada’s board of directors, which launched a new website (outragecanada.ca) Nov. 2. She was one of the victims of Fr. Charles Sylvestre, convicted in 2006 for sexually abusing 47 young girls between the 1950s and 1980s. Deschenes endured two years of abuse while she attended St. Ursula Catholic School in Chatham, Ont., in the early 1970s.

For parts of three decades, Deschenes has litigated against the Diocese of London after first reporting her abuse at the hands of Sylvestre in 1992, and in 1996 filing a civil suit settled in 2000. It was reopened after police reports about Sylvestre dating back to 1962 were uncovered in a diocese filing cabinet.

“That litigation was over my shoulder for…

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Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse and may be disturbing to some readers.

A San Mateo priest accused of molestation in a lawsuit is one of two accused clergy who remain in active ministry with the Archdiocese of San Francisco as the church faces renewed questions over how it responds to sexual abuse allegations.

The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County in November 2022, alleges Father Linh Tien Nguyen sexually abused a former altar boy and student of St. Pius Catholic Church and School in Redwood City between approximately 2005 and 2008.

The plaintiff in the case, identified as “M.S.,” alleges he was between 10 and 13 years old. He is now in his late 20s.

“This young person has got a lot of courage,” said Dan McNevin, Oakland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. “If there’s any good news in this, it’s that…

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During its plenary assembly, the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference expressed its solidarity and closeness to the bishop of San Ignacio de Velasco, Robert Flock, saying he “was a victim of excesses” by prosecutors who interrogated him as witness in a case against a priest.

The bishop was summoned to testify as a witness in the case of a priest of the diocese who is under investigation for alleged rape, “and he found himself in an irregular interrogation of more than five hours, by other prosecutors, as if he were supposedly guilty,” the bishops said in a statement.

The statement was read Nov. 13 by the secretary general of the conference, Bishop Giovani Arana, and the deputy secretary general, Father Diego Pla, at Cardenal Maurer House in Cochabamba, where the 113th Assembly of Bishops is taking place.

The case involves Father Erick Palomino Fuentes, who was suspended from priestly ministry at his…

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On the morning of September 10, 2023, the following news appeared on the website of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference: “Canonical Investigations into Suspected Concealment of Sexual Abuse by Members of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference.”[1] This news was a prelude to the publication, two days later, of the Report on the Pilot Project for the History of Sexual Abuse in the Context of the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland since the Mid-20th Century.[2] What consequences will result from these investigations and when these investigations will be continued cannot yet be predicted.

The problem of the credibility of the Church

Such a situation, with so much of the background and details still unknown, is all too familiar to those who deal with the issue of abuse and its cover-up in the Catholic Church. It is almost predictable that much remains obscure; that because of the complexity of the issue, multiple responsibilities and historical…

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Opinion: A bishop stays silent for seven years while a little girl is being raped. Arizona law allowed him to say nothing and here’s the real stunner, a key legislator wants to keep it that way.

A creeper confesses to his bishop. He’s raping his 5-year-old daughter.

For seven years, the bishop tells no one outside his church — remaining silent, as a church lawyer advises him to do — and the abuse continues. Then the creeper starts raping another daughter, just 6 weeks old.

Last week, a Cochise County judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by several of the creeper’s children against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It’s galling, though not surprising, that a judge would decline to hold the church responsible. While Arizona has a mandatory reporting law for teachers and doctors and such, members of the clergy are not required to report a confession…

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Since its publication in September, a report has been shaking up the secrecy that has surrounded sexual abuse in the Swiss Church since the mid-20th century. The report is still preliminary, but could pave the way towards a more systemic commission, like the one in France.

It draws up a provisional inventory of 1,002 victims of sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests and members of the Swiss Church since 1950. Released on September 12 in Zurich, the “pilot project report on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland since the mid-20th century” has triggered a series of reactions with as yet unknown consequences.

“Switzerland has done things in a different order from France: reparations commissions for victims already existed,” explains Astrid Kaptijn, professor of canon law at the University of Fribourg. “Various ecclesiastical bodies finally agreed to fund this study.” The study was entrusted to the  View Cache

When all US Catholic bishops meet in Baltimore, we urge them to discuss the church’s ongoing clergy sex abuse and cover-up crisis. Ignoring this still-widespread and deeply hurtful criminal scandal leads to further complacency which enables more predators to assault more kids.
While the Catholic hierarchy’s internal panels, procedures, policies and protocols on abuse are inherently flawed and rarely effective, not talking about this crisis is the wrong approach.

Specifically, at a bare minimum, we urge the bishops to at least discuss the possibility of:
—establishing a whistleblowers fund to help church employees who experience retaliation after reporting known or suspected child sex crimes to church officials, and
—fighting for, not against, reforms of secular abuse laws to give victims of childhood sexual violence more time to expose those who commit or conceal child sex crimes in court.

We also urge them to vote AGAINST elevating San Francisco’s archbishop to a committee chairmanship.
San…

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Current and former Jehovah’s Witnesses reported 159 cases of sexual abuse by followers, many at the hands of those in positions of authority, according to a survey conducted by an apostate group.

The group of former second-generation followers, called “JW child abuse damage archive,” released the findings to relevant government ministries and agencies on Nov. 7.

It plans to hold a news conference on Nov. 28. 

Members of the group said they hope that the problem will be investigated as a social issue and serve as a wake-up call for human rights violations that can occur in other religions as well.

In the survey, the group solicited responses online in July and received 159 valid responses.

Thirty-five respondents said they had been sexually abused by followers when they were minors.

The sexual abuse they suffered included 24 cases of “being touched on the body over clothing or directly,” 11 of “being viewed…

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In the realm of sexual crimes, a stark contrast exists in the level of media attention and public awareness when the perpetrators wear different hats, specifically, the robes of the Catholic Church versus the more secular attire of public school teachers or individuals from diverse spiritual beliefs.

When allegations of sexual misconduct arise within the Catholic Church, the media responds with a resounding uproar that reverberates globally. Cases involving Catholic priests make headlines, sparking international outrage, and prompting discussions about accountability and reform.

Furthermore, authors exploring themes of scandal and controversy within the Catholic Church frequently experience an unexpected surge in international fame. Books that point fingers at the Church, delving into alleged misconduct or institutional shortcomings, often become sensationalized and receive extensive media coverage.

The allure of such narratives, coupled with the controversial nature of the subject matter, seems to propel these authors into the spotlight, contributing to their…

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Key points:

• The civil case was brought against the diocese of Wagga Wagga, over abuse by convicted paedophile Vincent Kiss
• The victim, TJ, was award a $3.3 million payout, while three other plaintiffs settled outside court
• It is first time a civil jury has recorded a verdict against the Catholic Church

An abuse survivor who will potentially receive one of Australia’s largest-ever compensation payouts from the Catholic Church says it is a “mind-blowing” victory he hopes will give other survivors a “sense of hope”. 

The civil case verdict in Victoria’s Supreme Court last Friday related to child sex abuse committed by convicted paedophile priest Vincent Kiss in the 1960s and 70s.

The case was originally brought against the diocese of Wagga Wagga by four men who suffered abuse at the hands of Kiss, who at the time was its director of youth.

Three of the men settled out of court, with TJ, whose real name cannot be used for legal…

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The Synod of Bishops on synodality just completed the first of two major assemblies. The synodal process has the potential to impact the entire church, including women religious. For the final question to this panel, Global Sisters Report asked: How has the synodal process affected you, your parish, or your community? What hopes do you have for the synod?

Responses have been edited for clarity. We will debut a new crop of panelists later this month.

Gifty Atampoka Abane is a member of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus from Ghana. She is a teacher in a Catholic girls’ high school in Ghana and serves their province in leadership.

