ABUSE TRACKER

Pope Leo XIV signals a pivotal shift in defining “vulnerability,” steering Church law toward context-based interpretations of adult abuse cases.

In a carefully worded address last week to the , Pope Leo XIV signaled a possible turning point in how the Catholic Church will henceforth understand and prosecute cases of sexual abuse involving adults. His subtle linguistic reformulation — replacing “vulnerable adults” with “persons in vulnerable situations” — may reshape years of canonical debate, Vatican procedure, and diocesan practice.

Context: A Decade of Canonical Debate

Since the scandal surrounding former cardinal , the Church has wrestled with how to handle cases of adult victims within its legal framework. Pope Francis’s 2019 decree Vos estis lux mundi expanded the definition of “vulnerability,” describing a “vulnerable adult” as anyone suffering from infirmity, mental deficiency, or deprivation of freedom that limits their capacity to resist or understand an offense.

Though widely praised for its intent, the definition…

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In a speech last week, Pope Leo XIV appeared to signal a change in how the Church should think about adult victims of abuse.

The issues surround the sexual abuse of adults in the Church have been among the most prominent and contentious areas of canonical reform in the years following the scandal of the late former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

In 2019, Pope Francis significantly broadened the definition of “vulnerability” used to determine if sexual misconduct is canonically criminal with the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi, creating a years-long back and forth among canon lawyers and Vatican departments, and left many dioceses confused about how and how broadly to apply them.

While some clarification came in the form of handbooks and clarifications of various dicasteries, there has remained a debate about who, exactly, is a “vulnerable adult,” canonically speaking.

But in a speech last week, Pope Leo XIV appeared to…

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The Rhode Island investigation thus occupies an uneasy space between revelation and closure. It contributes to the historical record of abuse within the Catholic Church in the United States, reaffirming patterns already documented elsewhere: a concentration of cases in the mid-20th century, followed by a sharp decline as awareness, reporting mechanisms and safeguarding protocols evolved

A long-awaited investigation into clergy sexual abuse in the U.S. state of Rhode Island has concluded with a complex and, for some, unexpected picture: one in which the overwhelming weight of abuse cases lies decades in the past, and where no currently active priest faces credible accusations.

The nearly 300-page report, released in the penultimate week of March 2026 by Attorney General Peter Neronha, is the result of an inquiry launched in 2019 with the stated aim of examining abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Providence. The investigation stretched back as far as the…

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Halfway through the two weeks of meetings of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, Sr. Isabelle Izika Tsamba sounded frustrated.

“When will gender-based violence end?” she said to a visitor in the small office she shares with other sisters in the basement of the Church Center for the United Nations.

“And when will men stop asking why we are so focused on this issue?” said Tsamba, a sister from the Democratic Republic of Congo who represents the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at the U.N.

Such questioning was frequently heard during the March 9-19 Commission on the Status of Women meetings at the world body’s headquarters in New York, undergirded by the theme of how to ensure and strengthen access to justice for women and girls.

That included, the U.N. said, “by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices,…

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Mary Rose Wilcox and her husband marched and fasted alongside César Chavez. They helped him open a radio station in Phoenix and plastered their Mexican restaurant with photos and a mural of the widely admired Latino icon.

So when Wilcox’s daughter called this week to inform them of sexual abuse allegations leveled against Chavez, she said it felt like a punch to the gut.

By Wednesday morning, the couple had taken down Chavez’s photos from their restaurant walls and made plans to cover the mural.

“We love César Chavez. But we cannot honor him and we cannot even love him anymore,” said the former Phoenix City Council member.

Many like Wilcox are working to reconcile the legacy of a man who fought tirelessly for the rights of farmworkers with stunning allegations that he sexually abused girls and the co-founder of the United Farm…

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Auxiliary Bishop Francisco Javier Acero emphasized the need to truly listen to abuse victims and not let other interests, like careerism or clericalism, stand in the way of victims’ proper care.

In light of the ongoing struggle to prevent and combat sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Mexico, a bishop addressed the primary challenges currently being faced including “clericalism,” “careerism,” and the need to listen to those who are suffering.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Francisco Javier Acero, OAR, auxiliary bishop of the Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico and a member of the Latin American council of the Center for the Protection of Minors, emphasized the importance of the Church returning “to the essentials, to Jesus,” to ensure that “as members of the Church, we stand with the weakest and most vulnerable … the victims.”

“We must create spaces for them so we…

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Pope Leo XIV sends a message to the French Bishops’ Conference for its Spring Plenary Assembly in Lourdes, encouraging the Bishops to defend Catholic education, remain steadfast in confronting abuse, and reflect on ways to welcome communities attached to the Vetus Ordo.

At the opening of their Spring Plenary Assembly, the Bishops of France were greeted by Pope Leo XIV in a message signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.

Education, abuse and liturgy formed the three central themes of the letter addressed to the bishops. These same themes will guide their discussions over four days at the Marian shrine in Lourdes.

Defending Catholic education

Amid ongoing public concern over recent abuse scandals in educational institutions, Pope Leo XIV acknowledged “a climate of growing hostility,” but urges perseverance in defending Catholic education.

In particular, he called for its Christian identity—its very “raison d’être”—to be safeguarded “with determination,” while continuing…

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As a canonist, I am often asked what changes are needed in canon law to address sexual abuse in the church. My usual response is that this is asking the wrong question, or, to paraphrase the famous aphorism, “Culture eats canon law for breakfast.” The real question is: How can we work to affect changes in the culture of the church, which will ideally be codified in the church’s law as standard expectations and practice?

For adult victims of sexual misconduct in the church, canon law is finally catching up to a culture that no longer tolerates sexual harassment or its cover-up. Helping all Catholics understand this shift in culture, and the changes in canon law, will ensure a safer environment for everyone.

When it comes to functioning legal systems, canon law is unique in that it governs a community that essentially voluntarily chooses to be bound by it. Canon…

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An independent investigation has found that former Brownsburg Vineyard Church senior pastor Denis Roy sexually abused multiple women over the course of his ministry in both Virginia and Indiana, according to the church. The findings led church leaders to pull him from ministry last year.

Vineyard USA issued a stark public statement: “Denis Roy committed clergy sexual abuse resulting in significant harm – harm to victims, harm to families, and harm to this congregation.” The denomination said it commissioned an independent review, thanked survivors for coming forward, and outlined a timeline of reports and actions it took, according to Vineyard USA.

The conclusions are laid out in a 66-page report by The Stier Group, a Fort Worth law firm hired by Vineyard USA and finished Feb. 8. Local coverage detailed the scope of the report and highlighted key passages, including how investigators assessed credibility and patterns of…

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A 41-year-old Catholic priest was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Friday after being found guilty of having sexual intercourse with a minor on church grounds.

Justice Dale Palmer imposed the sentence: 12 years for sexual intercourse with a person under 16, and an additional five years for sexual touching, to run concurrently. The priest must serve at least eight years before becoming eligible for parole.

Court documents revealed that between March and April 2023, the priest engaged in sexual activity with a 12-year-old in his living quarters on the church compound. The abuse was reported to the Police’s Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), prompting an investigation that led to his arrest and subsequent conviction.

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A Catholic priest has been charged with sexual assault after an investigation in Oakville, Ont.

Halton Regional Police Service says it began an investigation in February of this year into an allegation of sexual assault committed against a woman while she was volunteering at an Oakville church.

The investigation led to the arrest of Rev. Ranjan D’Sa of Oakville, who faces one count of sexual assault.

D’Sa has been released on an undertaking with a future court date to take place in Milton, Ont.

According to police, D’Sa has been a member of the clergy since 2010 and employed with St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church in Oakville since 2016. Investigators say they’re concerned D’Sa may have additional victims and are asking anyone with information about this investigation, or anyone who may have been victimized by D’Sa to contact police.

The service’s child abuse and sexual assault unit can…

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Christopher Willett was former pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Crystal Springs, Miss.

A former pastor of a Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) church in Mississippi was sentenced on March 16 to 30 years in prison, with five years suspended.

Christopher Willett, former pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, was charged in March 2025 with statutory rape, sexual battery, unnatural intercourse, computer luring of a person, and child pornography, according to reporting by ByFaith, the PCA Magazine.

Willett was initially arrested after a 19-year-old woman came to the Crystal Springs Police Department to report she had been molested by Willett beginning when she was 15 years old. The criminal activity took place between September 2020 and December 2021.

The police began its investigation the morning after the victim came forward and executed search warrants on laptops, cell phones, automobiles, and…

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* It has been translated using AI

A former pastor accused of sex exploitation of church goddesses for about a decade denied the charges in his first trial.

The Seoul Eastern District Court’s Criminal Agreement Department 12 (Chief Judge Kim Se-yong) held its first hearing on a man in his 50s who was arrested and charged with habitual quasi-rape on the 24th.

A denied the allegations, saying, “It was not a one-sided religious and economic subordinate relationship with the victims.”

