The insurance carrier for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed a lawsuit Friday contending that because the diocese violated the terms of its insurance policies, the company should not have to pay out any money to settle claims from hundreds of people alleging they were victims of sexual abuse by clergy over the last several decades.

The lawsuit was filed in San Diego federal court by Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, the insurance provider for San Diego and other Catholic dioceses. The company wants a judge to order that it has no duty to “defend or indemnify” the diocese or any parish against claims of sexual abuse by clergy from 1958 through 1990.

It is not clear why the lawsuit gives that time frame. The lawyer for Catholic Mutual did not respond to messages seeking comment Friday.

However, many of the 400 claims that are currently pending…

View Cache

Bishops conference to outline measures falls dismally short

The long awaited press conference tipped to outline measures the Portuguese Catholic Church will be taking in the wake of the findings of the Independent Commission into child sex abuse within the institution fell dismally short of expectations yesterday evening.

Victims associations – particularly Quebrar o Silêncio, which has specificially petitioned the Church to come up with immediate solutions for the 106 priests still in active service against whom allegations of abuse have been made – reacted with dismay, saying the message given was ‘ambiguous’ at best.

On another level “ethical, moral questions” seemed to have been completely buried. There were myriad references to the fact that pedophilia is not confined to the Church. Victims’ associations points are that the Church cannot be likened to lay society, by dint of its values – and that therefore betrayal of such values is a…

View Cache

Despite being in a sacred and very holy position, some church officials and priests have been prosecuted because of sexually abusing some of the church members, leaving their integrity in a bad state.

The bishops of Portugal have started taking action in response to a report that exposed the extent of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in the country. The report estimated that more than 4,000 children had been abuse victims since the 1950s.

Bishops of Portugal Drives Measures to Put an End to Sexual Abuse in Religious Institutions

According to the Catholic News Agency, the bishops held a plenary assembly in Fátima, announcing the creation of all-lay diocesan commissions and a memorial to the victims. These measures will be unveiled during World Youth Day in Lisbon from August 1 to 6. Father Manuel Barbosa, a spokesman for the bishops’ conference, expressed gratitude to the victims…

View Cache

Priests charged or convicted of child sexual abuse are still active in dioceses under the protection of bishops

Some of the best and well written-child protection laws are in the Philippines. However, it is enforcement that is lacking. There are few convictions of child abusers. Without the rule of law being enforced, there will never be an end to child sexual abuse. Right now, the Philippines is like “a fun house of sexual abuse” with international connections through online abuse.

At a recent meeting with five judges in Cebu, the Preda Foundation’s president, Francis Bermido Jr., and Executive Director Emmanuel Drewery were earnestly requested to open a therapeutic healing center/home for girl victims of sexual abuse and exploitation in the city.

The Preda Foundation with German partner Aktionsgruppe already manages a successful home for boys in Liloan, Cebu. That project rescues teenagers from horrible subhuman conditions in government detention cells…

View Cache

A report on the handling of abuse cases in the Diocese of Mainz heavily criticized the late Cardinal Karl Lehmann.

An influential German cardinal failed for decades to respond effectively to sexual abuse in his diocese, according to a study released Friday.

Cardinal Karl Lehmann, considered one of Germany’s leading churchmen until his death in 2018, was heavily criticized in the report on the handling of abuse cases in the Diocese of Mainz issued March 3.

Lehmann, who served as president of the German bishops’ conference for 20 years, led the diocese in west-central Germany, which serves around 667,000 Catholics, from 1983 to 2016.

The more than 1,000-page report, known as the EVV study, also highlighted the failures of Lehmann’s predecessors, Bishop Albert Stohr (who oversaw the diocese from 1935 to 1961) and Cardinal Hermann Volk (1962-1982).

The study’s authors said they initially identified 657 possible victims and 392 suspected perpetrators…

View Cache

Clergy abuse survivors and advocates featured in heart-wrenching remembrances

Dr. Frank Schindler, a Maryland-based clinical psychologist, vividly recalls – more than 60 years later – the threat from his priest/school counselor/molester, who had his way with him for months when he was a five-year-old: “I was taught he was God on earth, that he could do no wrong, and these were secrets between the two of us and God; to break that seal would be a mortal sin and you’d go straight to hell.” Dr. Schindler joins a group of other survivors and advocates in the new online series, Survivors Stories, launching today/yesterday ahead of the start next week of Maryland legislative hearings on the long awaited child abuse victims reform measures aimed at providing a path to justice for all survivors, regardless when the abuse occurred. Link to this opening episode and hear more about his fight…

View Cache

Donna Von Den Bosch will never forget the time in seventh grade Fr. Joseph Maskell, her school’s notorious, serial predator-priest, just before one of the numerous times he sexually abused her in his counseling office, said, “I’ll teach you a father’s love.” Her repeated pleas for help – including to teachers and the school nurse – were all ignored. And survivor Kurt Rupprecht, who recalled his abusive priest at St. Frances de Sales Catholic Church, Salisbury, telling him, at ages 8 and 9, that submission “would make God happy,” and threatening, “If you ever tell anyone, God will kill you.”

Ms. Von Den Bosch and Mr. Rupprecht courageously share their harrowing accounts of repeated childhood sexual abuse in the latest episode of Survivors Stories, a series of short videos presented as a public service by sexual abuse attorneys/advocates from Jenner Law and Grant &…

View Cache

One of Pope Francis’ key advisors on clergy sexual abuse admitted that the pontiff’s signature effort to confront abuse and cover-up is “very often” not working, as part of a virtual conversation with Catholic abuse survivors on March 2.

Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner spoke about Vos estis lux mundi, a sweeping set of laws issued by Francis in 2019, as part of a question-and-answer session with survivors of clergy sexual abuse sponsored by Awake Milwaukee, a Catholic group focused on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Zollner, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, responded to a variety of questions from survivors Esther Harber and Mike Koplinka-Loehr and then took questions from anonymous survivors in the audience.

When he was asked whether there was recourse for survivors who feel their cases have not been properly handled, Zollner explained that there are theoretically a variety of…

View Cache

Portugal’s Catholic Church announced a handful of steps on Friday to tackle child sexual abuse within the Church – but it said suspected priests still in active roles would not be suspended unless the facts against them were clearly established.

The head of Portugal’s Bishops’ Conference (CEP), Jose Ornelas, also said that the Church would not pay reparations to victims.

The CEP met on Friday to discuss ways to tackle the issue after a report last month said at least 4,815 children were sexually abused by members of the Roman Catholic Church in Portugal – mostly priests – over 70 years.

That report by a Church-funded, one-year commission added that its findings were the “tip of the iceberg”, and commission head Pedro Strecht said more than 100 priests suspected of child sexual abuse remained active in Church roles.

Ornelas – who is himself being investigated by public prosecutors for covering up sex…

View Cache

The bishops of Portugal on Friday began taking concrete steps to respond to a damning investigative report last month that estimated well over 4,000 children have been victims of sexual abuse within the country’s Catholic Church since the 1950s.

Meeting in a plenary assembly in Fátima, the Portuguese Episcopal Conference announced the creation of all-lay diocesan commissions and a memorial to victims that will be unveiled during World Youth Day, taking place in Lisbon Aug. 1–6, among other measures.

“We reiterate our deep gratitude to all the victims who have given their testimony over the last year. Without you, it would not have been possible to reach today. Thank you,” said Father Manuel Barbosa, a spokesman for the bishops’ conference.

“We also want to leave a word of courage to all the victims who still harbor the pain in the depths of their hearts,” he added, announcing that…

View Cache

Pope Francis’s prayer intention for the month of March is for victims of abuse.

“In response to the cases of abuse, especially to those committed by members of the Church, it’s not enough to ask for forgiveness. Asking for forgiveness is necessary but it is not enough,” the Holy Father said in a video released by the Vatican March 2.

“Asking for forgiveness is good for the victims, but they are the ones who have to be at the center of everything,” Pope Francis said.

“Their pain and their psychological wounds can begin to heal if they find answers — if there are concrete actions to repair the horrors they have suffered and to prevent them from happening again. The Church cannot try to hide the tragedy of abuse of any kind. Nor when the abuse takes place in families, in clubs, or in other types of institutions,” the Holy Father…

View Cache

A former Utah city mayor and one-time bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will likely spend the rest of his life in prison on child sexual abuse charges

A former Utah city mayor and one-time bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced Thursday for child sexual abuse at a hearing in which his victims wept while detailing the torment they endured.

Four women, now adults, cried as they detailed how painful it was to watch Carl Matthew Johnson, now 78, live a joyful life while they kept abuse that happened when they were little girls secret for decades. He was arrested last year on charges of abuse dating to the 1980s and 1990s, some of it while he was mayor of West Bountiful, a city just outside of Salt Lake…

View Cache

A SHAMED priest who sexually abused four girls walked free from court today.

