ABUSE TRACKER

Sklba once called practice of returning abuser priests to ministry an “experiment”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11-21-2024

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced today that Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Richard J. Sklba has died.

Appointed an auxiliary bishop under the leadership of Archbishop Rembert Weakland, Sklba was Weakland’s right-hand man when it came to handling cases of rape and sexual abuse of children in the Milwaukee archdiocese. Weakland referred to Sklba as his “main go-to guy” in cases of sexual abuse in a 2008 desposition.

Thousands of pages of documents related to sexual abuse and its institutional concealment show that Sklba played a central role in transferring dozens of known sex offenders to new parishes without informing congregations, law enforcement, or the public. These documents were released in 2014 as part of the Milwaukee archdiocese’s 2011 bankruptcy.

Under Sklba’s direct oversight, documents show that at least 23 priests with confirmed histories…

CZESTOCHOWA, Poland (OSV News) — Five years after the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church made national headlines in Poland, victims of abuse met with Polish bishops at the fringes of the plenary meeting of the bishops’ conference — the first such official meeting of survivors with the bishops’ body.

“I feel that it was a meeting with a capital ‘M,’ that is, a meeting where both sides are ready to hear each other. We indeed had a sense of being heard,” said a woman known by the pseudonym of Toska Szewczyk, one of the initiators of the meeting. “There were comments from the bishops such as ‘I already understand more why this is so important to you,’ or ‘We have indeed done what we need to do so far, but not necessarily all that we can.’ Apologies were also made several times,” she said.

“Both sides worked very hard”…

Spain’s ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo, urged the state and the Catholic Church to work together to compensate victims of sexual abuse by clergy—something the church hierarchy has so far refused to do.

“I consider it essential that for the sake of the victims [of sexual abuse], the church and the state adopt common commitments,” Ángel Gabilondo, Spain’s ombudsman, said.

Addressing the Congress of Deputies November 21, Gabilondo presented the findings of an independent commission of inquiry into clerical sexual abuse.

The report, coordinated by the Spanish ombudsman, was made public in October 2023. It estimated that 200,000 minors had been victims of sexual assault by Catholic clergy in Spain since 1940, with that figure rising to 400,000 when including assaults by lay workers affiliated with the church.

[Further reading: Catholic bishops in Spain contest figures in sex abuse report]

It is necessary to “prioritize reparations for the victims over any ideological or…

The founders of the Hallow prayer app say their advertising relationship with controversial actor Russell Brand is meant to invite non-Catholics to an experience of prayer — and that if the actor is charged with sexual assault, the company will reevaluate its advertisements on his podcast. 

Brand, 49, is a British actor, podcast host, and media personality who has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and physical and emotional abuse, for alleged acts said to have taken place between 2006 and 2013. Brand denies the allegations, arguing that any sexual encounters involving the alleged victims were consensual.

In recent months, Brand has begun speaking publicly about adopting Christian spirituality. In April, the actor was baptized in Britain’s River Thames by British survival television star Bear Grylls, and has since posted on Instagram photos of himself performing a baptism in an unspecified river. 

British prosecutors said this month they are…

Leaders of conservative networks respond to the criticisms in Makin review

THE Makin review of the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth and its cover-up requires not only repentance and lament, but also “culture-changing action”, the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) said this week.

The review, which found that “powerful evangelical clergy” had covered up the abuse (motivated in part, it suggests, by a desire to “protect the wider reputation of Conservative Evangelicalism”) lists among those who knew of the abuse former leaders of many of the powerhouses of the conservative Evangelical constituency in England. They include All Souls’, Langham Place; St Ebbe’s, Oxford; St Aldate’s, Oxford; and the Round Church (now St Andrew the Great), Cambridge.

On Tuesday, the diocese of Gloucester confirmed that permission to officiate (PTO) had been removed from the Revd Hugh Palmer, a former Rector of All Souls’, while a safeguarding review was conducted. His PTO in London diocese has…

As I opened the doors of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Bolton Hill last Sunday, I thought about eternal life.

Not an eternal life of the soul, but the ways in which our words and actions echo long after our deaths.

We tell the stories of the departed and pass along their wisdom. We move through buildings they constructed. We climb stairs their feet rubbed smooth.

There are places that become a part of us, and places where a part of us of will always remain.

Corpus Christi, one of dozens of Baltimore-area Catholic parishes set to close at the end of the month, is that kind of place for my family. My paternal grandfather and most of his eight siblings attended the school associated with the church from first through eighth grade, making the 15-minute trek from their Mount Vernon rowhouse in all sorts of…

The most recent case of alleged child sexual abuse by a Catholic priest is detailed in a court filing that indicts Fr. Serlito Villar of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Poblacion, Alegria, Cebu, for lascivious conduct toward and rape of an 11-year-old boy.

The indictment, filed in Regional Trial Court Branch 62 in Oslob, Cebu, by the no-nonsense and determined Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Julius Torreon Ompad, backed up by Provincial Prosecutor Ludivico Vistal Cutaran, listed five counts of rape with sexual assault and one count of lascivious conduct.

According to the victim’s testimony, these acts of violent sexual assault allegedly took place over two years in the church rectory, before and after serving in Masses. Four of the alleged heinous crimes were committed between Feb. 12, 2022, and April 27, 2023. Another was committed at Cuestas Resort in Malabago village, according to the indictment, which reads like a handbook of…

Key Points:

• A survivor of sexual abuse is suing the Nashville Diocese and St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Murfreesboro over response to allegations against former St. Rose educator Michael Lewis.
• In February 2022, a judge sentenced Lewis to 20 years in prison in a separate criminal case over the same allegations behind the ongoing civil suit against the diocese and St. Rose.
• The civil case could go to trial in yet another key development following other major revelations about different instances of abuse within the Nashville Diocese.

[To see the remainder of this article, click here.]

I am waiting for the Maine Supreme Court to decide a case about sexual abuse and the statute of limitations [SOL].1 Statutes of limitations are rules that explain when the courts are open or closed to victims of abuse. I am particularly interested in the implications of that court’s decision for Catholic institutions, which have long practiced and hidden the sexual abuse of children in Maine.

For a long time, across the country short SOLs kept many abuse survivors from having their day in court. States are finally opening their courts to victims of abuse, recognizing that it does not make sense to give a child a year or two to file the suit and then close the courts to him or her forever.2

Maine expanded its statute of limitations in the 1990s for child sex abuse cases.3 Today, there is no criminal SOL for misdemeanor or felony sexual…

The abuse of children by Catholic clergy has a long history in the State of Maine.

The Beginning

Some initial news about Catholic Maine abuse was released when the Maine Supreme Court ordered it. In Blethen Maine Newspapers v. Maine, 871 A.2d 523 (Me. 2005), the Supreme Court of Maine ordered the release of the allegations of sexual abuse by deceased priests. Names of some living individuals could be redacted to keep the balance between state needs and individual privacy balanced. In response to Blethen Maine Newspapers, in 2005 the Maine attorney general released a list of 21 dead priests who had been accused of abuse.1 The allegations included two diocesan priests, two Jesuits, two Dominican priests, and one Dominican brother. Statements from victims were also included in the reports. The abusers’ names, released May 27, 2005, were Charles Bigelin, Henry Boltz, William Cahill S.J., Herve Carrier, Ralph Corbeil, John Crozier, John Curran, Armand…

Spain’s ombudsman on Thursday urged the country’s Catholic Church to compensate victims of sexual abuse committed on the institution’s watch.

Unlike in other nations, clerical abuse allegations have only recently started to gain traction in Spain, once a deeply Catholic country which has become increasingly secular.

Figures published last year in the first-ever official report on child sexual abuse within the Church in Spain estimated that more than 400,000 minors had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy and other lay people since 1940.

Spain’s leftist government approved a plan in April to implement the report’s recommendations, including the creation of a state compensation fund for victims.

But the southern European country’s Catholic Church has ruled out taking part in such a fund if it was only for compensating victims of ecclesiastical abuse and not victims of sexual abuse in any setting.

“I consider it essential that,…

Lo and behold, Matt Gaetz is a Southern Baptist.

So too is Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who is trying to deep-six the House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz — a report that is said to include evidence about Gaetz’s sexual abuse of a 17-year-old girl and his illicit drug use.

“She was a high school student and there were witnesses,” said the lawyer representing the girl.

We’ve seen this story again and again in Baptistland.

I feel overwhelmed by the grief of it, and yet it’s a familiar grief.

For decades, Southern Baptists have been turning a blind eye to sexual abuse allegations against their pastors.

Now they’re turning a blind to sexual abuse allegations against Gaetz, the man nominated to be U.S. attorney general, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

The patterns repeat. Southern Baptists are effectively carrying the impunity of their faith group into the federal government.