Accordingly, the court decided to conduct a witness examination of the victims. The next hearing is on May 11.

Yoon is accused of continuing sexual violence against four female church members from 2015 to the end of 2024. In January last year, the victims filed a complaint with the police against Yoon, claiming that he had been repeatedly sexually harassed and committed adultery.

The victims claimed that Yoon defended his crime…

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Two Minnesota cases expose how clergy power dynamics—and victim-blaming tactics—are colliding with secular law

Last year, a Catholic priest from the St. Cloud Diocese in Minnesota was charged with “sexually abusing, physically assaulting and threatening a woman to whom he had given spiritual guidance.” A woman said Father Joseph Herzing had counseled her over a period of several years beginning in 2018, and that relationship soon turned sexual… and violent.

Setting aside the horrific details of the allegations, Herzing was a priest. He was supposed to be celibate. He was in a position of power over a woman he was guiding. Even if everything had been consensual—and the allegations said they were not—it would have been unethical and potentially criminal.

Last year, a different Catholic priest from the St. Cloud Diocese in Minnesota was also charged with sexually abusing a woman. A woman accused Father Aaron Kuhn of assaulting her repeatedly over the course of three years when…

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The Albany Police Department has arrested 75-year-old Bienvenido Lopez of Albany, a local pastor, in connection with a sexual assault investigation.

Lopez is pastor at Iglesia Fuente Inagotable on Herkimer Street. He is charged with multiple counts of rape in the 1st degree.

MORE: TikTok influencer with 1M followers arraigned on multiple rape, sexual assault charges

Detectives from the Albany Police Department’s Children and Family Service Unit are actively working to determine whether there may be additional victims.

Anyone who has had contact with Lopez and believes they may have experienced similar behavior is urged to contact the department’s Children and Family Service Unit at (518) 447-8780.

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Denis Roy, a former senior pastor at Brownsburg Vineyard Church, committed clergy sexual abuse or misconduct against multiple women in two states over the past two decades, according to an investigation commissioned by the church’s parent organization.

The probe also found that leaders and elders from multiple churches, many of whom were Roy’s friends and mentors, had varying degrees of knowledge about his behavior. Yet, the investigation found, they ignored red flags and allowed Roy to remain in leadership positions.

Clergy sexual abuse is generally thought of as an exploitation of children, but it also happens to adults. Yet, most churches don’t have policies that cover adults, including the elderly and other vulnerable individuals, who could be victims of sexual, spiritual or psychological abuse, said Mark Sloan, who has spent the last 15 years training churches, schools and other Christian ministries in abuse prevention…

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Law­suits con­tinue to pile up against a former Para­mus Cath­olic coach accused of sexu­ally abus­ing dozens of stu­dents dur­ing his time at the school.

Attor­ney James Sul­li­van filed a law­suit on March 19 on behalf of an anonym­ous former stu­dent, who said he was sexu­ally abused on “numer­ous occa­sions” by hockey coach Bern­ard Gar­ris.

The law­suit names Para­mus Cath­olic High School, the Arch­diocese of Newark and the Chris­tian Broth­ers, say­ing they knew about the abuse but failed to stop it.

“We do not com­ment on mat­ters in lit­ig­a­tion,” said Maria Mar­giotta, exec­ut­ive dir­ector of the Depart­ment of Com­mu­nic­a­tions for the dio­cese.

Gar­ris has been the focus of dozens of law­suits, and some of them name gym teacher Donn Ernst. Gar­ris died in 2016, and Ernst died in 2021. Gar­ris was fired from the school in 1987 after the par­ents of a stu­dent deman­ded he be ter­min­ated after an incid­ent that…

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The public and political conversation is becoming too narrowly delimited to the responsibility of the Church, leaving a broader and more complex inquiry into causes, contexts and shared responsibilities in the background.

In recent weeks, various media outlets in Spain have intensified their criticism of the Catholic Church for its handling of sexual abuse cases, with a particular focus on the issue of victim compensation. According to this narrative, the ecclesiastical institution would not be responding adequately to the demands for reparations, which would justify government intervention to ensure satisfactory settlements.

However, this public debate raises relevant questions in terms of coherence, memory and approach that deserve further analysis.

Is the origin of the problem in the Church?

On the one hand, the historical contrast in the media treatment of certain cultural references is striking. In the 1970s, more than 69 French intellectuals signed a manifesto calling for the decriminalization…

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From missing records to questions about church cooperation, the lead prosecutor reflects on the challenges of convicting Father Gerald Robinson decades later.

Editor’s note: This article is just part of a much larger story. Beginning March 23, you can stream the full documentary on WTOL 11+. The app is free and available on your phone or smart TV, giving you access to exclusive reporting, extended interviews, and the complete investigation.

In the days after Father Gerald Robinson was convicted of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, Dean Mandros finally took a moment to catch his breath and look at his computer at some of the coverage of the case.

For months, he had been inside the prosecutorial bubble, shielded from the global attention on the first U.S. case involving a Catholic priest accused of killing a Catholic nun.

“My eldest daughter walks by my computer screen and sees…

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The attorney who handled Father Gerald Robinson’s appeals points to DNA evidence, a possible alternate suspect and what he believes are flaws in the state’s case.

Editor’s note: This article is just part of a much larger story. Beginning March 23, you can stream the full documentary on WTOL 11+. The app is free and available on your phone or smart TV, giving you access to exclusive reporting, extended interviews, and the complete investigation.

Anyone who has spent any amount of time in Lucas County courtrooms over the past 50 years has seen Richard Kerger.

He’s a regular visitor to those courtrooms.

But the longtime defense attorney did not seek out the Father Gerald Robinson case. The case came to him.

“I had seen John Donahue do an argument in the court of appeals a couple of years earlier, and I was very impressed by him,” Kerger…

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Now a judge, the former defense attorney recalls the pressure, the evidence and why she believed the case against Father Gerald Robinson fell short.

Editor’s note: This article is just part of a much larger story. Beginning March 23, you can stream the full documentary on WTOL 11+. The app is free and available on your phone or smart TV, giving you access to exclusive reporting, extended interviews, and the complete investigation.

Nicole Khoury was 28 years old when the Father Gerald Robinson trial began, young enough to call herself “third chair” without disrespecting herself and experienced enough to know that she had stepped into something enormous. She had already built the outlines of the life Toledo would come to know well: University of Toledo law school graduate, public defender, criminal defense attorney, musician.

Long before she took the bench as a Toledo Municipal Court judge, long…

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A former Lexington pastor has plead guilty to multiple sex crime charges.

Zachary King was arrested in July 2024. His arrest citation said King admitted to having a sexual relationship with a victim over the course of a year and a half, starting when she was 15 years old.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office says King was the executive pastor at LexCity Church. King resigned from his position as pastor after he was confronted by church staff with allegations of an inappropriate relationship, according to the citation.

RELATED

• ‘You can always rely on God’: LexCity Church members look for new place to go
• Lexington church ceasing ministry in wake of former pastor’s arrest

On Monday, King pled guilty to the following charges:

• Rape (first degree)
• Sodomy (first degree)
• Procuring or promoting the use…

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On March 17, the Oklahoma House of Representatives voted unanimously to pass House Bill 4227, a piece of sexual abuse legislation now being referred to as the “Cindy Clemishire Act.”

Cindy Clemishire is an Oklahoma native who was sexually abused as a child by Gateway Church founder Robert Morris back in the 1980s. Clemishire brought public charges against Morris last year for childhood sexual abuse, and in October, he pled guilty to five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child.

The legislation includes a version of “Trey’s Law,” which makes nondisclosure agreements in both past and future settlement agreements related to sexual abuse cases void and unenforceable.

Clemishire says she is glad she never signed a nondisclosure agreement, despite several iterations of agreements presented during frustrating legal exchanges over the years. “Because I refused to sign that NDA at 37, I am able to sit here today at 55 years…

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Editor’s note: This article is just part of a much larger story. Beginning March 23, you can stream the full documentary on WTOL 11+. The app is free and available on your phone or smart TV, giving you access to exclusive reporting, extended interviews, and the complete investigation.

Lee Pahl does not carry many firsthand memories of his aunt, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. She was much older than he was, and by the time he was old enough to remember her clearly, she was more like a revered presence in the family than a familiar daily figure.

But through family stories and documents, he has learned about her immense impact on the community through her more than 50 years of service to the Catholic Church.

“She was a registered nurse. She taught and was a science teacher. She had many supervisory positions in different hospitals over the…

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Chairmen of several U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops committees wrote in a letter to key House lawmakers that they support a bill that would establish an effort to investigate and document the histories and practices of Indian boarding schools, and their long-term effects on Native American peoples. 

“The forced removal of children from their tribal lands and communities as part of federal boarding school policies was a moral failure that disregarded the unique culture and dignity of Indigenous peoples,” stated the letter signed by Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky, chair of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Bishop John T. Folda of Fargo, North Dakota, chair of the Subcommittee on Native American Affairs; Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn, New York, chair of the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church; and Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Richmond, Virginia, chair of the Committee on the Protection of…

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In 2023, following a major television documentary claiming that St. John Paul II had covered up clerical sexual abuse when he was leading the Archdiocese of Kraków, Polish experts rejected the claim and urged that archdiocesan records be opened to allow the full context. 