The synodal process awakens in me a new consciousness of a journey in which the perfect, the imperfect, the seekers, the prophets, the weak and frail, the strong, the wise and foolish, the patient and enlightened, young people,…

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The phones are ringing in the church office, and the volunteers can hardly keep up.

St. Benedict has celebrated Mass in Southwest Baltimore for 130 years, but the parish faces the end. There are grief and anger — and questions. Lots of questions.

What about the gifts in the sanctuary from all the old families? What about the annual sale of “Baltimore’s best coddies.” Isn’t there something, anything, the people on the phone can do?

“Call or write the archdiocese,” Verdell “V” Kelsaw tells them. “We don’t know what else.”

Parishioners are reeling from the abrupt dismissal of their longtime pastor. The Archdiocese of Baltimore dismissed him after The Baltimore Banner found he had paid a settlement over an allegation of fraud and sexual assault. Then, the archdiocese cited a shortage of priests for a decision to end St. Benedict’s worship services.

Some church…

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Call it gut instinct or a dash of healthy cynicism, but we can’t help but raise an eyebrow at the recent surprise move by Baltimore’s Catholic Archbishop, William Lori. Nope, we’re not referring to his quicksilver push for a ludicrously narrow deadline for the survivors of child sex abuse to step forward and seek compensation through the bankruptcy process. That maneuver is a conversation unto itself; frankly, it leaves a pretty sour taste in our mouths. But, let’s park that topic for the time being and delve into this astonishing other decision that has us scratching our heads: the abrupt closure of a parish following a sex scandal.

Closing Down the Parish, Really?

Okay, let’s set the scene. Almost a month after a priest was caught in a sticky web of sexual and financial allegations, out of the blue, the parish doors are slammed shut. Predictably, this raised…

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Brother Brendan Brennan of the Marist Brothers has been accused of sexually abusing a student, 16, at Central Catholic High School in 1980.

Lawrence MA – A Boston lawyer is calling for justice for his client, who says he was sexually abused by the late Brother Brendan Brennan of the Marist Brothers congregation while he was a 16-year-old student at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence in 1980.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented clergy sexual abuse victims and survivors for decades, said in an interview with Patch Monday that his hope is that the Archdiocese of Boston Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley and the Marist Brothers acknowledge the alleged abuse and settle his client’s claim.

Garabedian’s client, Francis G. Kearney III, attended Central Catholic High School from 1978 to 1982. Speaking with Patch Monday, Kearney III, who played football, hockey, and golf in high school, said Brennan was his religion…

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Yesterday, former Ann Arbor Catholic priest Timothy Crowley, 74, was sentenced to one year of incarceration at the Washtenaw County Jail and five years’ probation, on two counts of Second-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC), announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Crowley, who pled guilty in August, was additionally sentenced by Judge Patrick Conklin in the 22nd Circuit Court in Washtenaw County to receive sex offender treatment and register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.   

Crowley, who had been a priest at St. Thomas Rectory in Ann Arbor, was arrested in 2019 in Tempe, Arizona. His case was initially dismissed after a preliminary examination, but the Attorney General’s office prevailed in the Court of Appeals. He was originally charged by the State with four felony counts of First-Degree CSC and four felony counts of Second-Degree CSC, for alleged crimes against one victim.  

Crowley is the…

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A closer look at the largest survey of U.S. Catholic priests in 50 years has revealed “a major shift in how priests view themselves and their priesthood,” said researchers.

Compared to their older peers, younger priests are far more likely to describe themselves as theologically orthodox or conservative, politically conservative or moderate, and prepared to be “first responders” to the abuse victims they encounter in their ministry. Furthermore, researchers noted “a significant proportion of American priests say that they had ‘personally experienced sexual harassment or abuse or suffered sexual misconduct’ during their formation or time in seminary.”

The findings were detailed in “Polarization, Generational Dynamics, and the Ongoing Impact of the Abuse Crisis: Further Insights from the National Study of Catholic Priests,” a November 2023 report released by The Catholic Project, an initiative from The Catholic University of America designed to foster effective collaboration between the church’s clergy and laity…

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The 2024 presidential election, and considerationof a recent Vatican conclaveto shape the future of the Catholic Church, are expected to be among the key elements that propel the agenda when America’s Catholic bishops gather in Baltimore for their annual fall meeting this week.

About 300 bishops from across the United States are set to converge Monday morning for the conference at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, where they’ll kick off three days of meetings, discussions and voting that will help establish priorities for the American church for the coming year.

One item that looms large in the background is not listed on the published agenda: the scourge of clergy sexual abuse. The topic has dominated the news in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the first and oldest Catholic diocese in the U.S., since the bishops last met in their customary host city nearly a year ago.

It was shortly after the prelates…

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Extrapolating figures to suggest 440,000 victims is deceitful, says Cardinal Omella.

A Spanish government report about sexual abuse within the Catholic Church found that 0.6% of adults interviewed reported having been abused by a Catholic priest or religious. Even when abuse was perpetrated by lay Catholics employed by Church institutions, the figure went up only to 1.13%. 

The 779-page report, commissioned by Spain’s Parliament, interviewed 8,013 adults. Some media outlets have suggested that its findings would mean that 440,000 people in Spain have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Juan José Omella, president of the Spanish bishops conference, said that such a calculation “is a lie and is intended to deceive.”

Reuters reported that an internal Church investigation published in June identified 728 alleged sexual abusers among Spain’s clergy and 927 victims since the 1940s. That followed a 2021 report in El Pais newspaper…

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The insolvency of California dioceses has caused some cases be put on hold, even as a $175m cathedral has risen over Oakland

In Oakland, California, the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Christ the Light is difficult to miss. Towering over Lake Merritt in the heart of the city, its modernist glass dome reflects the East Bay sun in all directions.

The building, which was completed in 2008 and financed by the Roman Catholic diocese of Oakland, cost $175m. But that price tag confounds Joseph Piscitelli.

In the 1970s, Piscitelli attended a Catholic high school in nearby Richmond, where, from the age of 14, he experienced repeated sexual abuse at the hands of his vice-principal, an ordained priest. For decades, Piscitelli experienced nightmares and panic attacks. Friends who had also been abused turned to drugs and alcohol, and several took their own lives.

In 2003, Piscitelli sued the Salesian College Preparatory high…

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — A former Michigan priest has been sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to sexually abusing an altar boy more than three decades ago.

A Washtenaw County judge sentenced Timothy Crowley, who must also serve five years of probation, on Wednesday, The Ann Arbor News reported.

Crowley, 74, pleaded guilty in August to two felony counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct under a plea agreement that dismissed two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

He was charged for sexual conduct with a youth alleged to have taken place between 1986 and 1990 at Jackson’s St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Hillsdale’s St. Anthony Catholic Church and Ann Arbor’s St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church.

The victim testified that he was a 10-year-old altar boy for Crowley in 1982 at St. Mary’s in Jackson when his family encouraged him to…

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WESTLAKE, Ohio (WJW) – A man accused of molesting a 15-year-old cancer patient during a “blessing” last month was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday.

The grand jury indicted 76-year-old Luis Jesus Barajas, a Columbian national, on six counts of gross sexual imposition.

The investigation began when a local priest reported the situation to police. Investigators say Barajas had been staying with Lorain County families for months, “performing spiritual ceremonies to the nearby Spanish-speaking population.”

According to a press release, Barajas was taken to Westlake on Oct. 20 to pray with a 15-year-old girl who was diagnosed with cancer.

The suspect, who later claimed to be a retired Catholic priest, is accused of inappropriately touching the teen during the blessing.

Barajas was arrested on Oct. 23.