Johnson says it would be a…

Seven lawsuits were filed in recent weeks against the Diocese of Lafayette by people alleging they were sexually abused by clergy when they were children, the latest wave of lawsuits since a June court ruling giving abuse victims more time to seek restitution.

Four of the seven lawsuits were filed in November, one on Nov. 12, in 15th Judicial District Court in Lafayette. Three others were filed Oct. 29.

One of the lawsuits, while not specifically naming him, appears to refer to alleged abuse by the former Rev. Gilbert Gauthe, believed to be the first priest in the United States to be openly accused and prosecuted for child sexual abuse. He served various church parishes in the Acadiana area. The lawsuit states that the defendant is living in San Leon, Texas, the last reported residence of Gauthe.

There are currently about 20 lawsuits pending against the Diocese of…

The investigation was announced by then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal after the Vatican released a list of nearly 200 New Jersey clergy it said were “credibly accused” of abuse.

Six years after it promised a full investigation into the issue of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General has still not released its results.

The investigation was announced by then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal after the Vatican released a list of nearly 200 New Jersey clergy it said were “credibly accused” of abuse. The list included former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the highest-ranking U.S. church official to face such accusations. The McCarrick case was the subject of a recent episode of News 12’s docuseries, “Crime Files.”

Greg Gianforcaro, an attorney who has represented numerous clergy abuse survivors, notes that a similar investigation by the Pennsylvania attorney general was completed in just two years. He wonders…

Signs of the times. The abuse crisis in the church continues unabated, with alarming news becoming the “new normal.” While progress is made in safeguarding, much remains to be done, including implementing a zero-tolerance policy and understanding the deep, ongoing consequences of abuse.

One of the most important news reports in the global and “ecumenical” history of the church abuse crisis received little attention in our ecclesial conversations. On November 12, Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury unexpectedly announced his resignation following the publication of the “Makin Report” and its revelations on the handling of John Smyth’s abuse of boys and young men in the 1970s and 1980s. The search will start soon to replace Welby, who is head of the Diocese of Canterbury, Primate of All England, a member of the House of Lords, and the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

We have barely paid attention to…

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – An international group led by a Canadian is in Rome this week to push the Catholic Church to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on abuse by clergy.

Newfoundlander Gemma Hickey is the board president of non-profit Ending Clergy Abuse, which is advocating for the church to adopt widespread rules requiring any priest or deacon found guilty of sexual abuse to be removed permanently from ministry.

Hickey and other group members met today with officials from the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, which is the department of the main governing body of the Catholic Church concerned with canonical law.

[PHOTO: Gemma Hickey poses for a photo in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov.17, 2021. An international group led by a Canadian is in Rome this week to push the Catholic Church to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for clergy abuse. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin]

Hickey says they discussed changes proposed by Ending…

Duane Gray says the priest at his Connecticut parish began sexually abusing him around 1974, when he was 12 years old. He told his parents, but they didn’t believe it and beat him repeatedly. Then they kicked him out of the house when he was about 16, and he found himself living in the woods.

Gray, 62, came forward publicly Tuesday to tell his story in the hopes it would allow some healing for himself and other victims of clergy sexual abuse. Last month, he said he reached a six-figure settlement with the Archdiocese of Hartford over his claims about the Rev. Daniel McSheffery, who died in 2014.

“Being able to talk about it, being able to have a resolution in my case meant everything,” Gray said during a video conference with his lawyer and reporters. “It would help me greatly, personally, if we can just stop one case from…

Fr. Stephen M. Kiesle of the Diocese of Oakland, California, was convicted of lewd conduct for tying up and sexually abusing boys and was later sent to prison for abusing a girl. In 2023, he pleaded no contest to killing a pedestrian while driving drunk.

Fr. Mark Kristy of the Diocese of Sacramento was convicted of molesting a girl under 14 for three years and in 2022 was sentenced to a year in jail. For most of the last decade, he lived in Napa County.

Fr. Jean-Pierre Bongila of the San Francisco Archdiocese was sued for reportedly sexually abusing a girl. Church officials purportedly “cleared” him and he now works at a Catholic college in Minnesota.

Fr. John S. Crews of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, California, resigned in 2013 after he reportedly abused a boy. In 2022,…

A father is suing the prominent Texas megachurch, First Baptist Church Dallas, for allegedly mishandling his son’s sexual abuse in 2022.

The father alleges in the lawsuit that their now 16-year-old son was sexually abused by an older student on a church youth mission trip in 2022. The family said church leaders bullied, shamed, and intimidated their son with “extreme and outrageous” conduct in response to a report of the sexual abuse, according to the lawsuit.

Along with the church, pastors Ryland Whitehorn and Alan Lynch are named as defendants in the suit. Whitehorn and Lynch are listed on the First Baptist Dallas staff page as of Monday afternoon.

First Baptist, currently led by Dr. Robert Jeffress, is a powerhouse church in Texas with 16,000 members, according to its website. Throughout the years, Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Donald…

The alleged offense was committed in 2004 when the man was not employed with the archdiocese

The Singapore Archdiocese has suspended an employee facing legal action for molesting a 12-year-old girl 20 years ago, when he was not working with the archdiocese.

In a Nov. 19 statement, the archdiocese said that 57-year-old Zebedee Rex Fernando was removed from employment, the Straits Times reported on Nov. 20.

“Given the serious nature of the charge, Mr. Rex Fernando has been suspended from his employment until this matter is concluded,” an archdiocesan spokesperson said.

The offense was allegedly committed in 2004. The archdiocese stated that Fernando informed his workplace superiors about the court case on Nov. 11.

Fernando was handed the molestation charge on Nov 14, but court documents did not disclose why it took 20 years for him to be hauled to court over the alleged offense, the Straits Times reported.

In November 2022, Fernando was appointed…

[Click here to go to the portion of this article that pertains to the Catholic abuse crisis.]

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Pillar subscribers can listen to Ed read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR

Happy Friday friends,

Before we get started, a reminder up front for all friends in the DMV: we’ll be making a live episode of The Pillar Podcast  in Washington next week — we’ll be at Royal Sands Social Club on Thursday, November 14, from 7pm. 

Come as you are, bring friends, and let’s have a great time.

See you there!

It’s the day after the day after the day after the night before and, from at least where I am sitting, a lot of people are still “processing” the result of the presidential election. 

For what it’s worth, my abiding takeaway from it all is this: 

While I have been telling anyone who asked me all year that I thought…

It would protect children and eliminate a ‘two-tier system,’ ensuring safety for all, not just in the US

A watchdog group in the United States is applauding calls to make “zero tolerance” for clerical abuse the rule for the worldwide Catholic Church.

“The Vatican approved this norm once; they can do it again, this time for every country,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, in a statement released Nov. 18.

Earlier that day, safeguarding experts released a joint proposal in Rome advocating a change in church law that would extend the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ protocol of permanently removing from ministry credibly accused priests or deacons.

The norm, established in 2002 alongside the USCCB’s “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” with the Vatican’s permission, at present only applies to the Catholic Church in the U.S.

The proposal to extend the norm through a change in…

The policy, which permanently removes priests for a single act of sexual abuse, is currently limited to the US.

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse called on the Vatican on Monday to extend the zero-tolerance policy adopted by the US Catholic Church in 2002 to apply to the global church, insisting that children worldwide deserve protection for predator priests. 

The US standard was implemented during the peak of the abuse scandal in the country, and mandates that any priest found guilty of a single act of sexual abuse — whether admitted or proven under church law — be permanently removed from ministry. 

Adopted by US bishops to restore credibility after Boston’s abuse scandal was exposed by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight series, the policy has since stood as one of the strictest in the Catholic Church.

Known as the “one strike and you’re out” rule, the policy is seen by some as…

“Any clergy member who is determined to be credibly accused of sexual misconduct with a minor is permanently removed from ministry.

A former priest has been fired from his job as a religious teacher at a Brooklyn preparatory school after past allegations of sexually abusing minors were brought to light.

The Diocese of Brooklyn shared the conclusion of their investigation into Michael Melendez on Friday. Melendez was suspended from his position at St. Francis Preparatory High School at the onset of his investigation, but was terminated “effective immediately” when the Diocese found three separate allegations against Melendez to be credible.

“The Diocese takes all allegations of sexual misconduct with minors seriously and has instituted significant programs to prevent sexual abuse and protect children,” said a spokesperson for the Diocese of Brooklyn.

“The Diocese abides by the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children which includes a zero…

The report into child abuser John Smyth has been described by the Bishop of Salisbury as being “like a horror movie”.

The Right Reverend Stephen Lake told the BBC: “The trouble is it’s not fiction, it’s real, and very real every day for victims and survivors.”