It took a change in Church leadership in Kraków to open the archives — a move announced by Cardinal Grzegorz Rys on Jan. 30, a little over a month after he was installed in Wawel Royal Cathedral. 

Once the archives had been opened, two investigative journalists gained firsthand access to the files. And after reviewing the material, they headlined their report in the journal Rzeczpospolita: “Cardinal Karol Wojtyla did not cover up cases of pedophilia” in his archdiocese.

What happened in 2023

The opposite headline — “John Paul II knew about the abuse when he was archbishop of Kraków. As a cardinal, he ‘protected the institution first, not the…

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Gallant’s new lawyer told judge the two sides have agreed on proposed time in custody

WARNING: This story contains disturbing descriptions of child sex abuse. Resources and supports for anyone who has experienced sexual violence can be found at the bottom of this story.

A third sentencing date has been set for a P.E.I. Catholic priest, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child in his St. Margarets Parish in the late 1980s, after the first two hearings did not go ahead.

Brendon Earl Gallant, 80, pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault last summer. The court heard the victim was 12-years-old when Gallant took an interest in the child and began inviting him for sleepovers, where he would give the boy alcohol and invite him to sleep in his bed. 

On the day Gallant was scheduled to be sentenced in October, Gallant’s then-lawyer Peter Ghiz told the court…

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Peter Murray, 87, has been living in Canada for more than 50 years

An 87-year-old Alberta man is fighting extradition to the United Kingdom to stand trial for historical allegations of physical and sexual assault involving minors.

Peter Murray of Wetaskiwin, about 70 kilometres south of Edmonton, is accused of assaulting 17 young students at boarding schools between 1965 and 1972, while he was a teacher in Scotland.

He is appealing the decision of the Canadian justice who approved his extradition, according to his defence lawyer.

No charges have been laid; in Scotland, charges are released when an accused appears in court.

The accusations, detailed in Justice T.G. Rothwell’s decision dated Feb. 18, 2026, and stemming from information from Scotland, come from incidents involving a monk named Brother Peter at St Ninian’s List D School and St Joseph’s List D School. Both schools were operated by the De La Salle…

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Lawsuits continue to pile up against a former Paramus Catholic coach accused of sexually abusing dozens of students during his time at the school.

Attorney James Sullivan filed a lawsuit on March 19 on behalf of an anonymous former student, who said he was sexually abused on “numerous occasions” by hockey coach Bernard Garris.

The lawsuit names Paramus Catholic High School, the Archdiocese of Newark and the Christian Brothers, stating they knew about the abuse but failed to stop it.

“We do not comment on matters in litigation,” said Maria Margiotta, executive director of the Department of Communications for the diocese.

Garris has been the focus of dozens of lawsuits, and some of the lawsuits name gym teacher Donn Ernst. Garris died in 2016, and Ernst died in 2021. Garris was fired from the school in 1987 after the parents of a student demanded he be terminated…

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My phone kept going off on Wednesday afternoon with texts from different friends — each wanting to trade thoughts on what felt like the second death of Cesar Chavez. His first death happened on April 23, 1993. He was 66 and died of natural causes. Over 50,000 people attended his funeral in Delano, Calif. And he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.

At that time, I was in elementary school in suburban Chicago, far from California. It was then that I first learned of Chavez and his movement’s hard-fought efforts to secure better wages and improved working conditions for farm workers. As a daughter of janitors and a factory worker, I knew what better pay and the right to a union meant for people like us.

Chávez’s second death landed on Wednesday after a The New York Times investigation revealed he had been View Cache

The Diocese Subpoenaed a Survivor. What That Says About Institutional Reform. You cannot hate Mater Dei High School or the Diocese of Orange enough.

There is a particular kind of audacity that only large institutions seem capable of:

It’s the audacity of an institution that failed to protect children deciding that the real problem is the survivor who spoke about it.

There is something deeply revealing about an institution that once failed to protect children deciding, years later, that the survivor who exposed it deserves the scrutiny.

Recently, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange subpoenaed and deposed me in litigation connected to abuse at Mater Dei High School.

I was not a defendant. I was not accused of wrongdoing. I was not even a party to the case. I am simply a survivor who refuses to stay quiet. Apparently, that was enough.

The Mater Dei Context They’d Rather Forget

When…

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An international media investigation reveals how the Holy See has covered up cases of sexual abuse around the world since at least the 1930s.

The Vatican has covered up thousands of cases of pedophilia in various parts of the world for nearly a century, according to an investigation by the German media outlet. Corrective, in collaboration with The Country and together with the international media The Boston Globefrom the United States, theObserverfrom Portugal andMacondo HouseFrom Colombia, in which they claim that “the Vatican has what is probably the largest archive of unpunished pedophiles in the world.”

This international investigation has managed to gather internal and previously unpublished documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the body that investigates cases of pedophilia affecting members of the Catholic Church, revealing systemic errors and the cover-up of sexual abuse cases. The oldest documents in the investigation, provided by historian Davide F. Jabes, date back…

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The Archdiocese of New Orleans has finalized the sale of Christopher Homes apartments as part of its abuse settlement.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has finalized the sale of Christopher Homes apartments to Tredway, a New York-based developer, according to our partners at the Times Picayune | New Orleans Advocate.

The $152 million deal, which closed Friday, includes 14 complexes housing about 1,600 elderly and disabled residents.

Tredway CEO Will Blodgett told NOLA.com that residents will be able to stay in the apartments. 

The sale is a key part of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy settlement with hundreds of clergy sex abuse survivors. Under the agreement, proceeds from the sale will go toward a $300 million trust for survivors.

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Last month, a prominent Buddhist abbot in Thailand was defrocked after a video of two women physically fighting over him outside his temple went viral.

Soon after, investigators divulged that the abbot of the ancient Wat Bua Kwan temple near Bangkok had maintained long-term relationships with at least six women, regularly sending them explicit messages and spending lavishly on them – for example, paying for their expensive plastic surgeries. Officials are now investigating whether those funds were stolen from his temple.

That incident followed one in late January, when Thai police raided the Phrom Sunthon Monastery in Chonburi province on Thailand’s Gulf coast following complaints that the monks were in possession of drugs and guns. Police found at least one firearm, but also a stash of porn, sex toys and a list of contact details for prostitutes. They arrested four monks, removing them from the temple and banning them from practicing Buddhism….

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In a unanimous and bipartisan vote on Thursday, March 19, the Georgia House Judiciary Committee advanced SB-542, the Clergy Sexual Abuse Accountability Bill, following testimony from survivors, advocates and experts who described the realities of clergy sexual abuse and gaps in Georgia law that allow it to persist.

The proposed legislation aims to criminalize sexual abuse committed by clergy who exploit their position of spiritual authority, particularly in cases involving adult victims.

“This bill addresses an issue we’re all aware of — but that a big part of our community is very uncomfortable discussing.”

Survivors, whistleblowers, expert witnesses and lawmakers offered a consistent and sobering account: Abuse within religious contexts is often not marked by force, but by trust, authority and coercion, and current law does not adequately address these dynamics.

This often leaves victims without a clear path to justice.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Randy Robertson, opened by acknowledging both the…

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A bill aimed at criminalizing clergy sexual abuse in Georgia is headed to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk after passing the state House unanimously Thursday, capping a swift and emotional legislative push driven in part by a Northeast Georgia survivor.

The Georgia House voted 168-0 to approve Senate Bill 542. The measure previously passed the Senate on March 6 by a unanimous 55-0 vote.

Swinson spoke with Now Georgia moments after the vote, still processing the outcome before walking through the Capitol with her team as lawmakers stopped to applaud and thank her — a visible sign of the bipartisan support behind the bill she helped bring to the finish line.

The legislation creates a criminal offense for clergy members who engage in sexual contact with individuals under their pastoral or spiritual authority, removing consent as a defense in cases involving coercion or abuse of power.

‘We see you, we hear…

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• Former Knoxville Bishop Richard Stika’s career was heavily influenced by his mentor, Cardinal Justin Rigali.
• Rigali resigned as cardinal in Philadelphia after a grand jury found he allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to remain in ministry.
• Stika was accused of adopting Rigali’s leadership patterns, including protecting the church over victims and conducting superficial investigations.

Years of deep discord in the Diocese of Knoxville began in St. Louis, the deeply Catholic city where the polarizing former Bishop Richard Stika was born, spent his formative years, returned to after he resigned and died in at the age of 68 in February.

In order to better understand Stika’s rise and spectacular fall as Knoxville’s longest-tenured bishop, Knox News traced his career back to St. Louis, the “Rome of the West,” where Stika’s connections helped put him in position to learn at the feet of one of the most prominent American…

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Decades after the killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, the Ohio SNAP founder believes the Catholic Church continues to fail one of its most devoted servants.