Investigators believe the suspect was ordained in 1982, but was sent back to Colombia after being accused…

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Bill Maledon, the church’s attorney who handled the case, stated ‘the abuse of a child or any other individual is inexcusable’

An Arizona judge has granted a motion by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for summary judgment and dismissed a negligence complaint against the church in a child sex abuse case.

The lawsuit, filed in 2021, accused the church and local church leaders of negligence and civil conspiracy in relation to a child sexual abuse case involving a father abusing his two daughters over several years.

In the ruling issued Friday, the Cochise County Superior Court found that “Church Defendants were not required under the Mandatory Reporting Statue to report the abuse of Jane Doe I by her father because their knowledge of the abuse came from confidential communications which fall within the clergy-penitent exception in the Mandatory Reporting Statute.”Report ad

In Arizona law, as…

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The Vatican announced Nov. 11 that Pope Francis had effectively fired Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland, a firebrand prelate who in recent years questioned the safety of the coronavirus vaccines, called synodality “garbage,” and endorsed a video that attacked Francis himself as a “diabolically disoriented clown.”

In a short note in the daily press bulletin, the Vatican said Strickland, who had served as the leader of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, since 2012, had been “relieved” of his post by Francis. That language, not typical in Vatican diplomatic speak, appeared to indicate that Strickland, age 65, had refused requests to resign. The prelate had been subject to an official Vatican investigation into his leadership.

“The shocking part for me was not that [Strickland] was going against Pope Francis, but seeing a Catholic bishop behaving like a fundamentalist Protestant in being so dismissive…

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Pope Francis on Saturday forcibly removed from office the bishop of Tyler, Texas, a conservative active on social media who has been a fierce critic of the pontiff and some of his priorities.

A one-line statement from the Vatican said Francis had “relieved” Bishop Joseph Strickland of the pastoral governance of Tyler and appointed the bishop of Austin as the temporary administrator.

Strickland, 65, has emerged as a critic of Francis, accusing him in a tweet earlier this year of “undermining the deposit of faith.” He has been particularly critical of Francis’ recent meeting on the future of the Catholic Church during which hot-button issues were discussed, including ways to better welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics.

The Vatican earlier this year sent in investigators to look into his governance of the diocese, amid reports he was making doctrinally unorthodox claims.

The Vatican has not released the findings of the investigation, and Strickland…

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Archbishop Leo Cushley of St. Andrews and Edinburgh has said that a proposal to end voting privileges for religious appointees in a governing council that oversees local education is “another step in a process to remove faith education from schools in Scotland.”

The National Secular Society (NSS) is calling on the council to end the religious appointees, calling the system “undemocratic, unrepresentative and unjustified.”

The majority of schools in Scotland are non-denominational and include Protestant schools. There are also over 360 state-schools affiliated with the Catholic Church.

The vote on religious representatives on the East Lothian council will be held on Friday. Several councils in Scotland have already removed non-elected members, including in Edinburgh, Orkney, Highland, Fife and Stirling.

“No one should be granted a privileged place in local democracy just because of their religion. If Scotland is to be a country where all citizens irrespective of background have an…

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Hundreds of thousands of Spanish men and women have been abused as children, a new report claims. The Roman Catholic Church may fear for its existence, Jorge Ruiz Ortiz writes.

On October 27, a piece of news came to light that, given its magnitude, could generate an earthquake of incalculable consequences for the history of Spain. However, it could also, for various reasons, on both sides, very well come to nothing.

The Ombudsman presented a report of almost 800 pages, in which he stated that 1.13% of the adult population had suffered sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church when they were minors; that is, 400,000 people, practically all of whom would have been at the hands of priests and religious leaders.

Personal testimony

The report comes after a request from the Congress of Deputies (March 10 2022) and will have to be presented to Congress on a date yet…

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The Italian Senate voted nearly unanimously on Thursday to launch a new parliamentary inquiry into the 40-year-old cold case of the disappearance of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi, who lived in Vatican City, as well as another girl who went missing in Rome the month prior.

The four-year parliamentary commission will have “full investigative powers” and a budget of 50,000 euros per year to shed light on the 1983 disappearance of the two girls. 

The Italian government inquiry comes after a separate Vatican investigation into the Orlandi case opened in January and shared its findings six months later with Rome prosecutors, who have been further investigating the cold case.

Emanuela Orlandi was the teenage daughter of Ercole Orlandi, an envoy of the Prefecture of the Papal Household and a citizen of Vatican City State. Her disappearance on June 22, 1983, after leaving for a music lesson in Rome has dominated headlines in…

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After months of delays related to controversial comments by a relative perceived as offensive to the late Pope John Paul II, the Italian senate finally approved a measure Thursday to create a parliamentary inquiry into the 1983 disappearance of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi, known as the “Vatican Girl” due to a popular Netflix documentary on her case.

The inquiry will also investigate the disappearance of another 15-year-old girl at roughly the same time, Mirella Gregori, whose case long has been linked to that of Orlandi.

Thursday’s Senate decision followed a similar vote by Italy’s lower house in March, meaning the measure now becomes law. The new commission will be composed of 20 members from the House of Deputies and 20 from the Senate, and will have the investigatory authority, including subpoena powers, of a judicial magistrate.

Members of the commission are expected to be named by the end of the year….

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A new offering from the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life aims to help seminaries and dioceses strengthen formation programs, particularly in pastoral ministry to victim-survivors of sexual abuse.

“Fully Equipped for Every Good Work: A Proposal of Twelve Core Competencies in Ministering to Survivors of Sexual Abuse for Seminary,” outlines twelve competencies for seminaries to adopt for seminarians to demonstrate before they’re ordained.

“The present whitepaper is very much a work in progress; it can serve as the basis for an ongoing and very important conversation about how to best prepare clergy for this delicate ministry, and especially how to best incorporate trauma-informed pastoral care into seminary formation programs and programs of ongoing priestly formation,” Father Thomas Berg, a visiting scholar at the McGrath Institute and a co-author of the proposal, said in a statement.

In the 40-page proposal, the competencies are divided between two sections.

…

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A lawyer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland told supreme court justices Thursday that Maine’s elimination of time limits on child sex abuse lawsuits is unconstitutional and imposes new liabilities, a reference to costly lawsuits that have driven some dioceses into bankruptcy.

But an attorney whose law firm represents about 100 plaintiffs characterized the law as the “will of the people” versus the diocese’s expectation of brushing past conduct under a rug.

“There’s never been a right to enabling child sex abuse. The diocese wants you to create a vested right in getting away with it,” attorney Michael Bigos told the court.

The Supreme Judicial Court heard highly technical arguments at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor during a packed hearing that underscored the stakes of its ultimate decision.

Roman Catholic dioceses in Baltimore; Buffalo, New York; and elsewhere have filed for bankruptcy…

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Oct. 25 was my 23rd birthday, a Wednesday, which I celebrated working at my desk in the America newsroom. The pope had given an intervention at the synod decrying clericalism as a “whip…a scourge…a form of worldliness that defiles and damages the face of the Lord’s bride.”

My colleague Colleen Dulle wrote on Twitter that Francis’ intervention implied clericalism’s particular hurt to women who are “continu[ing] with patience and humility, enduring the contempt, mistreatment and marginalization from institutionalized clericalism.”

Twenty minutes later, we heard that the Rev. Marko Rupnik, a credibly accused sexual abuser and former Jesuit, had been incardinated in his home diocese in Slovenia. The diocese put out a statement explaining that for now “Rupnik enjoys all the rights and duties of diocesan priests.”

My first thought: “Why do I, a young woman and a feminist, stay in a church mired in scandal?”

Two days later, on Oct. 27, the Vatican admitted that there were…

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When 10-year-old Jonathan Dean was sexually assaulted by his priest at Ascension parish in Chesterfield, his childhood stopped.