Father Neil McGarrity, 58, preyed on his victims at two churches in Glasgow as well as his parish home in the city.

McGarrity played “footsie” under the table with one of the girls and was caught in a “prolonged embrace” with another.

The priest of 33 years, from the city’s Maryhill, also touched and rubbed the girls with one victim claiming he hugged her while sat on a couch.

A girl even contacted Childline due to her concerns over his behaviour.

McGarrity was found guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court of four sexual assaults and one charge of engaging in sexual activity.

The charges span from December 2017 and February 2020 with the girls’ ages ranging between 10 to 16.

Sheriff Vincent Lunny ordered McGarrity to do 250 hours of unpaid work and put him under supervision for…

View Cache

A former Wausau Roman Catholic priest convicted of molesting and exposing himself to teenage boys under his care was returned to prison after police allegedly discovered graphic images of children on his computer.

The Rev. Timothy E. Svea was 39 when he was convicted of second-degree sexual assault of a child younger than 16 and several counts of exposing himself to a child. He also pleaded guilty to false imprisonment. Svea, who was suspended of his duties in 2001 by the Institute of Christ the King after allegations surfaced was living in Mosinee when new allegations surfaced.

Svea, now 59, is facing charges of possessing child pornography after a technician reported finding the images on a computer in for repair. With the new charge, filed Dec. 22 in Marathon County Circuit Court but investigated several months prior, prosecutors will seek to place Svea on lifetime supervision due to the serious…

View Cache

A former Holy Cross Catholic School teacher charged with multiple child sex crimes for allegedly abusing a 13-year-old student was released from jail on March 3 and placed on GPS ankle monitoring, court records show. 

First Judicial District Court Judge T. Glen Ellington ordered the release of Calvin Robinson, 41, of Española into a pretrial services monitoring program, the records show. Robinson, arrested Feb. 14, is charged with criminal sexual penetration of a child at least 13 years of age, enticement of a child and multiple counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor at the Santa Cruz school, according to records filed by New Mexico State Police. 

Ellington’s decision came after prosecutors with the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office filed a motion for pretrial detention intended to keep Robinson jailed at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility, where he’d been held without bail until March 3, according to…

View Cache

The abuse case against Ann Arbor Priest Timothy Crowley has been bound over to circuit court for further proceedings, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced.

A pre-trial hearing in the case has been scheduled for March 29, when dates for motions and a jury trial date will be set.

“It is thanks to the victim-centered, trauma-informed investigation by the Michigan State Police and the staff in the Department of Attorney General that this predator was tracked down and brought back to Michigan to face his crimes,” Nessel said. “I also want to thank the survivors who have come forward to share their stories and bring attention to the abuse that has been endured by too many children for too long.”

Crowley, who was a priest at St. Thomas Rectory in Ann Arbor, was charged in May 2019 with four felony counts of first-degree Criminal Sexual Conduct and four felony counts…

View Cache

A former Ann Arbor and Jackson-area priest facing multiple sexual assault charges is one step closer to standing before a jury.

The sexual abuse case against defrocked Catholic Priest Timothy Crowley has been bound over to circuit court following a preliminary examination Thursday, according to court records.

Crowley, 73, faces two counts each of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and second-degree criminal sexual conduct stemming from incidents 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.

Related: Criminal charges reinstated against ex-Ann Arbor priest accused of molesting altar boy

A pretrial hearing in the case has been scheduled for March 29, officials from the Michigan Attorney General’s Office stated in a news release.

“It is thanks to the…

View Cache

From 1950s to 2010s, 12 priests and volunteers are said to have abused 40 people

WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​sexual violence or know someone affected by it. 

A Catholic diocese in Northern Ontario protected priests who faced allegations of sexual misconduct for decades, an investigation by Radio-Canada’s Enquête has found. 

From the 1950s to the 2010s, 12 priests and volunteers are said to have abused some 40 people; almost all were minors at the time. Rather than being punished, some priests were transferred to other parishes, with these transfers happening well into the 2010s. 

The diocese, now known as Hearst-Moosonee, is about 11 hours north of Toronto and comprises about two dozen parishes, many along the northern edge of Highway 11, deep in the boreal forest. 

Hearst-Moosonee is one of Ontario’s most isolated dioceses, and the church remains an important institution there. It…

View Cache

The Diocese of Amarillo assigned Frank Pavone to sexual harassment training after women alleged grooming, unwanted touching, and other misconduct. Those women say the response was not enough.

The Diocese of Amarillo assigned Frank Pavone and other Priests for Life employees to sexual harassment and “safe environment” training in 2010, after it received reports accusing the priest of misconduct toward young female subordinates.

Two women who filed such reports say the training was not enough, and the diocese should have done more to look into their allegations against Pavone, who was at that time a cleric incardinated in the Amarillo diocese.

For his part, a spokesperson for Priests for Life told The Pillar this week that “false accusations” against Pavone are “unfortunate,” and that Priests for Life remains committed to its pro-life work.

Mary Worthington is a former employee of Priests for Life, who told The Pillar last month that she was frequently…

View Cache

The investigation of a Catholic priest who was accused of sexual abuse of a minor while serving in South Dakota has ended; and while the allegation couldn’t be proven, the Church stated the priest will “remain out of public ministry.”

Rev. Michel Mulloy was removed from public ministry in August 2020 following the allegation presented to the Diocese of Rapid City that a minor was abused in the early 1980s. Mulloy had served in the dioceses of Sioux Falls and Rapid City, where he was vicar general.

The allegation came around the time Mulloy was named bishop-elect of the Diocese of Duluth. He resigned from that post the next month, September 2020.

Bishop Peter M. Muhich, Diocese of Rapid City, issued a statement Friday about Mulloy.

In that statement, Muhich said a canonical proceeding was conducted by people who were not connected with the Diocese of…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Church’s rite of confession must remain confidential, even if someone tells a priest that a child has been abused, the bishop who leads Vermont’s diocese testified Friday.

Bishop Christopher Coyne told the state Senate Judiciary Committee that the church is opposed to a bill that would remove an exemption from Vermont’s child abuse and neglect reporting laws. Clergy are currently not required to report potential evidence of such crimes if they learn of it in confidence while acting as a spiritual advisor.

“A priest faces excommunication if he discloses the communication made to him during confession,” Coyne said. “And the sacramental seal of confession is the worldwide law of the Catholic Church, not just the diocese of Burlington, Vermont,” which covers the whole state.

The bill “crosses a Constitutional protective element of our religious faith: the right to worship as we see fit,” Coyne said.

But information…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is asking the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to weigh in on whether a 2021 that allows Mainers with previously expired claims of sexual abuse to sue organizations, like the diocese, is constitutional.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is asking a superior court judge to send its challenge of a 2021 law allowing Mainers with previously expired claims of childhood sexual abuse to sue to Maine’s highest court.

The diocese’s attorney, Gerald Petruccelli, submitted the request Thursday, writing that a ruling by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court would have an impact far beyond the outcome of the 70 open cases currently pending against the church.

“There is substantial public interest in decision of these issues in these cases,” Petruccelli wrote. “Not only will the Law Court’s decision determine the retroactivity of this enactment in many cases, but it will also be important controlling precedent…

View Cache

The students say faculty didn’t respond properly to complaints about groping and other inappropriate behavior by older students. 

Two recent St. Thomas Academy graduates are suing the all-male military Catholic school in Mendota Heights, alleging that they were subjected to groping and other inappropriate behavior during hazing incidents by other students.

The plaintiffs say their experience is one example of an alleged “frat-like” culture at the school. The lawsuits also allege that the school did not follow up properly after reports that senior students asked the plaintiff students sexual questions in award interviews.

Headmaster Kelby Woodard emailed the St. Thomas community Wednesday evening after inquiries from the Star Tribune regarding the lawsuits, saying the allegations are “unfounded and without merit.”

The separate complaints filed by the families of 2022 graduates Joe Kolar and Tucker Bakko both allege abuse during an interview process for the Cadet of…

View Cache

The committee that represents the 143 people who say they were sexually assaulted by priests and staff of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich filed a bankruptcy plan Tuesday that calls for the diocese, its 51 parishes and insurer to contribute millions of dollars more to compensate the victims.

The Official Committee of the Unsecured Creditors submitted its own plan in federal bankruptcy court after it called the diocese’s $29 million bankruptcy plan to compensate the victims as “woefully inadequate.” It said the diocese has substantial assets and other potential sources of funding, including significant amounts owed to it from certain parishes and affiliates.