Justin Welby resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury after facing rising pressure to stand down over his failure to report Smyth, who abused boys he met at Christian camps.

The Bishop told the BBC that whoever takes over from Mr Welby needs to make sure that safeguarding is “front and centre”.

Bishop Lake said there have been huge changes over the past few years in the Church of England, but that “we need to make sure that whoever leads us has this [safeguarding] front and centre”.

“My focus is on the report itself and what we need to be doing for the victims and survivors as a…

Hope.

That’s the word that was on everyone’s lips — from the bishop’s homily to speeches outside the church — during a special Mass and dedication ceremony blessing the new healing garden introduced at Our Lady of Refuge Church in Long Beach on Nov. 17.

The Mass and garden were devoted to those who have suffered any kind of abuse, but especially ones that occurred within the Catholic Church.

Auxiliary Bishop Marc Trudeau said that while trauma occurs in the world — including sexual abuse — the goal of everyone’s journey is heaven, and God is there by our side every step of the way, no matter how painful.

“The remedy is hope,” Trudeau said in his homily.

“It’s my job to inspire some hope,” said Dr. Heather Banis, coordinator for the archdiocese’s Victims Assistance Ministry. “I think for a lot of people who were harmed, there’s…

New administrative cuts in the Archdiocese of New York, stemming from sex abuse payouts dating back decades, include the closure of its Office of Black Ministry (OBM), multiple sources have confirmed.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has served as archbishop since 2009, published a letter on Nov. 8 noting that the archdiocese has begun a “restructuring of its pastoral offices.”

“[This] has, unfortunately, resulted in regrettable lay-offs for some workers at the Cardinal Cooke Building of the Catholic Center and elsewhere around the archdiocese… I am grateful for the service of all those whose positions are being eliminated.”

The affected pastoral offices were unspecified in Dolan’s letter, which was sent out via Flocknote and has not been released to the general public. A source in the archdiocese, however, noted that the OBM is among them, though few details have been provided.Read full document:DocumentDolan letter.pdf

…

ROME (AP) — Survivors of clergy sexual abuse urged the Vatican on Monday to expand its zero-tolerance policy that it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002 to the rest of the world, arguing that children everywhere should be protected from predator priests.

The U.S. norms, adopted at the height of the abuse scandal there, say a priest will be permanently removed from church ministry based on even a single act of sexual abuse that is either admitted to or established under church law.

That “one strike and you’re out” policy in the U.S. has long stood out as the toughest in the church. It is held up by some as the gold standard, by others as excessive and by still others as imperfect but better than most. It was adopted by U.S. bishops as they scrambled to try to regain credibility following the revelations of abuse and cover-up…

VATICAN CITY, Nov 18 (Reuters) – A former top Vatican official who dealt with clergy sexual abuse issues joined victims on Monday in urging Pope Francis to enact a zero-tolerance law throughout the global Catholic church so any cleric found guilty of abuse would be removed from ministry.

Rev. Hans Zollner, a German Jesuit priest who resigned in frustration from the pope’s clergy abuse commission in 2022, was part of a press conference in Rome with Ending Clergy Abuse, an international group of victims.

They called on Francis to take a zero-tolerance law adopted by U.S. Catholic bishops in 2002 and apply it to the entire 1.4-billion-member Church.

Zollner, who heads a centre for the study of abuse at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, said the Church needed “a change of knowledge, a change of attitude, a change of mentality (that is) much more than what has been done so far”.

…

Archbishop Justin Welby, the Primate of the Anglican Communion, announced his resignation November 12, just days after the publication of a report criticizing his handling of a case involving the sexual abuse of minors.

With his position deemed “untenable” by many of his peers, Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, head of the Church of England and Primate of the Anglican Communion announced his resignation November 12.

This decision comes barely a week after the release of the Makin report, an independent investigation that revealed cover-ups by senior Church of England officials regarding abuses committed between the 1970s and 2010 by John Smyth on at least 115 boys and young men during Christian summer camps. Smyth, an Anglican lawyer and committed layman, was described in the report as “arguably the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.”

While the report found it “unlikely” that Welby had…

It’s difficult to face the fact that those who call themselves Christian can abuse, and hard to believe anyone thought silence was the right response

It has been an unprecedented 10 days for the Church of England. The Makin report into abuse by John Smyth, barrister and Church lay reader, was leaked and landed a week ahead of its scheduled date, but still more than four years behind the original timetable.

Much of the content is familiar to anyone who read Andrew Graystone’s 2021 book Bleeding for Jesus. Justin Welby had been at the same Iwerne Trust Christian camps for boys as Smyth, sometimes at the same time, and seems to have heard rumours well before 2013, when he became officially aware of the abuse. His response was to announce that he had taken advice, and would not resign as archbishop of Canterbury; then, less than a week later, he did.

…

The Archdiocese of New York is laying off workers — and says more staff may have to go — to help pay for the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal.

The cash-strapped Church already previously announced the sale of the archdiocese’s Cardinal Cooke headquarters building in Midtown.

“Such decisions are never easy, but the current financial crunch the archdiocese faces, and the upcoming move to our new offices in 2025, make this the appropriate time to make some tough decisions,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote in a letter to archdiocese faithful this month in announcing the layoffs.

The pink slips are going to 18 staffers, or about 4% of the work force involved in the archdiocese’s administration, and will save more than $1.5 million as officials focus more resources on parishes, according to the Church and Catholic media.

“Our goal in all of this is to ensure that we are responding as…

ROME – Nearly 25 years after the explosion of clerical abuse scandals in the United States spurred a new “zero tolerance” attitude and almost six years after Pope Francis’s global safeguarding summit and the issuance of a swath of new norms, the question arises: Has any of it been effective?

Members of the pope’s safeguarding commission in presenting their first annual global report on safeguarding efforts around the world Oct. 29 were optimistic, arguing that in the 12 years since its establishment, despite a deeply entrenched culture at times resistant to change, progress was being made.

However, the case of Carlos (a false name), who alleges that he was sexually abused by a priest and spiritual advisor in Toledo from the age of 14-16, raises serious questions about just how effective these measures have been, especially in the application to concrete cases.

These questions intensified after Pope Francis on Nov….

• In rare agreement, victims & top papal advisor push for ‘global one strike’ rule
• Right now, only the U.S. church permanently removes abusive clerics
• In all other countries, abusive priests can be and are put back in parishes

For Immediate Release by BishopAccountability.org- November 18

A watchdog group that tracks the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church is endorsing the “one strike and you’re out” proposal that is being released today by an unusual coalition of survivors and church insiders.

BishopAccountability.org announced its support for the proposal being unveiled in Rome this morning by Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), the world’s leading network of clergy abuse survivors, and Fr. Hans Zollner, the Church’s top anti-abuse expert and head of a safeguarding institute at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

ECA and Zollner are jointly demanding that Pope Francis adopt, on a world-wide basis, the so-called “zero tolerance” norm that the Vatican approved for…

The Church of England faced further turmoil last night after the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell was urged to resign over his handling of abuse cases.

The demand comes after the CofE’s leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, was forced to quit last week over a cover-up in a child abuse scandal.

Archbishop Cottrell, the CofE’s second most senior figure, is accused of ‘ignoring’ 11 separate complaints, some involving leading figures in the Church, including bishops.

In a devastating intervention, Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, who led an independent body probing abuse in the CofE, said she had repeatedly raised concerns with Archbishop Cottrell, 66, but argued he left victims ‘in the wilderness’. She claims in an interview with The Mail on Sunday that she had a similar response from Mr Welby, 68.

She said: ‘I sat down with both archbishops and poured my heart out, saying we need help. It…

72-year-old educator for Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board faces multiple charges over sex abuse allegations involving two students at a school in Blind River

A 72-year-old teacher for the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board has reportedly been terminated after being charged with sexually abusing two students at a school in Blind River. 

Donald Trudeau is facing two counts of sexual interference and two counts of sexual assault on a person under 16 years of age after being charged by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Oct. 15, according to a news release from East Algoma OPP issued Thursday.  

An investigation revealed the sexual assaults allegedly took place between September 2023 and Oct. 15. None of the allegations have been tested in court and the accused is considered innocent unless proven guilty.

Mississauga First Nation (MFN) took to social media Thursday, advising community members that it is aware of the charges laid against the…

Several U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday encouraged the church to boldly share Vatican teachings on a range of hot-button issues, including the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and gender-affirming surgery.

The prelates acknowledged theirs is often a countercultural view.

“We have been too apologetic for too long,” said Bishop Robert Barron, a media-savvy cleric who leads the Winona-Rochester diocese in Minnesota. “And we shouldn’t be cowed by the celebrities and so on in the culture who are preaching something that’s deeply problematic.”