In adolescence, he turned to drugs and sex as an outlet to quell the post-traumatic stress disorder and to numb his pain.

Into adulthood, those addictions continued, eventually consuming his life.

It was only in 2013, more than two decades after the abuse occurred, that he was even able to remember what happened.

“Having been raped as a child has left a darkness in my soul that I can not change, and can not leave behind,” Dean said.

The rare narrative by a survivor of abuse by a member of the clergy was offered Thursday to a group of attendees and media, as now attorney Jonathan Dean seeks to raise awareness of how Missouri’s statute of limitations affects child victims of sex crimes.

“It is very common for survivors of childhood sexual…

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It was 1993, and Jonathan Dean was 10 years old when his world was no longer fulfilled by the things that make childhood carefree.

He was a fourth grader at the Ascension Catholic Church in Chesterfield when he said he suffered sexual abuse at the hands of now ex-priest Gary Paul Wolken.

Now an attorney based out of Chicago, Dean, 41, decided to speak out and unveil his identity that was concealed in 2018 as “John Doe,” when he first sued Wolten and the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

He shared his story for the first time publicly at the University Club Tower in Richmond Heights on Thursday afternoon. His wife, Emily, stood a few feet away in support.

“I was traumatized,” Dean said Thursday. “And from that point forward, the trauma forever changed the course and trajectory of my life.” His child brain immediately repressed the painful memories, so it…

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A Victorian jury has delivered a stinging rebuke to the Catholic Church, awarding $3.3 million to the victim of a notorious paedophile after the church argued compensation should be only $250,000.

The Supreme Court case is the first time a civil trial against the Catholic Church has been tested before jurors.

On Friday, the jury delivered a verdict against the diocese of Wagga Wagga over abuse by priest Vincent Kiss. The verdict included handing the victim $1.3 million in exemplary damages, after the diocese initially claimed in its legal defence that it was unaware of Kiss’ abuse of the victim, despite him pleading guilty to criminal charges in 2002 and serving a seven-year prison sentence.

The archdiocese only conceded the abuse and amended its statement of defence on October 20, four days before the trial began.

Once the order is enforced by Justice Stephen O’Meara and interest payments are included,…

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NEW YORK – A new offering from the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life aims to help seminaries and dioceses strengthen formation programs, particularly in pastoral ministry to victim-survivors of sexual abuse.

“Fully Equipped for Every Good Work: A Proposal of Twelve Core Competencies in Ministering to Survivors of Sexual Abuse for Seminary,” outlines twelve competencies for seminaries to adopt for seminarians to demonstrate before they’re ordained.

“The present whitepaper is very much a work in progress; it can serve as the basis for an ongoing and very important conversation about how to best prepare clergy for this delicate ministry, and especially how to best incorporate trauma-informed pastoral care into seminary formation programs and programs of ongoing priestly formation,” Father Thomas Berg, a visiting scholar at the McGrath Institute and a co-author of the proposal, said in a statement.

In the 40-page proposal, the competencies are divided…

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An Arizona judge has dismissed a high-profile child sexual abuse lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ruling that church officials who knew that a church member was sexually abusing his daughter had no duty to report the abuse to police or social service agencies because the information was received during a spiritual confession.

In a ruling on Friday, Cochise County Superior Court Judge Timothy Dickerson said the state’s clergy-penitent privilege excused two bishops and several other officials with the church, widely known as the Mormon church, from the state’s child sex abuse mandatory reporting law because Paul Adams initially disclosed during a confession that he was sexually abusing his daughter.

“Church defendants were not required under the Mandatory Reporting Statute to report the abuse of Jane Doe 1 by her father because their knowledge of the abuse came from confidential communications which fall within the clergy-penitent…

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An Ann Arbor Catholic priest is headed to jail after being convicted of multiple sex crimes.

Timothy Crowley, 74, will spend a year in the Washtenaw County Jail and five years on probation. He was convicted of two counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC).

Crowley pled guilty in August. He must also receive sex offender treatment and register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Crowley had been a priest at St. Thomas Rectory in Ann Arbor. He was arrested in 2019 in Tempe, Arizona, but his case was dismissed after a preliminary examination.

However, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel won in the court of appeals, allowing for Crowley to be charged with four felony counts of First-Degree CSC and four felony counties of Second-Degree CSC. All the crimes were perpetrated against one victim, Nessel’s office said.

Crowley is the ninth clergyman convicted by Nessel’s clergy abuse…

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 With the news that the International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) leadership team has asked ministry founder Mike Bickle to step away due to accusations of sexual and spiritual abuse, calls are rising for an independent investigation into the allegations.

As ChurchLeaders reported, Bickle, 68, recently agreed to an indefinite leave from public ministry. On Nov. 5, IHOPKC’s executive leadership team announced that Bickle is stepping away until they “complete a thorough examination of the allegations and inquiry of the circumstances.”

To conduct that investigation, the team said it is using national law firm Stinson, LLP. The firm has already begun its work, according to IHOPKC leaders, and part of that work involves assessing the “merit” of the allegations.

In response, some people are issuing calls for an investigation that is more independent, ideally by an organization with church-related experience.

Petition: ‘IHOPKC Needs to Investigate With…

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A 76-year-old former priest accused of “inappropriately touching” a 15-year-old Westlake girl sick with cancer while giving her a blessing was indicted by a grand jury Thursday.

“Luis Barajas is a predator who took advantage of a 15-year-old during a vulnerable time,” said Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley. “This indictment is the first step in holding him accountable.”

On Thursday, Barajas was indicted on six counts of gross sexual imposition.

Luis Jesus Barajas faced a judge for an initial appearance last month.

Westlake police arrested Barajas on Oct. 23 and charged him with gross sexual imposition.

According to police, the Columbian national has been staying with local families in Lorain County for several months.

On Oct. 10, he was driven to Westlake to pray with the teenager and her family.

Witnesses told police Barajas used blankets and clothing to to hide his actions and his movements during the blessing were “unconventional.”…

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Luis Jesus Barajas faces six counts of gross sexual imposition. He is accused of molesting a Westlake teen undergoing chemotherapy during a prayer session.

The 76-year-old man accused of posing as a “retired priest” and molesting a Westlake teen girl who is battling cancer has been indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office announced Thursday that Luis Jesus Barajas was indicted on six counts of gross sexual imposition. He will be arraigned on the charges at a later date.

“Luis Barajas is a predator who took advantage of a 15-year-old during a vulnerable time,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley in a statement. “This indictment is the first step in holding him accountable.”

Barajas was arrested by Westlake police last month. According to Westlake Police Captain Gerald Vogel, the department’s investigation began after officers received a call from an area Catholic priest with a report…

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Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Valdir Mamede of Catanduva, Brazil.

The Brazilian newspaper Diário da Região reported that the 62-year-old prelate resigned after an investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed priests and seminarians. The investigation, the newspaper reported, was conducted by the metropolitan archbishop, Archbishop Moacir Silva of Ribeirão Preto. Police have not conducted an inquiry, according to the newspaper.

Bishop Luiz Carlos Dias of the nearby Diocese of São Carlos will administer the Diocese of Catanduva until the Pope names a successor to Bishop Mamede.

Born in 1961, Bishop Mamede entered the Claretian order in 1981 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1988.

In 2006, Father Mamede left the Claretian order and became a priest of the Archdiocese of Brasília, the nation’s capital. Seven years later, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him auxiliary bishop of Brasilia, and in 2019, Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Catanduva.