Claudia Vercellotti pops out of an elevator inside Toledo’s Oliver House, lugging an oversized bag of poster boards.

She founded the Ohio chapter of SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – in 2002, giving her plenty of time to add to her collection of boards, which contain images of Catholic Church-related documents.

But she did not initially come to the Father Gerald Robinson case through documents. She came to it as a child riding through Toledo in the 1980s, looking out a car window at Mercy Hospital and knowing that something terrible had happened there.

“When I was a kid in the 80s, I attended the Community of the Risen Christ Church,” she says. “We were the hippie church on wheels.”

…

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11 Investigates began re-examining the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl last year after obtaining the first batch of public records tied to the case. The initial goal was straightforward: May marks 20 years since Father Gerald Robinson was convicted of killing the nun who spent more than 50 years serving the church.

But as often happens in long-buried investigations, the focus shifted.

One piece of communication seemed to open the floodgates for investigating this story from a different angle. We found out the identity of the woman who approached the Toledo Diocese’s review board in June 2003. This was a review board set up after the Dallas Charter was established in 2002. It was the Catholic Church’s attempt to handle abuse claims that were snowballing after the release of the Boston Globe’s investigation into sexual abuse by priests in the Boston Diocese. The series…

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46 years after a nun was killed inside Mercy Hospital’s chapel, the case still shapes Toledo’s reckoning with its past.

On a cool, sunny February morning, Claudia Vercellotti and Lee Pahl walk side by side down North St. Clair Street, past the brick walls of Fifth Third Field, home of the Toledo Mud Hens. They stop at a street sign.

It reads: Msgr Jerome Schmit Way.

For Vercellotti, the founder of Ohio’s Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the sign is a provocation. For Lee Pahl, whose aunt was murdered more than four decades ago, it is something closer to a wound that never closes. Monsignor Jerome Schmit, revered by many for his decades of service to the Toledo Diocese and his prominent role with the Catholic Youth Organization, is remembered very differently by those who know what happened in a hospital sacristy in 1980.

“Toledo has…

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Judge orders all creditors must vote in favor of removing some entities from liability

The judge in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese bankruptcy case recently ordered creditors to opt-in to allow some of the diocese’s entities to be released from liability. One lawyer says that could prove to be a challenge.

Attorney Steve Boyd represents some of the abuse victims in the case. He says he advocated for an opt-out, like in Rochester and Syracuse. “The US Trustee in all of those cases advocated for an opt-in plan, where everyone must vote or the plan could fail and judge Bucki in Buffalo ruled that this must be an op- in plan, so it makes it more difficult to settle the case,” says Boyd. he says it puts a big challenge in front of him, but he believes most of the attorneys involved in both the church side and the survivor side…

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Key Points

• Father Laurence LaPointe has been placed on leave from his Connecticut parish following an abuse allegation from the 1970s.
• LaPointe was also recently indicted in Maryland for alleged misconduct dating back to the same decade.
• The Diocese of Norwich removed LaPointe as a precautionary measure while investigations continue.
• LaPointe has denied the allegations and is presumed innocent until legal proceedings conclude.

Father Laurence LaPointe, pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Willimantic, has been placed on leave following an allegation of abuse of a minor in Connecticut in the early 1970s. 

The Diocese of Norwich said the decision to place LaPointe on leave was made after a referral and investigation by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. LaPointe has been placed on leave from all ministry pending further review. 

After LaPointe was placed on leave on March 6, the Diocese learned on March 11 that LaPointe was recently…

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Labor rights leader Dolores Huerta says she was sexually abused by César Chavez amid reported allegations of abuse by others during his tenure as president of The United Farm Workers union.

In a statement released Wednesday, Huerta said she stayed silent for 60 years out of concern that her words would hurt the farmworker movement.

Huerta described two sexual encounters with Chavez, one where she was “manipulated and pressured” and another where she was “forced against my will.”

“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was life’s work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights and I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way.”

Earlier Wednesday, an investigation by the New York Times found that Chavez, who died in 1993 at the age of 66 in…

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As a child in Arizona, I grew up hearing Cesar Chavez’s name. Schools, streets, plazas and parks are named after him in this state, and we learned about his movement in school. Chavez was born in Yuma, Ariz., and died not far from it in San Luis.

Years later, I visited the old United Farm Workers headquarters while reporting on the first Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns. In some ways, it felt like I was visiting a pilgrimage site. Chavez was Catholic, and beginning in the 1960s, Catholic leaders walked shoulder to shoulder with him in advocating for workers’ rights. In 1988 he fasted for 36 days to call attention to deadly toxins used in the fields of California.

“Do you think the church will ever recognize Cesar as a saint?” I asked a friend who had worked with the civil rights leader for a decade.

He grimaced. No, he said,…

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Disputes over amount, insurance liability amount could add $90 million or more to final payouts

The dueling settlement offers from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and the hundreds of East Bay parishioners who say they were raped and abused by its priests are still separated by at least $90 million — and possibly tens of millions more, court records show.

The chasm shows the work that remains to resolve nearly 350 lawsuits from people who say they were molested as children by church leaders and ordered by their alleged abusers to keep quiet. It comes just weeks ahead of a trial that is among a handful being moved forward as tests, which could provide new clarity on the diocese’s potential liability.

A committee representing those abuse victims recently filed court papers demanding $314.1 million over the course of three and a half years from the diocese and a related corporation…

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El Paso Catholic Diocese officials confirmed more than 30 years ago that a priest sexually abused Isaac Melendrez Jr. and others boys, but never shared findings with him, or offered him help. Now, he’s speaking out.

In 1981, 14-year-old Isaac Melendrez Jr. was sexually abused by a man he now refers to as “a monster” – his parish priest in Doña Ana, New Mexico.

The boy told his mother, who didn’t take any action and later sent him on out-of-town trips with the priest. He said he told a Catholic Church official in Las Cruces in 1982, then never heard back. In 1985, El Paso’s bishop sent the priest to a California facility that diagnosed and treated clergy for sexual misconduct and other mental health disorders. In 1994, officials in the El Paso diocese interviewed Melendrez and other abuse victims and found that the priest’s actions were “consistent with the…

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A youth minister with Mark Barclay Ministries and son-in-law of the organization’s founder is returning to prison for sexually assaulting a child. It’s a place he has called home on two prior occasions, once for the gang-rape of another minor he preyed upon.

He is the third member of a trinity within the organization to be imprisoned in the last two years for sex crimes, following a father and son duo.

James P. Randolph appeared before Midland County Circuit Judge Michael J. Beale for sentencing on Thursday, March 19, coincidentally his 60th birthday. A seven-day trial in August ended with jurors convicting Randolph of two counts of first- and four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Randolph’s father-in-law, televangelist Mark T. Barclay, was not present in the packed courtroom. His namesake ministries and Living Word Church, 2010 N. Stark Road in Midland County’s Lincoln Township,  View Cache

Rhode Island’s Catholic bishop recently expressed sadness and shame for decades of  priests who raped hundreds of children. He also said the Church has improved. His diocesan office, however, portrayed Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s report—a report that exposed all this—as “needless.” I disagree. Neronha’s report wasn’t “needless.” It was very much needed—and long overdue.

Attorney General Neronha recently released an important exposé of how at least 72 Rhode Island priests or deacons molested more than 300 children over the past several decades. How Church officials shuffled known child-raping priests to new churches, without warning their congregations. How the Church protected such priests from the law. And how the Church ignored or downplayed this for years—until facing litigation. How—when facing major litigation—former Bishop Tobin agreed to produce files and assist investigations. But how his diocese then obstructed interviews, destroyed some records, and tried to undercut the credibility of some…

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Missing records, limited cooperation and repeated declined interviews leave questions about the Diocese’s role in Father Robinson’s case.

Editor’s note: This article is just part of a much larger story. Beginning March 23, you can stream the full documentary on WTOL 11+. The app is free and available on your phone or smart TV, giving you access to exclusive reporting, extended interviews, and the complete investigation.

11 Investigates began re-examining the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl last year after obtaining the first batch of public records tied to the case. The initial goal was straightforward: May marks 20 years since Father Gerald Robinson was convicted of killing the nun who spent more than 50 years serving the church.

But as often happens in long-buried investigations, the focus shifted.

One piece of communication seemed to open the floodgates for investigating this story from a different…

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The longtime religion reporter recalls the moment the story broke, the national attention that followed and why he ultimately believes the jury got it right.

Editor’s note: This article is just part of a much larger story. Beginning March 23, you can stream the full documentary on WTOL 11+. The app is free and available on your phone or smart TV, giving you access to exclusive reporting, extended interviews, and the complete investigation.

David Yonke spent decades covering religion for The Blade, but none of that experience prepared him for the moment a colleague walked up to him in the newsroom in 2004 with a career-defining tip.