The remarks came during the bishops’ annual fall meeting and a presentation on a Vatican declaration released in April. “Dignitas Infinita,” or “Infinite Dignity,” clarifies church teaching that promotes the dignity of all people and the protection of life from its earliest stages through death.

“The goal is to apply the lessons of ‘Dignitas Infinita’ to our American society,” said Barron, who praised the declaration for its “distinctively…

The Archbishop of Canterbury was first informed about John Smyth’s abuse in 2013.

Members of the clergy are choosing not to call out senior Church of England leaders over the John Smyth abuse scandal because of “a culture of silence and fear”, a bishop has alleged.

In an interview on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Bishop of Newcastle Dr Helen-Ann Hartley said her fellow bishops may also be staying silent as they are thinking about their own career prospects, after the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

Mr Welby announced his resignation this week after the independent Makin Review concluded that the most prolific abuser associated with the Church of England, John Smyth, might have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally alerted authorities in 2013.

Ms Hartley had previously called for the archbishop to step down, saying his position had become “untenable” after the…

Editor’s note: This article contains descriptions of abuse towards women that may be triggering.Ireland is no stranger to tragedy: victimized by famine, recession, torn apart by the Troubles (a period captured in FX’s Say Nothing), and more. But the film Small Things Like These has ripped the bandage off an Irish wound that was first inflicted in the 18th century, an excruciating film about a reprehensible system designed by the Catholic Church to torture and slut-shame women, masquerading as charity: the Magdalene Laundries. Only the film captures a fictional moment in the history of the Magdalene Laundries, a mere glimpse, a snapshot, into their long, shameful, and true-life history.

The Magdalene Laundries of ‘Small Things Like These’ Turned from Rehabilitation to Damnation

Tim Mielants also discuses adapting such a sensitive and important story.

The laundries were borne out of the Magdalene Movement in…

Former prime minister Julia Gillard has called on Australia’s attorneys-general to urgently consider how to deliver justice to survivors of child abuse after the High Court ruled that a Catholic diocese was not liable for the historical sexual abuse of a young boy in Victoria.

Gillard, who in 2012 established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, said she was “deeply concerned” about the High Court ruling.

Celebrated anti-poverty and homelessness campaigner Abbé Pierre was voted France’s most popular person for many years, but sexual abuse accusations have shattered the activist priest’s crusading legacy

Saint or demon? Hero or criminal? Friend of the poorest or their ultimate nightmare? France is in shock as it realises that the founder of Emmaüs was a sexual predator.

Born to a wealthy bourgeois Catholic family in Lyon, the birth name of Abbé Pierre (1912-2007) was Henri Grouès. 

He began doing charity work with the Catholic church as a child, and in 1931 he joined the Capuchin Order, giving up his inheritance to charity and taking vows of poverty and chastity. 

As a monk in the Monastery of Crest, he was called Frère Philippe. He became a priest in 1938 but had to leave the monastery in 1939 due to a severe lung infection. 

He became the curate of the cathedral in…

Monsignor Charles A. Klauder, who made St. John the Baptist Church in the Town of Tonawanda one of the largest parishes in Western New York, liked to remark that he walked in the footsteps of John Neumann “all my life – in Philadelphia and at St. John’s.”

Neumann served as first resident pastor of St. John the Baptist before becoming bishop of Philadelphia, organizing the first parochial school system in the United States and doing so much charitable work that he would be canonized a saint in 1977.

As a young man in Philadelphia, Klauder used to pray at Neumann’s tomb, and after being ordained to the priesthood in 1918, he sought to pick up at St. John’s where Neumann had left off.

Klauder’s 45 years at St. John the Baptist are one of the lengthiest pastorates in Buffalo Diocese history, and he died in 1972 as a revered figure who…

A North Texas family filed a lawsuit against the church Nov. 11 after they say an older boy sexually abused their son on a mission trip, court documents state. A North Texas father is suing First Baptist Dallas for negligence over allegations that his teenage son was sexually abused by an older boy on a summer mission trip in July 2022, court documents state. The lawsuit was filed in Dallas County on Nov. 11. The plaintiff is bringing suit on behalf of his son and is asking for more than $1 million in damages.

In Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, a memorial dedicated to victims of sexual abuse within the Church was unveiled on Saturday, marking the first such initiative in Flanders. Situated in the garden of the church, the monument acknowledges the pain of victims and aims to symbolise hope and resilience.

The monument, created by local artist Jorgen Missotten, consists of two split boulders, representing the trauma endured by victims. “They signify the pain and violence inflicted on the victims,” explained Mayor Jan Desmeth (N-VA). Growing between the stones is a Ginkgo Biloba tree, chosen for its resilience after surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. “It’s a symbol that, despite suffering, there is always hope,” Desmeth added.

The memorial was prompted by concerns from survivors in the community who feared their experiences were being forgotten during the repurposing of local churches. “Several victims approached us, expressing that the changes to these spaces felt like erasing history,”…

Judge Orders Diocese to Disclose Unredacted Records Allegedly Documenting Knowledge of Former Priest’s Abuse History

Herman Law has achieved a significant legal milestone in ongoing lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. Since 2019, Herman Law has represented multiple survivors in cases that allege Father Romano Ferraro, a former priest within the Diocese, committed repeated acts of sexual abuse against minors.

Throughout these proceedings, the Diocese of Brooklyn has resisted releasing complete, unredacted documentation regarding their employment of Father Ferraro and their awareness of his alleged history of abuse. The limited records provided by the Diocese have been heavily redacted, prompting extensive legal challenges by Herman Law to gain access to the full scope of information.

In a pivotal development, the Honorable Judge Kraus recently ruled in favor of Herman Law, ordering the Diocese of Brooklyn to produce the complete, unredacted files by November 18, 2024. This order goes beyond similar previous rulings by including an automatic sanction: if the Diocese fails…

A Catholic priest on Chicago’s South Side has been reinstated after no evidence supporting allegations of sexual abuse made against him last week was found.

Archbishop Cardinal Blase J. Cupich sent letters to Our Lady at St. Germaine, St. Gerald, St. Cajetan, St. John Fisher, St. John Neumann, St. Gianna and St. Barnabas parishes informing them of his decision to reinstate Fr. Martin Marren after he was temporarily removed from ministry.

Last week, officials said the Department of Child and Family Services opened an investigation against Marren amid allegations of alleged sexual abuse of a minor.

The Archdiocese Office for the Protection of Children and Youth presented their findings and the results of their own investigation to its Independent Review Board (IRB) on Saturday, according to officials.

The IRB found no reasonable cause to believe Marren sexually abused a minor and recommended the file be closed and he be returned…

One factor forever complicating Vatican analysis is the proliferation of prefabricated scripts which various constituencies yearn to apply to events, rather than allowing those events to speak for themselves.

Recently, the curious case of ex-priest Ariel Alberto Príncipi – at least it seems his laicization will stick this time, though it’s hard to be truly sure – offers a good reminder of the point.

In 2023, an Argentine tribunal found Príncipi guilty of sexual abuse and ordered him dismissed from the clerical state, a verdict upheld on appeal. His laicization was then reversed this September by an edict from Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the number two official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, only to be reinstated just days later by another decree from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), reminding everyone that it has exclusive jurisdiction over abuse cases.

To say the least, these public…

Shock waves triggered by archbishop’s resignation are culmination of years of simmering rage among churchgoers and survivors of abuse

As the faithful give thanks to God in England’s 16,500 parish churches on Sunday, beneath the comforting ritual of prayers and hymns will run a strong undercurrent of shame, anger, sadness and dread.

The Church of England is facing its biggest crisis in modern times, and there is no clear pathway to recovery. The archbishop of Canterbury has been forced to resign, other senior figures are facing calls to quit and the church is reeling from its shameful failures over a prolific and sadistic child abuser.

A 253-page report detailing the appalling brutality of the late barrister John Smyth, repeated cover-ups and omissions by church figures, and the lifelong trauma suffered by victims has triggered an “existential crisis” for the C of E, according to Linda Woodhead, professor of moral and social theology…

Herman Law has achieved a significant legal milestone in ongoing lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. Since 2019, Herman Law has represented multiple survivors in cases that allege Father Romano Ferraro, a former priest within the Diocese, committed repeated acts of sexual abuse against minors.

Throughout these proceedings, the Diocese of Brooklyn has resisted releasing complete, unredacted documentation regarding their employment of Father Ferraro and their awareness of his alleged history of abuse. The limited records provided by the Diocese have been heavily redacted, prompting extensive legal challenges by Herman Law to gain access to the full scope of information.