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In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed me archbishop of Baltimore, the oldest diocese in the United States. I consider it an honor and a privilege to have been entrusted with the spiritual care of the faithful of what is known as the birthplace of Catholicism in the United States. At the time of my appointment, I knew I would be following in the footsteps of such predecessors as John Carroll and James Gibbons, whose service looms large in the history of our church in the United States. I would also soon learn that my tenure would be marked by the acts of men such as Joseph Maskell and John Merzbacher, whose serial sexual abuse of children in the 1960s and ’70s left indelible scars on both their victims and the archdiocese.

On Sept. 29, I announced the historic decision to seek Chapter 11 reorganization under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. This…

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A closer look at the largest survey of U.S. Catholic priests in 50 years has revealed “a major shift in how priests view themselves and their priesthood,” said researchers.

Compared to their older peers, younger priests are far more likely to describe themselves as theologically orthodox or conservative, politically conservative or moderate, and prepared to be “first responders” to the abuse victims they encounter in their ministry. Furthermore, researchers noted “a significant proportion of American priests say that they had ‘personally experienced sexual harassment or abuse or suffered sexual misconduct’ during their formation or time in seminary.”

The findings were detailed in “Polarization, Generational Dynamics, and the Ongoing Impact of the Abuse Crisis: Further Insights from the National Study of Catholic Priests,” a November 2023 report released by The Catholic Project, an initiative from The Catholic University of America designed to foster effective collaboration between the church’s clergy and laity…

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BANGOR — The Penobscot Judicial Center was packed Thursday morning as dozens of people came to listen to arguments over a 2021 Maine law that repealed the statute of limitations for civil claims of childhood sexual abuse.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court agreed to consider whether that law is constitutional after the state’s Catholic church objected to more than a dozen lawsuits involving decades-old claims of abuse.

A few of those suing the church were in the room Thursday. Many declined to speak after the hearing ended.

“I don’t think I’ve seen this many people in the courtroom before, for Law Court arguments,” said Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill.

At least 30 people have filed complaints against the diocese, alleging they were sexually abused as children by church employees – mostly priests – as far as the 1950s and as recently as the mid-1980s. They say…

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Your Voice Matters. Your Story Matters.

When it comes to child sexual abuse, so much good happens when child sexual abuse is taken from the shadows and exposed to the light. No wise mind will contest the pivotal role media has played in this change – countless articles, documentaries, even films, and blogs have shone a spotlight on the devastating crimes committed by members of the clergy and the subsequent cover-ups.

However, this surge in awareness has a flip side that is rarely talked about or understood. It’s a small yet potent side effect of the relentless media exposure, and as legal representatives to hundreds of victims at Horowitz Law, it’s one we’ve come across on too many occasions.

Just Another Unseen Casualty

The backlash is primarily about the blanket of stories that have emerged on abuse. Particular tales of violence and violation seem more nightmarish and blood-curdling…

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A 50-year-old charismatic movement has announced it will form an independent commission to study problems in the group’s past.

The Community of the Beatitudes, which was founded in France and is now present in 27 countries, said Nov. 8 it will establish a multidisciplinary commission of experts to “shed light and shadow on the community’s history,” which includes sexual abuse and abuse of conscience.

The decision to form a commission was made at the end of the community’s general assembly, held Oct. 27–Nov. 5 in Nouan-le-Fuzelier, central France.

While the assembly’s 71 delegates were scheduled to also elect a new president during the meeting, Archbishop Guy de Kerimel of Toulouse, who has overseen the community since January 2022, decided to postpone the election to May 9, 2024, to have more time to better know the members, according to French newspaper La Croix.

The Community of the Beatitudes, which…

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Commitment to my faith can’t be destroyed, even while I’m devastated by wrongdoing within the Catholic Church

The latest revelation of sexual misconduct by a priest at St. Benedict Parish in Southwest Baltimore brought what has now become the usual bout of emotions: anger, sadness, depression, a sense of betrayal and the ongoing question — how many more skeletons will come rattling out of sacristies in the archdiocese and elsewhere?

Sometimes it seems hard to remain a Catholic, given the scandals that have hurt so many of our younger and more vulnerable people during the past decades. The Maryland attorney general’s report in April, which found more than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the church abused more than 600 children, was bad enough. One would think we’d come to the end of the line.

We clearly still haven’t. It hasn’t even ended at St….

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Open Letter questions whether Church has changed at all

The Association of Victims of (child sexual) abuse within the Portuguese Catholic Church has expressed “sadness, displeasure and indignation” at the way bishops have dealt with the scandal.

In a letter, dated November 2 but made public yesterday, Coração Silenciado (Silenced Heart) considers that, “nine months after the presentation of the report of the commission created (…) to study this issue, (…) very few actions or concrete measures have been taken”.

Using a recent text from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which expresses “deep sadness and unwavering solidarity, first and foremost, with the victims and survivors of so many despicable crimes committed in the Church”, Silenced Heart says it expects the bishops to “humbly and sincerely apologise”.

Regretting that in Portugal it was the media that brought the issue of child sexual abuse to the agenda, “to be treated with some dignity, respect…

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Pope Francis has underlined that it is “everyone’s responsibility” to aid women who are victims of abuse and domestic violence by giving a “voice to our voiceless sisters.”

In a message to an Italian campaign to end violence against women published on Nov. 8, the pope urged the importance of educational action that “places the dignity of the person at the center.”

“It is our duty, everyone’s responsibility, to give voice to our voiceless sisters: women who are victims of abuse, exploitation, marginalization, and inappropriate pressure,” Pope Francis said. 

“Let us not remain indifferent! It is necessary to act now, at all levels, with determination, urgency, and courage.”

According to the United Nations, nearly 1 in 3 women worldwide has been subjected to some form of either physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, a statistic that does not include sexual harassment. Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and the Democratic Republic of…

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For Immediate Release, November 8, 2023

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the oldest and largest support group for victims of abuse in religious settings. We are 100% in support of any legislation that extends or eliminates the criminal or civil SOL for child sex crimes. Science shows that delayed disclosure of abuse is normal, and allowing survivors more time to come forward not only helps them to heal, it can also help protect today’s children by exposing hidden predators.

We hope that the Michigan legislature will not allow the sexual abuse statute of limitations package to remain an “orphan.” Long-suffering victims deserve the opportunity to hold their abusers, and the institutions that enabled the perpetrators, accountable. In addition, the information the survivors can provide about abusers is also important to protect today’s boys and girls.

CONTACT: Melanie Sakoda, SNAP Survivor Support Director…

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For Immediate Release, November 8, 2023

Survivors and advocates have written to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, responding to recent Archdiocesan comments about the bankruptcy letter we sent to the Archbishop last week. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has supplied additional supporting documentation for our November 1, 2023, letter to the Archbishop.

A copy of the letter sent earlier today by email can be found here.

CONTACT: Dan McNevin, SNAP Board of Directors Treasurer (dmcnevin@aol.com, 415-341-6417), Melanie Sakoda, SNAP Survivor Support Director (msakoda@snapnetwork.org, 925-708-6175),   Joey Piscitelli, SNAP Northern California (caljoey1@aol.com, 925-262-3699), Mike McDonnell, SNAP Interim Executive Director (mmcdonnell@snapnetwork.org, 267-261-0578), Shaun Dougherty, SNAP Board of Directors President (sdougherty@snapnetwork.org, 814- 341-8386)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for…

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“A single case of abuse is intolerable,” said the bishops, while rejecting estimates of as many as 440,000 victims of clerical sexual abuse in Spain.

Bishop Francisco César García Magán, the secretary general of the Spanish bishops’ conference, and Cardinal Juan José Omella, its president, at a press conference on 31 October.
Associated Press / Alamy

The Spanish bishops’ conference has pledged to pay contributions to a proposed state fund for sexual abuse victims only if it is established for all abuse survivors not only victims of clergy, religious or Church employees.