“I was sitting in my cubicle,” Yonke says. “Chris Hall came up, and she was the police reporter. And she asked me if I knew anything about a Father Gerald Robinson.”

Yonke barely did.

“I knew he served the Polish…

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Newly revealed sexual abuse and assault allegations against the late civil rights leader César Chávez reignite a call for the Church to “honor our stories,” a Latino clergy sex abuse survivor, who as a teenager met Chávez several times, told OSV News.

Chávez, who died in 1993 at age 66, left an imprint on Catholic social justice efforts in the U.S. — speaking openly about his faith, partnering with the nation’s Catholic bishops to support farmworkers, and even being floated by some Catholics as a possible saint. 

But with recent disclosures that Chávez sexually abused several women and girls amid that work, several survivors and advocates have said the Church must hold accountable prominent Catholic leaders — even if they are not directly employed or overseen by Church officials.

Abuse survivors find recent reports “profoundly triggering and painful”

The recent reports about Chávez have been “profoundly triggering and painful for me,”…

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A sexual assault survivor faced a former pastor in court Thursday before the judge handed down his sentence for first degree criminal sexual conduct.

James Randolph, the former leader of the Living Word Church in Midland, was convicted last August of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and other criminal charges.

The survivor of Randolph told the court in her victim impact statement that she will not allow Randolph’s actions, or lack of accountability, to re-traumatize her or hold power over her life any longer.

“When I was in the 6th grade, James Randolph begins sexually assaulting me in the middle of the night,” said the survivor.

The survivor said she lived with Randolph when she was a child.

“What started as abuse quickly escalated, becoming more severe over time,” said the survivor. “This continued for years. Each night, each incident, took something from me, my innocence, my sense of safety, and…

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This release was originally published on 4 February 2026.

Former Pastor Walter Chahwanda was today (20 March 2026) at Liverpool Crown Court given a 14-year sentence after being found guilty of seventeen offences, including sexual offences, against young girls.

He will serve nine years in prison and five years on extended licence.

Aaron Smith, a specialist prosecutor with CPS Mersey Cheshire Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) unit, said: “The Crown Prosecution Service welcomes the sentence handed out to Walter Chahwanda today.

“Chahwanda abused the trust placed in him as a pastor to target and harm young women and children.

“Their courage in coming forward has ensured he is now a convicted sex offender who will spend many years in prison.

“We hope it offers some reassurance as they continue to rebuild their lives.

“The CPS successfully applied to the court for restraining orders to prevent him ever contacting any…

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Selvin Bonilla Navarrete, of Westbury, was a church choir director at Iglesia Pentecostal Jesus Es at the time of the incident on Jan. 4.

A 43-year-old man accused of inappropriately touching a teen girl in East Meadow was arrested on Friday.

Selvin Bonilla Navarrete, of Westbury, was a church choir director at Iglesia Pentecostal Jesus Es at the time of the incident on Jan. 4.

Police say he drove the 14-year-old victim to parking lot at 1847 Front St. that afternoon and proceeded to touch her.

Navarrete has since been charged with sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

He is set to be arraigned Saturday at First District Court in Hempstead.

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A Catholic priest with ties to Southwest Louisiana has been arraigned for child sex abuse charges in Acadia Parish.

Previous coverage:

• Catholic priest with SWLA ties formally charged with child sex crimes in Acadia Parish
• Acadia Parish priest with SWLA ties arrested on child sex charges

Korey Lavergne was set to be arraigned today for the charges, but his attorney Stephen Stockstill filed a written plea of not guilty on his behalf, according to the Acadia Parish Clerk of Court.

Lavergne served at St. Edward Catholic Church and St. Thomas Mission Chapel in Acadia Parish. In early March, he was named in a Bill of Information, accused of three felony counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile.

The bill states he’s accused of committing “lewd or lascivious acts upon a juvenile” who was 15 years old on Jan. 1,…

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A Roman Catholic priest has been warned he faces jail after being convicted of sexually assaulting a man in the house at his church.

Father Stephen Baillie, who was the parish priest at St Joseph’s Church in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, abused his victim after they had been on a night out together.

Baillie, who has been a priest for 36 years, denied the single charge against him.

But he was convicted by a jury at Paisley Sheriff Court and warned he faces jail when sentenced next month. The Diocese of Paisley said Baillie has now been removed as a parish priest.

Baillie was released on bail until sentencing.

The sheriff said he was “duty bound” to obtain background reports because Baillie was a first offender and warned that the normal term for such an offence was a “pretty lengthy” term of imprisonment.

Sheriff McGinty said he would allow Baillie to…

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A Roman Catholic priest in the south-west Louisiana diocese, where the US church’s clergy abuse scandal effectively started decades ago, has been formally charged with three counts of felony indecent behavior with a juvenile.

A bill of information from the district attorney for Acadia Parish charges 37-year-old Korey LaVergne with three counts of felony indecent behavior with a juvenile who was 15 at the time of the alleged offenses.

Court documents charge LaVergne with “willfully, unlawfully, knowingly and intentionally [committing] lewd or lascivious acts upon [the] juvenile” – or in the presence of the minor – on or about 1 January 2024. The charges contend that LaVergne had the “intention of arousing or gratifying the sexual desires of either person”.

A document dated 11 March filed by LaVergne’s attorneys state that the clergyman opted to waive his formal arraignment and in writing, pleaded not guilty to the charges outlined in the bill…

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A representative of Lithuania’s government has demanded that Vilnius district municipality, which is located around the country’s capital, change the names of streets that continue to honour Polish Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz despite him being sanctioned by the Vatican following sexual abuse allegations.

However, the local council, which is controlled by representatives of Lithuania’s ethnic Polish community and which has already refused twice to strip Gulbinowicz of his honours, has argued there is no clear evidence of wrongdoing and that the cardinal died before he had an opportunity to defend himself.

Gulbinowicz, who served as Catholic bishop of the Polish city of Wrocław between 1976 and 2004, was in 2019 accused of both covering up cases of child sexual abuse by a priest under his authority and of carrying out abuse himself.

In 2020, the Vatican announced that, following an investigation into the accusations against Gulbinowicz, it was imposing sanctions on…

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“We’re catching the law up to the times,” Chief Deputy Attorney General Larry Frieman said.

Two bills moving through the Louisiana Legislature aim to crack down on the growing problem of artificial intelligence being used to create explicit images of children.

The proposals come after an incident WWL Louisiana extensively covered year in Lafourche Parish that drew statewide attention and exposed gaps in current laws surrounding AI-generated content.

School incident sparked legislative push

The issue gained attention after an incident at Sixth Ward Middle School in Thibodaux. A girl was expelled after allegedly hitting a boy on a school bus. According to reports, the boy and other students allegedly been showing classmates AI-generated nude images depicting several girls from the school and even some adults.

Two boys were eventually charged with unlawful dissemination of images created by artificial intelligence.

The case shocked many lawmakers and highlighted how quickly technology is advancing…

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The long-celebrated champion of farm workers, who died in 1993, has been accused of “abusing girls for years,” according to the New York Times

An annual Mass in the nation’s largest Catholic diocese honoring legendary labor leader Cesar Chavez will not take place this year after a bombshell report alleged that the activist sexually abused multiple girls at the height of his popularity decades ago.

The explosive allegations came on March 18 in an investigation by the New York Times, one that alleged that Chavez abused multiple young girls in a “pattern” of sexual misconduct for years.

The revelations sent numerous organizations scrambling to distance themselves from Chavez, who has loomed large in U.S. politics for decades, including being honored by President Joe Biden with a bust in the Oval Office during his administration.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said it would not be holding its regular…

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The enormity of the serious allegations of sexual abuse against United Farm Workers co-founder César Chavez is not lost on American Catholics committed to social justice. Along with members of the Kennedy family and Dorothy Day, Chavez was among an elite pantheon of U.S. Catholics who loom largest in our public life and memory. Now, with allegations that Chavez sexually abused at least two teenage girls, as well as UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta, another larger-than-life Catholic folk hero comes crashing down, leaving some Catholics to wonder, was Chavez’s prophetic work all a lie?

I was inspired by how visibly Chavez used his Catholic faith and practice in his organizing — invoking the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe, hosting Masses, and breaking one of his rigorous hunger strikes alongside Robert Kennedy in 1968. I was particularly drawn to Day’s recounting of her time in Fresno County jail alongside UFW strikers….

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Charles Sulivant abused girls at a Shawnee, Oklahoma church where he was a board member.

A former board member of a Church of the Nazarene in Shawnee, Oklahoma has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing girls at the church. Charles Sulivant entered a blind guilty plea to the charges and will serve over two decades behind bars.

Why it matters

This case highlights the ongoing issue of sexual abuse within religious institutions and the importance of accountability for those in positions of power who betray the trust of vulnerable members of their community.