“After listening for more than a year and a half to the Diocese, its Parishes and its insurer, Catholic Mutual, telling the Creditors’ Committee what they can’t do for the survivors, the Creditors’ Committee has been allowed through its own Plan of Reorganization to say what…

View Cache

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan – A warrant of arrest has been issued on March 1 for a priest accused of molesting a young student in Solana, Cagayan.

The arrest warrant for Fr Karole Reward Israel, assistant parish priest of St Vincent Ferrer in the said town was issued from Regional Trial Court Branch 4 by Judge Dennis Mendoza.

Among the charges for the suspect are rape, voyeurism, 20 counts of acts of lasciviousness on a young female student from a local private school in Solana.

Last year, the victim told the National Bureau of Investigation the sexual abuse she had allegedly undergone from the priest.

According to the NBI’s report, the suspect previously threatened to release a sex video of his crimes if the victim went to the authorities.

Fr Israel was nabbed back in October 2022 in a rescue operation in Barangay Iraga of the said town.

The suspect also…

View Cache

We at Horowitz Law have looked at over 100 church-produced lists of credibly accused child molesting Catholic clerics. The New Orleans Archdiocese is the worst we’ve seen. It does include some helpful details, such as the accused’s date of birth, ordination date, an estimated timeframe of abuse, the date the allegation was received, the date of removal from ministry, and assignments. But the number of proven and alleged predators who don’t appear but should appear on New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond’s list is stunning. 

A quick example: the authoritative online archive of the Catholic church’s abuse lists seven reportedly abusive nuns in the New Orleans Archdiocese. But Aymond doesn’t list any of them on his website. These include:

• Sr. Alvin Marie Hagan
• Sr. Gertrude Marie Hagan
• Sister Ladet
• Sister Marie Claudine
• Sister Martin Marie
• Sister Mary Omer Obermark 
• Sister Stephen Rose.

We’ll address more of this in future blogs, but let’s just start…

View Cache

Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked after years of sexual abuse allegations, said in an exclusive interview that he did not assault a New Jersey man he is charged with abusing, though he did acknowledge knowing his accuser.

Once one of the most high-profile Catholic leaders in America, McCarrick, the former archbishop of Newark and bishop of Metuchen, has been reclusive in the four years since he was expelled from the clergy by Pope Francis. As of 2021, he was living in a Missouri rehabilitation center for troubled priests, court documents say.

McCarrick, also the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., was a prominent voice and prodigious fundraiser for the Vatican for decades. But he fell from grace amid multiple sexual abuse allegations, including one from a Bergen County native, James Grein, that has prompted a criminal prosecution in Massachusetts.

Grein, who now lives in Virginia, has filed a…

View Cache

Hodász András néhány napja egy cikkben jelentette be, hogy kamaszkorában többször szexuálisan zaklatta egy pap. Ezek után készítettünk vele videós interjút, amely során Hodász beszélt az őt ért abúzus körülményeiről, az árulkodó jelekről, az egyház és a zaklatások viszonyáról, valamint hogy milyen okok miatt hagy fel a papi hivatással.

Az interjú tartalmi összefoglalója:

Úgy érzi, a magyar társadalomnak meg kell tanulnia, hogyan kell kezelni egy olyan helyzetet, mint amilyen a szexuális zaklatások feldolgozása és az áldozatokhoz való viszonyulás.

A szülőknek azt üzeni, hogy figyeljék a jeleket. Jó, ha egy gyerek jóban van a tanárával, edzőjével, papjával, de „amikor azt vesszük észre, hogy felhívja magához”, amikor az már nem egy sima tanár-diák viszony, akkor kezdjenek el beszélgetni a gyerekkel.

Az áldozatok nem azért állnak elő, hogy magukat mutogassák, vagy mert figyelmet akarnak. „Irgalmatlanul nehéz egy ilyet kimondani, és nem jókedvemben csinálom, de ha tudunk arról beszélni”, hogy a társadalom kezdje el…

View Cache

In run-up to Pope Francis’ visit to Budapest next month, revelations by Father András Hodászd have some asking if an influencer can have any “real” influence on Church

Father András Hodászd, a popular online media personality in Hungary, has told the Telex.hu news portal that a Catholic priest sexually abused him when he was a child. He is the first Hungarian cleric to say publicly that he is a survivor of sexual abuse.

His disclosure on February 14 also caught the nation’s attention because Hodász’s popular YouTube and Instagram channels and social media ministry have earned him the title of “Hungary’s Catholic influencer“. Hodász singled out the Catholic hierarchy for resisting survivors’ demands for an independent investigation of sexual abuse claims and called the Church’s inaction “inexcusable” and “indefensible”.

Before Hodász’s disclosure, his online videos, in which he discussed topics like the joy of faith and…

View Cache

State lawmakers are settling on the terms of a proposal to give more survivors of child sexual abuse the opportunity to sue the Catholic Church and other institutions complicit in the crimes.

The House Judiciary Committee heard Thursday from survivors and their advocates for two hours about the need to give adults the authority to sue. For many survivors, the years pass but their trauma remains.

“You realize really soon it’s only those who are closest to you who can cause you pain. So you keep them at arm’s distance,” Del. C.T. Wilson told the committee.

The Southern Maryland Democrat sponsored the House bill and grew emotional telling lawmakers that the trauma of his own boyhood abuse won’t relent. Now, he said, it has cost him his marriage.

“It [the bill] wouldn’t undo what’s happened,” Wilson said. “It allows victims of child sexual abuse to have a voice and face…

View Cache

A priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit has been sentenced for the rape of an elementary student at the Catholic school attached to the parish he served as pastor in the mid-2000s.

“We trust the judgment of the court. We pray for everybody involved,” Ned McGrath, director of public affairs at the Archdiocese of Detroit, told CNA March 2. “Our priority in all of these cases is always the victim-survivors.”

Father Joseph “Jack” Baker, 61, was sentenced to three to 15 years in prison on March 1 in Wayne County’s 3rd Circuit Court in Detroit. In October 2022 he was convicted of first-degree criminal conduct–sexual penetration with a person under age 13.

Baker’s attorney said he planned to appeal the verdict, Fox News reported.

The charge dated back to 2004, when the victim was a second-grader at St. Mary Catholic School in Wayne, Michigan, and Baker was pastor of St….

View Cache

Hundreds of recently filed sexual abuse lawsuits could lead to the bankruptcy of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, the diocese’s bishop said this week in a letter to the congregation.

The diocese’s financial predicament stems from a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations regarding child sexual abuse lawsuits. The law extended the age at which victims could file civil lawsuits over abuse to 40. It had been 26.

The law also opened a three-year window in which victims of any age could file lawsuits. The window closed on Dec. 31, 2022.

More than 200 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse were filed against the diocese as a result of the law, 80% of which stem from abuse that occurred in the 1980s or earlier.

By late 2022, more than 2,000 lawsuits had been filed against the Catholic Church statewide.

“To learn of this staggering…

View Cache

It is not enough to ask people who have suffered abuse for their forgiveness, Pope Francis said.

They also must be offered “concrete actions to repair the horrors they have suffered and to prevent them from happening again” as well as the truth, transparency, safe spaces, psychological support and protection, the pope said in a video message released by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network March 2.

“The church must serve as a model to help solve the issue and bring it to light in society and in families,” he said.

At the start of each month, the network posts a short video of the pope offering his specific prayer intention. For the month of March, the pope dedicated his prayer intention for the victims of abuse. Child Abuse Prevention Month is observed in April in the United States.

In his video message, the pope said, “In response to cases of…

View Cache

In his latest prayer video, Pope Francis dedicated the month of march to praying for victims of abuse, saying simply asking forgiveness is not enough, but the church must put victims first and avoid coverup.

In his video, released March 2, Pope Francis said that in response to abuse cases, specifically abuse committed by members and representatives of the church, “it’s not enough to ask for forgiveness.”

“Asking for forgiveness is necessary, but it is not enough. Asking for forgiveness is good for the victims, but they are the ones who have to be ‘at the center’ of everything,” he said, saying victims’ pain and psychological trauma can only heal “if they find answers – if there are concrete actions to repair the horrors they have suffered and to prevent them from happening again.”

Let us #PrayTogether for those who have suffered because of the wrongs done to them by members…

View Cache

In his prayer intention for March 2023, Pope Francis prays for victims of abuse, and says the Church must serve as a model of safeguarding and must offer safe spaces for victims.

“In response to cases of abuse, especially those committed by members of the Church, it is not enough to ask for forgiveness,” says Pope Francis in his video-message announcing his prayer intention for March 2023.

The Pope this month is praying in a special way for victims of abuse.