Bishop Francisco César García Magán, the conference’s secretary general said: “If the fund is only for Church victims, 90 per cent of the victims of abuse overall will not have any right to this compensation and will be excluded.”

He suggested educational establishments and sporting federations should also contribute to the fund, saying: “We are already working in the…

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The Unions of Superiors and Superiors General (UISG-USG) have organized an in-person workshop taking place in Rome from Nov. 6–10 with the aim of “creating a culture of protection within religious congregations.”

A total of 132 representatives of the 90 male and female religious congregations are participating in the event and are members of the Union of Superiors General (USG) and the International Union of Superiors General (UISG). The Fraterna Domus community, on the outskirts of the Italian capital, is hosting the event.

According to Vatican News, this is an “unprecedented opportunity” for religious leaders and their congregational protection delegates from around the world “to learn, share experiences, and collaborate to promote a safe and inclusive environment” in their respective institutions.

The workshop focuses especially on caring for minors and adults in vulnerable situations. The organization explained that the event revolves around several key points, such as creating a culture…

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Senate turns over SBSI officers, members to NBI custody as local court issues warrant for trafficking

Alleged “cult” leader Jey Rence Quilario, known to his followers in Socorro town, Surigao del Norte, as “Senior Aguila,” was arrested on Tuesday along with 12 others after they were released from Senate custody.

The arrest was based on a warrant issued on Tuesday by acting Presiding Judge Ambrosio Moleta of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 31 in Dapa town, for eight counts of qualified trafficking in persons under Republic Act No. 9208.

Moleta did not recommend bail.

The 13 suspects, who are officers and members of Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc. (SBSI), were attending the hearing of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs chaired by Sen. Ronald dela Rosa during which Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Ty disclosed that the Dapa RTC had issued a warrant for those indicted on Monday for trafficking…

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Philippine authorities formally arrested a 22-year-old alleged cult leader and three of his associates Tuesday on suspicion that their organization sexually enslaved children in a remote area in the country’s south.

Jey Rence Quilario (also known as Señor Agila) and his three lieutenants had been detained at the Philippine Senate building since late September after lawmakers held them in contempt for failing to answer questions at a hearing. 

On Tuesday, the four were transferred into the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippines’ equivalent to the FBI in the United States, as well as charged, officials said. Arrest warrants were also out for nine more of Quilario’s lieutenants, according to Philippine news reports. 

“The criminal activities the cult leaders carried out are beyond despicable,” Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who led the related Congressional hearings in September, said in a statement Tuesday. 

“They preyed on the weak, abusing the most vulnerable…

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After months of waiting for the resolution of the sex abuse case of Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie pastor Father James Garisto, the final sentencing was held Monday, November 6th. Hudson Valley community members and parishioners have been awaiting Garisto’s sentencing after his plea of “No Contest” back in June of this year.

Father James Garisto’s Tenure at St. Peter’s Parish

Garisto served the St. Peter’s Parish community from 1998 to 2014. During his time as pastor, he helped to obtain the Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, along with eight acres on the grounds of the former Hudson River State Hospital. Under his leadership, the parish doubled in size and increased in enrollment at St. Peter’s Catholic School

Read More: Final Sentencing in Former Hyde Park, NY Pastor’s Sex Abuse Trial | https://wrrv.com/james-garisto-final-sentencing/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

In 2006, when it was announced by the Archdiocese that St. Peter’s Catholic School…

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More Coverage

• How a Calaveras County DA let a pedophile priest slip away

• The untold story of how the Catholic Church abuse of Trevor Martin led him to Taylor Swift

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has agreed to investigate the decision by the Calaveras County District Attorney to drop charges against an indicted priest found liable for numerous sex crimes against children.

Bonta’s rare intervention comes on the heels of a Sacramento Bee investigation into the handling of the criminal case against Father Michael Kelly, who fled to his native Ireland, where he remains today.

The Bee investigation found that, despite pledging publicly to do everything in its power to extradite Kelly from Ireland, Calaveras County District Attorney Barbara Yook took few, if any, steps to follow through with that commitment. Kelly was indicted in 2014 for sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy,…

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A former priest who was held liable years ago for sexually abusing multiple children in the greater Sacramento region is back in the spotlight.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta confirmed to CBS13 that his office will review why all criminal charges were dropped against Father Michael Kelly in Calaveras County in 2016. The charges stemmed from the alleged sexual abuse of victim Trevor Martin, who was 10 at the time. 

“That priest, he stole my son’s life from him,” said Deanna Hampton, Martin’s mother. 

Hampton has never stopped fighting for justice for her son. However, she felt silenced for years until a recent Sacramento Bee investigation revealed that the decision to drop the charges against Kelly may have been mishandled by Calaveras County District Attorney Barbara Yook. 

“There’s a thread that needs to be pulled to expose all of this. I don’t know if this is the thread,…

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Civil trials can be complex and challenging, especially when key witnesses or evidence are unavailable due to the passage of time. However, upholding the principle of a fair trial is paramount in the legal system. By majority, the High Court of Australia recently allowed an appeal, overturning a decision in the NSW Court of Appeal to permanently stay proceedings arising out of a claim for historical child sexual abuse.

Background 

GLJ (the Plaintiff), commenced proceedings in the Supreme Court of NSW in January 2020 against the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Lismore (Diocese). The Statement of Claim seeks damages for personal injury arising out of allegations that the Plaintiff was subjected to sexual assault by Father Anderson, a priest in the Diocese of Lismore, in 1968. The Plaintiff first came forward with the allegations after the death of Father Anderson in 1996.

The Diocese applied for…

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The Unions of Superiors and Superiors General (UISG-USG) have organized an in-person workshop taking place in Rome from Nov. 6–10 with the aim of “creating a culture of protection within religious congregations.”

A total of 132 representatives of the 90 male and female religious congregations are participating in the event and are members of the Union of Superiors General (USG) and the International Union of Superiors General (UISG). The Fraterna Domus community, on the outskirts of the Italian capital, is hosting the event.

According to Vatican News, this is an “unprecedented opportunity” for religious leaders and their congregational protection delegates from around the world “to learn, share experiences, and collaborate to promote a safe and inclusive environment” in their respective institutions.

The workshop focuses especially on caring for minors and adults in vulnerable situations. The organization explained that the event revolves around several key points, such as creating a culture…

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore will end religious services at one of the city’s Catholic churches after its longtime pastor was recently suspended from ministry because he admitted to making a payment several years ago to settle sexual harassment allegations.

Last month, Father Paschal Morlino was dismissed from his position at St. Benedict Church in southwest Baltimore, where he served for nearly 40 years and became known for his efforts to help residents of poor neighborhoods surrounding the church.

Few details about the 2018 complaint against Morlino have been released. Church officials have said they regarded “alleged sexual harassment of an adult man.” The complainant died in 2020 and a lawyer representing him in the case has declined to comment citing a non-disclosure agreement.

Officials with the archdiocese also said in a statement Saturday that they are investigating another complaint against Morlino involving sexual abuse of a minor. They…

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Rosalyn and Keith Carlson felt proud as pastors at their church preached about the importance of taking a strong stand to support sexual abuse survivors.

The message at Grace Church Noblesville called for swift action against abusers and healing aid for survivors. Senior pastor Dave Rodriguez acknowledged Grace had previously fired two male employees accused of abusing women.

“We listened to the women,” Rodriguez told the congregation in the 2018 sermon. “We had heartfelt conversations, but I’m also going to tell you that if I were to do it again today, there might be some things I would do differently to mitigate the pain that the women had to face.”

Associate pastor Amy Christie followed Rodriguez with a promise: “We will not blame you. We will not re-victimize you. We will not shut you down. We will not turn you away.”