The details

Sulivant, who was a board member at the Shawnee church, admitted to sexually abusing multiple young girls who attended the church. He entered a blind guilty plea, meaning he did not negotiate a deal with prosecutors, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

• Sulivant was sentenced on March 17,…

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Michael Martin, 74, faces felony count of lewd molestation in Sequoyah County District Court

A Vian pastor charged in 2025 with a felony count of lewd molestation in Sequoyah County District Court is now scheduled to appear before Special Judge Matt Orendorff, according to court records. Michael Martin, 74, pastor of Vian Baptist Church, was formally charged on Nov. 13, 2025, and a felony warrant was issued for his arrest the same day.

Why it matters

The case raises serious concerns about the alleged abuse of a minor by a trusted community religious leader, and the potential impact on the congregation and broader community. It also highlights the importance of thorough investigations and due process in sensitive cases involving vulnerable individuals.

The details

According to the probable cause affidavit, Vian Police received a report on Sept. 22 that Martin allegedly touched a minor under the age of 16 in an…

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Turning the page on Lepore: High Court opens door to liability for non-delegable duties to encompass intentional criminal acts

On 11 February 2026, the High Court of Australia delivered its judgment in AA v The Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle [2026] HCA 2 which considered whether a Catholic Diocese owed a non-delegable duty of care to a child parishioner who was sexually abused by a priest in 1969, and, if so, whether that duty extended to intentional criminal acts. The High Court allowed the appeal, restored the trial judgment in favour of the appellant on liability and reduced damages to reflect the statutory caps under the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW).

Background to the AA decision

The Appellant (AA) was sexually abused in 1969 by Father Ronald Pickin, a priest of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. The abuse occurred in the Presbytery of St Patrick’s…

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March 16, 2026

The Honorable Tom Cole
United States House of Representatives 
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Sharice Davids
United States House of Representatives 
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Cole and Ms. Davids: 

As chairmen of several U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) committees, we write in support of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (H.R. 7325). We urge the House to advance this important legislation. 

In July 2024, our predecessors wrote to Congress stating “unequivocally that the tragic history of the boarding school period should be brought to light in order to pave the way for healing of impacted Indigenous communities” and that “[w]e are committed to concrete actions to restore trust and cultivate healing and the reconciliation that the Church desires.”

In that letter, two points were raised for consideration regarding the structure of the previous version of the legislation. We appreciate your efforts to incorporate that feedback,…

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Ann Rodriquez was looking for a boarding school for her daughter — and in August 2018, she asked Jeffrey Epstein for help.

In an email dated Aug. 7, 2018, Rodriquez — described in the Epstein files as his “island manager” — sent her boss a list of five schools and asked him to weigh in on placing her teenage daughter.

Wedged between options in Orlando and San Diego was one name far from either coast: Wings of Faith Academy, a private Christian boarding school for “troubled girls” in southwest Missouri.

Epstein replied with a quick directive: “check them out, with comments etc. lakeland. orlando missour . first ?”

Rodriquez ultimately chose Piney Woods School for Girls in Mississippi, but Wings of Faith’s appearance in Epstein’s correspondence draws new attention to a Missouri network of faith-based residential boarding schools which have faced years of abuse allegations and prompted lawmakers to adopt…

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The multi-agency law enforcement operation that shut down a stretch of U.S. Highway 31 in Hoover on Monday was tied to the search for a man accused of first-degree rape in Tuscaloosa County, authorities said.

The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit confirmed the suspect as Thomas Raburn Farris of Leeds, who was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Apprehension Task Force.

Farris is charged with first-degree rape in a case involving a juvenile victim, according to court records. Investigators allege the assault occurred in 2020 in an outdoor playhouse/shed. The victim later gave birth to a child in Feb. 2021, and DNA testing determined Farris was the father, the documents state.

Court records show Farris was arrested in 2022 and released on a $35,000 bond. A judge revoked his bond on Jan. 14, 2026, after failure to appear. The U.S. Marshals Service began searching…

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The Vatican’s top diplomat to the United Nations called for a “holistic approach” in securing access to justice for women and girls.

“Ensuring access to justice for women and girls requires more than just formal legal protections. It also involves addressing the root causes that put them at risk, prevent them from seeking justice and ultimately undermine their God-given human dignity,” said Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N.

The archbishop, recently named papal nuncio to the U.S., spoke March 17 during the U.N.’s 70th Commission on the Status of Women.

Archbishop Caccia cites poverty as a roadblock to justice for women

He cited “poverty and its consequences” as posing “significant barriers to accessing justice.”

Impoverished women and girls “often lack the resources to secure legal representation,” he said, noting that “many legal aid organizations are inadequately resourced and overwhelmed.”

In rural areas, the lack of…

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Labor rights activist Dolores Huerta revealed she was among women and girls who say they were sexually abused by César Chavez, the widely admired Latino icon who brought to light the struggles of farmhands while leading the United Farm Workers union.

The stunning allegations against Chavez, who died more than three decades ago, drew immediate calls to alter memorials honoring the man who in the 1960s helped secure better wages and working conditions for farmworkers and has been long revered by many Democratic leaders in the U.S.

In a statement released Wednesday, Huerta said she stayed silent for 60 years out of concern that her words would hurt the farmworker movement.

Huerta described two sexual encounters with Chavez, one where she was “manipulated and pressured” and another where she was “forced against my will.”

“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker…

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Filmmaker reveals how he crafted a film that’s still ranked among the top Best Picture winners in Oscar history

Ten years ago, Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight emerged from a crowded Best Picture field to score Oscar Night’s biggest prize. A dramatization of how a team of Boston Globe journalists broke the story of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, the film was nominated for six statuettes at the 88th Academy Awards. It ultimately won two: Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture, surpassing fellow luminaries including The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Bridge of Spies. 

Starring Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, and Brian d’Arcy James, and cowritten by Josh Singer, Spotlight is a well-told tale that tackles important and powerful subject matter. It’s also a far from typical Best Picture winner — a dialogue-heavy exhibition of journalistic grunt work without any of the expansive (and expensive) trappings of prestige cinema. To this day, it’s often listed as one of the…

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Abuse of boy happened from age 10 to 12, lawsuit claims

A now-dead Catholic priest is accused of repeated sexual abuse of a boy in a rural Manitoba community in a lawsuit filed in the Court of King’s Bench in Winnipeg.

A statement of claim was filed March 6 against the estate of Father Eugene Verhulst and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Winnipeg.

The 47-year-old plaintiff alleges in the statement of claim that he endured inappropriate touching by Verhulst and was made to perform oral and anal sex from approximately age 10 to 12.

The alleged abuse happened in various places, including the back room of Ste-Claire’s Church in San Clara, a community about 30 kilometres north of Roblin, near the Saskatchewan border.

While getting ready for mass, Verhulst would make the boy sit on his knee so he could fix his hair, then rub his leg and crotch, the lawsuit claims.

In his study,…

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Leaders of The Ramp, a church based in Hamilton, issued a public statement addressing allegations of past misconduct involving a former staff member, saying the matter has been reported to authorities and is under investigation.

The Ramp describes itself on its website as, “The Ramp is a global ministry with a passion and mission to awaken a generation, equip them for their purpose, and send them out to change their world.”

According to the statement, an individual recently came forward alleging they experienced inappropriate sexual contact by a staff member approximately four years ago, when they were a minor. The church identified the staff member as Samuel Bentley.

Church leadership said the allegation was discussed with Bentley, who admitted to the claim. He was subsequently terminated from his position, and the organization’s board of directors was notified. The matter was also reported to appropriate authorities.

A few days later, Bentley…

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You probably remember the awful Ohio priest who repeatedly stabbed an elderly nun. Back in 2006, the case got a lot of attention.

But it’s about SO much more than just a heinous murder.

In this new investigation, learn about the heinous cover up too. One Catholic official who helped the killer escape justice is STILL being honored today!

This new short documentary can be streamed March 23. Please spread the word!

Here’s how to watch it:

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZThKE1tnV/

And here’s more about the whole horrific saga:

Fr. Gerald J. Robinson

(Thanks to two key courageous individuals – Claudia Vercellotti and Lee Pahl – who have done and are doing so much to honor Sr. Margaret Ann and protect the vulnerable. If not for their persistence, this remarkably brutal crime and remarkably effective cover up might not have ever been exposed.)

Again, I’d be very grateful if you…

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A Catholic pastor in Willimantic has been put on leave amid accusations of child sex abuse.

The allegations date back decades in Maryland, as well as an abuse investigation by the Department of Children and Families (DCF) in Connecticut.

Corpus Christi Parish is part of the Diocese of Norwich, which itself declared bankruptcy following about 150 survivors of alleged abuse filing a lawsuit.

On Monday, parishioners arrived at Saint Mary Church in Willimantic after the Diocese of Norwich placed Father Laurence LaPointe on leave.

The diocese says he was put on leave earlier this month after DCF presented its findings concerning an allegation of abuse of a child in the state in the 1970s.

Last week, the diocese said it learned LaPointe was indicted in Maryland in connection with alleged misconduct also in the 70s.