In a pivotal development, the Honorable Judge Kraus recently ruled in favor of Herman Law, ordering the Diocese of Brooklyn to produce the complete, unredacted files by November 18, 2024. This order goes beyond similar previous rulings by including an automatic sanction: if the Diocese fails to comply, the Court will strike their Answers, conclusively establishing their liability and barring any defenses that could limit…

Well, Holy God: My Life as an Irish, Catholic, Agnostic Correspondent

Patsy McGarry

304 pages; Merrion Press

The longtime Irish Times religious affairs correspondent Patsy McGarry is a conscience of Ireland. In Well, Holy God, McGarry writes of many topics, notably three decades of sex abuse cover-ups and state investigations, staining the careers of bishops and cardinals, elevating survivors as national figures, jolting the sense of Irish identity.

“All churches, all religions, are essentially tribal,” McGarry writes in this self-searching narrative. “At their best they act as a repository for the higher moral and spiritual values of their tribe, which they carry from generation to generation.”

At worst, the tribal psyche concealed a criminal sexual underground of clerics abusing youths and religious sisters tyrannizing girls in reform schools, two searing narratives that arose in the 1990s, thanks to documentaries on state television, and investigative reporting…

Local religious institutions, counties fighting similar lawsuits

A jury needed only an hour on Oct. 31 to find Green Chimneys liable for the sexual abuse of a girl by one of its employees in the late 1960s. Four days later, the residential and therapy center for children with special needs, which has campuses in Brewster and Carmel, settled with the plaintiff for an undisclosed amount.

The case was the first of more than two dozen lawsuits filed in 2020 and 2021 against local institutions to reach trial under the state’s Child Victims Act. Enacted in 2019, the law gave adults a two-year window to begin civil actions for alleged sex crimes in which the statute of limitations had expired.

The lawsuits include at least five against the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and its residential St. Basil Academy in Philipstown and at least nine against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of…

72-year-old educator for Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board faces multiple charges over sex abuse allegations involving two students at a school in Blind River

A 72-year-old teacher for the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board has reportedly been terminated after being charged with sexually abusing two students at a school in Blind River. 

Donald Trudeau is facing two counts of sexual interference and two counts of sexual assault on a person under 16 years of age after being charged by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Oct. 15, according to a news release from East Algoma OPP issued Thursday.  

An investigation revealed the sexual assaults allegedly took place between September 2023 and Oct. 15. None of the allegations have been tested in court and the accused is considered innocent unless proven guilty.

Mississauga First Nation (MFN) took to social media Thursday, advising community members that it is aware of the charges laid against the…

IN a shocking scandal that is likely to send tremors through Zimbabwe’s Catholic community, St Ignatius College in Chishawasha is embroiled in devastating allegations of sodomy and sexual abuse.

At the centre of the controversy is the late Father Brian Porter, a respected member of the clergy, whose alleged actions have left former students and victims at the learning institution reeling.

The allegations, which have sparked widespread outrage and demands for accountability, raise profound questions about the safety and well-being of students in Zimbabwe’s educational institutions, especially in Catholic-led schools.

Porter was a longstanding Jesuit missionary in Zimbabwe, and a regular visitor to Jesuit missions.

He died on July 8 aged 90.

Investigations by NewsDay Weekender unearthed that Porter’s victims since the early 1970s have formed a group titled Justice, Healing and Closure (JHC) as they seek compensation from the catholic organisation.

The victims have since approached authorities at St…

In short:

There are calls for law reform after a High Court ruling this week that the Catholic Church is not vicariously liable for the actions of a priest who allegedly sexually abused a five-year-old in 1971.

The court ruled that a priest is not an employee of a church, and therefore the institution is not liable to compensate their victims.

What’s next?

Lawyers and advocates say they will take up the issue with all states and territories.

Dead in the water is how one lawyer described the future of vicarious liability claims over institutional child sex abuse, after this week’s controversial High Court ruling that a priest is not an employee of the church.

For many survivors and their supporters, the ruling came as a shock and it prompted calls for governments around the country to step up and change the law.

Vicarious liability is the responsibility you have for…

Leading British Catholics have urged their church to avoid involvement in the resignation of the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, who quit Nov. 12 after being implicated in a large-scale abuse cover-up.

“This drama won’t make a vast difference to the many people who already view Christianity negatively — they’ll merely see it as confirming what they already thought,” said Timothy Guile, chairman of the English Catholic History Association.

“While it will hugely damage confidence across the Anglican Communion, it shouldn’t affect the Catholic Church, which should avoid becoming embroiled in any way,” he said.

The Catholic historian was reacting to the resignation of Archbishop Justin Welby, the 105th archbishop of Canterbury, following report findings he was complicit in ignoring crimes by one of his church’s worst known abusers.

In an OSV News interview, Guile said Archbishop Welby’s departure would “seriously undermine” the Anglican church’s hierarchy, which was already “enormously pressured”…

Parents are demanding school board resignations in a district that agreed last spring to a $3.5 million sex abuse settlement.

St. Helens School District closed all schools and offices Friday, after two teachers were arrested for alleged sexual assault against students. The school closure comes two days after a raucous school board meeting, in which parents demanded the superintendent and school board members step down.

Earlier this week, St. Helens, Oregon, police arrested teachers Eric Stearns, who was still on staff, and Mark Collins, who had retired recently from his career teaching math at St. Helens High School. Stearns is facing seven counts of second-degree sex abuse and one count of third-degree sex abuse involving six different students. Stearns is listed on the high school’s web site as the choir teacher.

According to the indictment filed in Columbia County court, Stearns began his pattern of criminal sexual abuse…

The St. Helens School District announced late Thursday that all schools and offices would be closed Friday “to address recent events impacting our school community and prioritize the safety and well-being of our students and staff.”

The closure follows the arrests Tuesday of a St. Helens High School teacher and a retired St. Helens High teacher on allegations of child sex abuse. On Thursday, students protested outside the school, where one of the accused men had been allowed to continue teaching while under police investigation, KGW Channel 8 reported.

All Friday evening events are canceled as well. School district officials said they expect schools to reopen Monday.

In 2019, a St. Helens High teacher was convicted of sexually abusing a student on the track team. That teacher had received his first reprimand for inappropriate behavior with female students…

Kenyan President William Ruto’s administration looked unsettled by a statement by the influential Catholic bishops on Thursday criticising its tax policies, human rights violations and corruption.

The 26 bishops, under their lobby group the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), voiced concerns about a State-sponsored campaign of abductions, enforced disappearances and torture of persons linked to the youth-led anti-tax protests in June and July that forced the President to withdraw this year’s Finance Bill and disband his Cabinet.

They also condemned what they termed ‘a culture of lies’ among the country’s ruling elite, citing a number of Dr Ruto’s unfulfilled election campaign promises slightly over two years since he took office in September 2022.

Their statement immediately drew frantic reactions from senior administration figures, including the President, issuing statements to counter the scathing attack by the clergy.

“I want to urge everybody, including the clergy, that even as we engage…

Succession: Justin Welby will reach the retirement age of 70 in January 2026. An experienced commentator on church affairs argues that two issues will dominate the selection of his successor: sex and money

When former Archbishop Rowan Williams announced in March 2012 that he was standing down as Archbishop of Canterbury, bookmakers started taking bets on his successor. Bishop John Sentamu, then Archbishop of York, was the clear favourite, with the Bishops of London, Liverpool and Bradford among others in the running. One of the frontrunners said to me: “You mustn’t believe the stories in the press about bishops jockeying for position. It’s more like a group of men sitting around a table, passing a revolver from one to another, knowing that one of them is going to get the bullet.”

On 7 November 2012, both Ladbrokes and William Hill suddenly suspended betting on the new archbishop. They had noticed…

The Church of England, the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, was left reeling on Nov. 12 after the unprecedented decision Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to resign.

Welby had at first seemed reluctant to accept what was apparent to nearly everybody else who has been following the decades-long saga of sadistic abuser John Smyth — that he would have to go. It came to a head last week with the publication of a long-awaited and damning report into the abuse and the church’s attempt over many years to cover it up.

Welby, who is cited repeatedly in the review, failed to report the abuse by Smyth when he first became aware of it in 2013 and failed to fulfill initial promises to meet survivors. Smyth abused as many as 130 boys and young men. He moved to Zimbabwe and South Africa, where the abuse continued until…

Australia’s High Court Rules Catholic Church Not Liable Abuse Case

In a landmark ruling, the High Court of Australia has unanimously determined that the Catholic Church cannot be held «vicariously liable» for alleged sexual abuse by a priest in 1971. The decision, handed down on Wednesday, November 13, overturns a previous ruling by the Supreme Court of Victoria, which had held the Diocese of Ballarat liable for sexual assaults committed by one of its priests.