The uplifting message in the…

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Former residents of Lord’s Ranch, run by Ted Suhl, convicted of bribery in 2016, say abuse was ‘systematic and widespread’

Eight former residents of a youth treatment center that was run by an Arkansas man whose bribery conviction was commuted by Donald Trump have filed a lawsuit claiming they were victims of “systematic and widespread” abuse at the now-shuttered facility.

Attorneys for the former residents of the Lord’s Ranch said the lawsuit was the first of several to be filed in the coming weeks alleging abuse at the facility that closed in 2016 after owner Ted Suhl was convicted in a federal bribery scheme. Suhl’s conviction was commuted by Trump in 2019.

“Men and women who owned, operated, and staffed the facility preyed on and abused the children housed on the remote facility in Warm Springs, Arkansas, routinely and systematically,” the lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court said.

The lawsuit…

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MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG) — A disgraced priest who ran off to Italy with a teenage girl nearly four months ago is back in Mobile County, according to the attorney for the girl’s parents.

Alex Crow is accused of grooming a 2023 McGill-Toolen Catholic High School graduate and taking her to Italy with him. Before leaving the country, Crow wrote a letter and left it with the Archdiocese, saying he would never return to America.

On Aug. 14, the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office provided a note to WKRG News 5 that offered insight into Crow’s thoughts before leaving the country. MCSO also released a Valentine’s letter from Crow to the former McGill student.

The Archdiocese of Mobile has released a statement regarding Alex Crow’s return.

“The Archdiocese of Mobile is relieved to learn that Alex Crow and the young woman with whom he left the country after…

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SHELBURNE FALLS — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield this week acknowledged new credible findings against the late Richard Lavigne, a convicted sex offender and former Shelburne Falls priest believed to have killed a 13-year-old altar boy in 1972.

The diocese issued a statement on Oct. 31 to announce an update on Lavigne, as well as on the late Stigmatine priest Joseph E. Flood and the late Rev. J. Victor Carrier.

“Out of respect for the privacy of the survivor, no further details will be released at this time,” Carolee McGrath, a diocese spokesperson wrote in an email regarding Lavigne’s case.

Lavigne and Flood were already listed on the diocese’s “Findings of Credibility of Allegations of Sexual Abuse of a Minor,” and Carrier’s name was recently added based on a credible finding by the diocesan Review Board. The diocese’s statement mentions that an allegation being found credible does not equal…

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A court-ordered ban on lawsuits against Baltimore-area Catholic schools and parishes will remain in place indefinitely as attorneys for sexual abuse victims and the Archdiocese of Baltimore continue to work through the early stages of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy.

The extension of the injunction, which has been in place since Oct. 3, came after abuse victims reversed course from their filing last week with the federal bankruptcy court seeking to have the ban lifted.

An attorney for the unsecured creditors’ committee — a group of seven abuse victims who represent all victims who will bring claims against the archdiocese in the bankruptcy process — said in court Monday that the decision to forgo its current challenge to the injunction was a product of good communication and cooperation between the archdiocese’s attorneys and the committee.

“It bodes really well for how the case may…

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In March 2022, various news outlets reported that one of the victims of the late Cleveland priest Robert McWilliams, who died in prison the month before, had filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. Curious about the status of the case, I recently checked the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas docket and found that the case was dismissed with prejudice in November 2022. Is it a coincidence that the website of the plaintiff’s law firm shows an $800,000 settlement, “Against Catholic Diocese for sexual abuse of minor perpetuated by priest”?

Given the extensive reporting on the case going back to late 2019, I believe that people deserve to know the outcome, though I believe the victim’s identity should be protected at all costs. Other victims might derive benefit by being informed of the settlement. Also, I feel that we faithfully contributing Catholics deserve transparency….

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A brief filed in a Kentucky case has infuriated members of the denomination across the country, just as it grapples with an abuse scandal

For six months, almost no one took notice of the brief filed quietly by Southern Baptists in a case winding its way to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

At the center of the case is a woman whose father, a police officer, was convicted in 2020 of sexually abusing her over a period of years when she was a child. The woman later sued several parties, including the Louisville Police Department, saying they knew about the abuse and had a duty to report it. Now, the state’s highest court is considering whether sex abuse victims can have more time to sue “non-perpetrators” — institutions or their leaders that are obligated to protect children from such abuse.

None of it appeared to have anything to do with…

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Ashley Crouse, a pastor at New Vision Baptist Church in Granite Falls, is facing multiple charges for sexual exploitation of a minor.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Caldwell County pastor was arrested last week on multiple child sex abuse charges, deputies said. 

The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office served two search warrants at the home of Ashley James Crouse, 51, on Friday, Nov. 3, after receiving a tip that Crouse was accused of having inappropriate contact with a minor. Crouse is a pastor at New Vision Baptist Church in Granite Falls, according to the sheriff’s office. 

Detectives collected items from Crouse’s home and the church that were sent to a lab for forensic examinations for material depicting child exploitation. Crouse is currently charged with four counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. He was given a $1 million bond on those charges. 

Caldwell County deputies are working in conjunction…

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A new lawsuit accuses a private Christian school in Orlando of hiding information about one of its teachers sexually abusing a student. The lawsuit is against First Academy, a private Christian college prep school of about 1300 kids run by First Baptist Church of Orlando. To protect the victim’s identity, she’s referred to in the lawsuit as “Jane Doe.”

ORLANDO, Fla. – A new lawsuit accuses a private Christian school in Orlando of hiding information about one of its teachers sexually abusing a student. 

The lawsuit is against First Academy, a private Christian college preparatory school of about 1,300 kids run by First Baptist Church of Orlando. To protect the victim’s identity, she’s referred to in the lawsuit as “Jane Doe.”

The alleged crimes all happened between 2014 and 2016. Attorneys for “Jane Doe” said she had been using that time to process her trauma in therapy before she finally came forward…

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The First Baptist Church of Orlando was accused of failing to protect a student at its private school after a teacher allegedly groomed and sexually abused her between 2014 and 2016, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

Church officials and administrators at Orlando-based The First Academy, the private school run by First Baptist since 1987, knew about the inappropriate relationship between the student and Harriet Sugg but didn’t take steps to stop it for years, even as others became aware of the situation, the lawsuit alleged. Sugg, 54, was charged Oct. 11 with five counts of sexual activity with a minor, three of which are tied to being a school authority figure.

The student, who was 15 when the abuse began, was identified in court records as Jane Doe.

The lawsuit filed by attorney Andrea Lewis and an affidavit by the Ocoee Police Department said the two met weeks after…

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Every now and then, major news stories about religious trends in the real world actually have something to do with religion, as opposed to being driven by politics, alone.

I know, I know. It’s hard to imagine that.

Yes, it’s also possible for an important story about religion to involve factors other than “religion,” narrowly defined. These stories may involve economics, mass media, education and, yes, politics. Life is complex.

I thought about this when reading an important New York Times story the other day that ran with this double-decker headline:

“Polish Bishop Resigns After Diocese Is Rocked by Sex Scandal

“A priest in the bishop’s diocese was accused of holding a sex party in his church apartment that involved a male prostitute who lost consciousness.

“Here is the long, but essential, overture for that:

“A Polish bishop whose diocese has been badly tarnished by reports of a…

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore said last week that Masses and sacraments at a Baltimore parish would be discontinued after its pastor was removed there last month following a scandal over sex abuse accusations and hush money.

Baltimore priest Father Paschal Morlino, OSB, the former pastor of St. Benedict Parish, was suspended from priestly duties last month after an investigation from the archdiocese.