According to Maryland court records, he faces a third-degree sex offense charge with someone under…

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When a child sexual abuse scandal breaks, the public response is predictable: shock, outrage, promises of reform. But in the months and years that follow, institutions often evade accountability. They lawyer up. Records stay hidden. Survivors who finally come forward are silenced by the legal system itself. 

Powerful institutions — from churches and youth organizations to schools and hospitals — are using bankruptcy laws to escape punishment for ignoring or covering up child sexual abuse. The authors of these statutes never anticipated this kind of abuse of the system. Congress must update our bankruptcy laws to close this loophole.

Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code was designed to help honest businesses that are unable to pay back their debts. It allows companies and other institutions to keep operating while they restructure their obligations and negotiate with creditors. 

But to provide that stability, Chapter 11 gives organizations…

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Protestant bishop orders CCTV monitoring of all pastoral counselling in a Church of South India diocese

A Protestant bishop in the southern Indian Kerala state has directed all his priests to conduct their pastoral counseling sessions under camera surveillance following the arrest of a pastor accused of assaulting a 19-year-old girl who had approached him for counseling.

Bishop Malayil Sabu Koshy Cherian of the Church of South India’s Madhya (Central) Kerala diocese issued the direction after police arrested Father Santosh Mathew, vicar of the Church in Idukki district, on March 15.

The 53-year-old pastor had been absconding ever since the victim’s family complained to police of sexual assault against him last month.

A police team tracked Mathew to the Catholic Marian pilgrimage center in Velankanni in neighboring Tamil Nadu. A court in Kerala remanded him to 14-day judicial custody.

According to the police complaint, the crime took place on Feb. 7 when…

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The Vatican appeals tribunal declared a mistrial Tuesday in the Holy See’s big “trial of the century,” a stunning blow to both Pope Francis’ legacy and Vatican prosecutors who had put a cardinal and several other people on trial over alleged financial crimes.

In a 16-page ruling, the appeals court ruled that Francis and Vatican prosecutors both made procedural errors that nullified the original indictment against Cardinal Angelo Becciu and the others and required a new trial. The court set a June 22 as the date for the new trial to begin.

Defense lawyers said such a ruling was significant if not historic, since it amounted to a Vatican court declaring that an act of the pope had no effect.

The ruling was a win for the defense and a huge setback to Vatican prosecutors, who have been scrambling to salvage their case. The prosecution and 2023 convictions against Becciu and…

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The Seattle Times headline “Seattle Archdiocese must hand over sex abuse records, WA court rules” (March 3, Local News) was music to my ears. As a clergy abuse survivor from age 7 and a lifelong activist, I know how important releasing the files can be.

Our stories are our lives and our truth. They are the light that shines in the darkness of secret, locked Church files. I have worked with many advocates and volunteers for this day when our stories are freed to provide needed information for hundreds of survivors to receive long-awaited justice and recompense for horrendous crimes committed against them.

Gov. Bob Ferguson said this ruling is a win for transparency. I add it’s a win for all of us. Our children are safer. Survivors’ stories are honored. Denied justice is possible. Survivors can see the light of day. And maybe, just maybe, the Catholic Church…

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Supporters say the bill would expand placement options for children in state custody, while critics worry it could shelter bad actors after years of abuse allegations at unlicensed boarding schools

When Ashlea Belcher looks back on her conversations with young people about Agape Boarding School and Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch, “what set those cases apart was not chaos,” she said. “It was the structure.”

Belcher, a former forensic interviewer and now director of the Children’s Center of Southwest Missouri, said young people who attended the two unlicensed Christian boarding schools described being pinned down using pressure points by their peers as staff members watched, food being withheld as punishment and meals rationed according to the color of their shirts. Brown shirts, she said, meant cold canned beans.

She told lawmakers last month that this abuse was possible because the young people were isolated.

“These were consistent, detailed disclosures given…

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A Missouri United Methodist pastor with previous ties to two metro churches has been suspended from clergy duties after church leaders learned she previously worked for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Missouri Conference of The United Methodist Church announced March 12 that the Rev. Stephanie Remington has been placed on a 90-day suspension while an internal review is conducted.

Church leaders said they recently became aware that Remington had a working relationship with Epstein between 2018 and 2019.

According to United Methodist News, Remington worked as an administrative assistant from August to December 2018 and later as a temporary property manager on Epstein’s private island from January to May 2019.

The conference said it had no prior knowledge of that employment.

“The Missouri Conference had no knowledge of the individual’s association with Mr. Epstein,” the conference said in a statement. “No information indicating…

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The Diocese of Norwich has placed a Willimantic priest on leave following claims in Connecticut and an indictment in Maryland regarding decades-old abuse, church officials said. 

The Rev. Laurence LaPointe, pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Willimantic, has been placed on leave from all ministry regarding the church and cannot live at the residence on church property pending a review of the allegations, according to a news release issued by the diocese. 

According to the Maryland indictment, which was issued on Feb. 24, the 81-year-old LaPointe is accused of sexual contact with a child who was under the age of 14 between July 1976 and May 1977. LaPointe is also accused of abusing the same victim while the child was under his supervision from July 1975 to July 1977, the indictment said. He is charged by Maryland authorities with third-degree sexual assault and causing abuse to a child under the…

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A Kansas bill that would make clergy or pastors mandatory reporters of child abuse is expected to fail in Senate committee.

Supporters of the bill in both parties said they’re disappointed. The bill passed out of the House several weeks ago with only five ‘no’ votes.This is farther than the bill has gone before, but it stalled after being assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Lawmakers say there is opposition to the bill in the Senate on religious grounds, even after an exemption was written in for private confession. They also say it’s common for bills to stall like this, and they hope to get the bill assigned to a different committee next year.

“It’s too bad that’s happening, but it happens all the time in the state house. One chamber supports something then the other doesn’t, so it doesn’t surprise me in that sense. It’s disappointing, I think this is a…

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After Hermina Nedelescu settled in San Diego in 2016, the neuroscientist found comfort and familiarity in Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church.

The gold-domed church with its colorful sanctuary and polished, stone columns reminded her of her native Romania, which she left in 1990 when she was 9 years old. She also respected the church’s leader, Father Michael Sitaras, who turned to her for advice during the pandemic.

A PhD staff scientist with the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, Nedelescu studies abnormal behaviors and brain functions, but was happy to help when COVID-19 had parishioners panicked.

Nedelescu advised Sitaras on things like wearing masks and the COVID vaccines. Over time they became close and when the pandemic ended, she continued working with him on advancing the role of women within the patriarchal culture of the Greek Orthodox church.

That’s when she says her life and research interests changed,…

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Father Laurence LaPointe, pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Willimantic, was placed on administrative leave March 6 by the Diocese of Norwich following an investigation by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families into an allegation of abuse of a minor in Connecticut in the early 1970s.

The Diocese learned last week that LaPointe had also been indicted in Maryland on charges of committing a sex offense with someone under the age of 14 and causing abuse to a child under 18. Both alleged offenses date to the mid-1970s.

Corpus Christi Parish is made up of three churches: Saint Mary, Saint Joseph and Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, all in Willimantic.

Diocese of Norwich Bishop Richard Reidy said in a statement: “The seriousness of the allegations necessitated his removal from ministry as a precautionary measure while the investigations and legal proceedings continue.”

The Diocese said it has a zero-tolerance policy for…

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Pope Leo XIV held a private audience with investigative journalist Gareth Gore at the Vatican on Monday, according to a Substack post from Gore. Gore said the two spoke for more than 40 minutes, during which Gore highlighted allegations that the Opus Dei global Catholic organization was involved in widespread sexual grooming and trafficking. Gore authored a book, Opus, published in 2025, accusing the organization of those crimes and others, including financial misconduct. Opus Dei denied those claims.

The pope described Gore’s book as rigorous and they ended the meeting on good terms, Gore said. The Vatican had not issued a statement on the meeting as of Monday afternoon. The late Pope Francis in 2022 ordered Opus Dei to make some changes to its organizational structure and submit annual reports on its work, but he did not address sexual abuse allegations…

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Leo addressed the topic in a March 16 audience with members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged the Church to listen to victims of sexual abuse, and called for the recognition of the pain caused and for the creation of “a culture of care.”

“It is about helping to form, throughout the Church, a culture of care, in which the protection of minors and persons in vulnerable situations is not seen as an obligation imposed from outside but as a natural expression of faith,” the pope said in an audience with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) on March 16.

He added that it calls “for a process of conversion where the sufferings of others are heard and move us to take action.”

Leo noted that the experiences of victims and survivors are “essential reference points,” adding that…

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Two witnesses in the case raised new allegations of sexual misconduct by the cardinal.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet took the witness stand in a Montreal court this month to reject claims of sexual assault.

While the case involves allegations from one woman, two witnesses in the case raised new allegations of sexual misconduct by the cardinal, including the claim that he once shoved his hand down a woman’s shirt without her consent.

Ouellet emphatically denied any sexual misconduct.