Central to the High Court’s decision was the issue of whether a church could bear indirect responsibility in the absence of an employment relationship between the priest and the diocese. The High Court found that vicarious liability typically applies to employer-employee relationships, and Victoria’s laws regarding institutional responsibility for abuse cases did not provide a foundation for extending such liability to the church in this case.

This ruling comes as a setback for DP, a…

Pam Walker says the church hierarchy has a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of abuse, and Doug Clark compares Anglican and Catholic scandals. Plus a letter from John van Rooyen

As a lay minister in Newcastle diocese, I strongly supported Helen-Ann Hartley’s call for the archbishop of Canterbury to resign (Bishop calls for Justin Welby to resign over failure to pursue serial abuser, 11 November), and I am relieved he has done so. For almost 40 years, since the abuse scandal surrounding the Nine O’Clock Service in Sheffield, the Church of England has attempted to ignore, minimise or deny the suffering caused by abuse in church settings. The leader of that church is awaiting trial on 34 counts of sexually abusing women (which he denies).

Meanwhile, while awaiting the publication of the Smyth review, Fiona Scolding KC and Ben Fullbrook published a report into the Soul Survivor church, commissioned after the national safeguarding team (NST) stated…

The diocese says survivors’ fund would be worth between $160 million and $198 million.

A year after the Oakland Diocese filed for bankruptcy protection due to hundreds of sex abuse lawsuits, its exit plan has been released. It mainly involves selling a local real estate asset and borrowing from the Roman Catholic Church. 

The lawsuits came about after the California state legislature in 2018 passed Assembly Bill 218, which extended the statute of limitations to victims of abuse. In all 345 people filed lawsuits against the diocese alleging sexual abuse at dozens of its churches and schools, with most of the incidents occurring between 1960 and 1990. 

The reorganization plan, submitted Friday, is awaiting confirmation by a federal bankruptcy court. It is expected to create a survivors’ trust that the diocese says is worth between $160 million and $198 million.

A survivors group slammed the plan as a “sham of…

While many have taken the strange case of Argentine ex-priest Ariel Alberto Príncipi as a classic example of a turf war between competing Vatican departments, a close analysis suggests the twists and turns may be less about bureaucratic tussles and more about the notoriously ill-defined boundary between misconduct and outright abuse.

As part of that picture, the Príncipi case also illustrates how one of main tests in ecclesiastical jurisprudence for establishing abuse, which is whether a particular act was carried out “for libidinous ends,” can be exceedingly difficult to prove.

In 2021, Príncipi was accused of sexually abusing minors while performing “healing prayers” for homosexuality associated with a Catholic charismatic movement. His case was sent to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), which handles sexual abuse matters, and the dicastery subsequently authorized local tribunals to conduct a trial.

Príncipi was found guilty by an interdiocesan tribunal…

A former priest who was working as a religious teacher at St. Francis Preparatory High School in Fresh Meadows was recently fired after being accused of sexually abusing minors throughout the 1990s.

The Diocese of Brooklyn announced Friday they investigated three separate allegations recently made known to them against former priest Michael Melendez, and found all to be credible. Melendez was ordained a priest in 1989 and served in numerous parishes and religious institutions across Brooklyn and Queens.

Though he stopped serving as a priest over a decade ago, he continued to work with children in Queens through his work at St. Francis Prep.

“The Diocese takes all allegations of sexual misconduct with minors seriously and has instituted significant programs to prevent sexual abuse and protect children,” a spokesperson for the Diocese of Brooklyn said in a press release. “The Diocese abides by the 2002 Charter for the Protection of…

The Catholic Church needs decisive leadership in creating a safe, caring and welcoming environment for everyone, and it needs constant vigilance against complacency, said several speakers at a Vatican-sponsored safeguarding conference.

Strength and vigilance are needed, some warned, because those who abuse minors and vulnerable people are clever and skillful, and will exploit every lapse and weakness they find in procedures.

Nearly 150 safeguarding experts working in more than 20 countries in Europe took part in person and online in the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ first conference on safeguarding in the church in Europe Nov. 13-15.

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, commission president and retired archbishop of Boston, told participants in a video message that the church must: listen to survivors and children; respond with care and compassion to those who have been harmed; follow due process with investigating accusations; and “show strong leadership in taking the necessary…

Catholic leaders from across Europe are in Rome this week to discuss how the Church can best protect children from sexual abuse and how to help those who have already been hurt by it.

The Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) is hosting a conference on safeguarding in the Catholic Church in Europe from Nov. 13–15.

The gathering, taking place in the center of Rome at the headquarters of the PCPM, includes participants — bishops, priests, religious, and laymen and laywomen — from 25 countries in Europe.

Safeguarding practices and strategies, how Church law and civil law interact, how to better help victims, and how to develop safeguarding networks are some of the topics the conference will address.

Vatican leaders and representatives from the European bishops’ conferences commission (COMECE) are also attending the meeting, which will include a keynote address Nov. 14 from  Archbishop John J. Kennedy,…

WHAT: At a news conference in Rome to mark the United Nations’ World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse, a diverse group of survivors, advocates and theologians will unveil a landmark zero-tolerance proposal calling for sweeping reforms to Canon Law, aimed at confronting the Catholic Church’s ongoing clergy sexual abuse crisis head-on.
WHEN: Monday, November 18, 2024, at 11:00 AM (local time)
WHERE: Inside the Villa Aurelia, Via Leone XIII, 459, 00165, Rome WHY: Nearly six years after the first Papal Summit on Clerical Sexual Abuse, the Catholic Church has yet to fully implement the measures that were proclaimed at that time to protect children and vulnerable adults, and to hold Church leaders accountable. Pope Francis has repeatedly declared a zero-tolerance approach to abuse, but his intention must be met with meaningful action. Real progress within the Church, on a global level, will only occur through consistent implementation of its own…

Fr. Edward O. Paquette, Jr. is another predator priest from Burlington Catholic Diocese who might get the title of being the worst abuser thus far. He’s been sued more than any Vermont abuser. For example:

• Among countless others, he’s accused of abusing a hospitalized teenage quadriplegic.
• He allegedly assaulted two other children in another hospital.
• He reportedly molested one child at least 50 times.
• He’s been called Vermont’s most prolific predator priest.

And as best we at Horowitz Law can tell, he’s still alive, though his whereabouts seem to be unknown. But he didn’t start off in Vermont. Originally, Fr. Paquette was ordained for the Fall River Massachusetts Diocese. But like so many predator priests, multiple bishops passed Fr. Paquette around from place to place, including Indiana (the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese), eventually making the ‘credibly accused’ abusers list in three dioceses. He ended up living in Westfield, Massachusetts, in the Springfield Diocese. Fr. Paquette’s crimes…

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he takes “personal and institutional responsibility” for the mishandling of a number of high-profile abuse cases in the Anglican Church since taking the reigns in 2013.

“I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church. As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse,” Welby, who was chosen as the 105th archbishop of Canterbury in 2012, said in a statement.

Though not accused of abuse himself, Welby was criticized for his response to a number of abuse cases within the church he led. Calls for Welby’s resignation reached a fever pitch in recent days, led by victims of a notorious Anglican serial sexual abuser, John Smyth. 

A prominent attorney who…

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned today, following the release of a long-anticipated report concluding that Welby, the Church of England’s highest spiritual leader, covered up serial physical abuse.

The independent review, commissioned in 2019, revealed that Welby knew by 2013 at the latest that the late Anglican leader, John Smyth, had been accused of abuse.

As The Roys Report (TRR) previously reported, John Smyth subjected young men to sadistic physical abuse starting in the 1970s, when he ran a system of evangelical boys’ camps in England and later in Zimbabwe. Some of the boys reportedly suffered thousands of beatings over the course of many years.

“It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024,” Welby wrote as part of a statement announcing his resignation.

The review, conducted by Keith Makin and…

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, resigned Tuesday amid the fallout from a long-running sexual abuse scandal.

Welby stepped down after an independent investigation found that he had failed to inform police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

Here are the answers to some questions about the Church of England, Welby’s decision and its global significance.

What is the Church of England?

The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, is a Christian denomination and the official church of England. It was created in the 16th century when the English church broke away from the Roman Catholic Church.

The church is part of the global Anglican Communion, a family of churches that has over 85 million members in more…

Julie Conalty, bishop of Birkenhead, welcomes resignation of Justin Welby but says institutional changes needed

A bishop and a cabinet minister have said more senior clergy in the Church of England may need to resign after a damning report into a sadistic abuser.

Julie Conalty, the bishop of Birkenhead and deputy lead bishop for safeguarding, said Justin Welby had “done the right thing” on Tuesday by resigning as archbishop of Canterbury.