In his message, he insists that victims must be the protagonists of a response to abuse, saying that “their pain and psychological wounds can begin to heal if they find answers – if there are concrete actions to repair the horrors they have suffered and to prevent them from happening again.”

Pope Francis insists, too, that the Church cannot hide abuse, no matter where it occurs, but instead must…

View Cache

(For Immediate Release March 2, 2023) 

The Maryland General Assembly House Judiciary committee heard testimony from survivors of child sexual abuse in support of HB0001 – sponsored by Delegate C. T. Wilson –altering the definition of “sexual abuse” for purposes relating to civil actions for child sexual abuse to include any act that involves an adult allowing or encouraging a child to engage in certain activities; repealing the statute of limitations in certain civil actions relating to child sexual abuse; repealing a statute of repose for certain civil actions relating to child sexual abuse; providing for the retroactive application of the Act under certain circumstances; etc. This bill gives those who were previously barred by these archaic laws an opportunity to seek justice.

27 U.S. jurisdictions have window or revival laws now in place. We hope, with this hearing today, Maryland becomes that much closer to becoming…

View Cache

• In 2021 11 priests sent a letter to the highest reaches of the U.S. Catholic Church regarding the leadership of Bishop Richard Stika.
• “We do not wish, in hindsight, to be accused on remaining silent, or of not having done enough in the interests of justice and charity,” they wrote.
• Priests are known to speak mostly behind closed doors about church issues. This group, however, felt Stika was not responding to their requests and complaints. They felt they had no other recourse.

Long before the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville received an investigative visit from high-ranking church leaders, a group of priests sent a blistering letter about Bishop Richard Stika’s leadership to the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church in America, Knox News has learned.

The priests listed a series of concerns, including his handling of the allegations involving a church seminarian who has been accused of raping an…

View Cache

A Southeast Michigan priest is sentenced to at least three years in prison in connection with a clergy abuse investigation, Michigan Attorney General’s Office announced.

In October 2022, the Rev. Joseph “Jack” Baker, 61, was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct – sexual penetration with a person under 13. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to three to 15 years.

Baker, who had been a pastor at St. Perpetua Parish in Waterford since 2008, previously was a pastor at St. Mary Parish in Wayne, as well as an associate pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Dearborn and at St. Hugo of the Hills Parish in Bloomfield Hills.

Officials say the Archdiocese of Detroit received a report and sent it to the lead prosecutor on Attorney General Dana Nessel’s clergy abuse team.

The AG’s office seized 1.5 million paper documents and 3.5 million electronic documents through search warrants in October 2018,…

View Cache

A man who filed a 2019 lawsuit alleging he was sexually abused at a Downtown Albuquerque church has admitted that he misidentified a Jesuit priest he named as his abuser, resulting in the case’s dismissal, court records show.

A district judge tossed the suit in February after the plaintiff — identified as John Doe 124 — admitted last year he had misidentified the Rev. J. Patrick Hough as his abuser.

John Doe 124 made the admission in a claim he submitted in September to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for New Mexico in connection with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe bankruptcy case, 2nd Judicial District Judge Nancy Franchini wrote in the Feb. 21 order.

Abuse survivors in December approved a $121.5 million plan that called for payments to nearly 400 abuse claimants to settle the 4-year-old bankruptcy.

Franchini’s order clears the way for Hough to return to active ministry “as…

View Cache

Two states are currently considering legislation that amends mandatory reporter laws to force Catholic priests and other religious clergy to divulge information about sexual abuse, even when the priest learned of the abuse while hearing a confession.

Bills currently under consideration in the Washington and Vermont legislatures would make all clergy in the state mandatory reporters of sexual abuse and would remove so-called clergy-penitent privilege, which otherwise exempts religious ministers from reporting anything that is heard in confession.

The legislation, if passed, would most notably affect Catholic priests, who are prohibited from divulging anything they hear in confession. Catholic canon law stipulates that any priest who violates the “seal of confession” automatically incurs the penalty of excommunication.

Bishop Thomas Daly of the Diocese of Spokane, Washington, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that if the bill were enacted, priests and…

View Cache

Blowing the whistle on a cover-up of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo cost them not only their jobs, but their careers working for the church they loved.

But five years later, Siobhan M. O’Connor and the Rev. Ryszard S. Biernat have no regrets about providing a television reporter documents and audio recordings implicating then-Bishop Richard J. Malone in the mishandling of clergy sexual abuse allegations.

“It wasn’t easy to face the whole machine of church administration,” Biernat said in an interview last week. “I don’t like making people hate me but some people did after that. I didn’t take it lightly that I was going to make some enemies doing that.”

O’Connor, Malone’s former executive assistant, knew it would be hard to secure a new office job after she went on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and acknowledged that she was the key source for three WKBW-TV reports that led to protests…

View Cache

Case is latest in series where church seeks to capitalise on landmark ruling that a priest’s death meant church could not receive a fair trial

The Catholic church is attempting to use the death of a paedophile, who had been jailed for the abuse of 17 children, to shield itself from further civil claims from his survivors.

In recent months, the church has adopted an increasingly aggressive approach to survivors in cases where paedophile clergy have died. It has sought to capitalise on a recent decision in New South Wales’s highest court that ruled a priest’s death meant the church could not receive a fair trial in a claim brought by a woman known as GLJ.

The landmark ruling, which is being appealed in the high court, has prompted the church to seek permanent stays in a string of cases where clergy have died.

The latest involves a claim brought by…

View Cache

Legislation has advanced through the Washington state Senate to make members of the clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect — passing on a unanimous vote.

SB 5280, sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), would require clergy to report sexual abuse allegations to authorities. The lone exception is if the information was received amid clergy-penitent privilege, a nationally-recognized form of privileged communication that protects conversations between religious advisers and an advisee, which has sparked a statewide debate.

As the bill continues to move through the legislative process, legislators will argue whether to continue that exemption or amend the bill to close it.

“We’re going to have some tough conversations about the issue of clergy-penitent privilege here in the Legislature and find what’s possible for us to pass,” said Frame in a prepared statement. “This bill is already a major step forward for protecting children, and…

View Cache

Baker is former pastor of St. Perpetua in Waterford, crime happened years earlier at Wayne County church

A Catholic priest and former pastor found guilty last fall of raping a young boy nearly 20 years ago was sentenced to prison Wednesday —  while his attorney said he maintains his innocence and will appeal his conviction.

At his sentencing hearing in Wayne County’s 3rd Judicial Circuit Court, Joseph “Father Jack” Baker was ordered to spend 3-15 years in prison, with jail credit of 140 days, for first-degree criminal sexual conduct-sexual penetration of a person less than 13 years old.

Baker was pastor at St. Mary Catholic School in Wayne and his victim was a second-grader there when he was raped in the church sacristy in 2004. Both the victim and Baker were among those who testified at the trial last October, with Baker denying the allegation.

The Oakland Press is not…

View Cache

Bishop Jaime Soto says the diocese is committed to resolving the more than 200 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse and warns it could cause the diocese to go bankrupt.

Catholic Diocese of Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto is warning the diocese’s finances may be overwhelmed by the number of sexual abuse lawsuits it’s facing.

Soto posted the announcement Sunday with a video message ahead of an article in the March/April issue of Catholic Herald magazine about how the diocese is working to create safe spaces and atone for clergy sexual abuse.

In his announcement, Soto says there are more than 200 lawsuits against the diocese alleging sexual abuse of minors due to California law extending the statute of limitations (AB 218).

A judge of the Alameda County Court is overseeing a special proceeding regarding the claims in Sacramento and other dioceses in the region. Soto says he’s committing to…

View Cache

‘Because pastors do not report abuse, it allows abusers to keep on preying on vulnerable individuals,’ said advocate Abbi Nye.

If a member of the clergy suspects a child in the congregation has been abused, is the clergyperson legally required to report it?

In New York state, the answer is no. But some advocates, clergy and lawmakers think that should change.

This issue is at the heart the Child Abuse Reporting Expansion Act, a bill making its way through New York state Legislature that, if passed, would make clergy mandated reporters.

“CFCtoo is calling for CARE Act to be passed because we see it as a necessary first step toward making our communities and children safer,” said anti-abuse advocate Abbi Nye.

Nye is part of the advocacy group CFCtoo, a collective of former Christian Fellowship Center members. The CFC has five locations in New York’s North Country and has been  View Cache

As a pediatrician-turned-pastor, I believe reporting suspected child harm is our civic and Christian duty.

After entering the exam room to greet a 4-year-old patient, I couldn’t help but notice bruises on her arms. Black, blue, green, and yellow—each was in a different stage of healing. Injuries on the arms and legs are typical for young children as they run, grow, and play. But her bruising pattern resembled the imprint of a wire hanger.