The case, currently being heard before the Superior Court of Quebec, is a defamation suit filed by Ouellet against the woman who initially alleged that he had assaulted her. Her allegations were first made public in a class-action lawsuit against the Quebec archdiocese.

What were the initial allegations?

In 2022, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the Archdiocese of Quebec, including 101 individuals saying they had been sexually abused by priests or employees…

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A former associate pastor and youth pastor was sentenced last month after pleading guilty to one count of indecent behavior with a juvenile.

Michael Ross McGrath, 45, was arrested in February 2024 on seven counts of the same charge.

The crime occurred in May 2013, when McGrath served as youth minister at Open Door Fellowship in Coushatta, La. In 2015, he joined the staff of First Baptist Natchitoches, La., where he served until the incident came to light in 2023. McGrath also served as a children’s and youth minister at First Baptist Coushatta, La., in the early 2000s.

“After learning of the investigation being conducted on him, [McGrath] submitted his resignation,” FBC Natchitoches said in a statement. “The resignation was received and immediately shared with church leadership. He is no longer employed by First Baptist Church of Natchitoches.

Open Door Fellowship Pastor Thumper Miller told Baptist Press no one at…

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 Pope Leo XIV indicated growing concern Monday with the next frontier in combatting abuses in the Catholic Church, highlighting the plight of “vulnerable” adults and meeting with an investigative journalist who uncovered alleged abuses in the powerful Opus Dei movement.

Leo held two high-profile, back-to-back audiences Monday focused on abuse: One with the Vatican’s child protection board, which advises the church on sexual abuse prevention strategies, and one with Gareth Gore, author of the book “Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking and Right-Wing Conspiracy Inside the Catholic Church.”

The American pope clearly wanted the Gore audience publicized. It was listed on his formal agenda and the Vatican released photos of the encounter.

Speaking to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Leo seemed keenly aware that the #MeToo movement had unleashed revelations around the world of abuses committed against adults in vulnerable situations within the church.

They…

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A man previously charged with sexual assault while serving as a principal in Zion, Illinois, in 2019 is wanted in another sexual assault in Kenosha, Wisconsin. 

Kenosha said they were first notified of the alleged sex assault on Feb. 21. Police said they have probable cause to arrest Curtiss W. Tolefree Jr. for second-degree assault and are asking for the public’s help locating him. 

He is accused of having sexual contact with a “person who suffers from a mental illness or deficiency.”

Tolefree is described as a Black male, approximately 6 ft. tall, about 245 lbs., who is bald with brown eyes. Police said he is a resident of Kenosha and has ties to the community there.

Anyone with information about Tolefree is asked to contact the Kenosha Police Department at 262-605-5269 or 911. 

Elementary school teacher charged with sexual assault

In 2019, Tolefree was…

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A former Kenosha Unified principal who beat sexual assault charges that were filed against him in 2019 is being sought in connection with new allegations. 

Kenosha Police said Friday that investigators have established “probable cause” to arrest Curtiss Tolefree Jr. for Second Degree Sexual Assault, “specifically sexual contact or sexual intercourse with a person who suffers from a mental illness or deficiency.”

Police declined to comment on whether the purported victim has connections to the Greater Mt. Hebron Kingdom Cathedral, the Kenosha church at 7445 20th Ave. that Tolefree leads.

In 2019, Tolefree was accused of having an ongoing sexual relationship with a student in the 2008-2009 school year while serving as a dean at Bradford High School. He later became principal at Washington Middle School before resigning from the district.

The case dragged on for years before it was eventually dismissed last fall. Court notes indicate that the purported…

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Leaders of the Catholic Church in Washington have made many statements of contrition for the decades when priests’ sexual abuse of children went unexamined and largely unpunished. But if the church truly wanted to atone for those criminal acts — and the lifelong damage they’ve caused parishioners — it would embrace full transparency.

That’s the best way to show that this is a new era.

Instead, for more than 20 years, the Archdiocese of Seattle has zealously fought against an independent review of its files, hiding behind claims that opening the records to scrutiny might “re-traumatize” victims.

What likely worries the church more are potential legal costs that could arise. The Archdiocese has already paid over $100 million in settlements, according to attorneys who’ve represented abuse victims in Western Washington, and new revelations could increase that tally.

Yet earlier this month, in a brave and welcome ruling, the Washington State…

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I recently spoke to attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who told me about a disturbing allegation that was made against a well-known priest at St. William’s parish in Dorchester.

[See reel.]

[See Garabedian Law’s post about Fr. Francis J. Crowley.]

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A letter from 14 lay leaders at Paraguayan parish uncovers what lies behind clergy abuse in Latin America and elsewhere.

The same day the letter was signed, Cardinal Adalberto Martínez called to reject abuse while concelebrating a Mass with a priest credibly accused of abuse in Paraguay.

The letter, an oddity in Latin American Catholic contexts bypasses the Paraguayan Catholic hierarchy seeking help in Rome.

For most Latin American Catholics, the very name of Paraguay, the country and the river nursing the capital of Asunción, brings to the memory the episode, brilliantly captured in the 1980s movie The Mission, of the brave resistance of the Guarani communities opposing the Portuguese take over of what were their ancestral boundless lands.

Paraguay remains a bastion of Catholicism in Latin America. When one goes over its numbers is the “most Catholic” country in the region, as the story linked after this paragraph told back…

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A new investigation into sexual abuses in the German Archdiocese of Paderborn has brought to light a much higher number of victims than previously known and has reignited suspicions about the actions of former ecclesiastical leaders. The study, prepared by researchers from the University of Paderborn after nearly six years of work, documents 210 accused clerics and at least 489 victims between 1941 and 2002, double the cases identified in previous studies.

According to the German portal Katholisch.de, the publication of the report has also coincided with the emergence of direct abuse allegations against the late Cardinal Johannes Joachim Degenhardt, who was Archbishop of Paderborn from 1961 to 2002.

A report that doubles the known figures

The academic investigation reveals a much greater dimension of the problem in this German diocese. The historians found 210 indications of accused priests and at least 489 minor victims of sexual assaults during the period…

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For their five-year study, Professor Nicole Priesching and Dr. des. Christine Hartig from the Institute for Catholic Theology at Paderborn University reviewed extensive material and conducted interviews with contemporary witnesses and victims. As an investigation into the history of the church, the study examines the conditions under which priests were able to commit sexual violence, which premises guided the actions of those responsible in the archdiocese, what experiences those affected by sexual violence had in their immediate environment and which factors ultimately led to changes.

The study examines the terms of office of the two archbishops Lorenz Cardinal Jaeger (1941–1973) and Johannes Joachim Cardinal Degenhardt (1974–2002). It thus also includes the period of the sede vacante after Jaeger’s resignation (1973/1974), during which Degenhardt served as capitular vicar (today: diocesan administrator) before he was appointed Archbishop of Paderborn in April 1974.

Funding for the research project was secured through…

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A woman whose partner told her she should forgive his physical, emotional and sexual abuse because “God has forgiven me” has described how spiritual abuse “creeps up on you”.

Grace, not her real name, was subjected to manipulation and abuse by a man she was dating, who used her Catholic faith against her and went on to rape her.

The 51-year-old’s then partner declared his love for her “in front of god” and later suggested forgiveness was “the Christian thing to do”.

It comes as campaigners raise awareness of spiritual abuse – a type of coercive control focused on faith.

The Catholic church said the abuse Grace experienced was “horrific” and it was working to offer more support.

It added the “weaponisation of forgiveness” was something it saw “very often”.

Warning: This story contains distressing content including details of domestic abuse, sexual assault and suicidal thoughts

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Justice minister says inappropriate for her to comment with asked if provincial government is involved

Lawyers who have spent years fighting the Catholic church for compensation for abuse victims in Newfoundland and Labrador are describing an agreement with an unnamed third party as “substantial,” though it could be weeks before details of the settlement are revealed to the public.

“It’s a substantial amount and it’s a significant move,” St. John’s lawyer Bob Buckingham told CBC News on Friday.

So far it’s being described as an “understanding” related to a third party’s liability to the abuse survivors, and it came up during proceedings before Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Garrett Handrigan on Thursday.

There’s no official gag order from the court on identifying the third party, but all sides have informally agreed to disclose very few details, including how much money is on offer.

Justice minister declines comment

In the…

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The El Paso Catholic Church lawsuit involves accusations of priests sexually abusing minors and the Diocese of El Paso failing to protect children. The lawsuits claim the Catholic Diocese of El Paso was aware of the abuse at the time and failed to protect young parishioners from abusive members of the clergy.

The diocese could face a new wave of cases if New Mexico opens up a three-year revival window in 2026 that would allow cases from victims whose statute of limitations have expired to file a claim. Though the diocese is based in Texas, its territory had extended into New Mexico prior to 1982.

This page will cover the current state of the lawsuits against the El Paso Catholic church, the new laws that may expose them to even more lawsuits, and how survivors of sexual abuse can go about filing a claim.

About the El Paso Catholic Church…

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