Conalty told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Just the archbishop of Canterbury resigning is not going to solve the problem. This is about institutional changes, our culture and a systemic failure so there must be more that we need to do. Very possibly some of the people should go.”

Wes Streeting, the health secretary and a practising Anglican, said it was right that Welby had taken responsibility for the C of E’s failures on abuse.

But, in a warning to…

The Diocese of Oakland is facing significant pushback over its plan to settle hundreds of lawsuits.

The diocese entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings last year, overwhelmed by lawsuits over sexual abuse.

In a proposal filed Friday, the diocese is offering far less than other similar settlements in California.

“It’s a definite message and the message is ‘You are not important.’ The message is ‘We don’t care!’” said attorney Rick Simons.

That outrage was directed at the Diocese of Oakland. Simons represents numerous church sex assault survivors.

RELATED: Oakland Catholic Diocese files motion to keep names of accused child sex abusers secret

On Friday, the diocese filed a plan of reorganization with the bankruptcy court.

In a press release, the diocese says it will create a trust for sexual abuse survivors worth between $160 and $198 million to pay out 345 claims.

But court documents show the initial installment is only…

Our heroes sometimes turn out to have clay feet — or worse.

Such is the case for the late Msgr. Michael Doyle, whose name once graced the Catholic Diocese’s Pastoral Center in downtown Toledo.

Monsignor Doyle was seen as a great man in his day.

Secretly, though, he is credibly accused of having sexually abused minors. We could say it with more certainty if his supervisors back in the 1950s had acted responsibly instead of covering for him.

Read more Blade editorials

The Toledo diocese has been in possession of accusations against Monsignor Doyle for decades, and even settled a case with one of his accusers 22 years ago.

Only now does the diocese say there has been a “credible allegation.”

With this latest determination, Monsignor Doyle’s name, on a sign dedicating the diocese’s Pastoral Center downtown, has been stripped from the wall.

Announced on Sunday…

A Catholic diocese in regional Victoria has been found not liable for the historical sexual abuse of a young boy by one of its priests, in a landmark decision that casts doubts over thousands of legal cases against religious orders nationwide.

The High Court on Wednesday overturned on appeal a previous ruling by Victoria’s Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal that had found the Ballarat diocese was legally responsible for the misconduct of its former priest, Father Bryan Coffey.

The relevant legislation did not provide a basis for imposing vicarious liability on the church because the priest could not be legally considered as an employee, the High Court found.

The matter has already come to the attention of attorneys-general at state and federal levels, with the High Court conceding that “reformulation of the law of vicarious liability is properly the province of the legislature,” according to the…

A priest who has served at several southwest suburban parishes is under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of a minor.

The Rev. Martin “Marty” Marren has been directed to step aside while the investigation takes place, according to the Chicago Archdiocese.

Marren reportedly said he is innocent but agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

Marren is currently an associate pastor at St. John Fisher in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood and St. Cajetan Parish in the city’s Morgan Park community.

He served as pastor of Queen of Martyrs Parish in Evergreen Park from 2018 to 2022. Marren was associate pastor at St. Gerald Parish in Oak Lawn from 1997 to 2004 and at St. Germaine Parish in Oak Lawn from 1984 to 1991.

He was a deacon at the former St. Bernadette Parish in Evergreen Park in 1983.

Marren has served at two other parishes and was ordained in 1984.

The Illinois…

Hundreds of survivors of abuse in state, foster and faith-based care arrived at New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington on Tuesday, each representing thousands more.

They came to hear the government formally apologize for the “unimaginable” horrors they suffered as children and vulnerable adults, after a long-running inquiry made its final report about the scale of the abuse in July.

“You deserved so much better and I am deeply sorry that New Zealand did not do better by you,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told them in Parliament hours later.

Many had T-shirts specially printed. Some used canes or wheelchairs because of the abuse they suffered in hospitals, institutions and care homes after they were taken from their families. A few were familiar faces from decades of advocacy and campaigning, mostly ignored until recent years. The public gallery in New Zealand’s Parliament is small — it seats fewer than 200 people — and a…

Church wins case reversing 2023 decision of Victorian court that it was vicariously responsible for abuse suffered by five-year-old at hands of assistant priest

The Catholic church has won a landmark case limiting its liability for the abuse of children by priests not under its direct employment.

Lawyers immediately warned the case could have “far-reaching” consequences for abuse survivors and called for legislative change to ensure institutions were held to account.

Last year, Victoria’s highest court delivered an unprecedented ruling that the church was vicariously responsible for the abuse of a five-year-old child, known as DP, by assistant priest Father Bryan Coffey.

Vicarious liability is typically used to hold employers responsible for the wrongful or negligent actions of their employees during the course of their employment – regardless of whether the employer was at fault.

The 2023 ruling was significant because Coffey, as an assistant parish priest, was not directly employed…

Iford Whittaker, 80, could be facing a life sentence after admitting abusing a fourth boy during his time as a priest.

A former Church of England vicar could face life imprisonment as he is set to be sentenced for a third time for child sex offences.

Ifor Whittaker, 80, admitted rape and gross indecency of a young boy in the vestry of St John The Baptist Church in Sedlescombe, East Sussex, in the 1990s, where he served as a priest at the time under the name Colin Pritchard.

He is already serving a 16-year-sentence for abusing a boy between 1987 and 1991 following a trial in 2018, and had previously been jailed for five years in 2008 for the abuse of two children in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, between 1979 to 1983.

At Hove Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Gary Lucie adjourned the sentencing hearing to consider the jail term.

“This is…

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has addressed the survivors of abuse gathered at Parliament and watching from around the country, acknowledging horrific heartbreak.

“You have been heard. And you are believed,” Luxon has said in the Debating Chamber.

“I am sorry you were not believed when you came forward to report your abuse.

“I am sorry that many bystanders – staff, volunteers and carers – turned a blind eye and failed to stop or report abuse. I am sorry the State’s oversight of people in care was so poor.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has addressed the survivors of abuse gathered at Parliament and watching from around the country, acknowledging horrific heartbreak.

“You have been heard. And you are believed,” Luxon has said in the Debating Chamber.

“I am sorry you were not believed when you came forward to report your abuse.

“I am sorry that many bystanders – staff, volunteers and…

[Includes photos and video]

Emotions have run high as members of state agencies and public sector leaders apologised to New Zealanders who were abused in state and faith-based care.

The apology comes after the release of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in July, which found almost a third of people in state and faith-based institutions between 1950 and 2019 were abused.

Apologies were delivered from multiple state agency leaders, with some facing an emotional response from those watching on.

Solicitor General Una Jagose faced jeering and strong comments, and some in the audience left the room in tears.

“I am here today to say I am sorry,” she said.

“No you’re not,” someone in the room called out, while another person stood and turned their back on her.

Oranga Tamariki chief executive Andrew Bridgman told survivors: “We are sorry for not giving you a safe place…

Historic apology by PM Christopher Luxon comes after landmark report that exposed decades of abuse in state and faith-based care institutions

New Zealand’s prime minister Christopher Luxon has formally apologised to the more than 200,000 children and adults who suffered “horrific” and “heartbreaking” abuse and neglect while in state and faith-based institutions.

The historic apology follows a harrowing landmark report, released in July, which laid bare the scale of abuse that occurred across care institutions from the 1950s onwards. It was the most complex royal commission inquiry the country has held. The judge who chaired the inquiry, Coral Shaw, described the abuse as a “national disgrace and shame”.

Luxon delivered the national apology at parliament on Tuesday. Survivors attended events around the country and filled the public gallery to witness the address. Many quietly wept as the prime minister spoke.

“Today I stand before you as the representative of not…

[See also the text of the Guidelines (in French)]

The bishops of France approved new guidelines for confession at their fall plenary assembly in Lourdes.

The bishops voted in favor of the five-page document at their Nov. 5-10 meeting, three years after a landmark abuse report urged them to “issue precise directives to confessors regarding the seal of confession.”

The new Guidelines for confessors said: “If a priest hears, in the context of confession, a person who is the victim of a sexual offense or crime, a minor, a vulnerable person, or even an adult, he will deploy — while maintaining absolute secrecy — his pastoral sensitivity to find out if the penitent has already been able to confide these facts to another person in whom he trusts.” 

“If this is not the case, the confessor will strongly encourage him to do so.”

The document asked confessors to be…

The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, resigned on Tuesday after a damning report concluded that he had failed to pursue a proper investigation into claims of widespread abuse of boys and young men decades ago at Christian summer camps.