The priest told a local media outlet earlier in October that years ago he had entered a confidential $200,000 settlement to quiet allegations of sexual assault and financial fraud. The archdiocese said in a statement last month that after being made aware of the report, it immediately began an investigation and decided within 24 hours, along with Morlino’s Benedictine order, to remove Morlino as pastor of St. Benedict and suspend his priestly faculties.

In a statement on Saturday, the archdiocese announced that “a pastor…

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Church sex abuse survivors seek 2-year deadline to file claims

A federal judge granted lawyers some time to work out differences over the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy filing before heading back to court.

Abuse survivors want to extend the deadline to file a claim and they want to know what church entities are covered by insurance. They’re also seeking more information regarding church assets.

“They shouldn’t be allowed to define how people recover. They have defined what we had to bear for years. It’s our turn to say to them, ‘This is what we want you to bear,’” said Frank Schindler, a church sex abuse survivor.

Church sex abuse survivors left Monday’s bankruptcy court hearing feeling encouraged that negotiations will continue over motions they consider unfair that were filed by the archdiocese, especially the Feb. 24 deadline that survivors must file a claim. Survivors seek a two-year deadline.

“Maybe this…

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The Justice for Survivor bills await a vote by the full house of representatives.

“It was therapeutic. It felt empowering. Shame, guilt embarrassment, that all went away. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was a victim. I was a child, but most importantly, I am a survivor.”

More than five decades had passed before Greg Guggemos remembered he had been sexually abused at the age of five. According to state law, sexual assault claims are only accepted up to three years.

For Guggemos, he was able to speak out against the Lansing Saint Vincent Orphanage more than 45 years after the abuse.

“It’s years and sometimes decades before you even recall it, and like I said, in my case, it was 55 years,” said Guggemos.

State Representative Julie Brixie hopes a new set of bills called Justice for Survivors encourages victims to come forward.

“The goal of these bills is…

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Francis will hold a late November summit with Spain’s bishops, following a visitation of the county’s seminaries earlier this year and the recent publication of clergy sex abuse findings.

Pope Francis has called all the Catholic bishops of Spain to a meeting at the Vatican later this month, an extremely rare convocation that has not occurred since a similar meeting in 2018 with the entire episcopate of Chile. 

The Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE) announced on October 31 that the summit with the pope would take place on November 28. 

They made the news public following extraordinary plenary assembly to discuss the conclusions of an independent report, issued a few days earlier, on sexual violence in the Spanish Church. That report estimates that since 1970, 1.13% of Spaniards have been victims of sexual assault in an ecclesiastical environment when they were minors. According to the Spanish daily El Pais, this would…

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Interview with Laëtitia Atlani-Duault, university vice-president and member of France’s Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in Catholic French Church (CIASE)

“A place of remembrance for victims is absolutely essential, alongside other forms of reparation,” says Laëtitia Atlani-Duault, a member of France’s Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (CIASE). 

The 51-year-old social anthropologist, who is vice-president of Université Paris Cité, says “remembrance work” is essential to implementing the finding of CIASE, commonly called the “Sauvé Commission”.

That’s why she and other experts gathered last Saturday at the Centre Sèvres, the Jesuit’s university level school of theology and philosophy in Paris, for a day of reflection on remembering sexual violence in the Church.

Atlani-Duault told La Croix’s Alice d’Oléon that this is essential for both the victims and the Church.

La Croix: Why is it necessary to examine this question of remembrance?

Laëtitia Atlani-Duault : Remembrance work is a…

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The Office of the California Attorney General said Monday night that it will review the Calaveras County district attorney’s decision to dismiss sexual assault charges against a Catholic priest.

In a letter sent to CBS Sacramento, Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said the victim’s mother requested an official review after District Attorney Barbara Yook dropped all charges against Father Michael Kelly.

The move came after the victim Kelly allegedly abused died in 2016. Bonta’s office will now review that decision.

Kelly was held liable for sex abuse in a separate civil trial back in 2012 when he was with the Stockton diocese. Kelly has since moved to Ireland. 

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Attorney General Rob Bonta is taking an unprecedented step to probe alleged mishandling of a prosecution against a Catholic priest indicted for sex assault.

California’s Attorney General will investigate the decision made by Calaveras County District Attorney to drop charges against Father Michael Kelly, an indicted priest accused of numerous sexual crimes against children.

The investigation comes after news reports highlighted concerns about the handling of the case and the lack of efforts made to extradite Kelly from Ireland, where he currently resides.

The backstory: The charges against Kelly, who served at Our Lady of Fatima in Modesto in the 1970s, were dropped after one of the victims, Trevor Martin, died in a base jumping accident.

• The investigation revealed several troubling findings, including an initial admission that the Calaveras County DA lost of the entire grand jury testimony and paper indictment,
• It also found potential violation of constitutional rights under Marsy’s…

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The recent high court decision concerning the Catholic church’s use of permanent stays in abuse cases has sparked significant concern and prompted the New South Wales attorney general, Michael Daley, to order an urgent briefing on the matter. The court’s judgment highlighted the problematic nature of using permanent stays to permanently halt survivors’ claims, stating that such measures should only be considered as a last resort. This practice has been routinely employed by the church and other powerful institutions, particularly in cases where perpetrators have passed away or when crucial evidence is unavailable.

Survivors of abuse and their legal representatives have widely praised the court’s decision, viewing it as a strong message to institutions that they should not exploit permanent stays to avoid accountability for child sexual abuse cases. However, they are also urging state governments, including NSW, where these stays have predominated, to implement further legislation to limit institutions’…

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Multiple alleged victims have come forward accusing a former Sydney Catholic primary school teacher of indecently assaulting them in incidents dating back almost 65 years.

Peter Mervyn Samuel, who is now aged in his mid-90s, has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery.

The three boys were aged between 10 and 13 years old at the time of the alleged offences between 1958 and 1972.

Samuel allegedly called two of them to the front of the class and touched them beneath their shorts.

It is alleged he confronted the third boy alone in a science room and also fondled him as he tried to escape.

The assaults allegedly took place while Samuel was teaching year-six classes at two Patrician Brothers’ College campuses in Blacktown and Granville, and Marist Brothers Primary School in Mosman.

Due to his advanced age making it difficult for him…

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore dismissed Rev. Paschal Morlino in October after he admitted a $200,000 settlement to The Baltimore Banner

Baltimore’s historic St. Benedict Church will close permanently following the revelation of a second allegation implicating its popular former pastor, Rev. Paschal Morlino.

Church leadership on Saturday confirmed the plan to close the parish near Carroll Park during a late-afternoon Mass, stunning the roughly 30 congregants in attendance. The church is scheduled to end administering the sacraments Nov. 15, but the archdiocese said volunteers will continue to operate community programs at the site.

Following the sacrament of the Eucharist, a member of the clergy read from a prepared statement to confirm the closure of the church and the new allegation. Multiple parishioners shook their heads as they listened. Some whispered to one another, while others sat perfectly still.

Outside the church following the announcement, parishioner Tom Phillips reflected on the…

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta has agreed to investigate the decision by the Calaveras County District Attorney to drop charges against an indicted priest found liable for numerous sex crimes against children.

Bonta’s rare intervention comes on the heels of a Sacramento Bee investigation into the handling of the criminal case against Father Michael Kelly, who fled to his native Ireland, where he remains today.

The Bee investigation found that, despite pledging publicly to do everything in its power to extradite Kelly from Ireland, Calaveras County District Attorney Barbara Yook took few, if any, steps to follow through with that commitment.

Kelly was indicted in 2014 for sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy, Trevor Martin. Kelly and the church had already been held liable in 2012 for sexual abuse in a civil case involving another boy. Kelly previously had served as a priest at Our Lady of Fatima in Modesto in…

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