While looking through her medical chart, I asked what had happened. The little girl sheepishly explained that she fell while playing hopscotch with her friends. Her stepfather nodded in approval, but red flags erupted in my mind. I continued with her well-child check as if not overly concerned. But as I examined her frail body, more bruising was evident on her torso, back, and thighs—where children do not typically get hurt.

“How did you get so…

View Cache

A bill that would require clergy members to report child abuse or neglect in Washington state has cleared the Senate.

The state Senate passed Senate Bill 5280 unanimously Tuesday.

Sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, the measure would require clergy to report sexual abuse allegations to authorities unless the information was received in a context protected by clergy-penitent privilege, such as a confessional setting.

Washington is one of only a handful of states in the U.S. that do not list clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect.

Frame has been open about being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. She said the abuse ended only after she told a teacher who was a mandatory reporter. The Associated Press does not publish the names of sexual abuse survivors without their consent.

“This subject is personally very important for me,” Frame said. “Mandatory reporters play an important role in protecting children,…

View Cache

Editor’s note: Today we revisit a post from November 2021 about efforts by a Jesuit priest and researcher to help the Catholic Church heal by making stories from abuse survivors a regular part of Church life.

Gerard McGlone, SJ, a Jesuit priest and researcher, believes all Catholics should regularly hear the stories of people who have experienced sexual abuse in the Church. 

He envisions a day when seminarians read, see, or hear the accounts of sexual abuse victim-survivors as part of their initial and ongoing formation. When leadership training for bishops and major superiors includes honest descriptions of survivors’ experiences. When parish bulletins feature a survivor story each week. And when pastoral council meetings and RCIA classes involve listening to short recordings from survivors, followed by brief reflection and prayer.

Trained as a clinical psychologist and now serving as a senior research fellow at the  View Cache

Lawyers for former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick filed a motion on Monday to dismiss the criminal charges against him.  McCarrick is accused of sexually assaulting a boy decades ago. His attorneys claim that the 92-year-old once-powerful American prelate has dementia and is not competent to stand trial.

McCarrick is the first current or former U.S. Catholic cardinal to face criminal charges for child sex offenses. He entered a not-guilty plea in the case in September 2021.

Our hearts ache for McCarrick’s victim and we stand in solidarity with him as this case drags on. We are glad that the prosecution is hiring its own expert to conduct a second opinion on competency. Like the lawyer representing this survivor, Mitchell Garabedian, we are suspicious of the incompetency claim. Regardless of the final decision in this case, we will always believe the testimony of…

View Cache

We are incredibly appreciative that Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Robert Taylor Jr. has decided to allow the public to see a redacted copy of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office report on the history of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. While this is a victory for transparency, we hope that at some point in the future, the entire report will become available.

Judge Taylor ordered that the names of those who had not been previously identified publicly and who were accused of abusing children, covering up abuse, silencing victims, or otherwise helping to hide and enable abuse, were to be redacted from the public report. The judge said that those 208 people were entitled to be notified they were in the report and given a chance to review the portion of the report that addresses their involvement.

As frustrating as it may be…

View Cache

The SEC fined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for failing to disclose its investments

A fund operated by the Mormon Church used a series of shell companies to hide billions of dollars of investments from the public over more than two decades, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said today.

Ensign Peak Advisors, a non-profit that manages investments for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was required to disclose its ownership of publicly-traded securities because its portfolio exceeded $100 million. Instead, to hide the scale of the Church’s holdings, Ensign Peak created shell companies around the United States and reported them as the real owners of those securities.

The SEC fined Ensign Peak $4 million and the Church $1 million in order to settle the charges. The total assets the organizations failed to disclose amounted to nearly $38 billion by…

View Cache

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a nonprofit entity that it controlled have been fined $5 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission over accusations that the religious institution failed to properly disclose its investment holdings.

In an order released Tuesday, the SEC alleged that the church illicitly hid its investments and their management behind multiple shell companies from 1997 to 2019. In doing so, it failed to disclose the size of the church’s equity portfolio to the SEC and the public.

The church was concerned that disclosure of the assets in the name of the nonprofit entity, called Ensign Peak Advisors, which manages the church’s investments, would lead to negative consequences in light of the size of the church’s portfolio, the SEC said.

The allegations of the illicit shell company structure first emerged in 2018, when a group formerly called MormonLeaks —…

View Cache

The Diocese of San Diego has rejected a lawsuit’s allegations that it restructured diocesan properties to hide assets from sexual abuse victims. The diocese said its restructuring was part of a 10-year effort to establish parishes as separate legal entities.

Irwin Zalkin, a San Diego lawyer who represents about 120 people who have filed sex abuse claims against the diocese, has alleged otherwise. He contends the property transfers were fraudulent and aimed to shield assets that could be used to compensate his clients and other sex abuse victims.

The 2019 legislation known as Assembly Bill 218 significantly extended the statute of limitations for sex abuse lawsuits. It also allowed a three-year retrospective legal window for legal claims that previously fell beyond the legal time limit.

The diocese faces 400 sexual abuse claims dating as far back as the 1940s. The diocese has said if it agreed to settle all the…

View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is facing insolvency following more than 200 lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of minors.

Bishop Jaime Soto said in a letter Sunday night addressing the civil claims and acknowledging the possible financial impact. The majority of the lawsuits predate the 1990s as state law extends the statute of limitations on these cases.

“A vital aspect of owning and atoning for the sins of the past is resolving claims brought forward by victim-survivors in a fair and responsible manner,” Soto wrote. “I have committed to this principle and attempt to live it in every case.”

The bishop admitted that in the face of a “staggering number” of claims, the “financial challenge is unlike anything we have faced before.

“I must consider what options are available to us, should the diocese become insolvent,” Soto said.

The civil claims are being managed by an…

View Cache

Lindsay Lundholm looked out over hundreds of people at the Utah State Capitol last year and felt a deep sense of healing. Abuse survivors, religious leaders and major party politicians were all gathered to rally for an end to a legal loophole that exempts religious clergy from being required to report child sexual abuse once it comes to their attention.

Lundholm, one of the rally’s organizers, recalled telling the crowd how, growing up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Idaho, she told her bishop about her painful abuse only to see it go unreported.

Unearthing the trauma wasn’t easy, but back in August she hoped reforms could be forthcoming so others would not face what she did.

“There was really a lot of momentum,” said Lundholm, now a teacher in northern Utah. “Everyone we were talking to was like, ‘This is a no brainer….

View Cache

Lawmakers have proposed several bills this session that would end the clergy exception for reporting child abuse, but with less than a week before the Utah Legislature adjourns, none have been granted a public hearing.

When asked why the bills — all of which were publicly released before the legislative session began in January — have yet to come up for discussion, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said he doesn’t want to force clergy to choose between breaking a tenet of their faith or breaking state law.

“I think they have the First Amendment right of religious protections, and I don’t think I want to put clergy in a spot where they have to be excommunicated or thrown in jail. Those are the options and I don’t think that’s right,” he said.RELATED

• Should a member of the clergy be required to report sex abuse? A…

View Cache

It is not a group anyone wants to join. The Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is made up of people who have experienced clergy sexual abuse during their childhoods. The group was first introduced to me as a support for my husband, who is a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest that occurred when he was 5-years-old. My husband participates in a peer group, and we have attended two national SNAP conferences.

People would stand up and say what happened to them — how old they were, how long the abuse continued, whether they were believed if they told others. They were tearful, they were angry, but they were not silent. I was just astonished. I also am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, though the crimes against me were not committed by a clergy member, and it never occurred to me that I could be…

View Cache

Eastview Christian Church Senior Pastor Mike Baker resigned Saturday amid a review of allegations of an “abusive power dynamic and coverup by church leadership in 2016.”

The senior pastor of one of Bloomington-Normal’s largest churches has resigned amid allegations of an “abusive power dynamic and coverup by church leadership,” church officials said. The pastor, Mike Baker, said the allegations are “completely not true.”

The controversy spilled into public view Sunday, when Eastview’s elders – a group of seven church leaders – addressed church members and shared a lengthy statement on the church’s website. They acknowledged allegations of unspecified abuse dating back to 2016 when Mike Baker’s adult son left his position at Eastview. Mike Baker resigned Saturday after reaching an “impasse” with the elders about how to deal with the situation, the elders said.

Barton Shaw, chairman of the elder board, told church members Sunday…

View Cache

Two megachurches—one in Arizona and one in Illinois—are being rocked by allegations they allowed a pastor guilty of clergy sexual abuse to re-enter the ministry—and offend again.