Pressure had mounted rapidly on Mr. Welby, who serves as the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, since the report was published last week. Helen-Ann Hartley, a senior figure in the church and the bishop of Newcastle, called on him to step aside, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer pointedly declined to back him.

Mr. Welby’s resignation brings to an abrupt end an eventful and occasionally stormy tenure, during which he became Britain’s best-known cleric, presiding over momentous public ceremonies like the coronation of King Charles III and becoming an impassioned voice on issues like migration.

But Mr. Welby struggled to hold together a church cleaved between liberals…

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said sorry to some 200,000 survivors of physical and sexual abuse in institutions, which an inquiry called a “national disgrace.” 

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon formally apologized on Tuesday for decades of “horrific” abuse by state, foster and faith-based care facilities that disproportionately affected Maori and Pasifika children and people with disabilities.

A landmark government investigation released earlier this year estimated that at least 200,000 peopleout of 655,000 had been subject to abuse including rape, torture and medical experimentation in institutions across New Zealand between 1950 and 2019.

As several hundred survivors went to parliament to hear Luxon speak, the prime minister praised them for sharing their painful stories and promised additional support.

“Today I stand before you as the representative of not only this government, but all of the governments that have gone before us to offer a formal and unreserved apology for the…

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made a “formal and unreserved” apology in Parliament on Tuesday for the widespread abuse, torture and neglect of hundreds of thousands of children and vulnerable adults in care.

“It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it should never have happened,” Luxon said, as he spoke to lawmakers and a public gallery packed with survivors of the abuse.

An estimated 200,000 people in state, foster and faith-based care suffered “unimaginable” abuse over a period of seven decades, a blistering report released in July said at the end of the largest inquiry ever undertaken in New Zealand. They were disproportionately Māori, New Zealand’s Indigenous people.

“For many of you it changed the course of your life, and for that, the government must take responsibility,” Luxon said. He said he was apologizing for previous governments too.

In foster and church care — as well as in…

Gregory Aymond’s offer, required because he turns 75, says he wants to stay for resolution of institution’s bankruptcy but adds it is up to Pope Francis

New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archbishop Gregory Aymond is submitting his resignation Tuesday, on his 75th birthday, fulfilling a church requirement – though it is unclear if Vatican officials would immediately accept it with his scandal-plagued organization’s expensive, highly contentious bankruptcy case still unresolved.

In a letter issued on Friday to priests and deacons under his command, Aymond cited canon – or church – law that required him to offer to retire because of his age. But he said he also offered to remain in office until the resolution of the bankruptcy.

Precisely when he retires is up to Pope Francis, who “can accept the resignation or ask me to remain at this time”, he wrote in the missive. “It has been a privilege to serve…

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, which filed for bankruptcy last year in the wake of hundreds of child sex abuse lawsuits, said Sunday that it will create a survivors’ trust to compensate victims of the church.

“I apologize without reservation for the terrible suffering survivors have endured,” said Bishop Michael Barber in a news release. “I and everyone in the Diocese of Oakland remain committed to the healing of survivors and their families, and to ensure no clergy, religious, employee or volunteer who would abuse a child can be in any ministry in our church.” 

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2023 in the face of 345 child sex abuse claims going back decades, church officials said. Lawyers for the survivors say the number is more like 370.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to stave off individual lawsuits and…

The Diocese of Oakland, California, has announced that it will pay up to $200 million to settle hundreds of abuse claims filed against it. 

The diocese said in a Friday update on its website that it had filed a proposal in bankruptcy court that would create a survivors’ trust “to provide compensation of between approximately $160 million and $198 million or more for approximately 345 claims.”

Just over $100 million will be provided by the diocese directly, the announcement said, while up to $81 million would come from property in the diocesan real estate portfolio.

An additional $14.25 million would be contributed by “Roman Catholic Welfare Corporation/Schools” (RCWC) along with “possible contributions of cash from other entities.”

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in May of last year after hundreds of child sexual abuse lawsuits were brought amid a three-year legal window implemented by the California state…

Three allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against a former priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn, Michael Melendez, were recently reported to the diocese. The allegations, dating back to the 1990s, were immediately investigated for the Diocesan Review Board, which determined all allegations to be credible of sexual abuse of a minor. These allegations were made more than 16 years after Melendez chose to leave the priesthood and was laicized in 2008.

Melendez was most recently a religion teacher at St. Francis Preparatory High School in Fresh Meadows Queens, from the years of 2018-2024. He was suspended during the investigation and has been terminated effective immediately following these findings.

Melendez has also been terminated as the Director of Religious Education at Our Lady of Grace Church in Howard Beach, a position he has held only since September of this year.

Melendez was ordained a priest in June 1989…

My work with clergy is a long way from the old days. Then, when I spotted a Roman collar on a random passerby mixed in the throng of a Manhattan avenue, I would crumble into the nearest doorway with a mix of anxiety and grief known as “beginning to remember.” Now, I offer the story of my recovery to sensitize clergy to issues which victims of abuse face, so that diocesan and religious priests and brothers may create, with grace from the Holy Spirit, their own unique pastoral approaches to the suffering which the faithful bring into the pews every Sunday.

Even as the church in the United States has implemented reforms that have greatly reduced child abuse within church settings, the world is far more dangerous for children and vulnerable adults than when I was a child enduring abuse by a series of priests. The incidence of violence in…

At their plenary assembly in Lourdes, French bishops postponed a new system for adult victims of church sexual abuse until March. “The principle is accepted,” but “we still have work to do,” admitted Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims.

The French bishops have delayed presenting their system for adult victims of sexual abuse until their next meeting, which is scheduled for March. The decision was announced by Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) November 10 in Lourdes. “While the principle has been accepted, we see that we still have work to do before deciding on the implementation modalities,” he said in his closing speech at the CEF Plenary Assembly, assuring that “the five months that separate us from the March assembly will allow us to clarify the points that remain uncertain.”

In March, the bishops agreed on the principle of a…

If sin means anything, how can the Church of England hierarchy be maintained?

It’s an extraordinary thing that evangelicals, of all people, don’t believe in sin. This week, the long-delayed Makin Review was released, bringing back into the public eye what a number of clergy knew already in 1982: that John Smyth QC, barrister, Lay Reader in the Church of England, and noted in evangelical circles as a “strong Christian”, sadistically and systematically groomed young men and boys and subjected them to brutal physical, psychological, sexual and spiritual abuse. 

Someone could have gone to the police, in 1982. Someone could have gone at any time since, and perhaps protected the later victims, in England, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. The Archbishop of Canterbury could have made a report in 2013. Instead, the Church of England floundered. “Church officers knew of the abuse and failed to take the steps necessary to prevent…

The Rev. Martin Marren maintains his innocence and has agreed to step aside from the ministry until the investigation is completed. He is an associate pastor at St. John Fisher Parish in Beverly and at St. Cajetan Parish in Morgan Park.

A longtime Chicago-area pastor is being investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services over an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The Rev. Martin Marren is an associate pastor at St. John Fisher Parish in Beverly and at St. Cajetan Parish in Morgan Park. He has served at six other churches since 1983.

In a letter to parishioners, Cardinal Blase Cupich said Marren has agreed to step aside from the ministry and live away from the parish while the investigation remains open.

Marren maintains his innocence and has cooperated with the investigation, Cupich added.

“We want to stress that the welfare of the children entrusted…

The Church of England covered up “horrific” abuse by a lawyer who volunteered at Christian summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s, and the ceremonial head of the Anglican Communion failed to report him to authorities when he learned of the abuse in 2013, according to an independent review released Thursday.

John Smyth, who died in South Africa in 2018 at age 75, physically, sexually, psychologically and spiritually abused about 30 boys and young men in the U.K. and 85 in Africa over five decades, the 251-page report commissioned by the church found. Smyth is believed to be the most prolific serial abuser associated with the church.

“Many of the victims who took the brave decision to speak to us about what they experienced have carried this abuse silently for more than 40 years,” said Keith Makin, who led the review. “Despite the efforts of some individuals to bring the…

Chicago associate pastor steps aside amid DCFS investigation into sexual abuse allegations

Father Martin Marren, an associate pastor in Chicago, is under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of a minor, the Archdiocese announced Saturday.

The Brief

• Father Martin Marren, an associate pastor in Chicago, is under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of a minor, the Archdiocese announced Saturday.
• Cardinal Blase J. Cupich has directed Marren to step aside from ministry and live away from the parish during the investigation, while Marren maintains his innocence and agrees to cooperate.
• The person making the allegation has been offered support through the parish’s Victim Assistance Ministry, and the results of the investigation will be reviewed by the parish’s Independent Review Board.

A Chicago pastor is under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of a minor, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Saturday.

Archdiocese Cardinal Blase J. Cupich sent letters to the parishes…