The Arizona megachurch—Central Christian Church (CCC), which has five locations in the Phoenix area— announced the termination of Lead Student Pastor and Associate Preaching Pastor Caleb Baker at a church service posted on Feb. 13. According to CCC Lead Pastor Cal Jernigan, Baker had been involved in a six-month-long “extramarital relationship” with a church employee, and the church had fired both Baker and the employee.

“It did not come out by confession; they were discovered,” Jernigan told his congregation.  “I, and the other leaders of this church, cannot turn a blind eye to this and act as if this didn’t happen or that somehow we didn’t know, we didn’t find out.”

However, both CCC and Baker’s former megachurch in Illinois— View Cache

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is facing insolvency following more than 200 lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of minors, Bishop Jaime Soto said in a letter Sunday night addressing the civil claims and acknowledging the possible financial impact.

The majority of the lawsuits predate the 1990s as state law extends the statute of limitations on these cases.

“A vital aspect of owning and atoning for the sins of the past is resolving claims brought forward by victim-survivors in a fair and responsible manner,” Soto wrote. “I have committed to this principle and attempt to live it in every case.”

The bishop admitted that in the face of a “staggering number” of claims, the “financial challenge is unlike anything we have faced before.

“I must consider what options are available to us, should the diocese become insolvent,” Soto said.

The civil claims are being managed…

View Cache

Senate President Stuart Adams told reporters religious organizations “do a great job” in handling abuse confessions.

In the wake of an Associated Press investigation into a case of child sex abuse by a Latter-day Saint father in Arizona, three Utah lawmakers put forward bills that would, in some capacity, require clergy — or give them permission — to report abuse to law enforcement. Why have none of them been debated by the Legislature?

“I think they have a First Amendment right, I believe there’s protections, and I don’t think I want to put a clergy in a spot where they have to be excommunicated or go to jail,” Senate President Stuart Adams told reporters Monday. “And those are the options and I don’t think that’s right.”

While two bills to address clergy reporting have been put forward by Democrats in the House and remain in its Rules Committee,  View Cache

Le cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard avait reconnu dans un courrier s’être “conduit de façon répréhensible avec une jeune fille de 14 ans”. Le parquet de Marseille avait ouvert en novembre une enquête préliminaire pour “agression sexuelle aggravée”.

L’enquête pour “agression sexuelle aggravée” visant Jean-Pierre Ricard, l’ancien archevêque de Bordeaux et ancien président de la Conférence des évêques de France, a été classée sans suite vendredi 24 février pour prescription, a appris franceinfo auprès du parquet de Marseille.

Le 7 novembre 2022, trois ans après avoir démissionné de sa charge pastorale d’archevêque de Bordeaux pour raison d’âge et avoir commencé une retraite dans un presbytère des Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Jean-Pierre Ricard avait annoncé dans une lettre à la hiérarchie catholique “se mettre à la disposition de la justice” en reconnaissant avoir “commis des actes répréhensibles” sur une adolescente de 14 ans il y a 35 ans.

Le parquet de Marseille avait alors ordonné une enquête préliminaire pour “agression sexuelle…

View Cache

BOSTON (AP) — Lawyers for former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick filed a motion Monday to dismiss a case charging him with sexually assaulting a boy decades ago, saying the 92-year-old once-powerful American prelate has dementia and is not competent to stand trial.

McCarrick pleaded not guilty in September 2021 in the Massachusetts case that alleges the priest sexually abused the boy at a wedding reception at Wellesley College in June 1974. He is the only U.S. Catholic cardinal, current or former, ever to be criminally charged with child sex crimes.

His attorneys said in their motion to dismiss that McCarrick was examined by a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who concluded the former cardinal suffers from dementia, likely due to Alzheimer’s disease.

“While he has a limited understanding of the criminal proceedings against him, his progressive and irreparable cognitive deficits render…

View Cache

Prosecutors are challenging the medical report claiming former cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial on charges he sexually abused a teen in the 1970s.

McCarrick’s legal team filed the report Feb. 27 in Massachusetts’ Dedham District Court based on a medical evaluation that found McCarrick, 92, is suffering from impaired cognition. That report is now impounded by the court.

Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Lisa Beatty said the state will now bring in its own expert to evaluate McCarrick to determine if he can go to trial. The schedule for the state’s evaluation is not currently set, but both sides will be back in court in April for a status conference. Any eventual ruling on McCarrick’s motion to be declared incompetent is not likely for months.

McCarrick was not in court for the hearing. It was reported last year he lives in a Missouri treatment center for priests.

…

View Cache

The Diocese of Toledo recently added three names to its list of diocesan clergy members who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. All three were deceased prior to the allegations. 

The new additions are priests Richard Miller and Frank Nieset and deacon Bernabe Romo.

Father Miller was ordained in 1950 and served at nine diocesan parishes before retiring in 1997. He died in 2009.

Father Nieset was ordained in 1956 and served at 13 parishes, schools, and other institutions before retiring in 1995. He took sick leave in 1982 and a leave of absence in 1994. He died in 2015.

Deacon Romo was assigned to St. James Parish in Toledo’s Old South End from 1980 to 2005, before moving to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. He retired in 2006 and died in 2019. The Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ list of credibly accused clergy does not list any accused deacons.

St. James merged…

View Cache

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Robert Taylor Jr. ruled Feb. 24 that a redacted version of the Maryland Attorney General Office’s report on child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore must be released publicly.

The judge ordered the attorney general’s office to redact more than 200 names from the report and submit it to the court by mid-March.

“Ever-aware of the pain endured by survivors of child sexual abuse, the archdiocese once again offers its sincere apologies to the victim-survivors who were harmed by a minister of the church and who were harmed by those who failed to protect them and who failed to respond to them with care and compassion,” said Christian Kendzierski, archdiocesan spokesman.

He made the remarks in a written Feb. 24 statement issued in response to Taylor’s ruling.

“As we said publicly last year,” Kendzierski continued, “we respect the court’s decisions in this matter and will…

View Cache

The Sacramento Diocese is facing possible bankruptcy after a staggering number of lawsuits were filed alleging sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The alleged events go back decades.

Dorothy Small is a survivor, an advocate, and, through it all, still an ardent practicing Catholic.

“The most important asset in the institution are its people,” Small says. “I’m for God and I am for what it stands for. But even God is being abused. Because they represent God himself. And that doesn’t work.”

Small, who herself is a survivor of abuse at the hands of a clergy member, now volunteers her time as an advocate with the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, to help those who are just finding the courage to come forward. 

“If they have to liquidate assets, so be it,” says Small of the various Dioceses being hit with multiple lawsuits. “But provide immediate protection…

View Cache

Attorneys representing former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick are seeking the dismissal of the case of child abuse against him, saying the 92-year-old isn’t competent to face trial because he suffers from dementia.

McCarrick, who was the archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000 and the bishop of Metuchen earlier in the 1980s, has pleaded not guilty in the 2021 Massachusetts case against him that alleges he abused a teenage boy at a 1974 wedding at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

McCarrick is the only Catholic cardinal in the United States ever to face child sex abuse charges.

His lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the criminal case, asserting that although McCarrick remains “intelligent and articulate,” his dementia and the resulting decline in his memory make him incapable of “assisting in his defense,” they wrote in their motion.

They cited an examination by a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at…

View Cache

Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 92, filed a motion in a Massachusetts court claiming he is “legally incompetent” to stand trial for sex abuse charges, citing “significant, worsening, and irreversible dementia.”

McCarrick is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14 relating to allegations that he sexually abused the teenager who was a family friend at a wedding ceremony in the 1970s at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. 

McCarrick, laicized by Pope Francis in 2019, held one of the highest offices in the Catholic Church and has been accused of serially abusing his priestly authority by sexually abusing minors and seminarians.

The state of Massachusetts told CNA that it wants an opportunity to examine McCarrick’s competency to stand trial.

McCarrick’s motion to dismiss the charges comes about a month after his legal team said a neurological exam of him was…

View Cache

Five years after allegations of child sex abuse against then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick first surfaced and rocked the U.S. Catholic Church, attorneys for McCarrick, 92, said Monday that he’s no longer mentally competent to stand trial and that the charges should be dismissed.

McCarrick was for decades one of the country’s most connected and powerful Catholic leaders. Now, many Catholics view him as an emblem of a rotten old-boy network in which the people at the top never face justice for their role in crimes involving sexual abuse by clergy.

The three counts of indecent assault and battery, based on allegations that McCarrick molested a 16-year-old family friend at a Wellesley College wedding reception in 1974, are the only criminal charges he faces. Fourteen minors and at least five adults — clergy and seminarians — have accused the former D.C. archbishop of sexual misconduct, according to the abuse-tallying site  View Cache

An old idiom is cited in the bible and often used in common conversation, especially when referring to sexual abuse. The phrase “fall from grace” is defined in the dictionary (in Christian belief) as descending from a state of divine favor into sin. It literally means to sin, yet people often use it as an excuse to lessen the crime, hoping the abuser will rise back up. How about we all agree to stop using the word ‘fall’ or ‘fell’ when discussing sexual abuse? Predators don’t FALL for their victims or FALL from grace; they abuse.  

Journalists should especially avoid those terms. Those words are used in two ways when discussing abuse. Both are very harmful and misleading. First, in the context of kids victimized by clergy, we often see phrases like “the accused minister’s fall from grace.” (If you go to BishopAccountability.org and enter this…

View Cache

A group of five demonstrators gathered on Sunday morning in support of abuse victims in the Chickasha community. 

The group’s spokesperson, Christopher Coutts, said the group gathered in support of victims from all walks of life who have been abused.

“We are here today to stand for victims of all kinds, whether it be mental abuse, physical abuse or sexual abuse. We do not care your identify, your age, your race, your sex, your beliefs, your politics,” Coutts said. “It is simply that the citizens of our town deserve better than to be abused in any way shape or form. It is unacceptable in any way for any member of our community to be treated in this way and for others to think it is alright.” 

The demonstrators stood across the street from New Life Christian Church. Last week, the former senior pastor, Matthew Reiber, was charged with three counts…

View Cache

Donald Trump’s former Catholic priest religious adviser and head of anti-abortion group Priests for Life has been hit with multiple sexual misconduct accusations, according to reports by the Catholic media outlet The Pillar and the Daily Beast.

Vehement anti-abortionist Frank Pavone was ousted from the priesthood — defrocked — by the Vatican in December after he repeatedly disobeyed orders from his bishop to stop posting unspecified “blasphemous” messages on social media. He often posted incendiary political messages, and posted videos of an aborted fetus on an altar.

Now at least four women have reportedly accused Pavone of sexual misconduct.

The complaints concern “inappropriate workplace” behavior, dating from 1999 to 2018, and allegedly included non-consensual touching, lewd suggestions and unwanted sexual advance, according to The Pillar and the Beast. One of the women who accused Pavone of…

View Cache

The Society of Jesus said Feb. 21 it had received 15 credible accusations of abuse against Father Marko Rupnik and would be taking steps to begin an internal procedure against the Jesuit priest and artist.

The process could result in disciplinary actions up to and including the 68-year-old Rupnik’s expulsion from the Jesuit order.

In the Feb. 21 declaration, Rupnik’s superior, Father Johan Verschueren, said, “I feel it is my duty to deal seriously with this case and others like it that have arisen and are arising, out of respect for, and in protection of, truth and justice for all parties involved.”

To other restrictions on the priest’s public ministry, Verschueren added a ban on public artistic endeavors.

But the Jesuit order has admitted to knowing of abuse accusations against Rupnik for years, not only since alleged victims went public in early December 2022.

Here’s a timeline of known facts…

View Cache

The school’s code of conduct instructs students to ‘abstain from biblically immoral practices’, including ‘sexual sins’

Patriarchal churches that teach women should “submit” to men are creating a culture where abuse can thrive, experts say.

A News Corp Australia podcast has alleged that some female students at Hillsong College, part of Hillsong Church, were taught to “submit” sexually to their husbands, which one former student described as “kind of a rape culture”.

The podcast also alleges students are quizzed about their “sexual sins” when they start and declared “unsafe” if they admit to having sex or watching pornography.

The college’s code of conduct instructs students to “abstain from biblically immoral practices” including drunkenness, profane language, occult practices and “sexual sins”.

Students are not allowed to date in their first semester and after that they have to seek permission. Relationships with people not at the college should be “prayerfully considered” and discussed…

View Cache

Pope Francis said Saturday that Vatican trials for cases of grave financial mismanagement have become unavoidable in recent years.

“The problem is not the trials, but the facts and conduct that determine them and make them painfully necessary,” the pope told a group of Vatican magistrates on Feb. 25.

“In fact,” he added, “such behaviors by members of the Church seriously harm its effectiveness in reflecting divine light.”

Pope Francis addressed the Vatican’s recent legal disputes in a speech to members of the city state’s tribunals for the opening of its 94th judicial year.

The Vatican is in the midst of a trial to prosecute 10 people, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, on charges related to the institution’s finances. The trial, which began in July 2021, is expected to conclude before the end of the year.

The trial centers on the Secretariat of State’s purchase of a London building, a controversial…

View Cache

Pope Francis said Feb. 25 that financial misconduct by Vatican personnel harms the church’s mission and scandalizes the faithful, doubling down on the need for trials in the tiny city state to find justice.

Francis made the comments during an address to prosecutors, judges and employees of the Vatican City State’s civil and criminal tribunal at the start of the judicial year. The tribunal has seen its caseload grow significantly in recent years as the Vatican enforces new financial standards and accountability, most recently with an ongoing trial into the Holy See’s investment in a London property.

Defense lawyers for some of the 10 defendants have flagged shortcomings in the Vatican’s unique legal system over the course of the trial, arguing that the rights of the defense haven’t been respected. Francis didn’t refer to the London case specifically, but he warned against focusing on the nitty-gritty of the Vatican’s legal…

View Cache

Two teenage girls have narrated how they were allegedly sexually and physically abused by a pastor, who happens be their biological father, for years.

It is alleged that the clergyman started sexually abusing the elder daughter from 2018 to 2023. According to a statement the minors recorded with the police, the pastor reportedly abused the younger daughter from 2016 to 2018. The teenagers were aged 12 and 13 when the pastor allegedly started sexually abusing them. One of the teenage girls is said to have approached her mother and told her that she was contemplating committing suicide as she could not handle the sexual and physical abuse allegedly by her father, who doubles as a pastor. In the statement, one of the teenage girls detailed how the accused would invite her into his bedroom every morning where he would allegedly hug, kiss and touch her indecently, before proceedings to sexually…

View Cache

The Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota had its lead pastor, Michael Gatlin, give his resignation yesterday after his son, another pastor at the church had allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.  

One month ago the church released a statement advising its congregation and the public of the issue. 

Jackson Gatlin, Michael’s son, was suspended as Vineyard’s young adult and online community pastor after the allegation was brought to light. One of the victim’s statements shared that these events occurred several years ago and were sexual in nature.

The church’s Special Committee made an announcement during the church service yesterday stating Michael and Brenda Gatlin might have known about it and chose not to act. 

Two separate parties are investigating all of the allegations at this time, including the local police as well as a company called Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE). The latter was hired by the church to do its…

View Cache

A national-level group of Catholic women in India has expressed distress about Bishop Franco Mulakkal visiting Pope Francis in the Vatican.

The “Sisters in Solidarity” on February 21 wrote to the Pope that they were distressed to read about Bishop Mulakkal’s February 8 meeting with the pontiff. They said they read in an Indian newspaper dated February 15 that the Pope was “glad to hear that (Bishop Mulakkal) had won the case and consoled him for his suffering.”

Kochurani Abraham, a feminist theologian and a group member, told Matters India February 25 that they could deliver the letter to the Pope’s office and concerned dicasteries only on February 24 through a Rome-based priest. Copies of the letter were also sent to the apostolic nuncio in New Delhi and Church leaders in India, Abraham said.

The letter apprised the Pope that the rape case involving Bishop Mulakkal is not over as…

View Cache

The cardinal admitted last November to behaving ‘in a reprehensible way’ toward a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago.

French prosecutors announced Saturday that Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard will not face criminal charges after he admitted to abusing a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago.

Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens told AFP that “the case was closed due to the statute of limitations.”

Ricard, the president of the French bishops’ conference from 2001 to 2007, publicly acknowledged Nov. 7 that he had behaved “in a reprehensible way” toward the girl when he was a pastor in the Archdiocese of Marseille in the late 1980s.

On Nov. 11, the Vatican said that Ricard would be subject to an “investigatio praevia,” or preliminary investigation, following the admission. The Vatican probe is believed to be ongoing.

According to his official Vatican biography, the cardinal is a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department…

View Cache

There’s only one thing Southern Baptist Convention conservatives get more upset about than women serving as pastors: The slightest affirmation of LGBTQ persons.

This truth was borne out in the SBC over the last week as leaders sought to put out a three-alarm fire sparked by decisions made at the SBC Executive Committee. The denomination’s largest church was expelled because it allows women to serve as pastors, and a secular company that cares for its LGBTQ employees was selected to do more work on sexual abuse reform.

Thus, in the current moment, the threefold cord of sexuality, gender and abuse is not easily broken in the SBC. Instead, it’s the talk of the town.

For starters, understand that virtually everyone in SBC leadership is against LGBTQ inclusion or affirmation. The homophobia is so strong that last year a respected former president of the convention was lambasted merely for expressing affirmation of a…

View Cache

A judge concluded the children were victims of “parental alienation,” which continues to influence family courts despite being rejected by mainstream scientific groups, and authorized police to use “reasonable force” to remove them from their mother.

This story describes in detail the sexual abuse of children.

Two siblings in Utah have barricaded themselves in a bedroom at their mother’s home in defiance of a judge’s order to return to the custody of their father, despite state child welfare investigators determining that he had sexually abused the children.

The judge has authorized police to use “reasonable force” — including entry into locked rooms — against Brynlee Larson, 12, and Ty Larson, 15. Ty has spent the last month livestreaming on TikTok to call attention to their case.

The showdown is the fallout from the latest family court battle over “parental alienation” — a disputed psychological theory in which one parent is…

View Cache

How should faithful Catholics respond to the Pavone Affair, and second, what should Frank Pavone himself do or not do?

The laicization of and sexual harassment charges against Frank Pavone have deeply disturbed faithful pro-life Catholics. Online discussions include armchair analyses of what his religious superiors and the Board of Priests for Life should have done. Some people want to know why these charges are coming up at this particular time. Still others want to know why the Vatican is singling out Pavone for discipline while ignoring other problematic priests. 

Without dismissing these legitimate questions, I would like to focus on two questions. First, how should faithful Catholics respond to the Pavone Affair, and second, what should Frank Pavone himself do or not do?  

But first, let’s recap the facts known to the public as of this writing. 

On December 17, 2022, it was reported that Pavone had been dismissed from the…

View Cache

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Aotearoa says the Catholic Church in New Zealand is still failing to properly respond to credible allegations of clerical and religious child sexual abuse.

SNAP says no explanation is given to survivors on how decisions are made when their complaint is not accepted, nor what the standard of proof is for complaints to be credible. They also claim the decision process lacks transparency.

SNAP survivors say witnesses whom they nominated to obtain relative evidence were never contacted and supporting evidential information was never gathered by the church’s investigators.

SNAP believes an overly conservative and excessively high standard on the “balance of probabilities” is being applied to survivor evidence.

Survivors believe that this is deliberately done to ensure no compensation is paid, and the Church as an institution is protected.

This is despite Catholic Church leaders in New Zealand publicly apologizing…

View Cache

[Via KJZZ]

Several plans to change state law on clergy reporting of child sex abuse, including one that would remove the “clergy exemption,” seem dead at the Utah State Capitol — though two child abuse victims, one of them a rabbi, urged the measures get a hearing in the waning days of the legislative session.

“In terms of the sex abuse that I endured, I think it gives me perspective on what we’re talking about,” said Rabbi Avremi Zippel, “of the long-term impact of this sort of behavior.”

Zippel’s former nanny was convicted of sexually abusing him when he was a boy.

“It’s my hope they get a hearing,” he said of the bills, adding he supports ending the exemption for clergy, even if the abuse is learned in confessions. “From my perspective as a faith leader, there is nothing more sacred than the life of a child.“

Deondra Brown…

View Cache

[See also the full text of Associate Judge Robert Taylor’s order.]

With an order Friday from the courts, Marylanders are bracing for the release of an investigation into the history of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The secrecy around the report could be lifted as soon as next month.

Attorneys had argued over the issue for months in confidential proceedings. Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert Taylor Jr. concluded Friday he would allow redactions and release the report to the public. His 32-page decision brings new insights into the fight that’s happened behind closed doors.

Here’s what to expect from the 456-page investigation.

Will the report name names?

That’s a question on the minds of sexual abuse survivors, their advocates and attorneys. These men and women have pointed to a culture of silence in the church that has allowed abuse to continue and…

View Cache

The lid on the Buffalo Diocese’s long-held secrets about clergy molesters was pried open in 2018 when a Catholic priest admitted he had sexually abused dozens of boys.

Five years later, despite promises to do right by abuse victims, the diocese has not paid a penny in damages to an estimated 900 people who filed claims alleging they were sexually abused by priests or other diocese employees. Despite pledges of greater transparency, the diocese has yet to make public internal documents on its handling of abuse cases. And no one connected with the diocese has been charged with any crimes related to child sex abuse or its cover-up in the past five years.

“It seems to me that nothing has changed,” said Michael F. Whalen Jr., who held a news conference on Feb. 27, 2018, to tell the public that the Rev. Norbert Orsolits had abused…

View Cache

[Via Catholic Review]

If the goal of a “synodal” church is to have all the baptized recognize their responsibility for the life and mission of the Catholic community, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet said that necessarily means taking a new look at priesthood.

The cardinal, outgoing prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, organized an international conference on the theology of priesthood in February 2022, which drew some 500 priests, religious and theologians to the Vatican.

Yet one year later, he and other conference organizers said that coming to grips with the clerical abuse crisis and trying to promote a real understanding of the vocation of all the baptized — priests or laity — is an exercise that cannot be limited to priests and theologians.

To that end, the Vatican presented a two-volume book, “For a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood,” cataloguing the conference’s articles and providing complementary academic documents that contextualize…

View Cache

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Robert Taylor Jr. ruled Feb. 24 that a redacted version of the Maryland Attorney General Office’s report on child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore must be released publicly.

The judge ordered the attorney general’s office to redact more than 200 names from the report and submit it to the court by mid-March.

Christian Kendzierski, archdiocesan spokesman, responded to the ruling in a written Feb. 24 statement:

“Ever-aware of the pain endured by survivors of child sexual abuse, the archdiocese once again offers its sincere apologies to the victim-survivors who were harmed by a minister of the church and who were harmed by those who failed to protect them and who failed to respond to them with care and compassion,” Kendzierski said. 

“As we said publicly last year,” he continued, “we respect the court’s decisions in this matter and will continue to cooperate with the…

View Cache

A redacted version of the Maryland attorney general’s report into child sexual abuse at the Archdiocese of Baltimore can be released, a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge ruled Friday.

| LINKS: Read the motion | Memorandum and order | Read the archbishop’s response 

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown released a statement Friday afternoon, saying: “We are pleased with the court’s order today permitting the interim release of a redacted version of the attorney general’s report on the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The office will move expeditiously to comply with the court’s order and prepare a redacted copy of the report to be released upon review and approval by the court.”

Details of the attorney general’s four-year, 456-page investigation weren’t initially made public because much of the material was obtained through a grand jury. Then-Attorney General Brian Frosh sought the court’s permission in November 2022 to waive the grand jury…

View Cache

House Speaker Mark Rozzi received applause Friday in the Capitol Rotunda from a large gathering of Democratic colleagues after the legislature took a major step toward his decade-long promise to deliver justice for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The Berks County Democrat, a victim of clergy sex abuse as an adolescent, said, “I want to say to all the victims and survivors out there that we have your backs. We will support you.”

The news conference followed a House special session where the chamber approved two measures with bipartisan support to provide a two-year retroactive window for previously time-barred abuse victims to file civil lawsuits against their abuser and any institution, including public school districts, that covered it up.

One measure would accomplish the goal through a constitutional amendment that requires voter ratification and the other achieves it through the regular law-making process.

View Cache

Victims would be able to sue over otherwise outdated claims of child sexual abuse under two pieces of legislation passed Friday by the Pennsylvania House, but it’s unclear whether the state Senate will take them up.

The legislation to temporarily waive the statute of limitations for sex abuse crimes had been on the verge of going before voters for the final OK two years ago, when state officials bungled the required advertising of the previous version.

The House voted Friday 161-40 to send the Senate a constitutional amendment that, if senators go along with it, could go before voters for final approval as soon as November. Separately, they also voted 134-67 to make the change as regular legislation that would take effect immediately if passed by the Senate and signed by the governor.

It was a major accomplishment for House Speaker Mark Rozzi, a Berks County Democrat  View Cache

Today, the Pennsylvania House concluded its special session after passing a dual path for victims of childhood sexual assault. Both bills passed would open a two-year civil window for victims to sue abusers and institutions that covered the abuse.  

The window is the only remaining recommendation from the 2018 Grand Jury Report after its two-year investigation into widespread sexual abuse of children within six dioceses of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. 

The dual path consists of two approaches: a constitutional amendment and a statutory bill. Both received bipartisan support on their third and final consideration this morning. 

“To all the victims and survivors out there, we have your backs,” said House Speaker Mark Rozzi (D-Berks), sponsor of House Bill 2, the statutory bill. 

Rozzi is a survivor of clergy abuse when he was 13 years old. He shared his story and experience on the House floor before his bill received a vote,…

View Cache